Journal Of English Language and Literature Teaching

This study aims to investigate the long-term effects of the use of inductive and deductive teaching methodologies on the acquisition of English passive voice. To find answers to the questions, we prepared two teaching programs based on inductive and deductive approaches. Sixty-five pre-university students from were assigned as participants. These students were divided into two groups named as inductive and deductive. Both groups took two pre-tests. The first pre-test was administered in order to find out the homogeneity of both groups in terms of English proficiency level and the second pre-test was administered to find out how much background English passive voice knowledge they possessed. One of the groups was taught inductively and the other one was taught deductively. Three treatment sessions were conducted to present English passive voice. The study included three delayed post-tests which were administered four weeks, eight weeks and 12 weeks after treatment sessions. The analyses of the tests were conducted using descriptive statistics, independent samples test, and repeated-measures ANOVA. The analyses of the data revealed that both methodologies had significant effect on learning English passive voice. The inductively taught learners performed better in a short range of time. However, participants of the deductive group gained higher scores in a long range of time. Since the aim of the research was to investigate the long-term effects of the aforementioned methodologies, it was concluded that although inductive approach is efficient in the beginning, the deductive approach proves to be more efficient in the course of time.

Researchers studying the impact of feedback have traditionally compared groups of students who received different sorts of feedback. However, because there will be individual answers to any educational treatment within a group of students, and the impacts of feedback can vary drastically even among participants who received the same type of feedback in the same investigation, the current study used a qualitative case study approach and techniques such as narrative construction and qualitative comparative analysis to see students’ attitude and cognition toward their teachers’ written corrective feedback. Eight participants were chosen through purposeful sampling. The participants were IELTS preparation learners from different online classes. The interview questions were adapted from Silver and Lee (2007). Their assignment and the feedback received by the instructor serves the main data of this study. Moreover, an individual narrative profile was conducted for each student. Three different texts from each learner were collected. The texts were five-paragraph essay type writings, each provided by written feedback including correction tips on linguistic aspects of their texts. The results showed that learners are mostly willing to receive positive, organized, constructive, encouraging, detailed and clean feedbacks. Feedbacks in which the comments and instructions are clear are valued by the learners. Furthermore, teachers’ make sure that the technical words used in the feedback are understandable to all the learners.

This paper aimed to critically investigate Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, in terms of Louise Althusser’s concepts of ideology and Interpellation. Kazuo Ishiguro’s sixth novel, Never Let Me Go, explores the tragic condition of clones living in an imaginary England of the late 1990s. Out of the parts and pieces of the main character’s fragmented memory and unclear descriptions, the reader finds out that Kathy and her friends are clones created to give certain vital organs to ordinary people. However, the main characters in this dystopian novel are not looking for emancipation, and very little could be observed in terms of resistance or objection. Applying Althusser’s theories of ideology and interpellation, this study tried to discover the reasons for the characters’ passivity and submission. The findings showed that certain beliefs and values despite being shockingly violent were internalized, naturalized, and justified in the decisive ages of childhood through the dominant ideological system. Moreover, the effect of educational system as one of the most important ISAs (Ideological State Apparatus) in interpellating the individual characters into subjects is analyzed in this novel.

The application of Mythology and immortal characters in literature by the authors, poets, and playwrights of Western Classical Literature is quite evident; Characters which are immortalized in the minds and memories, many people worship them for their domination and gallantry, extraordinary creatures who never die, get sick, get injured or grow old; including these eternal characterizations are found in; ‘‘Pandora’’ in ‘‘Hesiod’s Pandora’s box’’, ‘‘Hercules’’ in ‘‘Ovid’s Metamorphoses’’, ‘‘Laius’’ in ‘‘Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex’’, ‘‘Niobe’’ in ‘‘Sophocles’s Antigone’’, ‘‘Sappho’s poem(Leto and Niobe)’’, and ‘‘Aeschylus’s Niobe’’, and finally ‘‘Ulysses’’ in ‘‘Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey’’. In this study, researchers have tried to give, at first, an overview of Mythology and then of the Iliad as the first and the oldest surviving work reflecting Mythology in Western Literature. In other words, an outline of Mythology in the darkest episode of the "Trojan War" has been studied to show the connection between Mythology and Western Literature. This paper has been compiled using the ‘‘content analysis’’ of ‘’Iliad’’ translated by ‘’Richmond Lattimore’’ and through the ‘‘library search’’ with the resources mentioned at the end. The results show that there is a fundamental connection between the creation of myth in the doctrinal views and works of Western Literature. Researchers have tried to examine this connection in the Iliad as a sample of epic and mythological works of Western Literature that is the product of the application of the authors, poets, and playwrights from the realm of Mythology in recreating religious and non-religious convictions mingled with ancient quotations.

