Discovery of ideas in second language writing task environment

Ideas generation is a cognitive process that is imperative to producing good writing. However, much is not known about the occurrence of this process and how it is affected by various manipulated planning time and task conditions. This study examined the effects of three planning time conditions (planning time, extended planning time, and no planning time) and two task conditions (topic given vs. topic and ideas given) on the quality, and quantity and rate of ideas produced in the planning notes and essays of 52 English as a Second Language (ESL) Chinese pre-university students. Results showed that there was an outburst of ideas in the essays of the no planning condition. The quality of these ideas was not traded-off with this outburst of ideas. Although the quality and quantity of ideas were superior in the planning notes of the extended planning time condition, such beneficial effects dissipated in the transcription process. The extended planning time condition produced the worst quality of ideas and the least number of ideas in the essays. The topic and ideas given condition produced a marginally significantly better quality of ideas in the essays than the topic given condition, albeit no significant difference in the quantity of ideas.