Lexical density and readability of english essays written by IELTS learners at ky nguyen international language center master of TESOL

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY THESIS LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY OF ENGLISH ESSAYS WRITTEN BY IELTS LEARNERS AT KY NGUYEN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE CENTER Student’s name: TRAN THI AI VY Student code: 18110054 Supervisor’s name: TRAN QUOC THAO, PhD Ba Ria - Vung Tau, 2021 i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY OF ENGLISH ESSAYS WRITTEN BY IELTS LEARNERS AT KY NGUYEN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE CENTER Submitted to the School of International Training and Post-Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL Student’s name: TRAN THI AI VY Student’s code: 18110054 Supervisor’s name: TRAN QUOC THAO, PhD Ba Ria - Vung Tau, 2021 i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY OF ENGLISH ESSAYS WRITTEN BY IELTS LEARNERS AT KY NGUYEN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE CENTER in terms of the statement of Requirements for the Thesis in Master’s program issued by the Higher Degree Committee The thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other situations Ba Ria - Vung Tau City, June 2021 Tran Thi Ai Vy ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that, Tran Thi Ai Vy being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of Ba Ria - Vung Tau University relating to the retention and use of Master’s theses deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the library should be assessable for the purpose of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis Ba Ria - Vung Tau city, June 2021 Tran Thi Ai Vy iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to those who have helped and supported me during the hard time doing my research and completing this thesis First, my gratefulness goes to my respectful supervisor, Dr Tran Quoc Thao, for pushing me forward in writing up and revising my thesis and providing with constructive comments and precious guidance throughout the stages of doing research and thesis writing I am thankful for the continuing support that the management of the KNILC in Vung Tau city provided when I was working on my thesis Last but not least, I am very grateful to my incomparably caring and loving parents Without my parents, I would never have had the chance to pursue further study and to concentrate on completing my thesis Without the encouragement, support and guidance provided by those named or unlisted, I would not have completed this Master’s thesis I appreciate all iv ABSTRACT Teaching IELTS writing part to IELTS learners at Ky Nguyen international language center faced a great number of challenges These learners’ writing skills for IELTS writing part brought problems for their teachers and readers because of different levels of lexical density and readability found in their IELTS writing The study aimed to analyze the level of lexical density, the level of readability and the language use in terms of vocabulary and grammar used in 200 midterm essays written by IELTS learners at this center in Vung Tau city Each of these 100 IELTS participants, whose IELTS score bands were from to 6.5, turned in two midterms academic IELTS writing part essays during their course, so there were in total 200 essays These essays were typed and saved into the computer Then, Ure’s (1971) formula of lexical density and