Understanding the conversational implicatures is considered as one of the key factors in conducti... more Understanding the conversational implicatures is considered as one of the key factors in conducting an appropriate and efficient communication which is the vital tool of every social life, and also in increasing one's reading and writing proficiency which is important in educational sense. Due to the importance of this issue, this study investigated the effectiveness of drama-based instruction as a method to increase the Iraqi ELT university students' understanding of implicatures and compared their progress based on their educational level. To do so, 32 B.A. and 12 M.A. students were selected to participate in the 4 weeks of drama-based implicature training program. Using a researcher-made Test as a pre-test and post-test, the participants' progress were evaluated and it was found that using drama in training implicatures to the students is very effective in developing the students' implicature understanding and students with higher educational level made more progress than the students with lower educational level.
The present study investigated the type and frequency of the common errors in the written perform... more The present study investigated the type and frequency of the common errors in the written performance of EFL students in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, considering the correct use of Mechanics of writing, and also compared the errors made by students in the two groups of Male and Female Kurdish EFL learners. In this regard using a composition test, the errors made by the participants were analyzed. Moreover the inter-rater reliability was estimated to ensure the reliability of the instrument and the obtained results, and in order to add to the reliability and the validity of the results, a checklist was designed, developed and used by the researcher as a framework for correcting and analyzing the errors made by the students, which contained a list of the most identified elements of writing mechanics. The results revealed that generally the major problems of Kurdish students and the most errors they made were on the elements of Capitalization (61%), Punctuation (88%), and paragraphing (87%). However female students found to have generally much better performance than the male students in this respect. Introduction Writing is highly considered as a difficult and problematic productive skill by foreign language learners, and finds its' importance in its role in both life and education. People need to write for different purposes in different stages of their lives and based on the requirements in educational, business, family or friendship communicational contexts, for each of which learners are supposed to use correct frameworks for writing and correctly employ mechanics of writing and be aware of the grammatical points and rules to produce error-free and desired form of written texts. Writing is also considered as a mediator and an important communicating tool to generate and transfer ideas. Considering this fact, adherence to the correct use of mechanics of writing is helpful and beneficial in facilitating communication and helps the easy and clearly conveying of the message on the part of reader(s).
The present study investigated the type and frequency of the common errors in the written perform... more The present study investigated the type and frequency of the common errors in the written performance of EFL students in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, considering the correct use of Mechanics of writing, and also compared the errors made by students in the two groups of Male and Female Kurdish EFL learners. In this regard using a composition test, the errors made by the participants were analyzed. Moreover the inter-rater reliability was estimated to ensure the reliability of the instrument and the obtained results, and in order to add to the reliability and the validity of the results, a checklist was designed, developed and used by the researcher as a framework for correcting and analyzing the errors made by the students, which contained a list of the most identified elements of writing mechanics. The results revealed that generally the major problems of Kurdish students and the most errors they made were on the elements of Capitalization (61%), Punctuation (88%), and paragraphing (87%). However female students found to have generally much better performance than the male students in this respect. Introduction Writing is highly considered as a difficult and problematic productive skill by foreign language learners, and finds its' importance in its role in both life and education. People need to write for different purposes in different stages of their lives and based on the requirements in educational, business, family or friendship communicational contexts, for each of which learners are supposed to use correct frameworks for writing and correctly employ mechanics of writing and be aware of the grammatical points and rules to produce error-free and desired form of written texts. Writing is also considered as a mediator and an important communicating tool to generate and transfer ideas. Considering this fact, adherence to the correct use of mechanics of writing is helpful and beneficial in facilitating communication and helps the easy and clearly conveying of the message on the part of reader(s).
Explain and exemplify differences between semantics and pragmatics briefly. Can the knowledge of ... more Explain and exemplify differences between semantics and pragmatics briefly. Can the knowledge of semantics and pragmatics be beneficial for language learners and teachers? How? Pragmatics and semantics are two subfields of linguistics which are both concerned with the meaning of the communicated language and the linguistic expressions. However, while these two disciplines show to overlap to some extent, they basically are different from each other. In fact, Sematics is the study of linguistic and the exact literal meaning of the words within the phrases and sentences, and the abstract interrelationships between different sentence components, while pragmatics is the study of the meaning within the context and how one percieves the meaning of the stated utterences in specific situations or settings and is also considered as the knowledge of the inferred meaning. It also focuses on the way people understand each other while the literal meaning of what they say is different from what they try to convey. In simple words, while semantics deals with the surface meaning of what is said, pragmatics focuses on the deeper layers of the uttered words and digs in the communicated expressions and therefore deals with the in-depth and underlying meaning of what is said. To make this distiction more tangible, I provide an example below: A: Did you try the Jeans mom bought for you? Did it fit you? B: Well, I think I should lose weight!
