Impact of task condition on L2 learners' oral performance

One of the most widely discussed task distinctions in task based language teaching is the one between open and closed tasks which refers to the flow of information in the task. Both are information gap tasks, in which information is transferred between task participants. It is thus hypothesized that task condition affects L2 learner's performance in terms of fluency and accuracy which in turn contributes to the development of overall proficiency and consequently creates a favorable condition for language learning .In line with this theoretical rationale, this study investigated the impact of task conditions on L2 learner's performance to find if these two different task conditions produce different kinds of performance. Oral performance 0f 50 L2 learners at the intermediate level were collected by means of open and closed tasks. The data was statistically analyzed. Results of statistical analysis revealed that there was a significant difference between the open and closed conditions in terms of fluency but no significant difference between the closed and open conditions in terms of accuracy. Of course there was a trend towards greater accuracy in the closed condition despite the lack of statistical difference. The implications of the study in syllabus design and testing will be discussed