A Study On The Development Of Chinese English Majors' Syntactic Complexity In Argumentative Writing:a Dynamic Systems Theory Approach

Dynamic Systems Theory(DST)has become a new research paradigm since Larsen-Freeman(1994)introduced it to the Applied Linguistics world.DST disregards reductionism and simple causality but focuses on the developmental process,inter-individual,intra-individual variability and the dynamic interplay between the interconnected subsystems.Based on the theoretical assumptions of DST,the present research narrows down to the system of syntactic complexity of Chinese English majors because syntactic complexity has been recognized as an important indicator for evaluating L2 writers' level of linguistic performance and proficiency in target language.Extensive research has been done to examine syntactic complexity,nevertheless,the intra-individual,inter-individual variability,longitudinal developmental pattern and moving correlations among different dimensions of Chinese EFL learners' syntactic complexity under the perspective of Dynamic Systems Theory have been underexplored.The present research aims,first of all,to figure out the group developmental pattern of Chinese English majors' syntactic complexity shown in argumentative writing over a semester;then to describe how each individual's four syntactic complexity measures develop during the observation period of one semester;last but not least,to explore the dynamic moving correlations among the four dimensions of syntactic complexity.The participants of this study include 10 sophomore English majors(2 males,8females)in an intact class in a university enlisted in 211 Project in Jiangsu Province.They are categorized as high intermediate learners of English with a 10-year English learning experience when participating in the present research.They were required to finish ten argumentative writing assignments after class at an interval of about two weeks.The electronic version of their argumentative essays were collected and then analyzed by an automatic computational tool called L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer(L2SCA)developed by Lu Xiaofei(2010).Among the fourteen measures listed in L2 SCA,the researcher chose four syntactic complexity measures: mean length of T-unit(MLT),dependent clauses per clause(DC/C),clauses per sentence(C/S)and coordinatephrases per clause(CP/C).The four measures represent the four dimensions of syntactic complexity: length of production unit,sentence complexity,subordination and coordination.The data derived from L2 SCA were then smoothed,normalized and detrended;min-max graphs were used to plot the developmental pattern;Monte Carlo Analyses were run to test for significance and the moving correlation values between each pair of two syntactic complexity measures were calculated.The major findings of the present research are as follows:1.The group developmental pattern of syntactic complexity for the ten participants is non-linear and full of progress,regression,peaks and valleys,and it is featured by great variability both within one subsystem during different time periods and between different subsystems.2.Great intra-individual variability and inter-individual variability exists in the development of each syntactic complexity dimension in terms of the stages of developmental pattern,timing of each stage,the occurrence of phase transition,the end state and the most stable state.The behaviors of the syntactic complexity system confirm and substantiate the theoretical assumptions of Dynamic Systems Theory.3.The moving correlation between each pair of two dimensions of syntactic complexity changes dynamically over time.Great inter-individual and intra-individual variability can also be found in the moving correlation pathways.MLT and DC/C are predominantly supportive for most participants.MLT and C/S are connected growers for most participants and the supportive correlation also holds for C/S and DC/C.On the contrary,the correlation between MLT and the CP/C is competitive.The correlation between DC/C and CP/C,C/S and CP/C are asymmetric,which alternates between supportive and competitive in different time scales.An important pedagogical implication that we can get from the present study is that teachers should pay more attention to students' language learning process and use formative assessment in language teaching practice to dynamically track students' learning trajectory.Teachers' way of feedback,timing of extra input,rewarding,and the choice of teaching content should be based on learners' developmental trajectories.