Panel Title
Second Language Acquisition Panel: 日本語学習者の談話運用ストラテジーの使用と未使用に関する判断過程の分析 (The analysis
of decision-making processes in the use of oral production strategies by L2 learners
of Japanese)
Paper Title
タスク・プランニング過程と日本語学習者のストラテジー使用に関する考察 (Processes of task planning: What strategies
do L2 learners of Japanese use?)
Author's Name, Institution and E-mail Address
Takako Nakakubo, University of Iowa, takako-nakakubo@uiowa.edu
Abstract
Research has been conducted to investigate how the
opportunity to plan
before or during the task affects second language (L2) oral performance. It
is
hypothesized that planning helps L2 learners produce better speech by
reducing the cognitive load during linguistic processing and allowing them
to
attend to various aspects of language. Previous studies have examined the
effects of task planning on L2 learners' oral production in terms of
fluency,
complexity, and accuracy and have found that planning generally improves
their speech (Ortega, 1999; Ellis, 2005). However, these studies were
primarily interested in the L2 speech as a result of engaging in planning,
and
thus far only a few studies have attempted to shed light on the planning
processes. It remains unclear what strategies L2 learners use while they
are
planning for a task and what factors lead to speech with higher quality.
The purpose of the current study is to explore the overall processes of
task
planning and to identify strategies L2 learners use during planning. The
participants are intermediate Japanese learners at the university level.
They
are instructed to narrate a story based on a set of pictures under one of
the
two planning conditions: 1) planning prior to a task (pre-task planning)
and
2) planning during a task (on-line planning). In order to document what and
how L2 learners plan, retrospective interviews are given to the
participants
immediately after the task. All the interviews are audio-recorded and
transcribed for analysis. The data are coded for three categories of
learner
strategies using a modified version of Ortega's (2005) classifications:
metacognitive, cognitive, and social/affective strategies. The results
reveal
learners' tendency to focus on limited aspects of planning and inability
to use
variable strategies in both conditions, suggesting that task planning
instruction can be helpful for fluent oral production.
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