The Effect of Developing Syntactic and Semantic Consciousness-raisings among Participants Attending an In-Service-Training Course at Imam Ali Military University

Developing English as a foreign language among the members of IR of Iran Army is necessary because in the world of communications and information, the people who use the existed sources and have interaction with the others could be successful. This study aims to investigate the effects of syntactic and semantic consciousness-raisings on improving discourse competence among participants attending an in-service-training course at Imam Ali Military University (IAMU). This study was conducted with 60 participants attending an in-service-training course at IAMU. In order to address the research questions, the control group received their own conventional treatment while experimental groups practiced discourse competence based on syntactic and semantic consciousness-raisings. All groups attended classes which lasted 15 30-minutes sessions. Three instruments were used to collect data: KET, interview, and discourse Completion Test. The results of data analysis revealed that the syntactic and semantic consciousness-raisings have significant effects on learner's discourse competence. The results of this study then suggest that participants attending an in-service-training course at IAMU would benefit from applying syntactic and semantic consciousness-raisings.