Female Intermediate EFL Learners Research Articles

Impact of Digital Games on Students’ Willingness to Communicate in a Flipped Classroom Context

Introduction: The ability to use language for communicative purposes is significant in learning English as a foreign language. The present study investigated the effect of digital games on intermediate EFL learners’ Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in a flipped classroom context. 
 Methodology: Of 90 female intermediate EFL learners, 60 participants were selected based on their performance on an Oxford Placement Test. The subjects were then divided into an experimental and a control group. After that, the participants in the two groups filled out the WTC questionnaire as a pre-test. Following that, in the experimental group, the researcher used Fun Easy Learning Game Software in a flipped instruction mode to instruct 50 vocabulary items that were identified as unknown to the learners. As for the control group, the learners followed the conventional method of instruction and thus followed the syllabus of the institute. The learners in this group were instructed on the same 50 vocabulary items but did not receive any content in a flipped instruction mode via games. The treatment lasted 10 sessions, and at the end, the participants in both groups were given the WTC questionnaire as a post-test.
 Results: The results of statistical analysis indicated that the use of digital games significantly affected intermediate students’ WTC in a flipped classroom context. Learners in the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in the control group.
 Conclusion: Based on the findings, EFL teachers are encouraged to employ digital games in a flipped instruction mode to enhance EFL learners’ WTC.

Investigating the Effect of Online Planning and Strategic Planning in CALL-Based TBLT on Iranian EFL Learners’ Willingness to Communicative

The current study examined the impact of online planning and strategic planning in the context of CALL-based TBLT on Willingness to Communicate (WTC). Initially, the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered to 120 female intermediate EFL learners. Then, based on the OPT scale, 90 learners were chosen and divided into two experimental groups and a control group. After that, the participants in the three groups were asked to complete the WTC questionnaire as pretest. Following that, one of the experimental groups received CALL online planning and the other one received CALL strategic planning. In the Strategic Planning group, the learners wrote an essay each session on a given topic while being allowed to think of what they were going to write (content) and what language forms (word, grammar, etc.) they wanted to use. In another experimental group, the learners had time to think about the task performance during the task but instructed not to write down their plan. The participants in the control group received conventional treatment. After ten sessions, the learners in the three groups were given the WTC questionnaire as posttest. The results of ANCOVA indicated that both online planning and strategic planning had significant effects on Iranian EFL learners’ WTC. Moreover, it was revealed that the effect of strategic planning was more significant compared to online planning on Iranian EFL learners’ WTC. The results promise implications for EFL teachers to incorporate online planning and strategic planning in the context of CALL-based TBLT to enhance WTC.

The Relationship Between Personality Traits and Vocabulary Learning Strategies

This study examined the possible relationship between Iranian female intermediate EFL learners' personality traits and their vocabulary learning strategies. The participants in this study comprised of 90 female intermediate English language learners. To ensure the homogeneity of the group, all the participants were made to appear in the Oxford Solution Placement Test. Vocabulary Learning Strategies and Eysenck Personality questionnaires were administered to the participants. The results showed that there was no statistically significant relationship between Iranian intermediate EFL learners' personality type and their use of vocabulary learning strategies. However, it appeared that introverts tended to have higher use of memory, cognitive, and metacognitive strategies while extroverts were found to achieve higher mean scores on determination and social strategies. The highest degree of the relationship was found between social strategy and personality types. In contrast, lowest correlation was found between metacognitive strategy and personality types.

Pedagogical Efficacy of Experience-Based Learning (EBL) Strategies for Improving the Speaking Fluency of Upper-intermediate Male and Female Iranian EFL Students

Learning from experience is a central physiological and theoretical idea in adult language learning which has become increasingly important in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) and is closely connected to task-based language teaching (TBLT). Accordingly, this study was designed to investigate the role of experience-based learning strategies in developing male and female intermediate EFL learners’ speaking fluency. To this end, from the target population of 300 language learners attending evening English classes at a language institute, a sample of 50 intermediate participants were randomly chosen by administering an Oxford placement Test (OPT). The average age of the selected students ranged between 17 and 25. An interview was utilized as a pretest to determine participants’ speaking fluency entry behavior. Subsequently, they were divided into two groups labeled as experimental and control groups. While the control group students received instruction through a traditional method without any focus on experience-based activities and strategies, those in the experimental group were exposed to interactive solutions verbally participating in class discussions during task-based classroom sessions in which they discussed their experiences in performing carefully prepared two-way tasks. The analysis of the data obtained from the posttest interview indicated that the participants in the experimental group outperformed those in the control group. Moreover, the results reflected that experience-based tasks considerably improved language the learners’ speaking fluency. Notably, the findings of the present study may have certain insightful pedagogical implications for language instructors and material developers.

