جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « language learning strategies » در نشریات گروه « ادبیات و زبان ها »

Washback has been defined as the impact of testing on curriculum design, teaching practice, and learning behaviours. The English Proficiency Test (EPT) is a high-stakes test in Iran and is prone to bring degrees of washback both at micro and macro levels. This study was an attempt to examine the washback effect of the EPT on Iranian PhD candidates’ language learning strategies. To this end, a mixed-methods approach of data collection was used to collect, analyze, and integrate quantitative and qualitative data to reach a better grasp of the research topic and enhance the validity and reliability of the information. Based on the sequential exploratory design, two phases of data collection were conducted with a two-week interval. In the first phase, the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) was administered to 200 students at Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan). In the second phase, 20 students who filled out the questionnaire showed their willingness to participate in the interview session and write their language learning diaries. Finally, the quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed via descriptive and thematic analysis, respectively. The results showed both positive and negative washback effects on the students’ language learning strategies. The findings of this study have practical implications for EFL language teachers, syllabus designers, and material developers.

The present study investigated the impact of language learning strategy instruction on the enhancement of less successful Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ L2 achievement. To this end, 40 less successful EFL students took part in the study, 20 of whom were trained based on CALLA (Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach) and the rest formed the control group. A complete TOEFL PBT test was administered to the 40 participants of the study to homogenize them in terms of language proficiency.The results of two independent samples t-tests and two separate paired samples t-tests indicated that explicit strategy instruction had a significant positive impact on L2 achievement of less successful Iranian EFL learners as the participants in the experimental group significantly outperformed their counterparts in the control group. The results of the current study might contribute to the educational policymakers,  materials writers, syllabus designers, curriculum developers, and foreign language teachers to incorporate learning strategies in their policies, curricula, syllabi, materials, and instructional tasks if they intend to boost EFL learners’ L2 achievement.

Enhancing speaking ability is an important component of the acquirement of a language. The present study focused on improving speaking ability through online strategy-based instruction. The innovation aspect of this study is applying the Moodle course management system as an instructional platform. To this end, a group of 80 Iranian female and male students at the intermediate level participated in the treatment. Participants of the study were divided into four groups of 20. The subjects in experimental groups benefited from two particular instructional focuses of this study include social and affective strategies. In order to assess the effect of the treatment pre and posttests design were utilized. Consequently, the data were analyzed through One-Way ANOVAs and t-tests. The findings revealed that strategy treatment was successful in improving the participants’ speaking ability. However, there was no significant difference between the performance of male and female treatment groups. Therefore, the findings suggest that online strategy-based instruction can positively influence the speaking ability of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. This study may have pedagogical implications for material practitioners, CALL package designers and distance learning planners to include strategy instruction in English courses. 

