Technology has crept into every aspect of human life, and second language education is not an exception, giving rise to computer-enhanced language learning and mobile-assisted language learning. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of WhatsApp, Adobe Connect, and face-to-face classes on learning collocations by Iranian EFL learners in Qom, and to make comparisons among these three platforms. Thus, a quasi-experimental design was set up in which a number of available intermediate-level students were assigned to a WhatsApp group, an Adobe Connect group, and a Control group. The three groups were given a collocation pretest at the outset of the study and they were exposed to collocations, though through different media. In the treatment, which lasted for 10 sessions, for the learners in the WAG and ACG, the collocations were presented via a picture, an example sentence, and a follow-up quiz, which the CG learners received the same collocations in a similar fashion except that they were not provided with videos/pictures. At the end of the experiment, the learners were given a posttest of collocations, and the following results were obtained after running paired-samples t tests and a one-way ANCOVA: (a) the three groups of WAG, ACG, and CG were fruitful and the learners in all these environments improved significantly from pretest to posttest of collocations, and (b) ACG learners significantly outperformed WAG learners, who in turn could perform significantly better than the CG learners. The obtained results bear implications for education in general and second language instruction in particular. تفاصيل المقالة

The effect of task type on interlanguage pragmatics development has remained under-researched. This study aimed to explore the effects of an input-based task (i.e., consciousness-raising task) and an output-based task (i.e., discourse completion task) on learning the speech act (SA) of suggestion. To this end, sixty Iranian EFL ninth graders were selected as the participants of the study through convenience sampling. Then, they were assigned to three non-equivalent groups (i.e., one control group and two experimental groups). A 10- item scenario-prompted written discourse completion test (WDCT) was administered as the pretest and posttest to all three groups. Afterward, the input-based group received the target SA, enhanced with colored bold-face subtitles, and output-based group received the same clips with regular subtitles and were asked to do WDCTs. The control group was taught through a traditional instructional procedure with the same clips. Finally, they sat for an immediate posttest. The results demonstrated that input-based task had the most significant within-group effect on learning the target SA from the pretest to the posttest, followed by output-based task and traditional instruction. At the same time, no statistically significant differences were found among the groups' posttest performance. The implications are offered finally. تفاصيل المقالة

Focused instructions in language teaching have gained weight during recent decades. As reading is a powerful tool for vocabulary growth, knowing which instructions have more effect on it is necessary. The effectiveness of focused instructions has been examined in empirical studies. But few inquiries compared the impacts of form-focused instruction like input enhancement with meaning-focused instruction such as Jigsaw on L2 development. Therefore, this research tried to examine a comparison between the impacts of input enhancement and jigsaw on reading comprehension of non-Iranian ESL learners.50 elementary ESL learners in an international primary school were chosen in three intact classes. In the first experimental group, input enhancement was used for presenting the target words; in the second experimental group, the jigsaw was used. The control group learned the same target words giving the participants a word list (traditional). Before applying the treatment all the subjects were given the teacher-made pretest. After five sessions of treatment, the post-test was administered. One-way ANOVAs were used to analyze the data collected from the learners’ performance on the pretest and post-test. The results announced that there was not any notable distinction between the post-test scores of the three groups. However, the paired samples t-test results revealed that the input enhancement and control group had reading comprehension development after the treatment. This research can inform teachers and syllabus designers about the efficiency of input enhancement and word lists on reading comprehension. تفاصيل المقالة

Nowadays, the goal of language education has changed from mastery of structure to the ability to use language for communicative purposes; however, the cultural content of the ELT textbooks in Iran has never been sufficiently discussed. Therefore, the major purpose motivating this study was to study the perceptions of teachers and learners of the localization of Iranian English textbooks in the Iranian EFL textbooks (i.e., Prospect series), besides investigating if there were any significant differences between the perceptions of teachers and learners. For this purpose, the participants of this study comprised two samples. The first group who took part in this study were 87 EFL teachers, and the second was a sample of 105 EFL learners. The research instruments were a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview protocol. For the evaluation of the textbook, a researcher-made questionnaire was used. The questionnaire was designed based on Cheng (2005). The purpose of this questionnaire was to probe the Iranian EFL teachers' and students' perceptions of the localized materials. In order to explore teachers' attitudes towards localized materials, a semi-structured interview was used. The findings suggest that while teachers and learners might view the series differently, there exists a common ground of appreciation for its value in enhancing the English learning experience. This convergence in positive perceptions emphasizes the importance of educational resources that cater to diverse learning styles and preferences. This study can have some pedagogical implications for curriculum developers, educational policymakers, teachers, and material designers. تفاصيل المقالة