The Relationship between Different Levels of Task Complexity and Listening Comprehension Across Proficiency

This study mainly focused on the synergetic impact of three dissimilar combinations of the ± spatial reasoning and single task as two variables of cognitive task complexity on listening comprehension which has not been examined to date to the best of the researcher's knowledge. However, the association between some variables of cognitive task complexity and learners' linguistic performance has been the main focus of scores of studies. A within- subjects design was employed to compare the extent of high-proficiency students' comprehension of simple, complex, and very complex tasks. The second design, between-subjects one, was employed to compare high and low-proficiency students' simple, complex, and very complex task performances. The Oxford Placement Test was administered to select high- and low-proficiency students out of female students at an art non-profit university in Tehran. Simple non- spatial reasoning and single tasks, complex non-spatial reasoning and dual tasks, and very complex spatial reasoning and dual tasks were presented to thirty-one high and low-proficiency students in order. Friedman test results indicated that high-proficiency students' comprehension of three sets of tasks was statistically different. Based on the Mann- Whitney U test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, post hoc Bonferroni test, and repeated-measures ANOVA results, there was a statistically significant association between students' language proficiency and how they accomplished listening tasks with cognitive complexity diversity. This study's findings can assist L۲ teachers and task constructors with constructing and arranging tasks for L۲ learners.

کلیدواژه ها:

Cognitive Complexity ، Dual Task ، Listening Comprehension ، Spatial Reasoning Demand ، SSARC Model