Research in English Language Pedagogy
Volume:11 Issue: 2, Spring 2023

It has been shown that collaborative learning can potentially boost the learning of a second language. This study aimed to investigate the effect of collaborative learning on the motivation of EFL learners and their vocabulary learning. The quasi-experimental design was used to investigate the research questions. Two groups of intermediate EFL learners took part in the study; the first group of learners (n= 30) was instructed through the traditional routine (i.e. grammar-translation) while the second group (n=30) was instructed by collaborative task-based instruction. All participants were requested to fill out a motivation questionnaire twice during their course (once at the beginning and once at the end). Participants of both groups were also asked to answer the vocabulary test which was designed based on their course content to assess their vocabulary development throughout the semester (once at the beginning and once at the end). The independent samples t-test was used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that engaging them in collaborative learning significantly improved their motivation and vocabulary scores. The results highlight the value of cooperative learning and open new routes in empowering teachers and teacher educators.

The significant role of technology in improving second language skills and components has been recently addressed extensively. In the same vein, this quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design study aimed to compare the effects of synchronous and asynchronous social networks in teaching vocabulary to improve English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' reading comprehension. For this purpose, 61 EFL learners were chosen using the convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned to two experimental groups. Before the treatment, a researcher-made reading comprehension test was run as the pretest. Then WhatsApp was employed as the synchronous network for teaching vocabulary for the first group and Instagram as the asynchronous network for the second. The first group had to be online at a specific time, but the second group was given two days to see the posts. The strategies for teaching vocabulary were the same in both groups. After the treatment, another reading comprehension test was administered as the posttest. The statistical analysis indicated significant effects for both networks and a significant difference between the two experimental groups, showing that the asynchronous social network was significantly more effective in enhancing learners' reading comprehension than the synchronous one. The results imply that teachers can benefit from synchronous and asynchronous social networks as good platforms for teaching new words and improving learners' reading comprehension.

The current study investigated the integration of one recent technology, i.e., Augmented Reality (AR), in language education and its effect on language achievement. To this end, the investigators designed and implemented a quasi-experimental pretest and posttest study involving two stages. The initial stage examined if Augmented Reality improved language achievement in EFL learners. The second one explored the existence of any interaction between such an effect and variables of learners’ gender, age, and educational background. The participants were 40 adult beginner-level adult learners in a language institute in Shiraz, Iran, and were randomly divided into control and experimental groups. In contrast, those in the control group studied the conventional materials. Data was collected through achievement tests included in the course materials package and analyzed with ANCOVA via SPSS. The findings revealed that language achievement was significantly enhanced for the experimental group. Moreover, results indicated that only educational background showed a meaningful relationship with the way learners benefit from using AR in improving their language achievement among the three moderator variables. The findings have implications for researchers and language instructors, and policymakers.

This paper explored the effect of instruction on the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) level of Iranian language teachers in four dimensions: skills, attitude, knowledge, and awareness. One hundred language teachers were chosen through convenience sampling and divided into two groups of experienced and novice teachers based on their teaching experience. All participants were chosen from state schools in Golestan province and they all taught English at English institutes and high schools. Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and ICC questionnaire were used to find the language proficiency level and ICC level of language teachers respectively. ICC questionnaire was carried out before and after instruction to determine the effect of instruction on ICC. The instruction lasted for 20 hours across ten sessions. The results of the study disclosed that the teachers' level of language proficiency was upper-intermediate. Also, it was revealed that instruction was effective as the ICC level of the teachers was below average before instruction and was improved after instruction.  Therefore, the results of this study showed that instruction had an eye-catching effect on improving four dimensions of intercultural communicative competence of language teachers.

Blended learning is used in education to combine information and communications technology. The technology role in blended learning might be improved in cases of effectively combining different aspects such as pedagogy, content, and knowledge. TPACK framework brings together these conceptionsnto workable solutions for blended learning instruction. It seems crucial to have digitally literate teachers. Digital literacy is far beyond supporting teachers to understand and engage with the world; it enables them to challenge, shape, and change their worlds. With the integration of pedagogy, technology, and TPACK in teaching, utilization of the blended learning model requires an overview. This study is a systematic review of blended learning, digital literacy, and TPACK to identify the blended learning research's main themes and implications. To this end, 20 research articles on blended learning and TPACK, which were selected from applied linguistics journals published by Iranian universities, were reviewed. The findings revealed that the main themes were advantages, difficulties, proper use, disadvantages, the effect of learners' differences, teachers' characteristics, and comparison of different contexts. Besides, the most prominent theoretical implications were the importance of technology, the role of teachers, the change and development of blended learning, and the development of learners' autonomy. The findings of this study could propose a roadmap to facilitate the adoption of blended learning, which is one of the possible solutions to face the major challenges of education in the current era.

