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This study was intended to probe the characteristics of syntactic complexity and lexical complexity presented in English written work of Korean high school students, and the relationship between syntactic complexity and lexical complexity and writing proficiency. Sixty students’ English argumentative essays were collected and scored by an automated writing assessment program, Criterion. The syntactic complexity of the written work was measured by the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (L2SCA), while lexical complexity measures were analyzed using the Lexical Complexity Analyzer (LCA) and Coh-metrix. The results were analyzed using correlation analyses and hierarchical regression analyses. It was found that most of the sub-dimensions of syntactic complexity were positively related with writing proficiency, while only lexical diversity, one of the sub-dimensions of lexical complexity, was related with writing proficiency. The findings not only show the positive relationship between linguistic complexity and writing proficiency, but also identified which specific linguistic complexity measures can predict writing proficiency. Pedagogical implications for classrooms and suggestions for further studies are discussed in this study.
