The Effect of Task Frequency on EFL Speaking Ability Acquisition

Abstract

Psychological researches indicate that human attention resources are rather limited. Accordingly it proves to be very hard for learners to simultaneously attend to both content and form in L2 learning. This study aims to examine the effects of task frequency on EFL speaking ability acquisition. Both instant test and delayed tests were given. 20 sophomores of Chinese English majors repeatedly retold the same story and the material was chosen from the national TEM4 (Test for English Majors-Band 4), a proficiency English test for Chinese undergraduates. It was found that participants’ attention was gradually shifted from content to form so that the balance development of both content and form could be achieved in participants’ EFL speaking ability acquisition. In addition, participants also made correspondent progress in various linguistic forms such as fluency, accuracy and complexity. The results revealed the positive effect of task frequency on appropriate use of attention resources and explored the effective means to the balance development of various aspects in linguistic content and form. There are important implications for the results.