Despite their substantial role in natural discourse, idioms often intimidate EFL students. Therefore, finding effective ways of mitigating students’ frustration has been a fundamental consideration in language teaching. Mnemonics, as... more
Despite their substantial role in natural discourse, idioms often intimidate EFL students. Therefore, finding effective ways of mitigating students’ frustration has been a fundamental consideration in language teaching. Mnemonics, as associative memory tools, are largely acknowledged to be instrumental in reducing the cognitive load involved in language learning, particularly in learning lexical items. This study was conducted to explore the effects of linguistic, verbal, and visual mnemonics on empowering language learners in the recall and recognition of English idioms. Two-hundred seventy intermediate-level EFL learners preparing themselves for IELTS took part in this study. The participants were in nine groups of members each. They were divided into three main groups, each of which was taught idioms using one of the above-mentioned mnemonics. The MANOVA procedure was used to analyze the collected data. The results revealed statistically significant differences among these instru...
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It is generally believed that self-efficacy as a psychological construct contributes to learning process and academic performance. The present study attempted to investigate the possible differences among self-efficacy sources as... more
It is generally believed that self-efficacy as a psychological construct contributes to learning process and academic performance. The present study attempted to investigate the possible differences among self-efficacy sources as predictors of EFL learners' academic achievement in educational settings. To this end, a questionnaire of EFL self-efficacy sources together with Nelson English Proficiency Test were administered among 219 senior EFL learners. The collected data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The results indicated that of the four sources of self-efficacy, only enactive mastery experience accounted for a statistically significant portion of the variance with course performance and, therefore, was a positive predictor of students' course performance. The results of the present study imply that when learners continue to develop self-efficacy, they will have better English performance scores. It is also concluded that what an educational system needs...
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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of persuasion on self-regulation in Iranian EFL context. To this end, 112 male and female intermediate level Iranian EFL learners were selected to participate in this study.... more
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of persuasion on self-regulation in Iranian EFL context. To this end, 112 male and female intermediate level Iranian EFL learners were selected to participate in this study. In the first session, learners were asked to fill out the Self-Regulation Trait Questionnaire, but they were given no specific explanation about each section of the questionnaire. In other sessions, the researcher exposed the participants to about ten minutes of positive persuasive talk about one of the components of the self-regulated trait questionnaire, and administered the questionnaire again. One-way repeated-measures ANOVA procedures were used to analyze the obtained data. Results indicated that persuasion has a positive effect on learners' planning self-regulation, self-checking, effort self-regulation and self-efficacy self-regulation. These findings can have implication for second language learners, teachers, and materials developers.
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To investigate the effect of quiz frequency on the course performance of Iranian university students of English, the mean scores of five groups of subjects were compared using a balanced one-way ANOVA procedure. Analyses revealed that... more
To investigate the effect of quiz frequency on the course performance of Iranian university students of English, the mean scores of five groups of subjects were compared using a balanced one-way ANOVA procedure. Analyses revealed that quizzes significantly improve course performance. With some exceptions, it was also found that the more frequently the subjects were quizzed, the better their course performance became. To study the relationship between quizzes and class attendance, the absences of the same five groups of subjects were regularly checked and compared using the Chi-square procedure. Results showed that there is an inverse relationship between quiz frequency and the number of absences from class.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of the effect of instructional techniques (blended learning, jigsaw, and scaffolding) on Iranian EFL learners' self-regulation and critical thinking. To this end, 171 male... more
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of the effect of instructional techniques (blended learning, jigsaw, and scaffolding) on Iranian EFL learners' self-regulation and critical thinking. To this end, 171 male and female intermediate-level Iranian EFL learners were selected based on cluster sampling. Initially, the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP) was administered to the participants to make sure that there were no significant differences among the participants in terms of their language proficiency level. The participants were in five groups; each group was randomly assigned to a different treatment condition. Two questionnaires were used twice in this study, at the beginning of the course as a pretest and at the end of the course as a posttest. The ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance) procedure was used to analyze the obtained data. The results indicated that these techniques have more or less the same effect on learners' self-regulati...
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of meaning-focused versus form-focused input-oriented and output-oriented task-based instruction on elementary level Iranian EFL Learners" vocabulary comprehension and recall. For... more
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of meaning-focused versus form-focused input-oriented and output-oriented task-based instruction on elementary level Iranian EFL Learners" vocabulary comprehension and recall. For this purpose, a sample of 120 male students from a private school in Tehran was selected through convenience sampling and based on availability. The participants were divided into four groups, and each group was given a different treatment. The first group was taught through meaning-focused input-oriented vocabulary tasks; the second group was instructed through meaning-focused output-oriented tasks; the third group received form-focused input-oriented vocabulary tasks, and the fourth group received form-focused output-oriented vocabulary instruction. At the end of the treatment, the participants in all the four groups were given a vocabulary comprehension and a vocabulary recall posttest. The results indicated that meaning-focused tasks were more eff...
