The effects of planning on fluency, complexity, and accuracy in second language narrative writing

Building on previous studies of the effects of planning on second language (L2) learners' oral narratives and drawing on Kellog's (1996) model of writing, this article reports a study of the effects of three types of planning conditions (pretask planning, unpressured on-line planning, and no planning) on 42 Chinese learners' written narratives elicited by means of a picture composition. The results show that, whereas pretask planning resulted in greater fluency (syllables per minute, p < .01) and greater syntactic variety (number of different verb forms, p < .01), the opportunity to engage in unpressured on-line planning assisted greater accuracy (error-free clauses, p < .05). It is proposed that the two types of planning impact on different aspects of L2 writing processes, with pretask planning promoting formulation and unpressured on-line planning providing better opportunities for monitoring. Writers in the no-planning condition were faced with the need to formulate, execute, and monitor under pressure, with negative consequences for the fluency, complexity, and accuracy of the written product in comparison to the planning groups.