Task‐Related Variation in Interlanguage: The Case of Articles*

There is no doubt that second‐language learners vary in the accuracy of their production when asked to perform different tasks. For example, Tarone (1985) found that the accuracy with which English articles and other grammatical forms were used by nonnative speakers at a single point in time varied depending on the tasks which the learners were asked to perform. Quantitative measures showed that the shifts in accuracy of article use were highly significant. The causes of this variability, however, were unclear. Researchers such as Arditty & Perdue (1979) have suggested a variety of possible causes of task‐related variability. In this study, a more fine‐grained quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Tarone (1985) data focuses on the function which articles played in the different tasks. It is found that different tasks elicited different types of noun phrases, which in turn demanded different uses of the article. In addition, it is found that there was some tendency of learner accuracy with articles occurring with one type of noun phrase to change across the tasks used. It is argued that this change in accuracy is due to the communicative demands and discourse characteristics of the tasks. Finally, it is argued that task‐related variability in interlanguage must be due, not to a single variable called “attention to form,” but to a complex of variables, at least one of which must be the differing communicative functions which forms may perform in different tasks, as, for example, when these tasks place different degrees of communicative pressure upon the speaker, or elicit discourse which varies in its cohesiveness.