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This study aimed to investigate the relationship between media literacy and listening comprehension among Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To this end, after conducting Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), 84 Iranian... more
This study aimed to investigate the relationship between media literacy and listening comprehension among Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To this end, after conducting Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), 84 Iranian EFL learners at intermediate levels of English language proficiency were selected. Then, the media literacy questionnaire (Media Literacy Self-assessment Scale (MLSS)), developed by Chang et al. (2011), with 13 items and a listening comprehension test (TOEFL Listening: Lecture (1) (2015)) with ten multiple-choice questions was used to measure the learners’ media literacy and their level of listening comprehension ability. To test the possible correlation between media literacy and the learners’ listening comprehension, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used. The findings revealed that there was a positive relationship between media literacy and listening comprehension.
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Abstract: To investigate the effect of corrective feedback on the grammatical and lexical writing accuracy, 164 participants in four groups participated in the study, and each group received a specified written corrective feedback. The... more
Abstract: To investigate the effect of corrective feedback on the grammatical and lexical writing accuracy, 164 participants in four groups participated in the study, and each group received a specified written corrective feedback. The participants were presented with a pretest, a questionnaire, and a post-test. Chi-Square and One-Way ANOVA procedures were used to analyse data. Regarding grammatical accuracy, results showed that the direct corrective feedback group preformed significantly better than the other groups. The uncoded group also performed significantly better than the control group. As to lexical writing accuracy, the three treatment groups performed significantly better than the comparison group.
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To investigate the effects of different glossing conventions on vocabulary recognition and recall, 158 participants were given a pre-test to make sure that they did not have any prior knowledge of the target words. Reading passages with... more
To investigate the effects of different glossing conventions on vocabulary recognition and recall, 158 participants were given a pre-test to make sure that they did not have any prior knowledge of the target words. Reading passages with four different glossing conventions (interlinear, marginal, pre-text, and post-text) were given to eight groups. Four groups received interlingual glosses and four groups were given intralingual glosses. Receptive and productive post-tests were administered to measure vocabulary recognition and recall. The collected data were analyzed using two one-way ANOVA procedures. The results showed that there were no significant differences among the effects of different types of intralingual glosses on vocabulary recognition and recall. As to the affect of the interlingual glosses on vocabulary recognition, the posttext group performed significantly worse than both the pretext and the marginal groups. Moreover, the interlinear gloss was shown to be more effec...
In this study, the sociolinguistic status of Karingani has been investigated from the perspective of the domains of use as well as the attitudes of speakers towards this language. Azerbaijani Turkish is the language of the majority. The... more
In this study, the sociolinguistic status of Karingani has been investigated from the perspective of the domains of use as well as the attitudes of speakers towards this language. Azerbaijani Turkish is the language of the majority. The language of the immigrant minority, Karingani, has created special sociological linguistic conditions in contact with the Turkish language. A sample of 49 people was selected through a stepwise sampling to answer the questionnaire questions as a tool for collecting information. Descriptive information such as frequency, percentage and distribution of respondents and responses were extracted using SPSS 21 to investigate the domains of language use and also the participants' attitudes towards this language. The findings indicate that although some people in some private spheres, for example, in connection with some members of the family, use Karingani more or less, in other areas, even unnecessary areas, such as in relation to the sisters and broth...
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The present study investigated the predictive power of critical thinking skills on critical listening and foreign language listening anxiety of Iranian intermediate EFL. To this end, 200 intermediate adult male and female Iranian EFL... more
The present study investigated the predictive power of critical thinking skills on critical listening and foreign language listening anxiety of Iranian intermediate EFL. To this end, 200 intermediate adult male and female Iranian EFL learners from a private language institute took part in the study by completing Michigan test of English language proficiency, the California critical thinking skills test, Critical listening scale and foreign language listening anxiety scale. Using KR-21 and Chronbach’s Alpha, the reliability of questionnaires was re-estimated. The results of multiple regression indicated there was a statistically significant predictive of critical thinking skills. Furthermore, the findings of this study show a negative relationship between critical thinking skills and foreign language listening anxiety as measured by FLLAS; this seems logical. The quantitative findings gathered through CTS and FLLA scales suggest that when there is an increase in CTS of the students, ...
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Scaffolding and shadowing techniques have been shown to improve language learners’ reading comprehension. However, little attention has been paid to the comparative effectiveness of these techniques. This study investigated the effect of... more
Scaffolding and shadowing techniques have been shown to improve language learners’ reading comprehension. However, little attention has been paid to the comparative effectiveness of these techniques. This study investigated the effect of three selected scaffolding techniques (peer scaffolding, distributed scaffolding, and reciprocal scaffolding) versus three types of shadowing (complete shadowing, partial shadowing, and interactive shadowing) on L2 reading comprehension. To this end, 120 intermediate level EFL learners (in 6 groups of 20 members each) were selected through convenience sampling from three language institutes in Qazvin. Each group was randomly assigned to one of the shadowing and scaffolding techniques. One way ANOVA and independent samples t-tests were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that among the three scaffolding techniques, distributed scaffolding was the most effective technique on reading comprehension. The most effective technique among shadowi...
