The Relationship between Task Complexity, Task Difficulty, and Speaking Performance: The Case of Chinese EFL Learners

Abstract

In recent years, task-based language teaching (TBLT) has become a prevalent pedagogy in Chinese universities. Much research has focused on task complexity. Nevertheless, task difficulty, another crucial element of TBLT, has gained little attention from researchers. With twenty Chinese first-year undergraduates majoring in English participating in the present research, this study explored the relationship between task complexity, difficulty, and Chinese EFL learners’ English speaking performance, hoping to shed light on the design and implementation of tasks in L2 teaching. The results suggested that learners’ grammatical complexity, lexical sophistication, and accuracy varied significantly in the two tasks of different complexity. Only speaking speed was found to be positively correlated with task difficulty. When learners’ confidence to fulfill a task was bolstered, they would respond to the task at a faster speaking speed. Hence, teachers can design tasks of different complexity flexibly and fine-tune the complexity of the tasks to meet different teaching goals. Teachers can also strengthen the students’ confidence in accomplishing tasks to enhance their speaking fluency. Keywords: Chinese EFL learners, task-based language teaching, task difficulty, task complexity, linguistic complexity, accuracy, fluency DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-20-08 Publication date: July 31 st 2022