Search

Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), an instantiation in applied linguistics of complexity epistemology that transcends disciplinary boundaries, has gained much traction and momentum over the last decade, finding expressions in a fast-growing number of empirical second language developmental studies. However, the literature, while rapidly expanding, has displayed much confusion, notably oscillating between invoking CDST as a metatheory and as an object theory. Then, too, the metaphorical genesis of CDST—the metaphorical adoption of complexity epistemology from physical sciences—has seemed to invite miscellaneous interpretations, rendering CDST an ostensibly all-in-one conceptual prism. This article explores the epistemology of CDST, tracing its ontology and examining its role in second language developmental research. This enables a more nuanced understanding of CDST, while at once surfacing critical issues and directions for future research, as it moves toward a pluralistic approach to investigating CDST as a potentially unique lens on second language development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Their professed goal is ambitious: Here we outline the approach of digital language learning (DLL) for L2 acquisition and representation, and provide a theoretical synthesis and analytical framework regarding DLL's current and future promises. Keywords: Digital language learning; second language acquisition; second and foreign language instruction EN Digital language learning second language acquisition second and foreign language instruction 388 389 2 06/01/22 20220501 NES 220501 Li and Lan (2021) admirably broached a timely topic in second language learning: the role of technological mediation in learning and instruction. Fourth, the authors' argument, via the social L2 learning hypothesis (Li & Jeong, 2020), is that L2 acquisition should replicate the conditions surrounding L1 acquisition, but this is only partly supported by SLA research - insofar as current understanding of L2 acquisition favors a usage-based approach, semantic bootstrapping, and incidental learning. [Extracted from the article]