Task complexity effects on L2 writing pausing and revision processes

Co-authored paper presented at the Conference on European Second Language Acquisition (EuroSLA), Tromsø, Norway.

This study investigated how task complexity, manipulated through the presence or absence of content support, influenced L2 writers’ pausing and revision behaviors as well as their perceptions of task difficulty and engagement in writing processes. While keystroke logging data revealed no significant differences in pausing or revision behavior between simple and complex tasks, participants in the complex condition reported spending more time planning and structuring their writing and revising language features afterward. The study offers new empirical insights into task complexity effects on writing and highlights methodological considerations for aligning process data with writers’ self-reported experiences.