Effects of Task Complexity on Linguistic Complexity for Sustainable EFL Writing Skills Development

This paper reports the findings from a study that explored the effects of task complexity on linguistic complexity in EFL writing with a within-and-between-subject design for the sustainability of EFL writing skills. A total of 178 English majors and non-English majors participated in the study. The...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jin, C. (Author), Wang, L. (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
LEADER 01768nam a2200205Ia 4500
001 10.3390-su14084791
008 220517s2022 CNT 000 0 und d
020 |a 20711050 (ISSN) 
245 1 0 |a Effects of Task Complexity on Linguistic Complexity for Sustainable EFL Writing Skills Development 
260 0 |b MDPI  |c 2022 
856 |z View Fulltext in Publisher  |u https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084791 
520 3 |a This paper reports the findings from a study that explored the effects of task complexity on linguistic complexity in EFL writing with a within-and-between-subject design for the sustainability of EFL writing skills. A total of 178 English majors and non-English majors participated in the study. They each performed two writing tasks that were manipulated using two variables: the number of elements and prior knowledge. Linguistic complexity was measured from both syntactic and lexical aspects with 39 indices. Data analysis indicated that task complexity produced different effects on different dimensions of linguistic complexity, suggesting that research on task complexity needs to break away from simplicity and that the Cognition Hypothesis and Limited Attentional Capacity Hypothesis require further verification and refinement. This study contributes to a better understanding of task complexity and linguistic complexity in EFL writing, yielding meaningful implications for pedagogy and assessment in this field. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. 
650 0 4 |a linguistic complexity 
650 0 4 |a number of elements 
650 0 4 |a prior knowledge 
650 0 4 |a sustainable development of writing skills 
650 0 4 |a task complexity 
700 1 |a Jin, C.  |e author 
700 1 |a Wang, L.  |e author 
773 |t Sustainability (Switzerland)