Abstract
This chapter explores the association between syntactic complexity and syntactic accuracy in essays written by Russian learners of English in reply to two examination task types: a description of graphical material (Task 1) and an opinion essay (Task 2). A Poisson regression model served to predict the number of syntactic errors.
Two syntactic complexity parameters were statistically significant in predicting syntactic accuracy in both tasks: the numbers of sentences and adverbial clauses. Three more parameters predicted the accuracy in Task 1 only: maximum depth of syntactic trees, and the numbers of adjective + noun and noun + infinitive constructions.
Six parameters were related to syntactic accuracy in Task 2: the numbers of all clauses, of tokens and of T- units; the average length of sentence; and the numbers of coordinated and of participle + noun constructions.