（课程与教学论专业论文）任务类型对英语写作产出的影响.pdf

iv 任务类型对英语写作产出的影响 任务类型对英语写作产出的影响 2004 级研究生：田晶晶 导师：关永平 副教授 专业：课程与教学论 研究方向：英语教学论 中文摘要中文摘要 80 年代以来，随着以任务为组织单位的教学大纲的兴起，以及对外语学习者语言的形 式和意义平衡发展的探讨，人们逐步认识到外语学习任务本身的研究的重要意义。由此不 少外语教学研究者撰文著书，对学习任务进行研究，而这些研究主要集中表现在以下两个 方面：第一，从语言学和教育学的角度来研究如何在课堂上围绕任务展开教学,从而提高语 言教学的质量;第二, 从认知语言学和心理语言学的角度来研究与任务有关的因素是如何 影响学习者的语言运用和发展的。然而要解决如何在教学中具体实施任务和怎样用学习任 务来达到某个教学目的,其前提就是要研究任务类型和特征对学习者语言运用的影响。 写作 作为语言运用和语言产出的一种，与口语有许多相似之处，但目前有关不同学习任务对学 习者语言运用的影响的研究绝大多数都集中在对口语任务的研究上，有关写作任务的研究 却很少。 鉴于此，论文以写作产出模式理论和有关任务复杂度和难度的理论为基础，以广西师 范大学非英语专业的学生为研究对象，采用实验的研究方法，研究根据同一题材编写的三 种不同写作任务类型（个人写作任务、话题写作任务、概要写作任务）和任务特征(任务复 杂度和任务难度)对非英语专业学习者在英语写作产出的准确度、流利度和复杂度上的影 响。 研究结果表明: 1) 任务类型对学习者英语写作产出有影响: 任务类型显著影响着三项 写作任务语言产出的准确度, 复杂度和流利度。个人任务的准确度显著高于话题任务和概 要任务; 概要任务的复杂度显著高于个人任务和话题任务; 个人任务和话题任务的流利度 显著高于概要任务。2)任务复杂度对学习者英语写作产出有影响: 任务复杂度显著影响着 三项写作任务语言产出的准确度,复杂度和流利度。任务复杂度越高,语言产出的准确度越 低, 语言的流利度越低,语言的复杂度越高;反之任务复杂度越低, 语言产出的准确度越高, 语言的流利度越高,语言的复杂度越低。3)任务难度与学习者英语写作产出有部分相关性: 在任务难易度的各个因素中,学习者对难易度的整体感受与写作产出的准确度和流利度负 相关; 压力与写作产出的流利度负相关;自信与写作产出的准确度正相关;而兴趣和动机与 写作产出无相关性。 论文共分为五章。第一章引言部分介绍了本文的研究背景、研究意义和研究问题。 第二章文献综述部分首先定义写作任务，写作任务类型和写作任务特征（任务复杂度 和任务难度） ，其次回顾以往任务类型，任务复杂度，任务难度对语言产出影响的研究， v 再次以陈慧媛和吴旭东的写作产出模式和 robinson 有关任务复杂度和任务难度的理论为 基础， 从理论上分析了任务类型和任务特征对写作产出的影响,并以此为基础提出了实验假 设。 第三章是本研究的实验设计，主要包括受试对象、实验工具、实验过程和写作产出的 测量工具。 第四章是实验结果的数据分析和讨论。 最后一章总结本文的研究结果，指出此次研究的不足，指明今后进一步研究的方向。 关键词关键词：写作任务；任务类型；任务特征；准确度、流利度和复杂度 vi the effects of task types on the english writing production name: tian jingjing supervisor: guan yongping abstract in english since the 1980s, people have gradually realized the significance of the study on the english learning tasks themselves, owing to the upsurge of task-based syllabus and the exploration of the methods to achieve the balanced development of english learners linguistic forms and meaning. quite a few english teaching researchers have written books and papers to probe into learning tasks. the researches concerning tasks are concentrated on the following two aspects: first, from the linguistic and pedagogical perspective, the study is centered on how to improve language teaching quality by implementing tasks in the actual classroom; second, from the cognitive and psycholinguistic perspective, the study of the effects of task variables on the learners language production and development is emphasized. however, how the task variables produce influences on the learners language production should be firstly worked out in order to solve the problem of how to implement tasks in the actual classroom and how to employ tasks to achieve certain pedagogical goal. hence its very important to study the effects of different task types and task features on the learners language production. writing, as a kind of language production, is similar to speaking. however, tasks in speaking are often the focus of task researches, tasks in writing are neglected in the past task researches. based on the model of writing production and the theory of task complexity and task difficulty, this thesis aims to investigate the effects of three different task types and task features on the learners writing production in terms of fluency, complexity and accuracy by the qusai-experiment method. the three task types consist of personal task, topic task and the summary task, and task features refer to task complexity and task difficulty. the non-english majors at guangxi normal university are selected as subjects. the major findings of the present study are: 1) task types affect learners writing production. task types have significant effects on the accuracy, complexity and fluency of writing production. the accuracy of language in personal task is significantly higher than in topic task and summary task; summary task generates significantly more complex language than personal task and topic task; personal task and topic task lead to significantly higher fluency than summary task. 2) task complexity affects learners writing production. task complexity has significant effects on the accuracy, complexity and fluency of writing production. the more complex the task is, the less accurate the writing production is, the less fluent the writing production is, and the more vii complex the writing production is; the less complex the task is, the more accurate the writing production is, the more fluent the writing production is, and the less complex the writing production is. 3) task difficulty is partly correlated to learners writing production. the perception of task difficulty is significantly and negatively correlated to the accuracy and fluency of writing production; stress and the fluency of writing production are significantly and negatively correlated; confidence in ability is significantly and positively correlated to the accuracy of writing production; interest and motivation are not significantly correlated to the learners writing production. there are five chapters in the thesis. the first chapter is the introduction in which the general background of the study is presented, the significances of the present study are offered and the research questions are raised. chapter two firstly presents the definition of tasks in writing, task typology and task features, secondly the related issues concerning the effects of task types, task complexity and task difficulty on learners performance are reviewed, thirdly based on the writing production model constructed by chen huiyuan and wu xudong, and the theory of task complexity and task difficulty in robinsons model, the effects of task types and task features on writing production are theoretically analyzed. on the basis of this analysis, research hypotheses are proposed. chapter three is the design and the project, which involves subjects, instruments, the procedures of experiment, and measures of writing production. chapter four focuses on analyzing the data from the study and discussing the results. the last chapter concludes the issues investigated in the proceeding chapters, and points out the limitations of present study and suggestions for further study. key words: tasks in writing; task types; task features; accuracy, complexity, fluency 论文独创性声明论文独创性声明 本人郑重声明：所提交的学位论文是本人在导师的指导下进行的研究工 作及取得的成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不含其他个人或其 他机构已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。