Cognitive Demands and Emotional Responses in L2 Writing: How Task Complexity and Task-Specific Emotions Shape Learners’ Performance

This study examined the complex relationships among task complexity, task-specific emotions, and learners’ L2 writing performance. Sixty-one Chinese EFL learners were divided into two groups and completed two writing tasks in a counterbalanced order. They reported their perceptions about task complexity and their emotional experience during the task after completing each task. The results revealed that (1) task complexity exerted a significant negative effect on learners’ writing performance in terms of content, but no significant effects on language use, organization and communicative achievement, or overall writing performance; (2) task complexity did not significantly affect learners’ task enjoyment, task anxiety or task boredom; (3) task-specific emotions did not predict learners’ overall writing performance in the simple task, while task anxiety exerted a significant negative effect on learners’ performance in the complex task. These results are discussed with reference to the Cognition Hypothesis and the Control-Value Theory, particularly the intensified role of affect under increased cognitive demands and the negative impact of task anxiety on writing performance, offering pedagogical implications for L2 writing.