Journal of Applied Linguistics Studies
Volume:1 Issue: 1, Winter and Spring 2022

Communication with others is said to be the ultimate goal of language learning. Language learners, however, may sometimes feel so anxious that they are not willing to communicate. The present study thus aimed at probing the relationship between Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) and Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in the EFL classroom. Besides, FLA and WTC of high level vs. low level language learners were compared. The participants, 30 high- and 30 low-intermediate EFL learners from the Iran language institute (ILI) in Gorgan, Iran, were given two questionnaires: Willingness to Communicate Questionnaire (MacIntyre, Baker, Clément, & Conrod, 2001), and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) ( Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope,1986) The results showed no significant relationship between FLA and WTC in the classroom. They also indicated that high level and low level language learners did not differ significantly in terms of FLA and WTC. Finally, it was concluded that two important factors affecting such results could be the age and the number of the participants.

Success in the English section of the university admission test depends on candidates’ breadth and depth of written skills, especially vocabulary, grammar and reading comprehension and developing these areas mainly depends on the learners’ awareness and appropriate use of learning strategies. This study aimed at exploring the strategies candidates use in preparing themselves for the English section of the university admission test. To this end, twenty candidates with a mastery level of 85% or higher were purposively sampled. Their strategies were then uncovered through open-ended interviews. Candidates’ perspectives were then transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed to uncover their strategies. Thematic analysis of the participants’ perspectives revealed several down-to-earth techniques and strategies. The findings have clear implications for all stakeholders, especially candidates who are preparing themselves for this high-stake test since their awareness of these strategies will greatly contribute to their performance in the test and their future course of study.

The present study investigated the correlation between teaching style and teacher efficacy among 80 Iranian EFL female teachers from Tabadkan District high schools in Mashhad. To fulfill this aim, the participants responded to two separate questionnaires; the Teaching Style Inventory (Dunn & Dunn, 1977) and the Teacher Efficacy Questionnaire (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient) through SPSS. Findings showed a significant relationship between teaching style and teacher efficacy of high school female teachers (n=80, r=0.57, p=0.00). The results of this investigation may have suggestions for stakeholders, policymakers, administrators, and teachers to address the significance of the issues regarding the two primary variables of this study. Furthermore, teacher educators are encouraged to re-design their professional development programs to suit the genuine requirements of teachers in their unique educational environment if they are to educate successful teachers who can cope successfully with the everyday realities of the classroom.

Many factors may be involved in determining why some students are more and some are less proficient in language. This study tried to address the above issue by proposing a model encompassing 3 factors. For this purpose, a qualitative phase was run which aimed at exploring the sub-factors and factor(s) which are most influential in developing language proficiency.  A semi-structured interview was run as the data collection instrument. The data obtained through transcribed interviews with 32 students studying English‎ were analyzed through a grounded theory approach. Three categories of social, cultural and linguistic factors were devised, based on the literature and the qualitative results, which were believed to be effective in language proficiency. Using SEM procedures, the researcher was then able to develop a model. After analyzing the data, the obtained results seemed to be in line with Bourdieu’s (1986) idea that social factors are considered as the most dominant factors.

With the emergence of social constructivism, gradual changes in the role of teachers have been observed and the interests in the recognition of the importance of mediation in English language classrooms have been surged. It appears that the history of mediation pretty ignores exploring the teachers mental lives and has not treated some variables in much details. This paper sought to reveal Iranian EFL teachers thoughts on the importance of the different aspects of mediation and to discover the degree that they act as mediators. It is also aimed to investigate the differences in Iranian high school English teachers’ perceptions across various genders, ages, degrees as well as teaching experience groups. In order to collect data Mediation Questionnaire for Language Teachers consists of three parts designed by Williams and Burden (1997) was distributed among 40 Iranian EFL teachers in three institutes in Gorgan. The results showed that 57 percent of teachers believed that mediation was very important for them. Meanwhile, they consider themselves as a mediator quite often. The findings also demonstrated no statistically significant difference in Iranian high school English teachers’ perceptions across different genders, ages and degrees apart from teaching experience.

  Prospect Series are English textbooks published by the Ministry of Education to enable junior high school students in Iran to develop their communicative competence. Using Nation and Macalister’s (2010) four-strand framework for textual analysis, this study evaluated different sections of Prospect 3 to measure the degree to which the textbook established balance between activities targeting language-focused learning, meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, and fluency development. To maximize validity, the sections were rigorously reconsidered several times in light of the four-strand framework and the Teacher's Guide instructions. Analyses of the activities and instructions given to teach sections in the Student Book, as well as in the Review Section and the Workbook demonstrated an approximate balance between the four strands as long as teachers are informed by and act in compliance with the Teacher’s Guide. The results revealed that, in line with CLT principles, the majority of tasks in Prospect 3 involved learners with familiar, high-frequency themes in classroom events and demanded them to participate in activities individually, in pairs, and in groups. Many sections fulfilled a multipurpose aim by integrating foci on two or more of the strands simultaneously, hence, developing fluency and output production and allowing students to develop their communicative competence.

This study aimed to see if Computer-Assisted Language Learning is effective in improving learners’ vocabulary learning. For this purpose, 70 English students from a language institute in Khodaafarin, Iran, were chosen. To ensure the homogeneity of the participants, the Oxford Quick Placement Test (2004) was administered to all the participants and 60 students who were proven to be in pre-intermediate level were selected for the study and were assigned into two groups of 30. Then, the vocabulary knowledge scale was administered as a measure of pre-exposure to the target items. According to the results of the VKS, 50 words from the book Interchange 2 which were proven to be unfamiliar to the participants were selected. In the treatment, the experimental group used a computer, a projector, and a board; they had a few minutes to look at the vocabularies within the passages while having simultaneous access to the computers. But in the control group, the students were given neither the opportunity to use CALL in the classroom nor the chance to play the CD at home. After the treatment phase, the same teacher-made vocabulary test was administered as the post test of the learners’ vocabulary learning. The results of the post-test indicated that this method could positively influence the vocabulary learning of the participants in the experimental group. The overall findings of independent sample t-test and paired sample t-tests could reject the null hypothesis of this study predicting no effect for CALL instruction on the vocabulary learning of Iranian EFL students.

 This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ emotional Intelligence and their willingness to Communicate. To this end, the researcher adopted a correlational design to investigate the primary goal of this investigation which was to explore the existence of any possible relationship between emotional intelligence and willingness to communicate. As to the conduct of the research, the willingness to communicate and emotional intelligence questionnaires were administrated to 60 intermediate EFL learners who were chosen from among the students in Sama Language institute in Aliabad Katoul, Golestan, Iran. The willingness to communicate questionnaire developed by MacIntyre, Baker, Clement, and Conrod (2001) and the emotional intelligence questionnaire developed by Petrides and Furnham (2006) were employed to assess the participants’ degree of willingness to communicate and emotional intelligence, respectively. The findings obtained from Pearson correlation revealed that there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and willingness to communication. In particular, the findings suggested a strong significant relationship between emotional intelligence and willingness to communicate outside the classroom. And the second research question is rejected so that there is relationship between emotional intelligence and inside the classroom willingness to communicate. The results of the present study tend to have a number of implications for administrators and teachers including better appreciation of EFL learners’ emotional intelligence as well as increasing their outside-the-classroom opportunities.