Featured Colloquium Tasks across modalities Convenors: Folkert Kuiken & Ineke Vedder University of Amsterdam TBLT 2009, Lancaster, September 14, 2009

2 Tasks across modalities: Time schedule Folkert Kuiken & Ineke Vedder Stefania Ferrari & Elena Nuzzo Bram Bulté & Alex Housen Eva Alcón Soler General discussion

3 Focus of the colloquium To what extent is the influence of task characteristics on linguistic output in L2 affected by the mode (oral versus written) in which tasks are performed, particularly in relation to task complexity, the development of narrative skills, lexical competence and the effect of noticing?

4 State of the art Very few studies in which the effect of mode on linguistic output is investigated and a comparison is made between oral an written task performance Studies on the relationship between task characteristics and linguistic output generally concern oral tasks. Few studies on the effect of task characteristics on the written performance of L2 learners. Contrasting results with respect to the effect of mode (Grabowski 2005, 2007; Martínez-Flor 2006; Granfeldt 2007)

5 Grabowski (2005, 2007) Working memory  No effect of mode for university students  School children do better in the oral mode Recall from long-term memory  A robust and stable superiority effect for writing for adult learners

6 Martínez-Flor (2006) Making suggestions  Learners make more suggestions in a written production task ( ) than in an oral production task (phone message)

7 Granfeldt (2007) Grammatical complexity  No effect of mode Vocabulary diversity  In writing significantly higher than in speaking Accuracy  Fewer errors in speaking than in writing No general effect of mode Individual differences: Learners have ‘modality preferences’ (cf. Weissberg 2000)

8 Summarizing: Contrasting results

9 Focus of the individual papers

10 Paper 1: Folkert Kuiken & Ineke Vedder The influence of task complexity on linguistic performance in L2 writing and speaking

11 Theoretical framework Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis (2001, 2005)  Learners can access multiple attentional pools at the same time  Complex tasks  more negotiation of meaning and more noticing  more linguistic complexity  Increasing task complexity on resource directing variables will lead to a better performance

12 Robinson’s Triadic Componential Framework (2001, 2005)

13 Robinson’s Triadic Componential Framework (2001, 2005)

14 Robinson’s Triadic Componential Framework (2001, 2005)

15 Research questions To what extent is the influence of task complexity on linguistic performance in L2 influenced by the mode (written versus oral) in which the tasks have to be performed? Is the output of low- and high-proficient learners differentially affected by the manipulation of task complexity in written versus oral tasks? Does task complexity affect accuracy in terms of types of errors in written versus oral tasks?

16 Hypotheses Mode  The influence of task complexity will not be affected by mode (Gilabert 2007; Kuiken & Vedder 2007; Michel, Kuiken & Vedder 2007) Task complexity  Increasing task complexity will lead to a better performance: more accurate, syntactically more complex, lexically more varied (Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis 2005) Proficiency level  High-proficient learners perform better than low- proficient learners, but there will be no interaction between proficiency level and task complexity (Kuiken, Vedder & Mos 2005; Kuiken & Vedder 2007, in press)

17 Design Written mode 91 students of Italian L2 Proficiency level as determined by means of a cloze test Writing a letter (twice): choice of a holiday destination from five options Oral mode 44 students of Italian L2 Proficiency level as determined by means of a cloze test Leaving a message on the phone (twice): choice of a holiday destination from five options

18 Task You are planning to go on holiday with an Italian friend.Your friend has already made a first selection of five addresses, and asks you for your advice. The guesthouse or apartment you choose, however, has to satisfy a number of conditions. These criteria are: - Complex task (3 cond.)+ Complex task (6 conditions) 1. Presence of a garden2. Space for physical exercise 3. A quiet location4. Swimming facilities 5. Located in the center6. Breakfast included Written taskOral task Write a letter of at least Make a phone call to your friend 150 wordsand leave a message on the voice mail

19 General measures Written mode Accuracy  Errors / T-unit  1 o, 2 o, 3 o degree errors / T-unit Syntactic complexity  Clauses / T-unit  Dependent clauses / clause Lexical variation  Type/token ratio corrected for text length (WT/√2W) Oral mode Accuracy  Errors / AS-unit  1 o, 2 o, 3 o degree errors / AS-unit Syntactic complexity  Clauses / AS-unit  Dependent clauses / clause Lexical variation  Type/token ratio corrected for text length (WT/√2W)

20 Error types Written mode Accuracy  Errors with respect to appropriateness / T-unit  Grammatical errors / T-unit  Lexical errors / T-unit  Orthographic errors / T-unit  Other errors / T-unit Oral mode Accuracy  Errors with respect to appropriateness / AS-unit  Grammatical errors / AS-unit  Lexical errors / AS-unit  Pronunciation errors / AS-unit  Other errors / AS-unit

21 Results: Similarities between the written and the oral mode Linguistic performance Influence of task complexity on accuracy; fewer errors in the complex task (+ Cognition Hypothesis). No influence on lexical variation No interaction between task complexity and proficiency level Error type Influence of task complexity on lexical errors: fewer lexical errors in the complex task (+Cognition hypothesis) No interaction between task complexity and proficiency level on types of errors

22 Results: Differences between the written and the oral mode Linguistic performance No effect of task complexity on syntactic complexity in the written mode. Use of fewer dependent clauses in the complex task in the oral mode (-Cognition Hypothesis)

23 Discussion Inclusion of mode in Robinson’s Triadic Componential Framework? The influence of task complexity on linguistic performance is hardly constrained by mode. Fewer dependent clauses in complex task in oral mode: major ‘pressure’ in on-line task, compared to off-line task, enforces L2 learners to simplify: grammatical complexity is reduced. Main influence of task complexity on accuracy, in both written and oral mode: attentional resources are allocated to control of the existing L2 system. Main effect on accuracy, in both written and oral mode, determined by decrease of lexical errors: attentional resources of the L2 learners are focused on control of lexical form.

24 Results compared with Granfeldt (2007)

25 Summarizing the results