Article published in:
EUROSLA Yearbook: Volume 14 (2014)
Edited by Leah Roberts, Ineke Vedder and Jan H. Hulstijn
[EUROSLA Yearbook 14] 2014
► pp. 65–78

An analysis of complexity in primary school L2 English learning

| Université Lyon 2 (France)
| Université de Cergy-Pontoise (France)
In the context of a Complex Systems (CS) approach to language acquisition and teaching research, this paper will use Geometric Data Analysis (GDA, l’Analyse géométrique des données: Benzécri 1973; Le Roux & Rouanet 2010) to explore data collected from beginning learners of English (n = 54) in a primary school context in France. The study was initially designed along classical “group comparison” lines (six-year-olds vs. eight-year-olds), and not from the start for CS analysis; participants performed four different tasks in English at two times during their first year of English; they also completed a variety of psychometric tests and questionnaires measuring various cognitive, verbal, affective et conative characteristics. We will begin by looking at classic nonparametric comparisons of the two groups of learners and correlations between the psychometric tests and performance on the English tasks. These univariate statistics do not actually turn up very much structure in the data set, and we will use multivariate GDA for a closer look at the complex relationships between individual features and early L2 skill.
Published online: 05 August 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/eurosla.14.03hil
References
Abdi, H.W. and Lynne J
2010 “Principal component analysis.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Computational Statistics 2 (4): 433–459. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bates, E. and Goodman, J.C
1999 “On the emergence of grammar from the lexicon.” In The Emergence of Language, B. MacWhinney (ed.), 29–80. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bates, E. and MacWhinney, B
1987 “Competition, variation, and language learning.” In Mechanisms of Language Acquisition, B. MacWhinney (ed.), 157–193. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Benzécri, J.-P
1973 L’Analyse des Données. Volume II. L’Analyse des Correspondances. Paris: Dunod.Google Scholar
1982 L’analyse des données: leçons sur l’analyse factorielle et la reconnaissance des formes et travaux. Paris: Dunod.Google Scholar
Beslon, G
2012 2July. “Introduction to complex systems.” Plenary lecture, Sixth Annual Complex Systems Summer School . Paris: Institut des Systèmes Complexes.
Carroll, J.B
1993 “Abilities in the domain of language”. In Chapter 5 ofHuman Cognitive Abilities: A Survey of Factor-analytic Studies, 145–195. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
de Bot, K
2013 8April. “Language development at different time scales: Diachronic complexity.” Workshop on Dynamic Systems Analysis . Paris: Groupe de Recherche ADYLOC.
de Bot, K., Lowie, W. and Verspoor, M
2007 “A Dynamic Systems Theory Approach to Second Language Acquisition.” Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 10 (1): 7–22. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dörnyei, Z
2009 “Individual differences: Interplay of learner characteristics and learning environment.” In Language as a Complex Adaptive System, N.C. Ellis and D. Larsen-Freeman (eds), 230–248. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dumas, J.E., Lafrenière, P.J., Capuano, F. and Durning, P
1997 Profil socio-affectif. Paris: ECPA.Google Scholar
Ellis, N.C
1996 “Sequencing in SLA: Phonological memory, chunking, and points of order.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition 181: 91–126. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1998 Emergentism, connectionism and language learning. Language Learning 48 (4): 631–664. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2007 “Dynamic systems and SLA: The wood and the trees.” Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 10 (1): 23–25. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Enever, J
2011 ELLiE: Early Language Learning in Europe. United Kingdom: British Council.Google Scholar
Hotelling, H
1933 “Analysis of a complex of statistical variables into principal components.” Journal of Educational Psychology 251: 417–441. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Larsen-Freeman, D. and Cameron, L
2008 Complex Systems and Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Le Roux, B
2013 25June. Analyse des données structurées. Workshop on Analyse géométrique des données. Paris: Université Paris Descartes.Google Scholar
Le Roux, B. and Rouanet, H
2010 Multiple Correspondence Analysis. Thousand Oaks: Sage. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lowie, W. and Verspoor, M
2013 28August. “DST & acquisition order.” In Language Learning Roundtable: Acquisition Orders in SLA: Perspectives from Emergentism and Dynamic Systems Theory, EUROSLA 23, Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Mackey, A
2013 29August. “Methodology in SLA research: Past, present and future.” Plenary lecture, EUROSLA 23 Conference . Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam.
MacWhinney, B
1987 “The competition model.” In Mechanisms of Language Acquisition, B. MacWhinney (ed.), 249–308. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
1992 “Transfer and competition in second language learning.” In Cognitive Processing in Bilinguals, R.J. Harris (ed.), 371–390. Amsterdam: Elsevier. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1997a “Second language acquisition and the competition model.” In Tutorials in Bilingualism: Psycholinguistic Perspectives, A.M.B. de Groot and J.F. Kroll (eds), 113–142. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
1997b “Models of the emergence of language.” Annual Review of Psychology 491: 199–227. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1999 “The Emergence of language from embodiment.” In The Emergence of Language, B. MacWhinney (ed.), 213–246. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
2001 “Emergentist approaches to language.” In Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure, J. Bybee and P. Hopper (eds.), 449–470. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
MacWhinney, B. and Bates, E
1989 The Cross-linguistic Study of Sentence Processing. 
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Martin, A
2004 L’analyse de données. Course handout. Brest: École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées de Bretagne. www​.arnaud​.martin​.free​.fr​/Doc​/polyAD​.pdf (25/07/2013)Google Scholar
McLaughlin, B
1989 “The Three phases (faces?) of second-language research.” In Language Processing in Social Context, R. Dietrich and C.F. Graumann (eds), 211–231.Amsterdam: North-Holland. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Papagno, C., Valentine, T. and Baddeley, A
1991 “Phonological short-term memory and foreign-language vocabulary learning.” Journal of Memory and Language 301: 331–347. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pardoux, C
2013 24June. “Analyse en composantes principales.” Workshop on Analyse géométrique des données . Paris: Université Paris Descartes.
Pearson, K
1901 “On lines and planes of closest fit to systems of points in space. Philosophical Magazine 21: 559–572. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, P
(ed.) 2002 Individual Differences and Instructed Language Learning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Thelen, E. and Smith, L.B
1994 A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
van Geert, P
1991 “A dynamic systems model of cognitive and language growth.” Psychological Review 981: 3–53. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2006 24January. “Dynamic systems methods in the study of language.” Apprentissage des langues premières et secondes Conference . Paris: Ministère de la Recherche.
2007 “Dynamic systems in second language learning: Some general methodological reflections.” Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 10 (1): 47–49. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2010 “Dynamic systems methods in the study of language acquisition: Modeling and the search for trends, transitions and fluctuations.” In M. Kail and M. Hickmann (eds), Language Acquisition across Linguistic and Cognitive Systems, 33–52. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2013 8April. “Modeling language development as a complex dynamic system: Concepts, principles and methods.” Workshop on Dynamic Systems Analysis. Paris: Groupe de Recherche ADYLOC.
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Hilton, Heather E.
2017. Enjeux méthodologiques de l’émergentisme pour la recherche en acquisition et en didactique des langues. Recherches en didactique des langues et des cultures 14:1 Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 09 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.