While aptitude has been seen to contribute to second language (L2) development, most studies have... more While aptitude has been seen to contribute to second language (L2) development, most studies have examined its contribution as a fixed trait, rather than viewing it as a dynamic, changing variable. There appears to have been little or no investigation of the role that aptitude plays in the development of L2 pragmatic ability. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the contribution of L2 learning aptitude as measured by Grigorenko et al.’s (2000) CANAL-FT (The Cognitive Ability for Novelty in Acquisition of Language as Applied to Foreign Language Test) to L2 speech-act knowledge among 121 Iranian upper-intermediate to advanced level EFL learners. In addition, a multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) comprising three common English speech acts (Derakhshan, 2014) was administered to the participants. A multiple regression analysis revealed that all five components of CANAL-FT were significant predictors of L2 speech-act knowledge. The aptitude for learning sentential inf...
For the past several decades, reading strategies have attracted many researchers' attention, ... more For the past several decades, reading strategies have attracted many researchers' attention, but the research has mainly focused on strategy use while ignoring the function of metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. This study, based on a questionnaire by Mokhtari and Reichard (2002), investigated the students' awareness of reading strategy use at high school level. The major findings firstly revealed that there was a moderate awareness of all the strategies; secondly, the students held a preference for Problem Solving Reading Strategies, followed by Global and Support Reading Strategies. Thirdly, there was no significant relationship between the students' level of proficiency and their metacognitive reading strategy use. Based on the findings above, several suggestions can be made to help teachers improve their teaching and help the students improve their reading efficiency.
New types of formative assessment are gradually replacing the old traditional summative assessmne... more New types of formative assessment are gradually replacing the old traditional summative assessmnet in the recent decades. Dynamic assessment and portfolio assessment are two of these formative assessmnet procedures which have received excessive attention in SLA research. Therefore, the present study was an effort to exzamine the effect of dynamic assessment and portfolio assessment on Iranian Intermediate EFL learners’ reading achievement. There were 50 female participants in the current investigation who were studying English at a private language institute in Tehran. The participants were selcted on the basis of their perfomances on a Neslon Language Test. The participants were divided into two experimental groups each including 25 learners. The first group received dynamic assessment model and second group received portfolio assessment model during the educational semester. Dynamic assessment (DA) model comprised three phases: pre-test, mediation, and post-test. The first group ...
Because of the important role of multiple intelligences (MIs) in learning a second/foreign langue... more Because of the important role of multiple intelligences (MIs) in learning a second/foreign langue (L2) as supported by the existing second language acquisition (SLA) literature, some pragmatic scholars have asked for studying their contribution to pragmatic competence (e.g., Taguchi & Roever, 2017). Accordingly, the present investigation has attempted to examine the relationship between L2 learners’ multiple intelligences and their speech-act pragmatic performance. A sample of 124 EFL students who were selected from an initial sample of 206 learners at two Iranian state universities based on their scores on the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP) took part in this study. The data collection procedure was done in two subsequent phases. First, McKenzie's (1999) multiple intelligences (MI) survey including 90 items was filled out by the participants. Then, a validated 50-item multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) including five frequent English speech a...
The combination of implicit meaning-focused input and explicit instruction has been suggested by ... more The combination of implicit meaning-focused input and explicit instruction has been suggested by recent research as very effective for learning L2 vocabulary; however, the time sequence for such juxtaposition has not been adequately examined through empirical studies. Therefore, this study sought to find the optimal time for combining explicit and implicit L2 vocabulary instruction using an explanatory mixed-method design. A convenience sample of 62 upper-intermediate EFL learners from three intact classes participated in this study. The Test of Academic Word List (Version A) that assesses Coxhead’s (2000) Academic Word List (AWL) was administered as a pertest. The reading book, Focus on Vocabulary 2, that has been developed based on the AWL was used for giving meaning-forced input. The target words were explicitly pre-taught in Class A (n=22), taught concurrent with encountering them in the reading text in Class B (n=20), and post-taught in Class C (n=22). Version B of the AWL Test...
