Integrating improved technologies such as augmented reality (AR) within flipped classes has gaine... more Integrating improved technologies such as augmented reality (AR) within flipped classes has gained popularity among scholars. This study was carried out to examine the effect of AR-based instruction on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ speaking skills in online flipped and face-to-face classes. To this end, out of 65 students who had enrolled in the designated language program, 50 students were selected by the researcher based on their performance on the Cambridge English Placement test, and the selected participants were randomly assigned into the face-to-face or online flipped groups. For the treatment, both groups received the same AR application, teaching material, and teaching strategies. The only difference between the two groups was the learning context. After the treatment sessions, both the online flipped and face-to-face groups participated in a post-test. According to the results, although all participants’ speaking ability improved at the end of the course, t...
This study sought to explore the formality styles of writing among intermediate EFL Iranian learn... more This study sought to explore the formality styles of writing among intermediate EFL Iranian learners to scrutinize their competence in the writing skill. A convenience sample of 30 students were chosen through Oxford Quick Placement Test (2001) from among 60 university students. The first group sent their messages (essay tasks) through e-mail and the second group used Telegram. A corpus containing a total of 240 written texts was extracted from both groups. This corpus was then analyzed and compared in terms of formality styles. A detailed comparison of the two sub-corpora revealed a significant difference between texts written and sent by Telegram application and e-mails. The results of data analysis also indicated that informality and formality markers potentially function as distinctive factors, capable of differentiating between the texts sent by Telegram and e-mails. Ultimately, the essays sent by Telegram (containing 5 factors including contractions, questions, modal verbs, op...
International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education
During the past decade, Virtual reality (VR)-enhanced education has been adopted as a pedagogical... more During the past decade, Virtual reality (VR)-enhanced education has been adopted as a pedagogically new learning approach to smooth the learning progress. With the rise of VR-enhanced activities, investigating the effect of personality types of EFL learners on their writing performance to use VR-based instruction for learning may be a crucial factor influencing their achievement. This study was an attempt to research the impact of VR- enhanced classes on paragraph writing of extrovert and introvert English foreign language (EFL) Learners. To achieve the purpose of the study, first, the Preliminary English Test (PET) was administered for ensuring the homogeneity of the sample. Once the homogeneity was established, a total of 52 EFL intermediate students were selected and placed into two comparative and two control groups, with 13 participants in each group. Four groups took part in the study, with two groups undergoing treatment with the non-VR teaching approach of paragraph writing ...
Research Paper Comparing the Impact of Blended and Flipped Teaching Strategies on Students' S... more Research Paper Comparing the Impact of Blended and Flipped Teaching Strategies on Students' Skimming Technique and Vocabulary Learning Farzaneh Khodabandeh1 Assistant Professor Department of Linguistics and language teaching, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran Elahe Naseri Department of Linguistics and Language Teaching, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran Abstract This study explored the impact of blended and flipped teaching strategies on English Foreign Language (EFL) learners' skimming skill, vocabulary learning, and retention. In addition, it compared the impact and efficiency of the blended and flipped teaching strategies. As the initial step, 90 homogenous intermediate EFL learners were randomly selected and divided into three groups, including two experimental and one control group. And as the second step, the reading and vocabulary pre-tests were administered. In the third step or treatment administration, the control group received instruction in the Traditional...
International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies, 2013
The present study builds on recent claims that investigating the L3 initial state provides anothe... more The present study builds on recent claims that investigating the L3 initial state provides another test case for UG's involvement in adult language acquisition (Leung, 2005, 2006, 2007; Rothman & Cabrelli, 2007). It focuses on two competing approaches to adult language acquisition, so-called Failed Functional Features approaches (FFFAs) (Beck, 1998; Franceschina, 2001) and Full Access approaches (FAAs) (Duffield & White, 1999; Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996). Crucially, each approach makes different predictions for L2 ultimate attainment and thus indirectly makes different predictions for possible transfer at the L3 initial state. FFFAs claim that adult L2 learners are unable to acquire new functional features. In contrast, FAAs claim that adult L2 learners have continued full access to UG. Assuming transfer, both FFFAs and FAAs make contrasting predictions for the initial state of L3 acquisition. FFFAs predict that learners at the L3 initial state are restricted to transfer of featur...
The appearance of different types of educational technology (Ed Tech) tools has paved the way for... more The appearance of different types of educational technology (Ed Tech) tools has paved the way for teachers and learners in all fields of study including second/foreign language learning in order to use them for making the education and learning process more fruitful and exciting. This study aimed to investigate and compare the impact of common WhatsApp group in which participants could have interactions versus Restricted WhatsApp group in which participants did not have any interactions, as two quittances of social network on enhancing English Foreign Language (EFL) learners' writing ability with a focus on process analysis type of paragraph writing. In this regard, 64 Intermediate EFL learners were homogenized through the administration of the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and divided into two virtual groups randomly. Next, a paragraph writing pretest was taken. And then, both virtual groups received the same treatment and material based on the Model-Practice-Effect instruction c...
