Looking into Accuracy, Complexity and Fluency of EFL Learners' Written Task Production and the Potency of Unguided Planning

Planning has been argued to have positive effects on learners’ task production regarding complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF), yet the debate is still hot and the findings are controversial especially regarding written task production which has been partiallyoverlooked. This study seeks to find out the impact of unguided pretask planning on learners’ written task production. To do this, an Oxford placement test was administered. Based on the scores, the 68 Iranian undergraduates majoring in English were randomlydivided into two groups of control no-planners (NP) andexperimental unguided pre-task planners (UPP). They watched an episode of Mr Bean’s film and were required to write their account of watching in planned and unplanned conditions. The written narratives were measured for the CAF and the result of the studyrevealed that although unguided planners outperformed no-planners regarding all aspects of CAF, the result, however, was only significant regarding the number of dysfluency as a component of fluency.