Participatory structure of planning and cognitive task complexity in L2 oral performance: a processing perspective

This study investigates the impact on L2 oral performance of participatory structure of strategic planning (individual vs. collaborative pair planning) and task complexity (simple vs. complex tasks) defined according to the number of elements involved. It also explores individual and collaborative planners’ planning behaviours prior to simple vs. complex tasks. Forty-eight Iranian intermediate learners were assigned to one of the two conditions: individual planning (IndP) and collaborative planning in pairs (ColP) groups. Participants then engaged in planning before completing four oral tasks: two simple and two complex. After each task, they were interviewed about their planning behaviours. Quantitative results showed that fluency and complexity improved as a function of task complexity and collaborative planning. The impact of collaborative planning was greater on the complex tasks in all measures except accuracy. Qualitative analysis revealed that, compared to the individual planners, the collaborative planners used more planning behaviours associated with schematic planning, cognitive planning and content formulation prior to the complex tasks. The findings highlight that careful task design (here, selecting complex tasks with collaborative planning) has real potential to help enhance learners enhance their L2 oral production.