This article
reports on a study that investigated the effect of different amounts of planning time on the
speech performance of L2 speakers. Subjects were 4 groups of learners of German (31 in
total) performing 2 tasks each. The tasks varied in the degree of structure they contained and
the familiarity of information they tapped. The control group had no planning time available;
the 3 experimental groups had 1, 5, and 10 minutes of planning time, respectively, before they
started speaking. Results show fluency and lexical density of speech increase as a function of
planning time. Accuracy of speech improved with only 1 minute planning but did not increase
with more planning time. Complexity of speech was significantly higher for the 10-minute
planning condition only. No significant differences were found for the effect of planning on
the different tasks. This study employed various general and specific constructs for measuring
fluency, complexity, and accuracy of speech. The interrelationships and qualities of these
measures are also investigated and discussed.