An investigation of planning time and proficiency level on oral test discourse

The inclusion of planning time in semi-direct oral interaction tests adds consider ably to the overall length of the test, and it is important to be clear that the increase in length is justified by the language outcome. Previous research has shown that the effect of planning time in second language can differentially influence the resultant discourse with planned discourse eliciting more complex language on a range of measures. However, where planning time has been provided it has gener ally been a substantial amount of time (ten minutes or more), and in a second language classroom situation, rather than a testing situation. Where planning time is provided in an oral interaction test it is generally limited to one or two minutes. In this study planning time was manipulated as a variable in a trial administration of a semi-direct test. Discourse analytic techniques were then used to determine the nature and/or significance of differences in the elicited discourse across the two conditions in terms of complexity and accuracy. In addition, candidates were divided into high-proficiency versus low-proficiency groups. The findings suggest that for the high-proficiency candidates, planning time may improve accuracy on some measures where the cognitive load of the task is high, but that this effect does not extend to the low-proficiency candidates.