Microsoft Office app named Flesch’s (1948) Reading Ease were employed to analyze the collected data The findings revealed that the average level of lexical density of 200 essays was 53.86% and the average of readability of these essays was 45.65% Besides, the findings indicated the impacts of different levels of lexical density and readability on language use in terms of vocabulary and grammar in the 200 essays There was a relationship among the level of lexical density, the level of readability and the language use in IELTS learners’ essays at the center The results of the study are hoped to help IELTS writing teachers at this center improve their teaching methods in order to provide their IELTS learners, who would like to get their target IELTS band score from above when they enrolled the IELTS course, with a useful range of academic vocabulary and grammar used in IELTS writing task section and readability Key words: IELTS writing task 2, lexical density, readability, language use, writing skills, academic vocabulary v TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of originality………………………………………………………… …… …ii Retention and use of the thesis…………………………………………………… …… iii Acknowledgement…………………………………………………………… …………iv Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….… v Table of contents…………………………………………………………………………vi List of tables…………………………………………………………………… ………ix List of figures………………………………………………………………….…… x List of abbreviations…………………………………………………………………….xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION………………………………………….……………1 1.1 Background to the study………………………………………………………………1 1.2 Statement of the problem…………………………………………………………… 1.3 Aims and objectives of the study…………………………………………………… 1.4 Research questions…………………………………………………… …5 1.5 Scope of the study……………………………………………………….………… 1.6 Significance of the study………………………………………………………………5 1.7 Definitions of the terms……………………………………………………………….6 1.8 Organization of the thesis…………………………………………………………… CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………… 2.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………… …………….8 2.2 Writing……………………………………………………………………………… 2.2.1 Definitions of writing…………………………………………………………… 2.2.2 The importance of writing in IELTS test……………………………… …………9 2.2.3 Characteristics of writing in IELTS test…………………… …………………… 2.3 Lexical density………………………………………………………………… … 10 2.3.1 Definitions of lexical density……………………………………………… …….10 2.3.2 The importance of lexical density in writing………………………………… … 12 2.3.3 The level of lexical density in learner’s writing………………………………… 13 vi 2.4 Readability………………………………………………………………… ………15 2.4.1 Definitions of readability………………………………………………… …… 15 2.4.2 The significance of readability in writing…………………………………………16 2.4.3 Readability in learner’s writing…………………………… …………………….16 2.5 Language use in academic writing……………………………………………… …16 2.6 Previous research………………………………………………………………… 20 2.7 Conceptual framework………………………………………………………………22 2.8 Summary…………………………………………………………………………….23 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………… 24 3.1 Research questions………………………………………………… ………………24 3.2 Research design…………………………………………………………………… 24 3.3 Materials …………………………………………… ……………………… ……26 3.4 Data collection procedures……………… …………………………………… ….27 3.5 Data analysis procedures…………………………………………………………….27 3.6 Validity and reliability of the study………………………………………………… 28 3.7 Summary…………………………………………………………………… …… 30 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………………………………… ……31 4.