Iranian English Language Learners Research Articles

An Investigation into Iranian English Language Learners’ Investment in Imagined Communities

Unlike communities of practice, previous studies on imagined communities of practice are scarce, yet enlightening. The present research was conducted in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context in order to provide more insight into how language learners perceive their imagined communities (ICs). It was based on Norton’s (2000; 2001) conceptualization of ICs which connected the notions of imagination and imagined community to second language (L2) learning and classroom practice. To this end, 945 male and female EFL learners from different cities in Iran belonging to different age groups and language proficiency levels were recruited for this study. The instrument for data collection was a validated 57-item questionnaire. The findings of the study showed that the participants possessed a moderate level of investment in their ICs. Moreover, t-test results indicated that there was a significant difference between male and female learners in the extent of investment in their ICs. Furthermore, the significant differences in the extent of investment in ICs were shown between teenagers and adults and between learners in low proficiency (LP) and high proficiency (HP) groups. These findings contribute to more in-depth understanding of language learners' ICs in an EFL context. Pedagogical implications of the study are discussed and some suggestions are made for future research.

From virtual assistant to writing mentor: Exploring the impact of a ChatGPT-based writing instruction protocol on EFL teachers’ self-efficacy and learners’ writing skill

Language teaching is a highly emotional profession that can affect the teachers’ well-being and learners’ achievement. However, studies have yet to explore the potential of positive psychology interventions and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to promote the psycho-emotional aspects of second language (L2) teachers and learners. Further, studies regarding the effectiveness of AI in promoting the learners’ language skills could have been expansive. Responding to these gaps, researchers chose ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot capable of generating natural and coherent texts, as a potential tool to foster positive emotions and interactions between Iranian English language teachers ( n = 12) and learners ( n = 48) in the L2 writing context. We operationalized ChatGPT in a three-phased writing instruction protocol (CGWIP): (1) a planning phase, where teachers used ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas and generate outlines for each session; (2) an instruction phase, where teachers used ChatGPT to engage the learners in writing process, analyse and reflect on their drafts, and (3) an assessment phase, where teachers used ChatGPT to simulate IELTS writing exam and provided detailed and constructive feedback to the learners. We further tested the effectiveness of CGWIP on teachers’ self-efficacy and learners’ writing skills before and after a 10-week instruction program. The Independent Samples t-test results showed that CGWIP significantly enhanced teachers’ self-efficacy compared to the control group. Also, the results of One Way ANCOVA revealed that CGWIP significantly improved learners’ writing skills and that these effects persisted over time. The study implied that the protocol can nurture teachers’ efficiency by helping them in various aspects of L2 writing instruction, including brainstorming, revising, providing feedback, and assessment, which in turn, improves learners’ writing skills.

Language learners’ linguistic investment in ideologically framed language institutes: Forms of capital, ideology, and identity

Language learning in Iran is a site of struggle between two ideologically opposed spaces, state schools and non-state language institutes. This study drew on the construct of investment, which combines ideology, capital, and identity, to investigate the investment of Iranian English language learners at A1 and C2 proficiency levels at a non-state language institute. The learners in focus group interviews discussed different language-related resources influencing their investment, their expectations, and their language learning activities. The findings indicated that diverse ideological, cultural, and economic resources and imagined futures had led them toward investing at the institute. They were further found to be invested in diverse language learning activities beyond the pedagogical frame of the institute. Some aspects of investment, language-related beliefs, and identities varied across proficiency levels. Even though the ideological structures of these institutes are learner-centered, there are strong possibilities for enslavement to an extreme globally-oriented pedagogy or native-speakerism. It is hence suggested that state schools and non-state institutes draw upon more flexible language pedagogies embracing both local and global values.

