The Effects of Task Complexity for Text Summarization by Korean Adult EFL Learners

The present study examined the effect of two variables of task complexity, reasoning demand and time pressure, each from the resourcedirecting and resource-dispersing dimension in Robinson's (2001) framework of task classification. Reasoning demand was operationalized as the two types of texts to read and summarize, expository and argumentative. Time pressure was operationalized as the two modes of performance, oral and written. Six university students summarized the two types of text orally and twenty four students from the same school summarized them in the written form. Results from t test and ANCOVA showed that in the oral mode, reasoning demand tends to heighten the complexity of the language used in the summary in competition with accuracy but such an effect disappeared in the written mode. It was interpreted that the degree of time pressure is not the only difference between the oral and written modes but that the two modes may be fundamentally different cognitive tasks, and that Robinson's (2001) and Skehan's (1998) models were differentially supported by the oral mode of tasks but not by the written mode of the tasks.