The effect of planning time on cognitive processes, monitoring behavior, and quality of L2 writing

Abstract

This article reports on a study in which stimulated recall data and quantitative measures of complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF) were used to address three interconnected questions in different planning conditions: (1) how learners share their limited attentional capacity with different cognitive processes of ‘planner/proposer’, ‘translator’ and ‘evaluator/reviser’, (2) what kinds of self-repairs are more prone to be utilized by L2 writers, and (3), which condition can provide a better work plan for producing high quality narratives in terms of CAF triad. Sixty intermediate L2 writers narrated a picture story task in four types of planning conditions. The results show that while on-line planning induced the most cognitive processes of planning, translating and evaluating, pre-task planning reduced the number of processes at the time of writing. Moreover, the results reveal that pre-task planning significantly reduced the amount of self-repair when compared to on-line planning, which activated more error repairs, rephrasing repairs and different information repairs. The CAF measures disclose that enhancement of all measures at the same time could not be attained even with the provision of both pre- and on-line planning simultaneously and therefore lend support to the Overload Hypothesis and the Limited Attentional Capacity Model. The implications of these outcomes are discussed, and suggestions for further research are advanced.