Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Second Language Writing journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jslw The writing of Spanish majors: A longitudinal analysis of syntactic complexity Mandy R. Menke ⁎ , Tripp Strawbridge University of Minnesota, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, 214 Folwell Hall, 9 Pleasant St SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Academic writing L2 Spanish Syntactic complexity University ABSTRACT Measures of syntactic complexity are often employed as a way to objectively characterize the development of second language (L2) writing. Complexity measures are eclectic and may be based on length of syntactic unit, relationships between clauses, and variety of syntactic struc- tures. Development in written complexity is of particular interest to university foreign language (FL) departments given its connection to academic discourse. However, few studies explore longitudinal syntactic complexity development in the academic discourse of university FL majors. The present study, part of a larger program assessment project, performs a comprehensive longitudinal analysis of the L2 Spanish written complexity development of three university students over the course of their Spanish major program. A total of 42 academic texts were analyzed for eight complexity measures based on length, inter-clausal relationships, and phrasal/ clausal variety. Results show that students develop certain measures more than others, with the greatest growth in length-based measures. Additionally, the importance of inter-learner varia- bility is evident, as participants show clear individual tendencies. Findings are discussed in light of methodological choices, and implications for university FL major programs are explored. 1. Introduction The construct of complexity has garnered considerable interest in second language (L2) research, having been put forth as a valid descriptor of performance, an indicator of proficiency, and an index of language development (e.g., Ho-Peng, 1983; Lantolf, 1988; Ortega, 2000, 2003; Wolfe-Quintero, Inagaki, & Kim, 1998). A polysemous term, it has been operationalized via a wide variety of measures as researchers seek to identify which best capture development and correlate with writing quality. How learners elaborate and increase the complexity of their language varies according to developmental stage. At beginning levels, L2 writers complexify their language via coordination (Bardovi-Harlig, 1992; Homburg, 1984; Ishikawa, 1995; Sharma, 1980) whereas at intermediate levels, subordination increases levels of complexity (Byrnes, Maxim, & Norris, 2010; Colombi, 2002). Writers at more advanced levels add elaboration within the clause, often increasing the number of elements within a phrase (Biber, Gray, & Poonpon, 2011; Byrnes et al., 2010; Kyle & Crossley, 2018). The phrasal complexity indicative of advanced L2 levels overlaps with features of academic writing, specifically high lexical density and low grammatical intricacy (Halliday, 1994). Academic texts contain a high concentration of nouns, nominalizations, attributive adjectives, and prepositional phrases (Biber, 1998, 2006; Biber et al., 2011; Biber, Gray, & Staples, 2016; Halliday, 1994; Lu, 2011; Parkinson & Musgrave, 2014). As such, nouns and the noun phrase are central to academic writing. This differs from spoken language in which verbs, dependent finite clauses, and clausal linking or chaining are more common (Biber, 1998, 2006; Biber et al., 2011; 2016; Halliday, 1994; Lu, 2011; Parkinson & Musgrave, 2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2019.100665 Received 23 February 2019; Received in revised form 15 August 2019; Accepted 16 August 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: menkem@umn.edu (M.R. Menke), straw055@umn.edu (T. Strawbridge). Journal of Second Language Writing 46 (2019) 100665 1060-3743/ © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. T