Speaking Task Complexity Modality and Aptitude in Narrative Task Performance

Language Learning ISSN 0023-8333
The Role of Task Complexity, Modality,

and Aptitude in Narrative Task Performance
Judit Kormos
Lancaster University
Anna Trebits
os
Eotv Lorand
University
The study reported in this paper investigated the relationship between components of
aptitude and the fluency, lexical variety, syntactic complexity, and accuracy of per-
formance in two types of written and spoken narrative tasks. We also addressed the
question of how narrative performance varies in tasks of different cognitive complexity
in the written and spoken modes. Our findings indicate a complex interaction between
aptitude components and task performance under different conditions. The components
of aptitude that seemed to be most strongly related to the complexity and accuracy of
production were inductive ability and grammatical sensitivity. The results also show
that in writing the participants used more varied vocabulary than in speech, but their
performance was similar in terms of syntactic complexity.
Keywords aptitude; written and spoken tasks; speech production; second language
writing; individual differences
Introduction
Research in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) has long been con-
cerned with the question of why students show great variation in their language
learning success. Studies in this area have concluded that individual differences
(IDs) are the most important predictors of achievement in a second language
(L2) (Dornyei, 2005). Therefore, it is widely acknowledged that IDs have to
We are very grateful for the three anonymous reviewers for their thorough comments on previous
versions of this manuscript. The first author was sponsored by the Bolyai scholarship of the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences in writing this paper.
Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to Judit Kormos, Lancaster University, De-
partment of Linguistics, Lancaster, LA1 4YL, United Kingdom. Internet: j.kormos@lancaster.ac.uk
Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472 439

C 2012 Language Learning Research Club, University of Michigan
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9922.2012.00695.x
Kormos and Trebits Task Complexity and Aptitude
be taken into consideration both in theoretical accounts of SLA and in practi-

cal pedagogical decision making. Researchers often point out the necessity of
making further advances into uncovering how certain IDs affect and underlie
important language learning processes (Dornyei, 2005; Kormos & Safar, 2008;
Robinson, 2007a). Learner variables are usually divided into cognitive, affec-
tive, and personality-related IDs (Dornyei, 2005). One of the most important
cognitive variables influencing the success of L2 learning is foreign language
aptitude, which is assumed to be a conglomerate of cognitive factors that might
potentially affect the success of language learning (Carroll, 1981). For a long
time researchers were interested in the link between foreign language aptitude
and global language learning outcomes (for reviews, see Ehrman & Oxford,
1995; Grigorenko, Sternberg, & Ehrman, 2000). In recent conceptualizations of
foreign language aptitude, however, it is argued that different cognitive abilities
might be useful in different phases and processes of language learning (Skehan,
2002) and that learners with different cognitive ability profiles might benefit
from different types of learning tasks and instructional conditions (Robinson,
2005a).
The novelty of our study is that we investigated how various components of
language aptitude are related to performance in narrative tasks that differed in
their cognitive complexity in both oral and written modes. For this purpose we
administered the Hungarian version of a language aptitude test and two oral and
written tasks to 44 upper-intermediate learners of English in a Hungarian sec-
ondary school. Most studies examining the subtle effects of task characteristics
on L2 output conclude that in addition to general measures of L2 production,
task-specific measures of production reveal more precise information about
how tasks can direct learners attention to certain linguistic forms and how IDs
may differentiate the ways in which learners can benefit from the manipulation
of certain task features (e.g., Kormos & Trebits, 2011; Norris & Ortega, 2009;
Robinson, 2007b). Therefore, in our study we used both general and specific
measures of performance in analyzing students output.
Background
The present study examines foreign language aptitude in relation to the cog-
nitive demands of performing oral and written narrative tasks of different
cognitive complexity. Therefore, we first discuss conceptualizations of foreign
language aptitude and then review research on communicative tasks and task
features with an emphasis on the construct of task complexity. Next, we give a
brief summary of research on modality differences in task performance. Finally,

we present the results of previous studies which have investigated the influence
of IDs on language produced in different tasks.
Language Learning Aptitude

Aptitude is considered to be one of the best predictors of language learning suc-
cess (Abrahamsson & Hyltenstam, 2008; Dornyei, 2005; Nikolov & Otto, 2006;
Sawyer & Ranta, 2001). Carroll (1981, p. 105) identified four components of
language aptitude: (i) phonetic coding ability, that is, the ability to identify
distinct sounds, to form associations between those sounds and symbols rep-
resenting them, and to retain these associations; (ii) grammatical sensitivity,
that is, the ability to recognize the grammatical functions of words (or other
linguistic entities) in sentence structures; (iii) rote learning ability, defined as
the ability to learn associations between sounds and meanings rapidly and
efficiently, and to retain these associations; and (iv) inductive learning ability,
which is the ability to infer or induce the rules governing a set of language
materials, given sample language materials that permit such inferences. Instru-
ments developed to measure language aptitude, such as the Modern Language
Aptitude Test (MLAT; Carroll & Sapon, 1959) and Pimsleurs Language Ap-
titude Battery (PLAB; Pimsleur, 1966), test language learners on the above
mentioned four components (for a review, see Abrahamsson & Hyltenstam,
2008, and Robinson, 2007a).
The Carollian construct of language aptitude was developed in the period
when audiolingualism was the prevailing language teaching methodology and
when language competence was mainly conceived of as grammatical knowl-
edge. New language teaching methodologies (in particular communicative and
task-based approaches) aim to foster the acquisition of communicative com-
petence, which encompasses a wider range of knowledge and abilities than
linguistic competence alone. These changes in language teaching methodology
and in the conceptualization of the goals in language learning have also neces-
sitated a revision and extension of the concept of aptitude. In response to this,
Robinson (2005a) proposed a dynamic aptitude construct, in which cognitive
resources and abilities are combined into aptitude complexes. In Robinsons
(2005b) model, primary abilities include pattern recognition, speed of pro-
cessing in phonological working memory, and grammatical sensitivity. These
general cognitive abilities, which with the exception of phonological memory,
are based on the traditional construct of aptitude, help the so-called second-
order abilities. The second-order abilities are specific to language learning
and include noticing the gap, memory for contingent speech, deep semantic
processing, memory for contingent text, and metalinguistic rule rehearsal.
441 Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472

