Abstract— Words are the basic building blocks of a language, the units of meaning from which la... more Abstract— Words are the basic building blocks of a language, the units of meaning from which larger structures such as sentences, paragraphs and the whole texts are formed. Vocabulary is central to language and language learning and vocabulary learning is vital to the language learners. one subcategory of language learning strategies is vocabulary learning strategies and defined as what the learners do to reach the meaning of new words, hold these words in long-term memory, recall them when comprehension is used and use them in producing language. The aim of this study was to find out to what extent poor Iranian high school students use metacognitive, cognitive, social, and affective vocabulary learning strategies and which vocabulary learning strategies has the highest and lowest use among the participants. To conduct the study, a total of 45 high school female students in a high-school in Tabriz, Iran, participated in this survey. A vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire was administrated to the participants. The results of the descriptive statistics revealed that among the four categories investigated, cognitive strategies were the most frequently used strategy, followed by social, affective and metacognitive, strategies, respectively. The implications and recommendations are also presented.
The shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered approaches in second language acquisition and... more The shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered approaches in second language acquisition and from product to process approach in writing pedagogy over the last few decades has stimulated quite a number of researchers to focus on learners' voices in collaboration passing through multiple drafts and revisions. This study based on the concept of scaffolding learning in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and process writing approach to second language writing investigated Iranian EFL learners' negotiation types in small groups of different scaffolding patterns; symmetrical and asymmetrical. To this end, 15 students at High and Low Intermediate Proficiency levels were assigned into three groups in different scaffolding patterns; one asymmetrical group with two High Intermediate - three Low Intermediate learners (H-L), two symmetrical groups with five High Intermediate learners (H-H), another with five Low Intermediate learners (L-L). Small group interactions were observed a...
The aim of this study was to find out the effect of awareness raising of texts with two degrees o... more The aim of this study was to find out the effect of awareness raising of texts with two degrees of complexity (linguistically and cognitively complex vs. linguistically complex and cognitively simple) on Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension. A factorial design with the use of pretest-treatment-posttest was used. In this regard, 120 students in four intact classes formed the sample of the study from Islamic Azad University- Gilan Branch, Roudbar, Iran. They were randomly assigned to two experimental and two control groups. In one experimental group, awareness raising of linguistically and cognitively complex texts was conducted, and in the other awareness raising of linguistically complex and cognitively simple texts was manipulated. In the control groups, the same texts were employed without textual awareness raising. The results of Two-way MANOVA revealed the significant main effect of textual awareness raising on both types of texts. The results also showed a significan...
Learner-centered approaches in second language acquisition and process approach in writing pedago... more Learner-centered approaches in second language acquisition and process approach in writing pedagogy has stimulated quite a number of researchers to focus on learners' voices in collaboration passing through multiple drafts and revisions. This study based on the concept of scaffolding learning in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and process writing approach to second language writing investigated Iranian EFL learners’ negotiation types in small groups of different scaffolding patterns; symmetrical and asymmetrical. To this end, 15 students at High and Low Intermediate Proficiency levels were assigned into three groups in different scaffolding patterns; one asymmetrical group with two High Intermediate - three Low Intermediate learners (H-L), two symmetrical groups with five High Intermediate learners (H-H), another with five Low Intermediate learners (L-L). Small group interactions were observed and recorded. Transcriptions were analyzed to identify negotiation types in terms of language functions among different groups. Therefore, two main categories, Responding and Requesting and their subcategories were found. The subcategories of ''agreeing'', ''explaining'', ''giving opinions'', ''instructing'', ''restating'' and'' suggesting'' were related to the first main category; ''comprehension checking'', ''eliciting opinions'' and ''questioning ''were related to the second main category. According to Chi-square test results, negotiation types were significantly related to the scaffolding pattern as the asymmetrical (H-L) group was superior in the number of language functions used over the symmetrical (L-L, H-H) groups. Nevertheless, members in all groups enjoyed high equality and mutuality in interaction. The findings suggest teachers raise learners' awareness of the diverse strengths and abilities that different scaffolding patterns give them.
