مطالب

The purpose of this study was to probe the effect of metacognitive strategy instruction through dialogic interaction on the reading comprehension performance and metacognitive awareness of Iranian EFL learners. The data were collected through the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) and a reading test to examine changes in metacognitive awareness and reading performance before and after the intervention. The participants were 60 intermediate EFL learners in two groups. The experimental group (n = 30) went through an intervention program in which the learners were taught metacognitive strategy instruction through dialogic interaction for ten sessions. The control group (n=30) went through a conventional reading instruction program and covered the same materials without receiving metacognitive instruction. The results revealed that metacognitive strategy instruction through dialogic interaction helped learners develop their reading ability and raise their metacognitive awareness.

Oral Communication Strategies are conscious techniques that L2 interlocutors employ to overcome the communication breakdowns in the target language. Hence, they can help to promote the effectiveness of communication ability. However, it must be noted that many variables can influence the use of these strategies. The present study, therefore, aimed to investigate the role of language proficiency and cultural background variables on the use of oral communication strategies. After piloting the Oral Communication Strategy Inventory and Cultural Milieu and examining the reliability analysis as well as the construct validity, the questionnaires were administered to 320 participants majoring in the English language at B.A and M.A levels. Then, SPSS 18.0 computer program was used to analyze the collected data. Next, an interview was held to gain more information on the use of strategies by the Iranian EFL learners. The results of this inquiry revealed that there is no significant difference between learners at different language proficiency levels in terms of oral communication strategies use, while there is a significant difference between different cultural backgrounds in the use of OCSs. The findings of this research can be useful for developing the use of oral communication strategies among EFL learners, particularly with Persian and Turkish cultural backgrounds.

The Research was aimed at finding out the effects of the implementation of writing feedback techniques and students’ writing anxiety on students’ writing ablity. Experimental method of 3x2 factorial design was employed in the research. There were three experimental groups of students who were taught by using teacher feedback, peer feedback and the combination of peer and teacher feedback writing technique. Prior the treatment, each student was asked to do an expository essay writing test in order to get the writing scores and to fill SLWAI (Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory) to classify them into low and high writing anxiety students. Then, the students were taught on how to produce expository essay writing. At the end of the meeting, the students were asked to compose an expository essay as the posttest. The data were analyzed by using paired t-test, two-way ANOVA and Post Hoc test. From the results of data analysis it could be inferred that the implementation of writing feedback techniques affected students’ writing ability and the effects depended on the degree of students’ writing anxiety.

The present research investigated the effect of self-regulatory approach (with two components of self-checking and self-efficacy) on pre-intermediate Iranian learners' lexical segmentation in listening comprehension via authentic listening comprehension texts. To achieve this purpose, the investigators administered an Oxford Placement Test (2007) to ninety-eight students of two girls’ private junior high schools in Abadan. The participants were in grade seven at pre-intermediate level. Ninety-two students were selected out of ninety-eight and after homogenizing the participants linguistically, they were divided into four groups. Twenty-three students of every 4 classes whose scores were nearly the same were considered as one group. There were one control group and three experimental groups. A teacher-made pretest which was piloted by the researchers was administered to all groups. Then, the experimental groups were instructed under an eight-sessions treatment which was self-regulated teaching via authentic and non-authentic texts. Finally, the participants took a posttest similar to the pretest on lexical segmentation in listening comprehension. Both pretest and posttest reliability were calculated with Cronbach Alpha. Statistical analyses were done through one-way ANOVA. the result of the study indicated that self-regulated approach teaching through authentic materials can improve learners’ lexical segmentation of listening comprehension.

Although English language plays an important role in the job of aviation personnel, language needs of these employees have been taken for granted. This study aimed at investigating the extent to which English is used by the employees at Iran Air airport services at Isfahan Airport, the required level of basic language skills in performing their jobs effectively, and the employees’ attitude towards their English professional courses. A questionnaire consisting of 24 items was constructed and distributed among all the employees working at three sections of Iran Air airport services (Ramp Control, Customer Services, and Baggage Services). Besides, Observation was done by the researcher at the airport to find out the basic language problems of the aviation personnel, and interviews were done with the head of each sections. The findings proved that English language is highly used in the employees’ jobs and they are not satisfied with their training courses. Also, the Ramp Control and Baggage Services employees considered speaking as the most important skill, while Baggage Services employees considered reading and writing as the important ones. Finally, it can be concluded that revision of the current professional training programs seems to be necessary to offer appropriate ESP course curriculum.