Adult Iranian English Language Learners’ Identity Work: An Exploration of Language Practices and Learner Identities

Iranian authorities view English language learning as a disturbing influence on national identity. They are concerned about its impact on learners’ identities. Despite the political concern, there is growing interest in learning English in Iranian private schools for personal and social development. This article reports on a study in which six male and two female adult English language learners in Iran were interviewed. The semi-structured interviews provided insights into learners’ identity formation and social practices. The data showed developments in learners’ perceptions of national identity, cultural, and religious practices. The globalization of English has amplified learners’ level of access to the discourse of others, while the level of investment in learning is indispensable in their identity formation. This research argues that English language learning and its associated everyday practices lead to learners’ identity work. This has significant implications for language education in cultures with adverse views toward learning English.

Morphological Complexity Across Descriptive, Expository, and Narrative Text Types in Iranian Lower-Intermediate Language Learners

Morphological complexity is one of the dimensions of complexity that has been increasingly analyzed over the last few years. However, results from previous studies drawing on only a single text type are inconclusive. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of text types (descriptive, narrative, and expository) on the morphological complexity of essays written by Iranian English language learners. The participants included 87 lower-intermediate male and female L2 learners at six language institutes in Qazvin, Iran, who were selected from 127 language learners taking an Oxford Quick Placement test. The participants wrote on each text type in three consecutive weeks as a part of their classroom activity. The morphological complexity of verbs and nouns was separately calculated using the morphological complexity index. The data were analyzed using a series of Friedman and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests. The findings did not show any statistically significant differences across text types for nominal inflectional diversity; however, verbal inflectional diversity was statistically significant across text types, with narrative essays morphologically more complex than descriptive and expository essays. The findings may have theoretical and pedagogical implications for researchers and L2 teachers.

FOSTERING LANGUAGE LEARNER AUTONOMY THROUGH INTERDEPENDENCE: THE POWER OF WIKIS

The present study reports on a collaborative writing project initiated and completed by 18 Iranian English language learners enrolled in an online writing course. Using a wiki as the core element of the project, the aim of the course was fostering learner autonomy in online settings based on the collaborative autonomous language learning framework proposed by Kessler and Bikowski (2010). The outcome of collaborative writing project was a text created in a wiki, which was manually analyzed from the very beginning of writing to the final revisions and reflections to find autonomous alterations made by student writers. The findings of the study revealed student-writers’ autonomous contributions in the form of alterations to the text which were accomplished interdependently with peers through alterations such as commenting as an instance of scaffolding to reach a shared goal. Other types of autonomous alterations such as adding new information; deleting existing information; correction of information; clarification; synthesis; and reflection were observed in the final product. Frequent occurrence of peer correction with regard to content and form was a discriminating finding of the current study. Also, despite the initial goal which was completion of the project exclusively by learners, teacher intervention was witnessed throughout the process. To study the role of teacher in depth, a semi-structured interview about the roles of a teacher in a collaborative autonomous learning was conducted. The data from the interview went through a manual thematic analysis to find the themes related to the learners’ perceptions of teacher’s roles. The findings revealed a need for a teacher as a facilitator and resource, which highlighted students’ demands for motivation and content knowledge from teacher in an autonomous contribution to completing a collaborative project.

Teacher’s Narration of Teaching Critical Literacy: It’s a KEY for Raising Students’ Awareness in Iran

To be literate, students need to able to think critically and read between the lines to find the implicit meanings and ideologies. To help Iranian English language learners learn writing as a social action and not independent of social (in)justices and (in)equalities, we included critical literacy in a writing course at the University of [for anonymity]. We intend to illuminate teacher’s narration about raising students’ awareness towards (mal)practices, (in)justices, and (in)equalities of the society in their writings.To do so, all 52 undergraduate 3rd-year-EFL learners of English Literature and Translation participated in our writing class. The teacher was also an associate professor (50 years old) with critical literacy as his main area of research. Students were required to write essays as mid-term and final exams. The teacher’s reflection on the course in general and on the EFL learners’ reflective essays highlighted that teaching writing through critical literacy helped students realize that writing is a process dependent on different social and political issues.Students’ growth in critical consciousness through their writing reminds teaching practitioners, policy-makers, and teacher educators to provide innovation in their classrooms to empower language learners with teaching methodologies contrary to what they are accustomed to during their learning.

