任务复杂度和工作记忆容量对中国英语学习者书面语产出的影响

The Effects of Task Complexity and Working Memory Capacity on Chinese EFL Learners’ Written Production

本研究探讨任务复杂度和工作记忆容量对英语学习者书面语产出的影响。64位来自中国某理工大学的中等水平英语学习者参加了本次研究。研究者通过电脑版阅读广度测试测量了受试的工作记忆容量,以议论文写作方式收集了受试在任务复杂度不同的情况下书面语产出的数据,并从准确度、复杂度和流利度三个维度对受试的书面语进行了分析。研究结果表明,工作记忆容量高的学习者书面语产出准确度高而句法复杂度低,任务复杂度的提高显著降低了学习者书面语产出的句法复杂度。数据进一步分析表明,任务复杂条件下工作记忆容量高的学习者书面语产出的词汇复杂度显著增加。

This study investigates how task complexity and working memory capacity (WMC) affect English learners’ written production. The participants were 64 intermediate Chinese university EFL learners. Their working memory capacity was assessed by a computerized reading span task, and L2 written production was elicited by less and more complex versions of the same type of argumentative task. Participants’ performance was assessed by the accuracy, fluency and complexity of their written production. The results showed that higher WMC learners produced more accurate but less complex written production. Increased task complexity resulted in learners’ less complex written production in syntax. In addition, lexical complexity was positively incurred among higher WMC learners in the context of a more complex task.