Robinson (2005b) also argued that explicit and implicit learning conditions
might require different combinations of cognitive abilities. In his study, which
investigated the role of aptitude in different learning conditions, he found a
weak link between aptitude and outcomes in implicit learning conditions and a
strong relationship between aptitude and learning under explicit conditions. De
Graaffs (1997) research, however, indicated that grammatical sensitivity and
the ability to infer the meanings of words from a text were positively related to
attainment in an artificial grammar learning experiment under both explicit and
implicit conditions. Skehan (2002) also suggested that certain components of
the traditional construct of aptitude such as grammatical sensitivity and induc-
tive ability might assist L2 learning in naturalistic contexts, where learners have
few opportunities to acquire L2 linguistic rules through explicit explanation.
From this brief review of research on aptitude it is apparent that several
of the components of the original construct of aptitude as defined by Carroll
might be relevant underlying cognitive abilities that promote language learning
success even in todays foreign language classrooms. Inductive learning ability
and grammatical sensitivity might help learners recognize linguistic patterns
in the communicative input, whereas rote learning ability might be one of the
significant predictors of the success of vocabulary acquisition. Phonetic coding
ability might also play an important role in the acquisition of the phonological
system of the L2 and in L2 reading, in which one of the key abilities is
phonological awareness (for a recent review, see Grabe, 2009). It seems to
be important, however, not only to examine how aptitude contributes to the
overall success of language learning, but also to analyze how students with
different cognitive abilities perform in communicative tasks that they commonly
encounter in the process of L2 learning.
Task Complexity
Cognitive abilities do not only assist in the acquisition of L2 knowledge, but
they might also influence how learners utilize their acquired knowledge in
performing different types of tasks. Consequently, it is important to investigate
the relationships between the combination of abilities underlying L2 aptitude
and the cognitive demands of pedagogic tasks (Robinson, 2005a). Such research
aims to contribute to an understanding of how best to match learners with
strengths in certain cognitive abilities to particular types of learning tasks by
examining the interplay between the processing demands of pedagogic tasks
and the components of aptitude. As cognitive processes may be closely linked
to various features of task design (e.g., the availability of planning time: Ellis,
2005; Foster & Skehan, 1996; Yuan & Ellis, 2003; or the number of elements

included in the task: Kuiken & Vedder, 2007), the findings of research on the
interaction of individual difference factors and task complexity may be used to
inform pedagogic decisions in materials development and syllabus design.
One of the most important issues in research on language learning tasks
concerns the influence of task complexity on task performance. In Robinsons
(2001b) definition, task complexity is the result of attentional, memory, and
other information processing demands imposed by the structure of the task on
the language learner (p. 29). Robinson lists a number of task characteristics
such as the number of elements, availability of planning time, and prior knowl-
edge, which influence the complexity of the task. In the case of speaking tasks,
however, it would also be important to relate the complexity demands of tasks to
the different stages of speech production. In Levelts (1989) model, speech pro-
duction has four important components, which follow each other in this order:
(1) conceptualization, that is, planning what one wants to say; (2) formulation,
which includes the grammatical, lexical, and phonological encoding of the
message; (3) articulation, in other words, the production of speech sounds, and
(4) self-monitoring, which involves checking the correctness and appropriate-
ness of the produced output. In first language (L1) production conceptualizing
the message requires attention, whereas formulation and articulation are auto-
matic, and hence processing mechanisms can work in parallel, which makes
L1 speech generally smooth and fast. In the case of non-balanced bilinguals
and less proficient L2 speakers, however, formulation and articulation are often
not sufficiently automatic and require conscious attention, which frequently
hinders parallel processing.
Task complexity is generally considered to derive from the cognitive de-
mands a task makes in the conceptualization stage. This view is based on
the assumption that complex concepts require the use of complex syntactic
structures, and therefore cognitively complex tasks are complex both in terms
of conceptualization and linguistic formulation (see, e.g., Robinsons 2001b,
2003, 2005b Cognition Hypothesis). It is, however, possible that tasks make
separate and independent complexity demands on the conceptualization and
formulation stage. If we consider two speaking tasks such as the ones used
in the current studya cartoon description task, in which the storyline is
given, and a picture narration task, in which students have to narrate their own
storywe can see that different aspects of cognitive complexity make different
demands on the learners. In a cartoon description task, students do not need to
conceptualize the content of the story, which eases the demands in the phase
of conceptualization, that is, in selecting and ordering the relevant concepts
of their message (Levelt, 1989; Skehan, 2009). Nevertheless, learners have to

express the content prescribed by the task in whatever linguistic resources they
have available in the L2, which increases the processing load in the linguis-
tic encoding phase of speech production. In a story narration task, however,
learners need to design their own story, but they can tailor it to match their
linguistic resources, which results in increased conceptualization effort and a
potentially reduced load in linguistic encoding. This example illustrates that in
certain cases it might be difficult to order tasks in terms of cognitive complexity
because tasks might make different and non-comparable demands on different
phases of language production (see Pallotti, 2009, and Skehan, 2009, for a simi-
lar line of argument). Consequently, it might increase our understanding of task
complexity, if the cognitive demands of tasks were also considered separately
for the conceptualization and linguistic encoding stages of speech production.
A key issue in task-based language learning is that in performing a task
students need to coordinate the allocation of their attention in order to success-
fully meet the linguistic demands of the task. This raises questions concerning
how attentional resources can be used, coordinated, and directed to different as-
pects of language production during task completion. There are two influential
models of task complexity in this field, which have motivated a great number of
studies that examine the effects of manipulating the different dimensions of task
complexity on L2 output and interaction, and ultimately on L2 learning: Ske-
han and Fosters (2001) Limited Attentional Capacity Model and Robinsons
(2001b, 2003, 2005b) Cognition Hypothesis. These models make contrasting
predictions as to the effect of increasing task complexity along various di-
mensions on L2 performance. Skehan and Fosters (2001) Limited Attentional
Capacity Model views attention and memory as limited in capacity; therefore,
they suggest that increasing task complexity reduces the pool of available atten-
tion and memory resources. As a result, some aspects of performance will be
attended to while others will not. Skehan and Foster also claim that cognitively
more demanding tasks draw learners attention away from linguistic forms so
that enough attention can be paid to the content of the message (for a recent
account of the model, see Skehan, 2009).
Skehan and Fosters (2001) model, however, does not consider that atten-
tion is selective and voluntary, in other words that one can have volitional
control over choosing relevant stimuli and ignoring irrelevant ones (Allport,
1987; Wickens, 2007). Robinsons (2001b, 2003, 2005b) Cognition Hypoth-
esis differs from the Limited Attentional Capacity Model in that it assumes
that attention is subject to voluntary regulation. In the Cognition Hypothe-
sis, two sets of dimensions of cognitive task complexity are distinguished:
resource-directing and resource-dispersing dimensions. The resource-directing

dimensions of task performance call learners attention to the linguistic features

which are needed to meet task demands (e.g., reference to events happening
here and now vs. to events taking place then and there), whereas the resource-
dispersing dimensions of the task act as attentional limitations in determining
what aspect of the task can be heeded (e.g., reducing the pretask planning time).
The Cognition Hypothesis states that sequencing tasks from cognitively simple
to complex allows students to progress towards successfully performing real-
world target tasks. Robinson proposes that increasing task complexity along
resource-directing dimensions can lead to greater syntactic complexity and ac-
curacy of L2 output because such demands can direct learners attention to how
the concepts and functions required by the task have to be grammaticized us-
ing specific linguistic forms. Increasing complexity along resource-dispersing
dimensions, however, depletes learners attention without having the beneficial
effect of directing it to any specific linguistic aspect of L2 production.
The hypotheses put forward by the Limited Attentional Capacity model
and the Cognition Hypothesis have received mixed support, which is proba-
bly due to the fact that in some tasks, certain characteristics make resource-
dispersing attentional demands on learners, whereas others simultaneously
draw their attention to certain linguistic aspects of performance. Few studies
have examined systematically the combined effects of resource-directing and
resource-dispersing variables on performance (but see Gilabert, 2005; Iwashita,
McNamara, & Elder, 2001; Revesz, 2009) although in real-world communica-
tive tasks these two dimensions simultaneously affect performance (for a recent
discussion of this issue, see Pallotti, 2009). In our research we did not intend
to test the predictions of the two conflicting models of task complexity, but we
were interested in comparing two types of tasks which make different concep-
tualization demands on L2 speakers: a narrative task, in which the learners need
to design the plot of the story, and another type of narrative task, in which they
need to linguistically encode a predetermined storyline. Our aim in using tasks
with different attentional demands at different stages of speech production
was to extend Robinsons Cognition Hypothesis (2001b, 2003, 2005b) with
respect to complexity demands concerning conceptualization and linguistic
encoding.
Written vs. Spoken Task Performance

In addition to complexity, another key factor to consider with regard to tasks is
the mode of performance. Task-based language learning research has tradition-
ally focused on speaking tasks, and considerably fewer studies have investigated
how tasks affect second language writing processes and the product of writing.

