Nunan [1] defines strategies as "the mental and communicative procedures learners use in order to... more Nunan [1] defines strategies as "the mental and communicative procedures learners use in order to learn and use language. Underlying every learning task is at least one strategy." Richards and Schmidt [2] define strategy as "procedures used in learning, thinking, etc., which serves as a way of reaching a goal. In language learning, learning strategies are those conscious or unconscious processes which language learners make use of in learning and using a language." The definitions provided for learning strategies by scholars all have one point in common and that is facilitating learning for learners. Nevertheless, they are in disagreement about issues like whether such strategies are conscious and so describable and then teachable, and also what variables are involved in strategy use by language learners have resulted in various contentions on the part of researchers. Volume 2-Issue 4 Copyrights @ Ehsan Namaziandost, et al.
Academic Journal Perspective : Education, Language, and Literature, 2020
One approach to taking advantage of corpora in language teaching would be adding to a textbook th... more One approach to taking advantage of corpora in language teaching would be adding to a textbook through enriching it through employing corpus-based research. When it comes to using English for Academic Purposes (EAP) materials, the inclusion of corpora in teaching language becomes even more urgent. In the current study, the authors did their best to investigate and describe the presence of formulaic language in an EAP textbooks titled: English for international tourism: Pre-intermediate students’ book written by Dubicka and O’keeffe (2003) through a case study, and corpus-driven method as a research methodology. Therefore, this study aims to investigate to what extent the EAP course book designed for tourism titled English for international tourism (EIT) is compatible with a corpus-driven formulaic approach. Findings show that this EAP textbook falls fairly short of presenting the necessary formulas as frequently employed in tourism English. Supplementing such materials with corp...
English Language Teaching and Research Journal (ELTAR-J), 2020
Flipped classroom is an engaging, student-centered approach that has been built to enhance the qu... more Flipped classroom is an engaging, student-centered approach that has been built to enhance the quality of the classroom time. Generally speaking, this approach, whose implementations are performed mostly in physical sciences, has also recently attracted the attention of educators and scholars in various disciplines. Flipped classroom technology is an advancement that helps learners to enhance engagement, increase motivation and develop their communicative abilities. The current study aimed to examine Iranian advanced EFL learners’ attitudes toward using flipped classroom model. To fulfil this objective, 80 advanced EFL learners answered an attitude questionnaire after 10 sessions instructed in a flipped classroom. After collection the data and analyzing them, the results indicated that the learners’ attitude toward using flipped classroom was significantly positive. Eventually, the researchers concluded with some suggestions for educators to adopt the flipped classroom technology to...
Linguistics, SLA and Lexicon as the Unit of Language
Each one of the major linguistic schools takes a different compartment of language as the main bu... more Each one of the major linguistic schools takes a different compartment of language as the main building block which shapes the totality of a language. The claim is that most of the linguistic theories have ceded to the prominence of lexicon as one major component of language. Through introducing the concept of lexical features, into the Minimalist Program, Chomsky has acknowledged the fact that lexicon features determine a word’s meaning, its morphological shape and its syntactical behavior in syntax. Constructions are based on particular lexical items which have been acknowledged as crucial in SLA although with different labels such as holophrases, prefabricated patterns, formulaic speech, formulae, sequences in SLA, chunks, and formulaic expressions or utterances. By adopting a lexical approach in studying language and language teaching and learning, the need for a new teaching methodology has always been felt, a demand which has never been satisfied.
Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 2020
This study aimed to investigate the impact of the flipped classroom model on students’ self-effic... more This study aimed to investigate the impact of the flipped classroom model on students’ self-efficacy and the difference in self-efficacy between males and females using this model. In order to accomplish this, 66 advanced participants were selected from a private English language institute. They were divided into two equal groups, namely experimental (flipped classroom) and control (traditional) group. The students’ self-efficacy was scored before and after the intervention with the Self-Efficacy Survey. The results indicated an increase in their average self-efficacy score with the flipped classroom while the traditional classroom decreased their average score. When the genders were analyzed separately, the males demonstrated a decrease in self-efficacy while the females indicated an increase while utilizing the flipped classroom. In light of these results, some recommendations have been made.
Ensuring second language (L2) learners have an adequate breadth and depth of L2 vocabulary knowle... more Ensuring second language (L2) learners have an adequate breadth and depth of L2 vocabulary knowledge is a key pedagogical objective in L2 learning contexts. For this reason, establishing guiding principles that successfully enhance the efficacy of L2 vocabulary knowledge development is of strong importance. The current study investigated the value of applying principles from the Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) as part of a reading comprehension task among 40 intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) students. Half of the group undertook a high involvement reading task, whereas the other half undertook a low involvement reading task. After the reading task, an unannounced Vocabulary Knowledge Scale test was administered to measure incidental vocabulary gains. Results showed the high involvement group remarkably outflanked the low involvement groups in terms of the target words learned from the reading task. A delayed post-test indicated that the retention of target word know...
