Research in English Language Pedagogy
Volume:9 Issue: 2, Summer-Autumn 2021

One of the decisive factors affecting language learners’ learning is brain dominance. The present research was conducted to investigate the effect of brain dominance on task-based reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. To this aim, 50 intermediate Iranian EFL learners were selected as the study sample. The instrumentation included the ECPE test of proficiency, a hemispheric dominance questionnaire and a reading comprehension post-test. The four tasks of Problem Solving, Information Gap, Jigsaw, and Decision Making were chosen. Statistical analysis revealed that the difference in the performance of the three groups of right-, left-, and whole-brainers was insignificant on all of the presented tasks. Thus, it was found that brain dominance, as an independent variable, is not a correlate of success and achievement on task-based reading comprehension, as a dependent variable.

One of the major issues in language learning classrooms is familiarity with the cultural perspective of reading materials. Learners' insufficient knowledge of the target culture of language brings about some difficulties to understand the target reading materials. Consequently, learners' motivation to learn the new language would be diminished. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of teaching cultural materials on improving Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension across two genders. To this end, 150 upper-intermediate male (n = 75) and female (n = 75) EFL learners out of 250, were selected through administering an Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). The participants of each gender were randomly assigned into three equal groups: group A (Target Culture = TC), group B (Source Culture = SC), and group C (Culture-Free = CF). Then, a reading comprehension pretest was administered to assess the participants’ reading comprehension at the beginning of the course. After the pretest, the researchers practiced the treatment on the three groups. Each group received reading comprehension materials that reflected a particular culture. During the treatment, some reading passages related to American and English culture (for group A), Persian culture (for group B), and culture-free materials (for group C), were taught. Finally, a posttest of reading comprehension was administered after the treatment. The results showed that teaching culturally oriented materials improved the Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension better. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated that there was no significant difference between male and female learners’ reading comprehension posttest. In light of the findings, a number of conclusions are drawn and several implications are put forward.

These days, educationists and students are growing enthusiasm for digital learning which is based on pedagogical games. A review of the body of research confirms that these online instructional games are efficient at getting the learners involved in the learning process. The present research investigates using an online educational game-based platform called Kahoot to enhance learning English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and sustains the hypothesis that it enriches the traditional, teacher-centered classrooms by having EFL learners more engaged, motivated, and involved. Applying a mixed-method study, around 100 EFL undergraduates were surveyed and evaluated based on a semester-long involvement in Kahoot games in an EAP course. The subjects were interviewed for their perceptions of using Kahoot and also evaluated statistically by their performance on the achievement test of the course. The findings of the project confirm an enhancement of the EFL learners' language skill performance. Furthermore, Kahoot helped EFL learners experience a high degree of engagement in comparison with traditional teaching methods. Besides, new horizons toward the future of application of Kahoot in EFL learning are discussed. Consequently, both parts of the study i.e., qualitative and quantitative, approved that playing Kahoots, as a platform for game-based learning, was highly engaging, educationally helpful, and motivating.

Many learners experience foreign language anxiety in our schools today. Reported consequences of being anxious toward foreign language anxiety include the avoidance of language learning and decline in language achievement. The aim of the present study is to predict foreign language anxiety and school success by family characteristics in high school students. The sample comprised 214 high school students from Ahvaz in academic years 2020 to 2021.  The Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (FLAS) was administered to the student’s group sample and family characteristics were explained by observable socioeconomic background such as age, education and income. The results revealed that among the family characteristics variables, only parent’s education had a negative correlation with foreign language anxiety and multivariate regression for this model revealed that a combination of age, income and education could be a good predictor for foreign language anxiety. The second part of results also exposed that parent’s income and parent’s education had a significant positive correlation with school achievement and multivariate regression for this model also revealed that a combination of family characteristics can be a good predictor for school achievement. The second part of results also exposed that parent’s income and parent’s education has a significant positive correlation with school achievement and multivariate regression for this model also revealed that combination of family characteristics can be a good predictor for school achievement.

Academic writing, similar to the other types of writing, would be operative if authors employconventions which the other associates of their community recognize familiar and conclusive. Principally, writing includes generating a text that we accept the reader will understand and believe, and reading includes drawing on conventions according to what the author is demanding to do. It is widely believed that, one of the most important aspect of scientific discourse is to consider data and the results obtained from the gathered data. The sentences of a written discourses signify the writers’ opinions (Stubbs,1986), academic authors are required to offer their statements thoughtfully, and specifically to satisfy expectations of discourse community, and to start a dialogue with their readers. The purpose of the present study was to examine the frequency and types of hedging devices in Discussion and Result sections of applied linguistics articles. To this end, 20 articles were selected form the leading journal; 10 by native English speaker EFL scholars and 10 by Iranian EFL scholars. After categorizing hedging devices based on Salager-Meyer’s (1994) taxonomy, and recording the type and frequency of hedges, it was found that there was no significant difference between Iranian and American writers in terms of utilizing hedging devices in their discussion and result sections.

