Assessing linguistic complexity features in L2 writing: Understanding effects of topic familiarity and strategic planning within the realm of task readiness

Using Bui’s (2014) task-readiness framework, this study investigates the interface between topic familiarity as a task-internal factor and strategic planning as a task-external factor in the TBLT field and explores how the two forms of task preparedness affect L2 learners’ writing complexity in assessment tasks. To this end, 64 L2 learners enrolled in a two-month intensive EAP program at an American university were randomly divided into planning and no planning groups and asked to perform a familiar and an unfamiliar task determined via a survey at the onset of the study. The sequence of the tasks was counterbalanced. The participants’ writing performances were analyzed using 11 finer-grained measures of linguistic complexity gauging L2 written syntactic and lexical complexity. Results revealed that topic familiarity had positive and substantial effects on syntactic complexity and some effect on lexical complexity. Strategic planning also promoted syntactic complexity at the phrasal level, but it had limited effects on lexical complexity. Furthermore, interaction effects between topic familiarity and strategic planning showed increases in general complexity, syntactic structure similarity, verb variations, and semantically similar words. These results are discussed in terms of the task-readiness framework, and pedagogical implications of the findings are provided for L2 writing assessment and complexity measurement in the EAP classrooms. • Topic familiarity and strategic planning improved linguistic complexity. • Topic familiarity exerted more evident effects on syntactic complexity. • The interaction between topic familiarity and strategic planning affected complexity.