Research in English Language Pedagogy
Volume:8 Issue: 2, Summer-Autumn 2020

There has been a growing interest in the implementation of different types of assessment, including dynamic and diagnostic, in L2 settings recently. Accordingly, this study tried to explore the effectiveness of dynamic and diagnostic assessment on improving EFL learners’ speaking ability. To this end, 82 intermediate-level EFL learners were selected based on their performance on IELTS (2016). The participants were then divided into three groups of dynamic assessment, diagnostic assessment, and control. In the dynamic group, the students received three speaking tests in the form of test-mediation-retest; in the diagnostic group, the participants received the same three speaking tests and feedback on their problems; and the learners in the control group went through the routine of speaking courses by focusing on the same three speaking tests. The speaking pretest and posttest were recorded and scored by two raters as well. To answer the research questions, a repeated-measures two-way ANOVA was run. The results showed an improvement in the three groups’ performance from pretest to posttest. More specifically, the diagnostic and dynamic assessment groups showed a significant improvement, however, the difference in their progress was not significant. Conclusions and pedagogical implications of the study are further explained.

In the present study, the effects of four planning time conditions (pre-task, extended task, freewriting, and control) were investigated over the quality of expository and argumentative writings of 108 undergraduate EFL writers. The maximum time limit was 30 minutes for all the four groups of the study. The results revealed significantly higher writing quality in the freewriting condition in both argumentative and expository writings. The results also showed that compared with the effects of the writing mode those of the planning time conditions were more decisive on the writing quality. Moreover, argumentative writings were of higher quality than expository writings. Being placed in different writing modes was not decisive in the choice of planning time conditions. The results may have pedagogical implications for EFL writing instructors and theoretical implications for EFL writing researchers.

The actual classroom implementation and the possible final outcomes of the genre-based approach to listening instruction have not been completely discovered yet. Therefore, this study investigated the impact(s) of genre-based teaching (GBT) on Iranian EFL learners’ listening proficiency across different proficiency levels. For this aim, 84 EFL learners were chosen. Group A (Experimental and Control Groups) included 40 participants and Group B (Proficient and Less-proficient Groups) consisted of 44 participants. Then the experimental group received the treatment which was teaching listening skill through GBT and the control group received a placebo. In the end, the researcher administered the posttest. Regarding Group A, results of one-way ANCOVA showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group indicating that GBT is a pivotal and fundamental factor for improving listening comprehension. Moreover, in Group B, the findings showed that the proficient group performed outstandingly better than the less-proficient group. The findings may denote implications for EFL listening syllabuses and provide guidelines to designers to accommodate the insights derived from the GBT viewpoint.

Studies of foreign language anxiety normally focus on either students at college or high schools, but this investigation concentrated on two junior schools: one consisting of migrant students; the other of urban students. It is intended to compare hypothesized differences between the two types of students concerning language anxiety. The research used the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) to measure the level of language anxiety of all the participants. Using the same procedures and standards to collect data from two schools, it investigated whether EFL migrant students experience a higher degree of language anxiety than their urban peers. After looking at the three main components of foreign language anxiety-communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation, it is concluded that foreign language anxiety of migrant students was more significantly experienced by most of the migrant students in question as compared with their peers. The study went a step further to investigate the possible factors leading to language anxiety among migrant students. The data from interviews and the questionnaire conducted on these students showed that lack of continued and coherent instruction, teachers’ unawareness, parents’ inadequate attention, and stress from peers are found to be the major factors. New geographical and social surroundings were additional factors leading to a higher level of language anxiety which aggravates their low self-esteem and poor language performance. The study is of practical significance to language teachers as they might use the findings to guide their daily teaching.

The literature review left the researchers with an unanswered query about whether teachers' years of teaching experience could act as an index for enhancing the quality of teaching learning output. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to propose a quality enhancement model for the status of private Iranian English institutions. An ex post-factorial design was employed for the study. Thus, 250 male and female EFL teachers filled a previously developed English Language Teaching Quality Indices Survey. The reliability and validity of the survey were checked by Cronbach alpha, 95, EFA and CFA. Then, the researchers calculated the means of ELTQI constructs. The aim was to pinpoint the most prominent components that impact the quality of ELT as "must" to be indices in any educational setting. Besides, the researchers utilized the index with the highest mean as well as the ones which were highly recurrent in the literature and shared relations/predictions with teachers' years of teaching experience. Then, a model was proposed by running CFA, AMOS Software. It included factors like years of teaching experience, 21st century skills, teachers' qualifications and recruitment, teaching activities and methodologies, CPD (Continuing Professional Development) and assessment procedure. The results revealed that all the predictions were supported except for 21st century skills. Also, Teachers’ qualifications and recruitment gained the most importance from the teachers' point of view. As the pedagogical implication, proposing a prospective quality enhancement model can bring about clarity among different stakeholders, teachers, and learners of what is exactly expected of them.

