An Analysis of the Writing Skills of Learners of Turkish as a Foreign Language According to the Task Complexity

The study investigates the effect of task complexity on the writing performance of learners of Turkish as a foreign language. Simple and complex writing tasks were developed for B1 and B2 levels in alignment with the CEFR descriptors for written production and interaction. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was employed. The findings indicate that error frequency was higher in simple tasks and increased at the B2 level, with female participants producing more errors overall. Text length was greater in simple tasks, suggesting reduced fluency under increased cognitive demands. In the YADPA assessment, complex tasks yielded higher scores in the “language and expression” dimension, whereas simple tasks resulted in higher scores across multiple dimensions, including page layout, plan and structure. The findings indicating that, as task complexity increased, error rates decreased, fluency declined with shorter textual outputs, and scores in language and expression improved are consistent with the Cognition Hypothesis.