Journal of new advances in English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
Volume:4 Issue: 1, Winter and Spring 2022

ELT textbooks play an essential role in EFL classrooms, where they present ideologies and power relations which influence learners. In an attempt to uncover such ideologies and power relations, the discourse and images of an internationally developed English language teaching textbook (i.e., Got It 1) were analyzed. This study also aimed to investigate the L2 learners' awareness of the research findings. In order to achieve the goals of this study, multiple samples and images of the textbook Got It 1 were analyzed. Finally, the L2 learners' awareness of ideology and power relations in the textbook were examined by questionnaires and the data were statistically analyzed by SPSS. Findings showed that Got It 1 tends to represent a particular ideology (i.e., the U.S. centrism), mainly through the language and images and it shows the U.S. in the position of high power, whereas lower subaltern status is attributed to other countries. Participants were not aware of the findings and they did not often think critically, although they believed that critical thinking is essential. Findings add to the growing body of literature about ideology and the existence of unequal power relations in ELT textbooks.

The current research aimed to examine the effect of using podcasts on learning pronunciation (i.e. supra segmental features including stress, and intonation) among pre-intermediate Iranian students. 30 participants were chosen in two intact classes and assigned to control and experimental groups. Then they took a teacher-made pre-test of pronunciation based on the learners' text book in order to discover the learners' knowledge on stress and intonation. The participants attended 12 sessions in six weeks of treatment with the use of podcasts pre-intermediate files extracted from www.apple.com/podcasts. They were taught how to listen and distinguish the stress and intonation of the sentences. The control group received the listening materials extracted from Interchange 1: Students’ Book (Richards, 2013). Finally, the participants received the post-test which was designed based on the modified pre-test. Findings revealed that the experimental group significantly improved in pronunciation but the control group did not improve the pronunciation achievement. Results suggest that using digital podcasts facilitates learners' pronunciation regarding stress and intonation at the pre-intermediate level.

The current research was to examine the impact of using hot seat technique on developing EFL learners' oral production. In doing so, 56 female language learners from English institute in Khorramshahr, Iran participated in a placement test to determine their English language homogeneity. Then 36 students at the pre-intermediate level were selected and assigned into three random groups, 12 learners each included one control and two experimental groups (i.e., teachers’ questioning and students’ questioning experimental groups). The groups took a pre-test of oral ability at the first session. In the treatment sessions, experimental groups practiced oral activities through hot seat strategy but the control one was taught conventional tasks such as question/answer, conversation, and participate on guided topics. Finally, at the end of the course, a post-test was administered to three groups. The teachers’ questioning group outperformed the other groups in oral production through hot seat strategy. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to compare the means of the groups in pre/post-tests. The implications of the study indicated hot seat technique may facilitate learners’ oral production.

The current research investigated the impact of reflective teaching instruction (RTI) among pre–service EFL teachers to improve listening skill among EFL learners. The research sample included 100 Iranian learners who were selected as the participants of the study. Then they were randomly assigned into two equal groups of control and experimental. Each group included 50 participants. Both groups took the listening pre-test. The experimental group was taught by training teachers who used reflective practices. Learners of the control group received conventional instruction. These teachers did not use any reflective practices in the control group. But they continued with their usual methods and strategies of teaching. During 12 sessions of treatment, the first session was allocated to the homogeneity test and then the students took the pre-test of listening the second session. The other sessions followed the objectives of the current study. The results of the post-test indicated that the experimental group performed better than the control group (p>.05). Finally, implications suggest that the EFL teachers can use reflective practice in teaching listening skill effectively.

This study planned to investigate the impact of utilizing formative assessment by Kahoot application on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge as well as their burnout level. To conduct the study, 60 homogeneous participants, who were chosen after administering the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), were randomly assigned into two equal groups as control and experimental. Then, the participants took part in the researcher-made vocabulary test as the pretest. In the experimental group, the participants used Kahoot application to address a few questions related to the vocabulary of each lesson while the participants in the control group performed the activities in their student and workbook. After ten sessions, they took part in the posttest. The analyses of the obtained data revealed that using Kahoot, as an online tool for formative assessment, had a statistically significant effect on vocabulary knowledge of Iranian EFL learners. On the other side, using this application had a statistically significant effect on reducing the burnout level of language learners. The findings could be beneficial for EFL/ESL Learners as well as teachers.

The present study compared the impact of online and face-to-face interaction on Iranian technical students’ academic achievement. The participants of the study were selected based on convenience random sampling. A pretest was administered to test their current academic ability. They were then assigned into two equal groups of online (n = 30) and face-to-face (n = 30). The participants of the online group received instruction in an online environment whereas the participants of the control group received instruction through traditional face-to-face methods. Their performances were measured through a posttest. The result of the independent t-test between the pretests and posttests indicated a statistically significant difference between the two groups in their academic achievement. face-to-face instruction was found to be more effective in improving the students’ academic achievement. The current study's findings may be useful for syllabus designers in the sense that they could apply them and develop materials based on the needs and abilities of the learners. The extent to which learning materials cover blended instruction practices is critical in syllabus design.