The Effect of Teaching Formulaic Expressions Through Contrastive Lexical Approach on Iranian Pre-intermediate EFL Learners' Writing Skill
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 2021
This study aimed to investigate the effect of the contrastive lexical approach on Iranian EFL lea... more This study aimed to investigate the effect of the contrastive lexical approach on Iranian EFL learners' writing skills. For this study, forty pre-intermediate students from a private English language institutes in Ahvaz, Iran were selected. Then, they were randomly divided into two equal groups of 20; one experimental and one control group. To have two groups of equal numbers, we used a block randomization sampling method. All of these students were female, ranging in age from 18 to 30. Their level of English language proficiency had already been determined by the Institute to be pre-intermediate. First, they were given a pre-test to determine their writing ability. Afterward, the experimental group received writing practices through the Contrastive Lexical Approach (CLA), during 14 sessions. Each session lasted for an hour and a half. The teacher sensitized learners in the experimental group towards the presence of L2 equivalents for L1 formulaic expressions, while the control group received an ordinary, traditional instruction, during which learners read texts containing the same formulaic expressions as for the experimental group without receiving any translation and were then asked to write about the same topics. At the end of the course, a post-test was administered to the two groups. Data were analyzed through independent and paired samples t tests after ensuring the normality of the data. Finally, to discover the power of the statistical tests, the effect size was also calculated. The study showed that using a contrastive lexical approach has a significant positive effect on Iranian EFL learners' writing skills. As the findings in this study propose, the writing skill can be improved through the use of a contrastive lexical approach. Teaching through a contrastive lexical approach, hopefully, gives the learners the chance to fathom their skillful writing competence, which requires the proper use of varied forms of structures and expressions and this, in turn, may sensitize them to know more about what language features to work on to increase their writing proficiency.
Neobehaviorism bridges the gap between behaviorism and cognitivism. Like Thorndike, Watson, and P... more Neobehaviorism bridges the gap between behaviorism and cognitivism. Like Thorndike, Watson, and Pavlov, the neobehaviorists believe that the study of learning and a focus on rigorously objective observational methods are crucial to a scientific psychology. Unlike their predecessors, however, the neobehaviorists are more self-consciously attempting to formalize the laws of behavior. Neobehaviorism is associated with a number of scholars such as Tolman, Hull, Skinner, Hebb, and Bandura. Neobehaviorists demand formalizing the law of behavior. Neobehaviorism takes into consideration abstraction and hidden variables, it represents a holistic approach to behavior. It can be claimed that all neobehavioristic theories have been proposed in order to put some cognition within the mechanistic nature of traditional behaviorism.
International Journal of Research in English Education, 2020
English pronunciation is one of the most important and complicated parts of foreign language teac... more English pronunciation is one of the most important and complicated parts of foreign language teaching and learning. Due to its complexity, pronunciation has been overlooked in English language teaching. Understandable pronunciation is an important part of communicative competence. Individuals who have acceptable pronunciation can easily improve their language skills better than those who have weak pronunciation. Thus, English pronunciation is very significant for successful communication. This study investigated the factors influenced Iranian EFL learners' English pronunciation learning. To this end, fifty Iranian EFL learners participated voluntarily in this study. A quantitative method was used as the design of this study. The researchers used a survey questionnaire as the instrument of this study. The collected data were analyzed via using frequency and percentage. The findings of this research indicated that factors such as pronunciation instruction, attitude, motivation, and error correction respectively were the most important factors that had the greatest effects on Iranian learners' pronunciation improvement. It was also concluded that when teaching pronunciation into their classes, EFL teachers and learners should be equipped with these factors that can considerably increase their success in the correct teaching and learning of English pronunciation.
Journal of Research on English and Language Learning (J-REaLL), 2020
There exist some estimates of the capacity of human memory. Recent studies have proven the fact t... more There exist some estimates of the capacity of human memory. Recent studies have proven the fact that Long Term Memory is subject to constant reconfigurations mostly at lower levels of neural clusters. There is no consensus on one definition for the capacity of memory. As far as retrieval of items present in memory is not the concern, it is reasonable to refrain from putting limits on capacity of human memory; otherwise, one must accept a number game which renders no fixed definite final estimation. Recently such capacity is defined as the amount of interference created by the item which must remain active in the memory.
Saudi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2019
Claim has always been made that thought and language are inseparatable phenomena. Accordingly, ma... more Claim has always been made that thought and language are inseparatable phenomena. Accordingly, major debate has revolved around the dependence or interdependence of language and thought. Based on linguistic relativity hypothesis, our perception of reality depends on the language we speak. The counterclaim has also been made that languages are not so much different and this makes us skeptical of the idea that their speakers have different thoughts. Some hold the belief that language may not serve a proper medium for thought, mentioning extralinguistic drawbacks such as ambiguity, deixis, and co-reference. All in all, it seems rational to maintain that thought and language have compromised to coexist and attempts to prioritize one over the other are mythical if not too much simplistic.