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This study was conducted to compare the possible effect of four ways of teaching on EFL learners' comprehension and production of English idioms. A sample of 80 female Iranian EFL learners (in four groups) at Guya institute in Qazvin... more
This study was conducted to compare the possible effect of four ways of teaching on EFL learners' comprehension and production of English idioms. A sample of 80 female Iranian EFL learners (in four groups) at Guya institute in Qazvin were selected. Each group of participants received instruction through one of the four techniques of visualization, storytelling, game and lexical awareness techniques. The participants were given a 60-item Oxford Placement Test to make sure that their general proficiency level was approximately the same. They were also given an idioms pretest. After the treatment period, posttests of idiom comprehension and production were given to all the four groups. One-way ANOVA was run to analyze the collected data. The results suggested that the differences among the four techniques in terms of their effectiveness on L2 idiom comprehension were not statistically significant. However, the four techniques were differentially effective on idiom production. To se...
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To investigate the effect of massed and distributed collaborative and non-collaborative presentation on L2 learners’ comprehension and production of lexical collocations, 105 participants at Takestan Islamic Azad University in 4 groups... more
To investigate the effect of massed and distributed collaborative and non-collaborative presentation on L2 learners’ comprehension and production of lexical collocations, 105 participants at Takestan Islamic Azad University in 4 groups were assigned to four different treatment conditions (collaborative-massed; collaborative-distributed; noncollaborative-massed; and noncollaborative-distributed presentation of collocations). Participants were given recognition and production posttests. To compare the participants' comprehension of collocations, a two-way ANOVA was used. Results indicated that the differences among the types of presentation and method were not statistically significant. Another two-way ANOVA was used to compare the learners' production of collocations, which showed that there was no significant difference between types of presentation- massed and distributed. The differences between methods of teaching- collaborative and non-collaborative- were not statistical...
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To investigate the relationship between language learning strategies types and cognitive self-regulated learning components (rehearsal, elaboration, organization self-regulated learning, and critical thinking), 148 B.A level students... more
To investigate the relationship between language learning strategies types and cognitive self-regulated learning components (rehearsal, elaboration, organization self-regulated learning, and critical thinking), 148 B.A level students majoring in English translation and English language teaching were selected. Data were gathered through the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire-MSLQ, and were analyzed using stepwise multiple regression analysis procedures. The findings revealed that memory strategies were the best predictor of rehearsal self-regulated learning. Moreover, meta-cognitive, affective, and memory strategies had predictive power on elaboration self-regulated learning. There were also significant relationships between meta-cognitive and cognitive strategies and organization self-regulated learning. Likewise, the results indicated that the combinations of cognitive, affective, compensation, and social strategies a...
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The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of reading and listening task-induced involvement load on L2 vocabulary comprehension and production. To this end, initially a sample of 180 Iranian B.A. level students majoring... more
The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of reading and listening task-induced involvement load on L2 vocabulary comprehension and production. To this end, initially a sample of 180 Iranian B.A. level students majoring in TEFL and translation studies at Imam Khomeini International University (IKIU) and Islamic Azad University of Garmsar were selected. After the administration of a subset of the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), and the exclusion of the students who were not present in all treatment sessions, a sample of 120 participants remained. The researchers asked the participants of this study to perform three different tasks each involving a different involvement load index for six consecutive sessions. After the treatment period, the participants were immediately exposed to vocabulary comprehension and production tests. The data were analyzed using six separate independent samples T-test procedures. The results suggested the superiority ...
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o investigate the effect of attitude on L2 learners' choice of memory and cognitive strategies, a sample of 103 intermediate level Iranian EFL students were asked to respond to a memory and cognitive questionnaire and an attitude... more
o investigate the effect of attitude on L2 learners' choice of memory and cognitive strategies, a sample of 103 intermediate level Iranian EFL students were asked to respond to a memory and cognitive questionnaire and an attitude questionnaire. The participants were divided into three groups of high, mid, and low attitude levels based on their performance on the attitude questionnaire. Two separate one-way ANOVA procedures were used to compare memory and cognitive strategy use of the three groups. Results indicated that the level of attitude significantly influenced students' choice of memory strategies, but had no significant effect on the choice of cognitive strategies. The findings of this study can have implications for teachers as well as learners.
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The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of various online techniques (word reference, media, and vocabulary games) on reading comprehension as well as vocabulary comprehension and production. For this purpose, 60 language... more
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of various online techniques (word reference, media, and vocabulary games) on reading comprehension as well as vocabulary comprehension and production. For this purpose, 60 language learners were selected and divided into three groups, and each group was randomly assigned to one of the treatment conditions. In the first session of treatment, a vocabulary test was administered as the pretest of the study. During treatment, the language learners in those three groups were instructed through online vocabulary games, online media along with transcript and online word reference. At the end of the treatment, a reading comprehension test, a vocabulary comprehension, and a vocabulary production test were given as the posttests. The collected data were analyzed using three one-way ANOVA procedures. The results showed that the online media group outperformed the other groups. Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that dif...