Argument maps as schematic representations of arguments and their logical and evidential relation... more Argument maps as schematic representations of arguments and their logical and evidential relationships are effective diagrams for instruction in education as well as in L2 development. However, their use for teaching L2 writing in EFL contexts has not been adequately studied. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of argument mapping instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ writing achievement and writing components, including grammar, coherence, cohesion, and task accomplishment in expository and descriptive essays. The participants were 60 intermediate EFL learners at Fadak language institute in Tehran. The selected participants were randomly divided into two groups: an experimental and a control group, each including 30 participants. Materials, coursebooks, and the teacher were the same for the study groups. However, the participants in the experimental group received specific instruction about the use of argument maps before and during their writing. After 10 sessions of trea...
It is widely acknowledged that collocations play a crucial role in second or foreign language lea... more It is widely acknowledged that collocations play a crucial role in second or foreign language learning by enabling learners to know more about language chunks and lexical strings. Although many studies have examined L2 learners’ collocational competence, comparatively less research has been carried out to probe into the effective instruction and exercises for enhancing the acquisition, retention, and production of lexical (e.g. make a mistake) vs. grammatical (on purpose) collocations. Therefore, the present study attempted to explore the effect of L2 definitions, fill-in-the-blanks, and sentence writing exercises on the acquisition, retention, and production of lexical vs. grammatical collocations. The data were collected from 66 EFL participants who were studying English at a private language institute. First, an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was given to homogenize the learners. Then, the participants were divided into three groups, each receiving one of the three different types o...
Despite all the studies conducted on second/foreign language (L2) vocabulary, most L2 learners su... more Despite all the studies conducted on second/foreign language (L2) vocabulary, most L2 learners suffer from deficiency in their vocabulary development and retention. One of the probable reasons behind this specifically in Iranian EFL context is that less implementation of new technologies such as CALL and Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). Because the use of new language learning technologies is likely related to learner variables and personality differences, the present study attempted to examine the use of Moodle as an effective type of VLE on 90 introverted vs. extroverted EFL learners' vocabulary development and retention. Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), researcher-made and validated vocabulary tests used as pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest were employed for data collection. The application of two-way ANOVA indicated that Moodle had a significant positive effect on L2 vocabulary development and retention. However, introversion/extroversion personality factor cou...
Language teacher’s professional successes has become a very important topic in SLA spec... more Language teacher’s professional successes has become a very important topic in SLA specially after the introduction of post-method era. Furthermore, L2 teacher’s professional successes can be influenced by some traits of the teachers including self-efficacy and way of teaching. The present study, therefore, was an attempt to investigate whether Iranian EFL teachers’ reflective teaching and their self-efficacy can predict their professional success. Twenty-eight male and female EFL teachers were asked to fill out the questionnaires of Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale and Reflective Teaching Questionnaire. Then, 168 male and female EFL learners with the age range of 18-32 from three branches of Safir language institute in Tehran were randomly selected out of the teachers’ students. This initial sample included more than 400 EFL students. In the next step, the selected learners were asked to fill out the Teachers’ Professional Success Survey. The data analysis using ...
Since its inception, pragmatic competence has been studied vastly; the majority of these studies,... more Since its inception, pragmatic competence has been studied vastly; the majority of these studies, however, have examined pragmatic production, and pragmatic comprehension is chiefly under- researched. This lack of adequate research also stands true for the underlying pragmatic comprehension processes and strategies. Therefore, the present investigation aimed to find out L2 pragmatic comprehension strategies used by 40 (F=20, M=20) Iranian EFL learners and to discover whether there would be any differences between interlanguage pragmatic comprehension strategies used by male and female learners. Participants, selected based on stratified random sampling, were chosen on the basis of their performance on a paper-based TOEFL out of the initial sample of 90 students. Three data collection instruments were employed: a validated pragmatic test (Tajeddin & Ahmadi Safa, 2010), concurrent verbal think-aloud protocols, and retrospective verbal think-aloud protocols. Data analysis revealed thre...
