Effects Of Pre-task Planning And Online Planning On Chinese Non-English Major Undergraduates’ English Argumentative Writing

A number of researches concentrate on the effects of pre-task planning and online planning which show that planning has a positive influence on speaking and writing.However,most of these researches measure and rate the quality of language production in three aspects:fluency,accuracy and complexity.Based on Ellis’s(2003)classification of planning,this study is a supplement to previous researches which explores the effects of pre-task planning and online planning on Chinese non-English major undergraduates’English argumentative writing with the indices of content management,structural organization and use of language.Research questions of this study are as follows:(1)What are the effects of pre-task planning and online planning on content management,structural organization and use of language?(2)What are the differences between effects of pre-task planning and online planning?Which planning pattern has a more effective influence on English writing?(3)Which planning pattern do Chinese non-English major undergraduates prefer in writing and what are the reasons?Seventy-three non-English major undergraduates from Yangzhou University participated in the experiment.They came from two parallel classes and majored in Mechanics.The two classes were proved to have no significant difference in English proficiency.Class One was selected as Pre-task Planning Group while Class Two was Online Planning Group in this study.Participants were required to complete an argumentative composition selected from CET-4 within 30 minutes for three times.All the essays were collected and graded specifically from content management,structural organization and use of language as well as comprehensive writing quality.Furthermore,all of the participants accepted a questionnaire before the writing tasks and some of them took part in semi-structured interviews after each writing task to share opinions on effects of planning patterns and their writing performance.The major findings of this study are summarized that:(1)Pre-task planning has a significantly positive influence on content management and partial structural organization;online planning can promote partial use of language but the influence is not very significant(2)Compared with online planning,pre-task planning has a more effective influence on argumentative writing.(3)Most Chinese non-English major undergraduates prefer online planning in English writing and ignore the importance of pre-task planning.Besides,most students are short of technical and effective skills of pre-task planning.This study verifies previous findings that pre-task planning and online planning have different effects on English writing performance.It further points out that pre-task planning has a more effective influence than online planning on English argumentative writing.Students of Pre-task Planning Group achieve significantly higher scores than those of Online Planning Group in terms of theme,argumentation and outline.It cannot be ignored that online planning has certain positive effects on the use of language to some extent.To sum up,planning as a crucial element in English writing,which can influence specific writing performance and general writing quality,sheds some light on English writing teaching and research.