Task Complexity and Language Proficiency: Its Effect on L2 Writing Production

Abstract

The paper reports a study that examined the impact of the interaction of task complexity manipulations and language proficiency on second-language writing performance. Increased cognitive complexity in tasks has been shown to benefit writing in terms of syntactic and lexical complexity; the quantum of benefit defined by language proficiency notwithstanding. The study manipulated task complexity and studied the impact on written production of learners at two different levels of proficiency in English and wished to contribute to the debate that Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis (2001a, b) and Skehan & Foster’s Limited Attentional Capacity Model (1997) sparked off about the facilitative or adverse impact of task complexity on production. It also wished to see how language proficiency interacts with task complexity to affect L2 written production. On the basis of an English proficiency test that included reading, writing, speaking, vocabulary and grammar, 30 learners of age range 23–38 years were categorized as lower (N = 15) and higher proficiency (N = 15) groups. The lower proficiency group were students of Bachelor’s degree in English, Engineering, Science or Computers and had an average of 10 years of English instruction. The high proficiency participants were pursuing their doctoral studies in Humanities with at least 12–15 years of English medium instruction. Five tasks were manipulated for cognitive complexity: [−complex] tasks required learners to describe a product that their company is planning to launch in the market (a descriptive task), and the [+complex] version required learners to take a standpoint on which product a customer should go with: an attractive, not so high quality one or an unattractive one but high quality. The standpoint needed to support with arguments (an argumentative task). The written production was assessed on five linguistic measures—syntactic complexity, syntactic variety, lexical density, lexical variety and accuracy. The main findings of the study were: (i) proficiency affected written performance in all dimensions except frequency of reference markers, high proficiency learners with better scores than lower proficiency learners, (ii) complexity increase affected the two groups differently—it increased syntactic complexity and lexical variety in higher group, and not in lower group; it decreased lexical density and variety in lower group, and (iii) accuracy remained unaffected, calling into question Skehan’s main claim of the Limited Capacity Model. A task difficulty questionnaire administered post the tasks showed an increase in thinking and perception of stress and decreased interest in both groups, suggesting that the task complexity manipulations are also psychologically real. The findings of the study validate Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis that a focused attention on complexity is not at the expense of accuracy especially for high proficiency learners, though the effect of task complexity on written performance is modulated by language proficiency.