Lexical density and readability of english essays written by ielts learners at ky nguyen international language center master of tesol

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY

--------------THESIS

LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY OF ENGLISH ESSAYS WRITTEN
BY IELTS LEARNERS AT KY NGUYEN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
CENTER
Student’s name: TRAN THI AI VY
Student code: 18110054
Supervisor’s name: TRAN QUOC THAO, PhD

Ba Ria - Vung Tau, 2021

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY

--------------LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY OF ENGLISH ESSAYS WRITTEN
BY IELTS LEARNERS AT KY NGUYEN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
CENTER
Submitted to the School of International Training and Post-Graduate Studies in partial
fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL
Student’s name: TRAN THI AI VY
Student’s code: 18110054
Supervisor’s name: TRAN QUOC THAO, PhD
Ba Ria - Vung Tau, 2021

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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:
LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY OF ENGLISH ESSAYS WRITTEN BY
IELTS LEARNERS AT KY NGUYEN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE CENTER
in terms of the statement of Requirements for the Thesis in Master’s program issued by the
Higher Degree Committee. The thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree
or diploma in any other situations.
Ba Ria - Vung Tau City, June 2021

Tran Thi Ai Vy

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RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS
I hereby state that, Tran Thi Ai Vy being the candidate for the degree of Master in
TESOL, accept the requirements of Ba Ria - Vung Tau University relating to the retention
and use of Master’s theses deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the library
should be assessable for the purpose of study and research, in accordance with the normal
conditions established by the library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis.
Ba Ria - Vung Tau city, June 2021

Tran Thi Ai Vy

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to those who have helped and supported me
during the hard time doing my research and completing this thesis.
First, my gratefulness goes to my respectful supervisor, Dr. Tran Quoc Thao, for pushing
me forward in writing up and revising my thesis and providing with constructive comments
and precious guidance throughout the stages of doing research and thesis writing.
I am thankful for the continuing support that the management of the KNILC in Vung
Tau city provided when I was working on my thesis.
Last but not least, I am very grateful to my incomparably caring and loving parents.
Without my parents, I would never have had the chance to pursue further study and to
concentrate on completing my thesis.
Without the encouragement, support and guidance provided by those named or unlisted, I
would not have completed this Master’s thesis.
I appreciate all.

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ABSTRACT
Teaching IELTS writing part 2 to IELTS learners at Ky Nguyen international
language center faced a great number of challenges. These learners’ writing skills for
IELTS writing part 2 brought problems for their teachers and readers because of different
levels of lexical density and readability found in their IELTS writing. The study aimed to
analyze the level of lexical density, the level of readability and the language use in terms
of vocabulary and grammar used in 200 midterm essays written by IELTS learners at this
center in Vung Tau city. Each of these 100 IELTS participants, whose IELTS score bands
were from 5 to 6.5, turned in two midterms academic IELTS writing part 2 essays during
their course, so there were in total 200 essays. These essays were typed and saved into the
computer. Then, Ure’s (1971) formula of lexical density and Microsoft Office app named
Flesch’s (1948) Reading Ease were employed to analyze the collected data. The findings

revealed that the average level of lexical density of 200 essays was 53.86% and the average
of readability of these essays was 45.65%. Besides, the findings indicated the impacts of
different levels of lexical density and readability on language use in terms of vocabulary
and grammar in the 200 essays. There was a relationship among the level of lexical density,
the level of readability and the language use in IELTS learners’ essays at the center. The
results of the study are hoped to help IELTS writing teachers at this center improve their
teaching methods in order to provide their IELTS learners, who would like to get their
target IELTS band score from 7 above when they enrolled the IELTS course, with a useful
range of academic vocabulary and grammar used in IELTS writing task 2 section and
readability.
Key words: IELTS writing task 2, lexical density, readability, language use, writing
skills, academic vocabulary.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Statement of originality…………………………………………………………..……..…ii
Retention and use of the thesis……………………………………………………..……..iii
Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………..…………iv
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….…..v
Table of contents…………………………………………………………………………vi
List of tables……………………………………………………………………..………ix
List of figures………………………………………………………………….…….....x
List of abbreviations…………………………………………………………………….xi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION………………………………………….……………1
1.1. Background to the study………………………………………………………………1
1.2. Statement of the problem……………………………………………………………...3
1.3. Aims and objectives of the study……………………………………………………...4
1.4. Research questions……………………………………………………....................…5

