How do EFL learners process oral tasks with different complexity: an exploratory study

The effects of task complexity on learners’ performance has been a much-researched issue in SLA field. However, until now many studies fail to provide empirical evidence of the effects of task complexity on learners’ processing. To fill the gap, this study examined how task complexity affects L2 learners’ cognitive processes with reference to Levelt’s speech production model (1989). Ten Chinese EFL learners were asked to complete two narrative tasks with different complexity manipulated by +/− few elements under the same planning conditions. Results revealed that: (1) in the complex task learners showed a slightly lower percentage of cognitive processes at the stage of conceptualization and formulation and a higher percentage linked to monitoring at the stage of comprehension; (2) learners’ fluency in oral performance was affected by the cognitive processes at all the stages of oral production. Accuracy seemed to be most enhanced by learners’ form monitoring at the comprehension stage. The study sheds light on how learners process the tasks with different complexity when producing the language, and is of implication to task-based language teaching.