سید امیرحسین سرکشیکیان

This study investigated the effect of story-based technique, L₁ translation, and Whatsapp emoticon puzzle solving on EFL learners’ learning proverbs. From among 90 female intermediate level learners at two language institutes in Qom, Iran, 60 homogeneous students were chosen following the administration of a sample of Nelson proficiency test and a pre-test. The 60 participants were then assigned to three experimental groups, equal in number. The experimental group 1 was instructed using story-based technique; the experimental group 2 was taught through L₁ translation; and the experimental group 3 was exposed to Whatsapp emoticon puzzle solving. Subsequently, all three groups took part in a proverb post-test similar to the pre-test. The data were analyzed by ANOVA. The results showed that Whatsapp emoticon puzzle solving was significantly the most effective, and that the students’ level of learning proverbs was influenced by story-based technique more than L₁ translation technique. The findings of this study can contribute to technology- enhanced language teaching.

The present study aimed to investigate the reliability and factor structure of the self-regulating capacity in vocabulary learning strategies scale (SRCvoc) in the Iranian EFL context. To this end, the original (SRCvoc) questionnaire (Tseng, Dornyei, & Schmitt, 2006) was translated into Persian, using a translation/back-translation procedure. Then, the Persian version of the SRCVOC was piloted to 43 high school students and showed acceptable internal consistency reliability (α = .81). In the main phase of the study, a sample of 1167 high school students (grades 9-12) from fifteen high schools in three Iranian cities completed the Persian SRCvoc. Based on the results, the Persian version of the scale demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability (<em>α </em>= 0.81). The factor structure of the translated version of the measure was investigated through a series of factor analyses. The results showed that the translated SVLSQ is composed of one dimension with five subcomponents, with a different factor structure as compared to the original questionnaire. The findings of the study suggest that the Persian version of the SVLSQ is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring self-regulatory vocabulary learning strategies in Iran. 

Distance learning has gained more significance in recent years. The present study intended to investigate whether there was any statistically significant correlation between motivation and learning English through Shad and WhatsApp as perceived by Iranian high school language learners. Furthermore, the study aimed to find out whether the participants’ gender moderated the relationship between motivation and learning English through Shad and WhatsApp. To fulfill these aims, a correlational study was set up and data were collected from 169 male and female learners, some of whom were exposed to WhatsApp and the rest received Shad as their English language class platforms. Data elicited from the motivation questionnaire and English language test of the learners were analyzed through the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Pearson correlation, and Fisher's z transformation formula to come up with the results of the study. The findings revealed that there was a moderate, positive, and statistically significant relationship between motivation and English learning of the WhatsApp-group learners. Moreover, it was found that there was a weak, positive, and statistically significant relationship between motivation and English learning of the Shad-group learners, and gender did not have a moderating role in the relationship between motivation and English earning of the learners, neither in the WhatsApp nor in the Shad groups. The implications of the study are presented and discussed.

Dynamic assessment (DA) is an effective strategy to combine teaching and testing and it is even more enjoyable through digital devices such as computer and moblie devices. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether the effect of interventionist dynamic assessment through WhatsApp, Bigbluebutton, and face to face classes had significant impacts on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ learning of grammar. The participants of this quasi-experimental study were seventy-five male intermediate EFL learners studying English in one of the English language institutes in central Iran. Three intact pre-intermediate level classes were chosen based on non-random convenience sampling and assigned to the three groups of WhatsApp, Bigbluebutton, and traditional group. The instruments that were used in this study were the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) and a multiple-choice grammar test. Over the course of six sessions, all three groups received interventionist DA strategies in teaching countable and uncountable nouns and determiners. The results of statistical data analysis showed that all three groups had significantly progressed over the study since there was significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of each group. However, no statistically significant differences were found among the three groups’ means on the posttest of grammar. The findings have implications for language teachers and researchers of second language acquision.