There are a number of important differences between speaking and writing

(Biber, 1988; Chafe, 1982), but from the point of view of psycholinguistic pro-
cessing, the most crucial ones are that writing is usually not as constrained by
time and that it is a recursive process, in which writers plan, linguistically en-
code their plans, and revise them cyclically (Grabe & Kaplan, 1996). Although
the availability of time is not unlimited in writing, writers are under somewhat
less pressure than speakers to divide their attention between conceptualizing
their message and linguistically encoding it, which allows for extensive online
planning, that is, planning the content of the output while giving it a linguistic
form (Yuan & Ellis, 2003). In writing, the time spent on planning the mes-
sage (i.e., pretask planning) is also integrated in the writing process because
writers can devote considerable time to planning the content before starting
to write. Writers also have more attentional resources available for monitoring
their output while they are encoding it than speakers.
Only a few studies have addressed how the mode of performance influences
the output students produce on specific language learning tasks. In a study
conducted with learners of French, Granfeldt (2008) found that mode did not
have an effect on syntactic complexity, but students used a higher variety of
words in writing and were more accurate in speaking than in writing. In Kuiken
and Vedders (2011) research, however, Dutch learners of Italian produced
syntactically more complex language in writing than in speech, but the lexical
variety of their spoken and written output did not differ significantly. The
contrasting patterns of the findings might be related to the research design of
these studies (i.e., different types of tasks used) and to the fact that different
L2s and learners with different levels of proficiency were investigated.
In our study, we intended to investigate the effect of mode on performance
in two types of tasks which pose different conceptualization demands. In our
analyses, we focused on differences in lexical variety and in global as well as
task-specific measures of syntactic complexity and accuracy. Furthermore, we
were also interested in how learners with different cognitive ability profiles
perform in these two modes and how various aptitude components are related
to the linguistic quality of the output in speech and writing.
Individual Differences and Task Performance

Individual differences can exert both direct and indirect influence on task per-
formance. Individual difference factors such as anxiety, working memory ca-
pacity, and aptitude might have a direct effect on students decisions concerning
the allocation of their attentional resources and on students ability to handle
their attentional limitations. Individual differences, especially those in cognitive

abilities, might also influence how successfully students acquire particular as-
pects of linguistic competence. As any performance in a task draws on acquired
linguistic abilities, differences in underlying competence caused by individual
difference factors are also expected to manifest themselves in task performance.
Few studies have addressed the issue of how IDs affect communicative task
performance in general and even fewer studies exist that investigate how the dif-
ferent components of language aptitude relate to L2 production on tasks of dif-
fering cognitive complexity. Robinson (2007b) analyzed how input, processing,
and output anxiety affected students performance on narrative tasks that in-
creased in cognitive complexity. His findings indicated that as the tasks became
more complex, the negative correlation between output anxiety and syntactic
complexity grew stronger. Robinsons research, however, did not reveal any
significant link between anxiety and accuracy and fluency of task performance.
Niwa (2000) also investigated the relationship between a resource-directing
task aspect of task complexity (simple vs. complex reasoning demands) and
three ability variables: intelligence, aptitude, and working memory. She found
that in the cognitively more complex task students with higher aptitude and
working memory spoke less fluently. She explained her findings by arguing
that students with high working memory capacity made greater efforts to meet
the reasoning and linguistic demands of the more complex task, which nega-
tively affected their fluency. Kormos and Trebits (2011) also studied the effects
of working memory capacity on performance on the same narrative tasks as
used in the current study. The finding that students with high working memory
capacity produced long clauses, which were, however, syntactically less com-
plex indicated that working memory plays a complex role in task performance.
We tentatively argued that high working memory capacity might allow students
to produce narratives with high clausal complexity, but it might not be con-
ducive to directing learners attention to specific dimensions of the task such
as subordination.
Aims of the Present Study

As the review of literature shows, there is a scarcity of studies that investi-
gate the role of cognitive factors in communicative task performance, and no
research has been done on the differential effect of these individual variables
on the quality of both written and spoken output. Therefore, one of the ques-
tions that we addressed in our study concerned how different components of
language aptitude are related to learners performance on oral and written nar-
rative tasks. We were also interested in how individual differences in language

aptitude manifest themselves in tasks which make different conceptualization

demands on the learners. For this purpose we used two narrative tasks which
differed with regard to whether the students were required to devise the plot of
the story. Because our participants were Hungarian learners of English as a for-
eign language, language aptitude was assessed using a Hungarian version of the
MLAT (HUNLAT; Otto, 2002) based on the consideration that the constructs
operationalized in this test battery, especially grammatical sensitivity and in-
ductive learning ability, have been found to be relevant both under explicit and
implicit language learning conditions, a mixture of which characterizes current
foreign language learning contexts.
In our study we also aimed to discover differences in linguistic performance
measures in the above-described task types across modes. Our goal was to
gain further insights into differences in spoken and written performance of L2
learners by extending the range of variables that are traditionally included in the
analysis of task performance. We based our decision of selecting task-specific
variables on three sources of information. First of all, we conducted an initial
analysis on the tenses of verbs used by the learners, which suggested that a
high percentage of the participants used the past tense to narrate their stories
and that the type of subordinate clause used with the highest frequency was the
relative clause.1 Second, we administered the same tasks to 10 young native
speakers of British English and analyzed their performance for these features.
The analyses revealed that 80% of the native speaker participants primarily
used past tense for narrating the cartoon description task in speech, and all the
native speakers used past tense for describing events in the oral story narration
task and in both tasks in writing. The relative clause was also the most frequent
type of subordinate clause in the output of the native speakers.
The selection of past tense verbs and relative clauses was also based on
theoretical considerations. Although historic present is frequently used in nar-
ratives by native speakers, studies in the field of discourse analysis suggest that
its use is restricted to adding a dramatic emphasis to the story and moving the
events out of the past to the moment of speaking (Schiffrin, 1981). Historic
present mainly occurs in situations where speakers narrate a personal story
and is almost exclusively applied in describing complicating events (Schiffrin,
1981). The task used in our study did not involve the narration of personal
stories, and participants rarely added complicating events; consequently, we
deemed it appropriate to select past tense as the major tense in which the story
is expected to be narrated. Nevertheless, our analysis focused on target-like-use
and not on suppliance in obligatory contexts (Pica, 1984), which allowed us to
consider the use of present as an additional acceptable tense. Relative clauses

