2015 Volume 17 Issue 1 Pages 39-49
Studies on automatization maintain that less proficient L2 learners require more effort for language production because of the limited processing capacity of their working memory that arises from their limited language skills. Meanwhile, highly proficient learners show more independence from the cognitive demands on their capacity than less proficient ones. From this standpoint, the present study focused on cognitive demands estimated by learners’ judgment of difficulty ratings in writing tasks to look into the developmental order of L2 performance along with complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) through quantitative analysis of a written L2 corpus of Japanese EFL learners. The result indicated that Japanese EFL learners develop their fluency before achieving complexity in their written production.
