L2 Syntactical Complexity Analyzer (L2SCA) developed by Xiaofei Lu at the

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

, is a

computational A computation is any type of arithmetic or non-arithmetic calculation that is well-defined. Common examples of computation are mathematical equation solving and the execution of computer algorithms. Mechanical or electronic devices (or, historic ...

tool which produces syntactic complexity indices of written English language texts. Along with

Coh-Metrix Coh-Metrix is a computational tool that produces indices of the linguistic and discourse representations of a text. Developed by Arthur C. Graesser and Danielle S. McNamara, Coh-Metrix analyzes texts on many different features. Measurements Coh-M ...

, the L2SCA is one of the most extensively used computational tool to compute indices of

second language writing Second language writing is the study of writing performed by non-native speakers/writers of a language as a second or foreign language. According to Oxford University, second language writing is the expression of one's actions and what one wants to ...

development. The L2SCA is also widely utilised in the field of

corpus linguistics Corpus linguistics is an empirical method for the study of language by way of a text corpus (plural ''corpora''). Corpora are balanced, often stratified collections of authentic, "real world", text of speech or writing that aim to represent a giv ...

. The L2SCA is available in a single and a batch mode. The first provides the possibility of analyzing a single written text for 14 syntactic complexity indices. The latter allows the user to analyze 30 written texts simultaneously.

Usage

Second language writing development

The L2SCA has been used in numerous studies in the field of second language writing development to compute indices of syntactic complexity.

Corpus linguistics

The L2SCA has also been used in various studies in the field of

Indices

;Notes * Note 1: Abbreviation

References

External links