Influence of planning time and task type on lexis in L2 oral performance

Abstract

Building up a stock of vocabulary with operational sufficiency is a formidable task for L2 learners. An adequate portion of their vocabulary needs to be readily accessible and retrievable for productive use in real communication. This study investigated the possible effects of the availability of planning time and task type on L2 learners’ lexical production in oral performance. It employed a 2x2 experimental design, where there were two independent variables (planning time and task type), each with two levels (no planning and with planning; descriptive and narrative). Participants were 102 (51 females and 51 males) intermediate level Preparatory School university students at an English-medium university in Turkey. The 51 dyads performed oral descriptive and narrative tasks under no planning and with planning conditions. The oral production of the participants were analyzed using two major measures: lexical complexity, and lexical accuracy. Lexical complexity was measured by word length in syllables and by lexical richness/variation with sub-measures of type-token ratio, lexical word range, grammatical word range, lexical-to-grammatical ratio and lexical density. Lexical accuracy was measured by the number of error-free clauses. The results revealed that lexical use is predominantly determined by task type rather than planning time. Narrative tasks elicited more complex and richer vocabulary than descriptive tasks. Availability of planning time appeared to positively influence the accuracy of lexis used, but at the cost of lower degree of richness/variation. The results also indicated that a focus on lexis could be induced through task design, which fosters various aspects of L2 lexical use.