Impact of Cognitive Complexity of Tasks on EFL Learners' Individual and Collaborative Written Performance
محورهای موضوعی : نشریه زبان و ترجمه
Afsane Motallebi Moghaddam
1
,
Faramarz Azizmalayeri
2
,
Abbas Bayat
3
1 - English Language Department, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran
2 - English Language Department, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran
3 - English Language Department, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran
کلید واژه: Accuracy, Fluency, task, Cognitive Complexity, Collaborative Writing Complexity,
چکیده مقاله :
In the last few decades, tasks as the basic unit in syllabus designing process, and the cognitive complexity of tasks as a fundamental criterion in task sequencing, have attracted the attention of language researchers. At the same time, collaborative task performance has been encouraged due to the researchers' focus on the sociocultural theory proposed by Vygotsky (1978). The present study aimed to investigate the effect of task cognitive complexity on Iranian EFL learners' individual and collaborative written task performance regarding complexity, accuracy, and fluency. To fulfill such a purpose, 70 male and female Iranian intermediate EFL learners were selected as the participants through Oxford Placement Test, from among the undergraduate students of Islamic Azad University of Arak, who had passed two general English grammar courses in two succeeding semesters and were participating in Advanced Writing Course at the time of conducting this research. They were asked to perform some writing tasks both individually and collaboratively, while the cognitive complexity of the tasks (i.e. the reasoning demands and prior planning) was evaluated by the researcher. The analysis of their written productions revealed that when writing individually, with no planning time available, Iranian intermediate EFL learners created more complex texts in their complex tasks and more fluent texts in their simple tasks, and when writing collaboratively, with some planning time available, they produced more fluent texts in their complex tasks.
در چند دهه اخیر، تکالیف به عنوان واحد اساسی در فرآیند طراحی برنامه درسی و پیچیدگی شناختی تکالیف به عنوان معیاری اساسی در توالی کارها، توجه محققان زبان را به خود جلب کرده است. در عین حال، به دلیل تمرکز محققان بر نظریه اجتماعی-فرهنگی پیشنهاد شده توسط ویگوتسکی (1978)، اجرای کار مشارکتی تشویق شده است. پژوهش حاضر با هدف بررسی تأثیر پیچیدگی شناختی تکلیف بر عملکرد نوشتاری فردی و مشارکتی زبان آموزان ایرانی زبان انگلیسی از نظر پیچیدگی، دقت و روانی انجام شد. برای تحقق چنین هدفی، از بین دانشجویان مقطع کارشناسی دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد اراک که دو دوره گرامر عمومی انگلیسی را در دو ترم متوالی گذرانده بودند، 70 زبان آموز ایرانی مرد و زن سطح متوسط از طریق آزمون تعیین سطح آکسفورد به عنوان شرکت کننده انتخاب شدند. از آنها خواسته شد تا برخی از تکالیف نوشتاری را هم به صورت فردی و هم به صورت مشترک انجام دهند، در حالی که پیچیدگی شناختی تکالیف (یعنی نیازهای استدلال و برنامه ریزی) توسط محقق دستکاری شده بود. تجزیه و تحلیل تولیدات نوشتاری آنها نشان داد هنگام نوشتن به صورت انفرادی، بدون برنامه ریزی در دسترس، زبان آموزان متون پیچیده تری را در کارهای پیچیده خود و متن های روان تری را در کارهای ساده خود تولید می کنند و هنگام نوشتن مشترک، با مقداری زمان برنامه ریزی در دسترس، آنها را می نویسند. همچنین، در تکالیف پیچیده خود متون روان تری تولید می کنند.
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