A Study On The Influence Of Task Type And Task Condition On English Major’s Writing

Since task-based teaching method was introduced in teaching, many researchersbegin to have interests in task itself and discuss the factors which influence the taskdifficulty, task design and task conditions, etc. At present, the research about thefactors that influence learning tasks mainly focus on what functions of different oraltasks and task conditions have on learners’ performance. However research on itsinfluence on writing tasks is scant. There are fewer studies in this direction in China.So based on Skehan’s cognitive approach theory, the thesis will study theinfluence of two task types and task conditions on learners’ writing production. Thetwo task types are consisted of direct writing and reading-to-write task, and taskconditions refer to timed writing and untimed writing in the thesis. The juniorEnglish majors at certain university in Jiangxi are selected as subjects.There are44subjects in total, with21in class one and23in class two. Both theclasses are required to write two same compositions in one month. Subjects in classone are required to finish these two compositions in limited time, while there is notime limitation for class two. The direct writing task was assigned in the fifth weekof the term and the second writing task was assigned two weeks later. Theircompositions were analyzed in terms of fluency, accuracy and complexity. The datawere typed in the computer and were analyzed through SPSS17.0.The study has three findings:Firstly, task type (the reading-to-write task vs. direct writing task) can influencestudents’ writing quality in general. The mean scores are significantly enhanced inthe reading-to-write task compared with the direct writing task (p=.000<.05).Secondly, task types affect learners’ production in terms of accuracy. Task typeshave significant effects on the accuracy of writing production. The accuracy oflanguage in reading-to-write task is significantly higher than in direct writing task(p=.000<.05). As for fluency and complexity, the results show that task types havedifferent effects towards writing production under different task conditions. Learnerswrote more fluently with time control in reading-to-write task, while there is nosignificant difference for untimed condition; with regard to complexity, the results showed that learners wrote more complex with time control in reading-to-write task,while there is no significant difference for untimed condition. As for accuracy, thereading-to-write task show higher accuracy under both task conditions.Thirdly, task conditions have different influences towards writing production indifferent task types. Learners wrote more fluently without time pressure in directwriting task, while there is no significant difference for the reading-to-write task;with regard to complexity, the results showed that there was significant differenceonly when it is in direct writing task; in terms of accuracy, there was significantdifference only when it is in reading-to-write task.The research findings bring following pedagogic implications.1) We canintegrate reading and writing in English teaching. By encouraging students to readmore extensively, writing teachers can provide more input in writing teaching andthus improve students’ reading and writing ability.2) Teachers should pay attentionto the allocation of time in different task implementation. Teaching according todifferent teaching goal, adding or reducing time will achieve better teaching effects.