Reading is recognized as being the most important skill needed by ESP learners in their field of ... more Reading is recognized as being the most important skill needed by ESP learners in their field of study, and vocabulary knowledge is the most widely discussed component of effective ESP reading per se. However, research on how much the different types of words exert substantial influences over ESP reading comprehension remains scanty. To address this lacuna, the present study aimed to examine the degree of contribution made by general high-frequency, core-academic, and technical-academic words to 127 Iranian learners studying Psychology at three state universities in Tehran, Iran. Three researcher-made and validated tests were used to measure the three aforementioned types of vocabulary knowledge accompanied by an ESP reading test. Data analysis using multiple regression revealed that the core-academic words and technical-academic words significantly contributed to the ESP reading comprehension, explaining about 92% of the variance in reading scores, but knowledge of general high-fre...
Interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) has witnessed a growing body of research in the past two decades. ... more Interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) has witnessed a growing body of research in the past two decades. One of the under-explored domains of L2 pragmatics is the role of learning strategies specifically tailored for the development of ILP knowledge. Therefore, this investigation aimed to determine the significant interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies (IPLS) used by high vs. low L2 pragmatic achievers. It was conducted in two phases. First, a multiple-choice discourse completion test including five common English speech acts was administered to 500 EFL learners. Next, 80 highest and 80 lowest ILP performers were orally interviewed and their answers were audio-taped. The most important interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies were extracted from L2 learners' interviews. The elicited IPLS were arranged based on Cohen's (2005, 2010) classification, the findings of the study itself, and an analogy with general language learning strategies (LLS) classification suggested by Oxfor...
Listening comprehension is a multifaceted L2 skill and its actual mastery has proved challenging ... more Listening comprehension is a multifaceted L2 skill and its actual mastery has proved challenging for many EFL learners (Matthews, 2018). Pre-listening supports may help us change the dire situation in developing effective listening competence. Therefore, the current study tried to examine the effect of vocabulary preparation, grammar instruction and background knowledge activation as pre-listening tasks on the listening comprehension among 95 Iranian intermediate EFL learners in three experimental groups who were randomly selected from among 142 Iranian EFL learners after administration of a paper-based TOEFL. In group A, the teacher elaborated on the difficult grammatical structures of the listening comprehension (LC) test and the students did some exercises. Group B practiced related difficult words using synonyms, antonyms, and sentence examples. In group C, some topical knowledge about the content of the LC test was given and discussed. After the treatment, a valid researcher-ma...
Various models of Dynamic Assessment (DA) have been used in L2 pragmatic instruction and have pro... more Various models of Dynamic Assessment (DA) have been used in L2 pragmatic instruction and have proved their significant contributions to pragmatic production; however, there is a paucity of research regarding their implementation for pragmatic comprehension. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the effects of interactionist and interventionist models of DA on the accuracy and speed of pragmatic comprehension among a convenience sample of 60 advanced EFL learners who were randomly assigned into two DA groups and a control group. A listening pragmatic comprehension test developed and validated by Garcia (2004) was used both as a pretest and as a posttest. During the 14-session treatment, the interactionist DA group received metapragmatic instruction about 28 conversations, and learners interacted with each other and the teacher. Assistance and scaffolding were continuously provided by the teacher as the more knowledgeable other (MKO) within the learners’ Zone of Proximal Develop...
Professionalism is a very important aspect of L2 teachers' development in the recent years.... more Professionalism is a very important aspect of L2 teachers' development in the recent years. Despite the studies which have focused on the concept of teachers professionalism, limited research has attempted to investigate the teachers attitudes and views about their own perfessionalism and its essential components. Accordingly, this study intended to investigate how Iranian English teachers would perceive professionalism defined in terms of such components as competence and performance. The participants comprised of 150 English teachers teaching at junior and senior high schools, language institutes, and universities. They were studied given such variables as age, degrees, experience, and context of teaching. The data was obtained through a questionnaire initially consisting of 44 items. Through factor analysis, inappropriate items were deleted, leaving only 15 items. Componential factor analysis indicated that almost all the participants, regardless of the aforementioned facto...