Impacts of Resource Dispersing and Resource Directing Task Dimensions on EFL Learners’ Oral Production

This study was primarily aimed at investigating the effects of simultaneous use of reasoning demand (resource-directing) and prior knowledge (resource-dispersing) on fluency, accuracy, and complexity of L2 oral performance. More, specifically, an attempt was made to investigate how EFL oral production could be affected by ±reasoning demand and ±prior knowledge in the local context of Iran. Thirty male and female Iranian intermediate EFL learners whose mother tongue was Persian and whose age ranged between 23 and 29 were chosen as the participants in this study, and a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was utilized. Assigned to two experimental conditions, participants were engaged in a narrative task in which two different wordless picture stories were chosen for data collection. Such statistical operations as t tests and MANOVA were applied to analyze the data. The results obtained from t tests revealed that in ±reasoning demand condition, both complexity and accuracy significantly improved whereas the results for fluency were not statistically significant. In addition, with regard to the ±prior knowledge group, similar results were obtained. In the end, conducting MANOVA revealed that both groups were not different in the pretest; however, utilizing the same procedure for the posttest illustrated a difference between the two groups in terms of their accuracy and complexity, but not their fluency. The results bear some implications for L2 oral production and practice as controlled by teachers and practitioners in EFL contexts.

The Effect of Reducing Lexical and Syntactic Complexity of Texts on Reading Comprehension

The present study investigated the effect of different types of text simplification (i.e., reducing the lexical and syntactic complexity of texts) on reading comprehension of English as a Foreign Language learners (EFL). Sixty female intermediate EFL learners from three intact classes in Tabarestan Language Institute in Tehran participated in the study. The intact classes were assigned to three experimental groups. Moreover, to homogenize the groups, the researchers administered a general proficiency test (TOEFL, 2003) to the participants. The results revealed no significant difference among the groups in general proficiency and reading ability. Then four reading comprehension texts from TOEFL test (2005) were simplified through lexical simplification, syntactic simplification or lexical-syntactic simplification techniques. The simplified texts, along with their reading comprehension (RC) questions, formed the three versions of the post-test, each version contained either lexically, syntactically or lexical-syntactically simplified texts. Each group took one version of the post-test. The scores were analyzed through one-way ANOVA. The results revealed a significant difference among the groups. The post hoc test indicated that the lexical-syntactic simplification group significantly outperformed the lexical simplification group and performed considerably better than the syntactic simplification group. There was no significant difference between the lexical and syntactic simplification groups, although the latter showed better results.

Communication Strategies Used by Iranian EFL Learners and English Native Speakers: Gender in Focus

<p>This article was intended to explore the frequency and order of communication strategies used by Iranian male and female EFL earners as well as English native speakers while facing communication breakdowns. Furthermore, it was aimed to investigate the difference between native speakers and non-native speakers of English in their use of communication strategies. In addition, it was probed whether gender had any effects on the use of these strategies among native and non-native speakers. To this end, the data were collected through the communication strategy questionnaire distributed among 30 male and female Iranian intermediate EFL learners and 15 English native speakers. The design of this study was a quantitative one in which the questionnaire and thus numerical data were applied. To analyze the data, Cronbach alpha and independent-samples t-tests were used. The results indicated that non-verbal and social affective strategies were the most frequent strategies used by non-native speakers and native speakers of English, respectively. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between male and female Iranian EFL learners, but a significant difference between male and female English native speakers were seen. It can be concluded that language proficiency can contribute to the type and frequency of communications strategies which are used non-native speakers; likewise, it can play a significant role in gender differences in language use.<em></em></p>

The Impact of Task-Based Language Teaching on Iranian Female Intermediate EFL Learners’ Writing Performance

