The Impact of Different Types of Tasks (Structured and Unstructured) on the Production of Relative Clauses and Lexical Diversity of Iranian EFL University Students

Abstract

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of different types of tasks (structured and unstructured) on the production of relative clauses and lexical diversity of Iranian EFL university students. The participants of this study were thirty upper intermediate students of English language in Iranian context. To be certain about the homogeneity of the participants, the Nelson proficiency test was administered. After this stage, they were divided into two groups. Then a cartoon about fifty minutes was played for both groups. The experimental group (unstructured) received the film from the middle, while the control group (structured) saw the film from the beginning. Then, the participants were asked to produce whatever they heard. After analyzing the participants' sentences, the results showed that the control (structured) group outperformed the experimental (unstructured) one in producing the relative clauses while there was no significant difference between the two groups in the case of lexical diversity. Based on the obtained results some recommendations are given.