Iranian Intermediate Learners Research Articles

The Effect of using Online Websites in EFL classroom on Writing Ability of Iranian intermediate Learners

The use of Technology has become an important part of the learning process in and out of the class. Every language class usually uses some form of technology. Technology has been used to both help and improve language learning especially writing. Technology enables teachers to adapt classroom activities, thus enhancing writing ability. This research aimed to find out students’ writing at high school (Razi high school) and knows how websites improve students’ writing of tenth – year students at high school. This current study was experimental research which was held at the high school. The experimental research involved two groups of students. They were experimental group and the control group. The research participants were the tenth – year students of high school. The participants of this research were taken randomly. The experimental group included 20 students, and the students of the control group were 20 students too. The findings show that the experimental class experiences improvement in their writing test. It can be concluded that using websites was effective for enhancing learning writing and providing a positive learning experience.

The effect of individual and collaborative writing on fluency, accuracy, and complexity of writing performance of Iranian intermediate learners: Mediating role of multimodal instruction

The effect of individual and collaborative writing on fluency, accuracy, and complexity of writing performance of Iranian intermediate learners: Mediating role of multimodal instruction

An Empirical Study on the Effects of Using Kahoot as a Game-Based Learning Tool on EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Recall and Retention

Incorporating games into learning a foreign language is an effective strategy that can lower students’ stress and improve their learning. Thus, this study tried to examine the impacts of Kahoot as a game-based learning tool on Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary recall and retention. To this end, 50 Iranian intermediate learners were chosen for the participants of the study. After that, the participants were randomly assigned to two equal groups, one experimental and one control. Then, the participants’ English vocabulary knowledge was measured by administering a vocabulary pretest. After pretesting process, the participants in both groups received the treatment in two different ways. In the EG, the new vocabulary items were taught using the Kahoot game, while in the CG, the new ones were taught using traditional instruction. After finishing the treatment course, which lasted ten sessions, the two groups took the immediate vocabulary posttest. After three weeks, a delayed vocabulary posttest was administered to both groups to determine the effects of Kahoot on their vocabulary retention. The results of paired samples and independent samples t-tests depicted that there were significant differences between the immediate and delayed posttests of the EG and the CG in favor of the EG. The implications of this study can tell the teachers that teaching through game-based learning tools may produce better results than teaching through traditional methods. Also, the implications of this study can encourage students to practice and learn English even outside of the class context.

THE IMPACT OF CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK ON IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS’ WRITING COMPLEXITY, ACCURACY, AND FLUENCY

Background/Purpose: Recently, corrective feedback (CF) has gained considerable importance in language teaching research. Up until now, there has been less attention to the use of CF in an Iranian context. This current study aims at investigating the impact of corrective feedback on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ Complexity (C), Accuracy (A), and Fluency (F) in their writing production.
 
 Methodology: After administering an Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT), the researcher selected 30 Iranian intermediate learners at a private English language institute in Isfahan, Iran and divided them into two groups of 15 randomly. An Oxford placement test was run to make sure that the two groups were homogenous. A series of writing tasks were developed to examine the participants’ performance in writing. The experimental group attended the class in which CF was performed where they received feedback from the teachers and also their partners in the class (by crossing out and explaining) during the writing tasks on how to use the correct forms of the words and tenses. The control group attended the class in which CF was performed briefly. At the end of the study, all subjects participated in paragraph writing. To compare the group means for the study, a test analysis was performed. The difference between the experimental and the control group was considered to be important.
 
 Findings: The results of Independent and samples t tests revealed that the participants in the experimental group outperformed the ones in the control group in writing production. The results clearly indicated that the participants who received CF did better than those who did not. Therefore, the findings generally revealed that CF had a significant effect on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency.
 
 Contributions: This study has multiple benefits for language learners and teachers. Utilizing CF in writing classes can be a practical way to improve students’ proficiency and writing skill. In addition, this study draws attention to the Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency (CAF) of written production.
 
 Keywords: Corrective feedback, complexity, accuracy, fluency, Iranian Intermediate EFL learners.
 
