The Effects of Pre-task Planning on the Writing Fluency of Iranian EFL Learners Reza Biria Department of English, Khorasgan (Isfahan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran Zahra Karimi Department of English, Khorasgan (Isfahan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran Abstract—According to Nunan (2004), Task-Based Language Teaching is an approach to the use of tasks as fundamental units of planning and language instruction in language teaching. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of pre-task planning on the fluency of the argumentative essays written by Iranian male and female EFL learners with an intermediate proficiency level. For this purpose, an IELTS Writing Task was administered to a population of 100 EFL learners studying at an English institute in Isfahan. Based on their scores, a sample of 50 intermediate level students were selected and randomly divided into two homogenous groups, 25 each. These samples served as control and experimental groups respectively. The role of gender differences was also investigated in this study. Accordingly, the learners in control group were taught by a structure-based traditional approach while the learners in experimental group were taught by a task-based approach. In order to compare the collected data of the two groups, several t tests were utilized. The obtained results of the written essays by the male students revealed that pre-task planning improved fluency. On the other hand, the comparison of the essays written by the females in both group revealed that they produced more fluent texts. Index Terms— task, task-based language teaching, argumentative essays, fluency I. INTRODUCTION Communicating with people from other countries with different cultures, attitudes, and social backgrounds through foreign languages has always been of a great concern to human. The dominant method in language teaching was Grammar Translation Method up to the 1940s. The focus of the method was on grammar and translation from L2 to L1 and vice versa. Because the Grammar Translation Method emphasizes reading rather than the ability to communicate in a language there was a reaction to it. Then the changes in communicative needs and the developments in psychology and linguistics led to the rapid emergence of new methods and approaches, with a new look at different aspects of teaching and learning foreign languages. This shift of focus introduced the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) to the teaching profession. Developing “communicative competence” in learners and paying attention to all four skills were the main goals of language teaching in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) (Richard & Rodgers, 2001; Brown, 2007). In CLT, the primary attention paid to meaning rather than the formal features of language give rise to learning to communicate the intended meaning. Therefore, CLT put a considerable emphasis on fluency and claimed that accuracy can be improved by improving fluency. Based on Brown (2007, p. 241) “CLT is best understood as an approach not a method” and many other new methods have been derived from it. Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is a “logical development of CLT” (Richard & Rodgers, 2001; p. 233). Tasks are the basic and fundamental units of planning and instruction in TBLT (Ellis, 2000, 2003; Littlewood, 2004). Many scholars have used task in their curricula and methodologies and they have long been part of the ELT. However, Task-based language teaching (TBLT) offers a totally different rational for the utilization of tasks in language teaching. In addition, TBLT presents some essential criteria for devising, choosing and sequencing tasks in the classroom instruction for the teachers. Here tasks are utilized as the main output units in instruction, practice and even in evaluation. Moreover, task-based instruction has very stronger bedrock in theory and research such as cognitive approach to language teaching and the concept of psychological reality in psycholinguistic theories. Concerning the ability to write in a foreign language, the bulk of research indicates that it is gaining increasing importance. Accordingly, the instruction in writing is assuming a more fundamental role. In the past, writing skill was not considered as an important skill due to ambiguous nature of writing and it was not investigated by the researchers. Thus the dominant approach in teaching writing was the “product approach” which focuses on the end product of writing and put the emphasis on writing aspects like grammar, vocabulary, punctuation and spelling. According to Badger and White 2000, “In product based approaches writing concerned with the structure knowledge of language, and writing development the result of the group’s imitation, in the text form provided by the researcher ” (p. 154). ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 357-365, March 2015 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0602.16 © 2015 ACADEMY PUBLICATION