The Effects of Task Type on Monologic Linguistic Features

Abstract

The use of tasks in language acquisition has been widely discussed and highly promoted in language learning. The question of which tasks influence language development deserves attention. This study was designed to explore how task type influenced particular areas of language use when students performed monologic tasks. 30 junior English majors from one university in southern Taiwan participated in this study, in which they carried out three different oral tasks-narrating, problem-solving, and graph describing. Results showed there were significant differences across different tasks on three analytic measures-fluency, complexity, and accuracy. As a whole, the participants performed more fluently in the activity of graph description than those of narrative and problem-solving; more syntactic complexity was found in the narrative task; and more accurate speaking quality was revealed in the problem-solving task than the other two. The results shed light on decisions regarding what and when to teach in speaking class. The understanding of the nature of different task demands enables teachers to take an active stance in predicting language patterns before selecting tasks, with a balance in the development of fluency, complexity, and accuracy.