Syntactic Complexity Development in English Grammar Pedagogy

In line with the recommendation that syntactic complexity-focused instruction should be provided to EFL learners at university level, present study modified traditional teaching content of English grammar in China into a syllabus. We examined translations by 52 first-year undergraduate students enrolled an Grammar course pre- and post-tests determine whether explicit syntactically complex structures could lead development complexity. The results demonstrate mean length clauses, number appositive clauses sophisticated post-test were significantly higher than ones pretest, while clause, adverbial attributive decreased, which means used fewer subordinate but more reduced structures. addition, linguistic descriptions for differences between two tests as well students’ responses instruction, fully understand nature characteristics their syntactical change pedagogical implications are drawn from these findings.