درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

In recent years, the enrollment of English as a foreign language (EFL) has increased significantly in higher education. The aim of this study is investigating the impact of a group learning program which is implemented as online on learning motivation of English among Iranian university students. Forty four undergraduate university students (25 males and 19 females) with the age range of 18 to 30 participated in this study. The Dornyei theoretical framework (2005; 2009) was used to measure the three aspects of motivation (ideal L2 self, ought-to L2self, and L2 learning experience). A pre- and posttest survey and a semi-instructured interview were used as the main instruments. For identifying the differences of the scores of three aspects of motivation, a paired sample T-test was used. The findings showed that there was a significant difference in L2 learning experience prior to and after the program administration and no significant difference were observed regarding the two other aspects. The findings also showed the most motivating feature was interesting learning recourses and tools and the most demotivating feature was technology barriers. Moreover, the findings of the interviews showed that most of the students had positive experience of this project. With the increasing role of English in Iran in all aspects of teaching and learning as an international language, it is crucial for teachers and program developers to care about the motivational drives of learners due to the positive feedback of some programs as the project under the study.

This study is an attempt to find the realization of visual literacy in Iranian high school English textbooks. To this purpose, the density and number of the tags in the three volumes of the senior high school English textbooks were qualitatively investigated. The results showed that Book 1 emphasizes the Affective/Perceptual aspect of the visuals, whereas Book 3 puts more emphasis on Critical/Ideological aspect of the visuals. Furthermore, it was found that as grades of the books advance, the density and number of the tags decrease. The results based on Callow’s (2005) dichotomy also indicated that as the grade of the English textbooks advances, the visual literacy moves from the receptive aspect to more productive one. It can be inferred that in developing high school English textbooks, there seems to be no association between the visuals and the corresponding tags despite the variety of the visuals.  

The present study aimed at investigating the effects of applying yoga, visualization, and Rosetta Stone software on English achievement of Iranian senior citizen EFL learners. Prior to this study, the homogeneity of the learners was checked through conducting Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). Consulting the rating scale of OQPT, 30 female elementary level senior citizen EFL learners between the ages of 55 and 65 were selected to take part in the study. The participants sat for an English achievement test designed based on their textbook. They were, then, assigned to two groups of control and experimental. The members of the experimental group were taught English while practicing yoga, visualization, and applying Rosetta Stone software program, whereas their counterparts in the control group were taught via the conventional method of teaching English in the elderly day-care center. The procedure lasted for 30 sessions during the three-month treatment. Afterwards, the posttest which was similar to the pretest was administered to unravel the effect of the treatment. They were also given an attitude questionnaire to uncover their attitude towards the applied instruments. The results of the study indicated that the members of the experimental group outperformed those of the control group in terms of their English learning. The results of the attitude questionnaire demonstrated that they had positive attitudes towards the use of yoga, visualization, and Rosetta Stone software in learning English. The results of this study may offer implications for EFL teachers, curriculum designers, day-care centers of the elderly, well-fare organizations, and language schools.  

Language learners' test performance is affected by individual attributes that are not part of test takers’ language ability (Bachman, 1990). The identification of such factors and the study of their association/impact with/on EFL learners' test performance has been a real test validity concern for language testing researchers (Bachman, 1990, 2004). This study was designed to explore the relation of a number of cognitive and psychological attributes and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' test performance. To this end, two hundred male (100) and female (100) Iranian intermediate EFL learners selected through convenience sampling procedure took Goal-orientation Scale, Test Preparation and Test-taking Strategy Scale, and Examination Stress Scale and a sample Test of English as a Foreign Language Junior Standard (TOEFL Junior). Regression analyses of the questionnaires and the TOEFL test results demonstrated that mastery goal orientation, performance goal orientation, test-taking strategy and test anxiety all correlated with EFL learners' test performance; however, test taking strategy was the strong cognitive predictor and performance goal orientation was the strongest psychological predictor of the EFL learners' test performance. The results seem to indicate that in addition to previously identified factors like test anxiety and test taking strategies some factors like performance and mastery goal orientations which were once deemed as construct irrelevant factors in EFL learners' test performance need to be added to the battery of personal attributes that are influential factors in this regard.

