An important issue in the teaching of writing is whether students should prepare a plan before they start writing. Teacher guides generally recommend pre-task planning (PTP) but with provisos. Research that has investigated PTP, however, does not lend unconditional support to PTP. This article takes a look at the research and draws from it a…

Discusses a way of evaluating communicative performance in a second language that focuses on communicative strategies instead of intelligibility, correctness, or style. Describes a study in which an attempt was made to assess communicative performance from this point of view. (EKN)

A study of six adult learners of English as a Second Language provides some evidence to suggest that pushing learners to produce more accurate output contributes to acquisition. The data also demonstrate how this might be achieved through focused communication tasks. (Contains 11 references.) (Author)