An important objective of research in Second Language Acquisition has been to find a simple and reliable way to quantify second language use. Corpora have provided a crucial source of information for these studies. In spite of many attempts to determine an optimal “yardstick” to measure the quality of second language use, particularly lexical complexity and syntactic complexity, a reliable and widely applicable instrument has not yet been determined. The difficulty in finding a suitable instrument can be accounted for in a complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) approach to second language development. An important starting point of this approach is that every next step in time “is the emergent product of context and history, and no component has causal priority” (Thelen 2005, p. 271). In this paper we illustrate this by using a dense longitudinal corpus of the development of 22 highly similar L2 learners, consisting of 23 weekly measurements. The analysis of these data show convincingly that L2 development is a highly individually owned and nonlinear process. While complexity yardsticks (like MLTU and Guiraud) may seem functional from a group perspective, their application to individual learners is very limited.

Numerous publications have examined the impact that studying literature has had on second language (L2) development across modes, including its usefulness for advancing language awareness (Lin ), academic writing (Fogal ), reading comprehension (Paesani ) and general academic performance (Badran ). However, limited studies – and with varying results – have explored the utility of studying literary texts for enhancing L2 oral proficiency. Moreover, the sparse literature on this topic blurs an already narrow conception of how literary texts impact L2 oral proficiency and thus invites further research. To address this concern, the present classroom-based study examined changes in L2 learners’ lexical complexity (operationalised as lexical density, diversity and sophistication) after a semester of studying English literature within the context of a discussion and presentation course. Data were collected from a first-year class in an English literature department at a private university in Japan and comprised audio recordings of classroom interactions, classroom observations, post-semester interviews with learners and evidence-based reflections compiled by the course instructor. To examine changes in lexical complexity, a pre-test post-test research design was used, and a Wilcoxon signed-rank test was employed to compare changes in lexical complexity over time. Results showed that learners made no statistically significant gains in oral proficiency. This study discusses pedagogical concerns related with this outcome and offers suggestions for balancing classroom attention on literature, the learner and the language of the text. This work also contributes to advancing research methods related to investigating the efficacy of studying literary texts for developing L2 oral proficiency.