Iranian EFL learners’ identity construction in a critical reflective course: a case of an online course

ABSTRACT The present mixed-methods research examined the identity and attitude of Iranian English language learners as a result of their participation in an online critical reflective course. The participants were 38 English language students who attended ten online sessions within a five-month English language course. Their online posts underwent inductive qualitative content analysis and subsequently five themes were extracted. In addition, the content of the first and last two sessions were analysed quantitatively. A validated questionnaire was also administered and 18 participants were interviewed. Qualitative and quantitative content analyses of the data revealed eight finalised codes. The analysis of the findings showed that although the participants’ identity and attitudes did not undergo material changes, their awareness of the intercultural and interlingual issues, between Persian and English language and culture, was sharpened. In addition, their online identities proved to be not set off from their offline identities nor identical to them but interrelated.

Intercultural Awareness of Iranian English Language Learners: <br> An Exploration

The present paper reports on a qualitative study investigating how Iranian learners of English as a foreign language understand culture and the extent to which this understanding meets the needs of efficient intercultural communication. In order to gather data, in-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with eight participants. The interviews were designed and thematically analyzed using Baker’s (2011) model of intercultural awareness. The model, which served as the analytical framework of the study, has been used to account for the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to communicate through English as a lingua franca. Based on the findings of the study, the main elements of the model are relevant in accounting for intercultural awareness—which varied among the participants—not only in English as a lingua franca setting but also in contexts where partners with different cultural backgrounds speak the same first language. Moreover, with the aim of developing learners’ intercultural awareness, the policies and practices of English as a foreign language teaching in Iran need to be revised.

Investment in L2 learning among Iranian English language learners

Drawing on Norton Peirce's (1995) theory of investment and Darvin and Norton's (2015) expanded the model of investment, the present study aims to research investment in second language (L2) learning among Iranian English language learners. The participants included 852 male and female English language learners belonging to different age groups and English language proficiency levels. A 42-item questionnaire, developed and validated by the present authors (forthcoming), was administered online and by hand. The results showed that Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners moderately invested to learn English language and that there were significant differences in the extent of investment between male and female participants and different language proficiency levels (low- and high-proficiency learners). Moreover, the results of the study demonstrated that there was no significant difference in the extent of investment between different age groups (teenage and adult ones). The study concludes with suggestions for future research on investment in L2 learning and a discussion of how such research can impact language education policy in EFL contexts.

Teaching and Learning Vocabulary: What English Language Learners Perceive to Be Effective and Ineffective Strategies

Vocabulary constitutes an essential part of every language-learning endeavour and deserves scholarly attention. The objective of the present study was three-fold: 1) exploring Iranian English language learners’Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLSs), 2) examining language learners’ perceptions of vocabulary learning, and 3) exploring Iranian English language teachers’ Vocabulary Teaching Strategies (VTSs). In total, 145 intermediate learners of English as a foreign language, consisting of 114 males and 31 females aged 15 to 27, participated in the study. The triangulated data were collected using three tools: questionnaires, interviews, and class observations. Sixty-seven learners (31 females and 36 males) filled out a 56-statement questionnaire, adopted and adapted from Takač (2008) and translated into Persian. The questionnaire comprised two parts, enquiring as to the learners’ VLSs and the teachers’ VTSs. The findings indicated that females and males differed significantly in their reported VLSs and their teachers’ use of various VTSs. Additionally, 78 learners were interviewed as to their perceptions of effective and ineffective VLSs as well as VTSs. The findings revealed that the most effective VLSs were reported to be: a) reciting, repeating and listening to words, b) using words, and c) memorising words while the most effective VTSs revolved around: a) explanation, b) repetition, and c) dictation. The observations also confirmed the findings obtained via the questionnaire and interviews. In general, the findings are indicative of the limited repertoire of vocabulary acquisition techniques employed by Iranian EFL learners, hence the need for strategy training in how to acquire vocabulary.

