سعیده آهنگری

Along with the cognitive aspects of language learning, some other factors can explain the general failure/success of language education. Due to the dearth of attention to the emotional factors contributing to language learning in the field of EFL, it seems a thorny issue to study these factors. Scholars in the realm of psychology have considered negative emotions, such a sadness and anger, than to positive emotions in their psychological studies and these elements have been examined in relation to EFL learners. The role of positive emotions has not been investigated sufficiently, especially in terms of EFL teachers. To this end, 220 male and female EFL teachers of advanced proficiency level with at least 5 years of teaching experience were selected based on convenient sampling. The instruments included the well-being PERMA Questionnaire developed by Butler and Kern (2016), Professional Development (PD) designed by Afshar and Ghasemi (2018), and Robson Self-Concept Questionnaire (SCQ) developed by Robson (1989). The reliability (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient) and validity (content validity) of the questionnaires were ensured. The collected data was analyzed based on a correlation analysis and structural equation modeling using SPSS 24.0 and Amos 8. The obtained results revealed that there is a significant structural relationship between well-being and self-concept with the mediation of gender and experience. However, there is no significant structural relationship between well-being and professional development with the mediation of gender and experience. The findings of this study have important theoretical for teachers, school psychologists, teacher educators, curriculum designers and researchers.

Self-regulation strategies regarding writing can be referred to as learners’ initiative and self-directed behavior to achieve several goals to foster their writing skills. Based on the three main aspects of scaffolding; contingency, fading, and the transfer of responsibility, this study aimed at delving into the effect of the model of contingent teaching on improving Iranian language learners’ writing self-regulation strategies and its components.  The participants of the study aged between 20-30 included 60 intermediate language learners from a language institute in Tabriz, Iran. The participants were selected based on convenience sampling in the form of four intact classes. Then, they were randomly assigned to two groups: the control and the experimental group. The experimental group was exposed to treatment for 18 sessions. The Questionnaire of English Writing Self-Regulated Learning Strategies (QEWSRLS) was applied to both groups before and after the treatment. The questionnaire was designed as a multifaceted model, consisting of cognition, metacognition, social behavior, and motivational factors. The results of MANCOVA analysis revealed that teaching writing by the model of contingent teaching was influential in improving EFL learners writing self-regulation strategies (F=7.36, p<0.05, Wilks’ Lambda=0.38, Eta Square=0.61). Also, the main effect was exerted on text processing (F=26.4, P<0.05, Eta Square=0.35). The study offers some practical implications for teacher trainers, teachers, and EFL learners which are discussed.

In this study, the researchers examined the possible effects of a sociocultural model of teaching reading comprehension on the learners’ performance using a mixed-method approach. The authors relied on Vygotsky's theory of learning and his notion of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) to analyze scaffolding behaviors among two experimental groups (teacher scaffolding and peer scaffolding) and a control group contributing to reading comprehension using both qualitative and quantitative analyses. The learners were intermediate-level students participating in a 15-session private reading comprehension course. At every session, individual learners received scaffolding helps provided by the teacher in teacher scaffolding and the peer in peer scaffolding groups while performing reading comprehension tasks. Each group of peers included one low and one high intermediate student. In the quantitative phase, the data collected through pretest and posttest were analyzed using ANOVA test. Moreover, the qualitative part, the data including audio recorded talks between the teacher and students (teacher scaffolding), were analyzed through a microgenetic approach. In the qualitative phase, the applicability of the teacher's scaffolding instructions in different levels was presented. The levels and variety of guidance required by the learner to successfully perform a given task were analyzed applying Lidz's (1991) scaffolding instructions. The results in the quantitative phase supported the benefit of the practicality of scaffolding techniques in teaching reading comprehension.

