The effects of using L1 Chinese or L2 English in planning on speaking performance among high- and low-proficient EFL learners

Speaking constitutes one of the main goals of learning a second language (L2). Despite the increasing attention on the role of planning and language transfer in L2 learning, the combined effect of using different languages and pre-task planning on language production remains unclear. This study investigated whether the use of different languages in planning affects speaking performance and whether the effect differs by language proficiency. A total of 84 students in Chinese universities learning English as a foreign language participated in several speaking tasks after planning using their first language (L1) Chinese or L2 English. Findings showed that using L1 in planning results in significantly higher syntactic complexity, accuracy, and fluency in speaking performance than using L2 in planning, while the difference in lexical diversity were not statistically significant. Further analysis shows that for speech accuracy, the facilitative effect of L1 was stronger among low-proficient than high-proficient learners. Findings from this study support the use of L2 learners’ entire linguistic repertoire in speaking activities and provides implications on speech production theories as well as translanguaging pedagogies.