Attitudes toward World Englishes among Iranian English language learners

The current study investigated the attitudes of 140 Iranian English language learners toward World Englishes. The participants were required to listen to recordings of the same natural speech from a series of speakers with five different accents. The results showed that the participants had a more positive attitude toward American and British English. On the other hand, African-American Vernacular English received the lowest level and Persian English and Australian English were in the middle of this scale. While American English was evaluated as the most socially attractive and African-American as the least socially attractive, British and African-American accents were evaluated as of the highest and lowest social status, respectively. The results further showed that, both American and British accents have high quality. Australian English was in the middle point while Persian and African-American accents were at the end of the scale, respectively.

The Sources of Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety of Iranian English Language Learners

Foreign language learning anxiety is one of the affective factors which influence language learning negatively. It has several sources and different types. The present study aimed at investigating the sources of foreign language speaking anxiety of Iranian EFL learners. To do so, 154 EFL learners participated in the study. They were required to fill out a foreign language anxiety questionnaire which was developed based on the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) by Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986). The results of the study indicated that “fear of making mistakes”, “fear of negative evaluation”, and “lack of vocabulary knowledge” were the main factors which caused anxiety among students. Some strategies are recommended for the students to use in order to cope with the anxiety-provoking factors.

Politeness strategies in written communications: the issue of Iranian EFL learners

Abstract The approximation of the pragmatic knowledge of English language learners to native speakers has been a realm of concern for the scholars and researchers in applied linguistics. Thus, this research was an endeavor to figure out the association between the proficiency level and politeness strategies and external/internal modifications in written communication skills in the speech act of requests in Iranian English language learners. To this end, a written Discourse Completion Test (DCT), adapted from Rose (1994), including 8 situations was administered to elicit data from Iran Language Institute120 female and male EFL learners, 60 upper-intermediate and 60 intermediate. The data were sorted out using Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies taxonomy (Brown and Levinson 1987) and external/internal modifications developed by Faerch and Kasper (1989). The written request utterances provided by each participant were analyzed in terms of frequency and types of politeness strategies, namely, positive, negative, bald on record, and off-record as well as external/internal modifications utilized in requests. The Pearson Chi-Square test results revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between upper-intermediate and intermediate learners’ type of politeness strategies and external/internal modifications.

Exploring Gender-based Language Identity Among Iranian EFL Learners

The purpose of this study is examining the language identity among male and female language learners in Iran. 1268 English language learners from different parts of the country from different ages and Iranian ethnicity and English language proficiency levels participated in this research. Validated and reliable scales of measuring language identity was used. The results of this study revealed that male and female English language learners are significantly different in their language identity and Iranian English language learners are in a moderate level of language identity. Moreover, the majority of the participants in each gender (male: 35.52%, and female: 50.88%) chosen American English as their favorite pronunciation kind, females (41.04) prefer Persian English more than males (20.94), and the lowest percent among male learners is related to Australian English (7.05) and among female learners is related to Canadian (1.54).

Iranian English Language Learners’ Attitude towards their Accent in English Language: An Ecological Approach

Abstract With the spread of English around the world and the recognition of English as a lingua franca (ELF), a large number of studies have investigated the attitudes of learners towards different varieties of English as well as their related accents. However, this attitude towards L1 accented English within the context of Iran has not been explored yet. Thus, the present study ecologically investigated the attitudes of Iranian English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners towards their L1-accented English based on Bronfenbrenner’s (1993) nested ecosystems model consisting of micro-, meso-, exo-, and macro-systems. To do this, a triangulation of data collection using an attitudinal questionnaire distributed among 157 respondents (118 female and 39 male) and semi-structured interviews with 60 participants (38 female and 22 male) were collected. The findings indicated a dominant emerging pattern of preference for native-like accent within the ecology of Iran along with the acknowledgement of L1 accented English. Maintaining linguistic security and self-confidence as well as teachers’ role and materials used within the microsystem of the class, learners’ background experiences within the mesosystem, policies of English language institutes at the exosystem, and the public view towards accent at the macrosystem contributed to the emerging pattern of preference for native-like accent within the context of Iran.

