Abstract Summary
This paper endeavors to delineate upon some of the ontological and epistemological undercurrents of dialectical dynamic systems theory (D-DST) by drawing upon Pepper’s root metaphor theory. Specifically, it purports to shed light on D-DST by invoking organicism and contextualism worldviews and discusses its metatheoretical implications for the social-cognitive problem.
Abstract :
The ontological divide between the social family of SLA theories and the cognitive family of SLA theories partly stems from a dearth of systematic investigation and integration of the bedrock assumptions upon which SLA theories are anchored. Dynamic systems theory (DST) is an approach to study time-dependent trajectories of L2 development as an emergent, complex, and dynamic system. A dialectical construal of DST (D-DST) is recently suggested which tries to wed sociocultural theory and DST by dint of drawing upon a dialectical logic (Author, 2016a, 2016b). This paper sets out to outline some of the axioms of D-DST by putting it into dialogue with Stephen Pepper’s (1942) root metaphor theory (RMT). Specifically, it seeks to demonstrate the metatheoretical underpinnings of D-DST by drawing upon two worldviews, viz. organicism and contextualism out of four worldviews suggested by RMT. I maintain that D-DST not only espouses a relational synthesis of organicism and contextualism worldviews but avoids committing a dualistic fallacy of reducing L2 development wholesale to the social or to the cognitive. It is argued that opting for a constitutive relationalism between the postulates of organicism and contextualism worldviews lends credence to D-DST for nuancing the social and psychological formation of L2 development as a human- and culture-centered whole which is constructed across the lived timescales of an L2 learner. The L2 developmental system of an L2 learner, according to D-DST, is generated by virtue of the idiosyncratic, sociocultural, and meaning-saturated linguistic practices with which an L2 learner purposively is engaged over time. On the other hand, the linguistic practices are brought about by virtue of the purposive intentions of an L2 learner while being impinged by the current L2 developmental system of the respective L2 learner. In conclusion, the theoretical implications of D-DST for the social-cognitive problem of SLA are discussed.