بیشتر زبانآموزان زبان خارجه از ناکارآمدیهای بسیاری در درک منظورشناختی خود که هم ناشی از آموزش ... more بیشتر زبانآموزان زبان خارجه از ناکارآمدیهای بسیاری در درک منظورشناختی خود که هم ناشی از آموزش صریح کمتر و نیز نتیجه خ پیچیدگیها و چند وجهیبودن فرایند درک منظورشناختی است، رنج می برند. بنابراین مطالعه حاضر حاصل تلاش کردهاست که تاثیر آموزش صریح به کمک دو نوع ارزشیابی پویا را بر دقت و سرعت درک منظورشناختی زبان دوم بسنجد. یک گروه ۵۲ نفره از زبانآموزان دختر سطح متوسطهپیشرفته زبان انگلیسی که بر اساس روش دردسترسبودن انتخاب و سپس به صورت تصادفی به سه گروه ارزشیابی پویایی گروهی، ارزشیابی پویایی رایانه-محور، و گروه گواه غیر ارزشیابی پویا تقسیم شده-بودند، در این مطالعه شرکتکردند. آزمون شنیداری درک منظورشناختی شامل ۲۲ سوال در برگیرنده کنشهایکلامی تقاضا، معذرتخواهی، ردتقاضا، و سلام و احوالپرسی که توسط معلم طراحی و اعتبارسنجی شده بود، به عنوان پیشآزمون و پسآزمون در این مطالعه مورد استفاده قرارگرفت و سپس آموزشهای سهگاهه بر اساس روشهای مطرحشده در این مطالعه به مدت 14 جلسه ارائهشد. تجزیه و تحلیل داده ها با استفاده از آزمون تحلیل کوواریانس نشانداد که هر دو گروه ارزشیابی پویا...
Identity processing styles are those psychological, sociocultural, and socio-cognitive mechanisms... more Identity processing styles are those psychological, sociocultural, and socio-cognitive mechanisms that shape, reshape, and establish different individuals’ identities both in their mother tongues and in the second or foreign language they are striving to acquire. The relationship between these identity processing styles and L2 learners’ pragmatic competence is a crucial issue that has not been explored thus far in an EFL context. Therefore, the present study sought to investigate the relationship between the information-oriented, diffuse-avoidant, and normative identity processing styles as measured by Berzonsky’s (2011) Identity Processing Style Inventory (ISI-4) and L2 speech-act knowledge and production among 122 (82 F and 40 M) Iranian upper-intermediate to advanced proficiency level learners. A validated 35-item multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) including five frequent English speech acts (requests, apologies, refusals, complaints, and compliments/compliment resp...
This study attempted to explore the relationship among Iranian EFL teachers‟ gender, critical thi... more This study attempted to explore the relationship among Iranian EFL teachers‟ gender, critical thinking and their teaching styles. To fulfill this purpose, 238 Iranian EFL teachers (119 males and 119 females) teaching at different branches of Shokouh Language Institute across different cities and towns in Tehran and Alborz provinces were asked to fill out two questionnaires including the Critical Thinking Questionnaire and Teachers Teaching Style Inventory.The data derived from the aforementioned questionnaires was fed into SPSS. Afterwards, the collected data was analyzed through Pearson Correlation statistical procedures, the results of which revealed that there was a statistically significant relationship between Iranian EFL teachers‟ gender, critical thinking and their teaching styles. Moreover, the application of the independent sample t-tests indicated that there was not any statistically significant difference between Iranian EFL male and female teachers' critical thinking...
The present study was an attempt to examine the effect of argument mapping on Iranian EFL learner... more The present study was an attempt to examine the effect of argument mapping on Iranian EFL learners’ writing achievement and L2 writing components, including grammar, coherence, cohesion, and task achievement. Furthermore, the effect of argument mapping on learners’ critical thinking and problem solving were also scrutinized. To do this, two different task types, i.e. an expository and a narrative task were used. The participants of the study were 60 intermediate EFL learners at Fadak language institute in Tehran. The selected participants were randomly assigned into two groups: an experimental and a control group each with 30 participants. All the participants in both experimental and control groups were exposed to the same materials, course books, and they were taught by the same teacher. The only difference was that the learners in the experimental group received specific instruction about argument mapping, whereas, the learners in the control group did not receive such an instru...
