New developments in the study of L2 writing complexity: An editorial

Abstract

A growing number of publications are highlighting the promising interfaces between the traditionally separate research areas of Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Writing (see Manchón & Tardy, 2012). Researchers are pointing out the specific aspects of writing that facilitate L2 development, in particular its slower pace and permanent record (vs. speaking), which are conducive to more learner self-reflection and greater linguistic complexity and precision (Verspoor, Schmid, & Xu, 2012; Williams, 2012). Separately, the burgeoning field of research on L2 complexity has yielded both programmatic studies that have re-examined and re-defined the notion of L2 complexity (Bulté& Housen, 2012; Ortega, 2012; Pallotti, 2015), as well as numerous empirical studies that investigate L2 complexity, often in conjunction with related dimensions of accuracy and fluency (e.g., Connor-Linton & Polio, 2014; Housen & Kuiken, 2009; Housen, Kuiken, & Vedder, 2012). This special issue brings several of these research strands together to focus on second language writing complexity.