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System mapping simplex spaces: facilitating change in L2 educational contexts from a complexity theory perspective

  • Gary G. Fogal ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 18. Februar 2021
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching
Aus der Zeitschrift International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching Band 60 Heft 1

Abstract

The claim that educational contexts are dynamic, complex spaces is hardly a novel one. Yet, to date limited explicit treatment in the literature engages L2 classrooms as such. This paucity is partially explained by methodological concerns with investigating diverse and contextually dense places in ways that capture the richness of these environments. While no single method can mitigate this concern, system mapping can help researchers explore system dynamics through a mapping technique that diagrams system variables through the interpretive lens of relevant stakeholders. Stakeholders engage with variables relative to a guiding statement, question, or objective meaningful to the system’s development or maintenance, thus providing insights into interactions across and beyond the conventional teacher–student interface. System mapping is particularly useful for problem solving and developing in-depth understandings of relations across system components. After describing and expanding on system mapping and its uses in education research, this work moves through a sample study in the L2 writing context to demonstrate its utility.

Keywords: co-adaptation; emergence; L2 writing; simplex systems; system mapping
Corresponding author: Gary Fogal, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Sophia University, 7-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-8554, Japan, E-mail:

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Received: 2021-02-03
Accepted: 2021-02-03
Published Online: 2021-02-18
Published in Print: 2022-03-28

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. Transdisciplinary research methods and complexity theory in applied linguistics: introduction to the special issue
  4. Toward a transdisciplinary integration of research purposes and methods for complex dynamic systems theory: beyond the quantitative–qualitative divide
  5. The complex dynamics of adaptive teaching: observing teacher-student interaction in the language classroom
  6. Emergent bilinguals in a digital world: a dynamic analysis of long-term L2 development in (pre)primary school children
  7. The idiodynamic method: willingness to communicate and anxiety processes interacting in real time
  8. Measures of variability in transitional phases in second language development
  9. System mapping simplex spaces: facilitating change in L2 educational contexts from a complexity theory perspective
https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2021-0027
Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel
co-adaptation; emergence; L2 writing; simplex systems; system mapping

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. Transdisciplinary research methods and complexity theory in applied linguistics: introduction to the special issue
  4. Toward a transdisciplinary integration of research purposes and methods for complex dynamic systems theory: beyond the quantitative–qualitative divide
  5. The complex dynamics of adaptive teaching: observing teacher-student interaction in the language classroom
  6. Emergent bilinguals in a digital world: a dynamic analysis of long-term L2 development in (pre)primary school children
  7. The idiodynamic method: willingness to communicate and anxiety processes interacting in real time
  8. Measures of variability in transitional phases in second language development
  9. System mapping simplex spaces: facilitating change in L2 educational contexts from a complexity theory perspective
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