While listening plays an important role in the process of foreign/second language learning, different factors can affect this process. This study was designed to assess the relationship between listening anxiety and metacognitive strategy awareness with a special interest in the role of gender and proficiency level. In order to conduct this survey, two instruments including the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) as well as Foreign Language Listening Anxiety (FLLA) questionnaire were utilized and distributed among 105 upper-intermediate and advanced level Iranian EFL learners. The analysis of data indicated that there was a negative correlation between the participants' listening anxiety and their use of metacognitive strategies, indicating as the use of metacognitive strategies increased, lesser degrees of listening anxiety were observed and vice versa. Moreover, the findings showed that there was no difference between males and females in this regard. Regarding learners’ level, it was revealed that upper-intermediate learners were more anxious than advanced level ones. However, no difference was detected between these two levels in their strategy use. It is hoped that this study can help teachers to consider their learners’ characteristics in the instruction of suitable strategies and learners to become more autonomous and self-regulated in their listening performance.

This study explores the relationship and interconnections between EFL teachers’ beliefs and their motivational practices in the classroom. The present study combined qualitative and quantitative methods of research. First, the motivational practices of 30 teachers in two private language schools in Tehran were explored with a classroom observation instrument, the Motivation Orientation of Language Teaching (MOLT) which was used to estimate the time that teachers spent for each motivational strategy. Then, teachers’ beliefs were examined through the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) and an open-ended questionnaire aimed to assess beliefs about motivational strategies. The quantitative results indicated that the higher the teachers’ scores on the BALLI, the less frequently their use of motivational strategies in the classroom. The findings based on qualitative data, drawing largely on data from observations and the open-ended questionnaire, showed that although teachers were observed to generally follow their beliefs, there existed several points of difference between their beliefs and practices. Also, there was evidence that what teachers practice in the classrooms does not always impact their beliefs.

This study was designed to investigate the effects of providing feedback in the interactive environment of wiki on improving the grammatical accuracy of Iranian EFL learners’ writing skill as well as the attitudes of Iranian EFL learners’ toward receiving feedback via wiki. To do so, 50 intermediate Iranian EFL learners, who were chosen by an OPT (Oxford Placement Test) participated in this study and they were divided into two groups, experimental and control group. Both groups were given identical writing tasks. In control group, though, the first drafts were reviewed traditionally in a pen and a paper fashion, whereas in the experimental group, they were reviewed by peers through wiki to provide feedback on the grammatical accuracy of writings. The second drafts all were reviewed by the instructor. The results revealed that using wikis to provide feedback on students’ writing can have a significantly positive effect on improving their grammatical accuracy in a writing task. Moreover, the experimental group was found to outperform the control group on the post-test indicating that there was a significant difference between the effects of providing feedback in wiki vs. providing traditional feedback on the grammatical accuracy of Iranian male and female EFL Learners. With regards to the students’ attitude toward using wiki, a majority of the learners welcomed the application of wiki for EFL writing.

The region of the Persian Gulf can be seen as a geopolitical arena in which the Arab-Iranian relations are shaped. As one of world’s primary and most significant source of fossil-energy exports, the Persian Gulf cobbles together Iran and the seven Arab countries of the region in a geopolitical cradle in which they enjoy similarities in economic and strategic life, as well as security concerns. Accordingly, the challenges of maritime political geography seem to be quite dependent on an established set of standards and agreements in order to remain on solid grounds. Currently, these challenges manifest themselves in four major categories, with substantial geopolitical consequences between the Iranians and the Arabs of the region, and the complexity of their relationships. These include: Religious Controversies, which concern the sectarian geopolitics; propagates under Jordan-Israeli concoction of “Shiite Crescent”;and Territorial Contentions with theirmajor controversy over the naming of the Persian Gulf. This article examines the process of territorial conflicts, proceedings, and eventually the settlements over the maritime areas of the Persian Gulf in the past five decades. The arrangement of the maritime political geography in the Persian Gulf is a fitting example of former disputes over the border and boundaries within the maritime regions of the world.