1.5. Scope of the study……………………………………………………….………….....5
1.6. Significance of the study………………………………………………………………5
1.7. Definitions of the terms……………………………………………………………….6
1.8. Organization of the thesis……………………………………………………………..7
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………….....8
2.1. Introduction……………………………………………………………..…………….8
2.2. Writing………………………………………………………………………………..8
2.2.1. Definitions of writing…………………………………………………………….....8
2.2.2. The importance of writing in IELTS test………………………………...…………9
2.2.3. Characteristics of writing in IELTS test……………………..……………………..9
2.3. Lexical density…………………………………………………………………..…..10
2.3.1. Definitions of lexical density………………………………………………...…….10
2.3.2. The importance of lexical density in writing…………………………………...…..12
2.3.3. The level of lexical density in learner’s writing…………………………………....13
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2.4. Readability…………………………………………………………………..………15
2.4.1. Definitions of readability…………………………………………………...……...15
2.4.2. The significance of readability in writing…………………………………………16
2.4.3. Readability in learner’s writing……………………………...…………………….16
2.5. Language use in academic writing………………………………………………...…16
2.6. Previous research………………………………………………………………….....20
2.7. Conceptual framework………………………………………………………………22
2.8. Summary…………………………………………………………………………….23
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………..24
3.1. Research questions…………………………………………………..………………24
3.2. Research design……………………………………………………………………...24
3.3. Materials ……………………………………………..………………………...……26
3.4. Data collection procedures………………...……………………………………..….27

3.5. Data analysis procedures…………………………………………………………….27
3.6. Validity and reliability of the study…………………………………………………..28
3.7. Summary……………………………………………………………………...……..30
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION…………………………………..……31
4.1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………….31
4.2. Results……………………………………………………………………………….31
4.2.1. The level of lexical density of English essays written by IELTS learners at the context
of KNILC...........................................................................................................................31
4.2.2. The level of readability of English essays written by IELTS learners at the context
of KNILC...........................................................................................................................33
4.2.3. The language used in terms of grammar and vocabulary in English essays written by
IELTS learners at the context of KNILC...........................................................................37
4.2.3.1. Grammar used in English essays written by IELTS learners at KNILC……...…..37
4.2.3.2. Vocabulary used in English essays written by IELTS learners at KNILC………39
4.3. Discussion…………………………………………….……………..….……….…..40
4.4. Summary…………………………………………………………………………….46
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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION……………………………………………...…………47
5.1. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...…47
5.2. Implications………………………………………………………………………….48
5.3. Limitations………………………………………………………………………..…49
5.4. Recommendations for further research………………………………………...…….49
References………………………………………………………………...………..……50
Appendices……………………………………………..………………………………..53
Appendix A: Level of Lexical density of each essay of 200 ones……………………….53
Appendix B: Level of readability of each essay of 200 ones……………………………..61
Appendix C: Hard and long words used in each essay…………………………………..68

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1.: Question types of IWT2………………………………………………………11
Table 2.2: Formula of lexical density (Ure, 1971)……………….......................……….13
Table 2.3: List of topics for IELTS Writing Task 2…...………………………………..…16
Table 2.4: Band descriptions for IELTS writing task 2………………………….......……20
Table 3.1: Original Flesch Reading Ease……………………………………………..…..30
Table 3.2: Information about IELTS learners at KNILC…………………………...…….32
Table 4.1: Average level of lexical density of 200 essays……………………………...…29
Table 4.2: Classification of lexical density level……………………………………...….38
Table 4.3: Level of readability of 200 essays………………………………………..…...39
Table 4.4: The classification of readability level……………………………………...….38
Table 4.5: Comparison of readability level and standardized tests……………………….42
Table 4.6: The correlation of readability level, IELTS score band and learners’ level…....42
Table 4.7: Average number of sentences per essay……………………………………… 43
Table 4.8: Sentences that contain nominalization……………………………………...…44
Table 4.9: Hard and long words used in 200 English essays……………………….…......46
Table 4.10: Classification and level of lexical density and reliability…………………….50

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1.: The conceptual framework of the thesis……………………………….……27
Figure 4.1: Lexical density…………………………………...…………………………..39
Figure 4.2: Level of readability………………………………………………………..…41