also have several important discourse and linguistic functions in narratives,

namely: to name, situate, and identify old and new referents in the story; to
present main characters; to motivate, enable, and continue narrative actions;
to set up expectations about narrative entities and events; and to sum up past
or upcoming events (Dasinger & Toupin, 1994). They have been found to be
frequent in narratives produced by adult and child L1 speakers (Dasinger &
Toupin, 1994). Relative clauses have increased importance in learning English
as an L2 because they are difficult to acquire and use accurately (Pienemann,
1998), and consequently might provide relevant information on the complexity
and accuracy of L2 performance.
Based on the above-described theoretical considerations and on the re-
sults of our preliminary analyses, the study addressed the following research
questions:
1. How is Hungarian L2 learners narrative performance affected by mode

and task type?
2. How do the components of language aptitude relate to general and task-
specific measures of fluency, lexical variety, syntactic complexity, and
accuracy when performing two different types of oral narrative tasks?
3. How do the components of language aptitude relate to general and task-
specific measures of lexical variety, syntactic complexity, and accuracy in
two different types of written narrative tasks?
Method
Participants
The present study was conducted in a Hungarian-English bilingual secondary
school for students aged between 15 and 18 in Budapest, Hungary. The par-
ticipants (N = 44) were students in the second academic year of a bilingual
education program which consists of a so-called 0 year and 4 years of bilingual
secondary education. During the 0 year the students took part in an intensive
English language training program which aimed to prepare them for studying
several school subjects in English in the following 4 years of secondary school.
The teaching method used was predominantly communicative. The participants
in our study completed the 0-year program in June 2006 before starting their
secondary studies in September 2006. At the time of the data collection for the
present research, they had just begun the second academic year of their studies.
The participants age was between 16 and 17 years. Twenty-seven students
were female and 17 male. The teachers of the students rated the participants

level of proficiency as slightly above intermediate corresponding to B1/B2 in

the Common European Framework of Reference (Council of Europe, 2001),
which was also supported by the results of the language proficiency test that
they administered to the students at the end of their 0 year.
Instruments
The within-participants factors of the study are task type (cartoon description
vs. picture narration) and mode (oral vs. written) while the components of lan-
guage aptitude (as measured by the HUNLAT) constitute between-participants
factors. Participants completed four narrative tasks: two involving cartoon de-
scription, and two involving picture narration. First they performed a cartoon-
description task and a picture narration task orally (in random order). Then, a
month later, they performed parallel versions of these tasks in writing (in self-
chosen order, due to the limitations of the group administration procedures).
The cartoon description task involved the description of a comic strip
consisting of six pictures, which had to be included in the story. The pictures
were presented in the correct order and formed a coherent story line. The input
to the task was provided visually, with instructions in Hungarian. In the oral
version of the task the students had to narrate the story of a ship-wrecked man,
who is not recognized as needing help and who in the end remains stranded on
a desert island. In the written version of the task, a car which is broken down
in the middle of the desert is transformed into a carriage without a horse by
a wizard instead of being repaired. The stories included the same number of
actors and key narrative events and both had an element of surprise. This type
of task did not require the conceptualization of the plot, and was consequently
considered to place a relatively low cognitive load on the participants in terms
of conceptualizing their message, but as argued above, might have made greater
demands on the learners in terms of linguistic encoding.
The picture narration required students to tell a story based on six unrelated
pictures, all of which had to be included in the narrative. The pictures were
selected carefully to include similar elements in the two versions of the task.
In both versions of the task there was an object (book vs. ring), a picture
depicting an adverse weather condition (a storm with lightening vs. a storm at
sea), a means of transport (boat vs. airplane), a picture showing a geographical
location (mountains vs. an island), a house (in the middle of a forest vs. in a
town), and a door (locked vs. open). In order to successfully complete this task,
the participants not only had to rely on their language skills, but they also had
to use their imagination and find a way to relate the pictures to one another and
invent a story around them. As argued above, this task can be characterized as

Table 1 Descriptive statistics of the aptitude scores
Mean SD
HUNLAT Phonological sensitivity 12.95 3.40

Inductive ability 15.54 2.19
Grammatical awareness 11.00 3.43
Rote learning ability 16.03 3.27
Total 55.51 7.48
Note. Sample size was 44. HUNLAT = Hungarian Modern Language Aptitude Test
(Otto, 2002).
cognitively more complex in terms of conceptualization and might pose smaller

processing demands in linguistic encoding than the cartoon description task.
In order to avoid task repetition effects, these parallel versions of the car-
toon description and picture narration task were administered to the students
orally and in writing. The written and oral tasks only differed in the picture
cues; as explained above, the structure of the task was exactly the same. In a
previous research project, Albert (2007) validated the two forms of the cartoon
description and picture narration task orally and found no significant differ-
ences in any of the linguistic variables in the two versions of the tasks when
performed in speaking.2 We assumed that due to the fact that the two tasks
were found to be parallel in a similar population when performed in speech,
any differences between the cartoon-description versus picture-narration tasks
when administered in writing could be attributed to the effect of mode.
As already mentioned, the participants foreign language aptitude was mea-
sured using the HUNLAT (Otto, 2002). The HUNLAT is a test battery for the
Carollian concept of language aptitude (1981), which measures four constructs:
phonological sensitivity, inductive language learning ability, grammatical sen-
sitivity, and rote-learning ability (for information on the validity of the test see
Nikolov & Otto, 2006; Hild, 2007). Table 1 contains the descriptive statistics
of the HUNLAT scores for the participants in the study. The test consists of
four subtests described in what follows.
The phonological sensitivity subtest of the HUNLAT is a modified version
of the Phonetic script task of the MLAT and intends to measure phonetic
coding ability. Participants listen to 54 consonant-vowel-consonant sequences
and follow the transcription of these sequences in the test booklet. Afterwards
they hear 20 similar sound sequences, and they have to indicate on the answer
sheet which one of four possible transcriptions corresponds to the given sound
sequence. There is also a none option. This subtest takes about 10 minutes.

