This study explores the efficacy of cognitive and metacognitive strategy instruction in enhancing the writing cognitive processes of Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Utilizing various instructional approaches, including scaffolded metacognitive instruction and writing metacognitive strategies, the research investigates the effects on learners’ metacognitive awareness and writing accuracy. Research on cognitive-oriented writing is a young but growing field. The current mixed methods study explored the extent to which brainstorming, focus on form (FonF), and metacognitive strategy instruction could affect cognitive processes (planning, translating, revising) of Iranian EFL learners. The participants were 150 BA learners in three intact classes majoring in English language translation at IAU, Islamshahr Branch. During 16 sessions, each group experienced brainstorming, metacognitive strategy instruction, or FonF activities as pre-task conditions. Writing pretest and posttest, and semi-structured interview were utilized to collect the data. The results obtained from one-way ANOVA revealed that pre-task conditions statistically impacted the cognitive processes of learners’ writings. The findings suggest a positive correlation between strategic knowledge, metacognitive strategies, and improved writing skills among Iranian EFL learners. The study not only contributes to the understanding of the interplay between cognitive and metacognitive processes in language learning but also provides valuable insights for educators aiming to enhance writing proficiency in EFL settings. تفاصيل المقالة

This study was to investigate the use of metacognitive reading strategies, patterns of motivation aswell as the relationship between motivation and L2 readers’ metacognitive awareness andperceived use of strategies among Iranian EFL learners. A total number of 36 intermediate studentsfrom an English Institutes in Qazvin took part in this study. They were asked to fill in twoquestionnaires: (a) a questionnaire on motivation, which was developed by Vallerand et al. (1992),and (b) a questionnaire on Metacognitive awareness strategies in reading developed by Mokhtari& Reichard, (2002). The results of the study revealed that: 1) In the category of metacognitivereading strategies, problem solving was the most frequently used strategy and global and supportwas the least frequently used one. 2) There was no significant difference in terms of type ofmotivation among Iranian EFL learners 3) Positive relationship was found between both types ofmotivation and use of metacognitive reading strategies. This study suggested that readers’metacognitive awareness should be cultivated and strategy instruction should be integrated intothe teaching of reading. تفاصيل المقالة

The shift of emphasis away from written to oral skills has stimulated an incipient concern in second language research to investigate ways of helping second and foreign language learners achieve higher degrees of oral proficiency. Priority solely taken over accuracy, complexity, or fluency of speech might be justifiable with regard to the context in which learning takes place. Accuracy and complexity have been suggested as paramount concern in syntactic processing typical of instructional contexts. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of a training program on the grammatical complexity of 114 English Major Students at Islamic Azad University-Tabriz Branch at three different planning levels. A 2x3 factorial design was employed with two levels of metacognitive training, trained and untrained, and three levels of pre-task planning, on-line task planning, and pre/on-line task planning. It was hypothesized that the trained participants would produce more complex speech than the untrained ones, and that various planners would produce speech with varying degrees of complexity. Yet, the findings revealed no significant difference in terms of grammatical complexity among the trained and untrained participants. The findings suggest proficiency level and learners' attitudes and goals as main factors influencing the complexity of oral speech. تفاصيل المقالة

Various individual differences, including ambiguity tolerance (AT), have gained momentum because of the influence they can exert on the process and product of learning, and thereby, on various aspects of the learner’s interlanguage system such as accuracy of oral speech. The present study was undertaken to examine the extent to which Iranian EFL learners’ AT was significantly correlated with the accuracy of their task-based speech. To serve the purpose, a random sample of 60 Iranian EFL learners studying English at New Pegah Institute in Tabriz were selected from a population of 150. The Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale (Ely, 1995) was employed to quantify the participants’ AT while the accuracy of their speech, based on a picture description task, was measured based on the ratio of the grammatical errors to the total number of t-units produced. Correlational analyses of the research data revealed that the participants were highly inaccurate in their oral performance and that there was a significant moderate relationship between the two research variables. The findings underscore the need to determine and promote Iranian EFL learners’ AT and offer a number of pedagogical implications. تفاصيل المقالة

Underlying any learning and teaching process is a set of preferred Learning Styles (LSs) and Teaching Styles (TSs) which epitomize the overall educational policy and identification of which is sine qua non for any reform of the educational system. This ex-post-facto study scrutinized preference of Iranian EFL teachers' for Expert, Formal Authority, Personal Model, Facilitator, and Delegator TSs and their students' tendencies towards Visual, Auditory, and Kinaesthetic student LSs. We collected the research data based on Grasha's (1996) Teaching Style Questionnaire administered to 30 Iranian EFL teachers and the Barsch Learning Style Questionnaire (1991) administered to 300 Iranian EFL learners. Descriptive statistics of the research data revealed that majority of Iranian EFL learners opt for the visual learning style and teachers highly favour facilitating foreign language learning. However, Visual and Delegate Learning and Teaching Styles reflected the lowest frequencies. The findings underscore the need to raise teachers’ awareness of LSs so that they can modify their teaching according to their students’ preferences. تفاصيل المقالة

