Current Trends in Chinese as a Second Language Syntactic Complexity Research

Abstract Earlier research on syntactic complexity has predominantly focused on English as a second language. However, recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the syntactic complexity of Chinese as a second language (L2). Against this backdrop, this paper reviews the current state of research on L2 Chinese syntactic complexity. We begin by synthesizing studies on the development and evaluation of syntactic complexity measures specific to Chinese, highlighting key differences from those used for English. We then examine research exploring the relationship between syntactic complexity and L2 Chinese proficiency or production quality, along with the influence of various learner- and task-related factors, such as linguistic background and writing genre, on this relationship. Additionally, we discuss recent advancements in the automatic analysis of syntactic complexity in Chinese. The review concludes by proposing potential directions for future research on L2 Chinese syntactic complexity, in hopes of offering insights and practical implications for researchers and educators in L2 Chinese acquisition and teaching.