Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies
Volume:6 Issue: 2, Spring 2019

Thanks to recent developments in metadiscourse studies, it is now increasingly accepted that metadiscourse practices are closely related to social activities, cognitive styles and epistemological beliefs of academic communities. Despite widespread interest and research among applied linguists to explore metadiscourse use, very little is known of how metadiscourse resources have evolved over time in response to the historically developing practices of academic communities. Motivated by such an ambition, the current research drew on a corpus of 4.3 million words taken from three leading journals of applied linguistics in order to trace the diachronic evolution of stance and engagement markers across four different sections of research articles (Introduction, Method, Result, Discussion/ Conclusion) from 1996 to 2016. Hyland’s (2005b) model of metadiscourse was adopted for the analysis of the selected corpus. The data were explored using concordance software AntConc (Anthony, 2011). Moreover, a Chi-Square statistical measure was run to determine statistical significances. The analysis revealed a significant decline in the overall frequency of metadiscourse resources in all sections of RAs. Interestingly, this decrease was entirely due to the overall decline in the use of stance markers particularly in result and method sections. It might be argued that, diachronic perspective on metadiscourse contributes to teachers and novice writers’ awareness of the malleability of academic writing and its sensitivity to context as well as providing access to current practices for the creation and delivery of teaching materials in EAP courses.

A remarkable body of empirical research within form-focused language teaching framework has examined the tripartite dimensions of corrective feedback, i.e., linguistic, contextual and individual aspects, in isolation. Nonetheless, a holistic understanding of the role of oral corrective feedback (CF) in the acquisition of L2 forms seems to rely on uncovering how these dimensions function in interaction with each other. The present study aimed to examine the differential effects of immediate and delayed feedback in the acquisition of English simple past form, and the hypothesized moderating effect of Willingness to Communicate (WTC) on the effectiveness of feedback timing. Sixty pre-intermediate-level Iranian EFL learners participated in an experiment as members of immediate and delayed feedback groups, and each learner was differentiated as either high-WTC or low-WTC, based on the result of WTC questionnaire. The pedagogical gains were assessed with a grammaticality judgment test at three different points of time, pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test. The results of a Two-way ANCOVA showed no significant difference between immediate and delayed CF in short-term and long-term acquisition. Despite the insignificant interaction effect witnessed between feedback timing and WTC, the findings demonstrated that learners with high-WTC in both groups outperformed slightly in comparison to low-WTC learners. The results are interpreted in light of the number and duration of feedback treatment sessions as well as the instruments used for measuring the acquisition outcome. It is suggested that further studies be conducted concerning the interactions between instructional, interactional and learner-internal aspects of CF functioning.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between foreign language causal attributions, metacognitive self-regulation and speaking performance of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 202 intermediate EFL students, studying English at private language teaching institutes in three provinces of Hamedan, Golestan, and Khuzestan were selected based on the convenience sampling procedure. To collect data, Causal Dimension Scale II (CDS II) (McAuley, Duncan, & Russell, 1992) and Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia & McKeachie, 1991) were employed. Moreover, the interview section of IELTS Exam was also used to measure speaking ability of the learners. The results of the study showed that there was a significant positive correlation between the participants’ L2 speaking ability and the locus of causality and the internal control dimensions of attribution theory. But, there was significant negative correlation between L2 speaking ability and the external control and the stability dimensions. There was also positive significant correlation between L2 speaking ability and metacognitive self-regulation. Moreover, it was found out that successful and unsuccessful EFL learners attributed their success and failure in L2 speaking performance mainly to internal factors. It was also found that among the independent variables of the study, meta-cognitive self-regulation was the stronger predictor of the participants' L2 speaking performance. The findings of this study are hoped to suggest a number of implications for EFL teachers, learners, syllabus designers, and parents.

This study aimed at investigating the Iranian EFL teachers’ perceptions of critical pedagogy values in teaching English with an emphasis on gender and teaching experience. For that end, a 33-item Likert-type questionnaire was developed. The researcher-made instrument was administered to 102 EFL teachers teaching English in language schools in Qom, Iran. The internal consistency of the instrument was calculated through using Cronbach Alpha. It showed a high reliability (α=.88). The data was subjected to non-parametric Mann Whitney U test to check any potential significant difference between the levels of CP perceptions in the male and female EFL teachers. The results revealed that there was not a significant difference between genders in all items except item1 (p=.021), item18 (p=.017), item19 (p=.008), item 20 (p=.004), item28 (p=.000) and item 31 (p=.03) since the p value for these items was less than .05 (Pallant, 2005). The Kruskal Wallis test was also run to investigate if there were any differences in CP perceptions across four levels of language teaching experience. The test statistics revealed no statistically significant difference in levels of CP perception across four groups of EFL teachers in all items except item 18 (p=.034), 19(p=.025), 31(p=.01) and 32(p=.027) which were significant since the p value for them was less than .05 (Pallant, 2005). Then, the results of the study are discussed and some implications are presented.

The present study investigated the effects of using the MoodleReader Module on Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary depth and breadth. The participants of this study, chosen based on their availability, were 30 male and female Iranian EFL learners attending two intact reading comprehension classes. One class was assigned to the treatment group and the other one to the control group. Three tests measuring vocabulary breadth, depth, and partial knowledge of vocabulary were used to collect the data. The tests were administered in both classes at the beginning of the study as pre-tests; then, the treatment group received the MoodleReader as the extensive reading tool, while the control group used the traditional intensive reading program during three and a half months. At the end of the study, the three tests were once again administered to both classes as post-tests. To analyze the collected data, a set of paired and independent samples t-tests was run to compare the performance of the participants in both groups. The findings of the study indicated that the treatment group improved regarding all the three aspects of vocabulary knowledge, i.e., breadth, depth and partial knowledge and the control group improved in terms of vocabulary breadth, but not in terms of vocabulary depth and partial knowledge. The findings indicated that the application of the MoodleReader module affected the development of EFL learners’ vocabulary breadth, depth, and partial knowledge.

Morphological awareness is currently receiving an increasing amount of attention in the literature on second language learning. This study investigated the effect of three methods of morphological awareness (i.e. Textual Enhancement (TE), Metalinguistic Explanation (ME), and Morpheme Recognition Task (MRT)) on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge. The participants of the study included 90 intermediate EFL students selected based on their scores on the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). They were divided into three groups (i.e. TE, ME, MRT), each including 30 participants. Each group was taught 60 English derivational affixes including prefixes, suffixes and roots through three different methods of morphological awareness. In order to examine the participants’ depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge, they were asked to respectively take Word Associates Test (WAT) and Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) as both pretests and posttests. In order to examine the difference between the pretest and posttest scores of the participants’ VLT and WAT, a paired-samples t-test was run for each group. In order to explore if there were any significant differences among the posttest scores of the three groups on the VLT and WAT, two separate one-way ANOVAs were conducted. Results indicated that (i) all three methods of morphological awareness have significant effects on improving EFL learners’ depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge, and (ii) that there was no significant difference among the three groups in terms of their depth of vocabulary knowledge, but there were significant differences between the ME group and the other two groups (i.e. TE and MRT) regarding their breadth of vocabulary knowledge. Considering the implications, teachers should raise students’ awareness to utilize affixes. Syllabus designers and lexicographers should also take account of different techniques and tasks for raising EFL/ESL learners’ morphological awareness.