A Comparative Study of Linguistic Complexity in College English Textbooks and CET-4 Reading Texts Based on neoSCA

Junyi Wang

doi:10.47297/wspciWSP2516-252708.20261004

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A Comparative Study of Linguistic Complexity in College English Textbooks and CET-4 Reading Texts Based on neoSCA

Volume 10, Issue 4

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A Comparative Study of Linguistic Complexity in College English Textbooks and CET-4 Reading Texts Based on neoSCA
A Comparative Study of Linguistic Complexity in College English Textbooks and CET-4 Reading Texts Based on neoSCA
School of Foreign Languages, Guangzhou College of Commerce, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 511363, China
Vol. 10, Issue 4, Pages: 39-43(2026)
Published：30 August 2026
DOI：10.47297/wspciWSP2516-252708.20261004
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Wang Junyi.A Comparative Study of Linguistic Complexity in College English Textbooks and CET-4 Reading Texts Based on neoSCA[J].Creativity and Innovation,2026,10(04):39-43.
DOI：

Wang Junyi.A Comparative Study of Linguistic Complexity in College English Textbooks and CET-4 Reading Texts Based on neoSCA[J].Creativity and Innovation,2026,10(04):39-43. DOI： 10.47297/wspciWSP2516-252708.20261004.

摘要

Abstract

This study employs neoSCA to extract syntactic and lexical complexity indices (MLS

MLT

C/S

CN/T

VP/T

LS1

LS2

MSTTR) from two college English textbook series (

Pioneer College English

and

Over to You

) and three types of CET-4 reading texts (Banked Cloze

Fast Reading

In-depth Reading). Descriptive statistics

independent samples t-tests

one-way ANOVA

and Tukey post-hoc comparisons were conducted. Results show that: (1) most complexity indices in both textbooks were lower than those in CET-4 texts

with some reaching statistical significance; (2) the three CET-4 question types exhibited a stable three-tier stratification—Banked Cloze as a special difficulty tier (long sentences with high-density complex vocabulary/syntax)

Fast Reading as a balanced elevation tier

and In-depth Reading as a moderate-difficulty tier closest to textbook syntax; (3) lexical density (LD) was the most prevalent differentiating index

with both textbooks showing insufficient lexical diversity. These findings provide empirical evidence for tiered instruction

textbook optimization

and CET-4 preparation design.

关键词

Keywords

references

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