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Cette étude cherche à préciser les différents processus cognitifs mis en œuvre lors de la compréhension d’un texte dans une langue étrangère. Le but de cette étude est d'expliquer l’ensemble des enjeux cognitifs et des facteurs sociaux en jeu dans la compréhension de texte par un lecteur non indigène. Dans ce but, la méthode de recherche descriptive a été choisie pour révéler les similitudes et les différences de compréhension de texte en langue maternelle et en langue étrangère. Pour ce faire , toutes les similitudes et les différences de compréhension en langue maternelle et en langue étrangère ont été explorées, extraites et classifiées de manière exhaustive. Les résultats montrent que si la compréhension de texte en langue seconde a plusieurs points de convergence avec celle en langue maternelle, elle s’en distingue sur plusieurs points tous classifiables en trois grandes catégories (les différences linguistiques et de traitement; les différences individuelles et expérientielles; et les différences socioculturelles et institutionnelles) englobant, chacune, plusieurs sous catégories. Sur la base des résultats de cette étude, un modèle globale de ces différences a été conçu pour la première fois. Les résultats de cette étude débouchent sur une connaissance des spécificités et des limites de la compréhension dans le contexte de l’enseignement de la compréhension de textes en langue étrangère .

This meta-analysis study aimed to explore the effectiveness of Strategy-Based Teaching (SBT) in ELT (English Language Teaching). A total of 18 original studies (2000–2020), with 1834 participants of diverse learning and teaching contexts, conformed with the inclusion/ exclusion criteria, were employed to be analyzed in this study. To provide a comprehensive picture of the possible moderating factors, we included 21 moderators under three moderating sets. The impact of methodological criteria, such as eligibility revisions and substitution of alternative ranges of values for arbitrary or unclear decisions, was examined using sensitivity analyses. The findings revealed an overall significant, positive and medium effect of SBT on English learners’ outcomes for both fixed (g = 0.65) and random (g = 62) models. Moreover, meta-regression analysis results of moderating factors showed that the place, type, and design of the study had no significant predicting effect on SBT. It has been documented that the results of moderator analysis of language skills and components were also not significant. However, the results for moderating effect of language measurement instruments were found to be significant. Studies that employed standardized tests for language learning measurement revealed significantly higher mean effect size in comparison with those that used teachers’ assessments. Overall, SBT was found to be positively effective within a variety of teaching and learning contexts in ELT.

The effect of assessment types (self, peer, and teacher) on the EFL writing strategies development was examined in this study. Sixty upper-intermediate EFL learners at Qazvin Islamic university in four groups (one control and three experimental groups) were studied. One-way ANOVA checked homogeneity of the groups prior to the treatments and, then, the participants’ records and diaries were employed to gather data. Explanatory and descriptive analyses were implemented to analyze and classify the strategies the EFL learners picked up. This provided the type, frequency, and percentage of the strategies the participants mostly employed. The results revealed that the experimental groups, namely, self-assessment group, peer assessment group, and teacher assessment group employed more cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies than the control group. Affective strategies were more appealing to the control group. Focusing on the diction of the words, concentrating on the complex structures used by different writers, and making use of the structures the participants became interested in or found suitable were the most frequently referred to strategies. Teaching strategies the participants more picked up in this study might enhance EFL learners’ writing development at TEFL centers.

Motivation in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses is an issue of utmost importance. Expanding specialized vocabulary is one of the objectives defined by ESP stakeholders. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of vocabulary enrichment through close integration of reading and writing tasks in promoting advanced English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) learners’ motivation and attitudes. To this end, fifteen civil engineers were selected through convenience sampling. Following an eight-session course centered around technical vocabulary using reading and writing tasks, questionnaires were used as pretest and posttest based on Attitudinal/Motivation Test Battery (ATMTB), to measure nine types of motivation. Nine paired samples t-tests were conducted to determine whether there was a mean difference in the questionnaire results across time from pretest to posttest. The results demonstrated significant increase in all types of motivation following the integration of reading and writing tasks, excluding intrinsic motivation considering self-confidence. It was shown that there is a close relation between ESP learners’ motivation and the amount of vocabulary they learn. The results proposed certain practical strategies in order for ESP/EOP material developers and teachers to fulfill the objectives and aims of these needs-based courses.

