BETHANY GRAY

Biographic Data

ID5999331
NAMEBETHANY GRAY
GIVEN NAMESBETHANY
FAMILY NAMEGRAY
SIGNATUREGRAY B
AFFILIATIONSIowa State University
ORCID0000-0003-0118-6508
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS11
TOTAL CITATIONS49
WORKS AS AUTHOR11
WORKS AS EDITOR0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2010
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX3

  • Grammatical Analysis Is Required to Describe Grammatical (and “Syntactic”) Complexity

    Open AccessDouglas Biber, BETHANY GRAY et al.ARTICLELanguage Learning2025

    Our response is focused on the analysis of grammatical complexity1 in learner language. We fully support the distinction between complexity and difficulty advocated by Bulté et al., and we agree with their characterization of “complexity” (as opposed to “difficulty”) as referring “to the structural characteristics of linguistic items/structures and texts.” We are surprised, though, by Bulté et al.’s recommendation that this construct of grammatic…

  • Achieving stability in corpus-based analysis of word types

    Open AccessJamie Egbert, Jesse Egbert et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal of Corpus…2025References: 1

    Rank-ordered lists of word types are ubiquitous in corpus linguistics and applied linguistics. Word lists are commonly developed as aids for language teaching and learning, vocabulary testing, and language description. Yet, these lists are often produced and used without evaluation of their stability — or replicability — across corpus samples. Our primary objective in this paper is to describe the cumulative state of knowledge regarding the stabi…

  • Writing Trajectories of Grammatical Complexity at the University

    Open AccessShelley Staple, BETHANY GRAY et al.ARTICLEApplied Linguistics2023

    Grammatical complexity has been established as a key indicator of language and writing development (Ortega 2003; Bulté and Housen, 2014; Crossley and McNamara 2014). The present study uses the Register-Functional approach to complexity (Biber et al. 2022) to compare the development of L1 English and L2 English writers across year of study and discipline in the British Academic Written English corpus. It also introduces a novel method of examining…

  • Investigating grammatical complexity in L2 English writing research

    Open AccessDouglas Biber, BETHANY GRAY et al.ARTICLEJournal of English for Academic…2020

  • Linguistic Perspectives on Register

    Larissa Goulart, BETHANY GRAY et al.ARTICLEAnnual Review of Linguistics2019Cited by: 4References: 13

    Language users change their written and spoken language according to the situational characteristics and communicative purpose of production—that is, according to the register being produced. Research on registers has focused on register description or patterns of register variation, on detailed analysis of individual linguistic features or an account for the use of a broad range of linguistic features, and on the distinction between written and …

  • Academic Writing Development at the University Level

    Open AccessShelley Staple, Shelley Staples et al.ARTICLEWritten Communication2016

    Using the British Academic Written English corpus, this study focuses on the use of grammatical complexity features in university level texts written by first language (L1) English writers to demonstrate knowledge and perform other specialized tasks required of advanced academic writers. While the primary focus of the analysis is on writing development from first-year undergraduate to graduate students, we also consider interactions with discipli…

  • Predicting Patterns of Grammatical Complexity Across Language Exam Task Types and Proficiency Levels

    Douglas Biber, BETHANY GRAY et al.ARTICLEApplied Linguistics2016

    In the present article, we explore the extent to which previous research on register variation can be used to predict spoken/written task-type variation as well as differences across score levels in the context of a major standardized language exam (TOEFL iBT). Specifically, we carry out two sets of linguistic analyses based on a large corpus of TOEFL iBT responses: one investigating the use of 23 grammatical complexity features, and the second b…

  • Pay Attention to the Phrasal Structures

    Open AccessDouglas Biber, BETHANY GRAY et al.ARTICLETESOL Quarterly2013

  • Lexical frames in academic prose and conversation

    BETHANY GRAY, Douglas BiberARTICLEInternational Journal of Corpus…2013Cited by: 5References: 5

    While lexical bundles research identifies continuous sequences (e.g. the end of the, I don’t know if), researchers have also been interested in discontinuous sequences in which words form a ‘frame’ surrounding a variable slot (e.g. I don’t * to, it is * to). To date, most research has focused on a few intuitively-selected frames, or has begun with frequent continuous sequences and then analyzed those to identify associated frames. Few previous st…

  • Should We Use Characteristics of Conversation to Measure Grammatical Complexity in L2 Writing Development

    Open AccessDouglas Biber, BETHANY GRAY et al.ARTICLETESOL Quarterly2011Cited by: 40References: 42

    Studies of L2 writing development usually measure T‐units and clausal subordination to assess grammatical complexity, assuming that increased subordination is typical of advanced writing. In this article we challenge this practice by showing that these measures are much more characteristic of conversation than academic writing. The article begins with a critical evaluation of T‐units and clausal subordination as measures of writing development, a…

  • Challenging stereotypes about academic writing

    Open AccessDouglas Biber, BETHANY GRAYARTICLEJournal of English for Academic…2010