摘要：With the aim of contributing to the existing literature on the relationships between task and topic facets, discourse features, topic familiarity, and task performance in speaking, this study used EFL monologues to examine how two different sets of topics―experiences/preferences versus opinions/attitudes―relate to task performance. The task performance was measured using discourse features, including how language elicited was complex, fluent, and lexically diverse. The study also explores how discourse features themselves relate to one another across the two sets of topics. The data for the study came from monologues performed by 63 adult EFL learners at the intermediate level of an intensive English program in Saudi Arabia. The learners produced the monologues in response to two summative tests (i.e., Test 1: experiences preferences and Test 2: opinions attitudes). Using parametric statistical analyses (incl., the paired samples T-test and the Pearson correlation), it was found that while experiences and preferences evoked more fluent language than did opinions and attitudes, the latter elicited more complex and lexically diverse language. Also, a significant, positive correlation existed between fluency and complexity for experiences and preferences, whereas lexical diversity was significantly positively correlated with complexity for opinions and attitudes. The study report concludes with practical implications for enhancing task performance of monologues in the areas of complexity, fluency, and lexical diversity.
