g6
Abstract
The present study examined the differential effects of time and length constraints on complexity, accuracy, lexis, and fluency of EFL learners’ narrative retellings. Thirty female participants at the intermediate proficiency level were selected non-randomly through a convenient sampling procedure from the researcher’s intermediate level classes. They had to retell the narrative under time constraints and then reproduce it with length constraints. Following Tavakoli (2018), four indices (ratio of subordination, Weighted Clause Ratio, Diversity, and speech rate representing four dependent variables of complexity, accuracy, lexis, and fluency, respectively) out of 12 were chosen. Repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) in two performance sessions. Findings indicated that there was a difference in a linear combination of the four dependent variables of complexity, accuracy, lexis, and fluency across the two times of performance. It was also concluded that learners' narrative retellings do not demonstrate significant changes, in terms of complexity, accuracy, lexis, and fluency separately, across time-constrained versus length-constrained reproductions.