The Effects Of Planning Modes On High School Students’ English Writing Performance

Planning is an important part of the writing process and the key to successful English writing.Writing starts with planning,which is divided into pre-task planning and online planning.According to previous studies,language performance of English writing is mainly reflected in complexity,accuracy and fluency,and planning has a positive impact on language performance.However,it remains unknown how different planning modes(pre-task planning and online planning)affect L2 learner’s writing language performance.This study focuses on two types of tasks in high school English writing-practical writing and continuation writing-to better explore students’ writing language performance across different planning modes.Based on Kellogg’s writing process model and Skehan’s cognitive theory,this study examines the effects of planning modes and task types on complexity,accuracy and fluency in high school English writing in limited time.Specifically,the questions addressed are:(1)What is the effect of planning modes on the complexity,accuracy,and fluency of English writing language?(2)How do planning modes affect writing language performance across different types of tasks?(3)How do students feel about different planning modes?Eighty senior one students from two classes in Shandong Province participated and were randomly assigned to either pre-task planning group or online planning group.The participants completed two writing tasks(practical writing and continuation writing).These texts were then analyzed for complexity,accuracy and fluency.Additionally,retrospective interviews with students were conducted to understand their attitudes toward different task types and the allocation of attention resources.The results show that online planning increases the complexity and accuracy of language performance,while pre-task planning increases fluency.Planning modes and task types interact to affect the accuracy of writing language.In particular,pre-task planning can improve the accuracy of language performance in practical writing and online planning can improve the accuracy of language performance in continuation writing.Additionally,the interviewed students believe that continuation writing is more difficult than practical writing and that the pre-task planning group is more likely to pay attention to the organization and structure of writing,while the online planning group is more likely to pay attention to the content and language expression of writing,all of which have an impact on the writing output.The study indicates that pre-task planning and online planning have different effects on English writing language performance.It has implications for high school English instruction as well as understanding planning mechanism in English writing.Teachers should emphasize the importance of planning,consider planning to be an effective teaching method,design writing tasks according to task types,and ensure that students can utilize two planning modes,so as to improve the complexity,accuracy and fluency of their English writing language performance.