This main purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of task complexity on L2 learners' written narratives. It is argued that L2 learners' written performance is influenced by the complexity of task regarding accuracy, fluency, and complexity.52 Iranian English learners were selected as the participants of the study. They were asked to write two narratives based on two different picture stories. First, they performed the here-and-now task (present tense and context-supported) and then, they performed the there-and-then task (past tense and context-unsupported). Next, the written narratives were coded to measure the accuracy, fluency, and complexity.The results of this study demonstrated that cognitively more demanding tasks were more fluent and no significant effects on written narratives were observed on measures of accuracy and complexity.
Decisions related to textbook selection and evaluation are of great importance. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the three English language textbooks currently used at high schools in Iran from the high school English teachers' point of view.For this purpose, a 46-item questionnaire was developed about the five sections of the textbooks (vocabulary, reading, grammar, language functions, and pronunciation practice), their physical make-up, and practical concerns. Fifty highs school teachers with more than five years of teaching experience were asked to reflect on the questions by checking one of the four options included.The results indicated that the textbooks are not acceptable from the teachers' point of view considering their five sections, their physical make-up, and some practical concerns.
The aim of this paper was to investigate the effects of pre-task planning (PTP) and on-line planning (OLP) on descriptive writing of EFL learners. It is discussed extensively that planning factor influences task performance of language learners. Thirty seven learners of English as a foreign language, aged between 19 and 24, were recruited and randomly assigned into two groups with pre-task and on-line planning conditions. The participants in PTP group were given 10 minutes to plan their performance before the main task performance, while the participants in OLP group had to begin writing immediately but they could take as much as time they liked. The collected data was then coded and analyzed using independent samples test statistical procedure. The results of data analysis showed planning time had no effect on complexity and accuracy of participants' performance but it influenced positively the fluency of PTP group. Keywords: Task-based language teaching, Planning, Writing, Accuracy, Complexity, Fluency 1. Introduction As early as 1970s, the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach became popular among second language acquisition (SLA) researchers and second language teachers (Skehan, 2003). Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is a realization of communicative language teaching. It is indeed the strong version of CLT, as tasks provide the foundation for an entire language program (Ellis, 2004). Foster and Skehan (1999) state that there are some pre-mid-and post task activities that can be utilized to help language learner pay a balanced attention to both form and meaning simultaneously and improve the quality of learner language. Planning is one of the task condition factors that affects second language production and has been of both theoretical importance to second language acquisition (SLA) researchers and of practical importance to language teachers (Ellis, 2005). Due to the importance of task planning factor in learners' task performance there have been plenty of studies that have focused on the interaction of planning and task performance of language learners (Ellis, 1987;Foster and Skehan, 1996; Ortega, 1999;Robinson, 1995; Foster, 1997, 1999;Yuan and Ellis, 2003;Mochizuki and Ortega, 2008). The studies mentioned above mainly concern oral task performance and only a few studies have concentrated on written task performance (e.g. Ellis and Yuan, 2004). This fact highlights that further studies are needed to explore written performance of learners and task planning in a more extensive area and on different task types. Consequently this research focused on finding the effects of pre-task and on-line planning on descriptive writing of language learners, since no study has touched this writing task type before. Literature ReviewVariety of design factors (such as planning) and how they influence the language produced by learners regarding accuracy, complexity and fluency have been main focus of studies of many researchers (Ellis, 2009;Foster and Skehan, 1999; Housen and Kuiken, 2009;Wigglesworth ...
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