 Cite as: Ghahderijani, B. H. (2021). The impact of corrective feedback on Iranian EFL learners’ writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 6(2), 250-272. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol6iss2pp250-272

Participatory structure of planning and cognitive task complexity in L2 oral performance: a processing perspective

ABSTRACT This study investigates the impact on L2 oral performance of participatory structure of strategic planning (individual vs. collaborative pair planning) and task complexity (simple vs. complex tasks) defined according to the number of elements involved. It also explores individual and collaborative planners’ planning behaviours prior to simple vs. complex tasks. Forty-eight Iranian intermediate learners were assigned to one of the two conditions: individual planning (IndP) and collaborative planning in pairs (ColP) groups. Participants then engaged in planning before completing four oral tasks: two simple and two complex. After each task, they were interviewed about their planning behaviours. Quantitative results showed that fluency and complexity improved as a function of task complexity and collaborative planning. The impact of collaborative planning was greater on the complex tasks in all measures except accuracy. Qualitative analysis revealed that, compared to the individual planners, the collaborative planners used more planning behaviours associated with schematic planning, cognitive planning and content formulation prior to the complex tasks. The findings highlight that careful task design (here, selecting complex tasks with collaborative planning) has real potential to help enhance learners enhance their L2 oral production.

The Effect of Employing Critical Needs Analysis on Iranian Intermediate Learners' Speaking Skills Improvement

English is taught all over the world either as a foreign or second language. It is taught as a foreign language in the Iranian educational system as well. However, it has always been the issue that EFL programs have been developed without conducting a systematic needs analysis from the learners’ perspective. The present study examined the effect of employing critical needs analysis on the learners' speaking skills improvement. To this end, 128 Iranian intermediate learners from three language institutes were selected and assigned to two experimental and control groups. The learners' Necessities, Wants and Lacks through a questionnaire and semi-structured interview were investigated. The experimental group received treatment based on the results of the interview and questionnaire. The results of the inferential statistics showed that the students' highest mean score was in the Necessities sub-dimension, followed by the Lacks, and Wants sub-dimensions which revealed that the students' needs were mostly the items which were necessary for the learners' use of language. In contrast, the control group received treatment based on the pre-determined syllabus of the course. The results of an independent sample t-test indicated that in the post-test, the speaking scores of the participants in the experimental group were significantly higher than the scores in the control group.

The Influence of Topic Management on the Speaking Ability of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

In English as a Foreign Language (EFL) settings where English is not the spoken language, Topic Management has been recognised as one of the factors that influence the speaking ability of learners (Du-Babcock, 1999). In Iran, many intermediate EFL learners find it very difficult to manage the speech aspect of the English language. The present study examines the influence of Topic Management on the speaking ability of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. It provides useful insights on teaching speaking skills through Topic Management to improve the speaking ability of learners. In this study, quasi-experimental design was used. 40 intermediate learners were selected and divided into two groups, the Control Group and the Experimental Group. Three tests were administered to obtain data from the participants. These were a proficiency test to check the English proficiency level of the participants, a speaking pre-test to check their speaking ability before the treatment, and a speaking post-test to check their speaking ability after the treatment. The results indicate that Topic Management has an influence on the speaking ability of Iranian EFL learners. That is, the more the student is confident in managing the topic the more he/she is able to sustain the conversation. The study concludes that Topic Management can be a facilitative approach to improving Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ speaking ability.

Computerized Group Dynamic Assessment and Listening Comprehension Ability: Does Self-Efficacy Matter?

The present study investigated the effect of group dynamic assessment (DA) through software on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ listening comprehension ability. The main question of the study was whether dynamic assessment via CoolSpeech software had any effect on the listening comprehension ability of learners with high and low self-efficacy. To find the answer, 80 Iranian intermediate learners were selected from among a population of 120, based on their scores on a placement test. A self-efficacy questionnaire was then used to assign selected participants into two experimental groups as low self-efficacious experimental group (n=20) and high self-efficacious experimental group (n=20), as well as two control groups, each containing 20 participants. Next, a pretest of listening comprehension ability was administered to all groups, and no significant difference between their mean scores was observed. After a period of two months, during which the experimental groups received treatment of dynamic assessment through CoolSpeech software and the control groups received a placebo, a posttest of listening comprehension was administered to all groups. The data analysis results revealed that the participants in high self-efficacious experimental group achieved significantly better scores than the other groups. However, in the second experimental group, no significant change was observed, and participants in the second experimental group did not significantly outperform the control group. It was concluded that the group dynamic assessment method via software could have a significant effect on the listening comprehension ability of EFL learners with high self-efficacy.