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ASL: Average Sentence Length
ASW: Average number of syllable per word
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
ESL: English as a Second language
IELTS: International Language Testing System
IWT2: IELTS Writing Task 2
KNILC: Ky Nguyen International Language Center
RB: Readability
TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background to the study
IELTS (International English Language Testing System) is an English Test which
is internationally controlled by the British Council, IELTS Australia (IDP) and Cambridge
Assessment English. It is recognized as a standard of English proficiency by more than
9.000 organizations among approximately 140 nations for immigration and academic
purposes. It primarily aims to evaluate people’s level of English, especially for those who
desire to study or work in places where English is utilized as a main language to
communicate. According to (Shaw, 2007) because IELTS’s reputation, it is getting more
common and important for organizations which hold the test to supply a reliable and value
assessment. Now that many people long to obtain higher education oversea, IELTS
becomes one of the most common English tests. This phenomenon results from many

advantages of IELTS. One noticeable benefit of IELTS is that it is very useful for people’s
whole stages in life. Thanks to IELTS, people will be able to be admitted to a variety of
international schools in the world. Moreover, there are also a big number of immigration
authorities which require IELTS certificate for their admission on account of its great
quality criteria. Another strong point of IELTS which attracts many candidates to take that
test is that on taking the IELTS test, they can employ their English understanding as though
English is their first language. Candidates can get academic assessment thanks to the 4skill format of the test together with conversations related to real life. They can be asked
to talk about their daily life at school, at work or some questions about their hobbies,
celebrities or unforgettable experiences in their life. There are two different sorts of IELTS
tests. Academic IELTS is chosen by learners for academic reasons, often studying abroad,
whereas General Training IELTS is preferred by people who would like to apply for a visa
to immigrate to foreign countries. The Academic IELTS is designed for those who are
seeking higher education or professional purposes and the General Training version is
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suitable for people who desire to be admitted for training courses or would rather acquire
jobs in English- speaking nations which ask for IELTS.
As mentioned above, there are 4 skills in the IELTS test namely reading, listening,
speaking and writing in which writing is found the most challenging one. IELTS writing is
very important now that it is used widely not only in higher education but also in the
workplace. Unless learners know how to show their ideas in writing, they are not capable
of communicating effectively with their professors, co-workers, friends, or anyone else.
There is a great deal of professional communication done in writing such as reports,
applications, e-mails, reports, contracts, and so on. As a result, writing becomes a vital skill
in English learning. Writing requires knowledge of other three language skills: listening,
reading and speaking. In order to master writing skill, learners have to set an objective,
make a plan thoughtfully with clear outline, and organize their ideas logically. Moreover,
writing learners are made to utilize their cognition. According to Zajicova (2011) and Rico
(1984), writing can have an important role to enhance learners’ language skills.

Lexical density is essential to be taken into consideration since it contains
information about forms of words and sentence structures in academic writing, especially
in the IELTS writing tests. Hence, learners ought to choose words and then arrange them
carefully and logically in their writing. Stubbs (2002) claims that essays whose lexical
density is low can be easier comprehended. In general, spoken texts have lower lexical
density than written texts due their higher factors of content words. There have been some
research on lexical density in EFL writing. Chaudron (2003), emphasizes that EFL learners
tend to deploy some content words in each sentence in the essays which means the level of
lexical density of their essays is quite low. Besides, the study of To (2013, which was
carried out at University of Tasmania, Australia, revealed that EFL learner’s level of lexical
density and readability in EFL learners’ IELTS writing paper tests was not high. This study
concludes that nominalization had a strong impact on the lexical density of essays.
Similarly, Refnaldi (2015, pp. 27-33) concludes that lexical density in learners’ academic
essays is low. There was a limitation in the use of grammatical metaphor, especially

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nominalization in learners’ essays, which led their essays to be more similar to spoken
language converted into written form.
Readability is the ease with which a reader can make sense of a written test, and it
is not easily measured owing to the fact that it is dependent upon its content (how complex
of its lexical and syntax is). Readability is considered as one of the most crucial factors that
ought to be taken into consideration on assess learners’ s essay. Woods (1989) states that
the readability was investigated to measure how complex the writing is and to estimate the
reading level of the text.
Lexical density in academic writing especially in IELTS writing plays an crucial
part in the quality of learners’ writing. At KNILC, now that learners’ essays are lexically
poor, most of their writings contain not too many content words and are written
complicatedly. As a result, they were not able to represent a qualified academic writing.

