A Study Of Writing Tasks For Chinese Tertiary EFL Learners

This research explores task effects on EFL writing by Chinese college students in a cognitive load perspective. A variety of factors influence L2 writing. The writing task is just one factor but with many different task-related variables. Although many studies have obtained informative findings with regard to task effects, few studies have been found to be devoted to L2 writing task effects in a cognitive load perspective. There is a lack in measuring cognitive load levels of writing tasks. This dissertation investigates the external task environment and the internal writing process as well. It focuses on the effects on L2 writing of presentation modes of tasks, discourse modes called for by task writing, and ways of approaching a task, that is, the cognitive resources allocation in the writing process. This study provides empirical support for relevant theories and has pedagogical implications that could be taken advantage of by Chinese learners to improve their English writing skills.This dissertation carries out its research in the field of L2 writing. The research theoretical framework is built on Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) and task complexity theories. CLT (Sweller,1988,1994,2006;Sweller, Van Merrienboer & Paas, 1998; Van Merri?nboer & Sweller, 2005) is a learning theory which has its foundations in information processing theory. CLT suggests that learning, especially complex learning, could be optimized when it is aligned with human cognitive resource architecture. The cognitive resource architecture consists of limited working memory and unlimited long-term memory. Two kinds of mechanisms—scheme acquisition and automation—could overcome the limitation of working memory and relieve working memory load (i.e., cognitive load) so as to raise learning efficiency. Cognitive load may be affected by the element interactivity of the learning tasks themselves (intrinsic load), the manner in which the tasks are presented (extraneous load), or the amount of cognitive resources that learners willingly invested in schema construction and automation (germane load). They are additive in nature. Task complexity is one of the three major causal factors of cognitive load and the most crucial one (Kirschner, 2002). The other two are the learner and the relationship between the task and the learner. Many researchers have studied task complexity. The two most influential models of task complexity are the Limited Attentional Capacity Model developed by Skehan and Foster (Skehan, 1998; Skehan & Foster, 1999, 2001) and Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2001a, 2001b, 2005, 2007). Both of the models identify a series of task-related factors that are relevant to different levels of task complexity, and predict the effects of task complexity on learning outcomes. However, their predictions are of distinct difference in some aspects.This study classifies the task-related variables based on the three kinds of cognitive load, and investigates their effects on L2 writing. The research questions are as follows: 1. a) Do writing tasks presented in picture and in text cause different levels of cognitive load for Chinese tertiary learners? b) If so, what effects do the writing tasks (the pictorial task and the text task) have on the EFL narrative writing of the learners with different English Levels? 2. a) Do narrative writing and argumentative writing impose different levels of cognitive load on EFL learners? b) If writing tasks of different discourse modes are assigned in different reading conditions on the related topic, what effects do they have on Chinese tertiary learners'EFL writing? 3. What effects do different ways of approaching a same writing topic intervened by writing instructions have on Chinese tertiary learners'EFL writing?In order to study these questions, we put forward the relevant hypotheses based on Cognitive Load Theory. Different subjects (93, 120, and 64 respectively) were invited to write in three experiments so as to test the task effects on EFL writing. The first two experiments intended to explore the external task environment of L2 writing process, which tested the effects of task-related variables classified by writing extraneous load and intrinsic load. The third experiment intended to investigate the internal process of L2 writing with cognitive resources allocation, which studied the effects of different approaches to the same writing task. As many cognitive load studies have been challenged for lack of measuring cognitive load, their interpretations of the effects of learning inputs on outputs are largely diminished. In this study, a subjective cognitive load measure, the multidimensional scale NASA-TLX, was selected and modified to be used for Chinese EFL learners in the first two experiments to reflect the cognitive demands of different writing tasks, but not in the third experiment because the same writing topic was assigned to both the experimental group and the control group. Before the application of subjective load measure in the formal experiments for Chinese college students, a pilot study was carried out to explore the structure of the scales. The results show that the questionnaire has good estimates in terms of reliability and validity.In Experiment 1, we investigated the effects of different writing task presentation modes on EFL writing by students of different English levels. A 2ⅹ2 factorial design was employed with two between-subjects factors: English proficiency level (high, low) and presentation mode (pictorial task, text task). The results show that the presentation mode makes a significant difference when interacting with English proficiency level. For the subjects with high and low levels, different patterns exist. For the subjects with higher level, text task promoted their L2 writing significantly than pictorial task. Whereas for the subjects with lower level, though it is not significant, pictorial task worked better because it helped them in translating ideas into written words. Students'assessment of cognitive load in the questionnaires indicates that the text task is higher in cognitive load and more difficult than the pictorial task. The text task resulted in significantly longer text length and more T-units. But it brought lower complexity for high level subjects. It also brought lower accuracy in terms of total errors, though further analysis indicated it was not in terms of errors per T-unit.In Experiment 2, we explored the effects of different discourse modes on students'EFL writing when they are assigned in different reading conditions. This was achieved by a 2ⅹ2 factorial design with two between-subjects factors: reading condition (with note taking, with no note taking) and discourse mode (narration, argumentation). It has been found that intrinsic cognitive load caused by the internal schemata of discourse modes exerts a significant effect on tertiary students'EFL writing. In both reading conditions, the subjects performed better in writing argumentation than narration. This supports the prediction of Robinson that better performance is expected of complex task which increases its complexity along the resources-directing variables. But, reading alone as an orientation task for writing was not effective. Taking notes on the sample text while reading did help students to write better in their own texts. The rating scales indicated that the argumentative writing possesses higher cognitive load than the narrative writing. Argumentative writing resulted in significantly higher syntactic complexity (but not accuracy) than narrative writing.In experiment 3, we examined the effects on EFL writing of different approaches to the same writing topic intervened by instructions. It was carried out by using an independent sample t-test design with two levels of intervention conditions (attention priority instruction versus no attention priority instruction). It is argued that different attention allocation during the writing process will cause fluctuation of intrinsic load and germane load inside the same total load in writing, thus affecting writing outputs. Results show that attention priority given by intervention to high-level writing processes and postponing linguistic consideration in the final draft affected EFL texts and resulted in great and impressive benefits to the writing process and written text quality. This contributes to the increase of germane load helpful for EFL writing. However, in the control group, low-level writing processes consumed great cognitive resources that would otherwise devote to high-level writing processes. This study highlights the uniqueness of L2 writing in that linguistic problems not only pose extra load on L2 writing in general, but also affect L2 writing processes and the linguistic expressions. The significant difference of text length exists in subjects'written texts. But the complexity (T-unit length) in the subjects'texts failed to be significant.In spite of the limitations of this study, the research findings have offered some insights for both theoretical research and pedagogical practice. Theoretically, this research not only provides empirical support for Cognitive Load Theory in the field of L2 writing, but also suggests that studies of L2 writing theories should take into consideration different task-related variables from various perspectives. Pedagogically, this research provides efficient paradigms for teaching and learning of L2 writing. Teachers could manipulate task variables to monitor learners'working memory resources to promote their L2 writing proficiency. Learners could learn more about task cognitive demands and difficulties through the cognitive load rating scales, raising their awareness of self-monitoring and feedback. What's more, learning writing in combination with reading, they could learn to decompose the structure of a reading text, break the complex writing task into subtasks to lower cognitive load, and improve their L2 writing gradually.