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This study was conducted to investigate the effect of meaning-focused versus form-focused input-oriented and output-oriented task-based instruction on elementary level Iranian EFL Learners’ vocabulary comprehension and recall. For this... more
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of meaning-focused versus form-focused input-oriented and output-oriented task-based instruction on elementary level Iranian EFL Learners’ vocabulary comprehension and recall. For this purpose, a sample of 120 male students from a private school in Tehran was selected through convenience sampling and based on availability. The participants were divided into four groups, and each group was given a different treatment. The first group was taught through meaning-focused input-oriented vocabulary tasks; the second group was instructed through meaning-focused output-oriented tasks; the third group received form-focused input-oriented vocabulary tasks, and the fourth group received form-focused output-oriented vocabulary instruction. At the end of the treatment, the participants in all the four groups were given a vocabulary comprehension and a vocabulary recall posttest. The results indicated that meaning-focused tasks were more effectiv...
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This study investigated personal metadiscourse units across genres. Based on Adel’s (2006) taxonomy of the discourse functions of personal metadiscourse and Leech’s (2014) grand strategy of politeness, three spoken genres were compared in... more
This study investigated personal metadiscourse units across genres. Based on Adel’s (2006) taxonomy of the discourse functions of personal metadiscourse and Leech’s (2014) grand strategy of politeness, three spoken genres were compared in terms of the use of personal metadiscourse functions and politeness maxims. To that end, a 3,034,025-word corpus consisting of Panel discussion in politics, Interviews with actors, and Comedies genres, which included 30 audio and video transcriptions, was developed. Explicitness, world of discourse, current discourse, speaker qua speaker and listener qua listener were used to identify metadiscourse units. We examined the total frequencies of all personal metadiscourse units used in the corpus. The results of corpus analysis showed that 19.6% of metadiscourse units occurred in comedies, which was the highest among the three genres. The most commonly used metadiscourse units appeared in speaker-oriented metadiscourse with 10.2% in interviews. The res...
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Learner autonomy is a shift from teacher-centered learning to learner-centered learning. This shift has some implications for learning activities and learning strategies. At the same time, a wide variety of factors may affect both learner... more
Learner autonomy is a shift from teacher-centered learning to learner-centered learning. This shift has some implications for learning activities and learning strategies. At the same time, a wide variety of factors may affect both learner autonomy and language learning strategies. This book focuses on motivation and attitude. It is an investigation into the relationship between these two factors and learner autonomy as well as the effect of motivation and attitude level on the choice of language learning strategies. Apart from a theoretical review, empirical analyses are done and the results are presented in both tabular and graphical forms along with the implications they may have for teachers, learners, and other stake-holders.
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The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of CALL/Web-based and conventional instructions on improving EFL learners’ autonomy and motivation. To this end, a sample of 110 intermediate level Iranian EFL students were... more
The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of CALL/Web-based and conventional instructions on improving EFL learners’ autonomy and motivation. To this end, a sample of 110 intermediate level Iranian EFL students were selected and divided into two groups: an experimental group and a comparison group. Each group of participants was then randomly assigned to one of the treatment conditions. The CALL/Web-based instruction was used in the experimental group, while the conventional methods were employed in the comparison group. An autonomy questionnaire and a motivation questionnaire were administered to the participants of both groups prior to and after the treatment. The ANCOVA procedure was used to analyze the obtained data. Results indicated that CALL/Web-based instruction had a significant effect on both students’ autonomy and motivation. The participants of the experimental group experienced significant improvements in their level of autonomy and motivation compared w...
The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between metacognitive reading strategies, reading self-efficacy, and reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. The participants were 119 Iranian B.A and M.A students... more
The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between metacognitive reading strategies, reading self-efficacy, and reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. The participants were 119 Iranian B.A and M.A students majoring in English at Imam Khomeini International University and Islamshahr Azad University. A Michigan Test of English language Proficiency was given to the participants to determine their language proficiency and reading comprehension. Then, they were asked to respond to the two questionnaires of MARSI (Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory), and RSEQ (Reading Self-Efficacy Questionnaire). To analyze the data, multiple regression analyses and correlation procedures were used. The results revealed a significant relationship between the use of reading strategies and reading comprehension. Also, a significant relationship was found between the use of reading strategies and reading self-efficacy. Moreover, the findings showed a positiv...
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The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of reading and listening task-induced involvement load on L2 vocabulary comprehension and production. To this end, initially a sample of 180 Iranian B.A. level students majoring... more
The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of reading and listening task-induced involvement load on L2 vocabulary comprehension and production. To this end, initially a sample of 180 Iranian B.A. level students majoring in TEFL and translation studies at Imam Khomeini International University (IKIU) and Islamic Azad University of Garmsar were selected. After the administration of a subset of the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), and the exclusion of the students who were not present in all treatment sessions, a sample of 120 participants remained. The researchers asked the participants of this study to perform three different tasks each involving a different involvement load index for six consecutive sessions. After the treatment period, the participants were immediately exposed to vocabulary comprehension and production tests. The data were analyzed using six separate independent samples T-test procedures. The results suggested the superiority ...
