Effects Of Task Planning Of Small Groups And Individuals On Online Writing Production

Since its rise in 1983,task-based language teaching has become the core approach to curriculum reform in many countries and regions in the world,which plays a very important role in foreign language teaching and has guiding significance of second language writing.Based on an online argumentative EFL writing,this thesis examines the effects of task planning of groups and individuals on writing production.Sixty-five English-major students enrolled in a university of science and technology of China are divided into two groups:(1)planning in small groups and(2)planning individually.A questionnaire and a semi-structured interview involving task planning activities are used to investigate the differences of their planning time,planning forms and planning focuses between the two different groups.And the argumentative writing task measured by complexity,accuracy and fluency is adopted to explore the effects of task planning on writing production.The results illustrate that 1)there exist characteristics and differences in planning time,planning forms and planning focuses between students of small groups and individuals;2)The impacts of planning time,planning forms and planning focuses on writing production are distinctive in the dimensions of complexity,accuracy and fluency;3)Owing to the distinctive influences of different planning strategies on the writing output,students can choose the writing strategy that suits their needs based on their own shortcomings.