Because of the significance of the textbooks in the teaching and learning processes, it is essential to revise them permanently. This study investigated the readability level of the 12th- grade English textbooks and also examined if the reading texts used in Action Pack 12 were suitable linguistically for the 12th -grade students. This study adopted the qualitative descriptive design by using the Fry Graph to calculate the readability level. The researchers chose randomly 20 texts out of 36 texts as a sample of the study. The results revealed that 80% out of the 20 texts were under the level of the 12th-grade students in Jordan. Also, the results indicated that 15 % of the texts were invalid and only 5% of the texts were within the 12th-grade students’ level. The findings also indicated that Action Pack 12 was suitable linguistically for 12th-grade students. Several recommendations are put forth.

The present study investigated EFL learners’ perceptions of classroom ethics, and 60 EFL learners participated in an interview and an ethics questionnaire. The analysis of collected data resulted in 13 categories of classroom ethics, including ‘teacher punctuality’, ‘fairness and discrimination’, ‘respect and politeness’, ‘being humorous and energetic’, ‘discipline’, ‘rapport’, ‘commitment to the profession and colleagues’, ‘appropriate content of discussion’, ‘responsibility’, ‘adaptability’, ‘reliability and trust’, ‘avoidance of misuse’, and ‘dress code’. The findings showed that all the learners recognized ethics as an essential part of the classrooms while their views differed in ranking some ethics. The most and the least valuable ethics for the participants were ‘punctuality’ and “dress code and appearance” in order. The most important ethics perceived by the learners were ‘punctuality’, ‘rapport’, and ‘being humorous and energetic’. The findings illustrated that the learners’ consideration of ethics was focused on the teachers’ manner and morality in the classroom.

The field of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) has recently witnessed a renewed interest in pronunciation; nevertheless, this interest has been mostly directed toward pronunciation instruction even though learners’ instructional gains are heavily dependent on their attitudes and motivations. Thus, this study aimed to examine the construct validity of learners’ attitudes and motivations for pronunciation (LAMP) inventory in Iranian EFL academic context and investigate Iranian EFL learners’ attitudes and motivations regarding teaching and learning English pronunciation. Accordingly, the LAMP inventory was administered to 364 Iranian English-major undergraduates. The result of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the 8-factor LAMP model fit the Iranian EFL context. In terms of English-major learners’ attitudes, findings revealed that although they had highly positive cognitive and conative attitudes toward pronunciation instruction, they were heavily influenced by negative affective filters acting as a hindrance to their progress. Regarding motivations, English-major learners were mostly influenced by intrinsic and curiosity drives. Nevertheless, contrary to some previous findings, the majority of the respondents showed integrativeness and strove for native-like pronunciation. Therefore, the results imply that syllabus designers and instructors for English-major learners need to place stronger emphasis on pronunciation instruction via challenging, meaning-oriented tasks and computerized methodologies.

The role of teacher variables has become a major trend of study in the ELT literature. To this end, the focus of this descriptive study was to consider whether there is any significant relationship between novice and experienced EFL teachers’ perfectionism and professional development. In doing so, 60 novice and 60 experienced EFL teachers, aged 20-50, who were graduate and/or undergraduate students of EFL related fields participated in this study. The selection was through nonrandom convenience sampling; that is, the teachers who were willing to participate in the study and were teaching at language schools which were available to the researchers were chosen. The data were collected through two questionnaires: Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS), Teaching, and Learning International Survey (TALIS). Once the researchers had both questionnaires filled by the participants, they conducted the relevant descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. The results revealed that both novice and experienced EFL teachers’ perfectionism was a significant predictor of their professional development. The main imply location of this study is that teacher education centers may wish to invest upon promoting teachers’ perfectionism in order to promote their professional development.