The effect of online planning, strategic planning and rehearsal across two proficiency levels

The study presents an investigation of the effect of strategic planning, online planning and rehearsal on the fluency, accuracy and complexity of oral productions at two proficiency levels. Forty EFL participants at low and intermediate levels performed picture story tasks in three different conditions: the online planning only condition, characterised by the opportunity for during-task online planning only; a first pre-task condition offering the additional opportunity for strategic planning, called combined strategic planning with online planning; and a second pre-planning condition involving task rehearsal prior to performance in addition to the opportunity to plan online, called combined rehearsal with online planning. The results suggest that the opportunity for rehearsal and strategic planning had a statistically significant impact on fluency but not on accuracy and complexity. In relation to the impact of proficiency, the results for complexity pointed to a pattern of interaction tending toward significance. The results and the differences between the conditions as well as the interaction effects are discussed in light of Levelt's model of speaking and previous research on planning and rehearsal.