A Study On The Development Of Indonesian Students’ Lexical Competency In Chinese Language Learning Based On Complex Dynamic Perspective

The research on the development of lexical competence in acquisition of Chinese as a second language is still in its initial stages.Previous research is mostly single dimensioned.While recent years we witnessed the shift of attention to the dynamic development of connectivity,most research investigated the issue from a linguistic perspective and findings relied heavily on short-term case studies.In short,current research landscape lacks a macro perceptive which takes on the lexical competence of learners as a complex dynamic system,where factors such as lexical development characteristics,internal resources and external environment intertwining to contribute in the learning process in a multi-dimensional context.Furthermore,country specific study is limited in the sense that most research focus on native English speakers.Learners from non-English speaking countries are often neglected,especially so since research on learners from Indonesia are almost non-existent.The current study,extending previous research,investigates the development of Chinese lexical competence in Indonesian learners,from an interdisciplinary perspective of complex dynamic theory,constructing a research framework specifically for the lexical competence of learner with Chinese as a second language.By observing the learner’s vocabulary in authentic language output through continuous participation in different stages,their data are divided into beginner,medium and high level of speaking ability(including monologue expression ability and conversational ability)and their writing data from the third to six academic year are recorded for qualitative and quantitative research to obtain the following findings.First,Increase in learning time does not necessarily guarantee parallel development in the lexical competence of Indonesian students involving in different Chinese language expressions context.The development of the four dimensions of vocabulary ability,namely lexical variation,lexical complexity,lexical density and lexical accuracy varies.Some of them compete with each other,some support each other,whilst others are mutually exclusive,resulting in a nonlinear dynamic development of lexical competence.In monologue expression,the four dimensions of vocabulary ability of learners exhibits significant development.Lexical variation exhibits a rapid development;vocabulary exhibits sophistication shows a slow development;lexical accuracy exhibits a beginning level of development while lexical density has an significant development in monologue expression despite the learners’inability to explain the development of his/her lexical competence.In the aspect of dialogue,learners’ lexical competence development is not as satisfying as that of monologue expression.Both lexical variation and accuracy show a slow development while vocabulary sophistication and density have nearly no development at all.In writings,learners’ lexical competence developing is also not satisfying since only vocabulary sophistication shows a quick development while other aspects show none at all.Both dialogue and writing expression requires external intervention for the overall lexical competence of learners to develop quicker and more balanced.Second,The development of lexical competence of learners depends on the interaction between his/her internal system and subsystem,and subject to influence of these systems have on each other,and shape by their dynamic connection.Simultaneously,it is affected by learners’ internal resources such as gender,mother tongue,learning strategies,learning motivation,and self-efficacy,etc.At the same time,it is affected by language input and external environment,especially some non language related factors.Such characteristics are explained below.Firstly,in terms of language and its usage,we find the extent of correlation among the four dimensions of lexical competence of Indonesian students in China varies.Such instability of correlation is due to the variation subsystems,further illustrating the multi-layer characteristic of the system.Secondly,we stand with the view that systemic learning is more efficient in improving vocabulary ability than learning through natural contact with the language.Thirdly,the continuity of learning time and learning motivation has affected the lexical competence development of learners.Learners should learn Chinese words by learning Chinese radicals to have a correct understanding and association of the words all while consolidating the memories of learning Chinese.Fourthly,social interaction environment affords an efficient way to make learners produce more rich,difficult and accurate vocabularies.Fifthly,it is observed learners do not put enough emphasis on vocabulary learning strategy,resulting in a medium usage frequency of learnt vocabulary since the learning experience has stopped at a stage of understanding.Unbalanced exercise has put most focus on spoken vocabulary usage.At the beginning level and medium level,the learning strategy is not noticeably efficient,and the most used strategies are decision strategy and social strategy.Third,by fully understanding the developmental pattern of a learner’s lexical competence,we can accurately and in detail understand the level of grasp that a learner has on vocabulary,and can pinpoint different problem points at different stages of their development,thus making valuable suggestions for the learning and teaching of Chinese vocabulary to Indonesian learners,including:Carry out targeted phased vocabulary teaching tasks,maintain learners’ enthusiasm for learning Chinese vocabulary,explain the characteristics of Chinese and carry out a comparison between Chinese and Indonesian,encourage the application of Chinese corpus in vocabulary learning.The novel contributions that this study offers is three-fold.First,it uses an interdisciplinary approach to fully explain the development of lexical competence in Indonesian competence,namely the complex dynamic system,and uses it to construct a theoretical framework for investigating lexical competence of Chinese as a second language.Second,this study fills the gap in existing research of Indonesian learners of Chinese lexical items,and constructs a working corpus of Indonesian learners’production of Chinese;Finally,this study is novel in research methodology,where it incorporates both theory and empirical evidence,static and dynamic analysis,cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis,individual and group analysis,thus fully and systematically explaining Indonesian learners’developmental patterns and characteristics and influential factors in acquiring Chinese vocabulary.