درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The objectives of the present ethnography were three-fold: exploring the MA TEFL students' expectations of the Advanced Writing course taken as part of their coursework in the MA program, unearthing the actual classroom practices implemented, and eliciting any possible suggestions for its improvement. To this aim, stimulated recall and ethnographically-oriented qualitative research were used to interview nine MA students at IAU, Isfahan Branch and unravel their perspectives concerning the writing course they had passed. Non-participant observation was also used to triangulate the data and verify the students' responses regarding the expectations/problems of the course and the classroom practices besides cyclical data analysis to find the recurring patterns and themes in the data. Results showed the most serious problems were lack of enough writing practice during the course, limited class hours, and lack of feedback on students' writings. The prevalent classroom practices, on the other hand, were covering the APA writing style, teaching how to write the different sections of a research report, and working on essay writing during the first few sessions of the course. Finally, the top suggestions made by the students were adding practical writing activities to the course, having more writing courses, taking advantage of group work for students to monitor each other's work and provide peer feedback, and offering the course right before students take their thesis rather than in the first semester of the MA program. These findings can heighten the educator's awareness and contribute to a better understanding of students' needs/expectations regarding academic writing. Overall, by addressing the gap in understanding advanced EFL learners' expectations, this study can have practical implications that directly impact the teaching of writing. It can guide curriculum development, inform instructional approaches, enhance learner motivation and engagement, promote learner autonomy, and improve instructional materials, ultimately leading to more effective writing instruction and improved outcomes for advanced EFL learners.

Pronunciation is one of the sub-skills which has significant effect on improving the communication competency and linguistic performance. Moreover, Pronunciation is one of the most difficult parts of teaching a foreign language to adults. It seems that the sub-skill of pronunciation is not taught in the form of a well-rounded program in communicative approaches and interactive conversations in Persian language classes, and that learners pronounce Persian under the influence of the phonemes of their mother tongue. This study is an attempt to provide an answer for the question of what strategies foreign learners use in their learning process by examining pronunciation learning strategies. The current research is the application and collection of research data using the field research approach and the descriptive method is used for the data analysis. The research instrument in data collection is a questionnaire composed of 43 items, each question containing a pronunciation strategy. After verifying validity and reliability, it was randomly distributed among foreign Persian learners. Based on the findings, they make significant use of cognitive, social, metacognitive and compensatory strategies. Commonly, mother tongue does not have a significant effect on the use of these strategies, but Chinese speakers use the group of cognitive strategies significantly more than Arabic speakers do.

This study focused on the importance of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLSs) in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and how Iranian EAP students learn academic vocabulary. The study used a predominantly quantitative approach by gathering data from 238 participants through online self-report VLS questionnaires, which were analyzed using SPSS-26. A triangulation approach was used to ensure accuracy and consistency, with qualitative data gathered through semi-structured interviews with 20 students. The analysis revealed that participants frequently used strategies for incorporating new vocabulary into their repertoire. Additionally, teacher-related, student-related, and material-related themes emerged through coding the participants’ beliefs. The results indicated that raising learners’ consciousness of VLSs, training teachers, providing tasks for all language skills, using technology, materials revision, and developing autonomous and independent learning can help with vocabulary acquisition and the satisfaction of EAP students. Overall, this study highlights the importance of VLSs in EAP and provides insights into effective strategies for acquiring academic vocabulary.

Enhancing one's proficiency in English grammar represents a foremost objective for individuals who are learning a foreign language. In EFL contexts, it is commonly observed that children tend to acquire knowledge of grammar rules incidentally, whereas adults usually require formal instruction to attain a more advanced level of proficiency. Numerous contemporary approaches have undergone substantial investigation, yet comparatively limited emphasis has been placed on the acquisition of grammar learning strategies. This article investigates the perspectives of learners with regards to the utilization of grammatical learning strategies during the duration of an English language course. This research centers on the cognitive and affective viewpoints of individuals participating in a grammar study group. The objective of the research is to investigate the utilization of specific strategies by learners for the acquisition of varied grammar structures. Novel methodologies and empirical investigations have the potential to enhance the comprehension of the educational process and self-regulation. The aforementioned holds the possibility of significant repercussions for individuals engaged in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning process, educators facilitating such learning, and professionals responsible for designing EFL curricula.

The ability to assess the language learners’ progress has been known as one of the most important parts of EFL/ESL teachers’ literacy. Language assessment literacy (LAL). The notion of LAL has evolved over time, as a large number of researchers showed to be enthusiastic to study this research area. However, the number of studies on teachers’ Writing Assessment Literacy (WAL) is scanty. As writing skill is very necessary for language learners to communicate with native speakers of the English language, it is very important for writing teachers to develop assessment tasks to positively contribute to the rate of learners’ progress in writing skill. Therefore, it is of much significance to review the related studies on assessment literacy, language assessment literacy, and writing assessment literacy. In this review study, the relevant studies were reviewed and further directions for writing assessment literacy of EFL/ESL teachers are suggested to the researchers interested in the field.

The present study aimed at exploring the predictive validity of achievement goals for EFL university students’ attainment emotions, and academic success in the context of Iran. To this end, 440 EFL university students responded to the relevant instruments. The results revealed that learners’ mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, and performance-approach goals were significantly positively correlated with positive attainment emotions, and negatively associated with negative attainment emotions. Furthermore, EFL learners’ performance-avoidance goals were significantly negatively associated with their positive attainment emotions, and positively related to their negative attainment emotions. Additionally, EFL learners’ mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals were significant predictors of all attainment emotions, while EFL learners’ mastery-avoidance goal was a significant predictor of their hope, anger, and hopelessness. Besides, EFL learners’ achievement goals significantly correlated with their academic success. Finally, all achievement goals predicted students’ academic success, and also mastery-approach goal was the strongest predictor of students’ academic success. The results can benefit EFL teachers, and learners to grasp a better picture of the association between achievement goals and attainment emotions, and academic success of EFL students in the context of Iran.

The need to use effective new strategies and instruments for the sake of reinforcing the EFL learners’ speaking fluency and accuracy is the main goal of the language learners and teachers. Hence, the present research aimed to discover the effect of online-based gamification on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners' speaking accuracy and speaking fluency by using a quasi-experimental design. Forty Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners from Gooyesh English Language Institute in Mashhad were selected through convenience sampling as the target participants of the study. At the outset of the study, a researcher-made pre-test of speaking fluency and accuracy was administered to the 40 participants of the study. Then, online-based games such as What Happens Next Game, Picture that Story, Online ESL Jigsaw Activity, Show and Tell Game, and ESL A- B gap Fill Game were used to expand the speaking fluency and accuracy of the experimental group's learners while traditional methods were utilized to teach speaking fluency and accuracy to the participants of the control group. Finally, a researcher-made speaking post-test was administered to the participants of both groups. Descriptive statistics and independent samples t-tests were calculated to answer the research questions. The findings displayed that online-based games significantly improved Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners' speaking accuracy and fluency. However, there was no significant difference between the speaking accuracy and fluency of the participants of the experimental group after using the online-based gamification. Based on the findings of the study, gaming can be considered the most appropriate instrument in the process of learning speaking skills such as speaking fluency and accuracy.