سعیده آهنگری

This study investigated the impact of interaction and output modality on vocabulary learning and retention of EFL learners. To investigate the impact of Interaction, solitary (n =69) and collaborative (n =62) groups served as experimental and No Interaction No Output (n =26) as control group. To address the effect of modality, spoken (n =39) and written (n =31) modalities served as experimental and No output modality (n =26) as control group. The study was done in 8 weeks. The groups read passages with target words highlighted. Solitary and collaborative groups reconstructed the passages individually or in dyads. The spoken and written modality groups reconstructed them in the respective modality. Then, pretest, immediate, and delayed posttests were administered. The ANOVA results showed that the collaborative group outperformed the other groups and spoken modality outperformed the written modality group focusing on interaction and modality separately. The 2×2×2 ANOVA results showed significant main effects for time, interaction, and output modality. An ‘interaction’ effect was found between time and interaction, time and modality, and modality and Interaction. The ‘interaction’ between time, Interaction, and modality was insignificant. The findings have implications for language teachers, syllabus designers, and language testing experts.

The current study examined the Iranian EFL teachers’ and students’ perceptions about Communication Strategies Teachability. The study was conducted with 20 teachers and 110 students from universities and private language Institutes in Tabriz, Iran. The literature regarding the teachability of communication strategies (CSs) has been far from conclusive. Some researchers reject the possibility of CSs instruction while many empirical studies support their teachability. Taking a mixed method design, the present study used a language proficiency test, a questionnaire and an interview for data collection. In the quantitative phase, the participants’ responses to questionnaire before and after a 12-week period of teaching CSs were statistically compared. The analysis of the quantitative data obtained from the questionnaire through Paired-samples t-test indicated that the students’ perceptions towards the usefulness of CSs grew significantly more positive after their instruction. The qualitative analysis of the interview data collected from the teachers indicated that most teachers found CSs useful and possible to teach. It was also found that these strategies improved capability of English language learners to speak and enhaned their conciousness of CSs. This study could offer pedagogical implications for both teachers and students and pave the way for further studies in the field.

This study explored the effectiveness of the two computer-assisted modes: cooperative and individual on improving Iranian high school students’ reading comprehension. It was also concerned with investigating the effectiveness of the two computer-assisted modes on the participants’ foreign language learning anxiety (FLLA). The sample of the study consisted of two intact groups, each containing 24 students, which were randomly assigned into a control and an experimental group. The control group completed the study according to the individual computer-assisted learning while the experimental group was taught via computer-assisted cooperative language learning. The participants in the experimental and the control groups, which consisted of 48 female students, took reading comprehension pretest and posttest. They were also given foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS) questionnaire both at the beginning and at the end of the treatment. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 16.0. The results of the independent and paired samples t tests indicated that the experimental group, in which cooperative learning was integrated into computer-assisted language learning, outperformed the control group in terms of reading comprehension. In addition, the level of foreign language anxiety improved after the treatment in the experimental group. The findings of this study provide some insights for teachers to consider the integrating of cooperative learning into computer-assisted language learning setting.

In the long process of learning English as a foreign language, learners may become exhausted and, if not treated properly, decide to give up learning temporarily and even permanently. Therefore, it seems necessary to explore the reasons for their temporal delays and consider them appropriately to avoid permanent give-ups. As an attempt to determine the reasons for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ delays, the researchers in the present study explored their contributing factors through application of a classical grounded theory approach which led to the development of Language Learning Procrastination (LLP) theory. The research data were collected through semi-structured interviews from 43 EFL learners in Tabriz, Iran, and were coded in open, selective, and theoretical coding stages through a Constant Comparative Method. The emerged theory involved a core category (i.e., Dilatory Behavior) indicating that EFL learners mostly procrastinate in five domains of doing exercises, preparation for exam, submitting projects, starting up speaking, and learning spelling. Furthermore, three major categories of Learners’ Characteristics, Environmental Conditions, and Task Features as the causes of Dilatory Behavior emerged during the iterative data collection and analysis procedures. The results of the study indicated that both EFL learners’ own characteristics and external factors related to the learning environment and language tasks are significant in shaping the EFL learners’ procrastination. The theory of LLP can be applied in EFL settings to recognize the learners’ sources of Dilatory Behavior and devise appropriate solutions for them.

