Skehan's limited attention capacity prediction as an account of task complexity effects on child L2 development¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 3 claims (2 for, 1 mixed) · 3 studies (2 causal, 1 quant-synthesis), q2–q4 · 1 of 3 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

Skehan's limited attention capacity model holds that learners have finite attentional resources, so increasing the cognitive demands of a task shifts attention toward task content and away from linguistic form. The article uses it to explain why child learners receiving recasts benefited most from simple tasks: "Tasks with high cognitive demands would complicate the process of conceptualization and learners had fewer attention resources available for language encoding." It stands opposed to Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis, which predicts benefits from resource-directing complexity.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Learners must be processing recasts during task performance for attentional competition between task content and form to arise

Constraints¶

• The article's support comes from child learners of low cognitive level in primary school; the authors tie the explanation to participants' cognitive development level and English learning habits

Target Learners¶

• child beginner EFL learners in primary school

Target Learning Objectives¶

• acquisition of the third person singular -s verb form

Claims¶

• Task Complexity Negatively Related Child Written Production [+M]
• Task complexity shows no significant effect on child learners' oral production of the target form when receiving recasts [~W]
• Cognitive Overload Degrades Learning [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Cognitive Load Theory
• Executive Function Development

Examples¶

• For child beginner language learners, keep task complexity low or moderate so attention remains available for noticing recasts

Key Sources¶

• Lihui Lv & Chunyan Liu. (2022). Recast, Task Complexity and Child Learners' L2 Development. English Language Teaching, 15(9). https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v15n9p95