Journal of Studies in Learning and Teaching English: 5 (2)

Open Access Article

1 - Comparing Competitive and Cooperative Content-Based Instruction in Reading and Writing Classes
Hamid Marashi Samira Sanatipoor

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Open Access Article

2 - The Effect of Input, Input-output andOutput-input Modes of Teaching on Vocabulary Learning of Iranian EFL Learners
Ramin Fazeli Mohammad Sadegh Bagheri

This study was designed to find which one of the three different presentations, i.e. input, input-output, and output-input, will be more effective in Iranian EFL learners' vocabulary acquisitions. To this end, first 54 out of 64 female students, aged from 19 to 23 years More

This study was designed to find which one of the three different presentations, i.e. input, input-output, and output-input, will be more effective in Iranian EFL learners' vocabulary acquisitions. To this end, first 54 out of 64 female students, aged from 19 to 23 years, with an average of 21, were selected out of starter-level EFL learners at the University of Tarbiat Moalem in Bandar Abbas, Iran. They were also in three classes of 17, 14, and14 students. The research was done on three classes based on the book titled American English file (Starter). Tests used in this study contained 40 multiple-choice items of vocabularies related to chapters 1&2 of American English Series (Starter).Then, each class was treated based on one of the orders of teaching out of three. After treatment, the same vocabularies which were used in the pretest were given for posttest. Two analytical methods were applied, matched t-test and one-way ANOVA. The result revealed that the output-input group performed better than the input-output and the input-output performed better than input group. In other words, students in output-input group performed best in their post-tests. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

3 - A Comparative Study of Personal and Impersonal Meta-discourse in Academic Writing
Reza Ghafar Samar Shahrzad Amini

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the use of personal and impersonal metadiscourse (MD) by Persian- and English-speaking writers in academic writing. For this purpose, 80 abstracts were selected (40 written by Persian-speaking writers and 40 by English More

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the use of personal and impersonal metadiscourse (MD) by Persian- and English-speaking writers in academic writing. For this purpose, 80 abstracts were selected (40 written by Persian-speaking writers and 40 by English-speaking ones) and analyzed. These abstracts were selected from endocrinology and metabolism journals published during 2010 to 2012. The results of the study indicated that Persian speakers used more impersonal MD while the use of personal MD was higher in English speakers’ written text. Among the four subcategories of impersonal MD, code glosses and references to text/code were used more by Persian speakers, while English speakers used more Phoric markers and discourse labels in their writing. The use of first person plural we as a type of personal MD was more frequent than the first person singular I, and in comparison with Persian speakers, English speakers used nouns as a type of personal MD more in their writing. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

4 - Brain Dominance and Listening Comprehension Strategy Use of Iranian EFL Learners
Nastaran Mireskandari Sepideh Alavi

The present study aimed to investigate the general pattern of brain dominance of undergraduate Shiraz University students and its effect on the use of listening comprehension strategies. Data was collected from 142 undergraduate Shiraz University students. The Hemispher More

The present study aimed to investigate the general pattern of brain dominance of undergraduate Shiraz University students and its effect on the use of listening comprehension strategies. Data was collected from 142 undergraduate Shiraz University students. The Hemispheric Dominance Test (HDT) was given to the participants to categorize them as right-, left- and whole-brain dominant, and the Strategy Inventory for Listening Comprehension (SILC) was administered to evaluate their use of listening comprehension strategies. The results were compared using a one-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) to see if there were any significant differences between the three brain dominant groups in their overall use of listening comprehension strategies. A MANOVA was also run to find out if the groups had preferences regarding the use of any particular strategy type. Results indicated that Iranian EFL university students were mostly right brained. However, no significant differences were found between right-brained, left-brained and whole-brained learners in their overall pattern of listening comprehension strategy use or their preferred strategy category. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

5 - The Comparison of Native English and Persian Elementary School Students’ Performance on Lexical and Grammatical Collocations
Linda Samadi Maryam Bahardoust Rahman Sahragard

The importance and howness of language learning/ acquisition has been a great concern for decades. There are many factors that play important roles in this regard. This research compared the performance of native Persian and English elementary students to see if there i More

The importance and howness of language learning/ acquisition has been a great concern for decades. There are many factors that play important roles in this regard. This research compared the performance of native Persian and English elementary students to see if there is any significant difference between the two groups and which type of collocation they performed better within the groups. For this purpose, 60 English and Persian students were selected from elementary schools in Kashan, Iran and New Castle, England. Two tests of collocation (lexical and grammatical) each containing thirty items were adopted. An independent t-test was run and no significant difference between the two groups in lexical collocation was found. But a significant difference was seen between the two groups regarding grammatical collocation. Based on the result of the dependent t-test, the two groups performed better on the lexical collocation test Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