While aptitude has been seen to contribute to second language (L2) development, most studies have... more While aptitude has been seen to contribute to second language (L2) development, most studies have examined its contribution as a fixed trait, rather than viewing it as a dynamic, changing variable. There appears to have been little or no investigation of the role that aptitude plays in the development of L2 pragmatic ability. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the contribution of L2 learning aptitude as measured by Grigorenko et al.’s (2000) CANAL-FT (The Cognitive Ability for Novelty in Acquisition of Language as Applied to Foreign Language Test) to L2 speech-act knowledge among 121 Iranian upper-intermediate to advanced level EFL learners. In addition, a multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) comprising three common English speech acts (Derakhshan, 2014) was administered to the participants. A multiple regression analysis revealed that all five components of CANAL-FT were significant predictors of L2 speech-act knowledge. The aptitude for learning sentential inf...
For the past several decades, reading strategies have attracted many researchers' attention, ... more For the past several decades, reading strategies have attracted many researchers' attention, but the research has mainly focused on strategy use while ignoring the function of metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. This study, based on a questionnaire by Mokhtari and Reichard (2002), investigated the students' awareness of reading strategy use at high school level. The major findings firstly revealed that there was a moderate awareness of all the strategies; secondly, the students held a preference for Problem Solving Reading Strategies, followed by Global and Support Reading Strategies. Thirdly, there was no significant relationship between the students' level of proficiency and their metacognitive reading strategy use. Based on the findings above, several suggestions can be made to help teachers improve their teaching and help the students improve their reading efficiency.
New types of formative assessment are gradually replacing the old traditional summative assessmne... more New types of formative assessment are gradually replacing the old traditional summative assessmnet in the recent decades. Dynamic assessment and portfolio assessment are two of these formative assessmnet procedures which have received excessive attention in SLA research. Therefore, the present study was an effort to exzamine the effect of dynamic assessment and portfolio assessment on Iranian Intermediate EFL learners’ reading achievement. There were 50 female participants in the current investigation who were studying English at a private language institute in Tehran. The participants were selcted on the basis of their perfomances on a Neslon Language Test. The participants were divided into two experimental groups each including 25 learners. The first group received dynamic assessment model and second group received portfolio assessment model during the educational semester. Dynamic assessment (DA) model comprised three phases: pre-test, mediation, and post-test. The first group ...
Because of the important role of multiple intelligences (MIs) in learning a second/foreign langue... more Because of the important role of multiple intelligences (MIs) in learning a second/foreign langue (L2) as supported by the existing second language acquisition (SLA) literature, some pragmatic scholars have asked for studying their contribution to pragmatic competence (e.g., Taguchi & Roever, 2017). Accordingly, the present investigation has attempted to examine the relationship between L2 learners’ multiple intelligences and their speech-act pragmatic performance. A sample of 124 EFL students who were selected from an initial sample of 206 learners at two Iranian state universities based on their scores on the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP) took part in this study. The data collection procedure was done in two subsequent phases. First, McKenzie's (1999) multiple intelligences (MI) survey including 90 items was filled out by the participants. Then, a validated 50-item multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) including five frequent English speech a...
The combination of implicit meaning-focused input and explicit instruction has been suggested by ... more The combination of implicit meaning-focused input and explicit instruction has been suggested by recent research as very effective for learning L2 vocabulary; however, the time sequence for such juxtaposition has not been adequately examined through empirical studies. Therefore, this study sought to find the optimal time for combining explicit and implicit L2 vocabulary instruction using an explanatory mixed-method design. A convenience sample of 62 upper-intermediate EFL learners from three intact classes participated in this study. The Test of Academic Word List (Version A) that assesses Coxhead’s (2000) Academic Word List (AWL) was administered as a pertest. The reading book, Focus on Vocabulary 2, that has been developed based on the AWL was used for giving meaning-forced input. The target words were explicitly pre-taught in Class A (n=22), taught concurrent with encountering them in the reading text in Class B (n=20), and post-taught in Class C (n=22). Version B of the AWL Test...
