Research On The Development Of Second Language Writing Competence Of Chinese Non-english Majors From The Perspective Of Complex Dynamic Systems Theory

Second Language Acquisition research considers second language development a complex system and observes learners’ differences and changes based on the Complex Dynamic Theory.Complexity,Accuracy,Fluency(CAF)as measures to examine second language production,language proficiency,and language development provide new perspectives for second language l earners’ writing development.Although the metaphoric competence of second language learners is regarded as the most crucial ability,the research in this field is relatively independent as a single concept.This study believes that counting indicators rel ated to learners’ cognitive ability,such as metaphoric competence,into the language development system,hoping to make up for the lack of learners’ cognitive ability development in the second language writing development system.It is high time to rethin k the second language writing development indicators and construct a new index system that can better reflect the characteristics of Chinese learners’ second language writing development.From the perspective of systems science,this research views the de velopment of Chinese learners’ second language(L2)writing as a complex dynamic system with multiple time scales,high nonlinearity,multiple feedback,comprehensive openness,spontaneity,unpredictability as its characteristics and rules.The system regar ds complexity,accuracy,fluency,and metaphoric competence as the four subsystems of the learners’ L2 written development.The L2 writing system obtains language knowledge from the external environment,such as language teaching and language learning,which serve as the system’s primary input source.The learner’s writing production is the main output of the system.The dynamics of L2 writing development originate from the system’s significant input and output changing over time.While the system’s characteristics also alter over time.The complexity of L2 writing development stems from the complex internal structure determined by the functions of multiple subsystems.The learner’s proficiency and metaphoric competence are two subsystems that blend organically.The measurements of the language proficiency subsystem are composed of complexity,accuracy,and fluency of the learner’s written language,and the measurements of the cognition development subsystem are composed of the complexity,accuracy,and fluen cy of the learner’s metaphoric competence.This research studies the following issues: the development and interrelations of each index of the second language writing system of Chinese non-English majors;in the writing evaluation system constructed based on the objective weighting of various indicators,the development and interrelations of the evaluation scores of each subsystem;the influence of individual differences of learners and differences of writing tasks on learners’ second language writing compe tence.The study was conducted from September 2017 to July 2019--a time span of two academic years,for four semesters.It collected 465 written texts from the university’s English course and observed the writing development and change on a fixed frequency.This research uses Complex Dynamic Systems Theory as the research framework,adopts diachronic research methods,collects diachronic changing data of various indicators,and comprehensively applies multidisciplinary research methods such as applied linguistics,statistics,and multiple regression methods to analyze and mine the data.Consequently,the study discovers and summarizes the dynamic development and changes of the learner’s writing indicators.According to the characteristics of complexity,chaos,and dynamics of the L2 writing system,the research pioneers the use of Entropy to objectively weight the various indicators of the subsystem and observe each indicator’s different contributions to the overall system of writing development.After giving weighting to subsystems,this research constructs a more objective evaluation system for learners’ writing performance to re-evaluate,observe and analyze the development and changing routes of learners’ writing performance.Additionally,the research com prehensively examines the influence of different factors on learners’ writing performance from the perspective of learners’ factors and writing tasks.This research provides an in-depth empirical analysis and includes the following findings.1)It discovers and recaps the dynamic changing modes of the learner’s various subsystem indicators,such as the stable mode and fluctuant mode(rising pattern,decreasing pattern,and substantial fluctuant pattern).2)The study of variables found that some specific i ndicators discussed in the existing studies cannot be simply regarded as negative indicators of L2 writing development,e.g.,the proportion of errors.There exist significantly intricate interrelationships between the variables,presenting a very chaotic state.3)According to the characteristics of the complexity,chaos,and dynamics of the L2 writing system,the research uses the Entropy method to conclude that the order of weight in the overall writing system is:complexity-accuracy-metaphorical expression-fluency,the influence weakening in turn.4)On obtaining the objective weighting of the subsystem indicators,this research constructs a more objective evaluation system for learners’ writing performance to re-evaluate and recap the dynamic changing m ode of the learner’s L2 writing system: the flat pattern;the fluctuant rising type;the fluctuant decreasing type;the mixed development pattern.5)The study concludes that the correlation between learners’ L2 writing development subsystems can be summar ized into four different situations: no correlation,positive correlation;negative correlation;co-existing of correlation and trade-off.6)The research discovers the factors,the learners’ initial language performance and the gender differences,that ha ve no significant influence on learners’ L2 writing performance.On the other hand,learners’ Language learning motivation and second language learning background significantly influence learners’ L2 writing ability.Meanwhile,the task complexity and typ e mainly affect learners’ L2 writing performance.This study applies Complex Dynamic Systems Theory(CDST)to new applications,expands the range of the variables in L2 writing development based on existing research,and proves that the learner’s L2 writing system is changeable and self-organizing under the influence of the changing of variables.This research uses the Entropy method to process complex data,objectively giving weight to the chaotic and disordered indicators at all levels,and innovates the w eighting analysis method used for this type of research.This research also uses max-min-avg charts to visualize the changes and development of various indicators and scores in time and writing task dimensions.This research fills up the one-sidedness of this type of research that only focuses on individual development and lacks short-term writing development data collected in most similar research.This research also employs the research results to put forward specific curriculum design and practical teach ing suggestions for teaching L2 writing.