The effects of increasing cognitive task complexity along [+/- planning Time] and [+/ – few Elements] on L2 oral production

Màster de Lingüística Aplicada i Adquisició de Llengües en Contextos Multilingües, Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2008, Tutor: Roger Gilabert GuerreroThe study examines the impact of manipulating task complexity simultaneously along +/- planning time and +/- few elements on L2 production. Firstly, the concept of task complexity is presented, followed by a brief description of the Cognition Hypothesis and the Triadic Componential Framework. Finally, the specific literature related to planning time and the number of elements is reviewed. The first hypothesis states that reducing cognitive complexity along pre-task planning time will increase learners’ fluency and lexical complexity, whereas performing without time for planning will have negative effects on all dimensions of production. The second hypothesis predicts that increased number of elements will increase lexical complexity, structural complexity and accuracy, but it will cause disfluency. The combined effects of manipulating simultaneously two variables of task complexity as well as the role of different L1 backgrounds will be also analyzed. Using a repeated measures design, 14 upper-intermediate English level Spanish and Russian students were asked to perform four decision-making tasks manipulated along +/- planning time and +/- elements combinations. Measures included Unpruned Speech Rate A and Pruned Speech Rate B for fluency; Guiraud’s Index of Lexical Richness and the percentage of lexical words for lexical complexity; the number of clauses per AS-units for structural complexity; and the percentage of error-free AS-units and the percentage of error-free clauses for accuracy. The results of Friedman and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests showed that planning time positively affects lexical and structural complexity, but it does not display fluency or accuracy significantly. Increasing task complexity along the number of elements generates negative effects for fluency and structural complexity, a positive impact on lexical complexity and no significant effect on accuracy. The results, discussed in the light of Cognition Hypothesis and L2 production research, only partially confirm previous theories and findings (Skehan & Foster, 1997; Robinson, 2001, 2003, 2005; Gilabert, 2006; Michel, Kuiken & Vedder, 2007)

The effects of captioned video on processing and vocabulary learning under different genres

Presentació a: EuroSLA 201

The role of task sequencing in L2 development as mediated by working memory capacity