The inductive ability subtest, which was adapted from Pimsleurs (1966) Lan-
guage Aptitude Battery, aims to measure inductive language learning ability.
Participants are given a set of words and sentences in an artificial language
along with their Hungarian translations. On the basis of this information, they
have to translate 20 Hungarian sentences to the artificial language and choose
the correct solution from four alternatives. Participants have 15 minutes for
this subtest. The grammaticality sensitivity subtest is based on a similar subtest
of the MLAT and is assumed to measure grammatical sensitivity. Participants
have 10 minutes to solve 20 items, each consisting of two Hungarian sentences.
One word is underlined in the first sentence. In the second sentence, five words
are underlined, and participants have to choose the one that fulfils the same
function as the underlined word in the first sentence. Finally, the rote learning
ability subtest, which was adapted from the relevant section of MLAT (Paired
Associates), measures rote learning ability. Participants have 5 minutes to study
a list of 24 Swahili words and their Hungarian equivalents. Then they have 10
minutes to choose the Hungarian equivalent of 20 Swahili words from five
alternatives.
Procedure
The aptitude test was completed by the students at the beginning of the academic
year. The oral narrative tasks were administered to the students individually in
a quiet room at school in the third week of the school year. They were given
2 minutes to prepare for each task. The planning time was selected based on
the piloting of the tasks with 5 students at a similar proficiency level. In the
pilot study, students were given longer planning time (5 minutes), but they
usually started their stories after 3 minutes of planning. The order in which the
students performed the oral tasks was randomized. The students performance
was recorded on a digital recorder, and the recordings were subsequently tran-
scribed for analysis by a trained research assistant. After a 1-month interval, the
participants completed two written narrative tasks one after the other during a
regular English class.3 They had 30 minutes to do the two tasks, but most of
them finished earlier. They were instructed to write a minimum of 150 words for
each task. The students could decide on the order in which they completed the
tasks. Approximately 55% of the students started with the cartoon description
task, and 45% of the students chose to write the story narration task first.
Analysis
The following general measures of linguistic performance were used. The
measure of fluency (in the oral task production only) was speech rate, which

has been shown to be an index of fluency (Kormos & Denes, 2004). Speech rate
was calculated as the total number of syllables uttered by each student divided
by the total amount of time spent speaking (including pause and hesitation
time). In order to assess lexical variety, we applied Malvern and Richardss
(1997) D-formula. The calculation of the D-value is based on a mathematical
probabilistic model as operationalized in the VOCD software of the CHILDES
database (http://childes.psy.cmu.edu), which uses random sampling of tokens
in calculating the type-token ratio. Malvern and Richards (1997) argue that the
D-value is a valid measure of lexical variety because it does not depend on the
length of the sample, and it uses all the words produced by the participants (for
a discussion of various measures of lexical variety, see Jarvis, 2002). Syntactic
complexity was operationalized as the ratio of subordinate clauses, which was
also expressed relative to the total number of clauses, and as the length of
clauses, which was calculated as the number of words within a clause (Norris
& Ortega, 2009). Accuracy of general task performance was measured with
the ratio of error-free clauses, which was calculated relative to the total number
of clauses. These fluency, lexical variety, syntactic complexity and accuracy
measures have been widely used in task-based research and have proven to
reflect the characteristics of complexity and accuracy of students output in a
reliable manner (see Bygate, 1999; Robinson, 1995; Foster & Skehan, 1996;
Skehan & Foster, 1997).
The selection of task-specific measures of performance was based on the-
oretical considerations and on the initial analysis of data as described above.
A task-specific measure of syntactic complexity was chosen: the ratio of rela-
tive clauses, which was calculated by dividing the number of relative clauses
by the total number of clauses. This measure has been used as an index in
syntactic development in the production of narratives in L1 child language
acquisition research (Dasinger & Toupin, 1994). Task-specific measures of ac-
curacy included the ratio of error-free relative clauses, which was calculated in
proportion to the total number of relative clauses, as well as the ratio of error-
free verbs and the ratio of error-free past-tense verbs. The ratio of error-free
verbs was obtained by dividing the number of correctly used verb forms by the
total number of verbs. The ratio of error-free past-tense verbs was expressed as
the ratio of error-free past-tense verbs to the total number of past-tense verbs
used. This analysis was a target-like use analysis (Pica, 1984), which focused
on contexts where the structure was actually used by the learner and which
involved making a decision on whether the structure was accurately used. The
choice of this method of analysis was based on the fact that historic present
and past might both be used in certain contexts, which does not allow for a

Table 2 Summary of task performance measures used in the study
Lexical Syntactic
Fluency variety complexity Accuracy
General Speech D-value Clause length Ratio of error-free

rate Ratio of clauses
subordinate
clauses
Task- Ratio of relative Ratio of error-free
specific clauses relative clauses
Ratio of error-free
verbs
Ratio of error-free
past-tense verbs
reliable analysis of this structure using the method of obligatory occasion anal-
ysis. Table 2 summarizes the performance measures used in this study. The two
authors coded the general and task-specific accuracy measures separately and
the average percentage of agreement was 97%.
For the statistical analysis SPSS 13.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sci-
ences) was used. The statistical analyses performed were correlations and paired
samples t-tests.4 In order to compensate for multiple testing, the level of signif-
icance for this study was set at = 0.01. Cohens d value was used to measure
effect sizes, with values below .5 indicating small, between .5 and .8 medium,
and above .8 large effect size (Cohen, 1988).
Results
Table 3 shows the descriptive statistics of the means and standard deviations
of the measures of lexical variety, syntactic complexity, accuracy, and flu-
ency. Here we will report only on the significant differences between mea-
sures of performance. The comparison of tasks in the two different modes of
performance reveals that students used more varied vocabulary in the writ-
ten mode both in the cartoon description, t(43) = 6.96, p < .001, Cohens
d = .72, and in the picture narration task, t(43) = 9.18, p < .001, Cohens
d =.81. The participants also produced a significantly higher proportion of
error-free clauses, t(43) = 3.27 p = .002, Cohens d = .44, and verbs, t(43)
= 5.08 p = .001, Cohens d =.61, in the written cartoon description task than
in the parallel oral task. In the oral mode of performance, participants used

Table 3 Descriptive statistics of the linguistic variables
Written Oral
Mean (SD) Mean (SD)
Cartoon Picture Cartoon Picture
description narration description narration
Lexical variety
D-value 62.34c 58.50d 43.02ac 36.07ad
(17.02) (16.56) (11.85) (9.41)
Syntactic complexity
Clause length 5.76b 6.21b 6.46 6.61
(.84) (.91) (.98) (.83)
Ratio of subordinate .34 .35 .33 .32
clauses (.01) (.12) (.11) (.10)
Ratio of relative .09b .13b .10 .11
clauses (.074) (.086) (.08) (.07)
Accuracy
Ratio of error-free .81c .82 .75c .76
clauses (.08) (.09) (.11) (.12)
Ratio of error-free relative .79 .67 .67 .69
clauses (.27) (.32) (.33) (.40)
Ratio of error-free past-tense .94 .96 .81 .88
verbs (.16) (.18) (.29) (.28)
Ratio of error-free .84c .90 .74ac .83a
verbs (.13) (.06) (.16) (.14)
Fluency
Speech rate 1.62 1.59
(.39) (.42)
a
Denotes significant difference between oral cartoon description and picture narration
b
Denotes significant difference between written cartoon description and picture
narration
c
Denotes significant difference between oral cartoon description and written cartoon
description
d
Denotes significant difference between oral picture narration and written picture
narration
significantly more varied vocabulary in the cartoon description task than in the
picture narration task, t(43) = 3.46, p < .001, Cohens d = .44. On the other
hand, the ratio of error-free verbs was significantly lower in the oral cartoon de-
scription task than in the picture narration task, t(43) = 3.46, p < .001, Cohens
d = .44. In the written mode, students produced significantly shorter clauses,

