Chapter published in:
Task-Based Approaches to Teaching and Assessing Pragmatics
Edited by Naoko Taguchi and YouJin Kim
[Task-Based Language Teaching 10] 2018
► pp. 84–109

Chapter 4
Task complexity effects on interaction during a collaborative persuasive writing task

A conversation analytic perspective

| Carnegie Mellon University
| Carnegie Mellon University

This study examined whether task complexity (Robinson, 2011a, b), induced through reasoning demands, affects L2 learners’ interaction patterns during a collaborative writing task that involved the pragmatic act of persuasion. We analyzed interaction of two pairs of students when they co-constructed a persuasive essay in English based on a prompt. One pair completed a ‘simple’ task, which provided explicit information about the arguments, macro-structure of the essay, and linguistic devices to use in a persuasive essay, while the other pair completed a ‘complex’ task in which such information was withheld, and thus they needed to use reasoning skills to figure out the structure of the persuasive essay. Using a conversation analysis-inspired approach, we examined how students co-constructed an essay. Results revealed differences between pairs completing a complex and simple task in terms of (1) pre-writing negotiation over the essay’s structure and (2) during-writing negotiation over sources of trouble. The complex task condition prompted participants to use more reasoning processes to accomplish the task goal, as shown in more extended negotiation sequences and turn taking, frequent pauses, and hesitant ways of speaking (e.g., use of rising intonation and epistemic markers).

Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Background
    • L2 pragmatics and genre
    • The Cognition Hypothesis: Task complexity and interaction-driven learning opportunities
    • Collaborative writing
    • Purpose of the study
  • Methods
    • Participants
    • Instructional targets: Rhetorical moves and linguistic forms in a persuasive essay
    • Conceptualization of task in this study
    • Operationalization of task complexity
    • Data collection procedures
    • Data analysis procedures
  • Results
    • Pre-writing negotiation over the essay’s outline
    • During-writing negotiation over sources of trouble and actions to take
  • Discussion
    • Limitations and directions for future research
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 15 August 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/tblt.10.04gom
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