The Effect of Learners’ Autonomous Textbook Selection on Intermediate Iranian EFL Learners’ Speaking Ability

Abstract The ability to employ the language as a communicational tool often serves as a measure of one’s speaking success in the language learning class. This research sought to investigate the effect of learners’ autonomous textbook selection on the speaking ability of Iranian English as foreign language (EFL) learners. Moreover, finding and analyzing factors considered by the learners in selecting the textbooks were another aim of this research. Sixty Iranian intermediate EFL learners from the Simin Language Institute in Ramsar, Mazandaran, Iran, were selected as the participants of the study based on their scores on Oxford Placement Test. This test determines the level of the students’ English proficiency. These participants were randomly assigned into the control and experimental groups. An interview procedure was run as their pretest. The experimental group studied from their selected books, besides the researcher’s teaching in the class. After 16 sessions, a posttest, the same as the pretest, was run as well. The quantitative results indicated the superior performance of the experimental group over the control group. Furthermore, an analysis of the Litz’s (2000) questionnaire shows that learners considered criteria such as practical considerations, layout and design, activities, skills, language type, subject and content of the selected books.

The Influence of Concept Mapping on Speaking Fluency of Iranian Intermediate Learners

The Influence of Concept Mapping on Speaking Fluency of Iranian Intermediate Learners

Effect of Paper and E-Dictionaries on Iranian EFL Learners' Reading Comprehension

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of paper and e-dictionaries on Iranian intermediate learners' reading comprehension. To this end, 90 female English Foreign language learners were randomly selected and assigned into 2 experimental groups (e-dictionaries and paper dictionaries groups) and 1 control group. All the groups took a pretest using no dictionaries. After 2 weeks of treatment design for the experimental groups, all the 3 groups took part in the posttest. The experimental groups did their task with their relevant dictionaries, whereas the control group did their task without using any kind of dictionary. Data were analyzed through analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and paired samples t test. Results showed that the participants’ reading comprehension improved from the pretest to the posttest in both experimental groups. Results also indicated that the learners in the e-dictionaries group outperformed those in the paper dictionaries group. The outcome of study reveals that e-dictionaries could improve students’ reading comprehension by motivating them, shortening the time of searching words and reading a text, and increasing the number of look ups.

The Effect of Cognitive and Metacognitive Writing Strategies on Content of the Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Writing

Writing strategies instruction have become one of the most talked-about topics in the field of language teaching and learning when scholars found that SL/FL writing is believed to be a problem for learners. Cognitive and metacognitive strategies, as two writing strategies, have been widely researched over the past few decades. Among the substantial body of research investigating the effect of cognitive and metacognitive writing strategies, little attention has been given to the effect of cognitive and metacognitive strategies on content of the learners’ writing. This experimental investigation is conducted to explore how the cognitive and metacognitive writing strategies can affect the content of the Iranian intermediate learners’ writing. For this purpose, 75 intermediate learners were recruited to participate in this study. They were randomly assigned to three groups to form two experimental groups and one control group. Each of the cognitive and metacognitive groups was instructed by one of the cognitive and metacognitive strategies. The findings provide evidence that the intervention favor the experimental groups’ learners to create a better content for their writing. The results of this study also indicate that there was significant relationship between cognitive and metacognitive groups. In other words, the metacognitive group outperformed the cognitive one in content of the writing. The implication of this study is to indicate which of the cognitive and metacognitive strategies are most likely to be instructed to students.

An Investigation of Iranian Learners’ Utilization of Politeness Strategies and Power Relations in Refusal Speech Act across Different Communicative Situations

This study aimed to examine the L2 pragmatic knowledge of Iranian intermediate learners of English through the performance of the speech act of refusals in English across diverse situations. One hundred and twenty five Iranian learners whose language proficiency was at the intermediate level took part in this research. The required data were collected by mean of an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and a Written Discourse Completion Task (WDCT). The results showed that most respondents tended to use more indirect strategies (55.5%) to refuse another speaker’s suggestion or request either with higher or lower power or within different social distance. They utilized direct strategies with 24.1% and adjuncts to refusals with 18.9% respectively. The findings are illustrative of the fact that the variations in the use of different strategies are less seen in the data. In other words, learners employed almost the same semantic formulas or pragmalinguistic forms to refuse affairs in most of the situations. It can be said that learners might not have enough awareness or consciousness regarding the use of different pragmalinguistic forms in performing the refusal since they did not have sufficient understanding of context and contextual factors involved as well. Therefore, the results can suggest that the learners lack sufficient pragmatic knowledge in confronting different situations. The implication of this study is for Iranian language instructors to teach a variety of speech acts’ strategies, politeness strategies and draw learners’ their attention to the contextual features in opting out the appropriate strategy in a variety of situations.

