The Impact of Cognitive (Reflectivity/Impulsivity) on Tertiary EFL Learners’ Syntactic Complexity in Descriptive Writing

Oct 15, 2026

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This study investigates the possible effects of cognitive traits on the syntactic complexity of tertiary EFL learners’ descriptive writing. Learners were grouped by reflectivity and impulsivity using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Participants produced descriptive essays about a person, and syntactic complexity was categorized (simple, compound, complex, compound-complex). Results compared the two groups using an independent-samples t-test in SPSS 21 and showed differences, while the expected superiority of impulsive learners did not consistently match syntactic-complexity performance.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

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Article info

Abstract

Introduction

Background of study

Objectives of study

Research question

Literature review

Cognitive

Advances in Language and Literary Studies ISSN: 2203-4714 [www.alls.aiac.org.au](www.alls.aiac.org.au) | The Impact of Cognitive (Reflectivity/Impulsivity) on Tertiary EFL Learners’ Syntactic Complexity in Descriptive Writing
Ayu Yuniasari1*, Zainuddin2
1Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Indonesia 2Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Medan, Indonesia Corresponding Author: Ayu Yuniasari, E-mail: [ayuyuniasari58@gmail.com](ayuyuniasari58@gmail.com) | | | --- | --- | | ARTICLE INFO | ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the probable effects of cognitive in linguistics properties of descriptive writing. The cognitive was studied on reflectivity and impulsivity in which students were categorized in to two groups. The linguistics properties of the learners’descriptive writings were examined through syntactic complexity under syntax studies umbrella. The participants were selected from systematic random sampling technique and by applying the personality test subjected degree of cognitive level from Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (30 from the most reflective learners and 30 from the most impulsive learners) . The selected participants were asked to write descriptive essay about person. Syntactic complexity (simple, compound, complex and compound-complex) was calculated from each of learners’ writing and the significant difference between two groups were analyzed by employing the independent sample t–test in SPSS version 21. The result shows that there were differences between reflective and impulsive learners in producing syntactic complexity in descriptive writing. Even though, there were differences on syntactic complexity, the assumption of teachers on, impulsive learners are better than reflective students, does not suit to the linguistics properties competencies and performances especially on syntactic complexity of the descriptive writing because both of them had their own superiority in syntactic complexity. | | Article history
Received: October 17, 2018
Accepted: December 21, 2018
Published: February 28, 2019
Volume: 10 Issue: 1
Advance access: January 2019 | | | Conflicts of interest: None
Funding: None | | | Key words:
Cognitive,
Reflective,
Impulsive, Syntax, Writing | | INTRODUCTION Background of Study Writing is one of the four skills in teaching and learning English. Literally, writing skill is very important since it is an effective medium for communication. Moreover, writing is a required skill to be mastered by EFL and native English learners because it gives a freedom space for students to express their ideas in a peace of papers (Sharples, 1999) . Practically, most of the students feel that writing skill is the most difficult skill compared to other skills such as speaking, listening and reading because it requires detail study and more practice to improve the students’ achievements that is why writing is not only a product but also a process (Oshima and Hogue, 1999) . Furthermore, the characteristics of written language from the writer’s viewpoint are six points and one of those is complexity (Brown, 2007) . Complexity here means writes must learn how to remove redundancy, how to combine sentences, how to make references to other elements in a text, how to create syntactic and lexical variety, and much more. Additionally, Brown (1994) in evaluating or assess students’writings there are six categories as the basis for the evaluation. They are content, organization, discourse, syntax, vocabulary and mechanism. Theoretically, base on the characteristics and evaluation checklist of the writing syntax is one of the very important linguistics properties. Therefore, it is very crucial to investigate on how the students compose the sentences in writing because different students might have different way of combining the sentences in writing. In accordance with the way of students in combining the sentences

FAQs

How are learners grouped for this study?

Learners are categorized into reflective and impulsive groups using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, selecting 30 most reflective and 30 most impulsive participants.

What writing task do participants complete?

Participants write a descriptive essay about a person to generate data for syntactic complexity analysis.

How is syntactic complexity measured and compared between groups?

Syntactic complexity is calculated using categories of simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex structures, and significant differences are analyzed with an independent-samples t-test in SPSS version 21.

Oct 15, 2026

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