对本文的研究作出重要贡献的个人和 集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。本人承担本声明的法律责任。 研究生签名： 日期： 论文使用授权声明论文使用授权声明 本人完全了解广西师范大学有关保留、使用学位论文的规定。广西师范 大学、中国科学技术信息研究所、清华大学论文合作部，有权保留本人所送 交学位论文的复印件和电子文档，可以采用影印、缩印或其他复制手段保存 论文。本人电子文档的内容和纸质论文的内容相一致。除在保密期内的保密 论文外，允许论文被查阅和借阅，可以公布（包括刊登）论文的全部或部分 内容。论文的公布（包括刊登）授权广西师范大学学位办办理。 研究生签名： 日期： 导 师签名： 日期： 1 chapter 1 introduction 1.1the general background of the study the contradictions between linguistic forms and meaning, between the development of linguistic accuracy, complexity and fluency have existed in language teaching field. teachers and researchers are devoted to finding a method which can balance the development of linguistic forms and meaning, linguistic accuracy, complexity and fluency. task-based language instruction seems to satisfy such demands because “tasks as the basic units in the task-based language instruction regard linguistic accuracy, complexity and fluency as three goals of language teaching and treasure both the linguistic forms and meaning”(zhang wenzhong,1999:46 ). the importance of tasks in the language instruction has been widely accepted. long and crookes (1993) have proposed that it is the task which drives learners system forward. therefore the task itself has attracted wide attention from many researchers, become one of the hot spot of current researches. but what is the task originated from? cheng xiaotang (2004) has pointed out that the task stems largely from communicative language teaching and also results from second language acquisition researches. firstly the development of communicative language teaching pushes the emergence of the task. one principle inferred form communicative language teaching practices (richards and rodgers, 1986:72) is task principle: activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning. so activities aimed at expressing meaning are gradually considered as tasks in communicative language teaching. prabhus bangalore communicational teaching project in 1982 marks the beginning of task-based language teaching. the reform of traditional teaching which focuses on language structure has been made in his project. his fundamental assumption is that language forms can be best acquired when learners attention is attached to meaning. after prabhus project, many researchers criticized his extreme inattention to language forms. they have realized that enabling communication might de-emphasize forms and be harmful to the development of interlanguage system. therefore, the challenge of task-based instruction is to contrive sufficient focus on form to develop interlanguage without compromising the naturalness of the communication that tasks can generate. secondly second language acquisition researches result in a great upsurge in task studies. based on krashens input hypothesis (1985) and swains output hypothesis (1985), researchers found that tasks can provide learners with input and output opportunities (richards and rodgers, 1986). then researchers begin to study the effects of tasks on the process of second language acquisition. whats more, the psycholinguistics and cognitive scientists have found that 2 overemphasizing meaning increases the risk of a greater reliance on communication strategies and lexically-based language and that reliance on such devices may take attention away from forms. because of limited attentional resources, they have concluded that the continuing interlanguage growth will be less likely to occur when meaning is focused. on these findings, second language researchers probe into the task variables which influence attention allocation between forms and meaning. therefore, from two origins of the task, it can be inferred that there are mainly two approaches to the study of tasks. the first approach to investigating tasks is more embedded within actual language classrooms than research-based from the linguistic and pedagogic perspective in the language teaching field. their emphasis is put on how tasks can best be used and implemented in the classroom. the second approach is a more cognitive approach to tasks from the psychological and cognitive perspective in the second language acquisition field. this approach takes a different perspective depending on two central propositions. first, it is supposed that learners have only limited amounts of attentional resources available during language use. this generally means that in order to attend to one thing, they are likely to have to give up attention to something else. second, there are tensions between different aspects of language use, with a certain prominence attached to a concern for fluency, on the one hand, and for accuracy and complexity, on the other hand. based on these propositions, many researches have adopted this approach to investigate tasks in the second language acquisition field. they put emphasis on the study of learners psychological process during the completion of tasks. to be specific, the main problems they have studied are the following three ones: first, how the learners distribute and use their attentional resources during the process of completing tasks, second, the relationship between task variables and learners language performance, third, the effects of environment and conditions on the learners language performance. it is evident from the past studies that the effects of task variables on the learners language performance are usually the focus of studies. therefore, in