A Dynamic Study On Multilingual Learners' Second And Third Language Writing Development Under The Impact Of Individual Difference(ID) Factors

From the perspective of dynamic system theory and through detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data,this longitudinal study aims to depict,first,the dynamic and complex development in six multilingual learners' second language(L2)and third language(L3)writing in terms of complexity,accuracy and fluency(CAF),and second,the dynamic changes and interactions in/between two individual difference factors,namely motivation and learning strategy.And the impact of the motivation and learning strategy and their changes on L2 and L3 writing across time were explored through qualitative study.Results from the quantitative analysis show that each multilingual learner's L2 and L3 writing showed totally different development patterns in terms of complexity,accuracy and fluency,and individuals varied to each other as well.In the group level,different aspects of writing develop in different rates.On an overall view,L3 develop in a faster way than that of L2,but there are still some exceptions.Moreover,not only the L2 and L3 writing developed in different patterns,but also the relation between L2 and L3 writing was changing over time.Different relations between different components of CAF were also found.In addition,most multilingual learner's L2 motivation and L3 motivation correlated with each other to some degree,and their L2 learning strategies were significantly correlated to their L3 learning strategies.The learning strategy showed more obvious and significant changes than that in the motivation,and those changes have substantial effects on the development in L2 and L3 writing.Three major implications can be drawn,firstly,multilingual learners' writing proficiency develops in a dynamic and complex way,to explore the trajectory of each individual's writing development in a dynamic way can to some extent help us gain more detailed information on how and why it develops.Secondly,language itself is a complex system and language learning is a complex and dynamic process,thus learning two foreign languages at the same time is an even more complex process,in this case,investigating two processes together in a holistic way can gain an integrated view on how the multilingual learners develop.Last but not least,individual differences play important role in multilingual learning,therefore,it is crucial to take it into consideration especially in the exploration of how and why the different individuals develop in totally distinct trajectories.