Lexical and Syntactic Complexity in 66 Chinese University Students' English Compositions

66 students' English compositions from an application-oriented university in China, analyzed for lexical, syntactic, and textual complexity. The dataset was created by Jinhua Zhang and last updated on 2026-05-21. It is a small dataset (5.5 KB) stored in an XLS file.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the relationship between lexical complexity indicators and writing proficiency based on the study's findings.
• Investigating non-linear developmental features in syntactic competence as described in the research.
• Correlating measures of text coherence with overall writing quality as highlighted in the results.
• Informing tailored EFL instruction for varying language proficiency levels based on the dataset's analysis.

Strengths

• Dataset is openly licensed under CC-BY-4.0.
• Analysis is based on 66 student compositions.
• Study provides a hierarchical analysis at the level of lexis, syntax, and text.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset's small size (5.5 KB) indicates a very limited scope.

Provenance

Source

Jinhua Zhang via figshare.

Collection Method

Analysis of student compositions from an application-oriented university.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-21 07:34:49; freshness should be verified.

Geography

China (implied by focus on Chinese application-oriented universities).