Number 3 Volume 2

Open Access Article

1 - The effect of humorous passages on developing learners’ reading comprehension
Niloufar Poor Rahmani Mohammad Taghi Hassani

Sense of humor as a key factor for increasing the effect of instruction has been overlooked by research in the field of education. This study was an attempt to investigate the effects of the use of humor on EFL learners’ reading comprehension. For this purpose, a More

Sense of humor as a key factor for increasing the effect of instruction has been overlooked by research in the field of education. This study was an attempt to investigate the effects of the use of humor on EFL learners’ reading comprehension. For this purpose, a group of Iranian EFL learners were taught reading comprehension through the use of humorous passages while another group of learners were taught through neutralized passages. Eighty four students studying in different private language institutes in Takestan participated in this study. All subjects were male with ages between 16 and 19. The results of the study showed that the use of humorous texts significantly enhanced the reading comprehension performance of the EFL learners’. The results also showed that the learners’ motivation was enhanced through the use of humorous reading materials. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

2 - Improving Iranian EFL students reading comprehension skills: examining the effects of self-regulated strategy and modified reciprocal teaching
Atefeh Jafari Bahador Sadeghi

The purpose of this study was to investigate how reciprocal teaching and self-regulation affected reading comprehension of EFL learners at the high school level. 60 participants were selected and randomly assigned into two groups: an experimental group and a control gro More

The purpose of this study was to investigate how reciprocal teaching and self-regulation affected reading comprehension of EFL learners at the high school level. 60 participants were selected and randomly assigned into two groups: an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group was taught through reciprocal teaching while the control group was taught through skill-based teaching. The researcher used reading section of the National University Entrance Exam in the Field of English 1391 as pre-test, and post-test to collect the data. Data were analyzed by the covariance analysis and the results indicated that reciprocal teaching had a significantly positive effect on the English reading comprehension and usage of self-regulation strategy of high school students. Students who were taught by reciprocal teaching had better scores at post-test rather than the other students in skill-based group. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

3 - Critical Thinking and EFL Students’ Performance on Open and Closed Reading Tasks
Abbas Mousavi Behnia Ramin Rahmany

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Open Access Article

4 - Factors Contributing to Motivation among Iranian EFL In-Service Teachers
Sanaz Saheb

Since learning English as a foreign language in Iran has turned into one of the mostimportant issues in educational settings, especially in recent years, having motivated teachersin education and maintaining this motivation is one of the defining factors in assuring stu More

Since learning English as a foreign language in Iran has turned into one of the mostimportant issues in educational settings, especially in recent years, having motivated teachersin education and maintaining this motivation is one of the defining factors in assuring students’learning. Teachers' motivation affects the process of teaching and EFL learners’ achievement.The present study was an attempt to investigate factors contributing to creating motivationamong EFL in-service teachers and also factors which contribute to maintaining motivationamong these teachers. The results of the study revealed that in interest in learning a foreignlanguage, motivational intensity, and desire to learn English, respectively, two thirds of theteachers were at high and intermediate levels. It can be concluded that they had a positiveintrinsic motivation to learn a second language, but that there were external factors that affectsuch motivation. The results also suggest that teachers in general demonstrated an intermediateto high instrumental and integrative orientation towards teaching English as a second/foreignlanguage. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

5 - The effect of canonical word order on the production and comprehension of pseudoclefts in L2
Ashraf Montaseri

This study investigated the effect of word order and age on the production and comprehension of pseudoclefts in L2 across two experiments. For each experiment 16 female students aged between 179 and 210 months were recruited from a secondary school. These students were More

This study investigated the effect of word order and age on the production and comprehension of pseudoclefts in L2 across two experiments. For each experiment 16 female students aged between 179 and 210 months were recruited from a secondary school. These students were divided into two groups based on their age range; one group for investigating the effect of word order and age on the production and another on the comprehension of pseudoclefts in L2 by a test including 27 items. The items of the test included 10 Subject pseudocleft, 10 Object pseudocleft and 7 fillers. Production was examined by a sentence repetition task and comprehension by a picture selection task. The results indicated that (i) Word order is a determining factor in production and comprehension of pseudoclefts in L2. (ii) Age does not significantly affect production or comprehension of pseudoclefts in L2. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

6 - The Comprehension of Garden-Path Structures by Iranian EFL Learners
Zeinab Sadat Parpanchi

The present study sought to investigate the comprehension of Garden-Path structures by Iranian EFL learners. 50 female students of Kharazmi English Language Institute in Karaj participated in this study. All of the participants were native speakers of Persian studying i More

The present study sought to investigate the comprehension of Garden-Path structures by Iranian EFL learners. 50 female students of Kharazmi English Language Institute in Karaj participated in this study. All of the participants were native speakers of Persian studying in Kharazmi English language institute in Karaj, Iran. They ranged from 18 to 30 in terms of age. The participants were administered two tests. A multiple choice test for English language proficiency test(PET) to determine the level of the participants and a multiple choice garden-path test including garden-path and non garden-path questions to measure the possible effect of garden path structures on subjects' comprehension and to measure the participants' knowledge of garden-path structures. The same tests were presented to participants of advanced and intermediate level . Repeated measure ANOVA procedures were applied to analyze the obtained data. The findings showed that the advanced group performed better on the garden-path test. There was a significant dependency between the English language proficiency level and comprehension of garden-path structures. We can claim that language proficiency affects Iranian EFL learners' comprehension of garden-path structures and garden-path structures influence Iranian EFL learners' comprehension. The findings of the present study may have implications for L2 learners and teachers. Manuscript profile

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