LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 12 : 7 July 2012
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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The Effect of Strategic Planning on Accuracy, Fluency, and
Complexity of Written Narrative Task Production

Reza Khorasani, Ph.D. Candidate
Ambigapathy Pandian, Ph.D.
Shaik Abdul Malik Mohamed Ismail, Ph.D.

Abstract

The effects of different planning conditions on learners' complexity, fluency, and especially accuracy of written task production are still open to question. To further investigate the issue, in this study planning was operationalized in three levels of no-planning (NP), unguided pre-task planning (UPP) and content and language-focused strategic planning (CLSP). The impetus rose from the idea that if learners are given a combination of instructions regarding form and meaning, the output would be presumably more accurate, fluent and complex (Sangarun, 2005). One hundred and two Iranian EFL learners were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups equally. The first group was required to watch an episode of Mr. Bean's series and wrote their account of watching immediately after that, whilst the second group was given 10 minutes to think about their output in advance. Alternatively, the third group was given planning time plus a set of instructions on how to plan the content and form of their written task production. The texts were analyzed for the measures of accuracy, fluency, and complexity. A series of one-way ANOVA run on the scores. The results showed general benefits of planned conditions in comparison with unplanned one. However, significant difference was gained only for fluency. The findings of the study support the idea of limited attentional capacity especially in low to intermediate level learners. It also sheds light on the issue that giving a combination of instructions may not always lead to a perfect language output and the allocation of attention turns over the aspects that are easily accessed or given priority by the subjects.

Key words: Unguided pre-task planning, strategic planning, accuracy, fluency, complexity

Introduction

A number of studies have been conducted on the effects of planning conditions on learners' complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) of productions on oral and few on written task performance (Ortega, 1999; Skehan & Foster, 1999; Yuan & Ellis, 2003; Ellis & Yuan, 2004; Ahmadian, 2012). Yet the results are still inconclusive due to differential effects of planning on language output. Furthermore, unlike oral tasks which have been of more interest in the area of planning studies, written tasks have been ignored to some extent, however, due to remarkable need for pursuing academic career, and social and educational needs, it is necessary to conduct some investigations concerning writing as well to find out methods for enhancing this skill of learners. Based on the university syllabus in Iran for those who are majoring in English, writing courses are mandatory. Students first become familiar with components of paragraph writing like topic sentence, supporting ideas, and conclusion, and then they are taught to write different kinds of narrative, expository, argumentative, and descriptive texts. However, Birjandi, Alavi, and Salmani (2004) hold the idea that Iranian learners have problems both in macro-skills (content and organization) and micro-skills (vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics) in writing. In addition, according to Manch?n & Larios (2007) the importance of conducting planning studies for writing can be easily understood if we pay attention to the complex nature of composing which consists of different kinds of linguistic and rhetorical knowledge that can be in competition for limited attentional resource and there is a need for a kind of planning that might help learners overcome these problems.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Reza Khorasani, Ph.D. Candidate
University Sains Malaysia
Malaysia
Reza_khorasanim@yahoo.com

Ambigapathy Pandian, Ph.D.
Professor
University Sains Malaysia
Malaysia

Shaik Abdul Malik Mohamed Ismail, Ph.D.
University Sains Malaysia
Malaysia
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