<p>This article investigated the impact of task-based language teaching (TBLT) on writing performance of the Iranian intermediate EFL learners. There were two groups of forty students of the intermediate female learners studying English in Jahad-e-Daneshgahi language institute, ranging in age from thirteen to nineteen. They participated in their regular classes in the institute and were assigned to two groups including an experimental group of task-based language teaching and a control group for the purpose of homogeneity, all students in two groups took an achievement test before the treatment. As a pre-test; students were assigned to write a task at the beginning of the course. One of the classes was conducted through talking a TBLT approach on their writing, while the other class followed regular patterns of teaching, namely traditional approach for TBLT group. There were some tasks chosen from learners’ textbook. The task selection was in accordance with learning standards for ESL and TOFEL writing sections. At the end of the treatment, a post-test was administered to both experimental group and the control group. Scoring was done on the basis of scoring scale of “expository writing quality scale”. The researcher used paired samples t-test to analyze the effect of TBLT teaching approach on the writing performance of the learners. The data analysis revealed that the subjects in TBLT group performed better on the writing performance post-test than the subjects in control group. The findings of the study also demonstrated that TBLT would enhance writing performance in the group of learners. Moreover, it was indicated that TBLT has been effective in teaching writing performance to Iranian EFL learners. </p>

THE EFFECT OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES ON EFL LEARNERS' AFFECTIVE TRAITS IN COMPUTER-ASSISTED AND CONVENTIONAL CONTEXTS

Ponte Academic JournalSep 2016, Volume 72, Issue 9 THE EFFECT OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES ON EFL LEARNERS' AFFECTIVE TRAITS IN COMPUTER-ASSISTED AND CONVENTIONAL CONTEXTSAuthor(s): Abbas Ali Zarei ,Venus AbdiJ. Ponte - Sep 2016 - Volume 72 - Issue 9 doi: 10.21506/j.ponte.2016.9.25 Abstract:The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of instructional techniques (blended learning, jigsaw, and scaffolding) on Iranian EFL learners\' reading and learner-related traits (anxiety, attitude and motivation) in computer-assisted and conventional contexts. To this end, 171 male and female intermediate level Iranian EFL learners were selected based on cluster sampling. The Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP) was administered to the participants to make sure that there were no significant differences among the participants in terms of their language proficiency level. There were three main groups and each group was randomly assigned to a different treatment condition. Group A was instructed through the blended learning technique, Group B through the jigsaw technique and Group C through the scaffolding technique. Three questionnaires were used to investigate learner-related traits of attitude and motivation as well as learners\' reading anxiety. These questionnaires were used twice in this study, at the beginning of the course as a pretest and at the end of the course as a posttest. Having given the tests and collected the data, the researchers utilized ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance) to analyze the data. The results indicated that these techniques have a significant impact on reducing learners\' anxiety and improving their attitude, whereas they have no differential effect on learners\' motivation. These findings may have pedagogical and theoretical implications for language learners, teachers, materials developers and policy makers. Download full text:Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution Username Password

The Effect of Storytelling Technique on Speaking Ability of Female Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

The main purpose of the present quasi-experimental study is to investigate the effect of storytelling technique on writing ability of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To this end, 40 female intermediate EFL learners with the age range of 14-16 attending Chabahar Maritime University High School were initially selected. The homogeneity of their proficiency level was established via the administration of a TOEFL (the Paper-Based Test) proficiency test. Then they were randomly divided into two control and experimental groups. A speaking test was administered to female subjects of both groups at the beginning of the study. The experimental group used storytelling technique two times a week while the control group was not trained on this technique. At the end of the study, a speaking test was administered to all subjects for examining their ability in speaking skill. Independent sample t-test and paired sample t-test were performed for data analysis. The results showed that storytelling technique had a significant effect on improving the speaking ability of intermediate EFL learners.

The Effect of Collaborative Work on Improving Speaking Ability and Decreasing Stress of Iranian EFL Learners

This study aimed to explore the effect of collaborative learning on improving speaking ability and decreasing stress of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, after the administration of the Solution Placement Test (Edwards, 2007), a total of 60 female intermediate EFL learners were selected out of a population pool of 80 studying at a private language institute in Iran. Their age range was between 18 and 22 and they were randomly assigned to two groups of control and experimental (N=30). Participants in experimental group were given some collaborative tasks, they needed to work in groups and those in control group were given the same tasks but they had to do them individually. Each group did the tasks in six sessions. In order to examine the effect of collaborative learning on improving speaking ability, an oral interview was conducted before and after the treatment with all the participants in each group. Furthermore, to examine the effect of collaborative learning on decreasing stress, pre- and post-anxiety tests were administered to the participants. The results of the independent-sample t-test analysis for oral interview revealed that the participants in experimental group outperformed the control group in terms of speaking ability. Also, the results of the independent-sample t-test analysis for anxiety posttest revealed that the participants in experimental group had less stress after doing collaborative activities. The attitudes of the participants were explored through a questionnaire which was given to all the participants in the experimental group. The analysis of the responses demonstrated that they had positive attitudes towards collaborative learning. This study offers some implications for EFL teachers, learners, and curriculum designer DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s1p274

