Investigating What Second Language Learners Do and Monitor under Careful Online Planning Conditions Mohammad Javad Ahmadian and Mansoor Tavakoli Abstract: This study used quantitative analyses complemented by the retro- spective data obtained through stimulated recall procedure to address three interrelated issues: (a) whether second language learners use online planning opportunities to carefully plan their speech to enhance the quality of the lan- guage they produce, (b) what kinds of self-repair behaviour the pressured and careful online planning conditions are likely to induce speakers to make, and (c) the way careful online planning affects EFL learners’ oral L2 performance as measured in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Thirty intermedi- ate EFL learners were asked to perform an oral narrative task under careful and pressured online planning conditions. Results of the qualitative and quan- titative analyses revealed that L2 learners use the planning time to monitor their speech for grammatical accuracy, to retrieve and monitor the appropriate lexical items, and to plan the message they will communicate. In addition, it was found that careful online planning conditions induce learners to execute more error repairs and fewer appropriacy and different-information repairs compared to the pressured online planning condition. An analysis in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency measures testified to the positive effects of careful online planning on L2 oral performance. Keywords: accuracy, complexity, fluency, online planning, self-monitoring, task-based language teaching and learning Re ´sume ´ : Cette e ´tude se sert d’analyses quantitatives comple ´te ´es de donne ´es re ´trospectives obtenues par la me ´thode du rappel stimule ´ pour examiner trois questions interrelie ´es : (a) l’exploitation ou la non-exploitation par les appre- nants de langue seconde (L2) des possibilite ´s offertes en ligne de pre ´parer soigneusement leur discours, dans le but d’ame ´liorer la qualite ´ linguistique de leurs e ´nonce ´s ; (b) les types de comportement d’autoreformulation suscep- tibles d’e ˆtre provoque ´s chez le locuteur par la pre ´paration en ligne, contrainte dans un cas et minutieuse dans l’autre ; (c) la mesure dans laquelle une pre ´pa- ration en ligne minutieuse influence la performance orale en L2 des appre- nants d’anglais langue e ´trange `re (ALE ´ ), du point de vue de la complexite ´, de l’exactitude et de l’aisance. On a demande ´a ` trente apprenants d’ALE ´ de ni- veau interme ´diaire de re ´aliser une ta ˆche narrative a ` l’oral dans des conditions ou ` leur pre ´paration en ligne e ´tait contrainte ou minutieuse. Les re ´sultats des © 2013 The Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, doi:10.3138/cmlr.1769 This advance online version may differ slightly from the final published version.