Task complexity manipulation and second language aptitude : A correlational study

概要

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This study investigated the role of language aptitude in task-based language teaching. The data were from Ishikawa (to appear), where 54 Japanese learners of English performed a written narrative task. Task complexity was manipulated, and the participants were divided into two groups based on the differential task complexity (i.e., [±Here-and-Now] conditions). The correlations between fourteen production measures, perceptions of task difficulty, and scores of the Language Aptitude Battery for the Japanese (LABJ) (Sasaki, 1996) were examined as a function of task complexity. The results showed that several statistically significant correlations between aptitude and task difficulty and between task difficulty and task production were observed in the complex task condition (i.e., [-Here-and-Now]), but none in the simple task condition ([+Here-and-Now]). The findings were compatible with the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2003) that complex tasks would require more cognitive resources (Ishikawa, 2005; Niwa, 2000) and affect learners' perceptions of task difficulty.