Foreign language vocabulary learning is challenging and requires using an appropriate method. To this end, this study aimed to investigate the effect of listening and viewing BBC News lessons as a teaching and learning tool on high school EFL learners’ vocabulary learning. This quasi-experimental research was carried out in the twelfth grade of Shohada high school in Kalybar city in East-Azarbijan, Iran. Forty two high school EFL learners were chosen as participants from two intact classes. The homogeneity of the classes was checked through a KET test. Then, they were randomly assigned into the experimental (n=19) and control (n=23) groups. Target words were selected from the eight BBC News lessons for both groups. The unfamiliarity of these words to the learners was found through the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale. The experimental group experienced vocabulary learning through watching and listening to the BBC News lessons; while, the control group received the same target words through the traditional method. A vocabulary-based post-test was administrated after the treatment. The result of Independent-Samples t-test on the post-test scores of both groups revealed the significant outperformance of the experimental group compared to the control group. Practical implications are presented to teachers, researchers, and learners. پرونده مقاله

The aim of this study was to evaluate the new version of Iranian EFL junior high school textbook (Prospect1) from the teachers’ perspectives. The participants included90experienced English teachers (42 females and 48 males) randomly selected from different junior high schools in different districts of Gilan province, Iran. The evaluation of the textbook was conducted quantitatively through a 5-point Likert scale with seven criteria including subject and content, activities, skills, physical layout, practical consideration, language and general criteria. However, it was accompanied by some open-ended questions that solicited teachers' views about each criterion and the book in general. The descriptive statistics including standard deviation, mean, percentage and frequency were used in the data analysis.The findings revealed that teachers have positive perceptions toward this book.They had a positive view about the prospect1 because of its content and topic relevancy to learners' needs, including real life situations, enjoying challenging subject, having communicative pair and group works and attending to four skills equally. However, they intensified some problems in their open ended questions such as insufficiency of teaching time that is 1.5 hour during a week, not focusing on explicit presentation of some words and grammatical points and not paying attention to some sub-skill strategies. These findings can be helpful for curriculum designers and textbook writers to design some valuable textbooks for other levels and to consider correspondence between time of teaching and volume of the book. پرونده مقاله

This content analysis study, employing a multimodal perspective and critical visual analysis, set out to analyze gender representations in Top Notch series, one of the highly used ELT textbooks in Iran. For this purpose, six images were selected from these series and analyzed in terms of ‘representational’, ‘interactive’ and ‘compositional’ modes of meanings. The result indicated that there are no stereotypical predictions of any genders, and that both female and male social actors were represented on an equal footing. The corollary of this critical image analysis was the implications which are of vital importance for material developers as well as those responsible for choosing language teaching in general and ELT materials in particular. پرونده مقاله

The aim of this study was to find out whether listening to English songs can improve pre-intermediate EFL learners’ listening comprehension. To this end, a non-randomized pretest-posttest control group design as one of the quasi-experimental research designs was employed. The sample of the study consisted of 40 male and female English learners from two classes in an Institute in Marand, Iran. The two classes were randomly assigned into the experimental and control groups. Then, a PET test was used to check the homogeneity of both groups. The listening section of PET was also considered as the pretest of the study. Then, fifteen English songs were used in the experimental group during the treatment period. Each session, within 45 minutes, one song was played for and practiced with the learners. Meanwhile, the control group had their usual teacher -fronted class without listening to songs. At the end, both groups were post tested on their listening comprehension using the listening section of another version of PET. The collected data were analyzed using Independent-Samples and Paired-Samples t-tests. The results revealed a statistically significant improvement in the performance of the experimental group. It is implied that songs are not only an entertaining tool but they can also be used as a pedagogic material in improving learners’ listening comprehension. پرونده مقاله

