University of Baghdad

College of Education / Ibn Rushed for Human Sciences

Department of English
M.A Studies

Context, Complexity, and Learning Strategies

A paper
Submitted by:
M.A Candidate: Shahad Dheyaa Hussain

Methods of Teaching English

 Context, Complexity, and Learning Strategies
For a quarter century, the concepts of context and complexity have
been talked about in relation to language learning. Complexity theory can be
distinguished from a purely humanistic viewpoint.
The humanistic perspective concerns the human being, often in context, but
without a thoroughgoing analysis of multiple human-environment connectivities.
Shifting to the Ecological “Person-in-Context Relational View”
Much research about language learning has viewed contexts as separate from
learners. Learners are thus located in particular types of contexts, and these
contexts function as independent external variables which may have certain
influences on learner-internal variables include motivation, learning strategies,
and beliefs.
Contextualizing the Person
This perspective concerns conditions and processes involved in the lifelong course
of human development in real social contexts. Thus, such models stress long-term
development rather than one-time events, and they are concerned with authenticity
of context, not artificially constructed laboratory settings for research.
Ushioda’s view focuses on authentic people, not “theoretical abstractions;” pays
attention to “the agency of the individual person as a thinking, feeling human
being, with an identity, a personality, a unique history and background, a person
with goals, motives and intention.”
We can conclude that conceptualizing the person means paying attention to the
features of how to build a personality such as motivation , self-regulation , and
self-confidence.
Two-Way Learner-Context Relationship: Research Does Exist
The learner becomes part of the unfolding context itself. The studies of research
stated that agency and learning strategies as being the learners moderated,
influenced, or expanded their environments or found new environments.
The narrative research supports Ushioda’s contention that influence in learner-
context relationships is bidirectional.
So, there is a relationship between learner and context by which learner is part of
context that is provided.
 The Value of a Strategy Depends on the Context

A given learning strategy is neither inherently good nor inherently bad. We call a
strategy “good” if it relates well to the student’s learning style and helps achieve
personally important learning aims in an authentic context.
Learner-Context Ecosystem: Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model
Ecology is the branch of biology, and now also social science, which deals with
the relations of organisms (life forms) to one another and to their surroundings.
The term system refers to an organized body or a whole with interconnected parts.
An ecosystem (a word formed from ecology + system) is a group of interconnected
components formed by the interaction by a community of organisms with their
environment. Relationships between learners and contexts are actually ecosystems.
Bronfenbrenner’s Model involves four main aspects as the following:
Macrosystem: Cultural beliefs and values, which sometimes promote
empowerment and self-regulation (with implications for L2 learning strategies).
Exosystem: Local networks and local institutions that influence the learner
indirectly.
Mesosystem: Interrelationships and interactions between various aspects of the
microsystem or between two or microsystems.
Microsystems: The L2 learner and the immediate physical and social environment.
It gives important to social, cultural, and physical elements in that may affect the
context and learner implementations.

Proximal Processes and Five Systems

proximal processes are the main means of the individual ‘s development.
Development occurs through ongoing, reciprocal, complex interaction between the
immediate external context and the individual. The proximal processes are
affected by more remote contexts and the historical and social events at the time.

According to Bronfenbrenner, there are five systems: the microsystem, the

mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem, and (more recently added) the
chronosystem.
Throughout the model, the influences between the developing person and the
environmental structures are bidirectional. The person influences and is
influenced by the environment within each system. In addition, bidirectional
influences operate within and between each system.
Two-Way Learner-Context Relationship: Research Does Exist
e general social ecology described by Ushioda (2009, 2015), learner and context
are interdependent and have reciprocal (two-way), dynamic interactions. For
example, when L2 learners receive input from the context, they interact with it, and
their response contributes to shaping the content, quality, and quantity of
subsequent input in “a dynamically evolving relationship between learner and
context, as each responds and adapts to each other”
This view suggests that in order to understand L2 learning strategies, we must
consider the context in which they arise and the agentic roles L2 learners take.
Many historical studies has shown that agency and learning strategies are
considered as learners moderated, influenced, or expanded their environments or
found new environments.
There is the experiment of the young man from Taiwan ,where English was matter
of rote memorization.He hated that approach and refused to be overpowered by
cultural.He used hip-hop music and created a macro- strategy (learning strategy)
where he listened to songs repeatedly,wrote them down as English language
samples and created his own way of lyrics based lists of vocabulary,grammar
points ,explanatory notes and information on culture while walking on the street
and many hours a day over years , in this way he was able to learn English.

