Speaking a language involves more than simply knowing the linguistic components of the message, and developing language skills requires more than grammatical comprehension and vocabulary memorization (Chastain, 1988). In teaching-learning processes, drama method may have some positive effects on ELL students' speaking fluency and accuracy. This study attempts to probe one of the main concerns of language learners, that is, how to improve their speaking components, e.g. oral fluency and accuracy. To attain this aim, the researchers investigated the effect of two selected texts from modern English dramas on students' speaking fluency and accuracy. They distinguished fluent from non-fluent and accurate from no accurate learners. Therefore, the current study was designed as a true experimental research and the data were gathered from 60 EFL students of English language and literature at Hormozgan University in Iran. The data were the recorded speaking transcripts which were analyzed to show the probable progresses after four-time (10 weeks) treatment. The factors to be considered in present study were the numbers of filled and unfilled pauses in each narration, the total number of words per minute, mean length of utterance, and number of stressed words. The results were compared and their temporal and linguistic measures were correlated with their fluency scores. They revealed that the speech rate, the mean length of utterance, phonation time ratio and the number of stressed words produced per minute were the best predictors of fluency scores, and thus, students' speaking fluency increased, whereas the students' speaking accuracy decreased in some areas of speaking abilities and oral communications. Manuscript profile

This study aimed to compare the performance of international and Iranian test takers on TOEFL iBT integrated and independent writing tasks. The international test takers' data were provided by TOEFL organizer: Educational Testing Service (ETS). This included a total of number of 4916 samples for both integrated and independent tasks. A paired sample t-test showed the international test takers significantly outperformed on the independent task. Further, a sample of 100 integrated and independent writing tasks produced by international test takers was randomly selected through systematic sampling, and compared with 96 counterparts written by Iranian TOEFL iBT test takers. Although the difference between Iranian and International test takers was not significant, the paired sample t-test on Iranian samples per se showed that they too outperformed on the independent writing tasks. Although the difference between Iranian and International test takers was not significant, the paired sample t-test on Iranian samples per se showed that they too outperformed on the independent writing tasks. Manuscript profile