In the long process of learning English as a foreign language, learners may become exhausted and, if not treated properly, decide to give up learning temporarily and even permanently. Therefore, it seems necessary to explore the reasons for their temporal delays and consider them appropriately to avoid permanent give-ups. As an attempt to determine the reasons for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ delays, the researchers in the present study explored their contributing factors through application of a classical grounded theory approach which led to the development of Language Learning Procrastination (LLP) theory. The research data were collected through semi-structured interviews from 43 EFL learners in Tabriz, Iran, and were coded in open, selective, and theoretical coding stages through a Constant Comparative Method. The emerged theory involved a core category (i.e., Dilatory Behavior) indicating that EFL learners mostly procrastinate in five domains of doing exercises, preparation for exam, submitting projects, starting up speaking, and learning spelling. Furthermore, three major categories of Learners’ Characteristics, Environmental Conditions, and Task Features as the causes of Dilatory Behavior emerged during the iterative data collection and analysis procedures. The results of the study indicated that both EFL learners’ own characteristics and external factors related to the learning environment and language tasks are significant in shaping the EFL learners’ procrastination. The theory of LLP can be applied in EFL settings to recognize the learners’ sources of Dilatory Behavior and devise appropriate solutions for them.

Based on Vygotsky's concept of Zone of Proximal Development, dynamic assessment (DA) has at its core the integration of assessment and instruction through mediation. DA is practiced either individually or collectively. In group-dynamic assessment (G-DA), as Poehner (2009) introduced, learners are simultaneously exposed to mediation.  The problem which has been ignored in G-DA is the homogeneity and heterogeneity of EFL leaners while being mediated. This study tried to investigate the effect of group-dynamic assessment on homogeneous and heterogeneous EFL learners' ability in listening comprehension. It also intended to find out if expert-novice and peer-to-peer mediation types in G-DA differed in their effects on homogeneous and heterogeneous EFL learners' command of listening comprehension. To this end, eighty intermediate EFL learners were chosen to be the participants. According to their language proficiency, they were assigned to two groups of forty homogeneous and forty heterogeneous learners. Then, each group was divided into two experimental groups. The participants in all groups attended three listening sessions. For the mediation, the participants were assisted through novice-expert and peer-to-peer mediation types. To find out the main and interaction effect of group type and mediation type in G-DA, the post-test scores were analysed through running a two-way ANOVA.  The results indicated that both group type and mediation type had significant main and interaction effect on learners' listening comprehension. A post hoc test was also utilized to compare the mean differences between the groups.

Many difficulties learners experience during language learning interfere with their performance, and those associated with their psychology play an integral role in this process. Underpinned by Bandura’s social cognitive theory and Dweck’s implicit theory of intelligence, this article explored how language mindsets influenced female EFL learners’ cognitive engagement through the mediation of risk-taking. Following a quantitative design and drawing on stratified sampling, the researchers ran the Power Analysis Calculator and selected 384 language learners from six institutes of Tabriz, Iran. The data were collected by three questionnaires, including the Language Mindset Inventory of Lou and Noels (2017), University Student Engagement Inventory (USEI) designed by Maroco et al., (2016), and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) of Patton, Stanford and Barratt (1995). The PLS-SEM analysis showed that learners’ growth mindsets were directly related to cognitive engagement. Furthermore, risk-taking significantly mediated this relationship. This finding provides some implications for school psychology to develop in students self-theories that highlight growth and competence instead of limitation and inactivity.

This study aimed at investigating the relationships among SRL components, reading comprehension (RC), and critical thinking (CT) ability in English reading and determining the strength of these relationships after SRL instruction (SRLI).

183 Iranian EFL students participated in the study. First, the analyses of pretest PLS-SEM models were done by evaluating the three instruments of adapted motivated strategies for learning questionnaire, critical thinking in English reading questionnaire, and a test of reading comprehension.  Second, the efficiency of SRLI of RC on the strength of the relationships was investigated by using MGA and comparing loadings in the pretest and posttest models.

The results revealed that SRLI was significantly efficient in improving the relationships among SRL strategies, RC and CT (P<0.001).

This study has significant implications for syllabus designers, teachers and students.

The survival and success of any learning system depends on the knowledge, expertise, ability and skill of teachers as the core of education. Regarding the important role of teachers in the process of language learning, the present study aimed to investigate the underlying factors conducive to the formation of the Holistic Identity of the Language Teachers (HILT).

The collected data for the present study were analyzed qualitatively, by adopting grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 2008) and collected through semi-structured interviews with 41 teachers, with teaching experiences varying from 8 to 18 years, working in schools, universities and institutions in Urmia, Iran. The collected data elicited from the interviews including three main questions of the characteristics of a language teacher identity, the causes of teacher identity, and the role of self and society in the formation of the HILT. Then the data were analyzed through open, selective, and axial coding stages observing a Constant Comparative Method.

