Research On The Development Of L2 Written Language Syntactic And Lexical Complexity From The Perspective Of Dynamic Systems Theory

Wolfe-Quintero et al.(1998)proposed four categories of language indicators,namely fluency,accuracy,syntactic complexity and lexical complexity.This literature provides a reference and ideas for the many following types of research.Larsen-Freeman(1997)introduced dynamic systems theory to the field of linguistics and proposed it as the dominant theory for the study of second language acquisition.According to this theory,the second language is a dynamic,complex,and adaptable system whose development process is dynamic and non-linear,and its internal components are fully interconnected.Development is achieved through interposition synergy.This study aimed to address the following three research questions.1.How does the syntactic complexity of the learner’s written language change with grade and writing level improvement?2.How does the lexical complexity of the learner’s written language change with grade and writing level improvement?3.How do the syntactic complexity and lexical complexity of the learner’s written language interact with grade and writing level improvement?The corpus of this study is based on the English compositions for the first semester of the2022—2023 academic year of Jinpu junior high school in Ru’nan County,Henan Province.A random sampling method was used to select 30 essays from each grade level(7th,8th and 9th),for a total of 90 essays.In this study,the measurement indicators of syntactic complexity and lexical complexity were analyzed,and the analysis software was used in SPSS and RANGE.The analysis led to the following four conclusions:(1)W/T shows a dynamic growth trend from low to high between grade groups and different-level group essays.(2)C/T,has a peak in the development trend of different grade groups,specifically,C/T shows an upward trend from low to high between the seventh and eighth,peaked in the eighth grade,but began to decline between the eighth and ninth grades.With respect to different-level group essays,C/T shows a linear growth trend from low to high as the writing level increased.(3)LS showed a dynamic downward trend both among different grade groups and between different level group essays.With the improvement of grade and writing level,the productive vocabulary of learners did not increase.(4)In different grade groups,LV presents a dynamic growth trend from low to high with the improvement of grades.However,between different-level group essays,the development trend of LV is the opposite direction of the change in writing level.As the writing level rises,LV shows a linear downward trend from high to low.(5)As the grade level increases,syntactic complexity and lexical complexity are interrelated and the trends of change are broadly compatible;as the writing level increases,the two trends are independent of each other.The research results have the following implications for English teaching in junior high schools.Teachers should focus on students’ use of basic sentence patterns,provide guidance and practice for more complex and changeable sentence patterns and encourage students to use them.For vocabulary,teachers should help students learn new words and understand their usage in context,and focus on syntax and vocabulary combinations.As grade improve,teachers should pay more attention to students’ learning status,particular those whose grades have deteriorated significantly.Adjusting teaching strategies and attitudes promptly and being more tolerant of mistakes made by students when they dare to try to use some new vocabulary or more complex grammatical structures.