English Language Teaching Spring 2020 Considering the most important issues that has currently be... more English Language Teaching Spring 2020 Considering the most important issues that has currently became trend in the field of English language teaching, one must first take a look at the research that has been conducted in this domain during the recent decade. However, due to the large number of papers that have been published in this time interval and various online and paper journals that cover these issues, providing exact answer to this question through statistics is a very hard job, if possible. In this regard I answer this critical question and express my opinion, by reviewing the most frequent topics in the field of TEFL, and providing support using the related literature in this domain. Considering the literature in this regard we can mention Alptekin and Tatar (2011) who reviewed 130 papers in the field of foreign language teaching from 2005 to 2009 and compared the focus of these studies with the focus of studies in the previous decades and found that there was a shift of interest from research on theoretical issues to practical concerns after the twenties' century. Similarly, Aydinli and Ortaçtepe (2018), conducted an overview of research in the domain of English language teaching as a foreign language from 2010 to 2016 and the results of their study revealed that compared to the previous research works in this field of study, the trends have been changed by the shift of special focus on conceptual development to the practical concerns. They believed that the recent studies in the realm of TEFL in their country focus on three major topics of ELT and language teachers, English language learning and language learners, and In-service and pre-service teacher education/professional development. On the other hand, as claimed by Aronin and Spolsky (2010), topics including teaching students from home or visits abroad, the specialized studies of dyslexia, English for academic purposes (EAP), and computer-assisted instruction, are the most common issues in TEFL studies coducted from 2004 to 2009 in the context of Israel.
English Language Teaching Spring 2020 Considering the most important issues that has currently be... more English Language Teaching Spring 2020 Considering the most important issues that has currently became trend in the field of English language teaching, one must first take a look at the research that has been conducted in this domain during the recent decade. However, due to the large number of papers that have been published in this time interval and various online and paper journals that cover these issues, providing exact answer to this question through statistics is a very hard job, if possible. In this regard I answer this critical question and express my opinion, by reviewing the most frequent topics in the field of TEFL, and providing support using the related literature in this domain. Considering the literature in this regard we can mention Alptekin and Tatar (2011) who reviewed 130 papers in the field of foreign language teaching from 2005 to 2009 and compared the focus of these studies with the focus of studies in the previous decades and found that there was a shift of interest from research on theoretical issues to practical concerns after the twenties' century. Similarly, Aydinli and Ortaçtepe (2018), conducted an overview of research in the domain of English language teaching as a foreign language from 2010 to 2016 and the results of their study revealed that compared to the previous research works in this field of study, the trends have been changed by the shift of special focus on conceptual development to the practical concerns. They believed that the recent studies in the realm of TEFL in their country focus on three major topics of ELT and language teachers, English language learning and language learners, and In-service and pre-service teacher education/professional development. On the other hand, as claimed by Aronin and Spolsky (2010), topics including teaching students from home or visits abroad, the specialized studies of dyslexia, English for academic purposes (EAP), and computer-assisted instruction, are the most common issues in TEFL studies coducted from 2004 to 2009 in the context of Israel.
The present study investigated the type and frequency of the common errors in the written perform... more The present study investigated the type and frequency of the common errors in the written performance of EFL students in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, considering the correct use of Mechanics of writing, and also compared the errors made by students in the two groups of Male and Female Kurdish EFL learners. In this regard using a composition test, the errors made by the participants were analyzed. Moreover the inter-rater reliability was estimated to ensure the reliability of the instrument and the obtained results, and in order to add to the reliability and the validity of the results, a checklist was designed, developed and used by the researcher as a framework for correcting and analyzing the errors made by the students, which contained a list of the most identified elements of writing mechanics. The results revealed that generally the major problems of Kurdish students and the most errors they made were on the elements of Capitalization (61%), Punctuation (88%), and paragraphing (87%). However female students found to have generally much better performance than the male students in this respect. Introduction Writing is highly considered as a difficult and problematic productive skill by foreign language learners, and finds its' importance in its role in both life and education. People need to write for different purposes in different stages of their lives and based on the requirements in educational, business, family or friendship communicational contexts, for each of which learners are supposed to use correct frameworks for writing and correctly employ mechanics of writing and be aware of the grammatical points and rules to produce error-free and desired form of written texts. Writing is also considered as a mediator and an important communicating tool to generate and transfer ideas. Considering this fact, adherence to the correct use of mechanics of writing is helpful and beneficial in facilitating communication and helps the easy and clearly conveying of the message on the part of reader(s).
