Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research
Volume:2 Issue: 2, Jul 2014

In 2003 the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) strengthened the provisions that English be made available for international radiotelephony communication. ICAO also developed standards for English proficiency for international pilots and air traffic controllers. However, these standards are applied variably from country to country and in no country are native speakers of English tested for their ability to employ what has been termed «interactional competence» when using English for intercultural communication. Problems with this situation are reviewed and suggestions made for improving English assessment and training.

Metacognition involves conscious thinking about one’s learning and is implemented in language learning when learners set goals and evaluate their performance، plan their studies، use their language knowledge، attend to the input، search speaking and reading opportunities and ways of enhancing their learning outcomes and focus on their errors. This study sought to measure the use of metacognitive strategies by eight groups of Iranian ESP freshmen in four different disciplines and to detect probable discipline and gender variations. Having assessed the initial homogeneity of the groups via Analysis of Variance of the scores obtained from a Key English Test (KET)، the researcher administered the Metacognitive section of Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (1985). The Between-subjects Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) of the research data revealed that the participants studying Mechanical Engineering and Computer outperformed those studying Management and Psychology. Gender variation، however، was observed only in the participants’ use of self-evaluation strategy where males reported a more frequent use. The findings revealed the ESP learners’ need for metacognitive training particularly across gender and major.

Investigating how foreign language learners’ discourse mediates their demotivation construction is a relatively new area of inquiry. This paper examined the discursive construction of four (two males and two females) Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ demotivation at Shiraz University, Iran. Employing Fairclough’s (2003) critical discourse analysis framework, the present study revealed that demotivation is not uni-dimensional and static; rather, it is complex, multi-dimensional, and dynamic, which is discursively constructed in the constant interaction between the individual and the social context. Findings also indicated that the discursive construction of demotivation involved simultaneous interaction of multiple levels of learners’ interpersonal relationships, their future self-guides, and factors in local and broader social, cultural and political milieus.

The current study attempted to establish baseline quantitative data on the impacts of pushed output on two components of speaking (i.e., accuracy and fluency). To achieve this purpose, 30 female EFL learners were selected from a whole population pool of 50 based on the standard test of IELTS interview and were randomly assigned into an experimental group and a control group. The participants in the experimental group received pushed output treatment while the students in the control group received non-pushed output instruction. The data were collected through IELTS interview and then the interview of each participant was separately tape-recorded and later transcribed and coded to measure accuracy and fluency. Then, the independent samples t-test was employed to analyze the collected data. The results revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in accuracy. In contrast, findings substantiated that pushed output had no impact on fluency. The positive impact of pushed output demonstrated in this study is consistent with the hypothesized function of Swain’s (1985) pushed output. The results can provide some useful insights into syllabus design and English language teaching.

In this study, an attempt was made to examine the effects of previewing questions, repetition of input, and topic preparation on listening comprehension of Iranian learners of English. The study was conducted with 104 high school students in 3 experimental and one control groups. The participants in the previewing questions group read the comprehension questions before hearing the text and answering the questions. The topic preparation group took advantage of topic-related texts in Persian followed by previewing questions; then they listened to the texts and answered the questions. The repetition of input group had two hearings with previewing before each hearing that preceded answering the comprehension questions. The control group, however, only had one hearing before answering the questions. The results obtained from data analysis showed that the topic preparation group performed better than the other participating groups. The repetition group, in turn, did better than the previewing group. There was, however, no statistically significant difference between the previewing and repetition groups. Based on the results obtained, it can be argued that providing and/or activating background knowledge and repeating a listening task might facilitate listening comprehension in EFL classroom settings. The findings and pedagogical implications of the study are discussed in detail.

Given that promoting learners’ communicative competence in a second language (L2) is one of the primary foci of communicative language teaching approaches, the late 1980s saw an expansion in research into willingness to communicate (WTC), which is deemed to affect individuals’ predisposition towards the initiation of L2 communication. The principal aims of this study are(a) to reveal whether instrumental motivation and integrative orientation are correlated with WTC, (b) to delve into the contribution of instrumental and integrative orientations to the explanation of WTC, (c) to examine which of the two motivational propensities is a better predictor of WTC, and (d) to find whether 3 groups of learners with low, medium, and high levels of instrumental and integrative orientations differ in terms of their level of reported WTC. To this end, 188 Iranian EFL learners, who were randomly selected, filled out a WTC questionnaire and a language learning motivation questionnaire. Results of path analysis and standard multiple regression revealed that although both motivational orientations significantly contributed to the explanation of WTC, instrumental motivation, which uniquely explained 3.7% of the variance in total WTC, was a better predictor of WTC. Informed by the results of one-way between-groups ANOVA, a significant difference was encountered among the reported L2 WTC levels of the 3 groups of learners with various levels of both instrumental orientation and integrative motivation. The findings could cast light onto the nexus between motivation and WTC in the Iranian EFL context and the intricacies and dynamics of the WTC process.

The role of teacher-student interaction and collaboration in solving linguistic problems has recently been in the center of SLA research. Accordingly, this study investigated the effect of Oral Interactive Feedback (OIF) on the accuracy and complexity of Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ writing. After ensuring the homogeneity using Preliminary English Test (PET), the researchers randomly assigned 50 sophomores into OIF group and Explicit Feedback (EF) group, with 25 students in each of them. The participants in the OIF group received oral interactive feedback, including elicitation and metalinguistic clues, on their written errors, while those in the EF group received oral explicit correction on their written errors. Data collection was based on immediate revisions of compositions and a post-test. Using ANCOVA, the researchers found that the OIF group outperformed the EF group in terms of both accuracy and complexity in both revised compositions and post-test. The findings from the study may encourage language teachers’ further use of OIF, using elicitation and metalinguistic clues, in treating EFL learners’ errors in written discourse.