In this project, we analyzed and compared the ways that fluency, accuracy, grammatical complexity, and lexical complexity have been measured in studies of language development in second language writing. More than 100 developmental measures were examined, with detailed comparisons of the results across studies that have used each measure.
In SLTCC Technical Report #17, Second Language Development in Writing: Measures of Fluency, Accuracy, & Complexity, where our results are published, we discuss the theoretical foundations for each type of developmental measure and consider the relationship between developmental measures and various types of proficiency measures. We also examine criteria for determining which developmental measures are the most successful and suggest which measures are the most promising for continuing work on language development.