Teaching English Language
Volume:1 Issue: 1, Winter 2006

The present study investigated the relationship between words’ part of speech (noun, verb, adjectives), guessing ability, and learners’ style of field independence/ dependence. One hundred thirty two subjects participated in the study. The participants were required to guess the meaning of non-sense words belonging to certain word categories. The results of the study showed that a word’s part speech will influence the ease with which its meaning is guessed. In addition, the study found that there is a positive relationship between the cognitive style of field independence and the learners’ guessing ability.

With the advent of process-oriented research, the strategy studies have found their place in L2 composition pedagogy. One such issue is investigation into the impact of writing strategy use on increasing the quality of writing product. The present study investigates the potential relationship between writers’ proficiency level and strategy use, the nature of such strategies, if any, and whether any of them predicts good writing.The participants, 23 Iranian EFL graduates and undergraduates taking their essay writing course, were requested to write an essay of controlled length on a given topic. Based on their scores on a standardized test of language proficiency, the students were assigned to the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels. Next, they attended an interview with the researcher, reading their essays and reporting what processes they underwent and what strategies they used as they produced the text. The students were provided with a strategies checklist to identify theirs, or to add new ones, if any. The think-aloud protocols were tape-recorded. Data analysis aimed to identify writing strategies as implemented by each student at the specified level. Surprisingly, lack of similarity in writing behavior among members of supposedly homogeneous and across different groups was observed. Moreover, increasing free voluntary reading and writing, decreasing writing apprehension, 26 Strategy Use and Writing Success and of course practice were characterized as predictors of writing success.

This study tested three directional hypotheses: Compared with those receiving cue - inadequate sentences, subjects receiving cue – adequate sentences will1) Report greater ease in word inference2) Score higher in inferring and remembering the contextual meaning of unfamiliar words3) The higher the score of word inference, the better the retention of the contextual meanings of the target words.With statistical significance, all these hypotheses were confirmed. An approach combining schema theory and the generative model of comprehension was used for the rational of this study and the discussion of its findings.Since adequate cues in context can relieve learners of English as a Foreign Language from the anxiety of unfamiliar words, it might follow that reasonably sufficient contextual cues should be provided in texts for foreign language learns, so that enough information can be created for them to play “psycholinguistic guessing game” (Goodman 1967) – if it is part of the interactional goal.

This paper examines the how and why of using poetry in EFL classes as a language teaching device. First it identifies those features of poetry which provide educational and linguistic opportunities for teachers and learners. It then explains the difficulties that teachers and learners may encounter in using poetry in their classes. The author argues that if poetry is to be used as a source of instruction and enjoyment in classes, it must be carefully selected and presented in a way that promotes an authentic interaction between the reader and the poem. And lastly, by providing some sample pieces of poetry, the author tries to introduce a model for the beneficial incorporation of poetry in EFL classes.

The genre of revenge tragedy has been an obsession with most writers throughout literature of different ages, starting from ancient Greek drama as seen in the works of three major tragedians, Aeschyus, Sophocles and Euripides and later dominant in the drama of the 16th and 17th c. England.The thematic significance of revenge became especially popular at the hands of the Jacobean dramatists. This paper endeavours to explore this ancient theme of revenge in the play The Revenger’s Tragedy by Cyril Tourneur, a Jacobean dramatist who exposes political manipulation during the course of the play and parallel to that the ultimate destruction of the avenger – Vindice whose mission is to uproot corruption but in vain, and this notion is explicit in the very title of the play.

Test-taking strategies are of two kinds: general and specific. General strategies are applicable to any test while specific ones can be employed by test-takers in special kinds of tests. Specific cognitive test-taking strategies, in turn, are divided into various types: structure, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Based on their level of language proficiency, test-takers may show various degrees of tendency in making use of these strategies. The present study is an attempt to investigate whether there is any significant relationship between the subjects’ proficiency level and their tendency in using various types of strategies while taking a test of language proficiency.