A dynamic approach to second language development: methods and techniques

摘要

As the editors note, the main purpose of this volume is 'to show different ways of looking at the development of individual learners' (2). The book starts by identifying a limitation of traditional analyses of second language development (SLD): these analyses frequently ignore intra-individual and inter-individual variation and their possible influence on SLD over time. Relying on the perspective of dynamic systems theory (DST), a way of explaining how a set of interrelated variables continually affect each other and how they affect a complex system over time, this edited volume offers an elaborated way to analyze longitudinal naturalistic language data and discover the dynamic processes of SLD.