The Value of a Strategy Depends on the Context.

if it relates well to the student’s learning style and helps achieve personally
important learning aims in an authentic context. Aims include regulating emotions
and cognition, completing task, or moving toward L2 proficiency.

Learner-Context Ecosystem: Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model

Ecology is the branch of biology, and now also social science, which deals with
the relations of organisms (life forms) to one another and to their surroundings.
The term system refers to an organized body or a whole with interconnected parts.
An ecosystem is a group of interconnected components formed by the interaction
by a community of organisms with their environment.
Relationships between learners and contexts are actually ecosystems. Ushioda
(2015) highlighted the ecosystem metaphor to refer to complex processes
occurring not only between learners and their sociocultural environments but also
within individual learners.
A psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner developed the ecological model of human
development. Bronfenbrenner’s impetus for creating these models was his concern
that many scientists were studying human development in a vacuum, unrelated to
contexts in which that development occurs. His model argues that contexts, nested
one inside the other, influence the developing person and that characteristics of
the person influence the environment.

Proximal Processes and Five Systems

proximal processes are the main means of the individual ‘s development.

Development occurs through ongoing, reciprocal, complex interaction between the
immediate external context and the individual. The proximal processes are
affected by more remote contexts and the historical and social events at the time.

According to Bronfenbrenner, there are five systems: the microsystem, the

mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem, and (more recently added) the
chronosystem.
Throughout the model, the influences between the developing person and the
environmental structures are bidirectional. The person influences and is
influenced by the environment within each system. In addition, bidirectional
influences operate within and between each system.

Microsystem and Strategies

The Bronfenbrenner theory suggests that the microsystem is the smallest and most
immediate environment in which children live. As such, the microsystem comprises
the daily home, school or daycare, peer group and community environment of the
children.
Interactions within the microsystem typically involve personal relationships with
family members, classmates, teachers and caregivers. How these groups or
individuals interact with the children will affect how they grow.

Similarly, how children react to people in their microsystem will also influence
how they treat the children in return. More nurturing and more supportive
interactions and relationships will understandably foster they children’s improved
development.

One of the most significant findings that Urie Bronfenbrenner unearthed in his
study of ecological systems is that it is possible for siblings who find themselves in
the same ecological system to experience very different environments.

Therefore, given two siblings experiencing the same microsystem, it is not

impossible for the development of them to progress in different manners. Each
child’s particular personality traits, such as temperament, which is influenced by
unique genetic and biological factors, ultimately have a hand in how he/she is
treated by others.

Mesosystem and Strategies

The mesosystem encompasses the interaction of the different microsystems which

children find themselves in. It is, in essence, a system of microsystems and as such,
involves linkages between home and school, between peer group and family, and
between family and community.
According to Bronfenbrenner’s theory, if a child’s parents are actively involved in
the friendships of their child, for example they invite their child’s friends over to
their house from time to time and spend time with them, then the child’s
development is affected positively through harmony and like-mindedness.

However, if the child’s parents dislike their child’s peers and openly criticize them,
then the child experiences disequilibrium and conflicting emotions, which will
likely lead to negative development.
 Exsosystem and Strategies
The exosystem pertains to the linkages that may exist between two or more
settings, one of which may not contain the developing children but affect them
indirectly nonetheless.

Based on the findings of Bronfenbrenner, people and places that children may not
directly interact with may still have an impact on their lives. Such places and
people may include the parents’ workplaces, extended family members, and the
neighborhood the children live in.