One skill that student teachers need to develop during their academic studies is the capacity to produce accurate and well-organized texts. This study reports on the comparative impact of metalinguistic feedback (MLF), teacher interactive feedback (TIF(, and the peer-feedback (PF) on the accuracy and organization of postgraduate ELT student teachers’ writing. The participants were 57 postgraduate students who were recruited from a population of 70 postgraduate students, in three classes, that were randomly assigned as the MLF group, the TIF group, and the PF group based on the focus of the presentation and the feedback type they would receive during the 14 session treatment. A hybrid process-oriented and genre-based methodology was employed to teach the identical teaching materials to all the groups with a focus on grammatical features and relevant grammatical exercises in the MLF group, on reflective and interactive negotiation of form and meaning in the TIF group, and on individual peer-assessment of the peer’s writing in the PF group. The results revealed significantly higher levels of accuracy among the MLF group with no significant difference in the organization of the groups’ writing. The findings underscore the role of MLF in enhancing accuracy. تفاصيل المقالة

This study set out to investigate the effect of peer- editing as a metacognitive strategy on the development of writing. It was hypothesized that peer-editing could be used to raise grammatical and compositional awareness of the learners. Forty pre-intermediate sophomores at Islamic Azad University-Tabriz Branch participated in the study, taking the course Writing I. To warrant the initial homogeneity of the groups, a nonequivalent pretest –posttest design was selected and the groups were randomly determined as the control and the experimental groups, each with twenty subjects. The treatment following the pretest involved a three-phase planning procedure including: consciousness awareness via error recognition activities, error categorizing activities, and self/peer editing. Statistical analysis of the post-test composition did not reveal any significant difference between the two groups. It seems that peer-editing entails a firm grammatical foundation which needs to be formed early in the process of language learning. The results underscore the need to reorient the method of teaching grammar at university level in a way to accommodate a task-based approach to cognitive and metacognitive strategies-based training. تفاصيل المقالة

Diction conveys a wide array of meanings of which formality and emotionality are only two facets. Researchers have investigated various features of written discourse to capture discourse variation in L1 and L2 writings. Likewise, the present ex-post-facto study compared the formality and emotionality of diction in general and emotional English and Farsi texts produced by 20 MA students at Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch. Having verified the initial homogeneity of the participants, we required them to write four paragraphs, two in English and two in Farsi, on a general and an emotional topic. The formality of the words in English texts was determined based on Webster’s Dictionary. Further, the positive and negative emotion words used in English and Farsi texts were measured based on the definitions offered by Pennebaker and King (1999).The results of the statistical analyses revealed no significant difference in the formality of the words used by the participants in general and emotional English texts. The comparison of the research data, however, indicated significant differences in the use of emotion words in general and emotional English and Farsi texts. The findings underscore the need for raising learners’ awareness of the role diction can play in writing. تفاصيل المقالة

This study set out to explore the impact of three levels of task planning on the accuracy of task-based oral performance with narrative task types among sixty Iranian sophomores majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at Islamic Azad University – Tabriz Branch. It was hypothesized that simultaneous pre-task/on-line planning would lead to more accurate performance. To test the research hypothesis, a quasi experimental design was used with three levels of planning (pre-task planning (PTP), on-line task planning (OLP), pre/on-line task planning (POLP). The participants in the study included 60 pre-intermediate TEFL sophomores at Islamic Azad University-Tabriz Branch who were selected out of a population of 200 TEFL sophomores on the basis of their scores on a proficiency test and an oral pre-test. One-way ANOVA run on the post-test data indicated statistically significant effects on the accuracy of the participants' task-based oral performance under POLP planning condition. However, there was no significant effect on accuracy as a result of PTP and OLP planning. The independent samples t-test analysis revealed significant accuracy gains in the POLP groups whereas the same improvements were not observed in the PTP and OLP planners. تفاصيل المقالة