The present study attempted to inquire and signify the role of self and society as the grounding factors of HILT. Introducing the Teacherality as the core category of HILT, grounding factors are the causes of HILT, naming Persona Grata and Public Persona, representing Self and Society as the major concepts respectively. Accordingly, the category coded as “Persona Grata”, referred to the Self of the teacher, including intra-personal and individualized qualifications required, namely: Language Commanding, Corporeal State, Perceptual Prompt and Sense Agility. The other factor, Public Persona, consists of socially acquired characteristics of being a language teacher, including Teacher Prestige, Public Life, and Media Person.

The core of this theory revolves around the concept of self, stating that the various features and factors of a person and the different interactions taking place in different circumstances would have a direct relationship with personal, social, and professional characteristics of the Self. Furthermore, the theoretical framework of the concept of HILT has been extracted from the interview data, through which the identity has been analyzed in the sense of the comprehensive nature of the language teacher in Iran. The findings indicate that the foundation of holistic identity formation stems from the dynamic nature of self, interacting in the society as contextual category encompassing all social, corporeal, economic, and professional aspects of a language teacher’s holistic identity.

Delaying in doing responsibilities and tasks assigned in language classes is a phenomenon that most of teachers have observed. Language learners’ tendency to put off doing things can take place in different situations and for various reasons. The present study investigated the reasons for such deferments, called procrastination, through interviewing EFL teachers. During a semi-structured interview process, 23 teachers expressed their opinions regarding the causes of language learners’ procrastination. The analysis of the data based on grounded theory methodology and their coding in three phases of open, selective, and theoretical coding led to the emergence of Dilatory Behavior as the core category which covered the situations in which language learners mostly procrastinate such as studying for examination, delivery of assignments, and acquisition of correct spelling. Further data collection and analysis revealed that language learners’ procrastination could be attributed to internal factors such as affective and cognitive characteristics, competence-based issues, and mental and physical conditions as well as external factors such as task quality and context features. The results of this study can be useful for EFL teachers and curriculum developers in raising their awareness regarding the potential causes of language learners’ procrastination and supplying them with the necessary information needed for devising appropriate strategies to reduce language learners’ undue procrastination.

Attention to language awareness is prominently increasing with the passage of time due to the effects different awareness-raising techniques might have on language learners’ performance. The present study specifically focused on the effects of syntactic awareness-raising techniques on Iranian intermediate EFL learner's written narrative task performance. The participants in the study included 40 intermediate learners whose initial homogeneity in terms of language proficiency was assessed via a General English Test. They were further randomly assigned to one control group and one experimental group, each comprising 20 participants. The amount of instructional time was 17 sessions, during which the participants in the experimental group received syntactic awareness-raising techniques through 'story grammar elements' and 'word order correction'. Right after the treatment, a post-test comprising a written narrative task was administrated. Data analysis results demonstrated that the experimental group which received the syntactic awareness-raising techniques outperformed the control group in retelling short stories in written form. The findings of the current study highlight the contribution of language awareness to the improvement of proficiency in EFL learners and pave the way for its inclusion in language teaching syllabuses.

In educational psychology, mindsets refer to a set of core beliefs about intelligence and its role in successful learning in a specific domain. This study investigated the extent to which, the EFL learners’ mindsets might predict their English achievement considering the mediating roles of engagement and self-regulation. The data were collected by means of three questionnaires: The Language Mindset Inventory (LMI), the University Student Engagement Inventory (USEI), and the Academic Self-Regulated Learning Scale (A-SRL-S), as well as the institutes’ reports on their English achievement. We analyzed the data quantitatively using the SPSS 20 and Amos 8 Software. The results revealed that there was a significant direct relationship between language mindsets and English achievement of the EFL learners. Besides, this relationship was significantly mediated by the learners’ engagement and self-regulation.  Drawing on the findings of this research, the challenge for teachers is to cultivate in students the mindsets that emphasize growth and potentials rather than constraints and stagnation.

