The Study Of The Effects Of Task Complexity On Junior Middle School Students' English Writing

With the constant rise of "task-based" instruction,methods of task-based foreign language teaching gradually become one of the research hotpots.An increasing number of language researchers begin to pay close attention to the effects of the factor of "task" on learners'language learning,especially to the influence of task complexity on language production.However,recent studies on it focus more on oral aspect,comparatively less touching upon writing performance.Thus,a further study on the effect of task complexity on the junior students'writing in terms of accuracy,fluency and complexity may help better guide foreign language teaching.Based on the theoretical framework of Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis,this empirical study aims to investigate the effects of task complexity concerning+/-causal reasoning demand on junior students'English writing in terms of accuracy,fluency and complexity by means of quantitative and qualitative research methods.Three research questions were addressed:1)What are the effects of increasing task complexity on the accuracy of junior students' English writing?2)What are the effects of increasing task complexity on the fluency of junior students'English writing?3)What are the effects of increasing task complexity on the linguistic complexity(lexical variation and syntactic complexity)of junior students'English writing?To answer the above questions,93 junior middle school students were invited from 2 classes to participate in the experiments.The two classes were randomly regarded as the experimental class and the control class respectively.The experimental class was instructed to complete a +causal reasoning writing task(more complex)and the control class was required to finish a-causal reasoning demand writing task(less complex)in 30 minutes.Tests and interview were adopted as its main instruments.Through data collection and processing,quantitative and qualitative analysis were adopted to present the results and discussion.Some findings were achieved as follows:1)A complex task results in more accurate production,compared with a simple one,which indicts an increase in task complexity will boost the accuracy of English writing production.According to the interview,the possible reasons are:the correct use of grammar and vocabulary,fulfilling to the number of words required,and consistency between the tasks and the writing content.2)The fluency of students' written production decreases in the complex task,compared with a simple one,which implies that an increase in task complexity will result in the reduction of fluency to students' English writing production.Based on interview,the possible reasons are:reduction of the speed fluency,increase of pausing behaviors and increase of re-vision behaviors.3)A complex task brings about the advance of lexical variation and syntactic complexity,compared with a simple one,which reveals that the increasing of task complexity will enhance the complexity of students' English writing production.Interview offers some reasons,including increase of lexical diversity,increase of lexical formality and the increase use of subordinate and coordinate phrases.4)Students give some suggestions to task design in writing including designing diverse tasks for different students,designing real tasks,and providing planning time and content support.