A Study Of The Variability In The Development Of College Spoken English As A Second Language Based On Dynamic System Theory

Although the reform and efforts of college English teaching have achieved considerable achievements for a long time,the overall oral English ability of domestic students is still not satisfactory.Oral English is still one of the most important and difficult parts of foreign languages learning(Feng,2003).The research on the process and abilities of L2 production has been a core topic of psychological linguistics,cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition(Wang & Zhou,2004).However,because it is more difficult for oral corpus to collect,record and analyze than written corpus,and the research process of spoken language is also very complicated,the research on second language learners' oral skills both at home and abroad is relatively weak.At present,the international research focus on spoken English in the second language mainly focuses on the expression of oral skills,but the study on the process of spoken language development is very few.The study of spoken English in our country started relatively late,but it has drawn much attention from the academic circles(Wen,2011).In recent years,with the development of related disciplines such as linguistics,cognitive linguistics,psycholinguistics,second language acquisition,pedagogy,corpus,computer science and statistics,people began to pay attention to the process of spoken English expression(Li & Min,2010).However,influenced by the traditional viewpoints of language and second language acquisition,it is considered that the variability is only a result under the interaction of various internal and external factors,but not the dynamic development research with the time of oral development as the independent variable.Therefore,it was not until the Larsen-Freeman introduced a completely new research perspective on dynamic systems theory in the field of natural sciences into the study of second language development in 1997 that there was a dynamic(diachronic)study of variability in L2 development in the real sense.The variability in development has become the core issue in the field of second language acquisition,which refers to the coexistence of the acquisition and attrition of learners' language behavior of second language development(SLD)at different time points(Verspoor et.al,2010).There exists a lot of variability in the lexical and syntactic levels in SLD,but few studies in the field of applied linguistics are devoted to the analysis of variability patterns(Verspoor et.al,2008).The dynamic system theory(DST)introduced from natural science into SLA field in 1997 provides theoretical inevitability and empirical possibility for studying variability from the dynamic perspective.The advent of DST in the field of applied linguistics makes the study of variability a significant development from “static viewpoint” to “dynamic viewpoint”.In view of the fact that traditional SLA research still interprets various language problems and learners' behaviors in a linear way instead of considering variability as an essential feature of the language development system.The dynamic view of variability has a breakthrough interpretation to the variability.That is,variability is an interactive nonlinear development(Larsen-freeman,2006)between heterogeneous subsystems in a system that emerges from nesting,and variability is the intrinsic property of a dynamic system(Larsen-freeman & Cameron,2008).The dynamic view of variability states that variability is the intrinsic characteristic of the development system and is a part of the development.Therefore,the dynamic variability view of “focus process-oriented” makes it clear that the object of variability analysis is the process of development itself.Therefore,under the research perspective of DST,which proposed the concept of dynamic variability,this study formed the research framework of the variability in the development of second language spoken English.In the study,the longitudinal case study was used to collect oral corpus of the two groups(Group I,Group II)of subjects from a certain university in China in the way of recording.They were 2 students(1 male,1 female)in the first grade of non-English majors(Group I),and 2 sophomore(1 male,1 female)in English major(Group II).Collected oral English corpus(16 times per person,a total of 64 samples,about 1200 minutes)lasted 4 semesters(about 2 years).The transcription standard and data processing of corpus are used in the CHAT and CLAN program tools provided in the CHILDS(child Language Data Exchange)Project of MacWhinney(2000).This paper focus on the basic analysis unit(vocabulary and snytax)in development of spoken English as a second language through using time serial analysis in natural science: moving min-max method,resampling technique and Monte-Carlo analysis.And it compared the differences of lexical and syntactic variability in second language learners at different stages of learning.The resampling technique effectively solves the problem of data scarcity in case study by expanding the number of small samples.The biggest advantage of Monte Carlo simulation is to determine the statistical significance of small sample and irregular data(Zheng,2015).Therefore,the research methods of resampling and Monte Carlo simulation make the data in case study can be examined quantitatively,which makes the experimental results of case study more general and convincing.On the basis of the research framework,three research questions were raised: in the development of spoken English in both groups(Group I and Group II),(1)How does the lexical variability occur?