This paper aimed to investigate the impact of employing flipped classrooms in teaching grammar on Iranian advanced EFL students through an experimental research design. Two groups were created on Skype application. The groups of the participants were grouped via tossing a coin. There were 20 participants in each group. Both groups received instructions through Skype. They also had groups on Telegram, Signal, and WhatsApp to receive assignments for the members of the control group and instructions for the inverted classroom. The members of the control group received the instruction traditionally on Skype, whereas, the participants of the experimental group received the instruction in an inverted approach. Statistical test of ANCOVA was employed to investigate the differences among the participants after the 20th session to analyze the data. The results showed that learners who received instructions through the flipped classroom could outperform the control group in grammar achievement and accuracy.

Assuredly, learning a language other than the mother tongue is among the most complicated processes. It is a strikingly long-drawn-out experience that depends upon physical, mental, and emotional aspects. The second language trainees should change between their understanding of self as a person speaking the first language and awareness of themselves as second language learners and this pushes them to think of how they ‘identify’ themselves. No longer have pedagogues the mere role in the worldwide education medium. Among the latest factors being studied broadly around the globe is the notion of identity. In fact, it allows for how a person figure in his or her rapport to the world and makes sense of prospect for subsequent times. Identity points up how language constructed by a variety of relationships. Bodies of reports have been carried out undertaking the research methods referring to identity showing the role of identity in learning English. This paper undertakes an analysis of the review of the studies related to two fields of identity and language. The topics in the literature are discussed over the last decades. Finally, some implications are given on identity in SLA indicating how English language learning can be affected by identity.

This article aimed at investigating the effect of teaching vocabulary via textbooks and social media on the creativity level of Iranian EFL learners. To this purpose, 40 Iranian EFL learners at the intermediate level be involved in a pretest-posttest study after taking the (OQP) test. They were between 13 to 18 years old. The creativity questionnaire was administered as the pretest and posttest. All the participants were at the same level of proficiency and both groups (experimental & control) contained male and female learners. Each group involved 20 participants. Both groups received an explanation about the purpose and an explanation of how they should act. The experimental group was taught vocabulary items via Telegram while the control group learned the new words through traditional methods. After taking the posttest and analyzing the data, the results showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in terms of creativity. Thus, it can be concluded that the training program could have positive effects on the experimental group for creativity improvement and the traditional way was not effective. Finally, it was revealed that gender had no significant effect in using social media to improve creativity. Social media include various creative activities that could help learners inside and outside the classroom effectively.

The study attempts to investigate the nature of foreign language for developing an instrument to measure anxiety of foreign language for use with high school students in Iran. By using the four domains of foreign language, a preliminary 35-item questionnaire was developed and tested based on high school students. The Participants for factor analysis were 350 teachers, representing 14 schools in Ahvaz. These samples were cluster randomly selected and grouped based on their sex, age, academic levels, the status of the school, etc. The survey instrument used in this study for the validity of the scale is Multifactor Language Questionnaire -FLA (Horwitz et al., 1986). The properties of reliability and validity have borne significant results which show this instrument can be considered suitable to determine the position of foreign language in high school students. Factor analysis was made from which 24 items were extracted which had a factor loading of >0.5 on the four domains. Analysis of data in this study supported the inclusion of four factors namely foreign test anxiety, foreign writing anxiety, foreign teacher anxiety, and foreign pronunciation anxiety. These findings are discussed together with recommendations for upcoming studies.

Language teaching has followed lots of ups and downs. The application of literature to language teaching has been under suspicion for many years. This paper via theoretical argument approach and based on library search has tried to show the possible and potential benefits of using literature and literary genres in TEFL. Specifically, it has tried to present the most agreed-upon ideas regarding the application of literary genres to TEFL from students’ viewpoints. This reveals a better selection of the most applicable genres in applied linguistics. It highlights the accompanying characteristics of literary genres to be tailored for the implementation in English language teaching courses. Hinging on the survey of a host of articles and books and centralizing on the real practice, observation, and real utilization of literature and literary genres by the researcher in Farhangian University classes, it has endeavored to present the most commonly agreed-upon features and characteristics of literature and its genres to provide curriculum designers, managers, instructors, and even students with hints and guidelines to turn to the use of literature and its genres courageously and warmly. Implicitly, the survey suggests the deployment of literature and literary genres in academic settings and more specifically Farhangian University.

The national curriculum is a document that determines and explains the master plan of the curriculum and the framework of the country's curriculum system to achieve the goals of education in Iran and causes the unification and coherence of all program components and the modernization and reconstruction of curricula based on the philosophy of education of I.R.Iran. Besides, it legalized whole activities in the educational system to achieve educational goals. In order to evaluate the opportunities of e-learning in English language teaching based on the national curriculum, the content of this document was analyzed using the opinions of three education experts. To do this, eleven codes agreed upon by experts were used. In the end, it was identified that important opportunities for the curriculum include richness and design, application of technology, media, and educational technology. Thus, the national curriculum document clearly refers to e-learning opportunities in the use of educational media and technologies.