The Effects of Pre-Task Planning on Iranian EFL Undergraduate's Argumentative Writing Task Performance

Despite the growing body of research documented on pre-task planning in oral and written domain, the results of pre-task planning studies are still inconsistent in second language writing research (e.g. Ellis & Yuan, 2004; Johnson, Mercedo, & Acevedo, 2012; Johnson & Nicodemus 2016; Ong & Zhang, 2010). The current study set out to investigate the effects of two planning conditions (pre-task planning and no planning) on the argumentative writing task performance of Iranian EFL undergraduates in terms of multiple measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). To this end, 44 Iranian EFL undergraduates majoring in English literature at the University of Tehran were recruited based on convenience sampling to participate in this study. Employing a counterbalanced ‘within participants’ design, the participants were required to perform an argumentative writing task under both pre-task planning and no planning conditions. In the pre-task planning condition, in addition to 17 minutes for performing the task, the participants were provided with 10 minutes to plan prior to the task, whereas in the no planning condition, they were not provided with any time to plan. The results of paired sample t-test failed to reveal any significant difference between writing task performance in terms of measures of CAF under pre-task planning and no planning conditions. Thus, it was shown that pre-task planning did not benefit any of the measures (CAF) of argumentative writing task. Possible explanations for the results of this study and pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed.