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The process of foreign language syntactic development regarding learners’ L1 literacy level is different among adult learners. Many studies have shown that illiterate and low-literate learners follow the same path in the L2 morphosyntax development despite their L1 literacy level. However, little research has been carried out to focus on differences in the new language literacy development among learners with varying first language proficiency. Therefore, the current study was carried out to investigate the differences in learning English adjectival and prepositional phrases among three Kurdish adult groups of literate, low-literate, and illiterate learners in one term. Additionally, it probed the major difficulties they faced through the English phrase acquisition process. Mixed methods were used for data collection including observations of the classes supplemented by audio recording and English phrase tests. Through the application of three tests of recognition, matching, and multiple-choice type, the outcome knowledge of adjectival and prepositional phrases was assessed and compared among groups. The obtained data were analyzed through the Kruskal-Wallis test. Some tangible results were detected from tests that did not ascribe the differences in learning English absolutely to background schooling and literacy. In fact, they showed that there were significant differences among groups in matching and multiple-choice type post-tests, while there were no considerable differences in recognition-type post-test. Furthermore, results also revealed that illiterate and low-literate learners encountered further complicated difficulties and made an unusual combination of pronunciation and grammatical errors in their production.

Flipped classrooms refer to teaching approaches that like usual teaching is not done inside the class. It means that before the class students watch videos that the teacher carefully chooses or prepared. The selected videos have to fulfill the required content that advances the abilities of the students in their learning. This study investigates the influence of online flipped classrooms on Iranian EFL high school students’ reading ability. To this aim, the study was done on 50 EFL 12th-grade and pre-intermediate level female students. The students were set into two groups experimental and control. A reading test was run on both groups as the pre-test, at the beginning of the study. Then, after 10 treatment sessions, the post-test was given to both groups. An independent samples t-test was run to compare the means. The outcomes illustrated the significant outperformance of the experimental group over the control group. In addition, to identify the EFL high school students’ attitudes toward the flipped classroom, the students were asked to answer an open-ended question. The results of students’ responses using thematic coding showed that most of the students had optimistic opinions regarding implementing the flipped classroom. Finally, the present study indicated that this model provides an opportunity for students to learn at their own pace and time. Therefore, it has some implications for teachers, students, and institutions which can increase student-teacher interaction in the teaching-learning process.

The perceived outbreak of COVID‐19 has forced the closure of schools in Iran. Alternatively, e-learning has emerged as a viable replacement for training students. The present study examined the comparative effects of applying Shaad as online learning versus face-to-face teaching on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ vocabulary learning. To achieve this aim, sixty ninth-grade high school students were randomly selected. The members of the study were assigned to the Shaad and control groups. The instruments were a Cambridge Placement Test (CPT) and a researcher-made test administered as a pre-and post-test. First, the CPT was used, then a pre-test was administered to members of both groups. EFL learners’ vocabulary learning was analyzed at the end of the research; thus, the students in both groups performed the vocabulary post-test. Descriptive statistics and independent samples t-tests were run to determine the effect of Shaad on Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary learning. The results revealed that teaching vocabulary through Shaad as online learning did not have a statistically significant effect on EFL students’ vocabulary learning. The results also showed a significant difference between the vocabulary learning of EFL students exposed to face-to-face teaching and those exposed to Shaad; thus, face-to-face learning is more effective. One of the study implications is that policymakers might provide infrastructure for virtual education to contribute to the improvement of EFL learning along with face-to-face education after the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, material designers can remove the deficiencies of the Shaad platform to develop the student’s vocabulary learning as an instructional aids tool.

Language learners' test performance is affected by individual attributes that are not part of test takers’ language ability (Bachman, 1990). The identification of such factors and the study of their association/impact with/on EFL learners' test performance has been a real test validity concern for language testing researchers (Bachman, 1990, 2004). This study was designed to explore the relation of a number of cognitive and psychological attributes and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' test performance. To this end, two hundred male (100) and female (100) Iranian intermediate EFL learners selected through convenience sampling procedure took Goal-orientation Scale, Test Preparation and Test-taking Strategy Scale, and Examination Stress Scale and a sample Test of English as a Foreign Language Junior Standard (TOEFL Junior). Regression analyses of the questionnaires and the TOEFL test results demonstrated that mastery goal orientation, performance goal orientation, test-taking strategy and test anxiety all correlated with EFL learners' test performance; however, test taking strategy was the strong cognitive predictor and performance goal orientation was the strongest psychological predictor of the EFL learners' test performance. The results seem to indicate that in addition to previously identified factors like test anxiety and test taking strategies some factors like performance and mastery goal orientations which were once deemed as construct irrelevant factors in EFL learners' test performance need to be added to the battery of personal attributes that are influential factors in this regard.

