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LANGUAGE
TEACHING
RESEARCH
Corresponding author:
Mohammad Javad Ahmadian, Department of English, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Isfahan,
Hezar Jirib Street, Isfahan, 81746-7344, Iran
Email: [email protected]
Language Teaching Research
15(1) 3559
The Author(s) 2010Reprints and permissions: sagepub.
co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1362168810383329http://ltr.sagepub.com
The effects of simultaneoususe of careful online planningand task repetition onaccuracy, complexity, andfluency in EFL learnersoral production
Mohammad Javad Ahmadian and Mansoor TavakoliUniversity of Isfahan, Iran
AbstractThis article reports on a study that was primarily aimed at investigating the effects of simultaneous
use of careful online planning and task repetition on accuracy, complexity, and fluency in the oral
production of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The effects of four planning andtask repetition conditions (i.e. careful online planning without task repetition, pressured online
planning with task repetition, careful online planning with task repetition, and pressured online
planning without task repetition) on learners accuracy, complexity, and fluency in producing
English language were investigated. Iranian intermediate-level EFL learners (n = 60) were randomly
selected and assigned to the four task conditions. The results obtained from one-way ANOVAs
revealed that the opportunity to engage simultaneously in careful online planning and task
repetition enhances accuracy, complexity, and fluency significantly. The obtained results also have
some implications for teachers and practitioners in EFL context.
Keywordsaccuracy, careful online planning, complexity, EFL context, fluency, task repetition
I Introduction
Planning is indispensable to language production. Even the most careless and speeded
speech or writing involves a degree of planning (Ellis, 2005). When it comes to second
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36 Language Teaching Research 15(1)
language production, the importance of planning (be it within-task planning or task
repetition) is even more highlighted as both empirical and anecdotal evidence confirm
that planning impacts on accuracy, complexity, and fluency of second language (L2)
learners. In the meantime, increasing accuracy, complexity, and fluency of language per-formance is desirable and difficult to achieve. The difficulty may derive from the fact
that from the perspective of information processing theory our attentional capacity is
limited and selective (Anderson, 1995; Schmidt, 2001). Consequently, attending to one
dimension of performance (e.g. accuracy) may have detrimental effects on other facets
of performance (e.g. fluency) (Skehan, 1996, 1998). The issue of trade-off between form
and meaning as well as the urge to enhance all dimensions of language performance has
caused second language acquisition (SLA) researchers to study the effects of different
procedural options such as careful online planning and task repetition on aspects of lan-
guage production. The study reported in this article examined the effects of simultaneous
use of careful online planning and task repetition on accuracy, complexity, and fluency
of EFL (English as a foreign language) learners oral production.
To date, a number of studies have researched into the effects of careful online plan-
ning and task repetition on second language oral performance (see Ellis, 2008 for an
updated and informative review). Overall, these studies point to the beneficial effects for
both careful online planning and task repetition on accuracy, complexity, and fluency
with some trade-off effects being reported. However, the effects of simultaneous use of
careful online planning and task repetition on accuracy, complexity, and fluency have not
been investigated so far. This study was aimed at covering this lacuna.
II Theoretical background
1 Careful online planning
SLA researchers have studied the notion of planning with reference to models of speech
production (Ellis, 1994, 2008). The most frequently used and cited model of speech pro-
duction research is Levelts (1989) model. The mechanisms that underlie speech produc-
tion as conceptualized by Levelt could be reduced to one sentence: People producespeech first by conceptualizingthe message, then byformulatingits language represen-
tation (i.e. encoding it), and finally by articulatingit (Kormos, 2006, p. 7; emphasis
added). Speech production system is also equipped with a self-monitoring mechanism
(Levelt, 1989; Scovel, 1998). This mechanism enables the speaker to monitor his or her
production prior to articulation and to reformulate his or her speech if/when necessary.
In other words, the speaker engages in what Kormos (2006, p. 123) refers to as covert
repair and carefully plans his or her speech online.
