Enhancing young EFL learners’ written skills: the role of repeated pre-task planning

Abstract

The present study seeks to investigate the effect of repeated pre-task planning on young learners’ written production of three problematic aspects of English grammar (the present simple third-person singular -s; the possessives his/her; and the personal pronouns he/she), and the overall quality of their writings. Thirty-three dyads of Basque-Spanish learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) from the sixth year of the primary education level (aged 11–12) performed a series of picture-prompted narration tasks in three different planning conditions: guided-planning (GP), unguided-planning (UP) and no-planning (NP). Their written production was compared in pre-, post- and delayed post-tests. Results showed statistically significant gains for the GP group, supporting the claim that repeated practice involving pre-task explicit grammar instruction might benefit young EFL learners, even though not all the target forms under analysis improved.