Abstract

The number of studies that have explored the various levels of task complexity and the function of sequencing tasks in learners’ listening comprehension is limited. Hence this study explored the strength of sequencing listening tasks in comprehending tasks that are sequenced as per Robinson’s (2022) SSARC (stabilize, simplify, automatize, reconstruct, and complexify) model, along with simpler tasks’ strength in comprehending the very complex task. Two groups of female students in a non-profit university in Tehran were chosen as per their Oxford Placement Test results. One group of high-proficiency participants (eighteen students) carried out simple non-intentional reasoning and few-step tasks, complex non-intentional reasoning and many-step tasks, and very complex intentional reasoning and many-step tasks in sequence. In contrast, another group (fifteen students) carried out those tasks in the reverse sequence (very complex, complex, simple sequence). The listening comprehension performance of participants in two groups was compared. The second comparison was between performance on the very complex task carried out after simpler tasks and performance on the very complex task that was not preceded by simpler tasks. As indicated by Mann-Whitney U test results, a statistically significant difference neither existed between tasks carried out by the two groups nor between the very complex task preceded by simpler tasks and the very complex task that was not preceded by simpler tasks. The outcomes of this research can be beneficial to sequencing tasks with various levels of cognitive complexity for L2 learners.