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Complex Dynamic Systems Theory and L2 Writing Development
Edited by Gary G. Fogal and Marjolijn H. Verspoor
[Language Learning & Language Teaching 54] 2020
► pp. 241–270

Chapter 10
Envisioning L2 writing development in CDST under a curricular optic

A proposal

| Georgetown University

The chapter presents an integrated proposal for viewing CDST-inspired inquiry into L2 writing development under a curricular optic. After establishing the need for an object theory of language that aligns with the principles of complexity theory, it considers how the educational setting itself, composing abilities and their development, and the agentive L2 writer might be imagined within a complexity theory approach. On that basis it posits that the educational construct of curriculum, interpreted as a subsystem of the complex system of formal education, can provide an environment for studying L2 writing development in an educationally motivated, holistic, and dynamic way that interprets the L2 composer’s evolving agency toward textual meaning-making in light of the structures, processes, and affordances that hold in a particular educational setting. The chapter concludes by considering broader theoretical, research, and education-oriented implications of such a proposal.

Keywords: curriculum, writing development, CDST, educational context, meaning-making
Article outline
  • Introduction
    • Positioning L2 writing research
    • Calling for etic and emic inquiry in context with a system orientation
  • Setting the stage
  • Toward a proposal for integrated perspectives within a CDST framework
  • 1.CDST as a metatheory – Searching for an object theory
    • From metatheory to object theory
    • A CDST-compatible object theory of language: System, dynamism, complexity
  • 2.Writing development as an educational phenomenon
  • 3.L2 writing as textual meaning-making
    • Textual meaning-making as thinking and learning with language
  • 4.L2 writing development as the ability to compose in increasing registerial and generic environments
    • A registerial understanding of development
    • Writing development as expansion of the generic repertoire
    • Writing development along the continuum of oral–literate language use
  • 5.Evolving agency in L2 literacy development
    • Exploring agency in relation to structures and systems: A CDST perspective
    • Agency in second language learning: Some considerations
    • L2 literacy development as agency: From macro to micro and back
  • 6.Adopting a curricular view for understanding L2 writing development
    • Interrogating the choice of a curricular optic
    • Voices supporting a curricular optic
    • Complexity theory and a curricular optic: Of simplex systems and subsystems
  • Reflecting on L2 writing development under a curricular optic
  • References
Published online: 4 June 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.54.10byr
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