Different types of planning are distinguished in terms of when the planning occurs
(Ellis, 2005, 2008). Careful online planning (COLP) takes place online, during task per-formance and at the formulation stage of the Levelts three-staged model. It is distin-
guished from pressured online planning (POLP) in that in the former language learners
have ample time to plan their speech and make use of the allotted time to carefully attend
to their performance, whereas in the latter language learners are required to produce
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Ahmadian and Tavakoli 37
language under time pressure (Ellis & Yuan, 2005). Careful online planning is conceptually
characterized as the process by which speakers attend carefully to the formulation stage
during speech planning and engage in pre-production and post-production monitoring of
their speech acts (Yuan & Ellis, 2003, p. 6). As an important variable in this study care-ful online planning was operationalized in two complementary ways:
by providing careful online planners with ample time for task completion to
formulate and monitor their language; and
by requiring all participants (COLP as well as POLP) to start task performance
straight away.
This latter measure is usually taken in careful online planning studies so as to control for
participants engagement in strategic planning.
In keeping with Yuan and Ellis (2003), in this study it was hypothesized that careful
online planning and pressured online planning may have significant impacts on EFL
learners accuracy and complexity of oral production. This is because, when language
learners are restricted in terms of time, the meaning-centered nature of the tasks induces
them to prioritize meaning over form. Since learners attentional resources are both
limited and selective, when they focus on message conveyance, they would be left with
scant attentional capacity to attend to form. On the contrary, when there is no time restric-
tion, learners cantake time to attend to form and to formulate more accurate structuresand correct the inaccurate ones in the formulation phase, prior to articulation (Levelt,
1989). Nevertheless, careful online planning is detrimental to fluency (Ellis & Yuan,2004). Perhaps because, as Van Patten (1990, p. 269) argues, conscious attention to
form, which is responsible for accuracy and/or complexity, competes with conscious
attention to meaning, which is responsible for fluency.
Careful online planning has been the subject of a series of studies (see Table 1 for a
summary of online planning studies). In their pioneering study, Hulstijn and Hulstijn
(1984) asked 32 learners of L2 Dutch to perform short oral narratives under four condi-
tions involving combination of two variables, namely time and focal attention. The
results of their study suggested that when learners used the time at their disposal to attend
to the formulation of linguistic forms their production of word order became more accu-rate. In another study, Ellis (1987) compared the accuracy of learners performance on
written and oral narrative tasks based on pictures. The two important variables investi-
gated in his study were careful online planning and strategic planning. Accuracy was
measured in terms of regular and irregular past tense. Ellis found that learners produced
the rule-governed past tense verbs such as helped most accurately when they had the
opportunity to engage in both OLP and strategic planning and least accurately when they
did not engage in either OLP or strategic planning.
More recently, building on Ellis (1987), Yuan and Ellis (2003) compared the effects
of pre-task and careful online planning on learners accuracy, complexity, and fluency inperforming a narrative task. Results of their study indicated that careful online planners
who were allowed to take more time for task competition produced both more accurate
and complex language. Yuan and Ellis (2003) aptly reason that when participants per-
form a task under time pressure, the working memory system uses the limited time to
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38 Language Teaching Research 15(1)
access lexical information from long-term memory, but when they perform without any
time pressure, they can access syntactic information too. They also found that the pre-
task planning groups produced more fluent language than the online planning groups.
According to Yuan and Ellis (2003, p. 17):
the slower production rate on the part of the online planners can be taken as an indication
that the OLP groups were engaged more fully in searching their linguistic repertoires and in
monitoring their speech production.
From this perspective, then, results of their study lend support to the notion of limited
and selective attentional capacity.
On the basis of the psycholinguistic issues discussed and the results of these studies,
it could be hypothesized that providing EFL learners with ample time for careful online
planning may enhance the accuracy and complexity of their oral production. Nonethe-
less, there are two important questions that have not yet been addressed and are the focus
of this study:
whether or not careful online planning has any effect on oral language production
when it is used in tandem with task repetition; and
whether or not building repetition into tasks will compensate for the dysfluency
which naturally results from learners engagement in careful online planning.
These two questions will be restated with their corresponding predictions in Section III.
2 Task repetition
Task repetition is essentially a kind of planning (Ellis, 2005, 2008) that refers to repeti-
tion of the same or slightly altered task whether the whole tasks, or parts of a task
(Bygate & Samuda, 2005, p. 43). Task repetition is said to be particularly useful to
increase learners fluency and complexity (Bygate, 2001). Probably because when learners
already know:
what they are going to talk or write about they have more processing space available for formu-
lating the language needed to express their ideas with the result that the quantity of the output
will be enhanced and also the fluency and complexity. (Ellis, 2003, pp. 24647)
It was pointed out that according to Levelts (1989) speech production model speakers
go through three stages of conceptualization, formulation, and articulation, which in
reality overlap each other. The first stage, conceptualization, concerns selection of the
related information to be expressed, ordering the selected information for expression,and keeping track of what just has been said (Levelt, 1989). The product of this stage
is what Levelt (1989) calls preverbal message, which is the overall meaning to be
communicated.
