Complexity in interlanguage usage and development: investigating the dictogloss task

This paper reports on a small case study aimed at exploring interlanguage complexity in language- related episodes during a collaborative output task (dictogloss). The study involved a group of EFL intermediate level students. Our investigation sought to unravel interlanguage complexity from different perspectives: usage and development. The analytical framework was provided by usage-based approaches (construction grammar and complexity theory) which enabled us to operationalize complexity in terms of heterogeneity, non-linearity and co-adaptation. Data analysis highlighted the key role of the ‘restructuring’ stage of the task with its open dynamic structure which encouraged learners to adapt and develop their linguistic resources in response to the affordances that emerged in the communicative context provided by the task.