فاطمه پورابراهیم

Given the significant role of corrective feedback and individual differences in the process of foreign language acquisition, in the present study we set out to investigate the effect of direct and indirect corrective feedback on impulsive and reflective EFL learners’ writing accuracy. Sixty learners were selected and randomly assigned to three groups including two experimental groups and one control group. The first experimental group received indirect feedback, the second experimental group received direct feedback, and the control group received no feedback. The instrument employed in this study to determine the impulsivity or reflectivity of the participants was Barratt's impulsiveness scale. Writing accuracy was scored by the scale provided by Karim and Nassaji. The results revealed that both direct and indirect corrective feedbacks were effective in reducing the written errors of all the earners. Moreover, no significant difference was found between direct and indirect corrective feedbacks in terms of increasing writing accuracy. Although there was no significant difference between the impulsive and reflective learners’ performance, the mean scores showed that the latter seemed to benefit more from indirect type of the feedback while their counterparts showed better performance after receiving direct feedback. The findings have implications for EFL teachers and learners.

Research has shown that writing skill of Iranian learners is not at a satisfactory level. One of the ways to develop writing ability is improving strategic behavior of learners. The current study set out to compare writing performances and patterns of using metacognitive strategies in bilinguals and monolinguals as well as senior and freshmen students. A total of 176 English major university students took part in the study (88 bilinguals and 88 monolinguals). Data were collected through three instruments: a background questionnaire, a writing metacognitive strategy questionnaire, and participants’ compositions. A two-way factorial ANOVA was used to analyze the data obtained through the strategy questionnaire. Since the composition data were not parametric two Kruskall-Wallis tests were employed for data analysis. The results revealed that bilinguals used more metacognitive strategies and had higher writing scores than monolinguals. In addition, seniors had better writing performance than freshmen while the difference between them in using strategies was not significant. Based on the results it can be concluded that teaching writing metacognitive strategies may result in better writing performance.

This study tries to critically unravel the way Islam is represented in western discourse through establishing the relationship between language and ideology, the forms it takes and its potential effect. To that end, headlines from widely circulated print media of the west including the Independent, the New York Times, the Herald Tribune, and The Times from January 1, 2008 to December 30, 2012 were selected and Islam and Muslim reproductions were studied therein. This study was carried out using a synthesis of Edward Said's notion of "Orientalism" and Van Dijk's notion of "ideological square", characterized by "positive self-presentation" and a simultaneous "negative other presentation". The analysis demonstrated that Islam is repetitively stereotyped and Muslims are negatively represented, both through various types of linguistic choices selected and via special construction of the headlines.  The educational implications of critical discourse analysis in general and the present study in particular are discussed in relation to teaching, learning and translating the English language.