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A number of studies have accounted the integral role of foreign/second language learning and learner strategy use. However, a few of these studies have considered the relationships between strategic competence and its use and foreign language performance (FLP). This study applied structural equation modeling to deeply investigate the relationships between test takers’ strategy use and their performance on foreign language tests. For this purpose, 147 EFL learners from three well-known branches of a private language institute in Tehran, Iran were chosen. These participants also responded to an 80-item Cognitive and Metacognitive strategy questionnaire and took an 81-item Key English Test (KET). Consequently the hypothesized model of strategic competence vis-à-vis FL test appeared with following findings. First, metacognitive processing (MP) had no direct effect on FLP but a significant, direct influence on cognitive processing (CP), which supports the interaction notion of Bachman and Palmer’s (1996) communicative competence . Second, due to the Iranian EFL context in which Iranian students and teachers show more tendencies toward memorizing vocabulary and analyzing grammar, practicing naturalistically was insignificant and deleted while the translating variable was added, which was highly significant. Third, CP had no significant effect on listening ability which shows that listening ability is much more dependent on contextual factors rather than background knowledge and strategic competence.

شواهد بیانگر این می باشد که تغییر پذیری در ارزیابی نگارش دانشجویان فقط نتیجه تفاوت مهارت نوشتاری آنها نیست بلکه عوامل بیرونی خاصی در این امر دخیلند و عوامل مرتبط با مصحح، فعالییت، موقعییت یا تعامل هر یک از اینها میتوانند در تصمیم گیریها و استنباطها در مورد توانایی نگارش فراگیران تاثیر بگذارند. هدف این تحقیق این است که مساله تغییرپذیری را در داوری مصحح به عنوان منبع خطای سنجش در ارزیابی نگارش فراگیران زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجه مورد بررسی قرار دهد. به این منظور مقالات 32 دانشجوی ایرانی زبان انگلیسی بوسیله شش مصحح ارزشیابی و نتایج با استفاده از مدل رش و برنامه فست مورد تحلیل قرار گرفتند. یافته ها نشان دادند که تفاوتهای معنی داری در میزان سختگیری مصحح ها وجود دارد و تعامل مصحح با فراگیر باعث ایجاد تورش در ارزشیابی میشود. از آنجایی که ارزیابی مهارت نوشتن امری ذهنی میباشد و بر اساس داوری مصحح می تواند متغیر باشد، بررسی و شناخت عواملی که باعث عینی تر شدن این ارزیابی میشود امری ضروری به شمارمی رود. ذهنی بودن روند ارزیابی مهارت نوشتن تهدیدی برای روایی آزمون است و سبب می شود که نمره فراگیر نشان دهنده مهارت واقعی وی نباشد. این تحقیق نشان می دهد چطور ارزیابی می تواند کارامد و سودمند باشد و چگونه می توان انصاف و صحت عملکرد ذهنی را سنجید.

This study aimed at providing learners with an opportunity not only to bring together their core and disciplinary knowledge to acquire major skills of learning English as a foreign language (EFL), and the intellectual challenge of these issues at the interface of media, language and religion, but also help the materials generators to produce suitable types of content to be delivered through the medium of mobile technology. Therefore, it sought to examine the new way of teaching EFL in the form of correspondence with respect to Iranian learners' native culture and language. For the purposes of this study, English was the target language for 680 Iranian students with pre-intermediate level of language proficiency whose native languages were Persian, Arabic, Georgian, and Turkish. This study took as its point of departure the existence of important differences between the two learning materials (off the shelf vs. Islamic culture) types; thus, applying the Qur'ānic criteria of intelligence, knowledge and virtue parallel with the digital representation of common textbook materials, materials delivery was adapted to the cellphone screen to be accessed by learners' in 18 virtual sessions. Learners took part in two summative and 18 formative components included in the assessment design of this study. Also, they all answered a questionnaire which yielded information concerning their attitude towards the target language, and learning through the wireless technology. Learners' short texting correspondence as well as their performance in battery and their answers to items of questionnaires formed the reference for analyzing the results. The gains from English Islamic materials were outweighed by the effects of obtaining materials which involved more categorized cases.

Veryfew attempts have been made in the past to develop instruments to measure pragmatic knowledge of second language (L2) learners. The absence of such instruments in the literature of English language teaching (ELT) underscores the need for the researchers to develop new tests that are specifically designed to assess this crucial but less explored aspect of language learners’ (LLs) knowledge. In line with this objective, the present study was conducted to develop and validate four tests of pragmatic knowledge that measured LLs’ knowledge of speech acts. The following steps were taken in this study to develop the written discourse completion tests (WDCTs) and the multiple-choice discourse completion tests (MCDCTs) that respectively measured the test takers’ ability to produce and comprehend request speech act. During the “prototype step” the researchers identified the content and the number of items for each designated test battery. At the “test construction step” the sociolinguistic variables of power (P), social distance (D), and absolute rank of imposition (R) were inserted into the content of the test items. Finally, at the “validation step” the reliability of the tests was examined. The finding of the study showed that the constructed test batteries were sufficiently reliable and valid for measuring pragmatic knowledge of L2 learners.

The present study sought to investigate the evidence for cross-linguistic transfer in a partial English immersion and non-immersion educational setting. To this end, a total of 145 first, third and fifth graders in a partial English immersion program and 95 students from the same grade levels in a non-immersion program were chosen. Six different English and Persian tests were administered: the Cambridge English for Young Learners (YLE) Test for Reading, a Persian reading achievement test, the English and Persian Phonological Awareness Sound Detection tests and the English and Persian Rapid Automatized Naming Tests. Given the nature of the research question and the design of this study, linear regression analysis was run through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings suggest that there is an apparent cross-linguistic transfer between English reading achievement and Persian cognitive predictors in both educational settings. Relatively speaking, Persian cognitive predictors can moderately predict English reading achievement in Grades 1 and 5 and can weakly predict English reading achievement in Grade 3.

This study scrutinized the relationship between utilizing language learning strategies, academic fields, and reading ability in reading comprehension test performance of Iranian postgraduate EAP students. The participants were 947 students, who answered a reading comprehension test and a learning strategy questionnaire successively in one session. The gathered data were subjected to a set of parametric statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance, Tukey HSD and Duncan tests. The findings manifested significant differences among the participants in different fields in employing overall, direct, and indirect strategies. A statistically positive relationship was found between the participants’ reading ability and use of overall, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, and affective strategies. The findings reflected that the actual ability of language learners was significantly influenced by some nonlinguistic factors, and the observed scores did not represent their true ability. The findings can provide an empirical evidence for Bachman’s (1990) as well as Bachman and Palmer's (1996, 2010) conceptual frameworks of language use due to the impact of nonlinguistic factors on language ability of L2 learners in test-taking process. The findings can help language teachers improve instructional reading programs, decrease error of measurement, and narrow the gap between more successful and less successful learners in different fields of study.