Finding effective ways to improve L2 idioms recall has been a long-standing concern of many practitioners. This study compared the effects of meaning-focused and form-focused tasks with varying involvement load indices on EFL learners' recall of L2 idioms. One-hundred eighty intermediate level EFL learners participated in this study and were randomly assigned to one of the six experimental groups. In three form-focused groups, the participants received multiple-choice, sentence-completion and sentence-making tasks with involvement indices of 2, 3, and 4, respectively. In three meaning-focused groups, they were asked to perform summary writing, writing with glossary, and writing without glossary with involvement degrees of 2, 3, and 4, respectively. A 30-item test in fill-in-the-blank format was administered to all groups to assess their recall of idioms after the treatment. To analyze the data, a two-way ANOVA and a series of independent-samples t-tests were used. The results showed that the tasks with higher degrees of involvement were more efficient on the recall of idioms. The results also revealed that although form-focused tasks were significantly more effective than meaning-focused tasks at lower loads of involvement, at higher involvement load, the difference between form-focused and meaning-focused tasks was not significant. The findings of the present study can have theoretical as well as pedagogical implications for learners, teachers, textbook designers, and curriculum developers.

This study investigated the effects of form-focused and meaning-focused tasks with different involvement load indices on EFL learners' recognition of L2 idioms. To this end, a sample of 180 EFL learners (both male and female) in two language institutes was selected and randomly assigned into six groups. Form-focused tasks with involvement load 2 (Multiple-choice), 3 (Sentence-completion), 4 (Sentence-making) were used for three experimental groups, while meaning-focused tasks with involvement load 2 (Summary-writing), 3 (Writing with glossary), and 4 (Writing without glossary) were utilized for the other three groups. After the treatment, a 30-item test in multiple-choice format was administered to assess the participants' recognition of idioms. One two-way ANOVA and a series of independent-samples t-tests were run to process the collected data. The results indicated that the tasks with higher levels of involvement load were more effective on recognition of idioms. The results also showed that form-focused tasks were more efficient than meaning-focused tasks. Moreover, at involvement load of two, meaning-focused tasks were more beneficial than form-focused tasks, while form-focused tasks were more effective at higher involvement loads of three and four. The results of this study can have theoretical and pedagogical implications for language teachers, curriculum designers, and researchers.

Group Dynamic Assessment (G-DA), introduced by Poehner (2009), applies mediation through concurrent and cumulative approaches. This study investigated the effect of the two approaches on Iranian homogeneous and heterogeneous EFL learners' auditory memory in listening tasks. Eighty female intermediate EFL learners were chosen as the participants of the study. They were assigned to two groups of forty homogeneous and forty heterogeneous learners. Then, each group was divided into two experimental groups with twenty participants in each. Homogeneous and heterogeneous participants were assessed through both concurrent and cumulative approaches. To find out the main and interaction effect of concurrent and cumulative G-DA and homogeneity and heterogeneity of EFL learners, the post-test scores of the participants were analysed through a two-way ANOVA.  The results indicated that G-DA approaches on the one hand and homogeneity and heterogeneity of EFL learners on the other, had both significant main and interaction effect on EFL learners' auditory memory.  For the independent effect of both approaches, a one-way ANOVA was also used. The results indicated that cumulative G-DA had more significant effect than concurrent one on heterogeneous EFL learners' auditory memory. ANOVA analysis also proved that the two approaches did not differ in their effect on homogenous learners.

The current study examined the Iranian EFL teachers’ and students’ perceptions about Communication Strategies Teachability. The study was conducted with 20 teachers and 110 students from universities and private language Institutes in Tabriz, Iran. The literature regarding the teachability of communication strategies (CSs) has been far from conclusive. Some researchers reject the possibility of CSs instruction while many empirical studies support their teachability. Taking a mixed method design, the present study used a language proficiency test, a questionnaire and an interview for data collection. In the quantitative phase, the participants’ responses to questionnaire before and after a 12-week period of teaching CSs were statistically compared. The analysis of the quantitative data obtained from the questionnaire through Paired-samples t-test indicated that the students’ perceptions towards the usefulness of CSs grew significantly more positive after their instruction. The qualitative analysis of the interview data collected from the teachers indicated that most teachers found CSs useful and possible to teach. It was also found that these strategies improved capability of English language learners to speak and enhaned their conciousness of CSs. This study could offer pedagogical implications for both teachers and students and pave the way for further studies in the field.

