Iranian Journal of English for Academic Purposes
Volume:11 Issue: 2, Spring 2022

One of the important sections of PhD dissertations where authors must evaluate and interpret their research findings critically is the dissertation Discussion chapter (DDC). Given the significance of this section and the undeniable role of critical thinking in presenting arguments in DDC, the rhetorical structures of 120 DDCs in applied linguistics from Anglophone and Iranian state universities were compared and analyzed manually employing Crombie’s (1985) taxonomy of interpropositional relations. The findings of the study indicated that, at the semantic level, the three most frequent binary semantic interpropositional relations used by both groups of the study were Reason/Result, Ground/Conclusion, and Simple Comparison, respectively. These findings reveal the high potential of the coherence relations for establishing arguments and thus incorporating critical thinking in DDCs. The study has important implications for postgraduate students to develop a deeper understanding of the rhetorical means used in the DDCs and the necessity to incorporate critical thinking into this chapter.

Due to the importance of learners’ beliefs and learning strategies, a voluminous work has directed on Second Language (L2) learners over the last decades. As an endeavor to further pursue the nexus between learner-related variables in L2 learning, this study was set to probe the role of Self-regulated Learning Skills (SRLS) and Epistemological Beliefs (EBs) in predicting second language Writing Anxiety (L2WA) among Iranian EFL students. To this end, three validated scales measuring these constructs were administered to 240 male and female students. The scales were emailed to the target groups during the pandemic Covid 19. As for the data analysis, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was adopted to test the hypothesized model of the constructs. The results indicated that SRLS and EBs could account for 40% of the L2WA. Notably, SRLS could account for (-.246) and EBs could account for (.325) of the variance in L2WA. The result yields a significant change. Particularly, the analysis shows that EBs increases L2WA and SRLS reduces the L2WA (R2 EBs = .148; R2 WSE =.093). The findings suggest that L2 teachers and materials developers should train learners to promote their self-regulatory strategies.

Many language learners in foreign language contexts leave their courses halfway before reaching advanced levels of proficiency. Despite a large body of research on dropping out of school or higher education programs, few have delved into this multi-faceted phenomenon in language institutes and tutorial language courses. The current study, utilizing a qualitative approach, aimed at investigating EFL learners dropping out of face-to-face language classes in Iran. To this end, 20 participants were interviewed to explore their main reasons for abandoning classes in 44 dropout instances. The interviewees’ responses were analyzed and reported through six phases of data familiarization and note-making; systematic data-coding; initial-themes generation; themes development and review; themes refinement, definition, and naming; and the report writing. Forty-nine major reasons were found which were classified into 5 themes of satisfying need for higher priority, teacher-induced dissatisfaction, administrator-induced dissatisfaction, satisfied language-class-related need, and improvement-related dissatisfaction. Administrator-induced dissatisfaction, however, was specific to public classes in language institutes – not private ones. Since English is taught mainly for academic purposes in Iran, the findings have implications for both research and practice purposes concerning any foreign language.

One of the main challenges of learning English in a foreign language setting is mastering its pronunciation. Among different factors which could have their contribution to developing pronunciation such as age, background language, instructional program, and motivation, one can also refer to learning strategies. In fact, different learners may try a variety of strategies to develop better pronunciation skills. However, the extent to which EFL learners succeed could be connected to the type of pronunciation strategies and frequency with which they are used. Therefore, the purpose of this research project was to find out how different learners apply such strategies and use them at two levels of pronunciation achievement. To answer these questions, the researcher investigated the learners’ pronunciation strategies under O’malley and Chamot’s (1990) three-tier classification of learning strategies, namely cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affective strategies. The participants were 100 EFL learners majoring in English translation at Payame-Noor University. The data collection tools, developed by the researcher, were a test of pronunciation and a Likert-scaled questionnaire. Multiple regression, Beta, ANOVA and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated a slight relationship between achievement level and the number and types of strategies deployed by the learners. Moreover, among the three subcategories of PLS, meta-cognitive strategies contributed to this correlation more than the other two sub-categories. Implications were proposed for teaching and developing pronunciation.

The present study attempted to shed light on the status of plagiarism detection tools (PDT) in the Iranian EFL context. It tried to survey the Iranian EFL university students’ perceptions of the use and effectiveness of such tools. To this end, the data were collected through a 17-item researcher-made questionnaire, with close and open-ended items, designed to gather information on the foreign language departments’ policies for plagiarism detection and the effectiveness of the tools if used by EFL learners and their instructors. Respondent-driven sampling was used to sample the hard-to-reach target population during the Covid outbreak. Two hundred and eighteen Iranian EFL students filled the questionnaire. The results indicated that the effectiveness and use of tools are at a moderate level. The findings also highlighted that half of the respondents believed PDTs could be utilized to drop the rate of plagiarism as well as the probability of failing the courses. The results also revealed that specific course context and its requirements have an impact on the students’ implementation of the PDTs. The study found that while the respondents’ perception of the tools’ effectiveness and use is independent of their gender, it is positively correlated with their academic degree and age.

This experimental study attempted to examine the potential influence of multi-component training interference of text structure awareness along with self-regulated strategies on Iranian upper-intermediate foreign language learners’ reading comprehension. One hundred and twenty undergraduate students in the domains of English translation and English literature at the University of Rudbar, Iran were selected based on Oxford Placement Test scores and were classified into four groups at random (one control and three experimental groups). The instructional design was based on cognitive load theory. Treatment groups received text structure awareness, self-regulated strategies, and the combination of text structure awareness and self-regulated strategies that lasted for twelve weeks. The control group received a placebo. Data were obtained from a pretest and post-test of reading comprehension. One-way analysis of covariance showed that multi-component training intervention of text structure and self-regulated strategies was more beneficial in developing learners’ reading comprehension. Students' knowledge of text structures and their ability to regulate their goal setting and learning facilitated their reading comprehension. Self-regulated strategy instruction can be combined with text structure awareness raising to remove the induced extraneous cognitive load and can be implemented in foreign language reading classes to support comprehension of texts.