| This study merges Complex Dynamic Systems Theory(Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008) and identity theory (Gee,2000) as a transdisciplinary framework to examine world language writers' writing discourses. This study uses Discourse analysis that Gee (2012) suggested to investigate four Mandarin learners' writing discourses. Five tools---identity building tool, relationship building tool, significant event tool, social language tool, and sign system and knowledge construction tool are selected from Discourse analysis to explore the interviewees' identity shifts while writing in Mandarin, affordances and constrains in world language writing processes, and community of practice in the given language discourses. Data collection integrates interview transcripts and researchers' reflexivity. The collected data is portrait as stories with the model that Clandinin and Connelly (2000) developed to present the interviewees' situation, continuity, and interaction.;The research findings reveal: (1) World language writers tend to shift identities when they have unsuccessful repertoire transformations, when they are in emotional discourses, or when they reposition in the given discourses. (2) World language writers' affordances and constrains are affected by language status, writing system, and cultural immersion. (3) World language writers' community of practice is associated with their cultural knowledge, identities, and complex dynamic systems. The implications of this study suggest that Chinese pedagogy is in need of transformation, particularly considering writing system. The 5Cs standards--- communication, connections, cultures, comparisons, and communities that American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) suggested can be examined through the transdisciplinary framework of this study. The five analytic tools of Discourse analysis contribute to future studies for further investigation on self-directed world language writers' identity constructions, relationships, social languages, significant events, and cultural knowledge. |
