Pages: 9-16

Abstract

Planning prior to language production is inevitable. The importance of language planning prior to its production and to what extent it may affect the learner use of language have received increasing attention over the past years. However, little research has reported to investigate whether the simultaneous use of online planning with task repetition affects the learners’ writing proficiency. The present paper reports the result of a study which has examined if the simultaneous use of online planning with task repetition improves 50 Iranian EFL learners’ writing proficiency in reference to accuracy and complexity. The participants were divided into two control and experimental groups. Each group were asked to write on a topic with enough time allowed (hence, the online planning). In addition to online planning, the experimental group received four-session treatment where the researcher explicitly encourages the participants to write accurate and complex sentences by repeating the writing task. The results of both immediate and delayed post-tests revealed that online planning with task repetition did improve significantly the writing proficiency of the participants in the experimental group compared to their counterpart in the control group. Pedagogical implications are discussed.