هدف این تحقیق بررسی تأثیر خواندن سایه‌ای و خواندن راهبردی مشارکتی بر عملکرد خواندن و درک مطلب زبان آموزان ایرانی در سطح مقدماتی بود. محققان 3 کلاس در سطح مقدماتی در کانون زبان ایران که شامل 90 زبان‌آموز مؤنث بود را انتخاب کردند و آنها را به صورت تصادفی به دو گروه تحقیق و یک گروه شاهد تعیین کردند. همگنی آنها در مهارت درک مطلب از طریق پیش آزمون برگرفته از آزمون کت تأیید شد و 66 زبان‌آموز (22 نفر در هر کلاس) برای شرکت در تحقیق انتخاب شدند. سپس گروه‌های تحقیق به مدت 10 جلسه در خواندن سایه‌ای یا خواندن راهبردی مشارکتی شرکت کردند. در حالی که گروه شاهد تدریس معمول خواندن را دریافت کردند. در پایان همان پیش‌آزمون درک مطلب کت به عنوان پس‌آزمون به زبان‌آموزان داده شد. تحلیل آماری داده‌های پس‌آزمون نشانگر پیشرفت معنی‌دار گروه‌های تحقیق در مهارت درک مطلب بود. گروه خواندن راهبردی مشارکتی عملکرد بهتری نسبت به دو گروه دیگر داشت و گروه خواندن سایه‌ای عملکرد بهتری نسبت به گروه شاهد داشت. کاربردهای آموزشی خواندن سایه‌ای و خواندن راهبردی مشارکتی در پیشرفت مهارت درک مطلب زبان‌آموزان بیان شده‌اند. پرونده مقاله

There has been a long literature on the linguistic differences found in the language men and women speak, but there have not been enough discussions about the reasons why such differences exist. To recognize some major differences a study of feedback could be suggested. In EFL classes feedback is very important specially to enhance speaking proficiency of the learners, but it seems that this has not been investigated properly in foreign language teaching context in Iran. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences between the Iranian EFL learners’ quality of performance across genders. This study examined the use of formative and summative feedback among 80 female and male EFL learners in a language institute in Tabriz, Iran in 2019 employing a quasi-experimental method. Because a pre-test and post-test method were applied to two groups of students to investigate the results of the feedbacks, an independent t-test and a double test method were used to analyze the amount of effectiveness of each of the feedback methods under investigations among genders and also a one-way variance analysis has been administered using SPSS22 software. Results of this study showed that both genders have had a fairly close results regarding the performance quality of speaking among EFL students in Iran. Considering the results, it can be suggested that both male and female students can have equal achievements in learning English considering their performances in speaking. پرونده مقاله

The pattern dominating Classroom discourse is Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) and the initiation move normally takes the form of questions asked by teachers. The questions might be either referential or inferential and classroom research has accentuated the role these questions can play in eliciting learner output with the latter more likely conducive to meaning-focused output. However, what still awaits scrutiny is the extent to which teachers tend to activate learners’ semantic and syntactic processing by using appropriate questions and how their experience might mediate their choices at varying proficiency levels. Hence, the present descriptive study set out to compare the frequency of inferential and referential questions employed by novice and experienced teachers to initiate interaction at lower-intermediate (LI) and upper-intermediate (UI) levels. For the purpose of the study, a purposive sample of 20 English classrooms were selected at nine branches of an English institute in Tabriz, Iran. The classrooms were taught by five novice and five experienced teachers. Using a semi-structured researcher-made and piloted observation form, the classroom procedures were observed, recorded, and transcribed. The transcribed data were further analyzed employing the standardized coding system proposed by Long and Sato (1983) as a seven-category taxonomy of functions of teacher questions. The results revealed that experienced teachers used significantly more referential questions at both LI and UI levels. In contrast, novice teachers were found to use significantly more inferential questions at both LI and upper intermediate levels. Pedagogical implications of the findings will be discussed. پرونده مقاله

Language learners continuously use Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) skills in EFL and ESL contexts but they have various personality traits and intercultural contacts (IC). This study attempted to investigate the relationships among learners’ personality traits, IC, and ICC. To this end, the researchers administered three questionnaires of self-reported Big Five Inventory (BFI), IC, and ICC among 200 male and female Iranian EFL learners from various language schools in Tabriz, Iran. Structural equation modeling (SEM) measured the relationship among variables through SmartPLS3 software. The results demonstrated positive relationships among extraversion, openness, and agreeableness with direct and indirect IC. Their relationships with ICC were also significant and positive. Furthermore, the relationships between direct IC and indirect IC with ICC were significantly positive. However, the relationships between neuroticism and direct IC, indirect IC, and ICC were significantly negative. Moreover, although the relationships between conscientiousness and direct IC and indirect IC were significantly positive, its relation with ICC was insignificant. This study also clarifies the implication of the extracted pathways for ELT and presents some suggestions for future studies. پرونده مقاله