Argument maps as schematic representations of arguments and their logical and evidential relation... more Argument maps as schematic representations of arguments and their logical and evidential relationships are effective diagrams for instruction in education as well as in L2 development. However, their use for teaching L2 writing in EFL contexts has not been adequately studied. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of argument mapping instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ writing achievement and writing components, including grammar, coherence, cohesion, and task accomplishment in expository and descriptive essays. The participants were 60 intermediate EFL learners at Fadak language institute in Tehran. The selected participants were randomly divided into two groups: an experimental and a control group, each including 30 participants. Materials, coursebooks, and the teacher were the same for the study groups. However, the participants in the experimental group received specific instruction about the use of argument maps before and during their writing. After 10 sessions of trea...
It is widely acknowledged that collocations play a crucial role in second or foreign language lea... more It is widely acknowledged that collocations play a crucial role in second or foreign language learning by enabling learners to know more about language chunks and lexical strings. Although many studies have examined L2 learners’ collocational competence, comparatively less research has been carried out to probe into the effective instruction and exercises for enhancing the acquisition, retention, and production of lexical (e.g. make a mistake) vs. grammatical (on purpose) collocations. Therefore, the present study attempted to explore the effect of L2 definitions, fill-in-the-blanks, and sentence writing exercises on the acquisition, retention, and production of lexical vs. grammatical collocations. The data were collected from 66 EFL participants who were studying English at a private language institute. First, an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was given to homogenize the learners. Then, the participants were divided into three groups, each receiving one of the three different types o...
Despite all the studies conducted on second/foreign language (L2) vocabulary, most L2 learners su... more Despite all the studies conducted on second/foreign language (L2) vocabulary, most L2 learners suffer from deficiency in their vocabulary development and retention. One of the probable reasons behind this specifically in Iranian EFL context is that less implementation of new technologies such as CALL and Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). Because the use of new language learning technologies is likely related to learner variables and personality differences, the present study attempted to examine the use of Moodle as an effective type of VLE on 90 introverted vs. extroverted EFL learners' vocabulary development and retention. Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), researcher-made and validated vocabulary tests used as pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest were employed for data collection. The application of two-way ANOVA indicated that Moodle had a significant positive effect on L2 vocabulary development and retention. However, introversion/extroversion personality factor cou...
Language teacher’s professional successes has become a very important topic in SLA spec... more Language teacher’s professional successes has become a very important topic in SLA specially after the introduction of post-method era. Furthermore, L2 teacher’s professional successes can be influenced by some traits of the teachers including self-efficacy and way of teaching. The present study, therefore, was an attempt to investigate whether Iranian EFL teachers’ reflective teaching and their self-efficacy can predict their professional success. Twenty-eight male and female EFL teachers were asked to fill out the questionnaires of Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale and Reflective Teaching Questionnaire. Then, 168 male and female EFL learners with the age range of 18-32 from three branches of Safir language institute in Tehran were randomly selected out of the teachers’ students. This initial sample included more than 400 EFL students. In the next step, the selected learners were asked to fill out the Teachers’ Professional Success Survey. The data analysis using ...
Since its inception, pragmatic competence has been studied vastly; the majority of these studies,... more Since its inception, pragmatic competence has been studied vastly; the majority of these studies, however, have examined pragmatic production, and pragmatic comprehension is chiefly under- researched. This lack of adequate research also stands true for the underlying pragmatic comprehension processes and strategies. Therefore, the present investigation aimed to find out L2 pragmatic comprehension strategies used by 40 (F=20, M=20) Iranian EFL learners and to discover whether there would be any differences between interlanguage pragmatic comprehension strategies used by male and female learners. Participants, selected based on stratified random sampling, were chosen on the basis of their performance on a paper-based TOEFL out of the initial sample of 90 students. Three data collection instruments were employed: a validated pragmatic test (Tajeddin & Ahmadi Safa, 2010), concurrent verbal think-aloud protocols, and retrospective verbal think-aloud protocols. Data analysis revealed thre...