The Effect of Explicit vs. Implicit Instruction on the Learnability of English Consonant Clusters by Iranian Learners of English

The present study was aimed at providing the English teachers across Iran with a good and fruitful method of teaching pronunciation. To this end, sixty female intermediate EFL learners were put in three different but equivalent groups of 20 based on the results of a pronunciation pre-test. One of the groups received explicit instruction including exposure to the correct pronunciation of consonant clusters, extra examples, and explanations. The kind of treatment for the second group was implicit including only exposure to the correct pronunciation of such clusters. The third group, serving as the control group, received no instruction on pronunciation. After ten sessions of instruction, all the participants were provided with the post-test in which they were to read aloud 50 words containing initial and final consonant clusters while they were recorded. The results of ANOVA showed that although they were all the same in the pre-test, they had performed differently on the post-test, demonstrating that different treatments had various impacts on learning pronunciation. The results of Tukey test showed that although the participants in the implicit group had progressed during the course, the explicit instruction was the best method in improving participants' pronunciation. To compare the groups’ mean scores two by two, t-test was also used. The results of this test showed that explicit instruction is better than the implicit instruction which in turn is better than the control group. Keywords: pronunciation, consonant cluster, explicit teaching, implicit teaching

Project-Based Learning and Its Positive Effects on Iranian Intermadiate EFL Learners Reading Ability and Vocabulary Achaivement

New challenges are coming in the present globalized world of 21 th century that consequently has required deep changes in educational process, since the 21 th century requires more creativity, critical thinking, problem solving as well as communicative skills. English, as the main international language, is playing an important role in the globalized world's people's life, so the scholars try to use more sophisticated learning methods in EFL scope. The present study was an attempt to investigate the effect of project-based language learning, which is supposed by its proponents as a creativity developer, commonly used method in general science instruction, on some Iranian female intermediate EFL learners' reading ability as well as their vocabulary size improvement in short term, and long term vocabulary recall. The analysis of the collected data through out of this study confirms that, the PBL group's progress in all measured scopes were statistically significant. The researchers believe that using project-based language learning in Iranian EFL courses positively affects the learners' reading ability and accelerates their vocabulary achievement.

The Effect of Teaching Metacognitive Strategies on Field-dependent and Independent Learners’ Writing

The current study aimed at investigating the effect of metacognitive strategy instruction on the writing performance of field-dependent and field-independent intermediate learners. To fulfill the purpose of this study, 62 male and female intermediate EFL learners with the age range of 18-35 were selected as homogeneous learners and were given Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) in order to be characterized as either field-dependent or field-independent. Then, they were divided into two groups of experimental and control and both took a pretest of writing. The experimental group received metacognitive strategy training, while the control group received the usual teaching program of the language school. At the end of the training, a writing post-test was administered to both groups. The results revealed that the experimental group did statistically better in their post-test. Moreover field-independent learners outperformed field-dependent ones in their post-test. The findings draw attention to the benefits of teaching strategies especially when dealing with writing courses.

EFL Teacher's and Learners' Perspectives Towards ATODJ

This study investigated EFL teachers' and students' perspectives towards Audiotaped Oral Dialogue Journals (ATODJs), as a computer-mediated communication (CMC) and a Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) task. The data came from 202 entries of ATODJs, gathered from15 female Iranian intermediate EFL learners. Teachers and students' evaluations of the whole program comprised of the qualitative part of the research. The results revealed that the majority of the participants found ATDOJs helpful. The strengths, weaknesses, and the challenges of ATODJs from the teacher's and the participants' viewpoints were discussed. Based on the results of the present study, it is highly recommended that EFL teachers and materials developers incorporate ATODJ tasks in the curriculum.

The Effect of Grammar Consciousness-Raising Tasks on EFL Learners' Reading Comprehension and Writing Ability

The focus of this study is to investigate the effect of grammatical consciousness-raising tasks on EFL learners' reading comprehension and writing ability. The participants were 60 female intermediate EFL learners with age range of 20-35 who were divided into two groups of control and experimental after being homogenized by a piloted PET test and two piloted researchers-made reading comprehension and writing ability tests. After the treatment phase, the piloted researchers-made reading comprehension and writing ability post-tests were administered. To investigate the two research questions of the study, two independent t-tests were conducted. Also, the inter-rater reliability for the pretest and post-test of writing was calculated through Cornbach's Alpha. The obtained results revealed that the improvement occurred in the reading comprehension and writing ability of the participants of experimental group, in comparison to their previous stage, was due to the introduction of a specific variable which was the technique of grammar consciousness-raising tasks. Furthermore, the results revealed that grammar consciousness-raising tasks result in a better performance on writing than reading comprehension.

