Tolerance of Ambiguity

This study examined the differences among high، mid and low ambiguity tolerance groups in their reading comprehension ability and their metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. To this end، 123 first-year college students majoring in Engineering with an age range of 19-25 were stratified into three groups of high، mid and low ambiguity tolerance to participate in the study. They took part in the Nelson test of proficiency and a reading comprehension test and also filled out two questionnaires: the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory، and the Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale. The results showed significant differences between Low and High groups. That is، high ambiguity tolerance students scored higher on reading comprehension test، displayed higher metacognitive awareness of reading strategies، and showed higher perceived use of Global and Problem-Solving metacognitive reading strategies. However، no significant differences were found between the middle group and the other two groups in these variables. Also، no significant difference was found in the use of Supportive strategies among these three groups. The findings are interpreted to have implications for syllabus designers and EFL teachers.

This study aimed at investigating the relationship between Willingness to Communicate and EFL learners’ Communication Apprehension, Self-perceived Communicative Competence, Self-regulation, Need for Closure, Tolerance of Ambiguity as well as Aggression. The participants of this study were 300 (197 female and 103 male) Iranian EFL learners of English language institutes in Isfahan. To fulfill the purpose of the study, participants were asked to answer seven questionnaires on Willingness to Communicate (WTC), Communication Apprehension (CA), Self-perceived Communicative Competence (SPCC), Self-regulation (SR), Need for Closure (NFC), Tolerance of Ambiguity (TA) and Aggression (Agg). The results of Structural Equation Modeling confirmed previous studies on the relationship between EFL learners’ WTC and SPCC as well as CA asserting that WTC was positively correlated with SPCC and negatively with CA. It was also found that WTC positively correlated with TA. However, the findings revealed no relationship between WTC and SR, NFC and Agg. This study had implications for EFL learners and teachers regarding the factors influencing WTC in language classrooms.

The identification of the cognitive, affective, social and even physiological factors affecting second or foreign language learning routes and rate has for long been a challenging aspiration for second language researchers. However, a recent preoccupation of the researchers in this area has been the study of the combinatorial impacts of such factors on second or foreign language learning processes and products. As a partial undertaking in this regard, this study investigated the relations pattern among some psychological and cognitive variables and foreign language learning achievement rate. The studied factors were self-regulation, goal-orientation, tolerance of ambiguity, and autonomy on the one hand and English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ ultimate achievement on the other hand. To this end, 250 Iranian BA level EFL students majoring English literature or English translation were selected based on convenience sampling procedure. Next, having obtained the participants' informed consent to participate in the study, the researchers administered Trait Self-Regulation Questionnaire (TSRQ), Goal Orientation, Tolerance of Ambiguity, and Learner Autonomy scales to them. In addition, concerning their L2 achievement rate measure, their BA level general English courses' GPA was obtained from the education office of the related universities. The data were statistically analyzed and the hypothetical model of interrelations among the given variables was tested using Structural Equation Modeling procedures. The results indicated that goal orientation and self-regulation significantly predicted L2 achievement; however, tolerance of ambiguity and learner autonomy were not found as strong predictors of L2 achievement. On the other hand, while self-regulation strongly predicted goal orientation, it was not verified to be a strong predictor of tolerance of ambiguity. The results also showed that goal orientation could strongly predict learner autonomy. A ready-made implication of the findings might be that the combinatorial effects of the psychological variables on cognitive processes like second language learning is quite complicated and different from the effects of each individual variable.