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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of persuasion on self-regulation in Iranian EFL context. To this end, 112 male and female intermediate level Iranian EFL learners were selected to participate in this study.... more
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of persuasion on self-regulation in Iranian EFL context. To this end, 112 male and female intermediate level Iranian EFL learners were selected to participate in this study. In the first session, learners were asked to fill out the Self-Regulation Trait Questionnaire, but they were given no specific explanation about each section of the questionnaire. In other sessions, the researcher exposed the participants to about ten minutes of positive persuasive talk about one of the components of the self-regulated trait questionnaire, and administered the questionnaire again. One-way repeated-measures ANOVA procedures were used to analyze the obtained data. Results indicated that persuasion has a positive effect on learners’ planning self-regulation, self-checking, effort self-regulation and self-efficacy self-regulation. These findings can have implication for second language learners, teachers, and materials developers.
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s 13 Lexical Inferencing Strategies Affecting the Comprehension and Production of L2 Idioms Abbas Ali Zarei* Associate professor, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran Hamideh Shirmohammadi** MA, Islamic Azad University,... more
s 13 Lexical Inferencing Strategies Affecting the Comprehension and Production of L2 Idioms Abbas Ali Zarei* Associate professor, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran Hamideh Shirmohammadi** MA, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran (Received: 16th, April, 2018, Accepted: 10th, April, 2019 Date of publication: July, 2019) This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of four different forms of strategy instruction on idioms comprehension and production. To achieve the purpose of this study, 120 female students at intermediate level of language proficiency were selected from among a total number of 139 through convenience sampling and based on availability. The participants were divided into five groups, and each group was randomly assigned to one of the treatment (four experimental and a comparison) conditions. Each of the four experimental groups were taught one of the four lexical inferencing strategies including form-focused, monitoring, evaluating, and mean...
This study investigated the effects of three methods of teaching, including multimedia, shadowing, and traditional method on Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' reading comprehension ability. Seventy Iranian EFL... more
This study investigated the effects of three methods of teaching, including multimedia, shadowing, and traditional method on Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' reading comprehension ability. Seventy Iranian EFL female learners, aged 15 to 17, who were studying at schools in Qazvin participated in this study. Based on the results of the Key English Test (KET), the participants were homogenized in terms of their English proficiency level. The participants were divided into three groups. Each group was randomly assigned to a different treatment condition. At the end of the treatment period, a reading comprehension test was administered. A one-way ANOVA was used to analyze the obtained data. The results indicated a significant difference between the multimedia and traditional groups in favor of multimedia instruction. However, there was no significant difference between the multimedia and shadowing groups, nor was there any significant difference between the shado...
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This study investigated the effects of form-focused and meaning-focused tasks with different involvement load indices on EFL learners' recognition of L2 idioms. To this end, a sample of 180 EFL learners (both male and female) in two... more
This study investigated the effects of form-focused and meaning-focused tasks with different involvement load indices on EFL learners' recognition of L2 idioms. To this end, a sample of 180 EFL learners (both male and female) in two language institutes was selected and randomly assigned into six groups. Form-focused tasks with involvement load 2 (Multiple-choice), 3 (Sentence-completion), 4 (Sentence-making) were used for three experimental groups, while meaning-focused tasks with involvement load 2 (Summary-writing), 3 (Writing with glossary), and 4 (Writing without glossary) were utilized for the other three groups. After the treatment, a 30-item test in multiple-choice format was administered to assess the participants' recognition of idioms. One two-way ANOVA and a series of independent-samples t-tests were run to process the collected data. The results indicated that the tasks with higher levels of involvement load were more effective on recognition of idioms. The resul...
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The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of self, peer, and teacher-assessment on EFL learners’ goalorientation. The participants were 94 male and female Iranian EFL learners at IT English language institute in Qazvin.... more
The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of self, peer, and teacher-assessment on EFL learners’ goalorientation. The participants were 94 male and female Iranian EFL learners at IT English language institute in Qazvin. The instruments included a 55-item Preliminary English Test (PET), and the Persian translation of an 18-item goal-orientation. The participants were divided into three groups, each group receiving one of the treatment conditions (self, peer, and teacherassessment). They were also given the questionnaire twice, once before the treatment and once after it. The collected data were analyzed using ANCOVA procedure. The results of the study showed significant differences among the effects of types of assessment on goal-orientation. Self-assessment turned out to be more effective than both peer and teacher-assessment on goalorientation. However, the difference between peer and teacher-assessment in goal-orientation was not statistically significant. The fin...
