Jiasi Chen

Xi'an International Studies University, College of English

Abstract：

Li, Wei, and Lu’s study, “Task complexity and L2 writing performance of young learners: Contributions of cognitive and affective factors,” represents a significant and timely contribution to the fields of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), and L2 writing research. This critical review provides a comprehensive evaluation of the study, assessing its theoretical innovation, methodological rigor, empirical findings, and broader implications. The review highlights the study’s primary strength: the ambitious and largely successful integration of cognitive models of writing, TBLT frameworks, and Positive Psychology (PP) into a novel “Integrated Task-Mediated Cognitive–Affective Model of L2 Writing.” The empirical investigation, which involved 412 young Chinese EFL learners, robustly demonstrates the distinct roles of working memory, trait enjoyment, task-specific enjoyment, and task motivation, and how their predictive power is moderated by task complexity. While the study is praised for its methodological rigor, nuanced results, and practical pedagogical implications, this review also identifies several limitations. These include a restricted affective scope focused solely on enjoyment, challenges in causal interpretation from a cross-sectional design, and a focus on the written product over the writing process. The review concludes that despite these limitations, the study makes a formidable theoretical and empirical advance, effectively bridging positive psychology with TBLT and L2 writing research, and opening promising avenues for future inquiry.

Key Words：

task complexity; working memory; task-based language teaching