There is little doubt that learning a language is a challenging task. In the case of languages such as Persian, which do not enjoy the status of an international language and, consequently, the extensive investment of international agencies, the task of learning appears to be even thornier. To overcome this thorny task, language learners need to be quite motivated and self-regulated. The underlying assumption behind the present study was that some of the language learning strategies that language learners employ might be more strongly connected with their motivational and self-regulated learning. Therefore,   the aim of the present study was to investigate language learning strategy use of Persian as Second Language (PSL) learners as predictors of their meta-cognitive and motivational self-regulated learning components.To this end, a sample of 149 male and female B.A level non-Iranian learners of Persian at Imam Khomeini International University in Qazvin, Iran were selected through convenience sampling based on availability. The selected participants were then asked to fill in two questionnaires including the translated version of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The participants were required to answer the questionnaire by choosing the right alternative from among five choices on a Likert type scale. The collected data were summarized, processed and analyzed using four separate stepwise multiple regression analyses. To see how strong the relationship between the meta-cognitive self-regulated learning and each of the predictors is, the unstandardized as well as standardized coefficients of the three models, along with the observed t-values and significance levels were checked. The results showed that, from among the language learning strategies, cognitive, compensation, and meta-cognitive strategies could make significant contribution to predicting meta-cognitive self-regulated learning. Moreover, meta-cognitive, memory, and affective strategies turned out to be significant predictors of task value. Meanwhile, meta-cognitive strategies and task value shared about 18%, and meta-cognitive and memory strategies together shared over 25% of variance with task value. Meta-cognitive, memory, and affective strategies collectively accounted for about 27% of the total variance with task value. The findings also showed significant relationships between meta-cognitive strategies and control of learning beliefs. In fact, meta-cognitive strategies entered into the regression equation as the single predictor of control of learning beliefs and meta-cognitive strategies and control of learning beliefs shared over 8% of variance. It also turned out that for every one standard deviation of change in meta-cognitive strategies score, there was .30 of a standard deviation change in the control of learning beliefs score.  In addition, to examine the relationship between types of language learning strategies and test anxiety as a component of motivational self-regulated learning, another stepwise multiple regression procedure was used. Based on the results, the single negative predictor of test anxiety was compensation strategies. The result further indicated that for every one standard deviation change in one's compensation strategies, there will be .23 of a standard deviation negative change in one's test anxiety. These findings may have theoretical and pedagogical implications for language learners, teachers, and syllabus designers. If teachers and materials developers are cognizant of the nature of the relationships between meta-cognitive and motivational self-regulated learning components and language learning strategy use, they will be better prepared to make more informed decisions about introducing and encouraging the use of certain types of strategies (and probably discouraging the use of certain other less productive or counterproductive strategies) in the classroom, or about using useful instructional books and materials to encourage students to use those language learning strategies which have predictive power on meta-cognitive and motivational self-regulated learning components (task value, control of learning beliefs, and test anxiety). By designing the right kind of materials and adopting the right kinds of teaching activities (which require the students’ use of certain strategies), materials developers and teachers may be able to contribute to improving learners’ motivation and self-regulation, and by so doing, help improve learners’ achievements. The knowledge of how language learning strategies are related to metacognitive and motivational self-regulated learning can also help learners become more self-regulated and motivated. If they know that certain learning strategies are closely connected with being motivated and self-regulated, they will be more open and receptive to those strategies and will avoid resisting to use those strategies. Alternatively, they may come to the realization that some strategies are not very useful in this regard, and that they should not be overused.

Examining learners' beliefs about the essence of knowledge, how they are conceptualized, and the ways they influence the learning process have gained attention in the second language (L2) learning. This study employed a multivariate statistical framework to model complex relationships among three constructs, i.e., epistemic beliefs (EB), language learning strategies (LLSs), L2 motivational self-system (L2MSS), and their sub-factors (N = 12). The data were collected in two phases. At the preliminary stage, the structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to visualize a hypothesized model and to map the conceptual framework of the study. At the secondary step, three questionnaires, EB, LLSs, and L2MSS, were distributed among junior high school students (N = 300). The questionnaires were collected over four months. The collected data were screened for incomplete responses and sample attrition. Notably, 774 questionnaires met a valid response rate of 95 percent. Correlational and SEM analyses were utilized to probe the causal relationships among the constructs. The findings revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between the subscales of L2MSS and LLSs. However, there was a significant negative relationship between EB and LLSs. Besides, confirmatory factor analysis underpinned the fitness of the hypothesized model after two stepwise corrections. The findings revealed that the path coefficient for EB had a significant impact on the LLSs with the mediating role of L2MSS. In particular, the path analysis revealed that 48% of LLSs might be explained through EB and L2MSS. This paper suggests that the more EB students experience, the less likely they adopt learning strategies, and the more L2MSS they hold, the more LLS students employ.

The significance of the examined problems is caused by the need to improve the functional approach to understanding the link between metacognitive strategies acquisition and their value and impact on foreign language learning. The work contains the comparison of approaches of Russian scientists and foreign researchers on this problem. Also it comprises information about different requirements that authors put forward according to metacognitive strategies, their choice and application; the classification of learning strategies and particularly classification of metacognitive strategies; and research approaches related to the metacognitive strategy development. The leading goal set by the authors was to create a model of metacognitive strategy development during foreign language learning, to identify its principles, methods, approaches to its proper functioning, criteria and indicators which are able to effectively assess the level of metacognitive strategy development and use foreign language as a basis to fulfil created model. Article submissions may be useful in lecture courses on language teaching, developing a curriculum on teaching a foreign language as well as to apply to language lessons either during teaching or learning it.