The present study attempted to investigate the role of digital testing on EFL learners’ vocabulary learning and retention. Sixty EFL students were divided into two groups: control (n=30) and experimental (n=30). A vocabulary test was administered to both groups in order to ensure that they were equivalent. Then, all participants attended 18 sessions. where participants of the experimental group used an English vocabulary that included unknown vocabulary and different online tests while participants of the control group practiced vocabulary in the class but without any application. Immediately after the treatment was over, the vocabulary test was administered to both groups in order to evaluate the differences between the two groups in vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, the same test was administered to both groups two weeks after the administration of the post-test with the purpose of evaluating the differences between the two groups in vocabulary retention. The statistical analysis revealed a significant difference between the two groups in both the immediate and the delayed administrations of the vocabulary test. Therefore, it was concluded that digital testing enhanced both vocabulary acquisition and retention among EFL students. The findings of this study have implications for teachers. It can be used by other researchers and EFL students.

Different techniques can be used to enhance EFL students’ vocabulary learning. One such technique can be learning-oriented assessment (LOA) which may have a positive impact on vocabulary learning. To investigate the effect of LOA on EFL learners’ vocabulary learning and retention, 60 intermediate EFL learners were selected. After checking the homogeneity of the participants by using an Oxford Placement Test (OPT), 60 participants were selected and they took a pretest of vocabulary. Afterward, they were divided into 2 groups, the experimental group received the LOA treatment and the control group received the placebo. Based on Carless framework (2007), LOA was applied in the experimental group for 40 hours. Then, both groups took the post-test and the delayed post-test after 2 weeks. The reliability of the pretest, post-test, and delayed post-test was considered acceptable. Two repeated-measures ANOVAs were used to determine whether there were statistical differences between the pretest, post-test, and delayed post-test of each group. Also, two independent-samples t-tests were used to determine the differences between the post-test of the two groups and their delayed post-tests. The results showed that LOA significantly affected the experimental group’s vocabulary learning. On the other hand, LOA did not have any significant impact on the learners’ retention of vocabulary in the delayed post-test. The most important implication of the study is that for better retention of words, more hours of LOA instruction are needed.

The process of language socialization also occurs through the language production which in the present study refers to the spoken productions of the participants, who are five EFL in-service teachers in a private English institute, through 20 sessions of group-discussions monitored by their supervisor, who is also the researcher, over two semesters. The microanalysis of linguistic data produced by the participants can help figure out ideational, interpersonal and textual functional choices as well as contextual factors including field, tenor and mode of the spoken language which are produced by the participants and how this may influence their group discussions. Systemic Functional Linguistics approach can be seen as a suitable linguistic tool for analyzing the oral texts which are produced by learners to track their progress. The findings were obtained from the recorded interviews and group discussions of the participant teachers. The data was mainly analysed based on SFL (Systematic Functional Linguistics) Approach along with Appraisal Method.