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Ahmadian and Tavakoli 39
Table1
Summaryofthestudiesconducted
oncarefulonlineplanning
Study
Participants
Designof
thestudy
Thetaskused
Targetstructure
Thevariablesinvolv
ed
Results
Hulstijn&
Hulstijn
(1984)
32adultlearners
ofL2Dutch
Between-
groups
Oralnarrative
Wordorder
Timeandfocalattention
(IVs);Accuracy(DV
)
Time+attention
toform=
moreaccurate
Ellis(1987)
17intermediate
ESLlearners
Repeated-
measures
Writtenand
oralnarrative
Regularand
irregular
pasttensefo
rms
Onlineplanning(OLP)and
strategicplanning(IVs);
Accuracy(DV)
Learnerslanguagewasmost
accuratewhentheyhadthe
opportunitytoen
gageinboth
OLPandstrategic
planning
andleastaccurate
whenthey
didnotengagein
eitherOLP
orstrategicplanning
Yuan&Ellis
(2003)
42EFLlearners
Between-
groups
Oralnarrative
Generalacc
uracy,
fluency,and
complexitymeasures
Onlineplanningand
pre-task
planning(IVs);Accu
racy,
fluency,andcomple
xity(DVs)
Onlineplanningin
creasedac-
curacyandcomplexitywhile
negativelyaffectingfluency.
Ellis&Yuan
(2005)
42EFLlearners
Between-
groups
Writtenand
oralnarrative
Generalacc
uracy,
fluency,andcom-
plexitymeas
ures
Carefulw
ithintask
planning
andpressuredwithin-task
planning(IVs);Accu
racy,
fluency,andcomple
xity(DVs)
Opportunityforcarefulwithin
taskplanningincreasedboth
accuracyandcom
plexityof
oralproductionandithadno
statisticallysignificanteffect
onfluency
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40 Language Teaching Research 15(1)
In fact, during the initial task performance learners are primarily concerned with the
planning of content, i.e. processing the preverbal message (Bygate, 1996). They scan
their memory for the language that best suits dealing with the task; and this is how famil-
iarity with the message content is established. However, on the second opportunity toperform the task, since learners are already familiar with the message content, they have
ample time (and attentional resources) to shift their attention from content to the selec-
tion and monitoring of appropriate language, which results in more fluency, complexity
and/or accuracy (Bygate, 1999).
Elsewhere, Bygate states that the theoretical logic behind the hypothesis that task
repetition may assist language performance comes from the fact that part of the work of
conceptualization, formulation and articulation carried out on the first occasion is kept in
the learners memory store and can be reused on the second occasion (2001b, p. 29). All
in all, to Bygate and Samuda (2005, p. 45), task repetition is essentially theorized as hav-
ing two phases:
a first enactment of a task, in which learners are likely to organize the cognitive content, scope
out the likely useful lexico-grammar, and process it in real time, generating an experientially
derived multi-level schema to support subsequent linguistic work; followed by a second enact-
ment, during which the speaker can build on the previous one.
Therefore, there are fairly solid psycholinguistic rationales to hypothesize that task rep-
etition assists fluency as well as complexity. Of course, it is important to point out that
task repetition literature is quite divided with respect to accuracy, which makes it verydifficult to make any prediction in this regard. Generally, empirical evidence lends sup-
port to the effectiveness of task repetition to improve language performance (see Table 2
for a summary of task repetition studies).
One of the earliest documented attempts to study task repetition is Bygates (1996)
study, which investigated the effects of exact repetition of a task on language produc-
tion. In this study a participant was asked to watch a video cartoon and then to retell it.
Bygate reported that this form of repetition resulted in some striking improvement in
both fluency and accuracy; for a detailed discussion of the results of Bygate (1996), see
Bygate (1999).Gass et al.s (1999) study focused on the effects of task repetition on linguistic output
of L2 learners of Spanish. They attempted to see whether repeating (both same and
slightly altered) tasks yields more sophisticated language use. Gass et al. (1999) found
that task repetition had an effect on the overall proficiency, partial accuracy in the use of
estar, and lexical complexity.
