عباس بیات

Iran’s educational system has undergone new reforms during the last decades. To investigate the effectiveness of the new reform in English as the lingua franca of the world, the current study emphasizes the reading comprehension abilities of grade twelve Iranian female students in English as a foreign language. To this end, 167 students' responses per item of three tests of English reading comprehension were gathered from four different high schools of Malayer. Students' responses in three different item types (three literal, three reorganization, and three inferential comprehension items) from three different reading texts were analyzed altogether. A quantitative design was employed to descriptively analyze the students' responses. The results of the analysis revealed that grade 12 students in Malayer are stronger in literal comprehension compared to the other two comprehension levels: reorganizational and inferential items. This indicated the students' lack of skill in reading between the lines as well as the inability to synthesize and analyze different implicit information in the text that leads them to make meaning. The results can be beneficial for language institutes, English Teachers, and practitioners. Keywords: Inferential Comprehension, International Reading Comprehension Assessment,  Reorganizational Comprehension

This study aimed to investigate the effect of task-based language teaching on news-story writing in Iranian EFL context. To this end, a quasi-experimental, pre- and post-evaluation research design was employed. First, 78 Iranian BA sophomores majoring in translation at Islamic Azad University, Hamedan Branch, were selected through convenient sampling as the participants of the study. They were then randomly divided into two treatment and control groups--task-based group (TB) and conventional teaching group (TC) respectively. Both groups were initially given a test on news story writing to measure their writing ability at the pre-treatment stage. Then, the control group was taught through explanations abstracted from some deductive plans and reading-oriented method of teaching news story structure. The other group was exposed to a six-weak TB treatment based on Willis’ TBL framework. The post-treatment researcher-made test was then administered to compare the participants’ writing progress. The obtained statistical results showed that the employment of the task-based language learning scenario does not lead to an overall significant improvement of Iranian EFL learners’ performance in news-story writing as compared with the conventional teaching of the same skill. This is perhaps due to learners’ negative attitude towards TBLT, which originates from the inconsistency of TBLT with the educational philosophy in Iran. Therefore, TBLT programs may need to be modified on the basis of the local and traditional specifications of the education in the target community to be able to develop the learners’ news-story writing skill.             

Over the years, much research has been done on the role of tasks in L2 learning, but little is known about how sequencing tasks affects listening comprehension. Thus, the present study evaluated the effect of sequencing repeated familiar tasks (SRFT) along three dimensions of complexity i.e. +/- visual support, +/- few elements, and +/- planning time. Sixty upper-intermediate EFL learners were randomly selected as experimental group (n=30) and control group (n=30) in this experimental research. To control the homogeneity of the participants and their topic familiarity, the Success Placement Test designed by Fricker (2007) and the listening comprehension test (developed by Richards, 2005) were administered respectively. Then the posttest of listening for IELTS which included 3 levels of task complexity was employed to analyze the results of SRFT. The participants in the experimental group were required to listen to keeping fit tasks ordered from simple to complex tasks during 10 sessions. The participants in the control group performed disordered tasks. T-test and SPSS version 20 were utilized to analyze the tests. Before employing treatment, the placement test addressed that both of the groups obtained no marked difference level of English language knowledge. They also displayed the same topic familiarity of listening comprehension on the pretest. In the end, the t-test indicates a positive influence of SRFT for the experimental group in the posttest. The findings of this study recommend sequencing tasks in English classes as a basic tool to improve the listening performance of learners.

The application of comprehension skills as a general cognitive ability has long been discussed in the literature on second language reading comprehension. To trace second language reading comprehension difficulties back to the text or reader attributes, the present study investigates the optimum load of linguistic and non-linguistic components of second language reading ability. The study followed a quantitative method of research, and the data were collected on the performance of 164 Iranian foreign language learners with different educational backgrounds. A group of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) experts provided feedback on the specifications of the sample test items based on the Comprehensive Taxonomy of Reading Sub-skills (CTRS) derived from major taxonomies in the literature. Applying exploratory factor analysis and correlational computations, the results revealed that although the items were all convergent to measure the same latent construct, items aimed at measuring general cognitive comprehension skills had more contribution to the overall test scores. Teachers at both language institutes and ministry of education, test developing organizations, and students who seek to gain more success in reading comprehension examinations can benefit from this study feedback.

There are different task types to improve oral production. The present study investigated the perceptions of Iranian EFL teachers towards the efficiency of incorporating different task types on their learners’ oral interaction. The research was performed through the use of qualitative content analysis by using semi-structured interview data. The interview protocol was developed following discussions with experts in the field and previous research. The first group of participants included six Iranian female English teachers selected through convenience sampling. This group was interviewed for the purpose of extracting their perceptions of different task types and the effect of task types on the oral interaction before and after the study. The second group included 120 EFL learners who were recruited using convenience sampling. The researchers transcribed the audio-recorded interview data verbatim for data analysis. Subsequently, qualitative analysis was conducted on the transcriptions of interviews using coding procedures such as open coding, axial coding, and selective coding to recognize recurring patterns, themes, categories, and sub-categories within the collected data. The findings indicated that EFL teachers held highly positive perceptions regarding various forms of form-focused and meaningful tasks, as well as their impact on the oral interaction of EFL learners. This shows that teacher’ familiarity with and practice of different types of form focused and meaningful tasks have changed their perceptions of the effectiveness of various task types. Given that oral interaction in general is considered as a big achievement and advantage for EFL learners, it can be concluded that different form focused and meaningful tasks can provide EFL learners with competitive advantages in comparison to their counterparts at homogenous conditions.

In recent decades, many second language acquisition (SLA) researchers have identified the leading role of organizing sequentially cognitive tasks in Task-Based Language Teaching. Presenting types of different task sequence has become increasingly crucial for syllabus designers. This investigation examines the theoretical basis of task sequencing, which claims that pedagogical tasks should be developed and ordered cognitively from easy to complex. The current study aims to compare the performance of English learners in sequenced and isolated familiar tasks. Sixty EFL learners studying at the intermediate level in two private language institutes participated in this research. They were randomly selected as one experimental and one control group, each comprising 30 subjects. Before starting treatment, all the participants took a listening comprehension test as a pretest. The treatment took place over one semester, during which the subjects performed simple-complex familiar sequenced tasks while the control group received familiar randomized tasks. After treatment, the posttest of listening comprehension, which contained two complex task features, i.e., - Here-and-Now and - Planning time, was employed. The independent-samples t-test showed that the experimental group who received simple-complex sequenced tasks outperformed the control group in listening to complex tasks. The findings supported the employment of simple-complex sequencing tasks to foster listening task complexity performance.