order to achieve a better understanding of how task variables influence language production, this thesis tries to investigate the effects of task types and task features on the learners writing production by adopting a cognitive approach to tasks. by the use of cognitive approach to tasks, this thesis doesnt aim to investigate the process of implementation tasks in the actual classroom, but to investigate the direct effects of task variables on the learners writing production based on the experimental research. whats more, it is well known that task studies are related not only to oral communicative tasks, but also to tasks which are connected to the listening, reading, and writing skills (wu xudong, 1997). however, until now these kinds of tasks have not been attached enough 3 importance to. tasks related to writing skills in particular are often neglected in the past studies. so this thesis chooses tasks in writing as the focus to investigate the effects of task variables, the task types, and task features which include task complexity and task difficulty, on the learners writing production in terms of accuracy, complexity and fluency, in the hope that the scope of task studies can be widened. 1.2 the significance of the present study the significance of the present study lies in the following two aspects. firstly, writing is an indispensable part in language learning. as far as the approaches of writing instruction are concerned, two approaches commonly mentioned are the product approach and the process approach. the product approach to writing stresses the composing forms and neglects the composing meaning. while the process approach to writing focuses on the means of composing. it places primacy on the process of meaning discovery and it is criticized for its lack of forms considerations. however, it is suggested that neither form-focused nor meaning-focused approach is sufficient. language writing should be learnt by the balance between a focus on forms and meaning. in order to attach equal importance to composing forms and composing meaning, there is a need for the integration of process and product approach to writing. however, dyer (1996:314) explicitly stated that: l2 composition theory has swung from process but not back to the traditional product, rather to the task-based writing instruction which merges process and product in the concept of tasks. that is to say, by the use of goal-oriented tasks in writing, the balanced development of composing forms and meaning can be achieved. however, skehan (1998) points out that the balanced language development will not occur if we believe that tasks will take care of themselves and proposes that more targeted selection and sequence of tasks are intended to foster the balanced language development. the pre-condition of task selection and sequence is to have a range of research findings on which pedagogic decisions can be based. the findings of this study concerning the effects of tasks types and task features on writing production will provide basis for the task selection and task sequence, which helps to achieve balanced development of composing forms and meaning. secondly, as we know, composing forms is closely related to the linguistic accuracy and complexity, and composing meaning is closely connected to linguistic fluency. it is clear that the pedagogic goals of task-based writing instruction are the accuracy, complexity and fluency of language production (peter skehan, 1996). the first of these, accuracy concerns how well language is produced in relation to the rule system of the target language. complexity concerns the elaboration or ambition of the language which is produced. fluency, finally, is concerned 4 with the learners capacity to produce language in real time. however, these three goals are in some degree of mutual tension. the attentional resources are limited as the result of the way a limited-capacity, information-processing system operates, and full attention cant be given to each of these goals. this means that the pursuit of one of these goals can easily be at the expense of the others. a focus on accuracy may make interlanguage change, and probably make the speed of language production slow. a focus on complexity increases the chances that new forms will be incorporated into interlanguage systems, and reduces attention being devoted to the accuracy and fluency of language production. finally, a focus on fluency will lead to language being produced more quickly, and with lower priority being attached to getting language right, or to the use of new forms. to put it in another way, it is desirable that the learner should not only emphasize only one of the goals at the expense of the others, and it is desirable, from a pedagogic point of view, to ensure that attention is allocated between them as effectively as possible. as roger burning, gregory schraw (2004:24) said: “attention allocation is highly sensitive to the types of tasks being performed”. it is found that particular tasks may make attention attached to certain language forms through their features. therefore, except learners own preference of attention allocation, task types and task features may predispose learners to channel their attention in particular ways, and such channeled use might be towards some aspects of language production, accuracy, complexity and fluency. with this application, there is no denying that task types and task features which may have effects on the linguistic accuracy, complexity and fluency should be investigated in order to achieve balanced development of three pedagogic goals. 1.3 the research questions as already mentioned above, it is quite necessary and important to investigate the effects of task types and task features on learners writing production. in order to conduct this study more purposely, the