Many individuals fail to perform the responsibilities devolved to them within the expected time or at least do them near the deadline. The so-called procrastination in accomplishment of academic tasks has often been considered a frustrating phenomenon which commonly results in undesirable outcomes. However, some students believe that near-deadline performance leads to better results. Focusing on EFL learners, the researchers in this study followed the classical Grounded Theory Approach and investigated whether procrastination always has destructive effects on their performance and behavior or it can be applied as a strategy to gain better outcomes. To do so, they interviewed 43 EFL learners at intermediate and advanced levels of proficiency with prior experience of procrastination and, taking a constant comparative method, analyzed the collected data through three stages of coding (i.e., open, selective, and theoretical). The results indicated that although most respondents did not reject the destructive consequences of procrastination on their language learning, several EFL learners pointed to constructive consequences of procrastination in their learning. Moreover, some strategies for adjusting the destructive effects of procrastination and even for transforming them to constructive consequences emerged from the data. In this way, the present study led to the development of the grounded theory of language learning procrastination. This theory covered two themes of Consequences, including Constructive Language Learning Procrastination and Destructive Language Learning Procrastination, and Overcoming Strategies, including Internal and External Strategies. The resultant theory can open a new horizon to deal with EFL learners’ dilatory behaviors.

Teaching and learning languages via the Internet is becoming increasingly common all over the world and therefore, the experts growingly debate around the positive or negative effects of online education. The present study aimed to critically investigate into science and technology lessons of the VOA English Learning Website in a two-year interval, which claims to teach new words and phrases through the authentic VOA world news. Applying van Dijk’s (1998) Ideological Square Model of CDA, the researchers attempted to critically analyze the representation of the key term the United States within the collected VOA news story transcripts in order to observe whether the Website was trying to manipulate the learners’ minds through in-group favoritism and out-group derogation. The findings revealed that the VOA online lessons promoted certain American political, economic, cultural, social, and ideological values through particular discursive structures that tend to describe in-group members in a positive or at least neutral manner. Thus, as McPhail’s (2006) Electronic Colonialism Theory assumes such free online lessons on the VOA Website, which is a core country multimedia giant, struggle to convert and capture the attitudes, desires, beliefs, faiths, lifestyles, and consumer behavior of the other countries. Therefore, it is highly recommended that English teachers and learners try to inspect the content, reflect on the purposes, and evaluate the merits of similar online authentic materials before and while applying them to facilitate the language learning process.