یکی از مسائل مهم برای بسیاری از معلمان زبان انگلیسی یافتن راهی برای یاری رساندن به زبان‌اموزان در تولید گفتار صحیح و روان است. بنا بر نتایج حاصل از تحقیقات انجام شده در حوزه آموزش زبان دوم تمرین شفاهی تأثیر بسزایی در تولید گفتار صحیح و روان دارد. به اعتقاد متخصصین، تولید جملات انگلیسی به زبان‌آموزان امکان می‌دهد تا شناخت عمیق‌تری نسبت به ساختار جملات این زبان پیدا کنند و این شناخت موجب تسهیل آموزش‌های بعدی خواهد شد. تحقیق حاضر تأثیر برنامه آموزشی تولیدمحوری را بر افزایش صحت دستوری و روانی گفتار کارمدار زبان آموزان ایرانی مورد بررسی قرار داد. شرکت کنندگان در این تحقیق را پنجاه دانشجوی سال دوم زبان انگلیسی دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد تبریز تشکیل دادند که بطور تصادفی به دو گروه آزمایش و کنترل تعیین شدند. پس از اینکه همگونی اولیه گروه‌ها با استفاده از آزمون مهارت عمومی و پیش آزمون شفاهی مورد سنجش قرار گرفت، هر دو گروه به مدت شش جلسه آموزش‌هایی مربوط به درس گفت و شنود و آزمایشگاه را به همراه نحوه استفاده از استراتژی‌های لازم برای تولید جملات صحیح دستوری و گفتار روان دریافت کردند. در پایان هر جلسه، شرکت کنندگان گروه تحقیق با توصیف مجموعه ای از تصاویر در کارهای تولید شفاهی شرکت می‌کردند در حالی که در گروه کنترل چنین تولیدی وجود نداشت. نتایج تجزیه و تحلیل آماری داده‌های پس آزمون تفاوت‌های معناداری را بین دو گروه نشان داد و مشخص شد که گروه تحقیق گفتار صحیح‌تر و روان‌تری را در پس آزمون تولید کردند. یافته‌های تحقیق حاضر کاربردهای آموزشی برجسته‌ای برای زبان‌آموزان انگلیسی به ویژه در محیط‌های زبان خارجی خواهد داشت که زبان‌آموزان کم‌تر در معرض زبان قرار می‌گیرند. تفاصيل المقالة

This study aimed at determining the effect of teaching idiom strategies, that is, socializing learning and cognitive linguistic approach, on Iranian EFL learners' recognition and production of ambiguous idioms. To this end, 78 upper-intermediate students of Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, Iran, formed the total population of the study. Then, Proficiency English Test (PET) was administered to ensure the homogeneity of the needed sample. Based on the results of this test, 60 students were selected as the final participants. They were randomly assigned to two experimental groups: WhatsApp socializing group and etymological elaboration group. A pretest was used to ensure the unfamiliarity of the idioms. The criteria for choosing ambiguous idioms were that all ambiguous idioms required to have etymology and could be illustrated using a picture Also, posttests for the recognition and production of ambiguous idioms were used to compare the performance of the two groups. The statistical analysis of results indicated that the etymological elaboration group outperformed the socializing group in both idiom recognition and production. The findings of this research have pedagogical implications for teachers, syllabus designers, and materials developers in using appropriate instructional methods for teaching idioms. تفاصيل المقالة

Reading comprehension is a fundamental language skill for many EFL learners. This study was conducted to compare Iranian male and female EFL learners' tripartite reading strategy use, Problem Solving Reading Strategies (PSRSs), Global Reading Strategies (GRSs), and Support Reading strategies (SRSs), and their relationship to their reading comprehension. To serve the purpose, 80 undergraduate EFL learners, 40 females and 40 males, majoring in English Language Teaching (ELT) and English Translation (ET) at Islamic Azad University-Tabriz were selected randomly. The research variables were measured based on the participants’ performance on the reading section of the PET test and the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategy Inventory (MARSI) (Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002). The research data were analysed through Independent Samples T-test and a Standard Multiple Regression (MR) analysis. The results revealed significant differences between male and female participants in terms of their reading comprehension and perceived use of PSRSs. It was also exhibited that for male participants, only SRSs were the statistically significant predictor of males’ reading comprehension while for females it was the PSRSs that made significant contribution to explain reading comprehension. The gender variation in reading comprehension, reading strategies and the correlational pattern between these two variables exists. Such variations have to be addressed in the process of teaching and suggestions will be made as how teacher trainers, syllabus designers, and individual university students majoring in English Language Teaching (ELT) and English Translation (ET) can apply the findings to promote their outcome. تفاصيل المقالة

