Variation in the Use of Who Relative Clauses by L2 English Writers: A Corpus-Based Study of TOEFL Essays

Abstract

This study investigates how English learners at different proficiency levels use who relative clauses in their writing on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Using the ETS Corpus of Non-Native Written English, the study examines 1,100 essays written by speakers of 11 first languages across low, medium, and high proficiency levels. Quantitative analyses identified the normalized frequencies of who relative clauses, while structural analyses categorized their syntactic types (OS, OO, SS, and SO). Results show that low-proficiency learners produced the highest normalized frequency of who relative clauses, whereas high-proficiency learners produced the fewest. Across all proficiency levels, OS and SS were the dominant types, confirming Keenan’s (1975) relativized subject accessibility hierarchy. High-proficiency learners showed a greater proportion of SS types, reflecting increased syntactic complexity. Findings suggest that learners’ proficiency levels influence the distribution and complexity of who relative clauses. The study concludes with pedagogical implications for sequencing grammar instruction and promoting syntactic development in EFL writing.