6 - Applying Mitigation Devices in Request Speech Act: Do Gender and Language Proficiency Have any Effect?
Parisa Abdolrezapour

This study aims to examine how Iranian EFL learners perceive and apply mitigation devices in request speech act in 4 asymmetrical situations. Role-play interactions and questionnaires were used to elicit the required data from Iranian informants (male vs. female). The r More

This study aims to examine how Iranian EFL learners perceive and apply mitigation devices in request speech act in 4 asymmetrical situations. Role-play interactions and questionnaires were used to elicit the required data from Iranian informants (male vs. female). The results obtained from the analysis of data revealed that in identical situations, male requestors were comparably more certain than females that the addressee would not be offended form their requests using fewer mitigation devices. In addition, the perception of social power and social distance variables by men and women differed; females were more concerned about the social power and social distance between the interlocutors. Moreover, it was found that language proficiency played an important role in the type of request strategy applied by Iranian EFL learners. Advanced learners were found to use more externally mitigated requests than intermediate and elementary levels. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

7 - Dynamic Assessment: From Underlying Constructs to Implications for Language Teaching
Leila Mehrnoosh Ehsan Rassaei

Testing as a general trait of social life has received a great deal of attention by many language teachers and scholars. Throughout history, people have been tested to prove their abilities and experiences or to confirm their capacities. Many authorities have said that More

Testing as a general trait of social life has received a great deal of attention by many language teachers and scholars. Throughout history, people have been tested to prove their abilities and experiences or to confirm their capacities. Many authorities have said that assessment and instruction should be integrated as a single and inseparable activity which seeks to understand development by actively promoting it. This pedagogical approach known as Dynamic Assessment (DA) developed based on Vygotsky's theory, focuses on the widespread acceptance of independent performance of individuals' abilities. Following Vygtosky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and his argument that DA involves purposeful mediational techniques, true development goes beyond traditional assessments (static assessments). In this article, a theoretical perspective of dynamic assessment is mentioned and it concludes with recommendations for future research on implementing dynamic assessment in L2 classrooms. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

8 - The Effects of Mothers’ Age, Educational Level, Occupation and Children’s Birth Order on Iranian Preschoolers’ Communicative Performance
Arezoo Daneshvar Firroz Sadighi

The researchers aim was to find out the potential effects of some maternal factors such as age, educational level, occupation as well as children’s birth order on the communicative performance of preschoolers in Iran. This study was conducted with 31 preschoolers More

The researchers aim was to find out the potential effects of some maternal factors such as age, educational level, occupation as well as children’s birth order on the communicative performance of preschoolers in Iran. This study was conducted with 31 preschoolers selected from Bahar Language Institute in Shiraz, Iran. The required data about mothers and children were gathered through a questionnaire developed by the researchers and an interview done by two raters. Following the process of data collection, independent samples t-test was employed, the results of which indicated that there was a significant difference between the pronunciation of children based on their mothers’ education level (sig.=.03, p<.05). It was also found out that there was a significant difference (sig.=.019, p<.05) between the total communicative performances of working mothers’ children (M=85.94) and that of children whose mothers were unemployed housewives (M=80.82). However, the researchers found no significant difference between communicative performance of these two groups whose mothers belonged to different age groups, i.e. below 35 and above 35. Also, the results demonstrated a significant difference (sig.=.009, p<.05) in the pronunciation of first children compared to that of second kids. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

9 - The Effect of Iranian EFL Learners’ Attitude towards English Language Learning on Their Autonomy
Nasser Rashidi Hasti Nazemi

In the process of English learning, each learner has his/her own attitude towards learning. In this path, s/he should feel free to be responsible for what s/he wants and seeks to learn which shows how autonomous the learner is. This study is based on the hypotheses that More

In the process of English learning, each learner has his/her own attitude towards learning. In this path, s/he should feel free to be responsible for what s/he wants and seeks to learn which shows how autonomous the learner is. This study is based on the hypotheses that there is a relationship between what the learner feels towards English language learning and his/her level of autonomy. For this aim, forty Iranian EFL learners were involved in this study. They were all females and studied English as their foreign language at Iran Language Institute. Twenty of them were put into an experimental group and received a treatment. The treatment was used to improve their positive attitudes towards learning English. The second group, known as a control group also consisted of twenty learners but no treatment was applied to this group. Before the study has begun, the two groups received two sets of questionnaires on autonomy and attitude as a pretest to measure their attitude towards learning English. The posttest which was the same questionnaire was given to the experimental group after the application of the treatment, and to the control group which received no treatment. In order to see if there is a relationship between the learners’ attitude and their level of autonomy or not, Pearson correlation coefficient was used to investigate the significance of the relationship. T-tests were conducted between and within the groups. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between the learners’ attitude and their level of autonomy and the significance of this relationship was also clarified Manuscript profile

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