Propositional Density in EFL Retellings: Relative Contributions of Proficiency, Speech Rate, Lexical Diversity, and Mean Dependency Distance

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the relationship between form and meaning in text recall by examining how linguistic factors—EFL proficiency, speech rate, lexical diversity, and mean dependency distance (MDD)—contribute to propositional density (PD) in 140 EFL learners’ retellings. Propositions were classified into two categories: those identical to the auditory input and those idiosyncratic to the learners’ output. Path analysis revealed that the model accounted for 29% of the variance in identical PD and 30% in idiosyncratic PD. While EFL proficiency emerged as the predominant predictor of identical PD, MDD exerted the strongest positive influence on idiosyncratic PD. Speech rate and lexical diversity moderately predicted identical PD. Although speech rate significantly mediated the indirect effect of EFL proficiency on PD, lexical diversity and MDD showed no such mediating effects. These findings suggest a functional shift: while proficiency and speech rate correlate directly with verbatim repetition, syntactic complexity—measured by MDD—is the dominant positive predictor of conceptual reconstruction. This study highlights the complex interplay between form and meaning construction in EFL oral production.