Based on the Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners (WECCL) and the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS), this study investigated the development trends of lexical diversity and lexical sophistication in the argumentative essays written by Chinese English majors from freshman to senior year and undergraduate students speaking English as a native language, as well as examined six lexical diversity measures and six lexical sophistication indices to determine whether they can effectively discriminate among the five different English language proficiency levels. As the results suggested, in terms of lexical diversity development, these indices either showed non-linear trends or almost no trend; in terms of indices validity, no diversity indices can distinguish different adjacent proficiency levels. As for lexical sophistication development, the trends were generally classified into two categories: (1) linear development; and (2) fluctuating development; as for indices validity, K1, AWL, OFF, and S can distinguish English language proficiency. In conclusion, this study indicated that the validity of lexical diversity in assessing English L2 learners’ language proficiency was weak, while lexical sophistication can effectively assess English L2 learners’ language proficiency.

Ziyi Zhu, Xianwei Pu. A Corpus-Based Study on the Development of Lexical Diversity and Lexical Sophistication of Argumentative Writings. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2024) Vol. 7, Issue 8: 1-8. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2024.070801.

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