Effects of Task Preparedness on L2 Performance and Acquisition

Over the last few decades, scholars in the field of task-based language teaching have identified various factors that influence second language performance. One of the most essential factors that concerns the procedure and implementation of target tasks is task preparedness. It is believed in a majority of studies that the complexity, accuracy, fluency, and overall quality of L2 output will be affected when learners are given opportunities to plan their speech, both before and during the performance of the task (e.g. Foster & Skehan, 1996; Yuan & Ellis, 2003; Skehan & Foster, 2005). The present proposal aims at exploring the impact of pre-task planning and online planning on L2 oral performance and acquisition and it sets out to build on existing studies by 1) investigating the effects of guided pre-task planning and on-line planning; 2) using interactive tasks to explore the effects of task preparedness on L2 oral performance with CAF measures; 3) designing a pre-, post-, and delayed post-test experiment to explore the effects of task preparedness on L2 acquisition in real classroom settings, and 4) including both teachers’ and learners’ perspectives and perceptions on the planning conditions.