This study aimed to find out the effect of oral output and written output as two types of vocabul... more This study aimed to find out the effect of oral output and written output as two types of vocabulary instruction on Iranian EFL learners' listening comprehension and vocabulary learning. A pretest-posttest comparison group design, as one of the quasi-experimental research designs, was employed in this study. To this end, 40 male intermediate EFL learners within the age range of 14-18, studying at a Language Institute, participated in this study. At the beginning, pretests of vocabulary and listening comprehension were administered to determine the participants' initial listening comprehension ability and vocabulary knowledge and also collect a list of unknown words as the target words for the five treatment sessions. Each group practiced these words, one through the oral output instruction and the other through the written output instruction. Then, both groups took part in the posttests which were similar to the pretests. Within-group, results through Paired-Samples t-test s...
Writing publishable research articles is a great concern of academicians, which requires awarenes... more Writing publishable research articles is a great concern of academicians, which requires awareness on all its relevant aspects. However, the obstacles are elusive and postgraduate students' challenges are not fully explored. In this mixed methods research and for the purpose of investigating Iranian graduate and postgraduate EFL students’ performance on their research articles in terms of language and compositional conventions, 30 students participated. Their research articles were analyzed using a researcher-made scale. The same conventions were utilized as a questionnaire to investigate participants' perceptions on the essentials of language conventions in research articles to find the relationship between their performance and perceptions. Besides, a focus group interview was conducted among 12 of the participants to investigate challenges they face in conducting research and writing research articles. The results of the content analysis of the research articles indicated...
Various studies suggest that it is important to determine students' personality charecteristi... more Various studies suggest that it is important to determine students' personality charecteristics and assertiveness and make them aware of these differences in order to improve learning process and outcomes. This study aimed to find out how much of the variance in postgraduate students’ assertiveness is explained by five personality characteristics (i.e., Openness, Neuroticism, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) and which one of these characteristics significantly predicts the students’ assertiveness. To this end, 66 postgraduate students within the age range of 22 to 35 participated in this descriptive correlational study. They were majoring in English language teaching at Islamic Azad University,Tabriz Branch, Tabriz, Iran. The College Self-expression Scale (CSES) and Big-Five Personality Inventory were used to assess the students’ level of assertiveness and their personality characteristics, respectively. In order to answer the research questions, a multiple li...
This study investigated the effect of different patterns of scaffolding (symmetrical and asymmetr... more This study investigated the effect of different patterns of scaffolding (symmetrical and asymmetrical) on Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ writing accuracy, fluency, and complexity. For this purpose, 90 intermediate female EFL learners took a Preliminary English Test (PET), based on which those whose scores fell one standard deviation below the mean were considered as low intermediate and those whose score was one standard deviation above the mean were considered as high intermediate learners. So, the participants were grouped into three symmetrical and asymmetrical patterns in terms of their language proficiency level: one asymmetrical group with High Intermediate-Low Intermediate learners (H-L), two symmetrical groups with High Intermediate learners (H-H), and another with Low Intermediate learners (L-L). There were 30 students in each group who were, then, divided into smaller groups to interact with each other to develop their essays during a treatment. To e...
In this study it was attempted to investigate whether different CF strategies, including implicit... more In this study it was attempted to investigate whether different CF strategies, including implicit, explicit, and emergent CF, can differently affect the accuracy and fluency of oral production among Iranian EFL learners. In addition, it explored the learners' attitudes towards how they felt about the CF types applied in the classroom. For these purposes, the researchers selected 54 homogeneous pre-intermediate learners on the basis of the PET results and randomly assigned them into three experimental groups: the Implicit group, the Explicit group, and the Emergent group. While the Implicit and Explicit groups received just implicit feedback and explicit correction for their erroneous oral production, respectively, the Emergent group took CF from implicit to explicit. Oral narrative and picture description tasks and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the quantitative and qualitative data for the study. The results of inferential statistics indicated significant diffe...
Creativity can play an important role in today's world, and especially in education. Using in... more Creativity can play an important role in today's world, and especially in education. Using innovative approaches in teaching can help students cope with stressful situations and learn better and deeper but unfortunately, little value is given to creativity. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of divergent thinking and metaphorical thinking as creativity-training methods on critical thinking among English learners. The present study is an experimental study with pre-test and post-test and control group. The study population consisted of 45 TOEFL students in Jahade Daneshgahi in Tabriz University. The data were collected using Honey Critical Thinking Questionnaire, and for the data analysis covariance analysis was used. The results showed that although the critical thinking score in the divergent thinking group was higher than the metaphorical thinking score, this difference was not significant, but both methods were effective in enhancing students' crit...
