Investigating the interactions between L2 writing processes and products under different task planning time conditions

This study adopted an integrated approach to investigate how second language (L2) writers engaged in cognitive processes during planning and writing and generated their written products under a randomly assigned planning time condition. Participants were 160 intermediate-high L2 writers who performed a narrative task under either the pre-task planning condition (PTP), the online planning condition (OLP), the combination of the pre-task and online planning condition (PTP/OLP), or the no planning condition (NP). Furthermore, 60 writers, randomly selected from the four task conditions, participated in video stimulated recall interviews (VSRIs). L2 writers’ performance was analyzed using complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) measures. Quantitative analyses revealed that PTP, OLP, and PTP/OLP improved complexity and fluency, but OLP and PTP/OLP fostered accuracy while PTP had no effect compared to NP. Additionally, only the paired interaction between PTP/OLP and PTP was positive for fluency while other paired interactions remained insignificant. The VSRIs also demonstrated that while PTP facilitated attention to the planning processes and OLP improved attention to the translating processes and monitoring system, PTP/OLP aided in differentially attending to the writing systems and processes. These results suggest that task planning mitigated specific demands on L2 writers’ cognitive processes and fostered writing products.