جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "writing complexity" در نشریات گروه "ادبیات و زبان ها"

Dynamic assessment (DA) is founded in Sociocultural Theory (SCT) of Vygotsky (1978) and his conception of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). It motivated the scholars to find a way from a static approach of assessment to the dynamic approach to increase individuals’ independence and level of performance (Lantolf & Poehner, 2004; Poehner, 2008). To this end, this investigation probed DA intervention on writing fluency and complexity of Iranian EFL learners. Before the treatment, the KET test was implemented for homogenizing the participants and then 36 learners were chosen in groups of namely, experimental and control (18 participants in every group). In both groups, learners wrote a one-paragraph essay in the first session. During the intervention which lasted for two sessions, the researcher followed some stages including implicit and explicit feedback types in the second and third sessions to help learners move from teacher-regulation to self-regulation and then they wrote again a one-paragraph essay as the post-test in the fourth session. Participants in the control group wrote on the same topics as the experimental group, however, with no DA intervention. The researcher corrected their papers and provided some general comments in the control group. The t-tests in the post-tests indicated that experimental group surpassed the control group considerably concerning the writing fluency and complexity improvement. The paper concludes with a discussion and recommendations for further research into the potential DA contributions to EFL writing assessment and instruction.

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) modes can ease scaffolding through multimodality in collaborative writing tasks. However, there is an ongoing debate regarding synchronous and asynchronous CMC environments. Additionally, there are conflicting results regarding gender’s pedagogical beliefs in CMC applications. The current study aimed to explore if there is a difference between synchronous and asynchronous multimodal scaffolding on the freewriting complexity of EFL learners. Besides, genders’ perceptions about applying multimodal scaffolding were compared. Participants were 84 EFL learners who randomly assigned into three groups. For the pre-test, a picture, podcast, and movie were shared, and the participants were asked to complete their freewriting tasks individually within the allocated time. For treatment, one experimental group was scaffolded in a synchronous environment by sending messages on WhatsApp, and the other experimental group experienced asynchronous scaffolding via email. The results indicated that multimodal scaffolding is beneficial. However, no significant difference was found between the writing complexity of synchronous and asynchronous groups. Furthermore, a significant difference between males’ and females’ tendency to use multimodal scaffolding was uncovered. The findings highlighted the role synchronous and asynchronous multimodal scaffolding can play in collaborative writing tasks

Rapid development of information and communication technologies has changed learning a second language. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has removed restriction to traditional face-to-face education. The effect of synchronous/ asynchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) on Iranian EFL learners’ writing accuracy and complexity was examined in this study. To this end, a quasi-experimental design was used. Forty EFL learners were selected from an institution in Zahedan based on an Oxford Placement test. To evaluate learners’ writing, measures of accuracy and complexity were used. The data was analyzed by the help of a series of Multivariate Analysis of Variance. Regarding the writing accuracy, the results of the study showed significant differences among the groups. However, the results didn’t show any significant difference among the groups for writing complexity. The results of the study were discussed and suggestions for further studies have been made. The implications of this work can be strengthening of interaction based on the presence of SCMC and encouraging cognitive effort to improve learners’ language skills.

Despite growing interest in the studies on Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), its operation in the forms of individualized and group-wide has been controversial. To cast some empirical light on the issue, this study was designed to quantitatively and comparatively study the applicability of the two scenarios of ZPD-based instructions to the writing complexity of Iranian EFL learners in terms of learners' types (low vs. high scorers). To this end, 118 EFL learners identified as homogeneous based on the TOEFL ITP test were randomly assigned into two equal experimental groups (individualized ZPD- and group-wide ZPD-based groups) which respectively received compatible instructions utilizing conference writing (as an individual scaffolding technique) and low- and high-structured writing templates (as a whole-class scaffolding technique). The treatments were allocated to the groups in a random manner within homogeneous blocks. Prior to and after the treatments, three tests (two writing tests and one ZPD test) were administered to measure both groups’ writing complexity and their ZPD levels. A ZPD test was also administered in the mid of treatments. The non-parametric analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that the individualized-ZPD-based instruction is constructive to the writing complexity of the low scorers, while the group-wide ZPD-based instruction shows not much constructive to the writing complexity of the high scorers. The findings pointed to the use of ZPD-based instructions in TEFL writing in meaningful contexts and thereby showing impacts made on the writing complexity of learners. The study, indeed, yields support to the feasibility of group-wide ZPD measurement along with an individualized ZPD approach.

The literature of ELT is perhaps overwhelmed by attempts to enhance learners’ writing through the application of different methodologies. One such methodology is critical discourse analysis which is founded upon stressing not only the decoding of the propositional meaning of a text but also its ideological assumptions. Accordingly, this study was an attempt to investigate the impact of critical discourse analysis-based (CDA) instruction on EFL learners’ writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). To fulfill the purpose of this study, 60 female intermediate EFL learners were selected from among a total number of 100 through their performance on a piloted sample PET. Based on the results, the students were randomly assigned to a control and an experimental group with 30 participants in each. Both groups underwent the same amount of teaching time during 17 sessions which included a treatment of CDA instruction for the experimental group. A writing posttest was administered at the end of the instruction to both groups and their mean scores on the test were compared through a MANOVA. The results led to the rejection of the three null hypotheses, thereby demonstrating that the learners in the experimental group benefited significantly more than those in the control group in terms of improving their writing CAF. To this end, it is recommended that CDA instruction be incorporated more frequently in writing classes following of course adequate syllabus design and materials development.

The present study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between EFL learners’ anxiety and writing complexity. For the purpose of the study, 70 female learners, between 17 and 24 years old (mean=20) from Najm language school in Tehran participated in the study. The participants’ level of anxiety was measured using Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope’s Anxiety Questionnaire (1986) and their writing complexity was measured through writing a narrative text based on their course book. The results revealed that there was a significant positive correlation between anxiety and writing complexity (p=.00). In addition, the results of examining the predictability of writing complexity by anxiety showed that anxiety significantly predicted writing complexity (F(1, 68)=16.67, p