The effects of different types of planning on the oral production of morphosyntactic features

Abstract The study reported in this article aimed to investigate the effect of simultaneous use of online planning and task repetition on accurate and fluent oral production of morphosyntactic features (e.g. plural –s, possessive –‘s, –ing forms, past tense –ed) by EFL learners. The effect of four planning and task repetition conditions (i.e. online planning without task repetition, task repetition under time pressure, task repetition with online planning, and no planning/task repetition) on learners’ accuracy and fluency in producing morphosyntactic features was investigated. 60 Iranian beginning-level EFL learners were randomly assigned to the four experimental conditions. Participants in all four groups (n=15) were required to engage in an oral narrative task in which they watched a short episode of a classical silent film and, then, were asked to narrate the story under the conditions specified for each group. Results revealed that the opportunity to engage simultaneously in online planning and task repetition enhanced both fluency and accuracy significantly as compared to the mere engagement in online planning or task repetition or lack thereof. The results also have some implications for teachers and practitioners in EFL contexts.