In recent years, the importance of thinking skills in education has attracted the attention of researchers. To this end, this study investigated the effect of scaffolding and implicit instructions on the critical thinking skills (i.e., inference, evaluation, analysis, inductive and deductive reasoning) of EFL learners. To this end, 20 EFL learners who were taking an IELTS course at a language institute in two intact classes were chosen as the participants. One group was randomly assigned as the experimental group and their critical thinking skills were scaffolded following Vygotsky’s developmental model of the Zone of Proximal Development, and the other group was assigned as the control group and received implicit instruction for promoting critical thinking skills. California Critical Thinking Skills Test Form B developed by Facione and Facione (1993) was used to check the participants’ critical thinking skills. The results of the paired-samples t-test displayed that scaffolding and implicit instructions enhanced the EFL learners’ critical thinking. The analyses of the independent-samples t-test showed that the experimental group promoted their critical thinking to a greater extent in comparison with the control group. The findings of one-way MANCOVA indicated that by controlling for the pre-tests, scaffolding instruction was more effective than implicit instruction in developing the EFL learners’ critical thinking skills.

Decision making and pedagogical reasoning are regarded as two of the important concepts underlying teaching skills. This study aimed to first identify the novice Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ initial decision making and pedagogical reasoning in terms of managerial mode. More importantly, it sought to inform the teachers’ decisions and reasoning through some one-to-one feedback sessions, which were interactively held between every novice teacher and an experienced teacher. The participants were one experienced (male) and five novice (four females and one male) teachers. To collect the data, a number of teaching scenarios, classroom observations, stimulated recalls, and the Self-Evaluation of Teacher Talk (SETT) framework were used. The analysis of the data using conversation analysis showed that the novice teachers benefited from their negotiated interactions with the experienced teacher and applied the points regarding all five pedagogic goals of managerial mode in the framework. After the feedback sessions, the teachers could confidently defend their decisions pedagogically when enquired for reasons. The findings showed that modifying the teachers’ decision would not be successfully ensured until they reached the “aha” of the moment or a new understanding, which is the last stage in reforming one’s pedagogical reasoning. One way to achieve this moment is through raising the teachers’ awareness of the essential metalanguage. It is thus suggested that officials in charge and institute managers provide such learning opportunities for teachers so that they take more serious steps toward their own professional development through such frameworks as SETT

This study aimed to investigate the grammatical complexity based on Biber, Gray, Staples, and Egbert’s (2020) linguistic description in research articles published in Iranian local journals and international journals. The corpus of the study included 40 Applied Linguistics research articles, 20 published in Iranian local journals and 20 in international journals in 2019-2020. The research articles were selected through purposive sampling from two Iranian journals, namely Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics and Journal of Teaching Language Skills, and two international journals, including Journal of English for Specific Purposes and System Journal. The research articles were analyzed in terms of three dimensions of grammatical complexity, including the structural types, syntactic functions, and specific structural/syntactic features. Moreover, for intra-rater consistency, the researcher re-analyzed the corpus after one month to see whether the same results were found. According to the results, in terms of the first dimension, i.e., the structural types, the frequencies of structures indicating higher grammatical complexity (non-finite dependent clauses and dependent phrases) outnumbered the frequency of structures showing lower grammatical complexity (finite dependent clauses) in both local and international journals. Concerning the second dimension, i.e., syntactic function within the structural type, the frequencies of more complex syntactic functions were higher than those of simple functions in both sets of research articles. Concerning the third dimension, i.e., specific structural/syntactic features, both groups of writers preferred to use more complex specific structural/syntactic features than simple ones.

This paper aimed to critically look at team teaching tactics and the role it plays in achieving teaching and learning effectiveness. Specifically, using psychological counseling procedures, this study examined the benefits this learner-centered attitude brings to the student teachers and students, and also discussed different possible issues that may arise. To this purpose, a mix-methods design which comprised pretest, posttest, questionnaires, and interview was utilized to collect the necessary data. 52 Iranian high school EFL students were selected through purposive sampling and divided into a Control Group (CG) and an Experimental Group (EG). Also, two English language teachers, and a teacher as counselor were purposively selected to participate in team teaching procedure. The control group was taught through traditional methods of language teaching and the experimental group was taught through team teaching procedures. The posttest results showed that there were significant differences in favour of the experimental group between the two groups in terms of their oral proficiency.Also, the results obtained from the questionnaires revealed that that there were significant differences in the participants’ outlook towards using team teaching methods in the language class. It was further found that there was a very strong evidence of partnership between team teaching plus counseling practice and inherent academic motivation as well as between team teaching and counseling procedure. The findings of the study are valuable for English language instructors, materials developers, program planners, and education administrators.