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The present study examined the effects of selected collaborative techniques on students’ reading comprehension. The participants of the study were 86 adult pre-intermediate level English learners studying at institutes in Qazvin. The... more
The present study examined the effects of selected collaborative techniques on students’ reading comprehension. The participants of the study were 86 adult pre-intermediate level English learners studying at institutes in Qazvin. The participants were in five groups; each group was randomly assigned to a different treatment condition. They received collaborative techniques for 21 sessions. The collaborative techniques included jigsaw, rotating circles, snowball, think-pair-square, and word webbing. At the end of the experimental period, a reading comprehension posttest was administered. A one-way ANOVA procedure was used to analyze data. Result showed that Snowball was the most effective technique on reading comprehension. The findings of the present study may have theoretical as well as practical implications for teachers, learners and syllabus designers.
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The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between multiple intelligences and self- regulated learning components of Iranian EFL university students majoring in Teaching English and English Translation. To this end, a sample... more
The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between multiple intelligences and self- regulated learning components of Iranian EFL university students majoring in Teaching English and English Translation. To this end, a sample of 150 intermediate level students from Imam Khomeini International University in Qazvin and Islamic Azad University in Takestan were selected. Data were gathered by means of questionnaires and were analyzed using stepwise multiple regression procedures. Results indicated that there were significant relationships between multiple intelligences and resource management self-regulated learning. However, the relationship between multiple intelligences and the motivational self-regulated learning was not statistically significant.
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The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between multiple intelligences and self-regulated learning components of Iranian EFL university students majoring in Teaching English and English Translation. To this end, a sample... more
The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between multiple intelligences and self-regulated learning components of Iranian EFL university students majoring in Teaching English and English Translation. To this end, a sample of 150 intermediate level students from Imam Khomeini International University in Qazvin and Islamic Azad University in Takestan were selected. Data were gathered by means of questionnaires and were analyzed using stepwise multiple regression procedures. Results indicated that in relation to the first research question, verbal and existential intelligences were predictors of cognitive self-regulated learning. About second research question related to the field of study, findings revealed that visual and verbal intelligences made significant contributions to predicting metacognitive self-regulated learning. Likewise, there was a negative relationship between visual intelligences and metacognitive selfregulation. The findings have implications for teac...
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The present study investigated the effects of selected presentation techniques including the keyword method, the peg word method, the loci method, argument mapping, concept mapping and mind mapping on L2 vocabulary comprehension and... more
The present study investigated the effects of selected presentation techniques including the keyword method, the peg word method, the loci method, argument mapping, concept mapping and mind mapping on L2 vocabulary comprehension and production. To this end, a sample of 151 Iranian female students from a public pre-university school in Islam Shahr was selected. They were assigned to six groups. Each group was randomly assigned to one of the afore-mentioned treatment conditions. After the experimental period, two post-tests in multiple choice and fill-in-the-blanks formats were administered to assess the participants’ vocabulary comprehension and production. Two independent One-Way ANOVA procedures were used to analyze the obtained data. The results showed that the differences among the effects of the above-mentioned techniques were statistically significant in both vocabulary comprehension and production. These findings can have implications for learners, teachers, and materials’ dev...
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Finding effective ways to improve L2 idioms recall has been a long-standing concern of many practitioners. This study compared the effects of meaning-focused and form-focused tasks with varying involvement load indices on EFL... more
Finding effective ways to improve L2 idioms recall has been a long-standing concern of many practitioners. This study compared the effects of meaning-focused and form-focused tasks with varying involvement load indices on EFL learners' recall of L2 idioms. One-hundred eighty intermediate level EFL learners participated in this study and were randomly assigned to one of the six experimental groups. In three form-focused groups, the participants received multiple-choice, sentence-completion and sentence-making tasks with involvement indices of 2, 3, and 4, respectively. In three meaning-focused groups, they were asked to perform summary writing, writing with glossary, and writing without glossary with involvement degrees of 2, 3, and 4, respectively. A 30-item test in fill-in-the-blank format was administered to all groups to assess their recall of idioms after the treatment. To analyze the data, a two-way ANOVA and a series of independent-samples t-tests were used. The results sh...
This study investigated the effects of the ‘Student Teams-Achievement Divisions’ (STAD) and ‘Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition’ (CIRC) cooperative learning models on reading achievement and vocabulary learning of Iranian... more
This study investigated the effects of the ‘Student Teams-Achievement Divisions’ (STAD) and ‘Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition’ (CIRC) cooperative learning models on reading achievement and vocabulary learning of Iranian learners of English. 132 female Language learners of EFL participated in the study at National Iran English Language (NIEL) institute in Takestan. The four experimental groups were taught in cooperative learning for one semester with methods of the ‘Student TeamsAchievement Divisions’ (STAD) and ‘Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition’ (CIRC), the control groups were taught in a non-cooperative method. Data collected through reading comprehension and vocabulary post-tests were analyzed using four one- way ANOVA procedures. The results indicated that the cooperative learning model CIRC had statistically significant effects on reading comprehension and vocabulary learning, particularly for elementary EFL learners.