t(43) = 2.75, p = .001, Cohens d = .38, and used more relative clauses,
t(43) = 2.72, p = .001, Cohens d = .38, in the picture narration task than in
the cartoon description task.
Tables 4a and 4b display how aptitude scores as measured by HUNLAT are
related to task performance in the oral mode. In the oral cartoon description
task, the ratio of error-free relative clauses correlated positively with grammat-
ical sensitivity and the overall HUNLAT score, whereas in the picture narration
task, students with higher levels of grammatical sensitivity used relative clauses
less correctly.5 In the oral picture narration task, inductive ability was negatively
related to D-value. Tables 5a and 5b show the results of correlations in the writ-
ten mode. As shown in Table 5a, students who scored high on the grammatical
sensitivity subtest produced longer clauses in the written cartoon description
task. In the case of the written picture narration task, however, no significant
relationships emerged (see Table 5b). All the significant correlations between
performance measures and aptitude components were moderately strong.
Discussion
Table 6 summarizes the main findings of the study in terms of lexical variety,
syntactic complexity, and accuracy and connects them to the psycholinguistic
characteristics of the two tasks. In this Discussion section, we elaborate on each
finding and possible interpretations.
Differences Between Modes of Performance

The results indicate that in writing students were more accurate and used more
varied vocabulary. Our findings are partially similar to that of Granfeldt (2008),
who also concluded that mode influenced the lexical variety of output; however,
they contradict the results of his study, as well as that of Kuiken and Vedder
(2011), by showing a significant increase in accuracy in writing in one of our
tasks: the cartoon description task. The comparison of studies on this topic
is very difficult due to the nature of different tasks used and to the differing
level of participants proficiency. Some parallels between Kuiken and Vedders
(2011) and our research might, however, be drawn if we examine the tasks used
in the two studies. Kuiken and Vedder (2011) administered a task in which
students had to justify their choices for a particular holiday destination. This
task is similar to the story narration task used in our study, in that it is also
high in conceptualization demands. Therefore, it might be possible that in tasks
which require increased attention in terms of conceptualization, L2 learners
do not seem to produce more accurate language in writing than in speech

457
Table 4a The correlation of linguistic variables with language aptitude scores in the oral cartoon description task
Kormos and Trebits
Lexical variety Syntactic complexity Accuracy Fluency
Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of

Clause subord. relative error-free error-free error-free error-free Speech
D-value length clauses clauses clauses relative clauses verbs past-tense verbs rate
Phonological .10 .38 .10 .04 .02 .21 .06 .06 .01
sensitivity
Inductive .17 .26 .01 .08 .07 .01 .06 .06 .15
ability
Grammatical .32 .07 .06 .11 .26 .47 .18 .21 .31
sensitivity
Rote learning .01 .25 .05 .01 .02 .27 .01 .38 .01
ability
HUNLAT .22 .32 .05 .08 .07 .40 .12 .26 .08
total

p < .01.
Task Complexity and Aptitude
Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472

Table 4b The correlation of linguistic variables with language aptitude scores in the oral picture narration task
Kormos and Trebits
Lexical variety Syntactic complexity Accuracy Fluency
Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of error

Clause subord. relative error-free error-free error-free free past- Speech
D-value length clauses clauses clauses relative clauses verbs tense verbs rate
Phonological .18 .13 .11 .05 .18 .21 .28 .14 .11
sensitivity

Inductive .40 .01 .13 .14 .27 .06 .01 .10 .05
ability
Grammatical .14 .04 .05 15 .08 .40 .10 .01 .27
sensitivity
Rote learning .06 .06 .10 .29 .14 .26 .19 .15 .04
ability
HUNLAT .15 .02 .08 .01 .26 .12 .17 .26 .17
total

p < .01.
458
459
Kormos and Trebits
Table 5a The correlation of linguistic variables with language aptitude scores in the written cartoon description task
Lexical variety Syntactic complexity Accuracy

Clause subord. relative error-free error-free error-free error-free
D-value length clauses clauses clauses relative clauses verbs past-tense verbs
Phonological sensitivity .08 .15 .04 .13 .02 .10 .03 .28
Inductive ability .13 .15 .26 .17 .21 .17 .29 04
Grammatical sensitivity .16 .46 .22 .24 .34 .23 .11 .24
Rote learning ability .05 .18 .13 .12 .17 .13 .14 .14
HUNLAT total .03 .24 .05 .05 .13 .15 .06 .31

p < .01.

Kormos and Trebits
Table 5b The correlation of linguistic variables with language aptitude scores in the written picture narration task
Lexical variety Syntactic complexity Accuracy

Clause subord. relative error-free error-free error-free error-free
D-value length clauses clauses clauses relative clauses verbs past-tense verbs

Phonological sensitivity .04 .30 .05 .13 .03 .34 .09 .21
Inductive ability .03 .12 .09 .06 .13 .01 .19 .18
Grammatical sensitivity .30 .10 .15 .05 .07 .13 .10 .20
Rote learning ability .13 .26 .14 .01 .02 .06 .29 .19
HUNLAT total .20 .27 .18 .06 .01 .12 .18 .03

p < .01.
460
Table 6 The overview of the psycholinguistic characteristics of the tasks with relation
to the major findings of the study
Writing Speech
Picture Story Picture Story
description narration description narration
Conceptualization Low High Low High

load
Linguistic High Adjustable High Adjustable
encoding
demands
Need to share Reduced Reduced High High
attention
between lexical
and syntactic
encoding
Lexical variety ++ ++ +
Syntactic + + +
complexity
Accuracy + + +
Role of aptitude Positive on Neutral Positive on Negative on
complexity accuracy accuracy
and lexical
variety
because their attentional resources are devoted to content planning rather than
to encoding and monitoring linguistic form. The cyclical nature of writing,
which theoretically would allow for a closer monitoring of accuracy than the
online characteristics of speaking, might only increase accuracy in tasks such
as our cartoon description task, which does not involve high conceptualizing
demands and requires the linguistic encoding of specified content.
The findings concerning the higher variety of words in writing than in
speech can be explained with reference to the availability of online planning
time in writing, which might have allowed learners to avoid repeating the same
words and helped them retrieve more varied vocabulary from their mental
lexicon. An alternative explanation might be that when teaching L2 writing,
teachers generally encourage higher lexical variety, and students might have
been aware of this encouragement.
Our results concerning the lack of difference in syntactic complexity be-
tween writing and speech are similar to those of Granfeldt (2008), but are

contradictory to those of Kuiken and Vedder (2011). The lack of effect of mode
on syntactic complexity might be explained with reference to the resource-
directing aspects of task complexity. As the two tasks were assumed to be
parallel in writing and in speech, they might have directed learners attention
to similar syntactic features and consequently might have elicited similar levels
of syntactic complexity.
Differences Between Task Types

