The Development Of CAF In Chinese EFL Learners' Writing From The Perspective Of DST

Complexity,accuracy and fluency are three important and interdependent indexes to gauge language development which cannot be solely regarded.The main views considering CAF in SLA are Trade-of Hypothesis by Skehan and Cognition Hypothesis by Robinson.In this research,the interdependence and dynamicity of CAF and how they co-exist in an organic relationship in a written text are the major concerns and different from the commonly used cross-sectional design,dynamic longitudinal methods are applied in order to trace the development of students' written language.This research aims to describe the developmental characteristics of CAF and provide dynamic explanations to their interactions within the framework of DST.The current research can be generally divided into two parts:group analysis and case study.60 grade one postgraduates from four different engineering faculties were studied in last nine months and 480 texts were collected and analyzed by dynamic approaches and techniques.The dynamic trajectories of CAF and the dynamic interactions between complexity and accuracy,complexity and fluency were presented and studied.The result of group study illustrates that students in both high and low proficiency group exhibit nonlinear developmental paths and high degree of variability in CAF,containing both progression and attrition.Different orientations of CAF development and organization can be observed:there is an apparent trade-off effect between lexical and grammatical complexity for low proficient students which is missing in high proficiency group whereas competitive relationships between complexity and accuracy,complexity and fluency are maintained by high proficient students throughout the time.The case study showed a different picture where much fluctuations and diverse organizing modes can be captured.The findings will provide important implications for non-English majors to improve complexity,accuracy and fluency and how to coordinate their relations in their academic writing.