The Effect of Task Complexity on EFL learners' Written performance

Over the two decades, task-based language teaching and learning has become a bourgeoning area of research in SLA. Given the paucity of research on the effects of task-complexity on written productions, this study intends to examine the effects of manipulating task complexity along resources-directing factors on L2 learners' written performance. For the purpose of the study, the collected written data from 29 participants were quantified in terms of measures of accuracy, fluency, and complexity introduced by Ellis (2008). T-test was employed as the statistical means of analysis. The results of the analyses showed the significant differences between the performance of learners on simple and complex tasks. The results carry important and illuminating pedagogical implications for syllabus and task designers, language teachers, SLA researchers, and language testers. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Dr Zafer Bekirogullari.