[cat] Aquesta dissertació ha estat motivada per l'interès creixent en la seqüenciació de tasques en el disseny curricular de la L2, per una banda, i la manca d'estudis empírics, d'altra banda, on la seqüenciació de tasques i els seus efectes en el desenvolupament de la L2 seria basat en la teoria i investigat empíricament. D'altra banda, no hi ha hagut investigació dut a terme per veure quina és la funció mediadora de capacitat de memòria operativa en el desenvolupament de la L2 a través de la seqüenciació de tasques. Tot això va ser fonamental en el disseny d’aquesta tesi. L'estudi s'ha creat sobre la base de la Hipòtesi Cognitiva de Robinson (2001a, 2001b, 2003, 2005, 2007b), el model SAARC (2010) i les seves prediccions sobre els efectes de la seqüenciació de tasques en l'adquisició de la L2 (Robinson, 2005, 2007a, 2010). Pel que fa a la construcció de capacitat de memòria operativa, model de Baddeley va ser utilitzat pel aquest treball (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974; Baddeley, 2000, 2003). Els tres pilots van precedir l'estudi principal, on la operacionalització de complexitat de tasques va ser empíricament determinada, juntament amb la llista d’expressions d’espai utilitzats en l'experiment principal. El disseny experimental va constar de pretest, de posttest immediat i de posttest aplaçat que incloïa dues tasques de control: una tasca descriptiva i una tasca de vocabulari de dues parts. La sessió de tractament consistia en input i una sèrie de tres tasques manipulades a través de + /- raonaments espacials. Dels 91 participants, qui originalment va participar en la recollida de dades, 61 van ser finalment seleccionats per ser inclosos en l'anàlisi estadística de les dades. Tots els participants eren estudiants d'anglès com a L2. Representaven 4 grups d'alumnes: dos grups de laboratori (Universitat de Barcelona, Filologia Anglesa) i dos grups d’aula (Universitat de Barcelona, Escola d'Idiomes Moderns). Participants de cada context (aula i laboratori) van tenir dos tractaments diferents: a) una seqüència de tasques de cognitivament simple a cognitivament complexa a través de +/- raonaments espacials implicats en la tasca i b) una seqüència barrejada. La capacitat de memòria operativa es va mesurar mitjançant la versió automatitzada de reading span (Unsworth et al., 2005). Les proves de control es van administrar abans de tractament, immediatament després del tractament i dues setmanes després del tractament. Els resultats van mostrar que la seqüenciació de tasques (de cognitivament simple a cognitivament complexa) va jugar un paper beneficiós en la retenció d’input en cas del grup de laboratori com a en cas del grup d’aula. A més a més, es va trobar que la memòria operativa modera desenvolupament de la L2 independent de la seqüenciació de tasques, però més curiosament la memòria operativa ha sigut molt present en els resultats obtinguts pel grup de laboratori, que va realitzar el tractament amb les tasques seqüenciades de simple a complexa. Els resultats són posats en relació a la Hipòtesi Cognitiva de Robinson (2001a, 2001b, 2003, 2005, 2007b) i el model de SAARC de seqüenciació de tasques (2005, 2007a, 2010), així com pel que fa a models de capacitat de memòria operativa (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974; Baddeley, 2000, 2003;) i a alguns estudis previs en lingüística aplicada sobre el desenvolupament de la L2 i WMC i en psicologia cognitiva sobre l'adquisició de les relacions espacials.[eng] The present dissertation was inspired by the increasing interest in task sequencing in L2 syllabus design, on the one hand, and the lack of empirical studies, on the other hand, where task sequencing and its effects on L2 development would be theoretically wellgrounded and empirically researched. Moreover, no research has been carried out to investigate the mediating role of working memory capacity (WMC) in L2 development along task sequencing. These considerations became fundamental in the design of the present research. The study has been created based on Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis (2001a, 2001b, 2003, 2005, 2007b), the SAARC model (2010) and its predictions regarding the effects of task sequencing on L2 acquisition (Robinson, 2005, 2007a, 2010). As for the construct of working memory capacity, Baddeley’s model was adopted for the present work (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974; Baddeley, 2000, 2003). Three pilots preceded the main study, where the operationalization of task complexity was empirically determined, along with the list of target items for L2 students employed in the main part. The experimental design consisted of a pretest, an immediate posttest and a delayed posttest which included a descriptive task and a two-part vocabulary test as two control tasks, as well as a treatment session consisting of input and a series of three tasks manipulated along the +/- spatial reasoning demands. Out of 91 participants who originally participated in the data collection 61 were finally selected to be included in the statistical analyses of the data. All the participants were learners of English as an L2. They represented 4 groups of students: two laboratory groups (English Philology, University of Barcelona) and two classroom groups (School of Modern Languages, University of Barcelona). Participants from each context (laboratory and classroom) underwent two different treatments: a) a task sequence from cognitively simple to cognitively complex along spatial reasoning dimension involved in the task and b) a randomized sequence. Working memory capacity was measured by means of the automated operation span test (Unsworth et al., 2005). The control tests were administered before treatment, immediately after treatment and two weeks after treatment. The results showed that task sequencing (from simple to complex) played a beneficial role in input retention in the case of both the laboratory group and the classroom group. Furthermore, it was found that WMC moderated L2 development independently from task sequencing, but most interestingly WMC was very influential in the results obtained by the target laboratory group that performed treatment with the tasks sequenced from simple to complex. The results are discussed in light of the Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis (2001a, 2001b, 2003, 2005, 2007b) and the SAARC model of task sequencing (2005, 2007a, 2010, as well as with reference to models of working memory capacity (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974; Baddeley, 2000, 2003) and to some previous studies in applied linguistics on L2 development and WMC and in cognitive psychology on the acquisition of spatial relations