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This study investigates the effect of different pre-task planning durations on syntactic complexity in oral narratives produced by Uzbek EFL learners. Sixty B2-level university students were randomly assigned to three planning conditions: no planning (0 minutes), short planning (5 minutes), and extended planning (10 minutes). Participants performed a picture-cued narrative task, and their oral productions were analyzed using three measures of syntactic complexity: mean length of T-unit, number of subordinate clauses per T-unit, and number of complex nominals per clause. One-way ANOVA results revealed that extended planning time significantly increased mean length of T-unit (p < .01) and subordinate clause production (p < .05), but had no significant effect on complex nominal density. No significant differences were found between short planning and no planning conditions. These findings suggest that while pre-task planning facilitates syntactic elaboration, a minimum threshold of planning time may be necessary to yield measurable benefits. The study provides pedagogical implications for task-based language teaching in Uzbek higher education contexts.