A Corpus-based Study Of Syntactic Complexity Development In Chinese College Students' Second Language Writing From The Perspective Of Dynamic System Theory

Writing,as an important part of second language proficiency,is a hot topic of second language acquisition research in recent years.While language complexity is an index to measure writing proficiency,among which syntactic complexity has attracted much attention and has become an important indicator frequently used to assess L2 learners' writing performance.From the perspective of Dynamic System Theory,language is a constantly changing system,and is full of variability.The developmental trajectory of learners' language ability at different levels can be reflected by variation of syntactic complexity.Previous studies lack the dynamic description of syntactic developmental process,one or two methods of measurements are widely used,and most of them are cross-sectional studies.Furthermore,little longitudinal studies have ever been conducted on syntactic complexity in second language writing of Chinese English major students.Therefore,from the perspective of Dynamic System Theory,the present study is based on a self-built corpus,collecting post-class assignments of sophomore English majors with the course of English writing in Jiangsu Province.Quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted to track the changing pattern of syntactic complexity in learners' English writing over one academic year.Several measures are utilized to gauge the developmental path and the changing process of syntactic complexity of learners and the dynamic correlations between subsystems,which are length of production units(MLT and MLC),subordination(C/T and DC/C)and particular structures(CN/T and VP/T).The research uses computer modeling combined with statistics and computer technology to perform variable analysis and data dynamic presentation.Relevant software: 1)Web-based L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer to count the indexes;2)Microsoft Office Excel 2007 to plot a graph;3)PASW Statistic 18.0,ANOVA and Bivariate Variables to offer descriptive statistics and to display significant differences,and to analyze the correlation of internal indexes of syntactic complexity.The results yielded from this study indicate that the development of syntactic complexity presents the complex and changeable trend,that is,the trajectory of each index is nonlinear,peaks and troughs,progress and backsliding are emerged in the development,dynamics and variability are obvious in the whole development.Indicators show significant differences in non-adjacent developmental stages,while the complex development tends to be stable in the later stages,but there is no obvious difference in the change.Different complex dimensions show interactive effects presenting the characteristics of competition and support,indicators under the same structure are positively correlated,which suggests that the development is synergistic.In addition,correlation between different indicators shows a dynamic tendency over time.This study has some theoretical significance and practical significance,certain enlightenment as well as certain guidance for theory and pedagogy.Certainly,there are inevitable limitations,and further studies need to be conducted to contribute to the research of second language development.