Individual differences are known to play a crucial role in the acquisition of a second language (L2). An especially important variable of this type is perfectionism. Recent studies (e.g., Erozkan, 2016; Flett, Hewitt., Su., &n Flett., 2016) have sought to explain the relationship between this variable and anxiety. However, this task is complicated by the fact that the mechanism or process which underlies this relationship is believed to implicate various mediator variables. Among these are the roles of the self (Mercer & Williams, 2014). In recent years, the key role of the self in second language acquisition (SLA) has also increasingly been gaining recognition from SLA scholars and practitioners (Mercer & Williams, 2014), since being human implies the reflective consciousness of having a selfand the nature of the self is the very essence of being human (Lewis, 1990). It is worth noting that previous studies have investigated only some, but not all, of the variables under scrutiny in the present study. Accordingly, the overriding goal of the current project was to investigate the relationships among perfectionism, anxiety, and language achievement in the L2 context, considering the mediating roles of self. Another key feature of this investigation was that Iranian learners of English (ILEs) will be the L2 group of interest. To date, relatively little work has been done on this group, regardless of the specific topic. In addition to fulfilling the research goal stated above, this study achieves several significant advances in the field of SLA; for example, it will increase the meagre amount of research that has been done on ILEs to date. By extension, it willalso help L2 learners in general to be more aware of the factors that affect learning. In addition, it will provide teachers, teacher educators, curriculum designers and researchers with a better understanding of the above factors. The target population in this study were 400 EFL learners within the age range of 15-30 who enrolled in private language learning institutes in Iran. The participants’ proficiency levels fell within the range of upper-intermediate to advanced sub-levels of ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines as determined by a placement test already administered by the institutes. To estimate perfectionism, Multi-dimensional Perfectionism Scale MPS was used (Hewitt & Flett, 1991). For anxiety factor, Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) was utilized (Horwitz et al., 1986). Learners’ L2 Self was measured by application of Taylor’s Quadripolar Identity Questionnaire (2010) structured into 4 primary scales representing the four self-categories (private self, ideal self, public selves, imposed selves). Learners’ language achievement was obtained from their final exam scores. The participants were asked to fill out the related questionnaires. To draw the sample, probability sampling was used. The sampling method in the present study was stratified sampling: five institutes were selected randomly as the accessible population. All the instruments were administered by regular EFL teachers, with the support of bilingual aides when needed. All study measures were administered to the participants in the form of a take-home survey to be returned in the next session of the class. Using a descriptive correlational design, the predictive independent variables in this study are types of perfectionism, FLA and L2 achievement are the dependent variables, and L2 selves is mediating variable. The participants’ scores on the final exam were collected. Initially, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was computed to estimate the internal consistency estimate of the reliability of the four questionnaires. Then the data collected by means of questionnaires was explored using correlation analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM). The software package SPSS 24.0 and Amos 8. were used for the descriptive statistics and the correlation analyses, respectively. Reflecting on the research findings, it is assumed that there exists a structural relationship from perfectionism to FLCA and English language achievement via the mediating role of L2 Selves. Two models were considered to test the hypothesis. The first model evaluated the effect of perfectionism on achieved score through selves and anxiety constructs. The second model assessed the effect of perfectionism on achieved score through selves’ sub-factors and anxiety constructs. In the light of the results, values of fit indices show that all the models have a good fit and for the each of two models it is in good and the least acceptable level considering the value of goodness of fit indices, proportation of chi-square to degree of freedom, RMSEA, CFI, NNFI, GFI, and AGFI. In other words, they are in the least acceptable limit for accepting the model. Overall, the findings of this study are important for researchers, university teaching staff, and the students themselves. It is hoped that increasing and detailed knowledge about the dynamics of foreign language perfectionism, anxiety, and self-will enlighten foreign language educators and researchers. Thus, these people can be in a better position to help to reduce the perfectionistic tendencies and as a result anxiety in the English classroom that will better help the students to benefit from English language learning

Lexical inferencing has been recognized as an effective learning strategy in SLA. The present study investigated Iranian EFL learners’ development of reading comprehension as a result of exposure to lexical inferencing strategy instruction. To do so, 45 female participants studying in Simin Language Institute in Rasht, Iran were selected from among 60 students based on the results of a sample of Oxford quick Placement (OQP) test, who scored from 40 to 47. They were in two intact classes, assigned to one experimental (n=24) and one control group (n=21). The experimental group underwent the teaching of reading comprehension through lexical inferencing strategy to help learners infer the meaning of unknown words and promote their understanding of the text. However, the control group received the traditional instruction of reading comprehension concentrating on the translation of new words. The results of the pre- and post-tests of reading comprehension revealed the significant outperformance of the treatment group over the control group’s reading comprehension ability. It was concluded that lexical inferencing strategy teaching could develop the learners’ potential to improve their cognitive capacities in inferring the meaning of unknown words, which might be facilitative in their reading comprehension.

This study investigated the comparative effect of collaborative strategic reading (CSR) and metacognitive reading strategy (MRS) on the reading comprehension of Iranian extrovert and introvert EFL learners. To achieve the purpose of this study, a sample IELTS was administered to 325 students studying at Marefat Language Academy in Tehran from whom 225 were selected based on their performance on that test. Next, the above students sat for Eysenck Personality Inventory questionnaire to determine their level of extroversion and introversion. As a result, a total of 150 learners (75 extroverts and 75 introverts) were selected as four experimental groups and two control groups. The four experimental groups, comprised of 1) 25 extroverts undergoing CSR, 2) 25 extroverts receiving MRS, 3) 25 introverts undergoing CSR, 4) 25 introverts undergoing MRS while the two control groups, with 25 extroverts and 25 introverts, the learners experienced the conventional procedure of teaching reading comprehension in the language school. Ancova and two-way Ancova were conducted which revealed introvert learners with MRS outperformed the extrovert with MRS, introvert and extrovert with CSR, and control groups, suggesting a decisive role for personality traits in reading comprehension classes with different reading strategies instruction.

