The Effects Of Task Planning On Chinese EFL Learners' Written Production Of English Exposition

Planning, as an important stage in language production, has attracted much attention since 1980 s. Most researchers, however, focused on the effects of task planning on L2 oral production. Moreover, the previous studies of planning in L2 written production mainly explored the effect of planning under different length of time, and compared the effect of pre-task planning and on-line planning. What's more, the potential influence of implicit planning is not fully considered. To fulfill these gaps, this dissertation reports a study that investigates, within the framework of Ellis'(2005) classification of planning, the effect of unguided and guided strategic planning on Chinese EFL learners' written production of English exposition. It aims to reveal what type of planning has the greater effect on fluency, complexity, and accuracy of L2 learners' written exposition. There are two research questions: 1. Does strategic planning have a comprehensive effect on fluency, complexity and accuracy of L2 learners' written production of English exposition? 2. Is L2 learners' written production of English exposition more fluent, accurate and complex when they have guided strategic planning than unguided strategic planning?Two strategic planning conditions—guided and unguided strategic planning, and a control group—no-planning group were set up in this study. 57 participants were the non-English major students from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, whose English proficiency was measured and proved equal, and were randomly divided into three groups—guided strategic planning group, unguided strategic planning group, and no-planning group(control group). They were asked to complete a written exposition task selected from an official IELFS exercise book. Then the participants' written production was entered into digital files and measured from accuracy, complexity, and accuracy. At last, all the data were analyzed to answer the research questions.The statistical analysis reveals the following results: 1. Compared with no-planning group, guided strategic planning had a positive effect on fluency and accuracy, but little effect on syntactic and lexical complexity. 2. Compared with guided strategic planning, unguided strategic planning didn't lead to significant effect on task performance—fluency, complexity, and accuracy. The difference of effect between guided strategic planning and unguided strategic planning is significant in fluency and accuracy(error-free verb form). Complexity wasn't significantly affected in both two planning conditions, although guided planners expressed the instruction was helpful. 3. Guided strategic planning is more effective and efficient for task performance in the unfamiliar task. Therefore, the implication of the present study is that language instructors can focus on brief instruction instead of free preparation when the task is not familiar to the learners in writing class, so as to explore more methods to promote learners' L2 language production.