Keyword transformations: on the border of stylistics and language testing

Finding different ways of saying the same thing is a well-known exercise in the history of rhetoric, going back at least as far as Erasmus’ De Copia (1512). In the Reading and Use of English paper of the B2, C1, and C2 Cambridge English examinations, keyword transformations require test takers to rewrite sentences by using a keyword provided to them, within a fixed number of words, while keeping the meaning the same as that of the input sentence. This article on the stylistics of student writing focuses on keyword transformations, and reports results from a study at the Université de Haute-Alsace with 117 students who study English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The students completed 20 keyword transformations with 6 B2 items, 7 C1 items, and 7 C2 items. Four hypotheses were tested: (H1) student scores will decrease as the items increase in difficulty; (H2) students in higher grades will have higher scores than students in lower grades; (H3) the more years of formal English learning students have had, the higher their scores will be; and (H4) English majors will have higher scores than non-English majors. The findings support H1 and H4, partially support H2, but offer little support for H3. As this article shows, keyword transformations reflect the belief that different sentences can have the same meaning, which has been a topic of great debate in the history of stylistics.