De Relatie Tussen Cognitieve Taakcomplexiteit En Linguïstische Performance Bij Het Schrijven In T1 En T2

According to Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis of task-based L2 development, cognitively more demanding tasks will lead to the use of lexically and syntactically more complex language (Robinson 2001a, 2001b, in press). A different viewpoint is held by Skehan (1998) and Skehan & Foster (1999, 2001), who hypothesize that the more attention is required for a task because of its cognitive complexity, the less complex will be the linguistic output. The present research focuses on the relationship between taskcomplexity and linguistic performance in L1 and L2 writing. We report on an experiment carried out among 51 Dutch university students of Italian as a second language. The test included two writing tasks, in which cognitive task complexity was manipulated by varying the number of elements to be described and the required reasoning demands. Pre-existing knowledge of Italian was established by means of a pre-test. In the article, the results and theoretical and pedagogical implications of the study are discussed.