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Given the importance of collocations, different attempts have been made to facilitate their learning. One such attempt has been the the application of dynamic assessment models. The main objective of this study was to compare the... more
Given the importance of collocations, different attempts have been made to facilitate their learning. One such attempt has been the the application of dynamic assessment models. The main objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of three DA models including Budoff's Learning Potential measurement, Group Dynamic Assessment, Intensive Mediated Learning Experience and conventional instruction on the learning of English lexical collocations. 120 male students studying English at Allame Helli 5 high school were selected through convenience sampling. A researcher-made collocation comprehension test, containing 100 items, was used as the pre-test. A multiple-choice comprehension test and a fill-in-the-blanks production test, each consisting of 30 items, were used as the post-tests. The students were divided into four intact groups. Each group received a different treatment for 16 sessions. Data were analyzed using one way ANOVA. The results showed that the Intensive-MLE ...
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The present study was an attempt to investigate the differences in the accessibility of phonological, semantic, and orthographic aspects of words in L2 vocabulary learning. For this purpose, a sample of 119 Iranian intermediate level EFL... more
The present study was an attempt to investigate the differences in the accessibility of phonological, semantic, and orthographic aspects of words in L2 vocabulary learning. For this purpose, a sample of 119 Iranian intermediate level EFL students in a private language institute in Karaj was selected. All of the participants received the same instructional treatment. At the end of the experimental period, three tests were administered based on the previously-taught words. A subset of Gardner’s’ (1983) Multiple Intelligences questionnaire was also used for data collection. A repeated measures one-way ANOVA procedure was used to analyze the obtained data. The results showed significant differences in the accessibility of phonological, semantic, and orthographic aspects of words in second language vocabulary learning. Moreover, to investigate the relationships between spatial and linguistic intelligences and the afore-mentioned aspects of lexical knowledge, a correlational analysis was ...
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The present study examined the effect of multimedia glosses on foreign language listening comprehension. To this end, 94 male students studying at Rasa English Institute in Tehran were selected for the treatment. The participants... more
The present study examined the effect of multimedia glosses on foreign language listening comprehension. To this end, 94 male students studying at Rasa English Institute in Tehran were selected for the treatment. The participants consisted of three groups, and each group was randomly assigned to one of the following treatment conditions: textual, pictorial, and textual-pictorial glossing. They were given a vocabulary pre-test before the treatment. The purpose of this test was to exclude the words which were already familiar to the participants from the posttests. Meanwhile, a listening comprehension post-test was administered at the end of the treatment period. To investigate the effect of multimedia glosses on listening comprehension, the data obtained from the listening comprehension post-test were analyzed using one-way ANOVA. The result showed that textual-pictorial glosses had a significant effect on listening comprehension. The findings of this study may have implications for ...
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The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of three types of assessment (self, peer, and teacher) on EFL learners’ general and academic self-efficacy. The participants included a sample of 94 Iranian EFL learners studying English... more
The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of three types of assessment (self, peer, and teacher) on EFL learners’ general and academic self-efficacy. The participants included a sample of 94 Iranian EFL learners studying English at IT English institute in Qazvin, Iran. A version of the Preliminary English Test (PET) along with the Persian translation of a 12-item general self-efficacy and an 8-item academic self-efficacy questionnaire were used to collect data. The participants were divided into three groups, and each group of participants was exposed to one of the treatment conditions. They were given the questionnaires both before and after the treatment. Two separate ANCOVA procedures were used to analyze data. No significant differences were found among the effects of the three types of assessment on general self-efficacy. However, both self-assessment and peer-assessment were found to be more effective on academic self-efficacy than teacher-assessment. Meanwhile, the ...
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Unlike conversation, academic writing is characterized by the frequent use of noun phrases which make it difficult for less proficient readers to process a text. Using a subset of Biber, Gray, and Poonpon’s (2011) hypothesized... more
Unlike conversation, academic writing is characterized by the frequent use of noun phrases which make it difficult for less proficient readers to process a text. Using a subset of Biber, Gray, and Poonpon’s (2011) hypothesized developmental stages of writing, we analyzed noun phrase modifiers in applied linguistics research article (RA) abstracts between expert non-native English Persian writers and international writers. To that end, a 38,762-word corpus was constructed, consisting of 109 international academic research articles (RAs) and 100 Persian English-medium RAs randomly chosen from international peer-reviewed journals and Persian English-medium peer-reviewed journals. Using an automatic extraction computer program (PyCharm, version 3.4.), we tagged texts, identified noun phrase modifiers, and compared the normalized frequency of the modifiers between two writer groups. Independent-samples t-tests and chi-square tests of independence were run to analyze the data. The finding...
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Speaking in a foreign language has always been, and still is, one of the most anxiety inducing activities. This speaking anxiety may be both the result or the cause of low self-efficacy in speaking. Finding ways of improving the speaking... more
Speaking in a foreign language has always been, and still is, one of the most anxiety inducing activities. This speaking anxiety may be both the result or the cause of low self-efficacy in speaking. Finding ways of improving the speaking self-efficacy and reducing speaking anxiety has long been a concern among teaching practitioners. The present study was an attempt to investigate the comparative effects of scaffolded and un-scaffolded feedback on EFL learners’ speaking anxiety and self-efficacy. The participants were 90 intermediate male EFL learners at Safir Language Institute in Tehran who were selected out of a total number of 120 participants who took a standard PET test. The participants were divided into two experimental groups and one control group. They were given questionnaires of speaking anxiety and speaking self-efficacy as pretests followed by 10 sessions of treatment using scaffolded feedback, un-scaffolded feedback and no feedback. Then, they filled out the same ques...
