Seminar 9th March 2011 5 p.m. University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Lecture Theatre C
Overcoming the Principle of Disjunction: A Complexity Theory View
Professor Diane Larsen-Freeman
University of Michigan
- Web page
- http://www.soe.umich.edu/people/profile/diane_larsen-freeman/
- Categories
- Complex Systems, Education
- Submitter
- Petrina Butler
Seminar presented by the Centre for Applied Language Research CALR
Seminar presented by the Centre for Applied Language Research (CALR)
The Principle of Disjunction was formulated by Morin (2007) to account for the fact that academic disciplines have become hermetic from one another. I will discuss this separation of the disciplines and the cost it has exacted. I will then go on to explore Morin's proposal that we maintain distinctions, but seek to establish the relationship among them.
Complexity theory is ideally suited to support this way of thinking. I will introduce the tenets of complexity theory to show why this so.
However, the principle of disjunction goes beyond separation of the disciplines. There are disjunctions within disciplines as well. For example, in linguistics, there is often an unfortunate separation between the creolists and those who study second language acquisition (Sprouse 2010). Then, there is the deep division that exists within second language acquisition itself between those who believe that the process of learning a second language is essentially cognitive and those that believe it is essentially social. While few would argue that it is completely one or the other, once again, it seems that what is more productive is to attempt to understand their nexus.
http://www.multidisciplinary.soton.ac.uk/LanguageComplexSystem.pdf
http://www.multidisciplinary.soton.ac.uk/LarsenFreemanPoster9March11v2.doc
All welcome!
To confirm details contact Dr Liz Hauge
Modern Languages, School of Humanities, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Southampton SO17 1BF United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 23 8059 3974 Fax: +44 (0) 23 8059 3288 www.southampton.ac.uk/ml