This research examined the effects of task-based planning on self-repairs as psycholinguistic mechanisms underlying EFL learners’ speech. To this aim, the influence of simultaneous use of strategic and careful online planning on the type and frequency of learners’ self-corrections was investigated. Sixty Iranian intermediate learners were asked to orally narrate a picture-based story under four conditions: no planning, strategic planning, careful online planning, and the integration of both strategic and careful online planning. They were subsequently asked to verbalize their thought processes during task performance based on their audio-recorded narrations. In general, the results showed that learners’ speech under careful online planning condition involved making more error-repairs and fewer different-information and appropriacy repairs. In addition, the results illustrated that strategic planning resulted in more instances of appropriacy and different-information repairs, and as such, simultaneous use of both types of planning brought about an overall increase in the use of appropriacy, different-information, and error-repairs. The outcomes of this study suggest that engaging the learners in planning can ease task demands; consequently, this task implementation option directs their attention to both form and meaning, hence promoting acquisition. Manuscript profile

Research evidence reported to date demonstrates the differential effects of manipulating second language (L2) task conditions on the resultant production as measured in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. The present study was aimed at adding to the available body of findings by exploring the synergistic effects of two task condition variables, namely online planning and immediacy (± Here/Now) on L2 oral discourse. For this purpose, 60 Iranian intermediate learners of English as a foreign langue (EFL) were asked to perform the task of narrating a story based on a sequenced set of pictures under four conditions (i.e., Here/Now and pressed online planning, Here/Now and careful online planning, There/Then and pressed online planning, There/Then and careful online planning). The results of statistical analyses revealed that carefully planning speech while performing the task consistently assists complexity and accuracy, but negatively affects fluency of speech. Besides, it was observed that carrying out the same task using the past tense without contextual support (i.e., There/Then), if coupled with careful online planning, simultaneously enhances complexity and accuracy. Performing a task in Then/There also reduces fluency. Interestingly, it was also found out that the opportunity to carefully plan online while performing the task in There/Then exponentially increases complexity and accuracy with strong negative effects on fluency. Lastly, pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed regarding the contribution of task condition to directing learners’ attention and their L2 speech quality. Manuscript profile