Chaos/Complexity Science and Second Language Acquisition

There are many striking similarities between the new science of chaos/complex-ity and second language acquisition (SLA) Chaos/complexity scientists studycomplex nonlinear systems They are interested in how disorder gives way toorder, of how complexity arises in nature 'To some physicists chaos is a scienceof process rather than state, of becoming rather than being' (Gleick 1987 5) Itwill be argued that the study of dynamic, complex nonlinear systems ismeaningful in SLA as well Although the new science of chaos/complexityhas been hailed as a major breakthrough in the physical sciences, some believeits impact on the more human disciplines will be as immense ( Waldrop 1992)This belief will be affirmed by demonstrating how the study of complexnonlinear systems casts several enduring SLA conundrums in a new lightINTRODUCTIONScience exists to explain the fundamental order underlying nature The mostvalued explanations have taken the form of cause and effect linkages Forexample, Isaac Newton was able to find a cause for the movement of the starsin his simple laws of motion and theory of gravity Faith in science to accountfor such a deterministic universe inspired French mathematician Pierre Simonde Laplace to claim that if scientists knew the positions and velocities of all theparticles in the universe, they would be able to predict the future for all time(Hall 1993)Two major developments in the twentieth century have laid rest to suchclaims The first was Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, introduced intoquantum physics to describe the limits to which anything at the quantumlevel could be known for certain Laplace's claim rested on the condition thatscientists be able to measure the position and velocities of all particles in theuniverse Hei sen berg demonstrated that at the quantum or subatomic levelscientists can ascertain either the position or the momentum of a particle, butnot both simultaneously, making prediction impossibleThe second development discrediting Laplace's claim came more recentlywith the discovery of another kind of unpredictability in nature—the unpre-dictability which accompanies much larger, more complex, nonlinear systemsFor instance, it is well known that such global phenomena as the weather donot lend themselves to trustworthy forecasts, not at least at the proximate, locallevel It had always been assumed, however, that such forecasts wouldultimately be possible when meteorology or the instruments employed in its