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It is generally believed that self-efficacy as a psychological construct contributes to learning process and academic performance. The present study attempted to investigate the possible differences among self-efficacy sources as... more
It is generally believed that self-efficacy as a psychological construct contributes to learning process and academic performance. The present study attempted to investigate the possible differences among self-efficacy sources as predictors of EFL learners’ academic achievement in educational settings. To this end, a questionnaire of EFL self-efficacy sources together with Nelson English Proficiency Test were administered among 219 senior EFL learners. The collected data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The results indicated that of the four sources of self-efficacy, only enactive mastery experience accounted for a statistically significant portion of the variance with course performance and, therefore, was a positive predictor of students’ course performance. The results of the present study imply that when learners continue to develop self-efficacy, they will have better English performance scores. It is also concluded that what an educational system needs to cons...
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Goal Orientation Predicting Learner Autonomy and Language Proficiency Abbas Ali Zarei, Associate professor Mahboubeh Gilanian, MA Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran Abstract This study investigated the predictive power... more
Goal Orientation Predicting Learner Autonomy and Language Proficiency Abbas Ali Zarei, Associate professor Mahboubeh Gilanian, MA Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran Abstract This study investigated the predictive power of various goal orientation types (intrinsic, extrinsic, task, ability-approach, and ability-avoid goal orientation) on learner autonomy and language proficiency. To this end, 150 male and female B.A level students, majoring in English translation and English language teaching participated in the study. To collect data, the Michigan test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP) was administered to homogenize the students and to determine their language proficiency level. Furthermore, the participants were required to complete an autonomy questionnaire, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), and Goal Orientation Scale. To analyse the collected data, two separate stepwise multiple regression procedures were used. The results revealed t...
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To investigate the effects of different glossing conventions on vocabulary recognition and recall, 158 participants were given a pre-test to make sure that they did not have any prior knowledge of the target words. Reading passages with... more
To investigate the effects of different glossing conventions on vocabulary recognition and recall, 158 participants were given a pre-test to make sure that they did not have any prior knowledge of the target words. Reading passages with four different glossing conventions (interlinear, marginal, pre-text, and post-text) were given to eight groups. Four groups received interlingual glosses and four groups were given intralingual glosses. Receptive and productive post-tests were administered to measure vocabulary recognition and recall. The collected data were analyzed using two one-way ANOVA procedures. The results showed that there were no significant differences among the effects of different types of intralingual glosses on vocabulary recognition and recall. As to the affect of the interlingual glosses on vocabulary recognition, the post-text group performed significantly worse than both the pre-text and the marginal groups. Moreover, the interlinear gloss was shown to be more eff...
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This study sought to investigate the effect of various task types including Multiple-choice cloze task, Gap-filling task, Word formation task, and Code-mixing task on L2 vocabulary comprehension and production. A sample of 80 adult... more
This study sought to investigate the effect of various task types including Multiple-choice cloze task, Gap-filling task, Word formation task, and Code-mixing task on L2 vocabulary comprehension and production. A sample of 80 adult Iranian intermediate level learners participated in the study. They were in 4 groups; each group read the reading passages under one of the four conditions of Multiple-choice cloze, Gap-filling, Word formation, and Code-mixing tasks. At the end of the treatment, two posttests were administered. A 30-item vocabulary test in multiple-choice format was used to measure the participants’ vocabulary comprehension. Another 30-item vocabulary test in fill-in-the-blanks format was utilized to measure the participants’ vocabulary production. Two separate one-way ANOVA procedures were used to analyze the obtained data. The results showed an effect of task type, the word formation task was more effective than the other task types in vocabulary comprehension and produ...
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The present study aimed to investigate the effects of three common techniques of input enhancement, namely, visual input enhancement, semantic input enhancement, and input flooding on female Iranian EFL learners' comprehension and... more
The present study aimed to investigate the effects of three common techniques of input enhancement, namely, visual input enhancement, semantic input enhancement, and input flooding on female Iranian EFL learners' comprehension and production of lexical collocations. The participants were 80 learners, aged between 16 and 40, studying English in two private institutes in Karaj. To begin with, the participants were given an ECCE test of general language proficiency to determine their proficiency level. After taking a pretest, comprising 110 collocations items, the participants (in three experimental groups and one comparison group) received 10 reading passages over 10 sessions in which lexical collocations were presented in the above-mentioned conditions. At the end of the experimental period, the participants took two posttests of comprehension and production of collocations. Two One-way ANOVA procedures were used to analyze the obtained data, and the results showed no significant...