The Effects Of Task Complexity On Senior High School Students’ English Writing Performance

Since the emergence of task-based language teaching(TBLT),the task has been a focus in the field of second language acquisition and language teaching.Among the studies on tasks,the effects of task complexity on language performance or language output received growing attention.More and more foreign and domestic studies explored the effects of task complexity on learners’ language performance and they provided useful suggestions for language research and teaching.However,many studies mainly focused on the effects of task complexity on learner’s oral output,but few studies investigated the influence of task complexity on learners’ writing performance.Therefore,it is necessary to study the influence of task complexity on learners’ writing performance.There are two major theories about task complexity: Limited Attentional Capacity Model and the Cognition Hypothesis.Task complexity in the Cognition Hypothesis encompasses two key dimensions,namely resource-directing dimensions and resource-dispersing dimensions,and both of the two theories have different predictions about the effects of task complexity on language production.The present study designs writing tasks based on the Cognition Hypothesis and explores the effects of task complexity along the resource-directing dimension and the resource-dispersing dimension on senior high school students’ English writing performance.The research questions are as follows:(1)What are the effects of increasing task complexity manipulated along the resource-directing dimension(elements)on senior high school students’ English writing performance?(2)What are the effects of increasing task complexity manipulated along the resource-dispersing dimension(prior knowledge)on senior high school students’ English writing performance?(3)Can increasing task complexity along the resource-directing dimension(+elements)and reducing task complexity along the resource-dispersing dimension(+prior knowledge)improve senior high school students’ English writing performance?The research participants were 72 senior one students in two classes from a senior high school.They had no significant difference in writing proficiency,and they were divided into four groups to finish tasks with different task complexity.The writing tasks are adapted from Kuiken and Vedder’s(2008)writing materials,and the specific writing tasks are as follows:(1)Writing a letter to choose a travel destination with three elements and prior knowledge is provided.(2)Writing a letter to choose a travel destination with three elements and prior knowledge isn’t provided.(3)Writing a letter to choose a travel destination with six elements and prior knowledge is provided.(4)Writing a letter to choose a travel destination with six elements and prior knowledge isn’t provided.They have 30 minutes to complete the writing tasks.After collecting students’ writing texts,the quantitative analysis is used to analyze the writing performance of fluency,accuracy,and complexity.The study draws the following conclusions: firstly,increasing task complexity along the resource-directing dimension(increasing the number of elements)can result in significantly greater writing fluency and accuracy,but has no significant impact on syntactic and lexical complexity.Secondly,increasing task complexity along the resource-dispersing dimension(without providing prior knowledge)results in poor performance on written fluency and lexical complexity,but has no significant impact on accuracy and syntactic complexity.Thirdly,increasing task complexity along the resource-directing dimension(increasing the number of elements)and reducing task complexity along the resource-dispersing dimension(providing prior knowledge)have significantly positive impacts on fluency and lexical complexity,but have no significant influence on accuracy and syntactic complexity.The results of the study prove that increasing the number of elements and providing prior knowledge,students will write better.The study also supplies the theoretical and practical bases for task designers,researchers and teachers and it promotes the development of English writing teaching and studies on writing tasks.