Exploring the Impact of Cohesion on L2 Writing Proficiency: Beyond the Influence of the Lexical and Syntactic Complexity and the Use of N-Grams

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate what cohesion indices could predict L2 writing proficiency and whether they could explain L2 writing proficiency significantly, even after controlling for the influence of the lexical and syntactic complexity and the use of n-grams. A Pearson correlation coefficient and a stepwise regression were conducted to examine the relationship between the use of cohesive devices and L2 writing proficiency by analyzing 1,200 essays written by Korean EFL university students. Four cohesion indices, including semantic relatedness and causal, temporal, and logical connectives, were found to be significant predictors of L2 writing proficiency. Furthermore, the results of hierarchical regression analysis revealed that even after controlling for the influence of lexical and syntactic complexity and the use of n-grams on the writing scores, the semantic relatedness was still significantly predictive of L2 writing proficiency, explaining 8% of the total variance of the writing scores. The findings suggested that semantic relatedness plays a crucial role in L2 writing proficiency, uniquely contributing to its development.