Another interesting study on task repetition has been conducted by Lynch and Maclean
(2000, 2001) in the context of English for specific purposes. They found that task repeti-
tion (recycling) had positive effects on both accuracy and fluency in language produc-
tion. In another attempt, Bygate (2001) compared the performances of 48 learners on anarrative and an interview on two occasions with a 10-week interval in between. He
found that task repetition had a significant effect on fluency and complexity of learners
performances. The findings of this study that were strongly consistent with Bygates
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Ahmadian and Tavakoli 41
Table2
Summaryofthestudiesconducted
ontaskrepetition
Study
Participants
Designofthestudy
Thetaskused
Numb
erofrepetitions
andin
tervalb
etween
Results
Bygate(1996)
1Englishlanguage
learner
Repeatedmeasures
Sameoralnarrativetask
(monologic)
Twice
witha3-day
interval
Increaseinfluencyand
accuracy
Gassetal.(
1999)
103studentsattheir
fourthsemesterof
Spanish
Between-groups
Sameandslightlyaltered
narrativ
etasks(narratingthe
taskastheywerewatching
thevide
o)
Fourtimeswith23
andone-weekintervals
Increaseinlexical
complexityandpartial
accuracyinuseof
estar
Lynch&McLean
(2000)
14participantsinan
ESPcontext
Repeated-measures
Postercarousalt
ask
(Dialogic)
Repea
tingthesame
questionandanswer
sequencefor6times
Increaseinaccuracy
andfluenc
y
Bygate(2001)
48languagelearners
Between-groups
Anarra
tivetaskaswellas
intervie
wing
Repea
tingthetask
twice
with10-week
intervalb
etween
Increaseinfluencyand
complexity
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42 Language Teaching Research 15(1)
(1996) results were also corroborated in a more recent study carried out by Bygate and
Samuda (2005), which was based on the dataset in Bygate (2001).
Based on the theoretical rationale and empirical evidence delineated above, it may be
reasonable to hypothesize that task repetition assists complexity and fluency of EFLlearners oral production. It is also possible to hypothesize that task repetition compen-
sates for the dysfluency that may result from engaging in careful online planning. Yet
another possible hypothesis is that since both task repetition and careful online planning
assist, among other things, complexity of learners oral production, using them simulta-
neously may help learners produce more complex language than they may otherwise do.
We now turn our attention to the clarification and discussion of the constructs that func-
tion as dependent variables of the study: accuracy, complexity, and fluency.
3 Accuracy, complexity, and fluency
Native-like speaking ability is a general goal that many language learners seek to
achieve. As Skehan (1996) suggests, this general goal is concerned with improving
three main areas or dimensions of performance: accuracy, complexity, and fluency.
Skehan (1996, p. 46) identifies accuracy as concerned with a learners capacity to
handle whatever level of interlanguage complexity she has currently attained. Based
on this account if a learner tries to produce language more accurately, he or she is actu-
ally seeking control over the linguistic elements that she has already learned. Hence, it
may be safe to argue that encouraging learners to produce language more accuratelyfosters the use of controlled rather than automatic processes. Further, since automatic
processes develop out of controlled processes (McLaughlin & Heredia, 1996), accu-
racy is considered to be essential for the way language develops and becomes auto-
matic. Skehan also states that complexity relates to the stage and elaboration of the
underlying interlanguage system (1996, p. 46). According to Ellis and Barkhuizen
(2005), elaborated language could be conceived of in two different senses: First, cut-
ting edge development of the learner language, which is not yet fully automatic, and
second, learners readiness to use a wide range of linguistic structures. They also point
out that complexity is a function of learners eagerness to try out new linguistic knowl-edge in their speech. Fluency, Skehan argues, concerns the learners capacity to
mobilize an interlanguage system to communicate meaning in real time (1996, p. 46).
In fact, when learners are producing more fluent language they are prioritizing meaning
over form (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005).
One of the contentious issues regarding accuracy, complexity, and fluency is that of
the trade-off effects among them. In this respect, different planning studies (both pre-task
planning and online planning) have put forth different proposals. For example, Foster
and Skehan (1996) have argued that the trade-off is between accuracy and complexity.
