Abstract
The past twenty years has witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of studies investigating different aspects and features of tasks in the second and foreign language class and their effects on learners’ oral and written task performance. Building up on a review of the studies conducted in the field of task-based language teaching a gap was revealed in the literature on the joint effects of task complexity and types of pre-task planning on L2 learners’ performance. The present study investigates the effects of strategic pre-task planning time and task complexity on a group of L2 learners’ written performance in terms of accuracy and fluency. The means of accuracy and fluency of 50 intermediate English language learners, both male and female, chosen randomly from Iran National Language Institute, Miandoab Branch were compared using T-test as the statistical means of analysis. The findings revealed a positive influence of pre-task strategic planning time in both simple and complex tasks, suggesting significant implications for syllabus and task designers, language teachers, and SLA researchers.
Highlights
Collaborative writing is “the production of a single text by co-authors or group authors” (Ede & Lunsford, 1985, p.14)
Much attention has been bestowed on collaborative writing since early 1970’s when Bruffee (1973) argued that students produced better work when they write in groups
The study was conducted in an English Language Centre (ELC) at a private institution of higher learning in Malaysia
Summary
Collaborative writing is “the production of a single text by co-authors or group authors” (Ede & Lunsford, 1985, p.14). Language instructors have been using collaborative writing at the tertiary levels (Lee, 2011; Luca & Tarricone, 2001; Storch, 2002, 2005, 2011; Yong 2010, 2011). This is because learning to collaborate is important to develop team spirit which is applicable in work places that often involve team projects (Strauss, 2001). Some writing instructors claim that it is not rational because not everyone will be able to work with others who have different opinions and conflict may occur (Stewart, 1988)
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