As regards the effect of task type in the different modes, the results indicate
that the picture narration task in writing elicited syntactically more complex
language, as assessed by clause length and the ratio of relative clauses, than
the cartoon description task. This finding is seemingly in contrast with that of
Kuiken and Vedder (2008), who found no effect of task complexity in the written
mode. Kuiken and Vedder (2008), however, used only a subordination ratio as
the measure of syntactic complexity. Based on our results concerning syntactic
complexity in different types of tasks in the two modes of performance, we can
hypothesize that in writing, where the resource-dispersing dimension of task
complexity might play a different role, the picture narration task, which requires
students to conceptualize their own stories, has the potential to direct students
attention to syntactic complexity. In the oral version of this task, however,
the demand that students need to conceptualize and linguistically encode their
narrative at the same time acts as a resource-dispersion factor, and students
do not seem to have sufficient attentional resources for producing syntactically
complex language.
Task type was also found to have an effect on one specific aspect of accuracy
and on lexical variety in the oral mode. On the one hand, the cartoon description
task seems to have pushed students to use more varied vocabulary in order to
be able to express the predetermined storyline depicted in the cartoon. At
the same time students accuracy in verb forms decreased in this task, which
might seem to indicate a trade-off effect between lexical and grammatical
encoding in the linguistic formulation phase of speech production. On the
other hand, in the picture narration task, the students could conceptualize the
story line taking their own linguistic resources into account and might have
used vocabulary which was easily accessible from their mental lexicon. As a
consequence, they might have had more attention available for the accurate
linguistic encoding of verbs. The lack of significant differences in fluency
between the two tasks also seems to lend support to this trade-off effect and
might suggest that the overall processing load at the linguistic encoding stage

of the tasks might have been similar. If our reasoning about conceptualization
and linguistic encoding demands is on the right track, these findings indicate
that it is also important to consider the cognitive aspects of task complexity
in the linguistic encoding phase and not only at the conceptualization stage
of speech production. The results might also indicate that task type effects
manifest themselves differently in speech than in writing. In speech not only do
learners need to divide their attention between conceptualization and linguistic
encoding, but they also need to carry out linguistic encoding processes under
time pressure, which requires that they share attentional resources during lexical
and syntactic encoding (see Table 6). As argued above, in the oral version of the
cartoon description, task students attention might have been drawn to lexical
encoding and, hence, they might have had less attention available for syntactic
encoding. In writing, however, syntactic and lexical encoding do not need to be
carried out in parallel, which might result in improved accuracy in general and
in the use of verb forms in particular in the written cartoon description task.
This suggests that there might be an interaction between task type and mode,
as tasks with different cognitive and linguistic demands seem to elicit different
patterns of performance in writing than in speech. As a consequence, it might
be difficult to draw general conclusions concerning the effect of mode on task
performance without taking the characteristics of the task to be performed into
consideration.
The Relationship Between Aptitude and Oral Task Performance

Our findings indicate that students with a given cognitive profile do not per-
form consistently in narrative tasks. In the oral cartoon description task, where
students were not required to conceptualize and linguistically encode their mes-
sage at the same time, high grammatical sensitivity and high level of language
learning aptitude might have helped students to successfully encode complex
and difficult syntactic structures such as relative clauses. In the oral picture
narration task, however, where the HUNLAT correlations with lexical variety
and the accuracy of relative clauses were negative, the task demands in terms
of conceptualizing the content of the story might have caused difficulties to
students with high grammatical sensitivity in employing their linguistic knowl-
edge efficiently. We might argue that grammatical sensitivity is a cognitive
ability that aids the conscious and explicit acquisition of complex syntactic
knowledge (Robinson, 2005b) and that this ability might also help learners
with high aptitude to consciously employ their explicit knowledge when they
have sufficient attentional capacities that they can devote to linguistic encoding.

This might be the case in the oral cartoon description task, in which students
did not have to conceptualize the content of the narrative, and hence learners
with high grammatical sensitivity might have been able to apply their explicit
knowledge of relative clauses efficiently.
From the perspective of students who scored low on the grammatical sen-
sitivity component of HUNLAT, the findings indicate that they might be less
able to encode complex syntactic structures accurately in oral tasks in which
the given content requires the use of specific syntactic structures and are thus
high in linguistic encoding demands. They might, however, be advantaged in
the oral picture narration task, in which they have the opportunity to avoid
complex structures and in which attentional demands on conceptualization
are high. A possible explanation for this might be that learners with lower
levels of grammatical sensitivity might rely more on implicit knowledge and
memorized chunks and thus might be more efficient in employing implicit
knowledge of complex syntactic structures than students with high grammatical
sensitivity.
It is interesting to note the negative relationship in the oral picture narration
task between inductive ability and lexical variety as measured by the D-value.
We might tentatively argue that learners with high inductive ability might have
devoted their attentional resources to some other aspects of performance in this
task. Niwas research (2000) also found that in the cognitively more complex
task students with high aptitude scores performed worse in fluency, which she
explained with reference to the fact that they might have paid more attention
to the linguistic and conceptual encoding required by the task. Although the
correlation between inductive ability and ratio of error-free clauses (r = .27
p =.07) is not significant, its direction is positive. Despite being weak, this
correlation might indicate that students with high level of inductive abilities
prioritized accuracy over lexical variety.
Finally, we would like to point out a correlation between the ratio of error-
free past-tense verbs and rote learning ability in the oral cartoon description
task (r =.38, p = .02), which due to the lower alpha (p = .01) set for this study
is slightly below the level of significance. Rote learning ability helps in mem-
orizing words and irregular morphological information. A great proportion of
past-tense verb forms at the low-frequency level of vocabulary our participants
tended to employ are irregular, and consequently rote-learning ability helps
their accurate acquisition. The results indicate that students with high score in
rote learning ability tended to be able to accurately retrieve the past-tense verb
forms in the oral cartoon description task, in which they had sufficient attention
available for linguistic encoding.

The Relationship Between Aptitude and Written Task Performance

Similarly to the oral mode, grammatical sensitivity was found to be positively
related to certain aspects of performance in the written cartoon description task,
but in writing the negative relationship of aptitude components and accuracy
and lexical variety was not observed in the picture narration task. The finding
that learners with high grammatical sensitivity produced longer clauses in the
written cartoon description task might be related to the complexity demands of
this writing task. This task relieved students from the cognitive load of having
to conceptualize the story but made high demands on the participants in the
linguistic encoding phase because they had to express a given content with
their existing resources. The comparison of the mean values for clause-length
in the two types of narratives also shows that students in general used shorter
clauses in the picture narration task than in the story narration. Considering
the linguistic encoding demands of the task, it seems that students with higher
grammatical sensitivity might have devoted more attention to clausal com-
plexity than learners with lower levels of cognitive ability who might have
prioritized other aspects of linguistic processing such as the encoding of sub-
ordinate clauses. This seems to be supported by the finding that grammatical
sensitivity was negatively, although not significantly, correlated with the other
two syntactic complexity measures, namely the ratio of subordinate and relative
clauses. This pattern of correlations might suggest that in the cartoon descrip-
tion task students with high grammatical sensitivity tended to produce longer
clauses at the expense of greater subordination complexity, whereas students
with lower levels of grammatical sensitivity used more subordinate and relative
clauses, but produced shorter clauses.
We also need to account for the fact, however, that in the written picture
narration task no relationship between aptitude and any of the performance
measures was found. It was already shown in the case of the oral version of
this task that students with better cognitive abilities tended to perform worse
in terms of the accuracy of relative clauses and D-value than participants
with low aptitude scores. We explained this finding by arguing that the fact
that the learners had to divide their attention between conceptualization and
linguistic encoding in the oral picture narration task might have disadvantaged
learners with high levels of grammatical sensitivity and inductive ability. Due
to the availability of extensive online planning time and the cyclical nature of
writing, sharing attentional resources between conceptualization and linguistic
encoding in the writing phase might be less demanding than in speech, and
therefore this task condition might not create a disadvantage for learners with
high level of cognitive abilities.