Abstract— Words are the basic building blocks of a language, the units of meaning from which la... more Abstract— Words are the basic building blocks of a language, the units of meaning from which larger structures such as sentences, paragraphs and the whole texts are formed. Vocabulary is central to language and language learning and vocabulary learning is vital to the language learners. one subcategory of language learning strategies is vocabulary learning strategies and defined as what the learners do to reach the meaning of new words, hold these words in long-term memory, recall them when comprehension is used and use them in producing language. The aim of this study was to find out to what extent poor Iranian high school students use metacognitive, cognitive, social, and affective vocabulary learning strategies and which vocabulary learning strategies has the highest and lowest use among the participants. To conduct the study, a total of 45 high school female students in a high-school in Tabriz, Iran, participated in this survey. A vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire was administrated to the participants. The results of the descriptive statistics revealed that among the four categories investigated, cognitive strategies were the most frequently used strategy, followed by social, affective and metacognitive, strategies, respectively. The implications and recommendations are also presented.
The shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered approaches in second language acquisition and... more The shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered approaches in second language acquisition and from product to process approach in writing pedagogy over the last few decades has stimulated quite a number of researchers to focus on learners' voices in collaboration passing through multiple drafts and revisions. This study based on the concept of scaffolding learning in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and process writing approach to second language writing investigated Iranian EFL learners' negotiation types in small groups of different scaffolding patterns; symmetrical and asymmetrical. To this end, 15 students at High and Low Intermediate Proficiency levels were assigned into three groups in different scaffolding patterns; one asymmetrical group with two High Intermediate - three Low Intermediate learners (H-L), two symmetrical groups with five High Intermediate learners (H-H), another with five Low Intermediate learners (L-L). Small group interactions were observed a...
The aim of this study was to find out the effect of awareness raising of texts with two degrees o... more The aim of this study was to find out the effect of awareness raising of texts with two degrees of complexity (linguistically and cognitively complex vs. linguistically complex and cognitively simple) on Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension. A factorial design with the use of pretest-treatment-posttest was used. In this regard, 120 students in four intact classes formed the sample of the study from Islamic Azad University- Gilan Branch, Roudbar, Iran. They were randomly assigned to two experimental and two control groups. In one experimental group, awareness raising of linguistically and cognitively complex texts was conducted, and in the other awareness raising of linguistically complex and cognitively simple texts was manipulated. In the control groups, the same texts were employed without textual awareness raising. The results of Two-way MANOVA revealed the significant main effect of textual awareness raising on both types of texts. The results also showed a significan...
Learner-centered approaches in second language acquisition and process approach in writing pedago... more Learner-centered approaches in second language acquisition and process approach in writing pedagogy has stimulated quite a number of researchers to focus on learners' voices in collaboration passing through multiple drafts and revisions. This study based on the concept of scaffolding learning in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and process writing approach to second language writing investigated Iranian EFL learners’ negotiation types in small groups of different scaffolding patterns; symmetrical and asymmetrical. To this end, 15 students at High and Low Intermediate Proficiency levels were assigned into three groups in different scaffolding patterns; one asymmetrical group with two High Intermediate - three Low Intermediate learners (H-L), two symmetrical groups with five High Intermediate learners (H-H), another with five Low Intermediate learners (L-L). Small group interactions were observed and recorded. Transcriptions were analyzed to identify negotiation types in terms of language functions among different groups. Therefore, two main categories, Responding and Requesting and their subcategories were found. The subcategories of ''agreeing'', ''explaining'', ''giving opinions'', ''instructing'', ''restating'' and'' suggesting'' were related to the first main category; ''comprehension checking'', ''eliciting opinions'' and ''questioning ''were related to the second main category. According to Chi-square test results, negotiation types were significantly related to the scaffolding pattern as the asymmetrical (H-L) group was superior in the number of language functions used over the symmetrical (L-L, H-H) groups. Nevertheless, members in all groups enjoyed high equality and mutuality in interaction. The findings suggest teachers raise learners' awareness of the diverse strengths and abilities that different scaffolding patterns give them.
