A Study Of The Effects Of Task Complexity On Oral Production Accuracy And Complexity

Task-based language teaching approach has gained increasing popularity in ESL teaching and learning since 1980s. Pedagogic tasks are considered to be valid units of syllabus design and should be rationally graded and sequenced according to increases in task complexity (Skehan, 1996). Researchers need to identify what differences tasks set at different levels of complexity make to learner language in order to provide a basis for pedagogic decisions about grading and sequencing such tasks.The present study attempts to explore further the effects of task complexity (based on Robinson's model) together with language proficiency level on the accuracy and complexity of Chinese college EFL learners'oral production. Task complexity is manipulated along three dimensions, i.e. +/-planning time, +/-no reasoning demands and +/-Here-and-Now, which belong to two categories, namely resource-dispersing dimensions and resource-directing dimensions. The research questions of the study are:1. Does task complexity exert an influence on the EFL learners'accuracy and complexity of oral English production?2. Does language proficiency level interact with task complexity in affecting EFL learners'accuracy and complexity of oral English production?The present study was conducted among 48 non-English majors at two different English proficiency levels from Soochow University. 24 subjects of higher proficiency level were sophomores from Kenneth Wang School of Law and the other 24 subjects of lower proficiency level were freshmen from the School of Computer Science and Technology. Quantitative data collected from learners'oral production were analyzed by measures of accuracy and complexity. And qualitative data collected from questionnaires and interviews were analyzed for the explanation of results of the study. The major findings are summarized as follows:1. Planning time affected EFL learners'accuracy and complexity of oral English production positively and enhanced the effects of task complexity along +/-reasoning demands and +/-There-and-Then dimensions. 2. Reasoning demands contributed to the improvement of oral production complexity. Such effects were stronger than There-and-Then variable when narrative tasks were performed. But reasoning demands exerted limited impact on accuracy.3. There-and-then narratives elicited more accurate and lexically complex oral production than Here-and-Now narratives. Syntactic complexity, measured by s-nodes per t-unit, was not significantly affected. There-and-Then condition seems to be more effective in drawing attention to forms than more reasoning demands condition.4. Higher proficiency learners benefited more from task complexity effects in improving oral production accuracy and complexity.Based on the above findings, the thesis draws some implications for the Task-based pedagogical instruction. In second language teaching and learning, planning time could be given before tasks are performed. Teachers may gradually increase reasoning demands of tasks and ask students to speak about the past and without visual support to direct their attention to how they formulate their language. Learner factors should also be considered in task design.