Practicing innovative, constant, dynamic, ongoing and process-oriented assessment techniques with constructive and communicative feedback can consolidate and stabilize learners’ instruction and learning. This study investigated the impact of the think-pair-share (TPS) formative assessment (FA) strategy on Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension skill and vocabulary knowledge. Sixty male intermediate EFL participants from two intact classes took part in the revised Cambridge Preliminary English Test and forty-eight students were chosen by analyzing their scores considering two standard deviations above or below the mean. The participants were from Allameh Jafari high school of Marand. They were assigned to two intact groups of twenty-four learners. This quasi-experimental study was implemented by using a pretest and posttest design to quantitatively collect data so as to compare the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG). The EG was assessed through the TPS assessment technique, while the CG was assessed using the product-oriented summative assessment (SA) tool. To find out the effect of the assessment techniques on reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge, the two groups of the study were assessed for twenty weeks. Then, Independent Samples T-test and the one-way ANCOVA were used to compare and analyze the pretest and the posttest scores of the participants in the two groups. The findings indicated that the EG with the TPS FA technique outperformed the CG with the SA strategy in reading comprehension and vocabulary learning. The findings can be pedagogically rewarding for learners, teachers and theoreticians and may cast light on SLA research in applying FA techniques. تفاصيل المقالة

Although there is controversy surrounding the place of grammar in foreign language teaching, it remains of great importance for learners. This explanatory mixed methods study aimed to investigate Iranian EFL learners’ perceptions of the teaching effectiveness of three computer-assisted grammar teaching methods, which mainly differ in the degree of explicitness. The participants in the quantitative phase of the study were 70 Iranian EFL learners chosen from Payam Noor University of Tabriz. Besides, 15 participants were randomly selected for the qualitative phase of the study. The participants were divided into three groups of grammar teaching, including Traditional Explicit Instruction (TEI), Implicit Input Enhancement (IIE), and Guided Discovery Method (GDM). The data was collected through the Students’ Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The results of descriptive statistics showed that the participants in all three instructional groups generally had positive perceptions of computerized grammar teaching approaches. Despite opposing views, the qualitative data analysis also confirmed the effectiveness of the methods. This study concludes with some important implications for EFL teachers, learners, and educational administrators to improve the quality of education. تفاصيل المقالة

While teaching vocabulary, it is crucial to consider the facilitative role of various techniques that may intensify and promote memory strategies required for meaningful learning and long-term retention. The present study aimed to compare the effect of three semantic mapping strategies of Word Relationship (WR), Lexical Relations and Definition (LRD), and Personal Word Connections (PWC) on Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary learning and retention. To this end, 120 intermediate EFL learners were assigned to three contrast groups and a control group, each with 30 participants who were randomly assigned to three WR, LRDG, and PWC experimental groups and a control group who attended the treatment two sessions a week for four weeks in which the vocabulary was presented via the three semantic differential modes. The control group received no treatment regarding the target words and was only involved in mere reviewing and revising the words. Immediate and delayed parallel vocabulary posttests were deployed immediately after the treatment and with a two-week interval to detect the impact of the instructional interventions on the participants’ vocabulary learning and retention, respectively. The results of three One-way ANOVA tests and four repeated-measure ANOVA tests showed significantly higher improvements in the experimental groups’ learning compared to the control group with the UWR outperforming others and achieving higher levels of learning and retention. In terms of the two other contrast groups, the PWC ranked second and the LRD ranked last. The findings underscore WR as an effective technique the pedagogical implications of which will be discussed. تفاصيل المقالة

The pattern dominating Classroom discourse is Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) and the initiation move normally takes the form of questions asked by teachers. The questions might be either referential or inferential and classroom research has accentuated the role these questions can play in eliciting learner output with the latter more likely conducive to meaning-focused output. However, what still awaits scrutiny is the extent to which teachers tend to activate learners’ semantic and syntactic processing by using appropriate questions and how their experience might mediate their choices at varying proficiency levels. Hence, the present descriptive study set out to compare the frequency of inferential and referential questions employed by novice and experienced teachers to initiate interaction at lower-intermediate (LI) and upper-intermediate (UI) levels. For the purpose of the study, a purposive sample of 20 English classrooms were selected at nine branches of an English institute in Tabriz, Iran. The classrooms were taught by five novice and five experienced teachers. Using a semi-structured researcher-made and piloted observation form, the classroom procedures were observed, recorded, and transcribed. The transcribed data were further analyzed employing the standardized coding system proposed by Long and Sato (1983) as a seven-category taxonomy of functions of teacher questions. The results revealed that experienced teachers used significantly more referential questions at both LI and UI levels. In contrast, novice teachers were found to use significantly more inferential questions at both LI and upper intermediate levels. Pedagogical implications of the findings will be discussed. تفاصيل المقالة