This study aimed to examine the effect of lesson study on EFL learners’ grammatical knowledge and EFL teachers’ perception toward lesson study. To collect data, 97 female students from four intact classes were selected and assigned to two groups. Two classes were assigned to the the experimental group and the other two were assigned to the control group. Three teachers participated during the lesson study project. In each cycle of lesson study, one of the teachers taught the lesson, whereas the other teachers were observing the class learning. A postlesson discussion was done among the teachers after the first lesson and necessary revisions were made according to the participants’ comments. On the other hand, the control group class was taught by one teacher. An interview was also conducted with the participated teachers at the end of the experiment. The results revealed that the lesson study had a positive effect on the participants’ grammatical knowledge. Moreover, the qualitative data analysis showed that the teachers regarded lesson study to be beneficial to help them develop professionally. The results indicate that LS can be used as a powerful tool for teacher development in both initial teacher training and in-service teacher training in EFL contexts. In addition, LS can be done in a single school to increase interaction and knowledge sharing among EFL teachers

The use of technology in learning vocabulary can be regarded as a tool assisting English language learning. This study investigated the use of mind mapping software in learning vocabulary among English as foreign language (EFL) learners. In doing so, 62 learners were selected based on a Language Placement test. Then they were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received vocabulary instruction in the passages of the learners' textbooks and several mind maps were used in the class. Twelve passages including their new words were covered in 12 sessions. The control group received traditional method of reviewing the definitions, using the dictionary, and teachers' explanation. After treatment sessions, they took the post-test of vocabulary designed based on the reading passages. Independent and paired samples t-test were used to compare learners' means of pre and posttests. findings revealed that the learners who used the mind mapping software could perform better than the control group at the significant level. Implications of the study suggest learning vocabulary can be boosted if effective software like mind mapping used in teaching processes.

Teaching and learning has changed in many ways over the past two decades. The focus of this study is on analyzing the effectiveness of implementation of an integrated technology curriculum in learning English in the secondary school. In this paper, the results of a survey have been analyzed and compared descriptively. As an experimental group, 25 English learners of secondary school in a nonprofit school using a technological curriculum has been considered and 25 English learners of the secondary school from the public school with a traditional curriculum (control group) were purposefully selected. To measure the academic performance of the two groups, the constructive teacher test was administered at the beginning and end of the semester. The reliability of this tool was assessed using Cronbach's alpha (0.87) and its validity was assessed by content validity method. The amount of their non-academic study in the previous year was collected by completing a researcher-made questionnaire by the student and their parents and teacher, and then the amount of students' non-academic study was collected by completing the second researcher-made questionnaire by the student and their parents and teacher. The collected data were analyzed using independent t-test. The results demonstrate that following technological curriculum has a significant effect on learning English in secondary school.

This review paper focuses on higher-order thinking skills, the philosophical, psychological, and as well as pedagogical foundations of higher-order thinking skills. Moreover, it presents the strategies that foster higher-order thinking skills as far as the teaching of writing skill is concerned. The improvement of such skills is considered as an important issue in formal education as they can contribute have a contributing effect on the individuals’ ability to deal with the challenges in the contemporary world whose knowledge is rapidly changing. Moreover, several teaching approaches strategies are presented and discussed in this regard. Among the different teaching strategies and assessment methods to cultivate higher-order-thinking skills in EFL students, the infusion of writing-based portfolio assessment, multiple intelligence, and dialogic feedback seem to be efficacious productive, interactive assessment methods. It is also suggested to integrate the higher-order thinking skills into the curriculum. as itIt is well-accepted that they help students to promptly employ their talents, maintain success in high levels, develop their performance, and most importantly become independent lifelong learners.

This study is a quantitative and functional investigation on self-mention in language teaching research articles both in English and Persian. For this purpose, 40 research articles (20 in English and 20 in Persian) were randomly selected out of the valid online journals. The quantitative findings showed that the frequency of the different forms of selfmention in research articles in both languages (English and Persian) is quite different. Findings showed that “I” in English language teaching research articles and'' we ما''in Persian language teaching research articles were the most frequent self-mentions. Based on Tang and John’s (1999) taxonomy of the discourse functions of personal pronouns, self-mentions were functionally analyzed. The findings showed that the most frequent discourse function of self-mentions in both sets of research articles was the recounter of the research process, whereas the least frequent role was the originator. The findings of this study have some implications for both instructors of academic writings and students to determine whether self-mention in academic writing is permissible and when and for what purposes, writers should use a particular type of self-mention. —————————————————————————————————————————–

This study aims at examining the use of physical environment of the classroom in providing the EFL learners with visual cues as a social interactive strategy in learning speaking skill. The role of interactive physical environment in learning language skills cannot be overlooked since the learners spend a lot of their educational life in the classrooms. The current quasi-experimental research examined the role of classroom pictorial cues which are related to the themes of the weekly speaking activities and discuss themes in the classroom as a social interaction. The theoretical assumption of this study is rooted in Vygotsky's (1978) theory of social aspects of language learning. An experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG) participated in this study. Both groups took a speaking pre-test before the intervention. Then the EG worked on the speaking activities focusing on the physical exposure while the CG dealt with the speaking activities in their textbook. After 12 intervention sessions, they took the speaking post-test and the statistical analysis of independent and paired samples t-test indicated the EG outperformed the CG in the speaking post-test. Implications suggest physical environment exposure can enhance EFL learners' speaking skill as a social interaction.