Seminar "Idiodynamic Research Techniques: What, Why and How?" by Tammy Gregersen

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Languages

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idiodynamic method

L2 communication

Research

The idiodynamic method, an emerging research approach that takes complexity into consideration, studies the affective and cognitive states that accompany L2 communication in real time. It is being used and refined in an ongoing research program and already is generating new conceptualizations of the L2 communication process. Examples of published and ongoing studies will be provided.

As opposed to traditional research methods that tend to study language learning as a somewhat linear process consisting of relatively stable de-contextualized components that make predictions within a margin of error, the idiodynamic method is an emerging research approach that takes complexity into consideration and studies the affective and cognitive states that accompany L2 communication in real time. It is being used and refined in an ongoing research program and already is generating new conceptualizations of the L2 communication process. In this presentation, we will examine why a Dynamic Systems Theory approach benefits SLA through an understanding that the complexity of communication in a second language emerges from multiple interacting processes that can co-occur on a variety of timescale and often happen with intra-individual variation. I will begin by highlighting a variety of features of dynamic systems theory that apply to language learning and teaching, define the actual process of data collection and then conclude with examples of published and ongoing studies.