They have difficulty in selecting right words to express their opinions. Instead, they
employ many words and written incomprehensibly. Then, learners need to pay their
attention to the choice of words so as to write a good essay. Hence, it is essential to
investigate, analyze lexical density and readability in learners’ writing in order to have
good solutions to help them produce good essays to achieve high scores in IELTS writing
test.
1.2. Statement of the problem
There is a list of problems that the majority of IELTS learners at KNILC face.
Firstly, they employ the general vocabulary instead of academic words now that they
are not familiar with these words. Sometimes, learners can brainstorm various ideas
for their essay but they do not know how to express them in English due to their lack
of vocabulary, which sometimes leads them to reuse words many times instead of
using synonyms to paraphrase. Secondly, they tend not to have their ideas organized
coherently no matter how many ideas they have. They also do not know how to use
the connectives effectively and reasonably owing to their misunderstanding of the
connectives’ meaning.
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Secondly, learners encounter grammatical mistakes in which most of them
usually forget to put “s” after nouns and verbs when necessary. There remain many
simple grammatical errors that they do not commit when doing the multiple-choice
grammar rewritten exercises but in their writing essay. On account of the fact that
when coming to the IELTS writing, they try to write as quickly as they can to obtain
the number of required words sufficiently in the limited time, which is very
challenging and can lead them to make mistakes.
In writing an IELTS essay, learners had better concentrate on the language.
Language aspects get more important because they will have effects on the meaning that
writers want to express. Not only sentence structure but also the writer’s point of view,
contents, choice of words and word orders are important to be taken into consideration in

making a good essay. Learners at KNILC have difficulty in getting their essays clear and
concise, which leads them not to get good scores in writing skill. The majority of them tend
not to have their ideas written straightforward to make their ideas shown in an attractive
way. Besides, they have a tendency to use unnecessary vocabulary instead of choosing the
accurate words to express the meaning. In addition, learners find it is hard to choose precise
words, they are not capable of arranging their ideas highly lexically and reduce the use of
as many function words as possible. Consequently, it cannot enhance the level of lexical
density, which causes their ideas not be conveyed sharply and clearly. They are also show
they carelessness in choosing and arranging the words in their writing so they do not get
qualified essays.
In summary, these problems mentioned above may discourage learners at KNILC
from having readable essays with the precise level of lexical density. It is necessary to
figure out the problems and having some useful solutions to tackle these problems so as to
enable the learners to have good scores in IELTS writing test.
1.3. Aims and Objectives of the Study
The study aims to analyze the lexical density and readability of English essays (writing
task 2) written by IELTS learners at the context of KNILC. The specific objectives of the
research are as follows:
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• To determine the level of lexical density and readability of English essays written
by IELTS learners at the context of KNILC;
• To find out the language use in terms of grammar and vocabulary in English essays
written by IELTS learners at the context of KNILC.
1.4. Research questions
In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives, the following research questions
must be addressed:
1. To what extent is the level of lexical density of English essays written by IELTS
learners at the context of KNILC?

2. To what extent is the level of readability of English essays written by IELTS
learners at the context of KNILC?
3. How is the language used in terms of grammar and vocabulary in English essays by
IELTS learners at the context of KNILC?
1.5. Scope of the study
This study was conducted at KNILC in Vung Tau city, where there have been over
1000 learners at the age from 15-18 come to study IELTS. The participants were the
learners who were taking part in IELTS classes at (KNILC) whose levels are between 5.0
and 6.5. In order to get the results, the mixed- methods design was employed. There were
100 IELTS learners in 5 IELTS classes asked to submit their task 2 essays. Each learner of
100 IELTS learners had to turn in 2 midterm IWT2 writing tests, so there were 200 pieces
of IELTS writing papers. Each essay consisted of around 250 words and were analyzed by
the online software (Text Analyzer) and Microsoft word (Flesch)/excel with the method
called document analysis.
1.6. Significance of the study
The 21st century have experienced the significant development of IELTS in Vietnam
and all over the world. IELTS has become a global topic which attracts people’s attention
considerably. However, there are only few learners who can achieve the high score in
IELTS writing tests. Thus, it is necessary that lexical density and readability be studied and
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some solutions should be utilized to enable learners to get their target scores in IELTS
writing tests. Up to now, a lot of research has been conducted to provide a thorough insight
into the terms of lexical density and readability. However, it was pointed out that such
knowledge related to lexical density and readability in learners’ writings was insufficient.
Thus, it is a must to conduct this study whose results will be announced to both teachers
and learners in order to establish a more suitable teaching and learning strategiess in IELTS
writing.
This study is conducted to investigate lexical density and readability of learners’

