과업 복잡성이 학습자 작문의 정확성, 구문 복잡성, 유창성에 미치는 영향

The present study sought to examine the effects of task complexity on English narrative writing performance of Korean university students, especially on its accuracy, syntactic complexity, and fluency. Task complexity is operationalized by two task features: tasks with causal reasoning and task structure in Robinson’s (2001a) triadic componential framework. To this end, 69 undergraduate students, majoring in the English language at a local university in Busan, were asked to perform four picture-cued narrative writing tasks. The accuracy, syntactic complexity, and fluency were measured based on T-unit, S-nodes, errors, and the total number of words in the learners’ written performance. The data was further analyzed by repeated measures two-way ANOVAs. The results showed that language accuracy increased when the learners performed the tasks defined as a more difficult task by one of the two task features and a less difficult task by the other task feature. On the other hand, syntactic complexity was positively affected by the tasks defined as a less difficult task by the two task features, while fluency increased when learners performed the task defined as a more difficult task by the two task features. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed. (193 words)