Abstract According to the importance of cooperative learning based on constructivism in better learning of the material, which has been demonstrated in many types of research, these techniques make students exchange information and opinions, help each other and get help. Cooperative learning and the conduction of constructivism in learning, increase group cohesion and enable students to interact with others and examine learning from all aspects. To conduct this research, 30 senior students with the age range of 16 to 18 and based on the English level proficiency test to ensure the same language level of them, were selected. Then the target students were divided into two experimental and control groups and the pre-test was taken from them. After grouping, English language teaching was done to the students of the experimental group based on constructivism and cooperative learning, and after a certain period (five weeks), a post-test was taken from them, and Stephen's cooperative learning questionnaire (2007) was given to the students, and then the data was collected and analyzed and T-Test, ANOVA, paired sample test were conducted. The most important findings, in the present research in the first stage, were the impact of constructivism and cooperative learning on English learning of the students who were trained and achieved the most effective cooperative learning techniques, and in the second stage recognized that students use the technique of group dynamics and then feedback and doing project work respectively based on Stephen's cooperative learning questionnaire (2007).

Task-based language Teaching (TBLT) has been formed as an approach wherein learners are allowed to communicate language use through tasks due to the limitations of the traditional PPP (Presentation, Practice, and Performance) approach. Among different kinds of tasks, according to Ellis (2008), convergent/divergent tasks can be mentioned which have been originated from concepts of knowledge formation. At a broader level, tasks are divided into input-based tasks and output-based tasks. This study aimed at investigating the effect of output-based and input-based divergent and convergent tasks on learning English idioms among Iranian EFL intermediate-level learners. In so doing, this study used a quantitative quasi-experimental pre-test post-test control group design. The participants of the study consisted of 75 male intermediate EFL learners studying English at a private language institute in Zahedan, Iran, who were selected through convenience sampling. To collect the data, Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and two researcher-made idiom tests were used. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were run. The results showed that output-based and input-based divergent and convergent tasks had a significant effect on learning English idioms among Iranian EFL intermediate-level learners. The findings have some implications for EFL teachers, learners, and curriculum planners.

This qualitative study aimed to investigate the perceptions of teachers regarding the impact of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) on teaching listening skills. The research was conducted with 20 instructors, comprising 14 males and six females, with an average age of 32 years, who were interviewed using a structured questionnaire that consisted of four fundamental questions. The following results indicated that TBLT significantly impacted teaching listening skills. The findings revealed that TBLT provided a practical framework for teaching listening skills, allowing students to communicate authentically. The instructors reported that TBLT helped students develop their listening skills by providing opportunities to practice listening in different contexts and situations. Moreover, TBLT encouraged students to use their existing knowledge and skills to solve real-life problems, enhancing their motivation and engagement in learning. The instructors also highlighted the importance of task design in TBLT. They reported that well-designed tasks could facilitate the development of listening skills by providing students with clear goals, instructions, and feedback. Additionally, the instructors emphasized the need for appropriate assessment methods in TBLT, which should align with the learning objectives and provide students with opportunities for self-reflection and improvement. Overall, the study revealed that TBLT is a practical approach to teaching listening skills, as instructors acknowledged that TBLT provides students with opportunities to engage in authentic communication and problem-solving. The findings revealed that TBLT significantly and undeniably impacts teaching listening skills.

Admittedly, as opposed to simple writing treatments, massed or spaced instructions, more or less, seem to add variety and attractiveness to writing accomplishment. The current attempt concerned the efficacy of putting in service the two above-mentioned distribution instructions on EFL learners' writing performance. To conclude, 40 upper-intermediate learners (19 to 23 years) of both gender enjoyed 8 sessions in an institute in Ilam, Iran. They were randomly divided into two groups of massed and spaced each group consisting of 20. Instruments utilized were a Quick Oxford Placement Test, a writing pre-test, and a writing post-test. One group was disciplined paragraph writing with massed and spaced instruction with accuracy, complexity and fluency in focus. The researchers taught each session in an intensive 60 minutes' session to massed groups, whereas the similar session was taught to the spaced groups in three 20-minute short sessions at irregular time intervals. Subjects were retested after 8 weeks. Lastly, a posttest of writing was carried out for all groups. The results of the paired samples t-test and One-way ANCOVA denoted that the spaced distribution group significantly outperformed the massed distribution group on the posttest in their final post-test.