Planning to perform: Association of pre-task strategies with linguistic complexity and cohesion in argumentative essays

Abstract

While much research has examined the effects of pre-task planning on L2 writing performance, little attention has been paid to what writers actually do during planning and how their strategies relate to the linguistic features in their writing. To address these gaps, this study explores the relationship between pre-task planning strategies and language use in L2 argumentative writing. We manually coded 511 timed essays for pre-task strategy use, type, language, and depth of elaboration. The essays were then analyzed for linguistic and cohesion features. Using principal component analysis, we found five constructs tapping into syntactic complexity, lexical complexity, and semantic cohesion. Linear models were used to examine whether pre-task planning and its characteristics predicted variation in these constructs. The results indicated that essays written with one or more pre-task strategies demonstrated significantly higher lexical sophistication. Further, greater elaboration and the use of exploratory or mixed strategies were positively associated with lexical diversity and sophistication. In contrast, no strong relationships were found between planning strategies and syntactic complexity or cohesion. These findings highlight the lexical benefits of pre-task planning and offer implications for research and pedagogy in L2 writing