This study aimed to find out the effect of oral output and written output as two types of vocabul... more This study aimed to find out the effect of oral output and written output as two types of vocabulary instruction on Iranian EFL learners' listening comprehension and vocabulary learning. A pretest-posttest comparison group design, as one of the quasi-experimental research designs, was employed in this study. To this end, 40 male intermediate EFL learners within the age range of 14-18, studying at a Language Institute, participated in this study. At the beginning, pretests of vocabulary and listening comprehension were administered to determine the participants' initial listening comprehension ability and vocabulary knowledge and also collect a list of unknown words as the target words for the five treatment sessions. Each group practiced these words, one through the oral output instruction and the other through the written output instruction. Then, both groups took part in the posttests which were similar to the pretests. Within-group, results through Paired-Samples t-test s...
Writing publishable research articles is a great concern of academicians, which requires awarenes... more Writing publishable research articles is a great concern of academicians, which requires awareness on all its relevant aspects. However, the obstacles are elusive and postgraduate students' challenges are not fully explored. In this mixed methods research and for the purpose of investigating Iranian graduate and postgraduate EFL students’ performance on their research articles in terms of language and compositional conventions, 30 students participated. Their research articles were analyzed using a researcher-made scale. The same conventions were utilized as a questionnaire to investigate participants' perceptions on the essentials of language conventions in research articles to find the relationship between their performance and perceptions. Besides, a focus group interview was conducted among 12 of the participants to investigate challenges they face in conducting research and writing research articles. The results of the content analysis of the research articles indicated...
Various studies suggest that it is important to determine students' personality charecteristi... more Various studies suggest that it is important to determine students' personality charecteristics and assertiveness and make them aware of these differences in order to improve learning process and outcomes. This study aimed to find out how much of the variance in postgraduate students’ assertiveness is explained by five personality characteristics (i.e., Openness, Neuroticism, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) and which one of these characteristics significantly predicts the students’ assertiveness. To this end, 66 postgraduate students within the age range of 22 to 35 participated in this descriptive correlational study. They were majoring in English language teaching at Islamic Azad University,Tabriz Branch, Tabriz, Iran. The College Self-expression Scale (CSES) and Big-Five Personality Inventory were used to assess the students’ level of assertiveness and their personality characteristics, respectively. In order to answer the research questions, a multiple li...
This study investigated the effect of different patterns of scaffolding (symmetrical and asymmetr... more This study investigated the effect of different patterns of scaffolding (symmetrical and asymmetrical) on Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ writing accuracy, fluency, and complexity. For this purpose, 90 intermediate female EFL learners took a Preliminary English Test (PET), based on which those whose scores fell one standard deviation below the mean were considered as low intermediate and those whose score was one standard deviation above the mean were considered as high intermediate learners. So, the participants were grouped into three symmetrical and asymmetrical patterns in terms of their language proficiency level: one asymmetrical group with High Intermediate-Low Intermediate learners (H-L), two symmetrical groups with High Intermediate learners (H-H), and another with Low Intermediate learners (L-L). There were 30 students in each group who were, then, divided into smaller groups to interact with each other to develop their essays during a treatment. To e...
In this study it was attempted to investigate whether different CF strategies, including implicit... more In this study it was attempted to investigate whether different CF strategies, including implicit, explicit, and emergent CF, can differently affect the accuracy and fluency of oral production among Iranian EFL learners. In addition, it explored the learners' attitudes towards how they felt about the CF types applied in the classroom. For these purposes, the researchers selected 54 homogeneous pre-intermediate learners on the basis of the PET results and randomly assigned them into three experimental groups: the Implicit group, the Explicit group, and the Emergent group. While the Implicit and Explicit groups received just implicit feedback and explicit correction for their erroneous oral production, respectively, the Emergent group took CF from implicit to explicit. Oral narrative and picture description tasks and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the quantitative and qualitative data for the study. The results of inferential statistics indicated significant diffe...
Creativity can play an important role in today's world, and especially in education. Using in... more Creativity can play an important role in today's world, and especially in education. Using innovative approaches in teaching can help students cope with stressful situations and learn better and deeper but unfortunately, little value is given to creativity. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of divergent thinking and metaphorical thinking as creativity-training methods on critical thinking among English learners. The present study is an experimental study with pre-test and post-test and control group. The study population consisted of 45 TOEFL students in Jahade Daneshgahi in Tabriz University. The data were collected using Honey Critical Thinking Questionnaire, and for the data analysis covariance analysis was used. The results showed that although the critical thinking score in the divergent thinking group was higher than the metaphorical thinking score, this difference was not significant, but both methods were effective in enhancing students' crit...
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