Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies
Volume:1 Issue: 3, Summer 2014

Raising awareness of learning styles as a major component of communicative competence in learners may lead to greater levels of success in English as a foreign language. This study was an attempt to investigate the role of learning styles as predictors of test performance. The participants of the study were 152 B.A. level students majoring in English teaching at Imam Khomeini international university in Qazvin and Takestan Islamic Azad University. To get ensured of the homogeneity of the participants prior to the study, the researchers administered a test of general language proficiency which showed no significant differences among the participants in this regard. Then, the learning styles questionnaire adapted from Honey and Mumford (2000) was administered to the participants. At the end of the semester, the participants took part in their usual final exams. The obtained data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that out of the four learning styles of theorist, activist, reflective, and pragmatist as possible predictors, only reflective and pragmatist styles accounted for a statistically significant portion of the variance in final test performance. The findings of this study may have theoretical and pedagogical implications for language learners, teachers, and syllabus designers.

Unprecedented interest in pragmatic abilities of competent speakers of language has raised some questions regarding the nature of pragmatic competence in different languages. Acquisition of pragmatics in early bilinguals has the advantage of illuminating the similarities and differences of pragmatic competence across languages. The purpose of this study was to investigate the comprehension of indirect requests and the production of requests in early bilinguals which is underrepresented in literature on pragmatic acquisition. At the same time the secondary purpose of the study was to tackle another gap in similar studies of first language acquisition, that is, reflecting on the implications of research findings for teaching pragmatics. The participants of the study were two bilinguals aged 3.5 and 2.4 at the start of the study which lasted for 8 months. The data comes from diary notes and recordings of the children‟s interaction with their mothers and in some cases their peers as well as their responses to indirect requests made by the researchers. The data were analyzed both qualitatively (using Straus and Corbin‟s (1998) model) and quantitatively (using chi-square tests). The analysis revealed that their comprehension of indirect requests did not differ significantly in the two languages and their production of requests was similar regarding the types of requests in the two languages. The findings suggest that there might be one pragmatic competence for both of the languages which bilinguals draw upon in production of requests and comprehension of indirect requests. The implications for teaching pragmatics are also discussed.

Because of their utmost importance in communication and interpersonal relationships, apologies have been widely studied and discussed thus far. In line with the same view and in order to introduce a clearer image of apology strategies to nonnative language users, this study investigated the apology exchanges used in a popular English situation comedy (sitcom) namely “The Simpsons”, aiming to determine the apology strategies, the types of offenses, and the factors leading up to the choice of apology strategies. To achieve these purposes, 8 seasons of The Simpsons were selected and used as the corpus, the conversations containing apology expressions were transcribed and used for analysis based on the frameworks proposed by Trosborg (1995) and Fraser (1981). The results of analyzing apology expressions revealed that expression of regret, acknowledgement of responsibility, and explanation were the most frequent apology strategies. Also, in some cases speakers resorted to using mixtures of apology strategies among which expression of regret mixed with explanation was the most common combination of apology strategies. It was also found that I‟m sorry and excuse me were the most frequent apology forms. Additionally, although the situation and the familiarity between the interlocutors were effective in choosing apology strategies, the nature and the severity of the infraction were found to be the most influential factors. The findings of this study have implications for L2 learners, helping them become more aware of cultural differences and thus apologizing more effectively.

This study aimed to investigate (a) EFL learner's beliefs about writing autonomy and their autonomous writing practices and (b) the contribution of writing autonomy to writing performance in terms of level specific tasks. The participants of this study were 138 Iranian students at BA and MA levels in Alborz Institute of Higher Education. Three writing tasks at B1, B2, and C1 levels as well as the adapted version of the autonomy questionnaire developed by Chan, Spratt, and Humphreys (2002) were administered in this research. The results showed that the majority of both BA and MA students were found to be at B1 level, and only 17.3% of MA students were placed at C1 level. In addition, both BA and MA students held themselves more responsible for 'Making sure they make progress during writing lessons'. Concerning writing abilities, BA students reported to be more capable of 'Choosing writing objectives in writing class', while MA students were more able to 'Identify their weaknesses in English writing' and to 'Decide how long to spend on each activity'. Considering writing activities, in both BA and MA student's responses, 'Listening and taking notes about what they have been taught', was the most frequent activity, whereas 'Writing an informal review for a website' and 'Writing a personal blog' were the least frequent activities. The results of ordinal regression analysis also revealed that only writing activities and group (BA and MA) were related to the rated performance.

Reading comprehension and critical thinking are basic skills for second/foreign language learners that should be developed during higher education. A critical thinking based instruction can engage the cognitive processes which may improve language learners‟ reading comprehension and critical thinking. This study then seeks to compare the effectiveness of a critical thinking-based instruction with a traditional (noncritical thinking-based) one in improving Iranian L2 learners‟ reading comprehension along with their critical thinking. To this end, 50 intermediate Iranian EFL (English as a foreign language) learners majoring in English translation were selected (through accessibility sampling) and assigned to the experimental and control groups. TOEFL reading comprehension and Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal tests were employed to assess their reading comprehension and critical thinking skills using a pretest-posttest control group design. The results of t-tests and analysis of covariance revealed that the treatment in the experimental group (i.e., using questioning, discussion in groups, note-making, annotations, and reflective practice) had a positive and significant effect on increasing both reading comprehension and critical thinking of the EFL participants. Besides, the participants in the experimental (critical thinking-based) group outperformed those in the control (noncritical thinking-based) group in their reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. Findings have theoretical and pedagogical implications for L2 researchers and teachers about the reading construct and the way to teach it.

This study set out to examine the classroom management beliefs of Iranian EFL teachers working in language institutes in Ilam, Iran. Teachers‟ perceptions were investigated with respect to a number of variables including teachers‟ gender, age, teaching experience, educational degree, and the level they taught to see how these variables lead to differences in teachers‟ perception. To this end, 122 EFL teachers (69 females and 53 males) participated in the study. The Attitudes and Beliefs on Classroom Control (ABCC) Inventory (Martin, Yin, & Baldwin, 1998) were adopted as the instrument in this study. Results revealed significant differences in teachers‟ beliefs about classroom management with respect to the variables under study. They tended to believe in imposing strong control when managing their classrooms and males showed more and females showed less interventionist attitudes when managing their instruction. Finally, these findings would contribute to the body of classroom management literature by adding the perspective form an Iranian context.