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The Effects of L1 Use in Pre-task Planning on L2 Speech Fluency
Liping Chen, Weijia Hou
Asian Journal of English Language Teaching ›› 2026, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (3) : 57-75.
PDF(629 KB)
PDF(629 KB)
The Effects of L1 Use in Pre-task Planning on L2 Speech Fluency
Weijia Hou
Pre-task planning is one of the widely used approaches to improve second language (L2) fluency in task-based language teaching (Ellis et al., 2020). However, the effect of the language used in pre-task planning on L2 speech fluency remains underexplored. The current study employed a between-participants design to compare the effects of planning languages at three levels: L1 planning, L2 planning, and no planning (a control group), across a narrative task on four measures of L2 speech fluency among 84 Chinese EFL learners. The study also investigated the moderating role of L2 proficiency. Results revealed that L1 planning significantly improved speech rate and marginally reduced between-clause pauses, while L2 planning showed weaker, marginally significant effects. Neither language of planning condition significantly affected within-clause pausing or repair fluency. In addition, within-group correlation analyses revealed that higher L2 proficiency in the L1 planning group was strongly correlated with all fluency measures. Pedagogical implications are discussed in terms of how to optimize L2 speech fluency in different planning languages across different L2 proficiency levels.
Language of pre-tasking planning / L2 speech fluency / first language planning / L2 proficiency
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