For example, a father who is continually passed up for promotion by an indifferent

boss at the workplace may take it out on his children and mistreat them at home.

Macro system and Strategies

The macrosystem is the largest and most distant collection of people and places to
the children that still have significant influences on them. This ecological system is
composed of the children’s cultural patterns and values, specifically their
dominant beliefs and ideas, as well as political and economic systems.

For example, children in war-torn areas will experience a different kind of

development than children in peaceful environments.

Chronosystem and Strategies

The Bronfenbrenner theory suggests that the chronosystem adds the useful
dimension of time, which demonstrates the influence of both change and constancy
in the children’s environments. The chronosystem may include a change in family
structure, address, parents’ employment status, as well as immense society
changes such as economic cycles and wars.
By studying the various ecological systems, Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems
Theory is able to demonstrate the diversity of interrelated influences on children’s
development. Awareness of the contexts that children are in can sensitize us to
variations in the way children may act in different settings.

For example, a child who frequently bullies smaller children at school may
portray the role of a terrified victim at home. Due to these variations, adults who
are concerned with the care of a particular child should pay close attention to
his/her behavior in different settings, as well as to the quality and type of
connections that exist between these settings.

Bidirectionality versus Unidirectionality in Bronfenbrenner’s Model

Bidirectionality is a key principle in certain parts of Bronfenbrenner’s model. For
instance, at the microsystem level the teacher and the class influence the learner,
but the learner influences the teacher and the class as well.
The macrosystem and the exosystem have only a unidirectional influence on the
individual and that individuals cannot affect the exosystem and the macrosystem.

Comparing the Bioecological Model and Complexity Theory.

Some elements of Bronfenbrenner’s modelsuch as ecosystems, nestedness, and
bidirectional influences, probably influenced complexity theorists and are now key
aspects of complexity theory.

A few Examples of Complex Systems

Dörnyei (2009) depicted L2 learning as a complex dynamic system. He also

described three mental domains as complex systems: cognition, affect, and
motivation (Dörnyei, 2009; Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015). Other complex systems are a
language, a family, a class full of students, a group of children swimming, and a
mosque filled with worshippers

My Favorite Proto-Complexivist
Or: What’s Donne Got to Do with It?
John Donne a metaphysical poet was a proto -complexivist ,he adopted many
ideas of complex system before complexity theory:
First, it focuses on complex systems and their components. Let us say that the
systems in his metaphor included mankind, the continent of Europe, and the sea.
Second, unpredictability and change (dynamism) are part of the any complex
system. We can anticipate that change will occur, but we cannot predict what kind
of change and when it will arise.
Third, powerful relationships are present. The meditation illustrates the earthly
and spiritual context and the things and people in it by describing organic,
nonlinear relationships.
Fourth, Donne’s meditation points out a major truth propounded by complexity
theory: that an initial condition within a system can have effects seemingly out of
proportion to its size.

Complexity Theory Concepts with Linkages to Learning Strategies

Complexity theory concerns complex systems, which are systems that emerge
(spontaneously occur) from the interaction of their multiple components.
Complexity theory is important to the L2 learning field because it offers a much-
needed alternative to old-fashioned attitudes about learning. “From a target-level
perspective, there are both regress and progress, development and attrition.
Learning is not climbing a developmental ladder; it is not unidirectional. It is
driven by lived experience.

Learners, Teachers, and Classes

. At one level, the learner as a complex system is “developing and changing

through contact with other systems (parents, classmates, friends, TV, computer
games, Internet sites, movies, religion), and demonstrating a unique collection of
needs, intelligences, learning preferences, learning styles, beliefs, perceptions and
attitudes” (Finch, 2004, p. 3). Similarly, the “teacher is also a [complex] system of
wants, needs, past experiences, social skills, professional skills and emotions.
. In complex systems of learners and teachers we must recognize additional
components such as gender, socioeconomic status, race, and cultural beliefs,
which interact with each other. The interactions (connectivities) among these
complex systems within the classroom (as a system) are unpredictable and lead to
the emergence of learning forms, as well as non-learning forms.
The class can be seen as an open system, with multiple subsystems (the
participants). In this system, seemingly insignificant events can build up to critical
thresholds, sparking sudden, irreversible shifts and new structures.
There are many factors influencing learning at the classroom, school location;
classroom location within the school; arrangement of desks in the classroom;
number of students in the classroom; heating and air-conditioning; school rules
(including uniforms); textbooks; assessment (type, frequency); teaching resources;
electrical