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………….31 4.2 Results……………………………………………………………………………….31 4.2.1 The level of lexical density of English essays written by IELTS learners at the context of KNILC 31 4.2.2 The level of readability of English essays written by IELTS learners at the context of KNILC 33 4.2.3 The language used in terms of grammar and vocabulary in English essays written by IELTS learners at the context of KNILC 37 4.2.3.1 Grammar used in English essays written by IELTS learners at KNILC…… … 37 4.2.3.2 Vocabulary used in English essays written by IELTS learners at KNILC………39 4.3 Discussion…………………………………………….…………… ….……….… 40 4.4 Summary…………………………………………………………………………….46 vii CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION…………………………………………… …………47 5.1 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………… …47 5.2 Implications………………………………………………………………………….48 5.3 Limitations……………………………………………………………………… …49 5.4 Recommendations for further research……………………………………… …….49 References……………………………………………………………… ……… ……50 Appendices…………………………………………… ……………………………… 53 Appendix A: Level of Lexical density of each essay of 200 ones……………………….53 Appendix B: Level of readability of each essay of 200 ones…………………………… 61 Appendix C: Hard and long words used in each essay………………………………… 68 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1.: Question types of IWT2………………………………………………………11 Table 2.2: Formula of lexical density (Ure, 1971)……………… .……….13 Table 2.3: List of topics for IELTS Writing Task 2… ……………………………… …16 Table 2.4: Band descriptions for IELTS writing task 2………………………… .……20 Table 3.1: Original Flesch Reading Ease…………………………………………… … 30 Table 3.2: Information about IELTS learners at KNILC………………………… …….32 Table 4.1: Average level of lexical density of 200 essays…………………………… …29 Table 4.2: Classification of lexical density level…………………………………… ….38 Table 4.3: Level of readability of 200 essays……………………………………… … 39 Table 4.4: The classification of readability level…………………………………… ….38 Table 4.5: Comparison of readability level and standardized tests……………………….42 Table 4.6: The correlation of readability level, IELTS score band and learners’ level… 42 Table 4.7: Average number of sentences per essay……………………………………… 43 Table 4.8: Sentences that contain nominalization…………………………………… …44 Table 4.9: Hard and long words used in 200 English essays……………………….… 46 Table 4.10: Classification and level of lexical density and reliability…………………….50 ix APPENDIX B: LEVEL OF READABILITY OF EACH ESSAY OF 200 ONES Number of essays Level of readability (Flesch Reading Ease Formula) E1 59.1 E2 35.9 E3 45.5 E4 52.6 E5 58.9 E6 57.7 E7 53.6 E8 43.0 E9 41.9 E10 47.2 E11 28.6 E12 68.6 E13 33.3 E14 53.4 E15 61.8 E16 66.1 E17 57.7 E18 65.2 E19 51.0 E20 39.0 E21 59.3 E22 62.7 E23 65.4 E24 51.8 E25 26.0 E26 55.0 61 E27 46.2 E28 50.3 E29 57.0 E30 54.4 E31 67.9 E32 64.2 E33 58.5 E34 40.0 E35 38.9 E36 50.7 E37 57.0 E38 45.1 E39 71.4 E40 54.0 E41 60.6 E42 59.6 E43 65.4 E44 55.3 E45 58.3 E46 43.9 E47 57.1 E48 56.8 E49 53.1 E50 51.6 E51 53.1 E52 45.4 E53 49.5 E54 47.7 E55 44.8 62 E56 54.4 E57 51.9 E58 61.8 E59 40.4 E60 51.2 E61 50.6 E62 49.6 E63 49.5 E64 52.3 E65 32.3 E66 50.3 E67 42.8 E68 46.9 E69 40.0 E70 50.1 E71 29.0 E72 45.2 E73 54.5 E74 43.4 E75 32.3 E76 19.0 E77 35.5 E78 33.8 E79 28.8 E80 49.3 E81 40.8 E82 28.8 E83 29.0 E84 27.5 63 E85 56.1 E86 37.5 E87 40.8 E88 29.3 E89 34.7 E90 36.7 E91 47.1 E92 35.2 E93 46.8 E94 44.0 