The purpose of this study was to find the Iranian less and more experienced EFL teachers' beliefs in marking students' errors in writing, their preferred types of written corrective feedback, the most useful kind of teachers' written error correction feedback, and the differences between what they believe and what they actually do in giving feedback. The study was done by the cooperation of 120 available university teachers (53 less experienced and 67 more experienced) teaching writing to EFL learners at different universities in Iran. A written feedback questionnaire was employed in this descriptive survey in which both quantitative (closed-ended questions and paper investigation) and qualitative (open-ended questions) ways of data collection were used. Descriptive statistics including frequency and percentage were estimated in the quantitative data analysis. The results revealed that in error marking and in finding the most useful kind of error correction, less and more experienced teachers had different preferences; and for pointing out the errors, they also had different ideas. The reviewing of the open-ended questions for the qualitative data showed no belief discrepancies in teachers’ responses to the closed-ended items and open-ended questions of the questionnaire. However, the investigation of teachers’ error correction on learners’ actual papers indicated that both groups’ beliefs were different from their actual paper correction. The implications of the study are for teachers, policymakers, and decision-makers in educational settings.

The effects different awareness-raising techniques might have on language learners’ performance have been studied by many researchers. The present study specifically focused on improving EFL learners’ oral narrative task performance in terms of accuracy, fluency and complexity by awareness raising through semantic fields. The participants in the study included 40 intermediate learners whose initial homogeneity in terms of language proficiency was assessed via a Preliminary English Test (PET). They were further randomly assigned as one experimental group and one control group, each comprising 20 participants. The amount of instructional time was 17 sessions, during which the participants in the experimental group received an awareness raising technique through 'semantic fields'. Before and after the treatment, an oral narrative test was administrated. The results of the data analysis revealed that the experimental group which received the awareness raising technique outperformed the control group in three measures of accuracy, fluency and complexity on their performance. The participants showed significant improvements in language proficiency as they retold the narratives. The findings of the present study can create the floor for researchers to go deep through the EFL contexts and find more about the probable effects awareness raising techniques might have on language learning and teaching.

Listening instruction has always encountered various approaches, leading to learners’ success or failure in listening comprehension. Framed in Noticing Hypothesis (Schmidt, 1995), the present study attempts to investigate the effect of raising the learners’ awareness of prosodic features (stress, intonation, and rhythm) in the pronunciation of words on their listening comprehension. In doing so, 70 intermediate EFL learners from Kish Air Language Institute were selected. They were divided into one experimental group (n=35) and one control group (n=35). Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered to ensure the homogeneity of participants’ level of proficiency. The listening pre- and post-tests were also taken by the participants. Results showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group, implying that when learners were aware of prosodic features (stress, intonation, and rhythm) in the pronunciation of words, they could significantly improve their listening comprehension. It seems that teaching prosodic features can raise the learners’ pronunciation awareness, which can then improve the learners’ listening comprehension as learners can be familiarized with the structural and semantic categories of target words and activate their content knowledge of the key words in doing the listening tasks. Awareness raising of prosodic features can be in alignment with metacognitive instruction - while the former can be more productive - in order to help foreign language learners develop their listening comprehension in stress-free learning environment. Finally, it is noteworthy that learners’ awareness demands teachers’ awareness of how to teach, which can be fulfilled by purposeful teacher education programs.

