پرویز مفتون

Self-regulation of learning has been extensively investigated in second language (L2) learning. Many studies have focused on the strategies that language learners employ to regulate their own learning processes. However, motivational self-regulation is considerably less explored. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between motivational self-regulatory strategies (MSRSs) and academic achievement. A motivational self-regulation questionnaire was administered to 64 male and female adult Iranian EFL learners to measure their choice of various strategies. The quantitative data was analyzed by applying correlational and multivariate analyses. The results demonstrated that there was a strong relationship between motivational self-regulatory strategy use and academic achievement. However, no difference was found between male and female learners in their use of the strategies. Further examination revealed that higher-achieving students differed from lower-achieving participants in their preference for strategies. The article concludes that while all learners use extrinsic rewards to self-regulate their motivation, more successful learners tend to manipulate learning tasks to make the tasks intrinsically interesting and pleasant. Also, more successful learners set both long-term and short-term goals to motivate themselves. The results underscore the importance of students’ personal interests, needs and goals, and suggest that teachers foster learners’ command of the strategies through instruction and cooperative activities.

This research is to analyze the effects of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. After providing a useful synopsis, this research is to contextualize CDA in two ranges of learning situations and classifies how CDA can shed new perceptions on learning. Detailed systematic measures are included to clarify the procedure of conducting CDA. The participants were 61 male and female M.A. English students of Boroujerd Islamic Azad University, selected on a non- random basis by applying a TOEFL test among over 91 EFL M.A. students considered to be at the same level. Those whose scores on the test were from 224 to 316 with the mean of 273.736 were considered as the participants of this study. They had received instructions on English language for 16 sessions at Boroujerd Islamic Azad University. The participants were native speakers of Farsi. Any word, phrase, or structure can have different possible meanings, which is known as the meaning range. Focusing on the implied meaning of the text, the learners of the second language reach a better understanding of the text and consequently of the second language. The present research shows how seven elements offered by Fairclough's model in critical discourse analysis can affect reading ability of Iranian EFL learners. Also,besides scrutinizing the effect of CDA in EFL learners, the researcher introduces the seven elements of Fairclough's model as well.

Despite consensus in focus on form (FOF) instruction over the facilitative role of noticing, controversy has not quelled over ways of directing EFL learners’ attention towards formal features via implicit techniques like input-enhancement or explicit metacognitive feedback and interactive peer-editing on the output they produce. This quasi-experimental study investigated the impact of input enhancement (IE), metalinguistic feedback (MF), and peer-editing (PE), on 73 intermediate female Iranian EFL learners’ recognition of relative clauses (RCs). The participants, in three intact classes ranged in age between 18 and 30, were randomly assigned as IE (N=23), MF (N=29), and PE (N=21) groups. The 18-session treatment in all groups was based on identical teaching materials and methodology following a reading to writing orientation focused on RCs. The only difference was related to the focus on form that was through enhanced reading texts in the IE group, metalinguistic feedback on discussion of content in the MF group, and peer-editing in pair-discussion of the content in the PE group. Two parallel sets of 40-item multiple choice researcher-made validated tests focused on RCs were employed to measure the participants’ recognition of RCs at the onset and the end of the study. The one-way between-groups analysis of covariance demonstrated significantly higher gains in the MF and PE groups compared to the IE group; the MF achieved higher levels of mastery. The findings highlight the effectiveness of MF and offer implications for more effective teaching of RCs to Iranian EFL learners.

This study was an attempt to explore the reading strategy use of Iranian M.A. students across three different fields of study. Eighty-two M.A. students of power engineering, physics, and communicationwere selected by a Nelson test and the reading comprehension section of a TOEFL. The reading comprehension section of the TOEFL served also as a specific task which helped participants report their strategy use. Both qualitative, think-aloud, and quantitative, SORS, procedures were used totap the participants’ use of reading strategies and to complement the findings. The results of these two procedures indicate that the use of overall, global, problem-solving, and support strategies by Iranian M.A. students was slightly different across different fields of study. Problem-solving and support strategies were the most and the least frequently used strategies, respectively. Moreover, reading strategy useof Iranian M.A. students,studying power engineering, physics, and communication was not related to their academic fields of study.

این مقاله جنبه های مختلف گفتمان کلاس را در یک کلاس تدریس زبان انگلیسی که در آن از روش ارتباطی استفاده می شود مورد بررسی قرار می دهد. اطلاعات لازم از طریق مشاهده تعاملات کلاسی و ضبط صدا در 5 جلسه و جمعا بالغ بر 4 ساعت جمع آوری شد. برای تحلیل داده ها، چهارچوبی تحلیلی تهیه شد که مشتمل بر ویژگی های مهم کلاس یعنی تبادلات آموزشی، ویژگی های نهاده، روش بازخورد، و نوع سوالات بود. نتایج حاصل از تحلیل داده ها نشان داد که اطلاعات جمع آوری شده حاوی 52 مورد تبادلات آموزشی است که در 73% آنها واکنش معلم به گفته های زبان آموزان بیشتر کارکرد ارزیابی دارد، معلم گفتار خود را با توجه سطح دانش زبانی زبان آموزان تغییر می دهد، و از میان روش های مختلف بازخورد اصلاحی روش بازریزی (51%) و بازخورد صریح (22%) بیشتر از بقیه مورد استفاده قرار گرفته است که به تبع آن فرصت و شانس کمتری برای عکس العمل و خود اصلاحی از سوی زبان آموزان ایجاد می شد. همچنین، بیشتر (57% ) سوالاتی که معلم از زبان آموزان می پرسید با هدف سنجش دانش زبان آموزان بود و تنها در 21% آنها هدف کسب واقعی اطلاعات بود که پاسخشان برای سوال کننده معلوم نبود.