چکیده:
Despite the growing body of research documented on pre-task planning in oral and
written domain, the results of pre-task planning studies are still inconsistent in
second language writing research (e.g. Ellis & Yuan, 2004; Johnson, Mercedo, &
Acevedo, 2012; Johnson & Nicodemus 2016; Ong & Zhang, 2010). The current
study set out to investigate the effects of two planning conditions (pre-task planning
and no planning) on the argumentative writing task performance of Iranian EFL
undergraduates in terms of multiple measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency
(CAF). To this end, 44 Iranian EFL undergraduates majoring in English literature at
the University of Tehran were recruited based on convenience sampling to
participate in this study. Employing a counterbalanced ‘within participants’ design,
the participants were required to perform an argumentative writing task under both
pre-task planning and no planning conditions. In the pre-task planning condition, in
addition to 17 minutes for performing the task, the participants were provided with
10 minutes to plan prior to the task, whereas in the no planning condition, they were
not provided with any time to plan. The results of paired sample t-test failed to
reveal any significant difference between writing task performance in terms of
measures of CAF under pre-task planning and no planning conditions. Thus, it was
shown that pre-task planning did not benefit any of the measures (CAF) of
argumentative writing task. Possible explanations for the results of this study and
pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed.
خلاصه ماشینی:
The current study set out to investigate the effects of two planning conditions (pre-task planning and no planning) on the argumentative writing task performance of Iranian EFL undergraduates in terms of multiple measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF).
The results of paired sample t-test failed to reveal any significant difference between writing task performance in terms of measures of CAF under pre-task planning and no planning conditions.
Pedagogically, it is claimed that the way in which tasks are designed and implemented influences students’ language learning and performance (Ellis, 2012; Robinson, 2005, 2011; Skehan & Foster, 2001).
The participants were assigned to individual and collaborative pre task planning conditions and their performance was measured in terms complexity, accuracy, and fluency.
Rahimpour and Safarie (2011) indicated that pre-task planning time had no significant effect on the lexical complexity and accuracy of Iranian EFL learners’ descriptive writing performance but significantly affected the fluency of their performance.
Moreover, Seyyedi, Ismal, Orang, and Sharifi Nejad (2013) investigated the effects of pre-task planning time on EFL learners’ narrative writing task performance.
Tavakoli and Rezazadeh (2014) compared the effects of individual and collaborative pre- task planning on the fluency, accuracy, and complexity of argumentative writing performance of EFL learners.
Nariman-Jahan and Rahimpour (2011) compared the effects of pre-task planning time and no planning time on writing performance EFL learners with two levels of proficiency (high & low).
Employing a within participants design, the effect of pre-task planning and no planning conditions on multiple measures of writing performance of EFL undergraduates was examined.