The Internet is already an essential element of education in all developed countries and its worldwide educational significance will continue to increase due to its constant technological development, communicative power, and social potential. Internet-mediated English learning has lately attracted both English teachers and learners due to the numerous advantages including the increased accessibility, quick information retrieval, flexibility in the pace of learning, etc. In spite of their popularity, the Internet-mediated English learning materials have rarely been critically analyzed. The present study aimed to critically investigate LingoHack lessons of BBC English Learning Website which claims to teach new words and phrases through watching and reading the transcripts of the latest BBC World News bulletin, trying to investigate whether these educational materials were promoting different aspects of electronic colonialism. This is a theory proposed by McPhail (1987) which tries to discover and uncover the colonial goals of multimedia giants produced in the core countries which seek to control the minds of people from the periphery countries. Thus, the lessons that were published from the beginning of the year 2016 to the end of the year 2017 were searched for the key term Britain plus its directly and indirectly related items both electronically and manually and 77 out of 270 news articles were found to contain the key terms. The corpus was analyzed by being classified based on their subject matters into three categories: Britain’s science and technology (26 news stories), Britain’s health and lifestyle (42 news stories), and Britain’s politics (9 news stories). Applying Van Dijk’s (2004) Ideological Square Model of critical discourse analysis (CDA), the researchers attempted to critically analyze the representation of Britain within BBC news lessons in terms of their hidden potential curriculum. Ideological Square Model accounts for the ways discourses represent groups of people in a process of polarization between Us and Them through: (a) emphasizing information that is positive about Us, (b) emphasizing information that is negative about Them, (c) de-emphasizing information that is positive about Them, and (d) de-emphasizing information that is negative about Us (van Dijk, 1998, p. 267).Van Dijk believed in a hierarchy of power in which those who are able to influence and control people’s minds can indirectly control their actions through persuasion and manipulation as well. Therefore, his model plus 27 strategies for ideological discourse analysis listed by van Dijk (2004) were suitable for exploring the manipulations applied to the target educational materials in this study. In order to answer the research question, all BBC news video transcripts from LingoHack lessons involving the key terms were critically analyzed and noteworthy results were obtained and since the CDA analysis of all these news stories were too long to be included in this article, 6 samples from those presenting the manipulative functions of the target ELT content were discussed in detail. Even before considering CDA analysis, BBC Online appeared to be biased in selecting news video stories as ELT materials which were claimed to be international, while there existed plenty of British stories. The findings for the first category revealed that BBC Internet-mediated lessons have had manipulative purposes in choosing particular news stories and attempting to obtain illegitimate domination through the formation of biased mental models offered by emphasizing positive information about Britain’s superior scientific and technological capabilities. Similarly, critical analysis from the second category showed that Britain as a core country also attempted to advertise its own values and norms through selecting biased news articles within health and lifestyle domain which tried to direct the audience’s attention toward ideal and high quality living conditions in Britain. Findings from the third category also revealed that Britain was presented positively as a powerful and supportive country in political news stories and that was a true example of promoting electronic colonialism. On the whole, BBC Internet-mediated English learning program was found to promote certain British ideological values, scientific superiorities, and political messages through applying particular discursive structures that tend to describe in-group members in a positive or at least neutral way. Developing such an ideal British mentality in English learners was on the basis of a hidden curriculum which tried to promote a new kind of colonialism. So, as McPhail’s (2006) Electronic Colonialism Theory postulates, long term exposure to these English learning materials would threaten individuals’ perception of their identity and culture and disseminate British norms and values. Therefore, the Website users need to be conscious of the secret threats of the Internet technology and develop critical view in order to be wise autonomous learners. The researchers also have to closely investigate the one-way flow of media messages from the core to the peripheral countries, including online English educational materials and the purposes of the producing nations as well as the influences on receiving nations.

Task variation is an integrative method aiming at the importance of learner-to-learner interactions in a wide range of learning contexts and fostering authentic use of language and meaningful communication. This study investigated the impact of task variation on the accuracy and complexity of Iranian EFL learners’ oral speech. In so doing, 80 intermediate EFL learners, majoring English at the Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon branch, were randomly assigned to four equal groups based on their scores on OPT: Experimental Group 1 (EXG1), treated by a variation of three tasks, i.e., dialogue completion, group dialogue, and dialogue unscrambling; Experimental Group 2 (EXG2), treated by a variation of two tasks including dialogue completion and dialogue unscrambling; Experimental Group 3 (EXG3), instructed through a single task (dialogue unscrambling), and the Control Group (CONG), instructed through teacher routine or conventional method. The speaking part of the Preliminary English Test (PET) was administered to the groups as a pretest and posttest. The four groups received their required instructions for ten sessions. The results of the ANOVA and Post Hoc analyses indicated that the three task variations were effective on two features of accuracy and complexity. It was also revealed that the EXG1, treated through a variety of three tasks, outperformed the other three groups in terms of accuracy and complexity. Task variation is hence advised to be incorporated in EFL teaching and testing contexts as a useful tool to improve learners’ oral performance on accuracy and complexity.