(2)How does the syntactic variability occur? and(3)What are the differences in variability(lexical and syntactic)between learners in different learning stages(Group I and Group II)? On the basis of Verspoor & Sauter(2000)in the selection and definition of the variables affecting vocabulary and syntax in SLD,a multi-dimensional measurement and analysis framework of spoken English(lexical and syntactic)is established.In the study of lexical variability,we first draw the development track of each variable(TTR,D-value,the unique word ratio and LFP)of four subjects,and then presented and tested the chance level of variability occur.In the study of syntactic variation,first of all,the syntactic variables(proportion of simple sentence,proportion of complex sentence,W/FV and MLT)development path was drawn,and then presented and tested the chance level of variability occur.In the study of inter-group variability,we first compared the differences in the development of oral English between different learning stages and then examined the difference.During the study period of 16 observation points(about 2 years),this study has the following three major findings and implication.First,lexical variability in the development of spoken English as a second languageWith the passage of time,the general development trend of L2 learners' oral vocabulary is from low to high,which is manifested in the following aspects: the increase of TTR value,the increase of D-value,the increase of the unique word ratio and the number of high frequency words(LFP)decline.However,it is clear that although the overall development of vocabulary is from low to high,each participant shows the variability in development.The development of L2 vocabulary in Group I subjects(non-English major freshmen)was roughly from the lower level to the high level and then to the middle level(at about 2 years period).The mid-term development(in the period of about 2 years)is the fastest-growing period of vocabulary development.The developing process of vocabulary in spoken English of Group II(English major sophomore)was generally from medium to low level and then to higher level.The early and middle development(in the period of about 2 years)is the fastest-growing period of vocabulary development.On the path of lexical development,it will be more difficult for non-English major L2 learners(lower-level L2 learners)to progress from medium to higher level.But for English major L2 learners(higher-level),it will be from high to higher degree that is easier to achieve.Second,syntactic variability in the development of spoken English as a second languageWith the development of time,the overall tendency of syntactic development in L2 learners' oral English is from simple to complex,that is,the proportion of FV simple sentences drops,the proportion of non-FV simple sentences increases,and the proportion of complex sentences increases,W/FV)increased and MLT increased.However,as in the process of lexical development,although syntactic development as a whole is characterized by simple to complex trends,there are still a large number of variations.The development process of the syntactic complexity in Group I(non-English majors)generally develops from a lower level to a very low level and to a medium-high level,and the development of syntactic diversity generally develops from a medium level to a very high level and then to a higher level.The middle and later period(during about 2 years)is the fastest-growing period of syntactic development.The process of syntactic development in Group II subjects(English majors)is generally complex,with the complexity developing from a lower level to a very low level and then to a higher level.From a middle level to a very high level,diversity then develops to a relatively high level.The middle stage of development(during about 2 years)is the period when the syntactic development has the fastest rate of change and the fastest increase.On the path of syntactic development,it will be more difficult for non-English major L2 learners(lower-level L2 learners)to progress from medium to higher level in complexity,and beyond higher level in diversity.But for male L2 learners in English major(higher-level),it will be easier to beyond higher degree,while female more difficult.Thirdly,the differences of variability(vocabulary and syntax)in the development of spoken English among second language learners at different stages of learningThere was no difference in vocabulary variability among participants in Group I(non-English majors)and those in group II(majors in English majors)during development of spoken English.In terms of syntactic comparison,there was no difference between the subjects in Group I(female)and those in group II,but there was a difference between the two subjects in Group I(male)and the subjects in group II.In the development path of vocabulary,lower and higher level L2 learners follow basically the same.In the development path of grammar,low-level female L2 learners are also basically the same as high-level L2 learners,but the low-level male L2 learners are not the same as those of the high-level L2 learners.The development of the second language dynamic system is never completely stable,especially in the intensive development phase will show a large number of variability.In the DST perspective,second language learning is by no means a one-way process of linear development from zero to infinity,but a dynamic system full of non-linear variability with increase and decrease at both lexical and syntactic levels and always in constant development and change.Variability presents a time of transition and a necessary moment for L2 learners to develop and progress.From the dynamic point of view,the traditional statistical methods are not enough to evaluate the real performance of the development process.In the development of the performance(or scores)is often explained that L2 learners are still in the learning process,has not entered a stable state.Thus,such data are not “noise” but “sound”,and are valuable information about stages in the development process.In other words,the degree of variability can tell us the details of the development process of the learner's second language and the learner's L2 development path.The variability within the individual is positively correlated with subsequent learning,and high variability means that learners try more(lexical or syntactic)strategies in the early stage of development,which facilitates the selection and helps the second language learners to choose more complex and effective expressions in the later stage of development.The variability within the individual indicates that the qualitative change of development has occurred.Therefore,the second language teacher should pay more attention to the critical period,adjust the control parameters and promote the system reorganization,to help L2 learners go through the period and promote the development of oral skills.Different learning pathways can be found by examining the different patterns of L2 learners in different learning stages.Therefore,this research is helpful to provide valuable information for Chinese second language learners to make a pluralistic oral evaluation system standard.At the same time,it also helps to promote the reform of oral English teaching in China.