Time and Motion: Measuring the Effects of the Conceptual Demands of Tasks on Second Language Speech Production

Abstract

The Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson 2005) claims that pedagogic tasks should be sequenced for learners in an order of increasing cognitive complexity, and that along resource-directing dimensions of task demands increasing effort at conceptualization promotes more complex and grammaticized second language (L2) speech production. This article summarizes results of two studies that measured the effects of increasing the complexity of task demands in conceptual domains using specific measures of the accuracy and complexity of speech. These measures are motivated by research into the development of tense–aspect morphology when referring to time (Shirai 2002), and by typological, cross-linguistic research into using lexicalization patterns when referring to motion (Cadierno 2008). Results show there is more developmentally advanced use of tense–aspect morphology on conceptually demanding tasks compared with less demanding tasks, and a trend to more target-like-use of lexicalization patterns for referring to motion on complex tasks.