The number of articles and books referencing Complex Dynamic Systems Theory has increased over the past few years, reaching 52 books that use CDST, said linguist and Professor Diane Larsen-Freeman.

Larsen-Freeman, a Professor Emeritus in Education and Linguistics at the University of Michigan, presented at Boston University on Oct. 26 about the history, applications and use of CDST on language learners.

Larsen-Freeman said this theory has grown significantly in recent years after she published the first article connecting language learning and development to chaos/complexity theory in 1997.

“I was disappointed that there was not an immediate uptake by scholars in the field,” she said in an email response. “Later, in 2002, I published a relevant book chapter. It was at that point that interest started to swell.”

CDST derives from chaos/complexity theory which describes dynamic, nonlinear systems. CDST says that language learning, previously believed to be an innate ability in a limited capacity, is a complex system.

She credits the growth in CDST to other scholars in applied linguistics and linguistics education as well, not just herself.

CDST has become a major theory in linguistics due to the published works and presentations that she and other scholars have completed, said Larsen-Freeman.

Larsen-Freeman refers to CDST as “a post-structural holistic theory,” which seeks to challenge previously accepted “facts” and “laws.” Conversely, second-language acquisition and language learning has historically been about finding “patterns” and a structure.

Linguists use terms such as mutable, fluid, nonlinear, changing and dynamic that tie back to CDST, a theory which retracts from the previous reductionist and structural theories. Thus, the scope of CDST encompasses books that do not specifically use the term CDST.

Individual components interact and give rise to patterns at a deeper level of complexity. This concept, which exists in living organisms, is applied to language learning.

Larsen-Freeman showed that complex systems exist everywhere in nature, such as groups of birds that “fly off as a flock and land as a flock.” 

She credits complex systems, such as language learning in a multicultural space, to be more robust to internal and external disturbances. These include loss of motivation and discouragement.

The relationship between a teacher and students who are learning a second language involves the students transforming the teacher, not just the teacher parroting vocabulary to the class.

Larsen-Freeman emphasized the importance of the students’ agency in language acquisition, allowing them to voice their opinions and raise questions and directing their own learning with the help of the teacher.

Adaptation is essential in order to mold language resources to a changing situation, introducing the idea of synchronization. Just as a flock of birds moves as one, so does a classroom.

Larsen-Freeman said diversity in languages and cultures is important, creating strong multilingual spaces. 

“Rather than seeking to understand complexity through reductionism, the world today needs a more holistic, ecological approach,” she said.