This study compares lexical retrieval amongst monolinguals and intermediate bilinguals and advanced bilinguals. It also investigates the possible effects of their language learning strategies on their respective lexical retrieval advantage. The study used a mixed methods design and the groups consisted of 20 Persian near-monolinguals, 20 Persian-English intermediate level bilinguals, and 20 Persian-English high-proficiency bilinguals. Auditory and visual lexical Memory Span Tasks were utilized to evaluate the lexical retrieval of all the language groups. The way that bilinguals used their L2 on a daily basis was examined using semi-structured interviews. It was suggested that the knowledge of two languages will not necessarily result in lexical retrieval advantages in bilinguals when compared to monolinguals. However, it was found that the specific language learning strategies used by the bilinguals could potentially influence their lexical retrieval advantages. Furthermore, when comparing lexical retrieval in different language proficiency groups, the method using which bilinguals manage their two languages as well as the environment they are located in should be taken into consideration.

The objectives of the present study were threefold: First, it sought to investigate difficulties Iranian EFL high school learners face to understand English idioms. Second, it attempted to explore intermediate EFL learners’ language learning strategy preferences to comprehend idioms. Third, it aimed to examine whether there was a significant difference between successful and less successful students' strategy use in idiom comprehension. To this end, 200 Iranian male and female students of the three grades of different senior high schools in Qom, Iran, were selected through convenience sampling. They responded to a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire (Alhaysony, 2017), investigating the challenges of idiom comprehension. Afterwards, they took the Oxford Quick Placement Test. Ninety-eight of them were selected as intermediate learners. Third, they took a multiple-choice test on idiom comprehension, developed by the researcher, and responded to the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (Oxford, 1990). Descriptive statistics, frequencies and means, and a one-sample t-test were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that the participants complained that idioms were challenging mainly because they were not taught well in class and were not part of the course syllabi. They also revealed that successful learners in understanding idioms used all six categories of strategies in the high and medium levels. They employed metacognitive strategies the most (M= 3.88), but affective strategies the least (M= 2.84). The results of the t-test suggested significant differences between successful and less successful learners' strategy use. The results provide insights into the challenges and strategies of English idiom comprehension.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between learning style and language learning strategy use among pre-university students. For this purpose, 132 male and female students were asked to fill out two questionnaires. One questionnaire for identifying perceptual learning style preferences and the other one for identifying language learning strategy use. The results showed that visual learning style was considered as major among participants and the overall use of other learning styles was minor and it was also revealed that most of the participants were medium strategy users. In this study all learning styles except group learning style proved to influence language learning strategy use. There was a positive but weak correlation between auditory, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic learning styles and language learning strategy use, but in the case of individual learning style the correlation was negative. The results of the study and their implications for language learning and teaching are further discussed.

The present study was conducted to investigate whether there was a relationship between EFL learners’ use of language learning strategies and their self-perceived language proficiency at the two levels of intermediate and advanced. A total of 67 subjects (39 intermediate-level and 28 advanced) were selected to participate in this study based on their scores on a piloted language proficiency test. They were asked to respond to two questionnaires: one assessing their self-perceived language proficiency and the other the strategy inventory of language learning. The results of the statistical analysis demonstrated that there was a significant relationship between the two variables among advanced-level subjects while no such relationship existed among intermediates. Thence, as learners reach higher stages of language proficiency, they become more capable of assessing their language abilities and also use their learning strategies more often. Further analysis also revealed that subjects did not change their attitude in using strategies as they reached higher stages of proficiency except for memory and social strategies. Finally, the results showed that the most frequently used set of strategies among both intermediate and advanced learners were cognitive while the least were affective.