Iranian Female Language Learners' Listening Strategy Preferences in Multimedia Environment

Listening skill has been recently paid great attention comparing with the other three language skills since having communication is the first and most essential need. Language learners have been using the three different listening strategies (Cognitive, Meta-cognitive, and Socio-affective) to improve their listening skills in multimedia environments in particular. The main focus of this study is to determine the most preferable listening strategies employed in improving listening skills in multimedia environment by female Iranian English language learners. To achieve the goals, thirty female English language learners – twenty to twenty five - out of sixty were selected. In order to collect data IELTS test as pre-test and post-test questionnaire and interview were used. The result indicated that these language learners mainly employed meta-cognitive strategies the most in the multimedia environment. Thus, it is implied that the findings would be beneficial to the classroom practice, guide learners and lecturers as well as syllabus planners and material designersKeywords: Multimedia environments, Listening strategy, Meta-cognitive, cognitive, Socio-affective strategy

A Comparative Study of the Impact of Interpretation-based, Task-based, and Mechanical Drills Teaching Methods on Iranian English Language Learners’ Grammatical Development

Since grammar has been an important part of language learning, this study was aimed to investigate the impact of three different methods (meaning-based method, task-based method and mechanical drill method) on grammatical development of Iranian EFL learners by teaching conditional sentences. This study was performed in Jahad Daneshgahi Language School of Kermanshah, Iran. The researcher administered a pre-test to see if the learners could make a homogeneous group in terms of proficiency or not. 51 learners were chosen to participate in the study. The learners were studying Top notch book (the third level). The participants were divided into three groups, each group containing 17 learners. The classes were co-educational, containing both male and female learners. Their ages ranged between 17 to 35 years old. This study was done in fall 2014. Analysis based on ANOVA and post hoc indicated that teaching conditional sentences with task-based instruction in comparison with two other methods, leads to a better grammatical development on Iranian EFL learners. The result of the study indicated that majority of the learners had a better performance on the test based on task-based method treatment.

The Interrelationship among L1 Writing Skills, L2 Writing Skills, and L2 Proficiency of Iranian EFL Learners at Different Proficiency Levels

This research aimed to investigate the interrelationship among L1 writing skills, L2 writing skills, and L2 proficiency of Iranian English language learners at different proficiency levels. To this aim, two groups of advanced and lower-intermediate participants consisting of twenty learners were asked to write on the same topic in Persian and English in one week interval. Subsequently, the compositions were evaluated based on Jacob Composition Profile (1981). Then, the Pearson product-moment correlation was calculated to examine the correlation between the compositions' overall scores in Persian and English in both groups. To determine which variables, L1 writing skills or L2 proficiency, is a more significant predictor of L2 writing at these different proficiency levels, and investigate the difference between them, multiple regression analysis was calculated. The results displayed large correlation between compositions' overall scores in advanced group, but not in lower-intermediate group. Also, L1 writing was a more significant predictor at advanced level; however, at lower-intermediate level, L2 proficiency was a more significant predictor of L2 writing. These findings entail some pedagogical implications for effective language teaching in L2 writing classes.

Differential effects of explicit and implicit corrective feedback on EFL learners’ willingness to communicate

ABSTRACTThis sequential explanatory mixed methods study aimed at investigating the effect of explicit and implicit corrective feedback on Iranian English language learners' (EFL) L2 willingness to communicate (WTC) in English. Explicit and implicit corrective feedback were given to groups of low-intermediate Iranian EFL learners to see their effectiveness in facilitating L2 WTC. The findings of quantitative analysis were sequenced by follow-up qualitative data to explain the obtained results. The results of quantitative data analysis indicated that implicit corrective feedback did not influence L2 WTC, whereas explicit corrective feedback increased it. The analysis of qualitative data showed that explicit corrective feedback enhanced language learners’ L2 WTC by promoting their L2 self-confidence. The implications of the study for language teachers and L2 WTC researchers are discussed.