Vocabulary learning is a crucial part of acquiring a language. According to Webb (2014), learning vocabulary is essential for language proficiency, but learning words regardless of their relationship with other words is not enough. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the effect of teacher’s voice vs. written messages via WhatsApp on Iranian EFL learners’ learning and retention of lexical collocations. In order to conduct this study, 100 female English language learners were asked to take part in the OPT test and sixty participants whose score ranged one standard deviation above and below the mean were selected and divided into three groups, as one control and two experimental. Then the pretest was administered before any treatment. One of the experimental groups was treated via the teacher’s voice and the next one via written messages through WhatsApp for ten sessions. The participants then took part in the posttest. In order to test the participants’ retention of collocations, they were asked to take part in the two-week delayed posttest, too. The analyses of obtained data showed that the teacher’s voice via WhatsApp had a statistically significant effect on both EFL learners’ learning and retention of lexical collocations. However, the teacher’s written messages via WhatsApp just had a statistically significant effect on EFL learners’ learning of lexical collocations, and it did not have a statistically significant effect on retention of lexical collocations. This is study is significant for all EFL/ESL learners, teachers, and English language institutes.

This quasi-experimental research aimed at investigating the effects of two different modes of worksheets on the vocabulary learning of Iranian young EFL learners. Some 20 male and female learners enrolled in a language institute in Chabahar agreed to participate in this study. Then, they were randomly divided into two experimental groups, and a vocabulary test was administered before the treatment as the pre-test. This pre-test was administered to determine the learners’ vocabulary knowledge and check their homogeneity. During the treatment, learners in Paper Worksheet Group (PWG) learned new words via paper worksheets, while the learners in Online Worksheet Group (OWG) learned vocabulary items via online worksheets. At the end, all the participants took a vocabulary post-test, which was the same as the pre-test. A paired sample t-test and an independent sample t-test were run, the results of which revealed that the PWG outperformed the OWG. More precisely, paper worksheets had a significant impact on young EFL learners’ vocabulary learning. Using worksheets, teachers can create a relaxed, challenging, and fun atmosphere so that young EFL learners can learn complex vocabulary items through active and multi-dimensional learning.

This study assessed the effect of using English songs on Iranian pre-school students’ speaking proficiency in Kerman. The study was conducted at Novin pre-school, in total, fifty pre-school students aged 5-6 participated in the study. At the beginning of the study, a pre-test of speaking was administered to the participants of the study. Then, they were assigned into two groups, 25 students were in the control group and 25 students were in the experimental group. English songs were used to expand the students' speaking proficiency in the experimental group and the participants of the control group utilized conventional methods of teaching speaking skills. After the treatment, a speaking post-test was administered to the participants of both groups to assess the effect of treatments on their speaking ability. The results were analyzed using the independent samples t-test and paired samples t-test. The results of the study indicated that English songs had a significant effect on the speaking ability of Iranian pre-school students in Kerman. Finally, the findings of the study assist the pre-school instructors to attract their students to learn a foreign language by using a song-based strategy.

This study was conducted to explore the impact of integrating an evaluation cycle (Newly-developed Task Cycle) into Willis's task-based model on the improvement of Iranian medical students’ reading comprehension. In this quasi-treatment study, 60 medical students were selected through convenience sampling from Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran, and assigned to two groups of Willis and NDTC. The control group (Willis group) received the procedures of the task-based cycle proposed by Willis, and the treatment group (NTDC group) received the procedures of NDTC designed by the researchers of this study. Each group participated in 12 sessions with a focus on reading comprehension, which met twice a week for 90 minutes. Prior to starting the treatment, a pre-test was administered. Also, one week after the last session, a post-test was administered. The post-test scores were compared with pre-test scores in each group and finally with each other. The results obtained from the statistical analysis of the collected data revealed that while both frameworks were effective in improving the learners’ reading skills, NDTC had a greater impact in this respect. The findings of the study have beneficial implications for teachers, researchers, and educational managers, should NDTC be infiltrated into teaching methods. 

Much of what educators address is the overt curriculum; however, there is a hidden curriculum that affects education in a very profound manner. In view of that, the purpose of the present study is to determine the relationship of EFL teachers’ perspectives on hidden curriculum components in the Iranian institutional context with their students’ self-efficacy and national identity. More specifically, the present study surveyed the probable existence of any significant correlation between EFL teachers’ perspectives on the EFL hidden curriculum components, their students’ attitudes towards their own national identity, and self-efficacy. For this purpose, a model was suggested and tested using partial least squares variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), to examine EFL teachers’ perspectives on the EFL hidden curriculum components contributing to their students’ national identity and self-efficacy. A total of 164 institutional EFL teachers in Iran completed the EFL hidden curriculum questionnaire. Besides, 987 students (about eighty percent of their learners) were asked to fill in national identity and self-efficacy questionnaires. Based on this model, all the correlations between the latent variables were significant except for three latent variables including the relationships among EFL teachers’ perspectives on the EFL hidden curriculum components (social atmosphere, organizational structure, and interaction between teachers and learners) and their learners’ self-efficacy. In addition, the results depicted all the relationships between latent variables was positive relations; while, the relationship between EFL learners’ national identity and self-efficacy was proved to be negative.