International Journal of Research in English Education

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of peer feedback (PF) on EFL learners’ writing performance and writing anxiety. To this end, two intact classes including 48 intermediate EFL learners were selected and assigned into two groups of experimental and control (24 learners in each). This study had a quasi-experimental design including pre-test, treatment, and post-test to assess the students’ overall writing performance before and after the PF sessions. For data collection, the researchers used pre-test, post-test, 7 writing topics, and Cheng’s (2004) Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI). The results of paired sample t-test and Mann-Whitney U Test revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group due to the implementation of PF. Moreover, the researchers conducted Cheng’s SLWAI questionnaire at the end of the study. The findings indicated that the anxiety level of the experimental group receiving PF decreased to a significant extent. The implications are discussed in terms of writing instructors’ use of PF into writing classes to make the environment safer and more comfortable for the language learners to flourish their ideas.

This study is aimed at (1) examining the preferred English learning styles among secondary school students; (2) exploring the mismatches in teachers’ English teaching styles and students’ learning style preferences. A quantitative approach was used to seek answers to the research questions. The sample of this research involved 204 students and 5 teachers of English from 5 different secondary schools in Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR. All student and teacher participants were invited to rate their agreement levels on a five-point rating scale, towards Reid’s (1995) six learning style preferences. The data collected were analyzed based on descriptive statistics. The findings reveal that student participants had more than one preferred learning styles. They preferred Kinesthetic, Group, and Audio learning styles in their English classes. For them, learning through doing, learning and working together with classmates, doing or resolving challenging tasks as well as listening to teachers and someone’s instructions through interaction made them learn more effectively. The study also finds that mismatches in styles between teachers’ teaching styles and students’ learning style preferences do exist in four out of the five sampled schools. Teachers are more oriented to Visual styles. For instance, they favor writing things on board, asking students to read from textbooks, provide activities that make students read rather than listen to instructions, while students are likely not to prefer the Visual learning style.

A narrative monologue skill is required in learning English. Delivering a monologue is a challenging skill for most of the EFL students since it is difficult for them to utilize their lexical and grammatical knowledge. This study investigates the effects of narrative sequential images on the Iranian intermediate EFL students’ monologue skill. To this end, the study was conducted in two intact classes (one as the experimental group and the other as the control group) of 32 students within 2 months in a high school in Isfahan. To select homogenous participants, Oxford Placement Test and Oral Proficiency Interview were administered. A monologue pre-test was used at the beginning of the study. And the specific treatment was administered to the experimental group. Then, a parallel post-test was conducted. Based on the results, there was a significant difference in the scores of the experimental group in all aspects of fluency, coherence, lexical resources, grammar and accuracy, and pronunciation in using narrative sequential images before and after treatment. In other words, experimental group performed better on the four subscales of monologue skill than did the control group. Results, also, suggested that teachers use sequential images as a part of their instruction to help students develop their monologue skill.

The present study sought to investigate the effectiveness of teacher versus learner assessment activities on the Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ writing ability. In order to find an answer to the questions of this research, 30 intermediate students from Zaban Iran Language Institute in Rasht, Iran were selected via administering Solutions Placement Test (SPT). Next, they were divided into three groups of 10. Learners were randomly assigned into two experimental groups of peer assessment and self-assessment, and one control group, teacher assessment. A pre-test of writing was then administered before the groups received 8 sessions of treatment through peer, self-, and teacher assessment techniques. After the treatment period, a post-test of writing was administered to all groups. The results of descriptive and inferential analyses revealed that the peer assessment group attained the highest scores on the writing test, and a statistically significant difference among the effects of the teacher assessment, peer assessment, and self-assessment on Iranian Intermediate EFL students’ writing ability was reported. Also, the group using teacher assessment technique attained higher scores than the group that used the self-assessment technique. The implications of this study can be considered for EFL teachers, learners, materials developers, and syllabus designers.

In recent years, audiovisual translation (AVT) has become omnipresent in different parts of the world; however, dubbing humor restrictions may hamper the translation in that maintaining the humor in the target language (TL) requires a high level of knowledge. Although several studies have attempted to describe the distribution of translation strategies, few systematic attempts are made to analyze the employed AVT strategies in humor series. The present study analyzed the Persian humor expressions’ appropriacy and their translated versions in English through a qualitative study. To this aim, the dominant strategies used to render humor in the translated versions of 3 dubbed Iranian series (i.e., Shamsolemareh, Chimney, and Medical Building ) were analyzed. Furthermore, the typologies of the employed audiovisual humor in the series were analyzed. Data analysis illustrated that clumsiness and parody were the most frequent humor typologies used in the series. The 3 strategies of omission, word-for-word translation, and free translation were the most frequent ones. In conclusion, the results indicated the failure to accommodate the Iranian series’ humorous level, preventing the target audience from appreciating humor. Findings can contribute to the improvement of the quality of humor translation.

The current study was an attempt to investigate whether the Unit-of-Translation has any effect on Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners’ achievement in Bizarre News translation. In addition, it investigated whether there was any difference across gender regarding the effect of Unit-of-Translation on Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners’ achievement in Bizarre News translation. To this end, 45 out of 88 EFL learners from three upper-intermediate language learners at two Language Institutes in Boumehen, Iran were selected based on Oxford Placement Test. Then, they were divided randomly into three groups; one control group (N=15) and two experimental groups (N=30). The first experimental group was male. The second experimental was female, and the third group was administered as the control group. The experimental groups received the instruction for unit of translation. The instruction was given in five sequential sessions about 50 minutes. In contrast, the control group received no special instruction. At the end of the course, a post-test was administered. To analyze the data, one-way ANOVA and independent samples t-test were run. The findings revealed that the Unit-of-Translation had a positively significant effect on Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners’ achievement in Bizarre News translation. The results also indicated that concerning the effect of Unit-of-Translation on Iranian male upper-intermediate EFL learners had a better achievement in Bizarre News translation compared to their counterparts in the female group.

General English (GE) is a course offered in all education programs by the Iranian medical education system. However, no curriculum has been developed for the course and teachers develop their syllabus, which largely relies on textbooks. This study aimed to investigate what textbooks used for teaching GE at the Iranian medical sciences universities and what language skills are covered in the textbooks. To this end, six medical universities were targeted and the textbooks used by them were collected and analyzed. The results showed that the textbooks used in the universities differed in terms of number (one or many) and type (medical, non-medical, and a combination of them). Certain textbooks were used commonly in most universities. The textbooks also covered the language skills differentially with vocabulary and reading being the most popular and listening and pronunciation being the least popular ones. The study concludes that there is no harmony in the GE textbooks in the universities, which results from the lack of a unified national curriculum. The study argues that differences in the textbooks can adversely affect the quality of education and educational justice and has implications for organizing English language teaching at medical universities.