Identity Scholarship in Educational Psychology: Toward a Complex Dynamic Systems Perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 529-563
Author(s):  
Avi Kaplan ◽  
Hanoch Flum ◽  
Ishwar Bridgelal ◽  
Joanna K. Garner
Author(s):  
Déborah Salves ◽  
Paolla Wanglon ◽  
Ubiratã Kickhöfel Alves

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of familiarity with Brazilian-accented English (L2) in the intelligibility of speech samples when judged by native English listeners. Speech samples were collected from five native Brazilian Portuguese individuals from Southern Brazil, with a pre-intermediate level of proficiency in English. Following a Complex Dynamic Systems account (De Bot et al., 2007), this is a longitudinal study in which a group of four British listeners participated in weekly intelligibility transcription tasks, applied over the course of five weeks. This group was comprised of individuals who had recently arrived in Brazil. Results suggest that familiarity with a speaker’s L1 and accented-L2 has an effect on the intelligibility of what is heard. From the perspective of Complex Dynamic Systems, we argue that there is an alteration of a listener’s perception of his/her own language system due to exposure to it as an L2.


Author(s):  
Conny Opitz

This chapter discusses the methodological challenges associated with studying personal background variables in first language (L1) attrition from the perspective of Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST). It starts with a review of extant research which, despite concerted efforts to design rigorous, comparable studies, to date has not turned up strong, unambiguous predictors for L1 attrition. I argue that this failure lies in the nature of language as a complex dynamic system, and consequently in the properties of variables, their interaction, and varying contribution to the process and outcome of L1 attrition, and indeed to L1 and L2 (second language) acquisition in the larger context of multilingual development. CDST provides a challenge not just for common empirical and analytical approaches to attrition, but for the very notion of ‘predictor’. The chapter concludes by discussing some ways in which the current stalemate may be overcome.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-82
Author(s):  
Diane Larsen-Freeman

The launching of The Journal for the Psychology of Language Learning is a signal achievement. I begin this commentary by speculating on why it is that the Psychology of Language Learning (PLL) has enjoyed such vigor of late. I expect that one reason is the coming together of a critical mass of researchers and strong leaders over their shared interests. A second reason may be that a new way of looking at familiar phenomena was introduced in the form of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST). Building on this supposition, I proceed to recommend extending CDST thinking in some new ways in PLL. These ways are phenomenological, relational, processual, and transdisciplinary. I conclude by urging the PLL community to remain connected with other areas of applied linguistics so that it may continue to contribute to a knowledge-building community.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Larsen-Freeman

Bringing a complex systems perspective to bear on classroom-oriented research challenges researchers to think differently, seeing the classroom ecology as one dynamic system nested in a hierarchy of such systems at different levels of scale, all of which are spatially and temporally situated. This article begins with an introduction to complex dynamic systems theory, in which challenges to traditional ways of conducting classroom research are interwoven. It concludes with suggestions for research methods that are more consistent with the theory. Research does not become easier when approached from a complex systems perspective, but it has the virtue of reflecting the way the world works.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document