For more than a decade focus-on-form coupled with meaning¬focused instruction has been placed high on the agenda of SLA research. Planning time and feedback are two methodological procedures that hold some promise for meeting such a concern in EFL/ESL classrooms. The present study addressed the first procedure, i.e., planning time, and investigated its effects on the fluency, complexity, and accuracy of L2 output across modalities. Thirty seven Iranian English majors produced three narratives for different episodes of a silent cartoon under three conditions: 1) oral reproduction with a 10-minute strategic planning, 2) oral reproduction without any pre¬planning, and 3) writing a narrative with on-line planning. The results showed that strategic planning and modality have marked effects on fluency and accuracy of L2 output whilst neither improved output complexity. Strategic planning and written mode of task accomplishment are proposed as effective methodological procedures in task-based instructions in EFL classrooms.
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