writing and explain how lexical density reflects the learners’ ability in IELTS writing test.
It can also be useful to enhance all researchers’ knowledge about the lexical density and
readability in learners’ essays. Simultaneously, in KNILC, for teachers, this research can
be taken into consideration when teaching IELTS writing in order to help their learners
produce readable essays. Moreover, this study is helpful for teachers in assessing their
learners’ essay more exactly.
This thesis makes a valuable contribution to the choice of suitable texts and essays
for the readers. The thesis introduced the readability formula to help the writers choose
proper data to make good texts/essays with objective criteria, which saves time and enables
the writers pick up clear and understandable language suitable for the readers’ level.
1.7. Definitions of the Terms
For the purpose of this study, many terms must be defined to provide a specific
perspective on the issues discussed.
• Essay refers to the written texts (Task 2) produced by IELTS learners at Ky Nguyen
International Language Center.
• Language use refers to how language in terms of grammar and vocabulary is used
in the written texts (Task 2) produced by IELTS learners at Ky Nguyen International
Language Center.
• Lexical density refers to the quantity of content words divided by the total number
of words. According to Daller and Treffers (2003), lexical density, lexical diversity
or lexical richness are terms which refer to statistical methods that are used to
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measure the lexical diversity of texts and it can also be employed to assess learners’
progress.
• Readability is a measure of the ease of a text when it is read. It may consist of
various elements namely complexity, familiarity, legibility and typography. Soyibo
(1996) proposes that readability level depends on how long are the sentences and
how complex the language utilized in the book is.

1.8. Organization of the thesis
There are five chapters in this thesis. Chapter 1 outlines the background of the study,
aims of the study, subject and scope of the study, significance of the study and organization
of the thesis. Chapter 2 provides the literature review related to writing (definitions of
writing, the importance of IELTS writing test, characteristics of writing in IELTS test);
lexical density (definitions of lexical density, the importance of lexical density in writing,
the level of lexical density in learners’ writing); readability (definitions of readability, the
significance of readability in writing, readability in learners’ writing), previous research
and conceptual framework. Chapter 3 represents the methodology to carry out the study
while chapter showed the results and discussion of the study. Finally, chapter 5 concludes
the thesis based on the findings of the study. Below is the organization of the thesis.

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Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Introduction
In the previous chapter, the background of the study, the research aims and questions
and the scope of the research were provided. This chapter presents a brief description of
IWT2, the literature which the theoretical background of the present study was based on
and particular studies previously carried out on the investigation of lexical density and
readability.
2.2. Writing
2.2.1. Definitions of writing
Writing is a form of communication that allows students to put their feelings and
ideas on paper, to organize their knowledge and beliefs into convincing arguments, and to
convey meanings through well-structures text. In its most advanced form, written
expressions can be as vivid as a work of art. Spelling, vocabulary, grammar and
organization come together to help the students demonstrate more advanced writing skills

day by day IELTS writing is one kind of academic writing, which requires test takers to
have effective writing skills to make good essays.
Among four English language skills, writing appears to be a challenging skill to
acquire and it is also an indispensable part in evaluating learner’s English language
proficiency (Nguyen, 2019). Richards (1990), Cohen and Miller (2003) and Bailey (2011)
say that writing is considered to be a demanding and daunting task for both first language
and second language learners. Vu (2011) and Nguyen and Le (2012) claim that writing has
been seen as one of the skills that is troublesome for many Vietnamese learners in the
context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) such as Vietnam. In spite of its difficulty,
Zemach and Rumisek (2005) state that having good writing skill indicates the evidence of
individual academic success and fulfil the requirement in a number of further educational
programs and professions.

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