A complex dynamic systems perspective on foreign language anxiety Cover Image

A complex dynamic systems perspective on foreign language anxiety
A complex dynamic systems perspective on foreign language anxiety

Author(s): Masoud Mahmoodzadeh, Christina Gkonou
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Foreign languages learning
Published by: Akademia Nauk Stosowanych w Koninie
Keywords: complex dynamic systems; foreign language anxiety; foreign language classroom; affective states

Summary/Abstract: Within SLA, there has been a growing awareness and understanding of complexity theories in recent years. In this article, the authors aim to address foreign language anxiety embodied in individuals in the classroom from a complexity perspective. Through a ‘complexity’ lens, we attempt to offer complexity-informed explanations for the emergence and maintenance of foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA), and suggest ways in which it depicts features typical of a complex dynamic system. Core features of complex dynamic systems, such as complex interrelations, openness, non-linearity, decentralized causality, unpredictability, dynamism and emergence, are discussed with a view to suggesting that complex dynamic systems perspective can facilitate our understandings of the dynamism and fluidity of FLCA in SLA studies

  • Issue Year: 3/2015
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 89-108
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: English