The purpose of this cross-cultural CMC-based study is to investigate how the speech act of criticism is realized in the Instagram comments by Persian and English-speaking users in response to an announcement in Fall 2020 about school reopening during COVID-19. To this end, 400 Persian and English comments were collected in Fall 2020 from the Instagram pages of Iran and the U.S Secretaries of Education where they posted about the students’ return to school during the pandemic. The data were then analyzed based on Nguyen’s (2013) model of speech act of criticism. The findings show that both Persian and English-speaking users tended to use direct criticism over indirect criticism with an explicit expression of dislike and an explicit expression of disapproval as the most frequently used direct criticism strategies. Moreover, with regard to indirect strategies, Persian speaking users employed more request for change strategies while English speaking users outperformed hint strategies. Also, the uses of supportive moves and internal modifiers were similar in the two corpora. The findings of this naturally occurring observational study partially confirm the results obtained by elicited-based research method. The results showed that despite the similarities between the corpora, teaching criticism strategies and mitigating devices can help language learners perform the act of criticism more appropriately and avoid non-native like language use.

Attention plays a vital role in education. Children who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) suffer from impairing levels of inattention. ADHD is a relatively common childhood disorder (Scahill & Schwab-Stone, 2000), which, if left untreated, results in adverse consequences (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). This necessitates employing attention-training methods, such as neurofeedback training (NFT). But although conventional, NFT is expensive and time-consuming; therefore, the need for finding other methods is felt. The total physical response (TPR) method can provide a suitable venue for teaching young learners with ADHD (Nunan, 2011). Hence, this study was conducted to investigate the comparative effects of NFT and TPR on ADHD young learners’ attention. To do so, 16 students with ADHD were selected from a school in Shahryar. They were randomly assigned to NFT and TPR groups, receiving these treatments for twenty sessions, respectively. The Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test (IVA+Plus) was used as the pre- and post-test to measure full, auditory, and visual attention. To answer the research questions investigating the comparative effects of NFT and TPR on ADHD young learners’ attention, non-parametric one-way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted. Moreover, the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used to explore within-group differences. The results indicated significant improvements for both groups. Nevertheless, NFT was found to be more effective regarding full and auditory attention. Concerning visual attention, both treatments were similarly effective. The findings suggest both treatments can improve participants’ attention. The study has implications for education by shedding light on attention-training methods.

This study investigated the attitudes of Iranian female and male elementary English as a foreign language (EFL) learners toward peer and self-assessment of descriptive writing. It also attempted to find any gender-specific differences in their attitudes toward peer and self-assessment of descriptive writing. In so doing, the study relied on exploratory sequential mixed-methods procedures including qualitative and quantitative phases. The first group of participants was 40 EFL teachers (20 males and 20 females). The second group of participants was 50 individuals (25 males and 25 females) who took part in a five-session descriptive writing course, participated in interviews, and filled out the questionnaires. The content of the course was a combination of Bartlett's (2015) peer and self-assessment methods and Spencer's (2005) models of assessing composition. In the qualitative phase, a thematic analysis of the interviews, known as the constant comparative method of analysis, helped to extract four main themes shaping the participants’ attitudes, namely ‘Cooperation’, ‘Knowledge’, ‘Motivation’, and ‘Practice’. In the quantitative phase, exploratory factor analysis and a one-way MANOVA test were carried out to examine any gender-specific impacts on the learners’ attitudes toward peer and self-assessment of descriptive writing. Finally, the results of the study implied that the participants had positive attitudes towards the descriptive writing course, although females were more positive than males. This study has some educational implications for those involved in peer and self-assessment.