This article examines the efficacy of pedagogical stylistics as a learning tool for developing second or foreign language proficiency. Pedagogical stylistics -an instrument for investigating the linguistic, sociocultural and dialogic features inherent in literary and non-literary texts -has often been criticized for relying too heavily on intuition rather than empirical support to substantiate its employment in language learning classrooms. To better understand this criticism a coding framework adapted from previous research was employed to synthesize 13 studies across four, second or foreign languages in nine countries. Three themes emerged from this synthesis: (1) stylistics as a tool for improving L2 performance; (2) stylistics' contribution to building language awareness; (3) stylistics as a tool for building academic skills beyond L2 acquisition. This work explores these themes and discusses the research practices informing the claims made therein, highlighting a consistent underreporting or under collecting of data as a recurring problem in the literature. This shortcoming precludes a meta-analysis of the literature, and this article argues that this shortcoming contributes to a justifiably weak representation of stylistics in second or foreign language contexts. To rectify this issue suggestions are made for more thorough reporting of data and a more robust research agenda in second or foreign language-based, stylistic contexts.

Limited studies have explored how second language (L2) instructors develop pedagogical content knowledge of concept-based instruction (CBI). To address this issue the present work described how one L2 writing instructor developed, utilized and transformed his CBI pedagogical content knowledge in one learning-to-write context. A thematic analysis of the instructor’s teaching and learning logs, teaching materials and post-intervention interviews with learners in a writing course, guided in part by Pavlenko (2007) and Haenen’s (1996) stages for implementing CBI, demonstrated that the instructor’s development was informed primarily through a process of self-reflection, diagramming and comparing notes with scholarly publications related to CBI and Vygotskian sociocultural theory. This study challenges and contributes to recent discussions about other-regulated teacher education in CBI contexts (e.g., Nauman, 2011 and van Compernolle and Henery, 2015) and reveals concerns about how instructors use didactic models to orient learners to target concepts. The findings call for more research aimed at understanding CBI-related teacher education and for detailed study manuals for L2 instructors interested in implementing CBI.

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Applying a complex dynamic systems view of writing development, this study explored how developmental variability can contribute to conceptualizing changes in L2 writing. Forty-two writing samples were collected from one Thai university student in Thailand studying actuary science in English. The writing samples were composed over four years and were holistically coded for degrees of appropriate authorial voice. Descriptive techniques, including linear and polynomial trend lines and a min-max graph, informed a visual inspection of the data. These techniques revealed quantitatively distinct projections of authorial voice that were marked by periods of progress and regress. A Monte Carlo simulation then tested the hypothesis that the variability was not due to chance. The analysis showed that variability played a statistically significant role in constructing authorial voice. This work demonstrates developmental behavior consistent with complex systems and how other measures of L2 writing mature and substantiates findings on the meaningful role variability contributes to L2 development. This study also expands the explanatory potential of complex dynamic systems theory for conceptualizing writing and more generally L2 development.

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