Effects Of Divergent Tasks On Chinese EFL Learners’ Task-based Oral Production

The present study aims to investigate the effects of divergent tasks, which is a task condition, on Chinese college non-English major learners’ oral performance in terms of accuracy, fluency and complexity as well as their attitudes towards this kind of task by combining qualitative and quantitative research methods. The studies of tasks condition home and abroad mainly focused on planned/unplanned, one-way/two-way, open/closed tasks. The research on divergent tasks is quite few. Based on previous research on task conditions, four research questions are proposed in this study:(1). Do divergent tasks have a positive effect on the accuracy of C hinese college EFL learners’ oral performance?(2). Do divergent tasks have a positive effect on the fluency of Chinese college EFL learners’ oral performance?(3). Do divergent tasks have a positive effect on the complexity of Chinese college EFL learners‘ oral performance?(4). What are learners‘ attitudes towards divergent tasks? The study was designed as a quasi-experiment with both a qualitative and a quantitative analysis, taking two EAP classes of sophomores in Lanzhou University as the participants. They were divided as experimental group and control group, with 30 participants in each group. All the participants passed College English Test(Band 4). Therefore, their language proficiency is at intermediate level. In this study, the independent variable is the oral treatment of divergent task. The dependent variables are the accuracy, fluency and complexity of speech in the participants’ oral performance. The experimental procedure includes five steps: pilot study, pre-test, treatment, post-test and questionnaires for the experimental group. At the beginning of the study, all of the participants were required to finish a picture description task alone as the pre-test of the present study. The experimental group received treatment for six sessions during which the participants were required to perform divergent tasks in which they were given some pictures to describe. First, the teacher described the picture for the participants and expressed her opinions on the related issues in the picture. Then the participants talk ed about the issues first in pairs and then in groups with opposite ideas so as to raise controversial discussions, whereas the control group got no treatment. All the materials used in the treatment are from the practices of the oral test of Public English Test System Three(PETS 3). After the treatment for the experimental group, an oral post-test was administered which required all the participants to finish another picture description task alone? The materials used in pre-test and post-test were chosen from Heaton(1966) Composition through Pictures. The participants’ oral productions in the pre-test and post-test were recorded, transcribed and assessed in terms of accuracy, fluency and complexity. The method of qualifying accuracy, fluency and complexity are ratio of error- free clauses(REFC), number of meaning syllables per minute(Rate B), subordinate-clauses per c-unit(SCC) respectively. Besides, after the post-test, the participants in experimental group were distributed a questionnaire to get their perceptions on the treatment employed in this present study.The accuracy, fluency and complexity of the participants’ speech were qualified and compared by using Paired-Samples T test and O ne-way ANOVA analysis. The t-test data revealed that the experimental group performed better than the control group in terms of accuracy and complexity; however, the two groups showed no significant difference in the fluency of their speech. This indicated that divergent tasks have positive effects on Chinese EFL learners’ oral performance in terms of accuracy and complexity but fluency. The researcher also analyzed the questionnaires collected and the questionnaires results showed that most participants took a positive attitude towards divergent tasks. They reported that participating in this kind of task was very ―exciting‖ and ―beneficial‖, by which they could have more chances to speak English and communicate with classmates, which can not only help them learn English but also improve their self-confidence and relations with their classmates. Therefore, they hoped the teacher could implement this kind of task in the future oral English classes. In the end, the results of research were analyzed and discussed based on Long’s Interaction Hypothesis, Cognitive Load Theory and Swain’s Comprehensible O utput Hypothesis. This study provided evidence for the effects of divergent tasks on Chinese non-English major learners’ speech performance. There are some limitations in this study, such as grouping and measurement of speech performance.