An infographic resume is an effective medium of exchanging information from job applicants to employers, and it greatly affects and persuades employers to take action. The current study examines both how frequently linguistic and the visual metadiscourse markers (MMs) are employed in infographic resumes and the role they take in creating persuasion. A corpus of 30 infographic resumes totaling about 2463 words was extracted from digital content marketers, software engineers, and service advisors. To compare the employment of the two metadiscourse types, and find out the way visual metadiscourse perfectly coordinated with linguistic metadiscourse in creating persuasive interaction and evoking employers to hire the job applicants, we built on Hyland’s (2019) metadiscourse model and Kumpf's (2000) visual metadiscourse to analyze the corpora. Results indicated that boosters and attitude markers demonstrated higher frequencies than other linguistic MMs and were considered to be meaningful and influential ways of persuasive language. In addition, it was shown that all visual metadiscourse categories were mostly established in the data examined. The findings revealed that both linguistic and visual metadiscourse is significant in establishing the discourse, attracting the audience, and satisfying the employers’ curiosity. They were proved to be essential in persuasive language.

The current study sought to explore the effect of instruction primarily informed by choice theory on the engagement, performance, and satisfaction of EFL students in school settings. Central to choice theory is the claim that all human behaviors are rooted in choices primarily driven by internal instincts and five basic psychological needs, namely survival, freedom, power, love belonging, and  fun. To conduct the present study, 159 Iranian male students of English were randomly split into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group was exposed to the choice theory skills program, whereas the control group experienced routine classroom activities over a semester. A questionnaire with four dimensions was used to quantify participants' degree of engagement; a battery of tests developed by the school board of examiners was administered to check their academic performance; and a questionnaire with five criteria assessed their satisfaction with the program. The engagement of the two groups was compared through an independent samples t-test, their satisfaction with the program was checked through a second independent samples t-test, and their performance scores were analyzed through one mixed between-within-subjects ANOVA. Indices obtained for engagement, satisfaction, and performance showed that students who received activities in congruence with their internal instincts had significantly better indices of engagement, better academic performance, and higher indices of satisfaction with the experiment. Based on the results obtained choice theory is recommended to be integrated into instructional materials.

Due to the primary role of teachers as practitioners of educational principles, considering teachers’ effectiveness and productivity are regarded as significant issues in the field of language teaching which has recently received experts’ attention in SLA research. In response to this outlook in education, this interdisciplinary explanatory ‎sequential mixed-methods study aimed to address the relationship between EFL teachers’ effectiveness and productivity in the light of a famous model taken from the field of human resource management now applied to the EFL domain. On this premise, out of 100 English teachers, 80 female Iranian EFL high ‎school teachers, selected through convenience sampling from 34 public high schools in Mashhad, ‎Iran, participated in the study and responded to the Teachers’ Effectiveness Questionnaire (Kumar & Mutha, 1974), and Teachers’ Productivity Questionnaire (Hersey & Goldsmith, 1980). A semi-structured interview with 15 female EFL teachers was also undertaken to help triangulate the results. Results from the quantitative phase indicated that teachers’ perceptions of the teachers’ effectiveness were significantly correlated with their productivity. The qualitative findings added to the quantitative findings by explaining several main personal and organizational issues concerning EFL teachers’ perceptions of teachers’ effectiveness and productivity, for example, teachers’ interpersonal relationships, personal needs, motivational factors, subject knowledge, professional development, personal attributes, and administrators’ support. The findings of this investigation may have some implications for stakeholders, policymakers, administrators, and teacher educators to re-plan their professional development programs to meet the real needs of teachers in their particular educational context rather than providing teachers with theory-based programs.

Infographics are visual representations of information intended to be presented quickly and clearly. The present study aimed to investigate students ̓ attitudes toward using infographics in learning vocabulary in EFL classes. To this end, the participants were selected through available sampling and the study was conducted at Pand Institute in Abadan, Khuzestan, Iran during the summer of 2022. All of them were females and their ages ranged from 20 to 30. In this quantitative descriptive study, a questionnaire (Alrwele, 2017) was given to the learners to determine their attitudes toward using infographics as teaching tools in the educational context. The participants were asked to answer the questions to indicate to what extent they agreed or disagreed with each statement on a five-point Likert Scale. The content and face validity of the questionnaire were confirmed by two experts at the Ph.D. level. The collected data were computed through descriptive statistics and one sample t-test. Most learners agreed with all 19 statements, all of which were positive comments about using infographics. Thus, a general trend of a positive attitude could be observed in the responses provided by the learners in the EFL class. Most students enjoyed the use of infographics within EFL contexts. Therefore, incorporating infographics into teaching could be a dynamic way for learners and engage in learning more. This finding could help language developers, syllabus designers, and teachers to develop programs and create books based on infographics.