A Study Of Chinese Students’ English Writing Development From The Perspective Of Dynamic System Theory

In recent years, as a frontier theory in the field of second languageacquisition/development, dynamic system theory (DST) has emerged and developed to someextent in the European and American countries. As the pioneer who introduced dynamicsystem theory into the field of applied linguistics, Larsen Freeman (1997) argued that theprocess of second language learning was a use-based and project-based learning process,which was a non-linear process. That is, the learning process cannot be equal with learningproject one by one, and even the learning of single project is nonlinear, but full of progressand attrition. De Bot (2007) pointed out that there were multiple “attractor states” at all levelsof second language development. The attractor state is a priority state where some dynamicsubsystem may remain, while those obvious non-preferred states are called “repellor states”.Language development is a nonlinear process from an attractor state to another attractor state.Research on second language writing development has always been a focus of secondlanguage acquisition/development in China. Second language development patterns aremainly described from dimensions of complexity, accuracy and fluency(Huang,2009), andmost researches are done under the guidance of reductionism, which emphasizes a macroorder of linear development in second language writing, but rarely describes the details of“chaos” in the process of second language writing development, which in fact contains alarge amount of important information of great value for second language developmentresearch.Verspoor (2008) proposed longitudinal case study was a typical method for secondlanguage development writing study. In other words, to observe individual variability fromthe perspective of dynamic system closely is a key step to discover the second languagedevelopment model. In this study, four students of Grade one in junior school of Tianjin havebeen studied as research objects for half a year to explore their characteristics of change inwriting in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency. The dynamic system theory (DST) hasbeen applied in analysis of the cause for these changes, with the hope of providing guidance for improving English teaching and students’ English writing level.The following are findings of this present study. Firstly, with the deepening of the study,the development paths of the four English learners’ complexity, accuracy and fluency arerespectively nonlinear without obvious regularity. Secondly, the paths of all the threedimensions of language proficiency were different from each other and they interacted incompetitive and supportive ways. Three dimensions show the relationship of competing witheach other or developing and declining at the same time with different degrees. Thirdly, thefactors that affect these changes are various, including internal and external parts. Theinteractions of these factors bring about the changes of complexity, accuracy and fluency inwritten English. Certain practical significance as well as certain enlightenment for languageteaching is found in the research. However, there is sill certain limitation in this research.