However, Wendel (1997) has proposed that the trade-off involves fluency and accuracywith online planning enhancing accuracy and pre-task planning assisting fluency. As it
was implied above, Yuan and Elliss (2003) findings lend support to Wendels (1997)
position; in that, although both careful online planning and pre-task planning enhance
complexity, careful online planning assists accuracy but is detrimental to fluency.
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Ahmadian and Tavakoli 43
However, pre-task planning assists fluency but not accuracy. In this study, following
Wendel (1997) and Yuan and Ellis (2003), it was hypothesized that the trade-off involves
accuracy and fluency with both careful online planning and task repetition enhancing
complexity in oral production.
III The present study
This study was a between-groups design that aimed to examine the effects of simultaneous
use of careful online planning and task repetition on accuracy, complexity, and fluency
of EFL learners oral production. The independent variables were careful online planning
and task repetition with four levels:
careful online planning without task repetition;
pressured online planning with task repetition;
careful online planning with task repetition; and
pressured online planning without task repetition.
To establish a common base for comparing the results of this study with those of the
previous ones three dimensions of oral production were examined: accuracy, complexity,
and fluency. Based on the theoretical and empirical rationales expounded on so far, the
following research questions and corresponding predictions were investigated:
1. Does careful online planning have any significant effect on the accuracy of EFL
learners oral production? Building on the theoretical and empirical rationale dis-
cussed, it was hypothesized that careful online planning enhances accuracy of
EFL learners oral production.
2. Does careful online planning have any significant effect on the complexity of
EFL learners oral production? In keeping with Yuan and Elliss (2003) results it
was hypothesized that careful online planning will have beneficial effects on the
complexity of EFL learners oral production.
3. Does careful within task planning have any significant detrimentaleffect on thefluency of EFL learners oral production? Again, following Yuan and Elliss
(2003) findings, a degree of dysfluency was expected in participants oral pro-
duction but no prediction was made as to whether or not the effect would be sta-
tistically significant.
4. Does repeating the same task with a one-week interval in between increase flu-
ency of EFL learners oral production? Following Bygate (2001) as well as the
theoretical rationale available (for an informative review, see Ellis, 2005) on this
issue it was predicted that this form of task repetition would enhance fluency of
EFL learners oral production.5. Does repeating the same task with a one-week interval in between enhance EFL
learners complexity of oral production? Again, drawing on Bygates (2001) find-
ings it was hypothesized that task repetition of this kind would have significant
impact on EFL learners complexity in oral production.
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44 Language Teaching Research 15(1)
6. Does simultaneous use of careful online planning and task repetition enhance all
dimensions of oral language production (accuracy, fluency, and complexity)?
Based on the results of both planning and task repetition studies it was hypothe-
sized that the simultaneous use of careful online planning and task repetitionwould help enhancing accuracy, fluency, and complexity of EFL learners oral
production. Embedded within this hypothesis is the prediction that task repetition
may compensate for the dysfluency, which may result from engaging in careful
online planning.
IV Method
1 ParticipantsThe participants were 60 intermediate level female EFL learners recruited from an Eng-
lish language center in Iran. The participants in this study had learned English in
instructed setting for about 67 months and they were considered as intermediate level
learners according to the language centers standards and the placement tests that they
had taken (such as Oxford Placement Test). They were all between 1821 years old.
None had ever been to an English-speaking country and they had virtually no opportu-
nity to use English language for communicative purposes outside the classroom context.
In the language center, participants had 8 hours of English per week: 5 hours for speaking
and listening and 3 hours for writing and reading. Using the table of random numbers,the participants were assigned to 4 groups of 15 each.
2 Materials
For the purpose of the present study, a number of instruments were prepared; these will be
described in order. Descriptive statistics for the results of these tests are presented in Table 3.
a Test of accuracy: Although it was confirmed by the language center that participantswere all at the same level of proficiency, we developed and administered a pretest of
accuracy so as to control for the possible initial differences among the groups in terms of
accuracy level. This test was comprised of 50 fill-in-the-blank items of grammar appro-
priate for the intermediate learners (Reliability coefficient = .98). The total test scores
obtained from this test were calculated and submitted to one-way ANOVA. The results
of the ANOVA showed no statistically significant difference across the four groups
(F= .476;p = .700). Thus, based on the results obtained it could be concluded that the
groups were fairly equivalent in terms of accuracy in language production.