Language learning strategies (LLS) refer to the processes and actions that are consciously deploy... more Language learning strategies (LLS) refer to the processes and actions that are consciously deployed by language learners to help them to learn or use a languagemore effectively. Considering the importance of LLS, insufficient studies have been carried out on understanding both teachers and learners’ opinions towards using LLS in Iranian educational context. Therefore, in this project, Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and learners’ opinions towards using LLS have been investigated. To fulfill this objective, 20 teachers and 20 learners filled out a questionnaire. After gathering the data and analyzing them, the findings revealed that the Iranian EFL Teachers and learners’ opinions towards using LLS was significantly positive. Eventually, the researchers concluded with some suggestions for educators to adopt the flipped classroom technology to create better learning environments for their students and to reach better learning consequences. The results of this paper...
Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 2019
Considering the vital role of comprehensible input, this study attempted to compare the effects o... more Considering the vital role of comprehensible input, this study attempted to compare the effects of input with various difficulty levels on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension and reading motivation. To fulfil this objective, 54 Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners were selected from two intact classes (n = 27 each). The selected participants were randomly assigned to two equal groups, namely “i + 1″ (n = 27) and “i-1″ group (n = 27). Then, the groups were pretested by a researcher-made reading comprehension test. After carrying out the pre-test, the treatment (i.e., extensive reading at different levels of difficulty) was practiced on the both groups. The participants in “i + 1″ group received reading passages beyond the current level, on the other hand, the “i-1″ group received those reading passages which were below their current level. After the instruction ended, a modified version of pre-test was conducted as posttest to determine the impacts of the treatment on the st...
Journal of Humanities and Education Development, 2019
The Competition Model (CM) embraces lexicalist and functionalist approach to language structure a... more The Competition Model (CM) embraces lexicalist and functionalist approach to language structure and function. What is highly emphasized in this model is a lexicalist functionalism through which syntactic patterns are directed and controlled by lexical items. CM tenets resemble to that of Haliday's systemic-Functional linguistics in that it only deals with form-meaning relations within a text and not in the real world. A new Competition Model needs to be introduced which is more pragmatic-oriented through taking formulaic sequences as forms to be mapped onto real world pragmatic functions. CM must free itself from the mere focus on sentence processing studies and involve itself with more pragmatic manifestations of form-function relations. It is claimed that within the models in which there is an architecture that utilizes lexical categories to build "valence bridges", L1-L2 translation equivalents facilitate crossing valence bridges which helps in discovering forthcoming elements and filling syntactic slots.
English Review: Journal of English Education, 2019
This study tries to investigate the impact(s) of genre-based teaching (GBT) on Iranian EFL learne... more This study tries to investigate the impact(s) of genre-based teaching (GBT) on Iranian EFL learners� listening proficiency as well as to discover if GBT equally affects the listening proficiency of EFL learners at different proficiency levels. To fulfill this objective, 84 EFL learners were chosen. They were divided into Group A and Group B. Groups A and B consisted of 40 and 44 participants, respectively. Group A was divided into experimental and control groups and performed two listening proficiency tests for pre and posttest. Findings of one-way ANCOVA revealed that experimental group performed better than the control group due to using GBI. As indicated by the proficiency test, Group B was also divided into proficient and less-proficient groups; each one performed two listening tests for pre and posttest. Consequences of one-way ANCOVA showed both groups enhanced from pretest to posttest, however; the proficient group performed outstandingly better than the less-proficient group...
The Influence of Contrastive Lexical Approach on Efl Learners' Pragmatic Performance: The Case of Iranian Efl Learners
This study is an investigation into the role of contrastive lexical approach (CLA), in comparison... more This study is an investigation into the role of contrastive lexical approach (CLA), in comparison with explicit and implicit methods, in Iranian EFL learners " pragmatic performance. Contrastive and lexical underpinnings of CLA, as theories that lend themselves to teaching pragmatic competence, provided the impetus to compare CLA with the other two instructional methods. 47 participants were randomly assigned to three treatment groups. The participants received instructional treatment for 10 sessions through the use of video clips and PowerPoint files. Although no significant difference was found across language teaching methods, results revealed that all of them promoted the participants " pragmatic performance. Taking translation as a subcomponent of explicit teaching may have confounded the results of other similar studies to the advantage of explicit teaching. The relative advantage of CLA over the other two methods in this study, research literature, and the participa...
Validation of a Modified Pragmatic Test: C-Test as a Measure of Formulaic Competence
As a less-trodden path, the assessment of pragmatic competence represents one of the most challen... more As a less-trodden path, the assessment of pragmatic competence represents one of the most challenging areas in language testing. All the methods proposed so far suffer from certain validity aspects such as practicality and underrepresentation of the pragmatic construct. This study was an attempt to introduce C-test method, which has been primarily used as a measure of general language proficiency, into assessing one aspect of pragmatic competence, i.e. formulaic knowledge. A test of pragmalinguistic competence was adapted, modified and delivered to 215 university students in Iran and 19 native speakers. Results obtained revealed a higher level of reliability for C-test compared to multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) in assessing the participants " knowledge about routines and yielded three interrelated components for the adapted pragmatic test. In line with previous studies it was found that general language proficiency was a determining factor in the participants ...
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