Task type and online planning as mediating factors in the oral performance of L2 learners

Abstract

This study examines the separate and combined effects of manipulating task complexity along two dimensions in learners‟ accuracy and syntactic complexity levels and reports the results in the light of two influential hypotheses: the Cognition Hypothesis and the Limited Attentional Capacity Hypothesis. The former supports the presence of multiple attentional resources in humans, thus it predicts a concurrent increase in accuracy and syntactic complexity levels when the complexity of tasks is increased. The latter, on the other hand, argues for a limit in attentional resources and claims that paying simultaneous attention to both accuracy and syntactic complexity is not probable. In the light of these two hypotheses, this study aims to investigate how manipulating complexity along task type (Here-and-Now/There-and-Then) and online planning (Pressured/Unpressured) influences learners‟ syntactic complexity and accuracy levels. The study had an experimental design with sixty-four undergraduate students at a state university in Turkey. Participants completed two picture-based narrative tasks. Syntactic complexity was measured with global complexity, complexity by subordination, and phrasal complexity measures. Accuracy was measured as errors per 100 words, the ratio of error-free AS units, and the ratio of error-free clauses. The results showed that increased task complexity along task type resulted in higher accuracy levels, but it did not affect syntactic complexity scores significantly. Moreover, the availability or absence of online planning did not affect the syntactic complexity and accuracy levels.