Conclusion
In our research we investigated the relationship of traditional components of
aptitude with the lexical variety, syntactic complexity, accuracy, and fluency
of performance in two types of narrative tasks, which were administered both
orally and in writing to 44 upper-intermediate Hungarian learners of English.
Our study also aimed to reveal how narrative performance varies in tasks of
different cognitive complexity in the written and spoken modes. Our findings
indicate that in writing the participants were more accurate and used more
varied vocabulary than in speech, but their performance was similar in terms
of syntactic complexity. The effect of task type on performance differed in
the two modes. In speech students used fewer correct verb forms and more
varied vocabulary in the cartoon description task than in the picture narration
task. In writing, however, the picture narration task elicited syntactically more
complex language than the cartoon description task. The results seem to lend
support to Robinsons (2001b, 2003, 2005b) Cognition Hypothesis because
in writing, where the resource-dispersing demands of tasks are reduced, the
task that required complex cognitive planning at the level of conceptualization
had the potential to direct learners attention to syntactically more complex
language. We also pointed out, however, that it might be difficult to rank order
pedagogic tasks in terms of cognitive complexity, and that cognitive demands
of tasks should not only be considered at the conceptualization phase of speech
production but also at the level of linguistic encoding.
Our results indicate that aptitude components were differently related to
linguistic measures of oral performance than to those of written production,
and that the strongest positive link between aptitude and linguistic measures
manifested itself in the cartoon description task, where students did not have
to conceptualize the storyline. The results of this study might provide support
for Robinsons (2001a, 2005a) Aptitude Complexes Hypothesis as they reveal
that aptitude components play various roles in influencing performance under
different task conditions. From our results, we can see that aptitude is not a uni-
tary construct, and having high levels of cognitive ability does not necessarily
result in enhanced quality of task performance. This suggests that it is essential
to vary instructional tasks used in classroom settings as well as tasks used in
language assessment in order to give learners with different cognitive profiles
equal chances to perform to the best of their potential.
Our findings also highlight the importance of examining task-specific mea-
sures of linguistic performance because most of the significant aptitude and
task effects were found on variables which have not been used in task-based

research before. Accuracy rates in selected syntactic structures across different

types of tasks can be indicative not only of the state of language development
but also of how different types of tasks succeed in eliciting accurate language
use.
It has to be acknowledged that our study has a number of limitations. One
shortcoming of our research is that tasks were not counter-balanced in the dif-
ferent modalities. This might have induced an effect of the content of the task
in the different modes of performance. An additional concern might be that
the task-specific measures of performance targeted structures the occurrence of
which was limited in number, and consequently a larger corpus of L2 data would
be needed to verify our findings concerning the link between aptitude and the
accurate use of relative clauses. The results of our study should also be inter-
preted with caution due to the characteristics of the participants. The students
who participated in our research had generally high scores in language apti-
tude and were enrolled in a highly intensive language training program. These
circumstances necessarily warrant replication with students who show more
variation in their cognitive profiles and who have different levels of proficiency.
As aptitude has been found to have differential influences across different in-
structional settings, further studies should also be conducted to examine the
interaction of cognitive factors and language teaching methodology. Finally,
we also have to note that our findings reveal that even relatively similar tasks
which share the same genre might elicit remarkably different performance.
Therefore, it is highly important to consider the psycholinguistic characteris-
tics of spoken and written tasks at different stages of language production if
we want to advance our knowledge of how tasks can elicit targeted aspects of
language.
Revised version accepted 15 June 2010
Notes
1 The proportion of past-tense verbs relative to the total number of finite verbs was
71% in the oral cartoon description task, 87% in the oral picture narration task,
95% in the written cartoon description task, and 98% in the written picture
narration task. Eighty-eight percent of students used at least one relative clause in
the oral cartoon description task, 95% in the oral picture narration task, 80% in the
written cartoon description task and 85% in the written picture narration task.
2 Albert (2007) administered all four tasks in speech to a group of participants, who
were of comparable level of proficiency. She analyzed the parallel versions of the

tasks in terms of discourse complexity (the number and type of narrative events)
and linguistic variables: speech rate (as measured by syllables per second), lexical
variety (D-value), syntactic complexity (subordination ratio), and accuracy (ratio
of error-free clauses). Neither the qualitative nor the quantitative analyses revealed
any significant differences between the discourse structure and the linguistic
features of performance in the two versions of the picture narration and cartoon
description task.
3 The one-month interval between the oral and written task was due to organizational
reasons (we did not want to disrupt the teaching routine with a brief interval). The
students received approximately 16 hours of classroom instruction between the two
data collection sessions, which is not expected to result in substantial linguistic
development during this period.
4 The aptitude subtests were not significantly correlated with each other, which
allowed us to examine the effect of the components of the test on task performance
independently of each other.
5 The correlation between the total aptitude score and the ratio of error-free clauses
is an artefact of the high correlation of grammatical sensitivity and the ratio of
error-free clauses because the grammatical sensitivity score contributes
significantly to the total aptitude score (r = .59, p <.0001).
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Language Learning ISSN 0023-8333

The Role of Task Complexity, Modality,

Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472 439

be taken into consideration both in theoretical accounts of SLA and in practi-

Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472 440

Language Learning Aptitude

441 Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472

Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472 442

443 Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472

Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472 444

dimensions of task performance call learners attention to the linguistic features

Written vs. Spoken Task Performance

445 Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472

There are a number of important differences between speaking and writing

Individual Differences and Task Performance

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Aims of the Present Study

447 Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472

aptitude manifest themselves in tasks which make different conceptualization

Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472 448

also have several important discourse and linguistic functions in narratives,

1. How is Hungarian L2 learners narrative performance affected by mode

449 Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472

level of proficiency as slightly above intermediate corresponding to B1/B2 in

Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472 450

Table 1 Descriptive statistics of the aptitude scores

HUNLAT Phonological sensitivity 12.95 3.40

cognitively more complex in terms of conceptualization and might pose smaller

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Table 2 Summary of task performance measures used in the study

General Speech D-value Clause length Ratio of error-free

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Table 3 Descriptive statistics of the linguistic variables

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Differences Between Modes of Performance

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Lexical variety Syntactic complexity Accuracy Fluency

Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of

Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472

Lexical variety Syntactic complexity Accuracy Fluency

Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of error

Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472

Lexical variety Syntactic complexity Accuracy

Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of

Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472

Lexical variety Syntactic complexity Accuracy

Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of Ratio of

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Conceptualization Low High Low High

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Differences Between Task Types

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The Relationship Between Aptitude and Oral Task Performance

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Language Learning 62:2, June 2012, pp. 439472 464

The Relationship Between Aptitude and Written Task Performance

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