1. In your opinion, what are the most three important contemporary issues in foreign language tea... more 1. In your opinion, what are the most three important contemporary issues in foreign language teaching at present? Considering the most important issues that has currently became trend in the field of English language teaching, one must first take a look at the research that has been conducted in this domain during the recent decade. However, due to the large number of papers that have been published in this time interval and various online and paper journals that cover these issues, providing exact answer to this question through statistics is a very hard job, if possible. In this regard I answer this critical question and express my opinion, by reviewing the most frequent topics in the field of TEFL, and providing support using the related literature in this domain. Considering the literature in this regard we can mention Alptekin and Tatar (2011) who reviewed 130 papers in the field of foreign language teaching from 2005 to 2009 and compared the focus of these studies with the focus of studies in the previous decades and found that there was a shift of interest from research on theoretical issues to practical concerns after the twenties' century. Similarly, Aydinli and Ortaçtepe (2018), conducted an overview of research in the domain of English language teaching as a foreign language from 2010 to 2016 and the results of their study revealed that compared to the previous research works in this field of study, the trends have been changed by the shift of special focus on conceptual development to the practical concerns. They believed that the recent studies in the realm of TEFL in their country focus on three major topics of ELT and language teachers, English language learning and language learners, and In-service and pre-service teacher education/professional development. On the other hand, as claimed by Aronin and Spolsky (2010), topics including teaching students from home or visits abroad, the specialized studies of dyslexia, English for academic purposes (EAP), and computer-assisted instruction, are the most common issues in TEFL studies coducted from 2004 to 2009 in the context of Israel. Accordingly, to answer this question that what are the new tends in the domain of Foreign language teaching in recent decade, I also reviewed the topics of the papers that had been published for the period of 2009 to 2019 (up to now) through surveying the papers from four famous journals of TESOL quarterly, ELT journal, Teaching and Teacher Education, and ELT Worldwide as the sample of the whole papers published during this time interval, and came to
Understanding the conversational implicatures is considered as one of the key factors in conducti... more Understanding the conversational implicatures is considered as one of the key factors in conducting an appropriate and efficient communication which is the vital tool of every social life, and also in increasing one's reading and writing proficiency which is important in educational sense. Due to the importance of this issue, this study investigated the effectiveness of drama-based instruction as a method to increase the Iraqi ELT university students' understanding of implicatures and compared their progress based on their educational level. To do so, 32 B.A. and 12 M.A. students were selected to participate in the 4 weeks of drama-based implicature training program. Using a researcher-made Test as a pre-test and post-test, the participants' progress were evaluated and it was found that using drama in training implicatures to the students is very effective in developing the students' implicature understanding and students with higher educational level made more progress than the students with lower educational level.
The present study investigated the type and frequency of the common errors in the written perform... more The present study investigated the type and frequency of the common errors in the written performance of EFL students in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, considering the correct use of Mechanics of writing, and also compared the errors made by students in the two groups of Male and Female Kurdish EFL learners. In this regard using a composition test, the errors made by the participants were analyzed. Moreover the inter-rater reliability was estimated to ensure the reliability of the instrument and the obtained results, and in order to add to the reliability and the validity of the results, a checklist was designed, developed and used by the researcher as a framework for correcting and analyzing the errors made by the students, which contained a list of the most identified elements of writing mechanics. The results revealed that generally the major problems of Kurdish students and the most errors they made were on the elements of Capitalization (61%), Punctuation (88%), and paragraphing (87%). However female students found to have generally much better performance than the male students in this respect. Introduction Writing is highly considered as a difficult and problematic productive skill by foreign language learners, and finds its' importance in its role in both life and education. People need to write for different purposes in different stages of their lives and based on the requirements in educational, business, family or friendship communicational contexts, for each of which learners are supposed to use correct frameworks for writing and correctly employ mechanics of writing and be aware of the grammatical points and rules to produce error-free and desired form of written texts. Writing is also considered as a mediator and an important communicating tool to generate and transfer ideas. Considering this fact, adherence to the correct use of mechanics of writing is helpful and beneficial in facilitating communication and helps the easy and clearly conveying of the message on the part of reader(s).