The present study explored the effect of explicit Communication Strategies (CSs) instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ usage of these strategies in their educational tasks at different proficiency levels. To conduct the study, the researchers chose 20 Iranian EFL teachers and their 150 students at two universities in Tabriz, Iran. Accepting a mixed-methods design, the researchers used a questionnaire, an English language proficiency test, and a semi-structured interview to collect the required data. The findings indicated that after receiving communication strategy instruction, teachers and students had positive attitudes toward the usefulness of CSs in the language learning process. However, learners in different proficiency levels had different preferences toward CSs. While advanced learners showed their inclination to use compensation strategies, intermediate learners preferred to use metacognitive. Elementary learners favoured using cognitive CSs. These differences can be attributed to individual differences and contextual factors that suggest pedagogical implications for both teachers and students and provide tentative subjects for further studies.

Many difficulties learners experience during language learning interfere with their performance, and those associated with their psychology play an integral role in this process. Underpinned by Bandura’s social cognitive theory and Dweck’s implicit theory of intelligence, this article explored how language mindsets influenced female EFL learners’ cognitive engagement through the mediation of risk-taking. Following a quantitative design and drawing on stratified sampling, the researchers ran the Power Analysis Calculator and selected 384 language learners from six institutes of Tabriz, Iran. The data were collected by three questionnaires, including the Language Mindset Inventory of Lou and Noels (2017), University Student Engagement Inventory (USEI) designed by Maroco et al., (2016), and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) of Patton, Stanford and Barratt (1995). The PLS-SEM analysis showed that learners’ growth mindsets were directly related to cognitive engagement. Furthermore, risk-taking significantly mediated this relationship. This finding provides some implications for school psychology to develop in students self-theories that highlight growth and competence instead of limitation and inactivity.

The current study was an effort to investigate the role of participatory structure and output modality in enhancing Iranian EFL learners’ speaking, and examine their perceptions toward participating in speaking activities. The population of this study included all female EFL learners (90 language learners of English) at intermediate level studying at Avayeh Daneshvaran Language Institute in Tabriz and the sampling procedure was convenience sampling. From among these language learners, 63 learners, in four intact classes, were selected as the sample group after conducting a sample of the PET. The instruments that were used in this study included two samples of the English language proficiency test of PET, the speaking section of which was conducted as the pre-test and posttest of the study, and an open-ended questionnaire. The data which were collected were analyzed through one-way ANOVA and two-way ANCOVA. The researchers analyzed the responses of the intended participants to the open-ended questionnaire qualitatively. The findings revealed that output modality was effective in improving speaking skill and that participatory structure and the interaction of these two had no significant effect on this skill. Regarding the qualitative section, the findings presented that the participants had optimistic attitude toward the use of podcasts and summary telling and writing in improving their speaking. The findings of the present study are valuable for teachers, English language learners, teacher educators, curriculum designers and researchers.

Teachers who possess an achievement value orientation may concentrate on establishing ambitious objectives for themselves, as well as creating opportunities for pupils to showcase their abilities and attain success. This can increase student motivation and ultimately improving job performance. While previous teachers' reflective studies in the field of English as a foreign language (EFL) have examined a wide range of variables, certain variables such as EFL teachers' achievement value orientation and job performance related to reflective teaching have remained under-researched. To this end, this study examined the EFL teachers' achievement value orientation factor identified as having a contributive role in EFL teachers' reflective teaching regarding the mediating role of job performance. The study sample consisted of 237 Iranian EFL teachers aged between 25 and 60. Based on the results of structural equation modeling (SEM), EFL teachers' achievement value orientation directly and significantly influences counterproductive work behavior (CWB) dimension of their job performance as well as metacognitive and affective dimensions of their reflective teaching. It was also shown that task performance (TP) has a direct effect on cognitive, contextual performance (CP) on cognitive and critical, and CWB on the metacognitive dimension of reflective teaching. The results also indicated that the CWB dimension of job performance mediates the impact of EFL Teachers’ achievement value orientation on metacognitive dimension of their reflective teaching. Teacher training programs should emphasize the importance of developing an achievement value orientation in teachers and reflective teaching should be promoted as a key component of teachers' professional development.