b Test of fluency: In order to ensure that participants were equivalent in terms of their flu-
ency, they had to be pretested. The fluency pretest administered was very much similar to
the main task (i.e. an oral narrative task) used in the main study. Participants were required
to watch a 15-minute video and were then asked to narrate the story in 6 minutes (see Sec-
tion 3 for the rationale behind this time allotment). Since the results of the pretest were not
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Ahmadian and Tavakoli 45
to be compared with other similar studies and with performances of the participants in the
subsequent tests, only a measure of production rate was used, namely the number of syl-
lables produced per minute of speech. Results of the one-way ANOVA revealed that par-
ticipants were fairly equivalent in terms of their fluency (F= .854;p = .470).
c Test of online processing ability: One extraneous variable that could be a threat to theinternal validity of this study was the effect of participants differential online processing
ability. To control for this variable, following Yuan and Ellis (2003), participants were
required to take the listening subtest of TOEFL (Test 1 fromReading for TOEFL work-
book; Educational Testing Service, 1987). Hale (1989, cited in Ellis & Yuan, 2004)
argues that participants scores on TOEFL listening section may be indicative of their
online processing ability. Scores obtained from this test were also entered into one-way
ANOVA. Results revealed no significant difference among the four groups (F= .222;
p = .881). Thus, we did have some reasonable grounds to claim that participants were,
also, equivalent in terms of their online processing ability.
d Main task: Participants in four groups were required to watch a 15-minute episodeof a silent classical film (The Lucky Dog: Robbins, 1921) and were then asked to narrate
the story of that film under the conditions specified for each group. The reason behind
using a silent film was to preclude learners from taking advantage of the immediate
exposure to authentic language. Incidentally, an oral narrative task, by virtue of its
very monologic nature, induces learners to produce stretches of language that are not
influenced by interactional variables (Yuan & Ellis, 2003). Moreover, since many ofthe previous studies have used narrative tasks, this would enhance the comparability of
the results of this study.
Table 3 Descriptive statistics for pretests
Group Minimum Maximum Mean SD
COLP/TR (n=
15):APS 23 26 24.47 1.060FPS 60 71 64.80 3.075OPS 16 30 23.20 4.212
POLP/+TR (n= 15):APS 22 28 24.00 1.813FPS 60 75 63.33 4.353OPS 20 28 23.53 2.232
COLP/+TR (n= 15):APS 21 27 23.93 1.624FPS 61 73 65.80 3.913
OPS 18 29 24.20 2.859POLP/TR (n= 15):APS 21 27 24.47 1.885FPS 60 76 65.07 5.612OPS 17 30 23.67 3.994
Notes:APS = accuracy pretest score; FPS = fluency pretest score; OPS = online processing test score
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46 Language Teaching Research 15(1)
3 Task conditions and the procedures
In this study, we had four task conditions with particular characteristics:
careful online planning without task repetition (COPL/TR);
pressured online planning with task repetition (POLP/+TR);
careful online planning with task repetition (COLP/+TR); and
pressured online planning without task repetition (POLP/TR).
To operationalize planning conditions and to establish the time limit for task performance,
Yuan and Elliss (2003) procedure was followed. Such that we conducted a small pilot
study in the same language center using 10 language learners of relatively the same age
and proficiency level. We observed that they normally took 46 minutes to complete the
task with a mean of about 5 minutes. The maximum time spent by the participants in the
pilot study (i.e. 6 minutes) was decided to be established as the time limit for the pressured
online planning groups. Although this time limit was longer than the time that most par-
ticipants would normally spend on task competition, in total agreement with Yuan and
Ellis (2003) we reasoned that such limitation was necessary to ensure that all participants
had enough time for task completion and to place time restriction on participants perfor-
mances so as to preclude them from engaging in careful online planning. Careful online
planners were allowed to take as much time as they needed for task completion.