The present study investigated the type and frequency of the common errors in the written perform... more The present study investigated the type and frequency of the common errors in the written performance of EFL students in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, considering the correct use of Mechanics of writing, and also compared the errors made by students in the two groups of Male and Female Kurdish EFL learners. In this regard using a composition test, the errors made by the participants were analyzed. Moreover the inter-rater reliability was estimated to ensure the reliability of the instrument and the obtained results, and in order to add to the reliability and the validity of the results, a checklist was designed, developed and used by the researcher as a framework for correcting and analyzing the errors made by the students, which contained a list of the most identified elements of writing mechanics. The results revealed that generally the major problems of Kurdish students and the most errors they made were on the elements of Capitalization (61%), Punctuation (88%), and paragraphing (87%). However female students found to have generally much better performance than the male students in this respect. Introduction Writing is highly considered as a difficult and problematic productive skill by foreign language learners, and finds its' importance in its role in both life and education. People need to write for different purposes in different stages of their lives and based on the requirements in educational, business, family or friendship communicational contexts, for each of which learners are supposed to use correct frameworks for writing and correctly employ mechanics of writing and be aware of the grammatical points and rules to produce error-free and desired form of written texts. Writing is also considered as a mediator and an important communicating tool to generate and transfer ideas. Considering this fact, adherence to the correct use of mechanics of writing is helpful and beneficial in facilitating communication and helps the easy and clearly conveying of the message on the part of reader(s).
Explain and exemplify differences between semantics and pragmatics briefly. Can the knowledge of ... more Explain and exemplify differences between semantics and pragmatics briefly. Can the knowledge of semantics and pragmatics be beneficial for language learners and teachers? How? Pragmatics and semantics are two subfields of linguistics which are both concerned with the meaning of the communicated language and the linguistic expressions. However, while these two disciplines show to overlap to some extent, they basically are different from each other. In fact, Sematics is the study of linguistic and the exact literal meaning of the words within the phrases and sentences, and the abstract interrelationships between different sentence components, while pragmatics is the study of the meaning within the context and how one percieves the meaning of the stated utterences in specific situations or settings and is also considered as the knowledge of the inferred meaning. It also focuses on the way people understand each other while the literal meaning of what they say is different from what they try to convey. In simple words, while semantics deals with the surface meaning of what is said, pragmatics focuses on the deeper layers of the uttered words and digs in the communicated expressions and therefore deals with the in-depth and underlying meaning of what is said. To make this distiction more tangible, I provide an example below: A: Did you try the Jeans mom bought for you? Did it fit you? B: Well, I think I should lose weight!
English Language Teaching Spring 2020 Considering the most important issues that has currently be... more English Language Teaching Spring 2020 Considering the most important issues that has currently became trend in the field of English language teaching, one must first take a look at the research that has been conducted in this domain during the recent decade. However, due to the large number of papers that have been published in this time interval and various online and paper journals that cover these issues, providing exact answer to this question through statistics is a very hard job, if possible. In this regard I answer this critical question and express my opinion, by reviewing the most frequent topics in the field of TEFL, and providing support using the related literature in this domain. Considering the literature in this regard we can mention Alptekin and Tatar (2011) who reviewed 130 papers in the field of foreign language teaching from 2005 to 2009 and compared the focus of these studies with the focus of studies in the previous decades and found that there was a shift of interest from research on theoretical issues to practical concerns after the twenties' century. Similarly, Aydinli and Ortaçtepe (2018), conducted an overview of research in the domain of English language teaching as a foreign language from 2010 to 2016 and the results of their study revealed that compared to the previous research works in this field of study, the trends have been changed by the shift of special focus on conceptual development to the practical concerns. They believed that the recent studies in the realm of TEFL in their country focus on three major topics of ELT and language teachers, English language learning and language learners, and In-service and pre-service teacher education/professional development. On the other hand, as claimed by Aronin and Spolsky (2010), topics including teaching students from home or visits abroad, the specialized studies of dyslexia, English for academic purposes (EAP), and computer-assisted instruction, are the most common issues in TEFL studies coducted from 2004 to 2009 in the context of Israel.