This study tried to inspect and compare any possible effects of immediate and delayed metalinguistic and indirect feedback on the level of WTC of Iranian EFL learners in task performance. This research was a quasi-experimental work with 120 Participants (63 males and 57 females) who were divided into four groups: 30 students as the direct-immediate feedback group, 30 students as the direct-delayed feedback, 30 students as the indirect-immediate feedback, and 30 students as the indirect-delayed feedback. Different instruments were utilized to collect the required data, including the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), the WTC scale (McCroskey, 1992), and a set of two-way exchange tasks. After homogenizing the participants, based on the OPT test, the participants took the WTC scale as a pretest. As the treatment, the indirect immediate feedback group participants reformulated the errors into the correct form as soon as they committed errors. In the indirect delayed feedback group, the teacher noted the errors and the student’s name to provide feedback for that specific student. In the direct metalinguistic immediate feedback group, the participants were provided with both explanations and examples of the correct form of errors they committed. In the metalinguistic delayed group, the teacher wrote notes on the error types and the students’ names to provide explanations andcorrect examples for specific students. The WTC scale was readministered in the post-test and the scores were recorded. Two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the pre-and post-test data. The result of the data analysis showed there was an interaction between the timing and the type of feedback regarding their effect on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ WTC.

Speaking proficiency is a crucial skill for Iranian EFL learners, yet it remains one of the most challenging aspects of language acquisition due to traditional, teacher-centered instruction and a lack of communicative practice. This study examines the effects of Differentiated Instruction (DI) and Gamification (G) on the Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency (CAF) of Iranian EFL learners’ speaking skills. A quasi-experimental design was employed, involving 108 B2-level learners from Safir Language Institute, Iran. Participants were divided into three groups: one receiving DI-based instruction, another engaging in Gamification-based tasks, and a control group following conventional teaching methods. The study utilized pre- and post-tests of speaking performance, evaluated through CAF metrics, alongside qualitative interviews to explore learners’ perceptions. Statistical analyses revealed significant improvements in all three dimensions of speaking in the experimental groups, with DI showing greater gains in accuracy and complexity, while G was more effective in enhancing fluency. Qualitative findings indicated that both approaches increased learner engagement, motivation, and confidence. These results suggest that DI and Gamification are effective pedagogical strategies for improving speaking proficiency and should be integrated into EFL curricula to optimize learning outcomes.

This paper explores the ways in which the transfer of assumptions from first language (L1) writing can help the process of writing in second language (L2). In learning second language writing skills, learners have two primary sources from which they construct a second language system: knowledge and skills from first language and input from second language. To investigate the relative impact of first language literacy skills on second language writing ability, 60 EFL students from Tabriz Islamic Azad University were chosen as participants of this study, based on their language proficiency scores. The subjects were given two topics to write about: the experimental group subjects were asked to write in Persian and then translate their writing into English. The control group wrote in English. The results obtained in this study indicate that the content and vocabulary components of the compositions were mostly affected by the use of first language.

It is generally recognized that many second language learners have difficulties with cohesion in academic texts. Writing seems to be the most difficult subject for many students. To produce good writing, it is necessary to know how to organize Theme and Rheme in a text. Thematic structure as an important feature in textual metafunction plays a significant role in promoting the textual coherence. This research is concerned with the insights presenting the relationship between theme and rheme derived from Systemic Functional Linguistics. Halliday (1994) claimed that the structuring of language as a message is realized in the thematic structures of the constituent clauses of a text. To Halliday, the basic unit for thematic analysis is the clause. Thereby, this study was an attempt to compare different thematic types and thematic progression patterns in EFL students' academic writing texts. For this purpose, the researcher selected 30 MA students of English language teaching as the participants of the study after administering a TOEFL test and excluding the outliers. Each participant was required to write three different types of argumentative, process and cause & affect compositions. The collected data were analyzed according to the Thematization process from the textual metafunction aspects. The results showed some differences in the thematic structure of the different types of compositions. The findings of this study have some implications to the EFL students. They can learn to perform the same analysis in their own writings; thus improving cohesion in their own texts. Theme/rheme plays a major role in organizing the message and in enabling it to be communicated and understood clearly.