Emergence
Emergence is a fundamental term in complexity theory. “... [I]nstead of assuming
that every phenomenon can be explained in terms of simpler components, CT shifts
the search to understanding how patterns emerge from components interacting
within the ecology in which they operate.

Metedness or Embeddedness
Nestedness is important in complexity theory.
The subsystems might themselves be complex systems. For example, if L2 learning
is a complex system and motivation, emotions, beliefs, and strategies are
subsystems, those subsystems are also complex systems.
The speech community, the sociocultural subgroups within it, individuals within
those subgroups, and individual brains are all complex, interdependent,
interactive systems. “Complex systems can operate at different nested levels of
scale (e.g., from molecules to whole ecologies) and across different timescales
(from nanoseconds to supereons.

No More Disembodied Variables

Contexts are crucial in complex systems. Researchers cannot continue to treat
motivation, beliefs, and learning strategies as though they were decontextualized,
disembodied variables. The use of learning strategies is a function of interaction
between the person and the context, situation, or circumstances. Situatedness or
contextualization points to the existence of relationships among various aspects of
the individual and between the individual and the context.

Dancer ,Dance, and a Caution

It is impossible to see how to separate the learner from the learning.
MacIntyre argued that we must not, in enthusiasm for contexts and complexity,
suggest that contextual factors are completely obvious or that traditional
individual difference theory has nothing to offer anymore. Thus, when we think
about learners in context, MacIntyre’s suggestion is that we should not lose all the
information that was once gained from a study of individual differences. Both the
yin and the yang could be important.

Interconnectedness
“[M]ost human attributes are multicomponential, made up of the dynamic
interaction of several layers of constituents. It is important to differentiate between
multicomponential systems that are just complicated and multicomponential
systems whose elements “are interconnected and spatially and temporally context
dependent. An example is the way cognitive and affective (emotional) aspects of
the mind are interconnected.

Bidirectionality
This concept is also very important in complexity theory. For instance, cognition
and affect, as complex systems in L2 learning, are not only related, but they are
also mutually influential. Bidirectionality is a creative process of causality.

Nonlinearity
In the study of L2 learning, “linear causality can never be more than a minor,
relatively uninteresting part of the complex of processes, patterns and structures.
Much of the social world is nonlinear, and is contingent on what has come before
and the path being taken at a given time. Complex systems are characterized by
nonlinearity, more technically called stochasticity, which simply means
disproportionate outcomes that
cannot be predicted.

Minimal Perturbation with Unexpectedly Large Effects.

one form of nonlinearity is this: A small change occurs in one parameter and then
very significant, unpredicted effects reveal themselves later.
Some examples of a small perturbation unpredictably producing very large
variations in the behavior of the system:
Unpredictably fruitful variation over time: A tiny gesture of kindness offered today
to a stranger from another culture, or a series of soccer games arranged for young
Jewish and Palestinian children, later sparks a cross-cultural movement toward
peace. Stopping by a student’s desk to answer a question or provide a strategy hint
when requested leads later, totally unexpectedly, to a significant improvement in
the student’s motivation, strategy use, and achievement.
Unpredictably unfruitful variation over time: A fight occurs one afternoon
between cousins, each ten years old. The fight is put aside, but it lurks hidden and
nearly unrecognized in their hearts. However, the original feelings between the
two cousins are somehow subtly shared with their children, and intertribal
prejudice eventually arises. Over generations this prejudice solidifies into ongoing
hatred and intertribal warfare, resulting in numerous deaths. There seems to be no
clear end in sight.