ژاله حساس خواه

Acknowledging the critical role of working memory in language acquisition, this study examines the effects of multimodal input enhancement on working memory capacity (WMC) and collocation learning in adolescent and adult EFL learners. A cohort of 117 participants was randomly assigned to either experimental groups, receiving enhanced textual and auditory inputs, or control groups, experiencing standard inputs. Assessments included the Preliminary English Test, n-back test, and immediate and delayed collocation posttests. The results indicated that multimodal input significantly improved WMC and the recall and retention of collocations for all learners. Adolescents, in particular, excelled in both immediate and delayed tests and adapted their WMC more effectively in a multimodal context than adults. Additionally, an interaction between age and WMC was noted, affecting collocation recall and retention. These findings affirm the benefits of multimodal materials in enhancing cognitive functions and memory resources, thus improving language learning. The study offers practical insights for educational practices, advocating for the use of varied modalities in teaching materials to cater to different learning styles and cognitive needs. It also highlights the significance of designing age-appropriate materials and managing cognitive load in curriculum development, providing a tailored approach to language education for diverse learner populations.

ELT coursebooks are the fertile soil for the transmission of cultural perspectives and also strong tools for shaping L2 learners' behaviors and expectations. This study investigated the existence of covert/ hidden curriculum in two of the widely used ELT coursebook series-- Top Notch and English File . To do so, the content of the series was analyzed via Moran's (2001) model of dimensions of culture and Chao’s (2011) main categories of culture . The results indicated that the series, along with covering different dimensions of culture, are biased mainly in favor of the western products, persons and perspectives, and that despite their global EFL/EIL audience, they vividly base their dialogues, reading and listening on the norms and values of the English-speaking countries, with almost no attention to the local, especially Asian values. The study, discussing the implications of such culture- related covert curricula in the ELT coursebooks, makes relevant suggestions for the design of ELT coursebooks in the present global village.

This meta-analysis is an investigation into the impressibility of two dimensions of the speaking skill, namely accuracy and fluency, in relation to the experimented treatments among Iranian EFL undergraduates. Having surveyed a collected bank of 74 research reports, the relationships among the variables in the 14 included studies were examined. More specifically, the analysis involved a statistical review of 67 effect sizes (at 95% CI) calculated from studies conducted between 2006 and 2016, including 890 participants. The analysis indicated that in 77% of the experimented treatments, the students performed as well as the students in the regular programs with no significant improvement in oral accuracy. The analysis also demonstrated that 63% of the treatments did not yield significant improvement in oral fluency in comparison with the regular instruction. Moreover, the synthesis of the effects of the contextual factors showed that low-level (i.e., elementary) learners experienced a better improvement in speaking performance. The analysis also revealed that, among the experimented treatments, dialogic tasks were most effective on oral accuracy while interviews were influential in promoting the students’ both oral accuracy and fluency. Finally, the quality of the study reports was analyzed and some directions for further research were suggested.