Abstract:
The present study aimed at examining the combined effects of pre-task and
online planning time on complexity, accuracy, and fluency in narrativebased
texts produced by Iranian intermediate EFL learners. Overall, the
implemented studies in this regard point to the facilitative impacts for both
pre-task and careful online planning on complexity, accuracy, and fluency
with some recorded trade-off effects. Using a between-groups design, sixty
homogeneous participants were randomly assigned to four performance
conditions: no planning (NP), careful online planning (OLP), pre-task
planning (PTP), and both pre-task and careful online planning (POLP). The
findings revealed that pre-task and careful online planning don’t have any
significant effects on the level of complexity. The results also suggested that
whereas the provision of abundant online planning time increases the
accuracy level, the opportunity to plan prior to performance leads them to
generate more fluent written discourse. In addition, compared with the NP
condition, pre-task in tandem with careful online planning time enable the
participants to produce more accurate, and fluent written discourse that lend
support to the Dual-Mode system and Limited Attentional Capacity Model.
The findings are of pedagogical significance in that they speak of the efficacy
of planning as an important metacognitive learning strategy capable of
helping teachers achieve the desirable pedagogical objective of enhanced
complexity, accuracy, and fluency of learners' task-based production.
Theoretically, the results underscore the effectiveness of planning time in
helping language learners overcome the limitation of their attentional
capacity and direct them towards aspects of form and meaning.
Machine summary:
Department of Linguistics and Foreign Languages, Payame Noor University, Qom, Iran Received: 12 May 2019 Revision: 25 July 2019 Accepted: 27 September 2019 Published online: 20 December 2019 Abstract The present study aimed at examining the combined effects of pre-task and online planning time on complexity, accuracy, and fluency in narrative-based texts produced by Iranian intermediate EFL learners.
In addition, compared with the NP condition, pre-task in tandem with careful online planning time enable the participants to produce more accurate, and fluent written discourse that lend support to the Dual-Mode system and Limited Attentional Capacity Model.
According to theoretical and empirical rationales, the present study attempts to answer the following research questions: What are the combined effects of pre-task and careful online planning on the complexity of Iranian intermediate EFL learners' written discourse?
Looking at the previous studies conducted in the field of the effects of both pre-task and on-line planning on written production, it could be observed that planning has a positive effect on language performance considering fluency, complexity, and accuracy (Ellis &Yuan, 2004; Sangarun, 2001; Skehan, 1996; Skehan & Foster, 1997; Wendel, 1997; Yuan, 2001; Yuan & Ellis, 2003).
With regard to the first question posed pertaining to the combined effects of pre-task and careful online planning on the complexity of Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ written discourse, the findings of the study came to the conclusion that compared to the NP group (M = 8.