Translation and Second Language Acquisition

This study investigates the impact of manipulating the cognitive complexity of tasks on language learners’ perception of task difficulty in terms of overall task difficulty, perceived ability to perform the task, stress, motivation, and interest. The present study also examines the effect of such affective variables on complexity, accuracy, and fluency of learners ’ task performance. Some 65 Iranian students studying English as a foreign language at the intermediate level participated in this research. The obtained results revealed that task complexity does affect task performance. Furthermore, task designer’s interpretation of task complexity and learners ’ perception of task difficulty converge. Additionally, task takers’ ratings of tasks are related to the complexity and fluency but not accuracy of the performance