The Impact of Pre-task Planning on the Fluency and Accuracy of Iranian EFL Learners’ Oral Performance

Abstract

Task planning has attracted considerable attention from researchers during the last twenty years. Accordingly, the present study was designed to investigate the impact of pre-task planning (PTP) on the fluency and accuracy of 40 Iranian EFL learners at Islamic Azad University- Maragheh Branch. Performing the decision-making task, the experimental and control groups were provided with a 10-minute and zero-planning time before task performance respectively. To measure the participants’ oral performance, the collected data were transcribed and coded for the two dimensions of oral production- fluency and accuracy- based on the established criteria. Drawing on t-test analyses, unguided planners outperformed no-planners with respect to fluency; however, no significant difference was evident between the performances of the two groups in terms of accuracy.