The Effect of Planning on Accuracy in Verbal Agreement in L2 Oral Performance

Hongbo Qi

doi:10.5539/elt.v15n3p22

Abstract

Accuracy is widely recognized as one of the main dimensions in evaluating task-based oral performance. Indicators of accuracy vary in the literature of the effects of pre-task planning on the oral production. Enlightened by previous studies in pre-task planning and third-person singular -s, this article intends to find out whether the rate of suppliance of thematic verbal agreement increases as a result of pre-task planning, and whether the rate of suppliance of thematic verbal agreement in third-person singular -s increases as a result of pre-task planning. A case study is carried on one subject who makes oral descriptions of a same graph which shows the number of people at London underground station from 6:00 to 22:00 on two separate occasions. The results of this study show that pre-task planning may have significant effect on accuracy of L2 oral output in thematic verbal agreement as a whole, but it may not affect L2 learners in their use of third-person singular -s. &nbsp;

Highlights

In a comparatively more complicated study, Wigglesworth (1997) investigates the correlation between proficiency and task type in planned oral performance. She compares the transcriptions of 56 candidates in two proficiency levels (28 high and 28 low proficiency learners), and points out that high-proficiency group are significantly advantaged by planning time in the most difficult tasks in the accuracy of their use of verbal morphology while low-proficiency group are not advantaged by planning time in any task in the accuracy of their use of verbal morphology
It does shed light on the effects of pre-task planning on accuracy of L2 oral output in that (1) it explores the effects of planning on accuracy in simple present verbal agreement; (2) it discloses a fact that accuracy of the oral output might be far more complicated than it appears to be
The results of the effects of planning on accuracy in verbal agreement are two-folded: pre-task planning has a positive effect on correct use of thematic verbal agreement as a whole, but does little to affect the correct suppliance of third-person singular -s

Summary

Introduction

Accuracy is one of the dependent variables that are discussed in most studies in the effects of pre-task/strategic planning on the oral performances (Bygate, 1996; Wigglesworth, 1997; Mehnert, 1998; Foster & Skehan, 1999; Ortega, 1999; Sangarun, 2005; Kawauchi, 2005; Kim, 2012; Vasylets, Gilabert, & Manchon 2017; Aubrey, Lambert, & Leeming, 2020; Stroud, 2021; Park, 2021; Sadeghi & Mogaddam, 2021). While as a parameter of accuracy, inflected morpheme -ed is often discussed (Ortega, 1999; Kawauchi, 2005; Sadeghi & Mogaddam, 2021), another important inflected morpheme, third person singular -s is seldom mentioned in the literature

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion