The effects of task complexity on EFL learners’ production: focusing on accuracy

Based on Robinsons’ (2001) cognition hypothesis and Skehans’ (1998) limited attentional capacity model, this study was conducted to examine the effects of task complexity on the accuracy of 25 Iranian EFL learners’ essays. Task complexity was manipulated using three variables: (1) +/- few elements; (2) +/- reasoning demand; (3) +/- here-and-now. Accordingly, 25 participants were assigned to three descriptive tasks in two forms (simple vs. complex). In simple form, they performed the selected tasks according to (+ few elements, - reasoning demand, and here-and-now) variables, but in complex form tasks were selected according to the (− few elements, + reasoning demand, and there-and-then) variables. Results showed that increasing task complexity with regard to all three variables produced significantly lower accuracy. In both simple and complex tasks, the participants had the best performance in here-and-now task after that in reasoning demand task and finally, in few elements tasks.