The current study examines the impact of different task types on learning prepositions in form and meaning- focused interaction enhancement- based classes. The participants were 57 second Year University students enrolled in three intact lab classes at Tabriz Islamic Azad University. The first group was provided with form-focused interaction enhancement, the second with the meaning-focused interaction enhancement, and the third was the control group which received no interaction enhancement. During 12 sessions, the participants practiced using prepositions employing oral picture description and written picture description tasks. Having practiced using prepositions during the term using different tasks, the participants were presented with Oral Picture Description (OPD), and Written Picture Description (WPD) tasks in posttest. The results indicated that there are differences among the participants regarding their use of prepositions in performing oral picture description task in form and meaning–focused interaction enhancement- based classes. It also became clear that the group with meaning focused interaction enhancement outperformed the group with form- focused interactionenhancement and the control group. There were also differences among the participants of the three groups regarding their use of prepositions in WPD task in form and meaning -focused interaction enhancement- based classes.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of context on learning idioms among 60 Iranian female advanced English learners. To this end, the researcher assigned the participants to two experimental groups and one control group: Group 1 (first experimental group, the extended-context group), Group 2 (second experimental group, the limited-context group) and Group 3 (control group or the decontextualized group). First a 50-item idiom test was constructed using Vocabulary Knowledge scale (adopted from Wesche and Paribakht, 1993) and answered by the participants. The results of this test revealed that thirty idioms were not at all familiar to the participants. So these 30 idioms were selected as the target idioms. Then, the researchers applied two types of treatment to the participants in groups 1 and 2. Group 1 was taught idioms in extended-context through listening to short stories including the target idioms, Group 2 in the limited-context through listening to single sentences including the target idioms, and Control group (Group 3) was taught idioms through their decontextualized definitions of the target idioms. The analysis of the results of immediate and delayed post-test showed that extended contexts had significant influence on the participants’ idiom learning and retention. Pedagogical implications are provided.

Controversy has not been yet resolved among researchers in second language research over the pedagogical efficacy of feedback in enhancing various features of learners’ writing skill. Research findings highlighting the significance of interactive tasks and learners’ engagement in improving the learning process stimulated the present study, the purpose of which was to explore the effect of task-supported interactive feedback on the accuracy, fluency, and organization of seventy two Iranian English major sophomores at Islamic Azad University-Mashhad Branch. It was hypothesized that engaging learners in both tasks and providing feedback would enhance their writing performance. The participants in three intact classes were randomly assigned to three groups: a control group, with no task (NTG), and two experimental groups: the task-supported group (TG), and the task-supported group with interactive feedback (TFG). Four one way analyses of variance tests were run on the research data indicated that the apparent gain in the task-supported interactive group over the other groups did not reach significance level. However, the TG group outperformed the control group in all three aspects of writing. The findings have pedagogical implications and can be interpreted in terms of socio-cultural characteristics of Iranian students.

The present study aimed at investigating the effects of explicit and implicit recasts on Iranian EFL learners' acquisition of English relative clauses. For this purpose, 64 participants were selected out of 94 intermediate level EFL learners at Falagh language Institute, Rasht, Iran. To have homogenized groups, the researcher administered a language proficiency test (TOEFL). Then, the researchers assigned them randomly to the explicit recast group, implicit recast group, and control group. They carried out some information gap tasks within four sessions. One group received explicit recast, the other group received implicit recast and the control one got no corrective feedback, for the target linguistic errors during the task performance. A grammatical judgment test was applied as the pretest and immediate posttest. The results of a paired-samples t-test and analyses of variance (ANOVA) showed that the scores of all three groups improved significantly overtime. However, the explicit recast group did significantly better than both the control group and the implicit recast group. The results of the study were elaborated in terms of counterbalance hypothesis and noticing hypothesis. The superiority of explicit recast implied a beneficial role for negative evidence in SLA and that explicit recast was a better choice than implicit recast in the L2 classroom.