As for task repetition, since no regular pattern was found in the literature in terms of
the intervals between repetitions as well as the number of repetitions, we decided to asklearners to repeat the same task twice with a one-week interval in between. The study
was conducted in a laboratory that was fitted with audio-recording equipment to audio-
record participants task performances. Here is a more detailed description of the four
task conditions:
a Careful online planning without task repetition: In this condition, participants performed
the task only once (i.e. without repeating the task). They were allowed to take as much
time as they needed to formulate and monitor their performance. All task instructions
were originally in Persian. Here we have translated them into English:
You will now watch a silent video. This video has a story. Please retell this story in English
immediately after watching the video. In the meantime, imagine that you are retelling this story
to someone who is very eager to know all the details of the story. Therefore, please be as
detailed as possible in narrating the story. Feel free to take as much time as you need for task
completion. I suggest that if you have doubt in the grammatical accuracy of a sentence or you
think that you can make more complex sentences to communicate your ideas better, use your
time to reformulate the inaccurate sentences and try to improve them.
b Pressured online planning with task repetition: For this condition on both task perfor-
mance occasions, participants were asked to retell the story of the video in 6 minutes.1
They were not told that they were about to repeat the same task (or any other similar task)
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Ahmadian and Tavakoli 47
a week later. One week later participants were asked to perform the same task. Of course,
it should be noted that the only occasion that we took into consideration and analysed
was the second occasion of task performance, which in fact realized task repetition. Here
are the task instructions:
First occasion: You will now watch a silent video. This video has a story. Please
retell this story in English immediately after watching the video. In the meantime,
imagine that you are retelling this story to someone who is very eager to know all
the details of the story. Therefore, please be as detailed as possible in narrating the
story. Notice that you have only 6 minutes to narrate the whole story.
Second occasion: You will now watch the same silent video that you watched last
week. Please retell [The rest of the instruction was the same as the one given
on the first occasion.]
c Careful online planning with task repetition: In this condition, participants performed thetask twice. On the first occasion they were asked to retell the story under time restriction
(i.e. maximum of 6 minutes), whereas on the second occasion they were allowed to take
as much time as they needed to perform the task recommended to take account of the
details of the story. Here again, the first occasion was not to be compared with any condi-
tion and we took into consideration and analysed only the second occasion of task per-
formance as this was the occasion that realized the simultaneous use of careful online
planning and task repetition. Here are the task instructions:
First occasion: You will now watch a silent video. This video has a story. Please
retell this story in English immediately after watching the video. In the meantime,
imagine that you are retelling this story to someone who is very eager to know all
the details of the story. Therefore, please be as detailed as possible in narrating the
story. Notice that you have only 6 minutes to narrate the whole story.
Second occasion: You will now watch the same silent video that you watched last
week [The rest of the instruction was the same as the instruction given on care-
ful online planning/no task repetition condition.]
d Pressured online planning, no task repetition: This condition served as the control con-dition; in that, participants performed the task only onceand under time restriction (i.e.
a maximum of 6 minutes). Task instruction for this condition was the same as the one
used on the first occasion of careful online planning/task repetition condition above.
It is important to point out that all narrations produced under the abovementioned
conditions were audio-recorded and then transcribed by one of the researchers. The tran-
scribed narrations were then segmented and scored based on the measures which we
chose for assessing accuracy, complexity, and fluency (see Section 4). To ensure that the
segmentation of the transcripts into clauses and/or AS units (analysis of speech units)was conducted reliably, 30% of the data were checked for intercoder reliability. Cron-
bachs alpha magnitude was .92 for clauses and .95 for AS units. Thus, we can rest
assured that the segmentation and measurement procedures were almost reliable.
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48 Language Teaching Research 15(1)
4 Measurement of the variables
One of the important measures used in this study is that of the length of time that each
participant took for task completion. This measure is similar to the one Yuan and Ellis(2003) have used to measure the independent variable of their study, namely planning. In
this study we measure and compare the amount of time (seconds) that each participant
has spent on task completion to make sure that the careful online planners have taken
more time to perform the task than pressured online planners. This will place us in a posi-
tion to make more valid arguments as to the effects of careful and pressured online plan-
ning on accuracy, complexity, and fluency.
Different studies have used different measures to assess accuracy, complexity, and
fluency. Ellis (2005, 2008) provides a fairly comprehensive list of such measures. He also
points out that using multiple measures to assess each dimension of language performance
may result in a more valid assessment but that using different measures by different research-
ers may decrease the comparability of the results obtained. In this study, to enhance both the
validity of the assessments and the comparability of the results, we decided to adapt some of
the measures used by Wendel (1997), Yuan and Ellis (2003) and Ellis and Yuan (2005).
a Accuracy measures:
Error-free clauses: the percentage of the clauses that were not erroneous. All syn-
tactic, morphological, and lexical errors were taken into consideration.
