Exploring the impacts of task complexity, anxiety, and self-efficacy on L2 written production: Unraveling individual differences in TBLT

Abstract

Applying the task-based language teaching (TBLT) approach to L2 writing research has expanded to include learners’ affective factors and their potential impact on L2 production. However, two affective factors, L2 writing anxiety and self-efficacy, have received scant research attention within the TBLT domain despite evidence to suggest that writing anxiety can diminish L2 written production and self-efficacy can promote L2 written production. This exploratory study examined the interactions among L2 writing anxiety, L2 writing self-efficacy, and L2 writing performance in a simple and complex task version. One hundred L2 learners at a university in the United States completed L2 writing anxiety and self-efficacy questionnaires before performing two written argumentative tasks of varying cognitive complexity in a counterbalanced fashion, with a 1-week interval. Correlational results show that L2 writing anxiety is negatively linked to lexical sophistication and fluency in the simple task, but positively linked to syntactic complexity and fluency in the complex task. L2 writing self-efficacy was negatively linked to lexical diversity and fluency in the complex task. Overall, L2 writing anxiety and L2 writing self-efficacy explained only very small amounts of variance in students’ written performance in both complex conditions, except for fluency in the simple task (R² = 9.2%) and complexity in the complex task (R² = 10.7%), which show medium-sized effects. Our findings contradict existing studies and contribute to an enhanced understanding of the role affective individual differences play in L2 written performance.