A Study On The Effects Of The Complexity Of Writing Tasks On EFL Learners’ Engagement In Junior Middle School

Learner engagement is a core concept in educational psychology and an essential subject in educational research.With the development of task-based language teaching,research on task complexity has attracted many researchers’ attention.However,current studies mainly focus on the effects of task complexity on language production,ignoring learners’ internal psychology and cognitive processes.In addition,task complexity depends on the cognitive requirements imposed on learners,and learners with different writing proficiency may have different perceptions of task complexity,which in turn affects learner engagement.In light of this view,the present study investigated the effects of the complexity of writing tasks on learner engagement and the differences in learner engagement between learners with different English writing proficiency under corresponding tasks with different levels of complexity.The present study explored two research questions:(1)How does the complexity of English writing tasks affect learner engagement?(2)What are the differences in learner engagement between learners with different English writing proficiency under corresponding tasks with different levels of complexity?In the present study,60 students in seventh grade from a school in Guangzhou were selected as the subjects.The present study adopted a mixed method combining quantitative and qualitative analysis.Questionnaires,think-aloud protocols and interviews were used as research instruments for data collection.After data collection,descriptive statistics,a 2×3 within-subjects ANOVA and a simple effect test were conducted by SPSS 26.The results indicated that:(1)Task complexity on learner engagement was significant.Learner engagement was significantly higher in the medium-complexity task than that in the low-complexity and high-complexity tasks,and learners presented significantly more learner engagement in the high-complexity task than those in the low-complexity task.(2)The differences in learner engagement between learners with different English writing proficiency under corresponding tasks with different levels of complexity were significant.More specifically,learners with low English writing proficiency presented significantly more cognitive,behavioral and overall learner engagement in the medium-complexity task than those in the low-complexity and high-complexity tasks,and the cognitive,behavioral and overall learner engagement was significantly higher in the low-complexity task than those in the high-complexity task.Affective engagement decreased with the increase of task complexity;For learners with high English writing,cognitive engagement,behavioral engagement,affective engagement,and overall learner engagement increased with the increase of task complexity.Finally,some suggestions can be put forward according to the results of the present study:(1)Before designing tasks in teaching,teachers should consider individual differences and tailor tasks based on the assessment of learners’ English writing proficiency,needs and interests,which can help promote deeper engagement levels and enhance the overall quality of learning outcomes(2)Teachers should vary the level of task complexity according to learners’ English writing proficiency to cater to learners with different levels of English writing proficiency,which enables teachers to design tasks that are appropriately challenging but not overwhelming or too simple.(3)Increasing a certain level of task complexity has a positive impact on learner engagement but the affective engagement of learners with low English writing proficiency decreased as task complexity increased.Therefore,teachers should attach importance to taking some measures to enhance the affective engagement of learners with low English writing proficiency when increasing task complexity to improve learner engagement.