Correct verb forms: the percentage of all verbs that were used correctly in termsof tense, aspect, modality, and subjectverb agreement.
b Complexity measures:
Syntactic complexity (amount of subordination): the ratio of clauses to AS units
in the participants production. The rationale behind choosing AS unit is that this
unit is essentially a syntactic one and syntactic units are genuine units of planning
(Foster et al., 2000), which might make them good units for analysing spoken
language in this study. Syntactic variety: the total number of different grammatical verb forms used in
participants performances. We used tense (e.g. simple present, simple past, past
continuous, etc.) and modality (e.g.should, must, etc.) as grammatical verb forms
used for the analysis.
c Fluency measures:
Rate A (number of syllables produced per minute of speech): the number of syl-
lables within each narrative, divided by the number of seconds used to completethe task and multiplied by 60.
Rate B (number of meaningful syllables per minute of speech): Rate As proce-
dure was followed again, but all syllables, words, phrases that were repeated,
reformulated, or replaced excluded.
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Ahmadian and Tavakoli 49
To analyse the obtained data, first, descriptive statistics were used and the scores were
checked in terms of the normality of distribution using such indices as Kurtosis and
Skewness. Second, a series of analyses of variance (ANOVA)2 were performed in order
to draw generalizations from sample statistics to population parameters.
V Results
As it was noted previously, one important way to operationalize careful online planning
is to ask learners to take as much time as they need to reformulate and improve their
language while they are performing the task. Normally then, careful online planners are
expected to spend more time on task completion than pressured online planners do. In
order to ensure that careful online planning has been successfully operationalized, the
total amount of time (seconds) that each participant has spent on task completion has
been calculated, and all four groups have been compared with one another in terms of
this measure. Descriptive statistics presented in Table 4 indicate that careful online plan-
ners have taken more time for task completion than pressured online planners have. Also,
a one-way ANOVA followed by a Scheffe post-hoc analysis reveals that the differences
among the four groups were statistically significant and that the statistically meaningful
differences lay among careful and pressured online planning groups (see Table 4). Thus,
it could be argued that careful online planning has been operationalized successfully.
To provide a plausible answer to the first research question two measures were used:
percentage of error-free clauses and percentage of correct verb forms. Descriptive statis-tics for these two measures (see Table 5) indicate that careful online planners have pro-
duced more error-free clauses and correct verb forms than pressured online planners
have. One-way ANOVA and Scheffe post-hoc analysis, as presented in Table 5, point to
the statistically significant differences between careful online planning groups and pres-
sured online planning groups (both +/TR) in terms of the percentage of error-free
clauses and percentage of correct verb forms. Thus, there is good evidence to suggest
that careful online planning enhances accuracy of EFL learners oral production.
The second research question pertained to the effects of careful online planning on the
complexity of EFL learners oral production. Descriptive and inferential statistics asillustrated in Table 6 show that participants in careful online planning/TR group have
outperformed those in pressured online planning/TR group (i.e. the control group) in
terms of both measures of complexity. Another important piece of information that we
can obtain from Table 6 is that there is no statistically significant difference between
careful online planning/TR and pressured online planning/+TR groups (p = .975;
p = .998), which could be attributable to the fact that both task repetition and careful
online planning have positive effects on complexity. Therefore, in response to the second
research question, it would be safe to suggest that careful online planning enhances the
complexity of EFL learners oral production.The incentive behind posing the third research question was to see whether or not
careful online planning results in statistically significant dysfluency in participants oral
production. To this end, all groups were compared in terms of the measures of fluency,
i.e. the total number of syllables produced per minute of speech (Rate A) and the total
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50 Language Teaching Research 15(1)
Table4
Statisticsforthelengthoftime(sec
onds)spentontaskcompletio
n
M
ean(SD)
FvalueSig.
Locationofsignificance
COLP/
-TR
POLP/
+TR
COLP/
+TR
POLP/
-TR
COLP/
-TR
POLP/
+TR
COLP/
-TR
COLP/
+TR
COLP/
-TR
POLP/
-TR
POLP/
+TR
COLP/
+TR
PO
LP/
+TR
PO
LP/
-TR
COLP/
+TR
POLP/
-TR
Lengthoftime
364.73(15.47)353.06(7.7
1)369.06(5.7
6)353.66(10.20)8.83
.000.0
33*
.732
.048*
.001*
.99
9
.002*
Note:*=p