A Study On The Development Of Written Language Complexity By English Majors From The Perspective Of Complex Dynamic Systems Theory

Based on the Complex Dynamic Systems Theory,with 16 sophomores of English majors from a 211 university in China as participants,and 96 writings assigned by their teachers in English writing class in one academic year as research materials,this thesis sets out to explore the diachronic development of their written language complexity from two subsystems(i.e.syntax and lexicon)as well as the dynamic interaction mode between the two subsystems.The specific measurement criteria of the subsystems are as follows:The syntactic complexity was measured from sentential complexity,clausal complexity and phrasal complexity;lexical complexity was measured from lexical density,lexical sophistication and lexical diversity.More specifically,the present study addresses the following questions:(1)What are the features of syntactic complexity demonstrated in the writings of the participants?(2)What are the features of lexical complexity demonstrated in their writings?(3)What are the features of the interaction pattern between syntactic complexity and lexical complexity demonstrated in their writings?The following major findings are obtained:(1)In one academic year,the syntactic complexity in students’ writing increased in a nonlinear and fluctuating manner.Sentential complexity had positive correlation with phrasal complexity.Sentential complexity was competitive with clausal complexity at beginning and then became supportive.Clausal complexity had negative correlation with phrasal complexity and then presented positive correlation.(2)In one academic year,the lexical density and lexical sophistication in students’ writing increased but lexical diversity decreased.The development trends of three indexes were also nonlinear.Lexical density and lexical diversity,lexical sophistication and lexical diversity were competitive at first and then became supportive.Lexical density and lexical sophistication had negative correlation.(3)The development trend of syntactic and lexical complexity was not parallel.Sentential complexity and lexical density,phrasal complexity as well as lexical density were supportive and had consistent development trend.Sentential complexity and lexical sophistication were competitive.Other indexes demonstrated unbalanced and asynchronous interaction features.According to the results gained from the study,there are some suggestions for teachers and students in second language writing:(1)Teachers can help students analyze and grasp diverse syntactic structures and pay attention to their use of vocabulary to improve their written language complexity.(2)Students are expected to enrich the second language input materials and expand vocabulary storage initiatively,avoid the overuse of high-frequency words and increase the diversity of sentence patterns in their writings.