The present study addresses the issue of Task Difficulty which is a major challenge for those concerned with Task-based language teaching and syllabus design. The main focus of the study is on identifying possible sources and factors as the determinants of L2 Task Difficulty. The various taxonomies identifying a range of factors contributing to Task Difficulty will be discussed and some models of taxonomies and criteria of Task Difficulty will be proposed which will be of particular relevance and help for both pedagogic and research purposes.

The present study was an attempt to investigate EFL learners’ perception of Task Difficulty. Twenty adult Iranian learners participated in this study on a volunteer basis. Drawing upon current models of Task Difficulty, the researchers managed to operationally define four oral narrative Tasks of varying degrees of complexity. Having performed the Tasks, the participants attended a round of retrospective interviews. The qualitative analysis brought to light five major themes. To explore how current models of Task Difficulty would explain the learners’ attitude toward Task demands, these categories were juxtaposed with Skehan’s model and Robinson’s triadic componential framework. In this connection, the protocols were investigated from a cognitive, information-processing perspective on Task-based language teaching and the most relevant implications were discussed.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Task Difficulty and the effectiveness of attentional instructions (baseline, internal and external) on balance Task performance. Recent studies have shown that performer’s focus of attention plays an important role in the performance and learning motor skills, specifically when the Task is novel and challenging for the performer. Forty eight students participated in this study and were divided randomly into two groups. Participants in each group performed three 15 balance Tasks on a digital stabilimeter under each three conditions; without instructions, internal attentional focus, and external attentional focus. The results indicated that the performance of the difficult Task group under external attentional focus was significantly better than other two conditions, while there wasn’t any significant difference in sway index among baseline, external instructions and internal focus conditions in each Task group. It means that external focus will be more effective if the Task is more challenging for performer. Therefore, the results indicate that the effectiveness of attentional focus as a learning variable depends on the Difficulty of Task.

Different methods of language teaching have tried to help EFL learners to develop good language skills based on their various perspectives. Research findings have underscored the effect of using Task types in promoting language skills in terms of accuracy in written discourse. Therefore, this study set out to investigate whether there is an evidence of correct use of simple past tense (Accuracy) based on Task Complexity (Task type: Here-and now & There-and-then),Task Conditions (Gender: Male & Female), and Task Difficulty (Proficiency: Lower-intermediate & Intermediate). Sixty Iranian English learners in a language institute participated in the study and were assigned to four groups of lower-intermediate male, lower-intermediate female, intermediate male and intermediate female. Initial homogeneity of the groups was verified using two general proficiency tests; KET for lower-intermediate and PET for intermediate. All groups in here-and-now Task type were asked to write a story using simple past based on a picture strip while for there-and-then Task type the participants were supposed to write about their last birthday. The results from paired samples t-test, independent samples t-test and two-way ANOVA analysis of the written data revealed significant differences in performing Task types, at different proficiency levels and interaction between them. The findings have significant pedagogical implications for EFL learners to understand the relationship among Task Complexity, Task Conditions, Task Difficulty and L2 written production leading to various degrees of Accuracy.

This study investigated students’ oral performance ability accounting for various oral analytical factors including fluency, lexical and structural complexity and accuracy with each subcategory. Accordingly, 20 raters scored the oral performances produced by 200 students and a quantitative design using a MANOVA test was used to investigate students’ score differences of various levels of language proficiency groups with respect to their oral scores in each analytical factor. The findings showed that students, in each level of language proficiency, were different from each other regarding various measures of fluency, lexical complexity, structural complexity and accuracy when performing the five oral Tasks. Besides, the findings showed that language planning, perspective and immediacy were the determining dimensions in oral Task Difficulty. The findings demonstrated the usefulness of analytical approaches to rater training programs in detecting rater effects and demonstrating the consistency and variability in rater behavior. The analysis confirmed that the nature of second language oral construct is not constant, thus different results are achieved using different oral Task dimensions. Consequently, the outcomes have constructive implications in the use of feedback as a reliable indicator of Task Difficulty and specifically as a basis for test design and validation.

Till recently, text Difficulty has commonly been determined by employing readability formulas; however, major criticisms have been leveled against readability formulas (Graves & Graves, 2003). This research project aimed at determining text Difficulty through readability formulas and Coh-Metrix. In other words, the study investigated the role of text Difficulty in EFL learners’ pedagogic Task performances. Since both males and females took part in the study, firstly the researchers aimed at finding out whether a different pattern of Task performance existed for each. Secondly, all participants were provided with two different reading passages whose Difficulty levels were determined by Coh-Metrix and readability formulas. Finally, a self-efficacy questionnaire was administered to delve into learners’ self-perceptions about their own performances on the pedagogic Tasks. Descriptive statistics, paired samples t-test and repeated measures ANOVA, were utilized to analyze the data. The results indicated that gender of the students had no significant impact on the learners’ performances on the pedagogic Tasks. The findings revealed that text Difficulty and the learners’ self-efficacy significantly affected EFL learners’ performance on the pedagogic Tasks. The findings suggest that determining Difficulty level of the texts through Coh-Metrix could be considered a step forward and will certainly assist language teachers and syllabus designers who strive to tailor the appropriate Tasks and materials to learners at differing level of language proficiency. The results also imply that self-perceptions of learners might be a true predictor of their own performances on different Tasks in general, and on pedagogic Tasks in particular.