E95 27.6 E96 35.1 E97 24.1 E98 37.0 E99 31.7 E100 39.2 E101 47.7 E102 33.5 E103 39.8 E104 40.4 E105 28.3 E106 31.5 E107 41.8 E108 47.7 E109 48.7 E110 39.0 E111 28.9 E112 17.3 E113 39.0 64 E114 17.2 E115 39.2 E116 32.9 E117 38.4 E118 38.8 E119 30.9 E120 34.1 E121 19.7 E122 27.1 E123 41.2 E124 40.3 E125 49.5 E126 35.8 E127 39.3 E128 38.2 E129 36.4 E130 46.0 E131 31.3 E132 26.0 E133 35.0 E134 55.9 E135 42.2 E136 44.4 E137 56.7 E138 46.2 E139 50.8 E140 34.7 E141 42.2 E142 48.6 65 E143 59.3 E144 28.1 E145 41.0 E146 57.0 E147 37.1 E148 53.9 E149 49.7 E150 49.9 E151 50.9 E152 50.5 E153 38.6 E154 48.6 E155 71.1 E156 47.7 E157 49.5 E158 54.4 E159 51.9 E160 41.1 E161 57.4 E162 46.3 E163 48.7 E164 40.0 E165 53.0 E166 57.2 E167 60.0 E168 71.6 E169 54.2 E170 60.8 E171 57.4 66 E172 56.5 E173 50.9 E174 53.7 E175 47.4 E176 46.4 E177 29.1 E178 60.9 E179 37.3 E180 54.5 E181 67.9 E182 66.4 E183 54.1 E184 58.9 E185 53.2 E186 54.0 E187 47.1 E188 51.1 E189 64.3 E190 32.1 E191 26.5 E192 29.9 E193 25.9 E194 45.9 E195 28.1 E196 42.2 E197 26.9 E198 47.7 E199 33.1 E200 26.3 67 APPENDIX C: HARD AND LONG WORDS USED IN EACH ESSAY Hard and long words used in each essay Number Lexical Level of Total Hard word Long words of density readability words E1 54.05 59.1 420 62 89 E2 58.76 35.9 291 68 98 E3 53.85 45.5 312 55 86 E4 55.47 52.6 274 51 69 E5 53.96 58.9 341 60 93 E6 47.83 57.7 345 54 79 E7 55.63 53.6 284 48 87 E8 52.43 43.0 267 50 84 E9 58.59 41.9 297 67 101 E10 58.84 47.2 277 48 70 E11 61.07 28.6 298 68 112 E12 47.41 68.6 386 32 76 E13 58.70 33.3 247 63 98 E14 53.30 53.4 349 63 100 E15 55.86 61.8 324 49 75 E16 50.69 66.1 288 42 65 E17 48.61 57.7 395 53 93 E18 52.67 65.2 300 43 74 E19 52.06 51.0 267 43 64 E20 64.82 39.0 253 43 71 E21 54.10 59.3 305 37 61 E22 52.29 62.7 306 29 64 E23 55.38 65.4 260 32 88 essays 68 E24 55.29 51.8 255 27 64 E25 54.61 26.0 293 63 97 E26 54.29 55.0 350 58 91 E27 52.54 46.2 354 62 107 E28 52.63 50.3 285 56 80 E29 61.34 57.0 238 39 65 E30 53.70 54.4 270 43 73 E31 53.26 67.9 353 50 84 E32 50.16 64.2 313 42 68 E33 49.17 58.5 303 43 68 E34 59.58 40.0 287 61 105 E35 60.23 38.9 342 62 105 E36 48.16 50.7 434 72 121 E37 57.23 57.0 318 53 75 E38 55.56 45.1 261 54 93 E39 50.31 71.4 318 33 52 E40 54.43 54.0 305 38 70 E41 57.95 60.6 264 36 68 E42 51.38 59.6 290 32 57 E43 48.59 65.4 284 30 56 E44 49.60 55.3 379 59 78 E45 51.16 58.3 303 50 76 E46 46.10 43.9 436 72 115 E47 48.35 57.1 424 71 107 E48 50.32 56.8 314 45 75 E49 57.70 53.1 305 43 73 E50 53.18 51.6 267 41 63 E51 60.42 53.1 288 45 67 E52 57.35 45.4 340 63 86 69 E53 54.51 49.5 266 44 73 E54 50.19 47.7 265 41 60 E55 55.02 44.8 269 56 77 E56 50.36 54.4 280 40 65 E57 52.90 51.9 310 48 70 E58 55.42 61.8 249 29 44 E59 50.19 40.4 269 53 77 E60 58.40 51.2 262 42 83 E61 55.04 50.6 258 48 69 E62 54.55 49.6 253 41 63 E63 53.64 49.5 261 42 69 E64 54.24 52.3 271 44 67 E65 58.82 32.3 255 60 87 E66 61.72 50.3 256 42 69 E67 53.96 42.8 265 45 79 E68 58.80 46.9 250 46 71 E69 52.42 40.0 330 57 109 E70 52.31 50.1 260 38 63 E71 56.92 29.0 325 61 105 E72 53.63 45.2 289 47 69 E73 55.36 54.5 280 34 56 E74 47.21 43.4 341 32 95 E75 58.93 32.3 319 50 88 E76 56.05 19.0 339 80 112 E77 57.89 35.5 285 58 89 E78 58.47 33.8 313 57 94 E79 61.26 28.8 253 49 85 E80 51.69 49.3 267 38 60 E81 58.71 40.8 264 48 73 70 E82 51.68 28.8 358 59 71 E83 50.71 29.0 353 73 93 E84 52.96 27.5 338 64 121 E85 50.44 56.1 341 40 60 E86 50.28 37.5 352 51 93 E87 54.94 40.8 344 60 104 E88 55.94 29.3 379 70 100 E89 57.68 34.7 319 53 101 E90 56.69 