Reading is recognized as being the most important skill needed by ESP learners in their field of ... more Reading is recognized as being the most important skill needed by ESP learners in their field of study, and vocabulary knowledge is the most widely discussed component of effective ESP reading per se. However, research on how much the different types of words exert substantial influences over ESP reading comprehension remains scanty. To address this lacuna, the present study aimed to examine the degree of contribution made by general high-frequency, core-academic, and technical-academic words to 127 Iranian learners studying Psychology at three state universities in Tehran, Iran. Three researcher-made and validated tests were used to measure the three aforementioned types of vocabulary knowledge accompanied by an ESP reading test. Data analysis using multiple regression revealed that the core-academic words and technical-academic words significantly contributed to the ESP reading comprehension, explaining about 92% of the variance in reading scores, but knowledge of general high-fre...
Interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) has witnessed a growing body of research in the past two decades. ... more Interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) has witnessed a growing body of research in the past two decades. One of the under-explored domains of L2 pragmatics is the role of learning strategies specifically tailored for the development of ILP knowledge. Therefore, this investigation aimed to determine the significant interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies (IPLS) used by high vs. low L2 pragmatic achievers. It was conducted in two phases. First, a multiple-choice discourse completion test including five common English speech acts was administered to 500 EFL learners. Next, 80 highest and 80 lowest ILP performers were orally interviewed and their answers were audio-taped. The most important interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies were extracted from L2 learners' interviews. The elicited IPLS were arranged based on Cohen's (2005, 2010) classification, the findings of the study itself, and an analogy with general language learning strategies (LLS) classification suggested by Oxfor...
Listening comprehension is a multifaceted L2 skill and its actual mastery has proved challenging ... more Listening comprehension is a multifaceted L2 skill and its actual mastery has proved challenging for many EFL learners (Matthews, 2018). Pre-listening supports may help us change the dire situation in developing effective listening competence. Therefore, the current study tried to examine the effect of vocabulary preparation, grammar instruction and background knowledge activation as pre-listening tasks on the listening comprehension among 95 Iranian intermediate EFL learners in three experimental groups who were randomly selected from among 142 Iranian EFL learners after administration of a paper-based TOEFL. In group A, the teacher elaborated on the difficult grammatical structures of the listening comprehension (LC) test and the students did some exercises. Group B practiced related difficult words using synonyms, antonyms, and sentence examples. In group C, some topical knowledge about the content of the LC test was given and discussed. After the treatment, a valid researcher-ma...
Various models of Dynamic Assessment (DA) have been used in L2 pragmatic instruction and have pro... more Various models of Dynamic Assessment (DA) have been used in L2 pragmatic instruction and have proved their significant contributions to pragmatic production; however, there is a paucity of research regarding their implementation for pragmatic comprehension. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the effects of interactionist and interventionist models of DA on the accuracy and speed of pragmatic comprehension among a convenience sample of 60 advanced EFL learners who were randomly assigned into two DA groups and a control group. A listening pragmatic comprehension test developed and validated by Garcia (2004) was used both as a pretest and as a posttest. During the 14-session treatment, the interactionist DA group received metapragmatic instruction about 28 conversations, and learners interacted with each other and the teacher. Assistance and scaffolding were continuously provided by the teacher as the more knowledgeable other (MKO) within the learners’ Zone of Proximal Develop...
Professionalism is a very important aspect of L2 teachers' development in the recent years.... more Professionalism is a very important aspect of L2 teachers' development in the recent years. Despite the studies which have focused on the concept of teachers professionalism, limited research has attempted to investigate the teachers attitudes and views about their own perfessionalism and its essential components. Accordingly, this study intended to investigate how Iranian English teachers would perceive professionalism defined in terms of such components as competence and performance. The participants comprised of 150 English teachers teaching at junior and senior high schools, language institutes, and universities. They were studied given such variables as age, degrees, experience, and context of teaching. The data was obtained through a questionnaire initially consisting of 44 items. Through factor analysis, inappropriate items were deleted, leaving only 15 items. Componential factor analysis indicated that almost all the participants, regardless of the aforementioned facto...
