Startseite Linguistik & Semiotik Relationship between learner creativity, task planning, and speaking performance in L2 narrative tasks
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Relationship between learner creativity, task planning, and speaking performance in L2 narrative tasks

  • Jie Qin

    Dr. Jie Qin is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at the School of Foreign Languages Studies, South China Agricultural University, China. Her main research interests are task-based and cognitive linguistics-inspired approaches to instructed second language acquisition, with a focus on the roles of tasks and individual differences in SLA. She has published articles in journals such as Applied Linguistics, Language Teaching, Language Teaching Research, Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching (SSLLT), and System.

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Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 24. Mai 2024

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between learners’ creativity viewed as a divergent thinking cognitive trait and the language/content dimensions of their L2 speaking performance under two task planning conditions, while controlling for the effects of L2 proficiency. Sixty-one Chinese learners of English took an Elicited Imitation Task, a verbal and a figural creativity test, and performed two picture-prompted narrative tasks. Results showed that when learners had time to plan, their L2 proficiency and creativity were predictors of their speaking performance in terms of fluency and idea productivity, while under the no planning condition, creativity predicted learners’ performance measured by idea productivity, discoursal structure, and lexical diversity. Moreover, different creativity measures contributed to L2 task performance in differential manners. This study contributes to the field by shedding light on the interaction between learner-related and task-related variables on L2 speaking production and the nature of the new individual difference variable of creativity.


Corresponding author: Jie Qin, School of Foreign Studies, South China Agricultural University, No. 483 Wushan Road, Guangzhou, GD 510624, China, E-mail:

Funding source: The Social Science Project of Guangdong Province, China

Award Identifier / Grant number: GD22CWY04

About the author

Jie Qin

Dr. Jie Qin is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at the School of Foreign Languages Studies, South China Agricultural University, China. Her main research interests are task-based and cognitive linguistics-inspired approaches to instructed second language acquisition, with a focus on the roles of tasks and individual differences in SLA. She has published articles in journals such as Applied Linguistics, Language Teaching, Language Teaching Research, Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching (SSLLT), and System.

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Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2023-0252).


Received: 2023-10-09
Accepted: 2024-05-07
Published Online: 2024-05-24
Published in Print: 2025-11-25

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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