University of Isfahan Applied Research on English Language 3134-0644 4 2 2015 08 01 The effects of task complexity on Chinese learners’ language production: A synthesis and meta-analysis 96 109 15505 10.22108/are.2015.15505 EN Jiaxin Xing Beijing Normal University & Lecturer, Qufu Normal University, China Shaoqian Luo Professor, Beijing Normal University, China Journal Article 2016 06 14 The  present  meta-analysis  was  conducted  to  provide  a  quantitative  measure  of  the <br />overall effects of task complexity on Chinese EFL learners’ language  production.  Based  on  the <br />strict inclusion criteria, 12 primary  studies  were synthesized according to key  features.  Eleven of <br />them  were  meta-analyzed  to  investigate  effects  of  raising  the  resource-directing  task  complexity. <br />Results revealed that (a) there was an assortment of treatments and measures, (b) there was a small <br />to medium positive effect for syntactic complexity (d=0.64) and small effect for lexical complexity <br />(d=0.20),  which  lends  support  to  the  Cognition  Hypothesis;  there  was  a  small  negative  effect  for <br />accuracy (-0.18) and a close to negative effect (0.01) for fluency in writing, which partly confirms <br />Skehan’s  Trade-off  effects,  and  (c)  task  modality  (oral  or  written)  did  not  make  a  significant <br />difference on the overall effects on complexity and accuracy,  while  make a significant  difference <br />on fluency. https://are.ui.ac.ir/article_15505_7526bf476824232fa20cfd8b77f73b3d.pdf