بیشتر زبانآموزان زبان خارجه از ناکارآمدیهای بسیاری در درک منظورشناختی خود که هم ناشی از آموزش ... more بیشتر زبانآموزان زبان خارجه از ناکارآمدیهای بسیاری در درک منظورشناختی خود که هم ناشی از آموزش صریح کمتر و نیز نتیجه خ پیچیدگیها و چند وجهیبودن فرایند درک منظورشناختی است، رنج می برند. بنابراین مطالعه حاضر حاصل تلاش کردهاست که تاثیر آموزش صریح به کمک دو نوع ارزشیابی پویا را بر دقت و سرعت درک منظورشناختی زبان دوم بسنجد. یک گروه ۵۲ نفره از زبانآموزان دختر سطح متوسطهپیشرفته زبان انگلیسی که بر اساس روش دردسترسبودن انتخاب و سپس به صورت تصادفی به سه گروه ارزشیابی پویایی گروهی، ارزشیابی پویایی رایانه-محور، و گروه گواه غیر ارزشیابی پویا تقسیم شده-بودند، در این مطالعه شرکتکردند. آزمون شنیداری درک منظورشناختی شامل ۲۲ سوال در برگیرنده کنشهایکلامی تقاضا، معذرتخواهی، ردتقاضا، و سلام و احوالپرسی که توسط معلم طراحی و اعتبارسنجی شده بود، به عنوان پیشآزمون و پسآزمون در این مطالعه مورد استفاده قرارگرفت و سپس آموزشهای سهگاهه بر اساس روشهای مطرحشده در این مطالعه به مدت 14 جلسه ارائهشد. تجزیه و تحلیل داده ها با استفاده از آزمون تحلیل کوواریانس نشانداد که هر دو گروه ارزشیابی پویا...
Identity processing styles are those psychological, sociocultural, and socio-cognitive mechanisms... more Identity processing styles are those psychological, sociocultural, and socio-cognitive mechanisms that shape, reshape, and establish different individuals’ identities both in their mother tongues and in the second or foreign language they are striving to acquire. The relationship between these identity processing styles and L2 learners’ pragmatic competence is a crucial issue that has not been explored thus far in an EFL context. Therefore, the present study sought to investigate the relationship between the information-oriented, diffuse-avoidant, and normative identity processing styles as measured by Berzonsky’s (2011) Identity Processing Style Inventory (ISI-4) and L2 speech-act knowledge and production among 122 (82 F and 40 M) Iranian upper-intermediate to advanced proficiency level learners. A validated 35-item multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) including five frequent English speech acts (requests, apologies, refusals, complaints, and compliments/compliment resp...
This study attempted to explore the relationship among Iranian EFL teachers‟ gender, critical thi... more This study attempted to explore the relationship among Iranian EFL teachers‟ gender, critical thinking and their teaching styles. To fulfill this purpose, 238 Iranian EFL teachers (119 males and 119 females) teaching at different branches of Shokouh Language Institute across different cities and towns in Tehran and Alborz provinces were asked to fill out two questionnaires including the Critical Thinking Questionnaire and Teachers Teaching Style Inventory.The data derived from the aforementioned questionnaires was fed into SPSS. Afterwards, the collected data was analyzed through Pearson Correlation statistical procedures, the results of which revealed that there was a statistically significant relationship between Iranian EFL teachers‟ gender, critical thinking and their teaching styles. Moreover, the application of the independent sample t-tests indicated that there was not any statistically significant difference between Iranian EFL male and female teachers' critical thinking...
The present study was an attempt to examine the effect of argument mapping on Iranian EFL learner... more The present study was an attempt to examine the effect of argument mapping on Iranian EFL learners’ writing achievement and L2 writing components, including grammar, coherence, cohesion, and task achievement. Furthermore, the effect of argument mapping on learners’ critical thinking and problem solving were also scrutinized. To do this, two different task types, i.e. an expository and a narrative task were used. The participants of the study were 60 intermediate EFL learners at Fadak language institute in Tehran. The selected participants were randomly assigned into two groups: an experimental and a control group each with 30 participants. All the participants in both experimental and control groups were exposed to the same materials, course books, and they were taught by the same teacher. The only difference was that the learners in the experimental group received specific instruction about argument mapping, whereas, the learners in the control group did not receive such an instru...
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