Plenary Speakers

Grammatical complexity in L2 writing development: Contrasting oral versus literate complexity across registers and developmental levels

The inventory of grammatical complexity features in English includes different grammatical structures serving different syntactic functions (e.g., a finite dependent clause as a syntactic adverbial versus an adjective as a noun-phrase modifier).  For both theoretical and applied research, it is important to understand how the inventory of c. 30 complexity features patterns in actual language use.  For example, does the entire set of complexity features co-occur as components of a single underlying dimension of text complexity?  Or do different subsets of complexity features pattern together in differing ways, serving different discourse functions?

A series of corpus-based studies carried out in the Register-Functional framework support this second possibility.  In particular, those studies provide strong evidence for two major groupings of complexity features: phrases functioning syntactically as noun modifiers, and finite dependent clauses functioning syntactically as clause-level complements / adverbials.  And more recent research shows that almost all complexity features function in one or the other of these two major groupings (referred to as ‘oral’ versus ‘literate’ complexity dimensions), when the patterns of variation are analyzed at the register-level.  That is, all complexity features seem to covary in one of these two major groupings across registers, even if some of those same features do not regularly co-occur in the same texts.  These two groupings have a strong complementary relation to one another, so that a given register will tend to frequently employ the oral grouping or the literate grouping, but not both.  

The present talk begins by surveying the results of these previous studies, and then building on those findings to explore whether grammatical complexity is organized in the same way in the discourse domain of L2-English writing development.  A large multi-level and multi-register corpus of L2 writing is analyzed, stratified by developmental/proficiency levels (CEFR levels; Undergraduate and Graduate disciplinary writing; and Professional L2-English disciplinary writing).  Results are discussed in relation to three major issues:

1. Are grammatical complexity features in L2-English written registers organized according to ‘oral’ versus ‘literate’ dimensions?

2. Can those two general complexity dimensions be used to describe the developmental trajectories of L2-English writers?

3. Do these results provide convincing evidence that second language acquisition continues to occur at very advanced levels and through exposure to an expanding repertoire of written registers?

Douglas Biber is Regents' Professor Emeritus (Applied Linguistics) at Northern Arizona University.  His research efforts have focused on corpus linguistics, English grammar, and register variation (in English and cross-linguistic; synchronic and diachronic).  He has published over 260 research articles on a wide range of topics in linguistics and applied linguistics.  He has also published 25 books and monographs, including the corpus-based Grammar of Spoken and Written English (1999/2021).  Biber is known for the development of ‘Multi-Dimensional Analysis’ (a research approach for the study of register variation), described in earlier books published by Cambridge University Press (e.g., 1988, 1995, 2009/2019, 2018).  More recently, he co-authored a textbook on Register, Genre, and Style [2nd edition] (Cambridge, 2019), co-edited the Cambridge Handbook of English Corpus Linguistics (2015), and co-authored research monographs on grammatical complexity in written academic English (Cambridge, 2016; Routledge, 2022), register variation on the web (Cambridge, 2018), and principles of corpus design and evaluation (Cambridge, 2022).

ISLA as a team name: Exploring its inclusive and equitable future for second language education

ISLA’s strengths and contributions lie in its focus on learning and teaching. However, its scope, theoretical frameworks, and methods have largely been conceived as cognitively and quantitatively oriented. In this talk, I will first overview theories and empirical studies that are generally categorized as ISLA research. Then, I will propose two future directions by broadly defining ISLA as a discipline that investigates theoretical and practical language-related issues with the ultimate goal of improving second language education. First, I will argue for more inclusive ISLA research topics (social, affective, or anything related to language teaching) and methodologies (quantitative or qualitative). Second, I will discuss that ISLA research can be more equitable by re-conceptualizing the research-practice relationship and incorporating practitioners’ experiences, knowledge, and voices. Overall, I will make a case that ISLA can serve as a platform on which any second language professional can work together to make a positive change in second language education.

Masatoshi Sato (PhD: McGill University) is a Professor at Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile. His overarching research goal is to produce theoretical and applied research that contributes to facilitating a dialogue between practitioners and researchers. His research interests include instructed second language acquisition, peer interaction, metacognition, corrective feedback, learner psychology, teacher psychology, race and accents, and the research-practice relationship. In addition to his publications in international journals, he has co-edited volumes from John Benjamins (2016: Peer Interaction and Second Language Learning), Routledge (2017: The Routledge Handbook of ISLA; 2019: Evidence-Based Second Language Pedagogy), Language Teaching Research (2021: Learner Psychology and Instructed Second Language Acquisition), and The Modern Language Journal (2022: The Research-Practice Relationship). He is the recipient of the 2014 ACTFL/MLJ Paul Pimsleur Award. He is the Co-Director of TESOLgraphics as well as MonISLA. He is currently the Editor of Language Awareness and an executive member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Taylor & Francis.