The Relationship between Incidental Vocabulary Learning and Multiple Intelligences of Iranian EFL Learners

This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between Iranian EFL learners' multiple intelligences (MI) and incidental vocabulary learning. The study was conducted in classes of two institutes in Tehran. The participants of the study were 42 Iranian female intermediate EFL learners, selected based on the score that they got on the Nation's Vocabulary Levels Test, and by taking this test, the learners' vocabularies proficiency level were homogenized. Then MIDAS questionnaire investigating eight types of different intelligences was used in this study. In the next stage, a vocabulary pretest which was designed by the researcher and was piloted in the same condition to the main study was conducted prior to the treatment of the study (extensive reading program).when the treatment of the study finished an immediate vocabulary posttest conducted to the same participants. The vocabulary posttest was exactly the same as vocabulary pretest. The results of the study showed that there was a significant relationship between Iranian EFL learners' MI and incidental vocabulary learning and also among the eight different types of intelligences; there was a significant relationship between naturalist and incidental vocabulary learning.

The Impact of Using Task-based Writing on EFL Learners’ Writing Performance and Creativity

This study investigated the impact of task-based writing on EFL learners’ writing performance and creativity. For this purpose, 56 female intermediate Iranian EFL learners were chosen from a total number of 89 through their performance on a sample piloted PET. Based on the result, the students were randomly assigned to one control and one experimental group with 28 participants in each. Prior to the treatment, students took part in a writing test (part of PET) and the Abedi-Schumacher Creativity Test (ACT) as pretests. Both groups underwent the same amount of teaching and the same writing topics during 18 sessions of treatment. The only difference was that the experimental group was engaged in doing task-based writing activities while the control group was not asked to do any kind of tasks. At the end of the treatment, a writing test (another PET) and the ACT were administered to both groups. The results of the statistical analysis demonstrated that learners benefited significantly from task-based writing in terms of both their writing and creativity.

The Relationship between Culture Exposure and the Identity Types of Learners of English as a Foreign Language

The way mankind defines himself is believed to be highly sensitive to the cultural norms and values of the culture he is brought up in. The present study was carried out in order to explore any probable impact of foreign culture exposure on identify types of EFL learners. The participants (N=98) consisted of male and female intermediate EFL learners who were studying English at two language institutes in Shiraz. They were randomly selected from the same proficiency level and randomly divided into two experimental and two control groups. The participants in the experimental groups were exposed to the target language culture, roles, values, and beliefs for ten weeks in order to observe whether they had moved towards the target language identity based on Erikson's theory of psychosocial development (Erikson, 1958, 1963). Two versions of the Ego Identity Process Questionnaire (EIPQ), as an ego identity type recognizer, were administered both at the beginning and at the end of the semester. The difference in mean between the groups involved in the present research was measured by a T-test. Further analysis was based on P-value as a scale used to retain or reject the null hypothesis. The findings of the present study revealed that the learners’ identities do not change significantly through exposure to foreign culture, beliefs, values, and roles, although some minor changes were detected which were not statistically significant. Some pedagogical suggestions were also made for Iranian educational policy makers.

The Effects of Standard and Reversed Code Mixing on L2 Vocabulary Recognition and Recall

To investigate the effects of two code mixing conventions on L2 vocabulary recognition and recall, 87 female Iranian lower intermediate EFL learners were divided into three groups. One group received vocabulary instruction through standard code mixing in which an L1 lexical item was incorporated within an L2 context; another received the same instruction through reversed code mixing, which involved the use of an L2 lexical item within an L1 context. The third group was a comparison group that was presented with the same words in English sentences without any code mixing. At the end of the treatment, multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blanks vocabulary tests were administered to all three groups. The gathered data were analyzed using two separate one-way ANOVA procedures. Results indicated that code mixing conventions had no significant effect on the learners' vocabulary recognition. As to vocabulary production, the comparison group outperformed the standard code mixing group in a statistically significant way. The findings of the present study may have implications for learners, teachers, and syllabus designers.