The Relationship between Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Frequency of Language Learning Strategies Use and Their Pragmatic and Grammatical Awareness

In this study, attempts were made to investigate the use of language learning strategies in four areas of communicative competence among Iranian intermediate learners and also the extent of their pragmatic and grammatical awareness. The relationship between the participants' frequency of grammatical strategies use and their pragmatic and grammatical awareness was also explored. In so doing, after conducting the Oxford placement test on a group of students in Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, 63 homogeneous intermediate students were selected. The required data were collected through administrating Language Learning Strategies for Communicative Competence questionnaire to determine the use of language learning strategies by the participants and Pragmatic and Grammaticality Judgment Task questionnaire to determine their pragmatic and grammatical awareness. The findings revealed that the participants used grammatical strategies more frequently and sociolinguistic strategies less frequently than other types of strategies. Furthermore, the descriptive statistics demonstrated that the participants had more grammatical awareness and perceived the grammatical errors more seriously in comparison to pragmatic ones. Finally, correlational analysis displayed there was no correlation between the participants’ frequency of grammatical strategies use and their pragmatic awareness. These findings demonstrate the participants’ weakness in employing sociolinguistic strategies and their lack of pragmatic awareness.

The Effect of Textual Enhancement Technique on Incidental Learning of Idiomatic Expressions of Iranian Intermediate Students

One of the techniques affecting incidental learning is using textual enhancement. This study was conducted in order to see whether textual enhancement positively affects incidental learning of idiomatic expressions. To do so, a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest control group design was carried out. The participants were 40 Iranian intermediate learners selected via convenient sampling and were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups, 20 participants in each. Before the treatment, Idiom Knowledge Scale (IKS) test, taken from Wesche and Paribakht's (1996) was administered to both groups, as pretest. Then the experimental group was exposed to idioms presented with four different textual enhancement techniques (color-coded, bolded, Italic and sticky papers). After the treatment, IKS, was again administered to the groups, as posttest. The results of data analysis through ANCOVA indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group and that the implementation of textual techniques could enhance the incidental idiom learning.

Focusing on the Relationship between Speaking Fluency/Accuracy of EFL Learners of Both Genders and their Listening Comprehension

This study sought to investigate the role of gender on Iranian intermediate learners’ oral accuracy and fluency. It also attempted to explore which one speaking fluency or accuracy had a more meaningful relationship with the participants’ listening comprehension. Initially, out of 20 intermediate classes 3 classes of female and 3 classes of male learners comprising a total number of 45 male and 45 learners were selected randomly from the pool of Tehran Institute of Technology. A validated pre-test was administered to the participants to assure homogeneity in terms of overall language proficiency and accordingly, 30 male and 30 female learners were identified as the legitimate participants who had been interviewed drawing on the some speaking tasks. The speech of the participants were recorded and subsequently analyzed by two raters based on the fluency and accuracy measurement criteria. Inter-rater reliability was established for both the fluency and accuracy (87% and 83%, respectively). Having finished the analysis of the participants’ performance, the researcher administered the listening comprehension test. The obtained data were analyzed to investigate the role of gender on oral accuracy and fluency and their possible correlations with listening comprehension performance. The results indicated that female participants outperformed the males in terms of fluency while males were superior in terms of accuracy. Moreover, it was found that a strong correlation existed between female participants’ listening comprehension and speaking fluency while for the male participants this correlation existed with the speaking accuracy. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n3p444

ESP Writing for Tourism: A Genre-based Approach in Teaching Writing to Iranian University Students

