This study of second language learning investigated the effects of a written reading comprehension exercise and an oral discussion activity as alternative tasks mediating between a written text snd learners' summaries of the text. Subjects were 80 University of Hong Kong freshmen, randomly assigned to three groups. Each group was provided a reading text and asked to write a wimmary of it, including an evaluation of two main points. Two of the groups were also asked to perform a mediating task (one group an oral task and one group a written task) before writing the summary. Summaries were graded by six native speakers of English for grammar, spelling, and vocabulary usage. Evaluators looked for indications of dependency on the text, including exact and near copies of text and paraphrasing. Results show the overall, control group (no mediating task) achieved higher scores on the summaritc than the written mediating task group, which in turn scored higher than the oral mediating task group. The control group also appears to have depended more on the original text in writing a summary; none relied heavily on paraphrasing, and the oral mediating task group was the most able to put ideas into its own words. Three appendixes contain the text used in the study, the reading exercise, and "idea units." Contains 19 references. (MSE) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. * PIG IN THE MIDDLE? EFFECTS OF MEDIATING TASKS ON COGNITIVE PROCESSING OF TEXT qD CD 4D DESMOND ALLISON, VIVIEN BERRY AND JO LEWKOWICZ oo en PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS RF N GRANTED F3'f