This study attempted to investigate the impact of creative literacy activities on the reading motivation and reading comprehension of young Iranian learners in the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and EFL contexts. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods study was designed in which 65 Iranian female young learners in two different English language settings took part. In the quantitative phase, both groups received the reading comprehension and reading motivation scale as both pre and post-tests. Likewise, the experimental groups received training in terms of creative literacy activities. In the qualitative phase, the learners from both groups were interviewed to explore their reading motivation. Findings revealed that the learners in the CLIL context outperformed their counterparts in the EFL context both in reading and reading motivation. The findings of the study also proved that learners in the CLIL context had a more positive attitude toward L2 reading. Teachers’ reflective journals further revealed the superiority of the CLIL context over the EFL context in developing young learners’ (YLs) L2 reading and reading motivation. The findings have implications for the L2 teachers and curriculum designers when deciding the type of activities and the amount of L2 exposure for young learners.

The current study was an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of the flipped classroom model on the fluency of foreign language learners' speech. To this end, fifty undergraduate English Language and Literature students, who had enrolled in a "Listening & Speaking" course, participated in this study. Data were collected through a one-group pre-posttest design and semi-structured interviews. Two raters assessed the learners' four oral presentations. The Praat software and one-way repeated measure ANOVA were used for data analysis. The results showed that the flipped classroom model could significantly develop students' oral fluency. Meanwhile, the findings of the semi-structured interviews indicated that the students were delighted with this approach. From their perspectives, the cooperation and collaboration between students and teachers were undeniable. They also believed that their self-confidence increased. Correspondingly, the results suggest that the language instructors and stakeholders at any level can benefit from this approach, i.e., flipped classroom model to shift the instruction to a practical learner-centered approach.

Knowledge of verb-argument constructions (VACs) has been examined in a variety of contexts where English is mostly taught from the early stages of their schooling. No study has so far examined EFL learners’ knowledge of VACs in a context where English as a foreign language is taught only late at the secondary school level. The current study fills this gap by exploring construction knowledge in a context where teaching EFL is postponed until other languages have been introduced to learners. Using written essays of 180 students of 3 different proficiency groups, three indices of syntactic sophistication (i.e. the frequency of the Verb-argument constructions, the frequency of the verb-construction combinations and the verb-construction strength of association) were examined for their development across the three grade levels. As a second objective, this study examined the ability of these indices to predict students’ writing quality, through their grades. The results suggest that while the higher proficiency group showed a significant improvement in the rareness of their VACs, the three groups showed slow progress in the use of less frequent and less strongly associated verb-construction combinations. Similarly, only the index of construction sophistication (i.e. rareness) correlated significantly with and could predict variance in the writing score. This suggests that EFL learners follow a ‘necessary first’ principle in their learning of constructions. Similarly, these results indicate that the use of rare constructions enhances raters’ judgements of students’ writing quality.

The purpose of this cross-cultural CMC-based study is to investigate how the speech act of criticism is realized in the Instagram comments by Persian and English-speaking users in response to an announcement in Fall 2020 about school reopening during COVID-19. To this end, 400 Persian and English comments were collected in Fall 2020 from the Instagram pages of Iran and the U.S Secretaries of Education where they posted about the students’ return to school during the pandemic. The data were then analyzed based on Nguyen’s (2013) model of speech act of criticism. The findings show that both Persian and English-speaking users tended to use direct criticism over indirect criticism with an explicit expression of dislike and an explicit expression of disapproval as the most frequently used direct criticism strategies. Moreover, with regard to indirect strategies, Persian speaking users employed more request for change strategies while English speaking users outperformed hint strategies. Also, the uses of supportive moves and internal modifiers were similar in the two corpora. The findings of this naturally occurring observational study partially confirm the results obtained by elicited-based research method. The results showed that despite the similarities between the corpora, teaching criticism strategies and mitigating devices can help language learners perform the act of criticism more appropriately and avoid non-native like language use.

Hedging and boosting are significant communicative resources to construe and attain persuasion in different fields and particular genres of academic writing. Hedges allow the researcher to address possible problems, raise objections or anticipate opposition to the research claims while contributing something new to the ongoing dialogue in a research field. Boosters enormously help to achieve the essential writers’ need to convince their readership of the truth in their propositions. They are mainly used whenever writers consider it not too risky to include them in their propositions. This study aims to investigate the frequencies and functions of hedges and boosters in academic students' essays. To meet this end, 96 students' essays (a total of 269.428 words) were selected from the Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers (MICUSP), including English and Psychology disciplines. The corpus was analyzed based on Abdollahzadeh (2019)classification of hedges. The results showed that hedges and boosters were frequent enough to be considered in teaching writing, either reducing or increasing the force of written utterances. The results of this study could be used directly in the syllabus designed for academic essay writing.