This article aims at investigating the effectiveness of using a genre-based approach in teaching ESP writing to the Iranian intermediate learners. To achieve its objectives, this research benefited from 60 sophomore female university volunteers who were then categorized into two groups of experimental (genre) and control (non-genre). During the instruction process which lasted 16 teaching hours, the experimental group received a genre-based teaching approach. In this condition, the participants were to evaluate six authentic tourist information texts which lasted for six successive sessions. They were encouraged to find out the major constituent moves previously discussed in class. At last the ESP learners had the opportunities for producing texts of the same genre following the rhetorical structure of the tourism texts extracted from brochures already analyzed in class. With regard to the non-genre group, a common teaching approach was applied in which the participants received the same six authentic texts. The activities included cloze exercises, sentence joining activities and error-correction exercises. No attention, either explicit or implicit, was allocated to the kind of genre and its constituent moves. The participants in this group had also opportunities to compose pieces of writing by making use of the six authentic texts. The design of the study considered two major variables: a) move index and b) texture index in relation to method variable. Move index investigated how well the participants performed on the use of appropriate move structures. The texturing index examined how well the writing assignments were textured. Taking the two groups into consideration, and in order to discover if general writing proficiency improves through using a genre based teaching, a two-way ANOVA was used to measure these variables in the participants' pretest and posttest. The results obtained from this study revealed that the participants in the genre group outperformed the non-genre group in their use of allowable move structures and texturing criteria. It was revealed that making use of the genre-based approach is beneficial in developing ESP writing skill of intermediate students. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n2s1p470

Examining the Impact of Novel Pre-activity Tasks on Macroskills: The Case of Group Discussion on Writing Ability

The main concern of most researchers in the field of second and foreign language teaching is lessening the problems and eliminating the hinders on the way of learning a language. Writing is considered as one of the most challenging and complicated tasks for learners to perform particularly when they have to write in a second or foreign language. Numerous studies were done on the importance of the pre-writing stage and activities which are directly and indirectly related to the theme of the writing. Accordingly, the main aim of this study was to examine the effects of group discussion as a pre- activity task on writing ability. To this aim, 27 Iranian EFL learners, who were at the same level –intermediate- studying at Shokuh and Safir Institutes, Birjand, Iran were chosen randomly. Two groups- one control and one experimental group- were studied. In control group the conventional method was used in teaching writing, while in experimental group, group discussion pre-activity task was administered. After 16 sessions, the obtained data of the pretests and posttests was analyzed by SPSS software. According to the results, researcher strongly concluded that group discussion has no significant effect on writing ability of Iranian intermediate learners. This study can help teachers and syllabus designers in choosing and applying an effective pre-activity task. Keywords: writing ability, pre-activity task, group discussion, EFL learners

The Effect of Written Corrective Feedback on Writing Accuracy of Intermediate Learners

The present research examined the role of written corrective feedback (WCF) in enhancing writing accuracy of Iranian Intermediate learners. The present study is quantitative and experimental survey that measured the accuracy of using two functions of English article system, namely definite article “the” and indefinite article “a” and “an” during eight weeks using pre-test and post-test. Sixty students including (20 control group, 20 experimental group,20 experimental group) participated in the study to determine which kind of teacher written corrective feedback affects writing accuracy more. (1) Control group did not receive WCF on specific grammar errors; group (2) received direct WCF; group (3) received indirect WCF. The results of the study demonstrated that direct (WCF) affected students’ performance more.

The Impact of Self-Regulated Strategy Development on Vocabulary Learning among English Language Learners

The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) on vocabulary learning of students’ English as a foreign language (EFL), and find the relationship between male and female participants with regard to the effect of SRSD on their vocabulary learning. To achieve this goal, 60 homogeneous intermediate EFL learners (30 male and 30 female) were randomly assigned to two groups of 30, a control group who received the mainstream instruction for intermediate learners and an experimental group who received additional training using self-regulated strategy development in their vocabulary instruction. The treatment consisted of five vocabulary learning strategies (using a monolingual dictionary, using new words in sentences, guessing meaning from the context, word part analysis and repetition) which were reinforced through five steps of SRSD, i.e., discuss it, model it, make it your own, support it and independent performance. A quasi-experimental design was adopted to collect the data. The results indicated that self-regulated strategy development can have a significantly positive impact on the vocabulary learning of Iranian intermediate EFL learners and this impact does not differ among male and female EFL learners. Based on the findings of the study, it was suggested that self-regulated strategy development is used in English language classes in order to teach vocabulary. Further educational implications of the study have been elaborated in the paper. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s2p249