36.7 381 64 121 E91 49.84 47.1 313 51 90 E92 53.19 35.2 282 62 86 E93 54.89 46.8 348 51 83 E94 47.95 44.0 317 43 81 E95 50.75 27.6 402 84 127 E96 49.09 35.1 438 80 141 E97 56.77 24.1 310 72 118 E98 53.01 37.0 266 35 83 E99 49.24 31.7 327 56 83 E100 49.09 39.2 275 48 83 E101 49.47 47.7 376 49 77 E102 48.23 33.5 423 81 103 E103 41.08 39.8 370 62 98 E104 54.15 40.4 301 48 79 E105 52.09 28.3 359 65 118 E106 49.47 31.5 281 39 75 E107 45.87 41.8 327 49 90 E108 51.16 47.7 344 57 85 E109 51.21 48.7 414 72 101 E110 45.02 39.0 402 75 106 71 E111 46.50 28.9 329 72 106 E112 52.42 17.3 330 67 109 E113 49.28 39.0 347 56 99 E114 50.16 17.2 317 54 87 E115 53.19 39.2 316 60 91 E116 49.08 32.9 381 73 108 E117 45.93 38.4 344 55 73 E118 63.47 38.8 271 56 92 E119 60.67 30.9 267 58 91 E120 50.00 34.1 382 75 138 E121 57.78 19.7 270 53 84 E122 55.93 27.1 354 58 84 E123 52.77 41.2 343 65 96 E124 56.16 40.3 349 61 101 E125 56.83 49.5 278 31 49 E126 50.14 35.8 347 69 108 E127 55.58 39.3 394 79 117 E128 58.36 38.2 293 61 96 E129 51.04 36.4 386 69 109 E130 56.13 46.0 269 54 80 E131 65.06 31.3 269 62 79 E132 52.92 26.0 342 79 103 E133 52.20 35.0 318 61 96 E134 51.34 55.9 298 45 71 E135 52.92 42.2 325 65 91 E136 64.17 44.4 254 44 63 E137 55.12 56.7 283 30 66 E138 55.97 46.2 268 50 79 E139 60.22 50.8 269 36 54 72 E140 55.33 34.7 291 41 80 E141 58.64 42.2 295 41 66 E142 53.38 48.6 296 41 60 E143 55.74 59.3 296 33 64 E144 58.76 28.1 291 68 98 E145 56.01 41.0 291 45 63 E146 53.02 57.0 281 32 61 E147 56.97 37.1 251 45 60 E148 59.42 53.9 276 46 78 E149 50.00 49.7 268 35 58 E150 54.03 49.9 298 45 71 E151 53.56 50.9 267 43 72 E152 51.40 50.5 286 36 76 E153 54.95 38.6 273 46 73 E154 53.54 48.6 297 30 61 E155 47.73 71.1 331 30 61 E156 50.19 47.7 265 41 60 E157 54.51 49.5 266 44 73 E158 50.36 54.4 280 40 65 E159 52.90 51.9 310 48 70 E160 60.00 41.1 270 62 87 E161 54.25 57.4 306 54 70 E162 54.85 46.3 268 52 78 E163 58.58 48.7 309 55 86 E164 48.17 40.0 301 60 91 E165 52.78 53.0 324 51 63 E166 54.67 57.2 300 44 75 E167 59.34 60.0 273 38 65 E168 53.60 71.6 250 25 43 73 E169 51.89 54.2 264 52 69 E170 56.47 60.8 317 30 62 E171 53.14 57.4 350 41 61 E172 57.62 56.5 328 59 91 E173 46.58 50.9 365 67 69 E174 59.32 53.7 263 40 79 E175 56.13 47.4 269 47 82 176 54.11 46.4 414 88 115 E177 56.10 29.1 344 90 132 E178 57.14 60.9 287 39 72 E179 53.73 37.3 335 74 99 E180 56.30 54.5 341 55 90 E181 43.99 67.9 466 46 91 E182 46.76 66.4 340 43 83 E183 51.67 54.1 269 49 69 E184 50.43 58.9 349 46 84 E185 49.13 53.2 344 53 81 E186 59.11 54.0 252 35 66 E187 58.21 47.1 280 47 70 E188 53.71 51.1 283 41 65 E189 55.59 64.3 376 46 77 E190 54.55 32.1 341 70 104 E191 59.32 26.5 322 66 99 E192 54.34 29.9 392 92 125 E193 51.63 25.9 339 79 119 E194 43.04 45.9 395 54 81 E195 54.99 28.1 371 68 113 E196 53.41 42.2 279 49 66 E197 56.05 26.9 339 82 113 74 E198 59.24 47.7 314 46 81 E199 51.06 33.1 284 48 93 E200 56.13 26.3 326 62 99 75 ... what extent is the level of lexical density of English essays written by IELTS learners at the context of KNILC? To what extent is the level of readability of English essays written by IELTS learners. ..MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY OF ENGLISH ESSAYS WRITTEN BY IELTS LEARNERS AT KY NGUYEN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE CENTER Submitted... Lexical density 4.2.2 The level of readability of English essays written by IELTS learners at the context of KNILC The analysis and synthesis of the level of readability of English essays written by