Seyyed Hesamoddin Aliasin - Assistant Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, Zanjan University, I.R. IRAN
Mahdi Noshadi - M.A in TEFL, Zanjan University, I.R. IRAN

Despite a large majority of research on the impact of pre-task planning on oral production over the past few decades, little research has explored the issue in L2 writing contexts. Accordingly, the overarching concern of the present study was to highlight the effect of pre-task planning on the improvement of Iranian EFL learners’ writing skill in Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT). In so doing, 60 Iranian EFL learners aged between 17 and 24 in two equal groups of 30, Experimental and Control ones, served as the participants. Instruments for the data collection used in the current study included Oxford Quick Placement Test; Brown’s categories for evaluating learners’ writing (1991); and two genuine validated TOEFL writing tests as pre- and post-tests. The role of pre-task planning in writing performance was examined using independent sample t-test statistical procedure for data analysis. The obtained results revealed that pre-task planning was significantly associated with the improvement of EFL learners’ overall writing skill. Besides, the results may exhort language teachers, course designers, and writing curriculum and material developers to put into consideration the pre-task planning as a prelude to writing tasks of any kind.

Task; Task-Based Language Teaching; Pre-Task Planning; L2 Writing Performance