Preference

Although there is a large body of literature on the use of connectors by EFL learners in argumentative writing, African language learner groups are not represented and most studies have adopted a cross-sectional approach. This paper seeks to analyze how frequently connectors are used on the basis of pseudo-longitudinal data from first, second, and third-year undergraduate students from the Institute for Applied Pedagogy, University of Burundi. The study adopted the corpus linguistic and quantitative approaches. The data were collected through 2 writing assignments given to students in 2019. In total, 622 essays, amounting to 306,664-word tokens, were collected. Data preparation followed three steps, namely, typing the handwritten essays, preparing the TXT files, and metadata for the corpus. The latter was searched using AntConc tool, on the basis of a comprehensive list of 95 connectors, classified into 6 categories. The tool availed frequency information, that is, how often each connector occurs in the corpus. Percentages were computed using XLS facility and are presented in tables and graphs. Results indicate that 19 connectors were frequently used by learners, the most frequent ones being those which add information followed by those expressing a result relationship. However, connectors expressing transition and summation were found to be rarely used in the corpus. Another discovery is that learners in all three years of study seem to have the same preferences in terms of connectors. Furthermore, cases of misuse such as wrong combinations and incorrect spelling, semantic, stylistic and syntactic errors were observed at all levels. The findings of this study can be useful to learners, teachers, and material designers.

Today, spending leisure time has become part of humans' lives which can take on various forms. Spending leisure time, on the one hand, and the priority of selecting a place, on the other hand, differ from each other. The main research question is How are leisure places selected and prioritized in a case study of Tehran's District 2? To answer this question, factors affecting an individual's preference for leisure and recreational places were determined. The statistical population consisted of 384 people. Using a questionnaire, residents' views on their tendency to spend their leisure time and their preference for the use of 18 leisure places across district 2 were evaluated. The theoretical framework of the research expresses that the type and quality of leisure spaces on the one hand (recreation and place aspects) and the individual's lifestyle (individual and cultural features in the geographical and social environment) are influenced by the time factor (access and availability), On the other hand, are influential in leisure time preferences. Research results indicated that individual characteristics, gender, age, and marital status were significantly correlated to selecting the type and leisure-recreation places. Also, Friedman test results suggested that as regards spending leisure time, going to cafés and restaurants held the highest thematic preference, while going to local parks had the highest location-based preference.

The prevailing assumption in education is that students should have the ability to choose their writing topics and positions. However, this belief lacks substantial empirical evidence. To investigate this further, Semi-structured interviews with 40 male students in the field of English Language Teaching in Farhangian University who had completed two argumentative writing assignments in a university course were conducted. One assignment allowed them to choose their writing position, while the other assignment had the position assigned to them. These students were in their second to third year of study and possessed above-average writing skills. Our interview protocol focused on exploring their evolving perspectives on choice as a motivating factor in this specific writing assignment. Applying a grounded theory approach to thematic analysis, it became evident that students believed they should be able to choose their writing topics because they were more likely to be interested in them and had a better understanding of the subject matter. They also perceived that choice enhanced their motivation and the quality of their writing, ultimately influencing their grades. While most students in the study expressed a preference for choice, they also recognized several advantages of not having choice. These included the opportunity to enhance their writing skills, develop new perspectives, and cultivate tenacity in their writing.