English Language Teaching Spring 2020 Considering the most important issues that has currently be... more English Language Teaching Spring 2020 Considering the most important issues that has currently became trend in the field of English language teaching, one must first take a look at the research that has been conducted in this domain during the recent decade. However, due to the large number of papers that have been published in this time interval and various online and paper journals that cover these issues, providing exact answer to this question through statistics is a very hard job, if possible. In this regard I answer this critical question and express my opinion, by reviewing the most frequent topics in the field of TEFL, and providing support using the related literature in this domain. Considering the literature in this regard we can mention Alptekin and Tatar (2011) who reviewed 130 papers in the field of foreign language teaching from 2005 to 2009 and compared the focus of these studies with the focus of studies in the previous decades and found that there was a shift of interest from research on theoretical issues to practical concerns after the twenties' century. Similarly, Aydinli and Ortaçtepe (2018), conducted an overview of research in the domain of English language teaching as a foreign language from 2010 to 2016 and the results of their study revealed that compared to the previous research works in this field of study, the trends have been changed by the shift of special focus on conceptual development to the practical concerns. They believed that the recent studies in the realm of TEFL in their country focus on three major topics of ELT and language teachers, English language learning and language learners, and In-service and pre-service teacher education/professional development. On the other hand, as claimed by Aronin and Spolsky (2010), topics including teaching students from home or visits abroad, the specialized studies of dyslexia, English for academic purposes (EAP), and computer-assisted instruction, are the most common issues in TEFL studies coducted from 2004 to 2009 in the context of Israel.
The present study investigated the type and frequency of the common errors in the written perform... more The present study investigated the type and frequency of the common errors in the written performance of EFL students in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, considering the correct use of Mechanics of writing, and also compared the errors made by students in the two groups of Male and Female Kurdish EFL learners. In this regard using a composition test, the errors made by the participants were analyzed. Moreover the inter-rater reliability was estimated to ensure the reliability of the instrument and the obtained results, and in order to add to the reliability and the validity of the results, a checklist was designed, developed and used by the researcher as a framework for correcting and analyzing the errors made by the students, which contained a list of the most identified elements of writing mechanics. The results revealed that generally the major problems of Kurdish students and the most errors they made were on the elements of Capitalization (61%), Punctuation (88%), and paragraphing (87%). However female students found to have generally much better performance than the male students in this respect. Introduction Writing is highly considered as a difficult and problematic productive skill by foreign language learners, and finds its' importance in its role in both life and education. People need to write for different purposes in different stages of their lives and based on the requirements in educational, business, family or friendship communicational contexts, for each of which learners are supposed to use correct frameworks for writing and correctly employ mechanics of writing and be aware of the grammatical points and rules to produce error-free and desired form of written texts. Writing is also considered as a mediator and an important communicating tool to generate and transfer ideas. Considering this fact, adherence to the correct use of mechanics of writing is helpful and beneficial in facilitating communication and helps the easy and clearly conveying of the message on the part of reader(s).
1. In your opinion, what are the most three important contemporary issues in foreign language tea... more 1. In your opinion, what are the most three important contemporary issues in foreign language teaching at present? Considering the most important issues that has currently became trend in the field of English language teaching, one must first take a look at the research that has been conducted in this domain during the recent decade. However, due to the large number of papers that have been published in this time interval and various online and paper journals that cover these issues, providing exact answer to this question through statistics is a very hard job, if possible. In this regard I answer this critical question and express my opinion, by reviewing the most frequent topics in the field of TEFL, and providing support using the related literature in this domain. Considering the literature in this regard we can mention Alptekin and Tatar (2011) who reviewed 130 papers in the field of foreign language teaching from 2005 to 2009 and compared the focus of these studies with the focus of studies in the previous decades and found that there was a shift of interest from research on theoretical issues to practical concerns after the twenties' century. Similarly, Aydinli and Ortaçtepe (2018), conducted an overview of research in the domain of English language teaching as a foreign language from 2010 to 2016 and the results of their study revealed that compared to the previous research works in this field of study, the trends have been changed by the shift of special focus on conceptual development to the practical concerns. They believed that the recent studies in the realm of TEFL in their country focus on three major topics of ELT and language teachers, English language learning and language learners, and In-service and pre-service teacher education/professional development. On the other hand, as claimed by Aronin and Spolsky (2010), topics including teaching students from home or visits abroad, the specialized studies of dyslexia, English for academic purposes (EAP), and computer-assisted instruction, are the most common issues in TEFL studies coducted from 2004 to 2009 in the context of Israel. Accordingly, to answer this question that what are the new tends in the domain of Foreign language teaching in recent decade, I also reviewed the topics of the papers that had been published for the period of 2009 to 2019 (up to now) through surveying the papers from four famous journals of TESOL quarterly, ELT journal, Teaching and Teacher Education, and ELT Worldwide as the sample of the whole papers published during this time interval, and came to
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