In countries where textbooks are considered as the main source of teaching/learning process, text... more In countries where textbooks are considered as the main source of teaching/learning process, textbook evaluation seems to be inevitable and necessary. The current study aimed at evaluating the new English textbook entitled “Vision 1”, developed for the Iranian first grade high school students. To achieve this goal, two groups of participants took part in the study. They consisted of 30 teachers teaching this book in Baghmalek in Khuzestan province and 70 students studying in the first grade high school in the city mentioned. The quantitative data were collected through two questionnaires. The questionnaires were designed to evaluate the book in terms of seven criteria namely, practical considerations, layout and design, activities, skills, language type, subject and content and cultural considerations. The findings showed that teachers and students were interested in the book in all criteria except cultural considerations. The results also showed no significant difference between Ir...
This study reports on the way nonnative Iranian writers make use of verbs in the discussion secti... more This study reports on the way nonnative Iranian writers make use of verbs in the discussion section/chapter of their master theses in the field of English Language Teaching. Although verbs have been studied extensively in academic writing, there has been little attention given to the verbs in the discussion of theses written by English Foreign Language (EFL) students. To fill this gap, sixty M.A. theses were purposively selected and analyzed. These theses were first categorized based on the research approach they had employed. There were three broad categories of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method theses. The verbs in these theses were analyzed with reference to their reporting and nonreporting status. Then, other linguistic features; namely, tense, aspect, and voice were examined. Descriptive statistics was exploited to reveal differences among the theses representing each research approach. The findings indicated that there are no differences between the theses written wi...
Integrating improved technologies such as augmented reality (AR) within flipped classes has gaine... more Integrating improved technologies such as augmented reality (AR) within flipped classes has gained popularity among scholars. This study was carried out to examine the effect of AR-based instruction on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ speaking skills in online flipped and face-to-face classes. To this end, out of 65 students who had enrolled in the designated language program, 50 students were selected by the researcher based on their performance on the Cambridge English Placement test, and the selected participants were randomly assigned into the face-to-face or online flipped groups. For the treatment, both groups received the same AR application, teaching material, and teaching strategies. The only difference between the two groups was the learning context. After the treatment sessions, both the online flipped and face-to-face groups participated in a post-test. According to the results, although all participants’ speaking ability improved at the end of the course, t...
This study sought to explore the formality styles of writing among intermediate EFL Iranian learn... more This study sought to explore the formality styles of writing among intermediate EFL Iranian learners to scrutinize their competence in the writing skill. A convenience sample of 30 students were chosen through Oxford Quick Placement Test (2001) from among 60 university students. The first group sent their messages (essay tasks) through e-mail and the second group used Telegram. A corpus containing a total of 240 written texts was extracted from both groups. This corpus was then analyzed and compared in terms of formality styles. A detailed comparison of the two sub-corpora revealed a significant difference between texts written and sent by Telegram application and e-mails. The results of data analysis also indicated that informality and formality markers potentially function as distinctive factors, capable of differentiating between the texts sent by Telegram and e-mails. Ultimately, the essays sent by Telegram (containing 5 factors including contractions, questions, modal verbs, op...
International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education
During the past decade, Virtual reality (VR)-enhanced education has been adopted as a pedagogical... more During the past decade, Virtual reality (VR)-enhanced education has been adopted as a pedagogically new learning approach to smooth the learning progress. With the rise of VR-enhanced activities, investigating the effect of personality types of EFL learners on their writing performance to use VR-based instruction for learning may be a crucial factor influencing their achievement. This study was an attempt to research the impact of VR- enhanced classes on paragraph writing of extrovert and introvert English foreign language (EFL) Learners. To achieve the purpose of the study, first, the Preliminary English Test (PET) was administered for ensuring the homogeneity of the sample. Once the homogeneity was established, a total of 52 EFL intermediate students were selected and placed into two comparative and two control groups, with 13 participants in each group. Four groups took part in the study, with two groups undergoing treatment with the non-VR teaching approach of paragraph writing ...
Research Paper Comparing the Impact of Blended and Flipped Teaching Strategies on Students' S... more Research Paper Comparing the Impact of Blended and Flipped Teaching Strategies on Students' Skimming Technique and Vocabulary Learning Farzaneh Khodabandeh1 Assistant Professor Department of Linguistics and language teaching, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran Elahe Naseri Department of Linguistics and Language Teaching, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran Abstract This study explored the impact of blended and flipped teaching strategies on English Foreign Language (EFL) learners' skimming skill, vocabulary learning, and retention. In addition, it compared the impact and efficiency of the blended and flipped teaching strategies. As the initial step, 90 homogenous intermediate EFL learners were randomly selected and divided into three groups, including two experimental and one control group. And as the second step, the reading and vocabulary pre-tests were administered. In the third step or treatment administration, the control group received instruction in the Traditional...
International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies, 2013
The present study builds on recent claims that investigating the L3 initial state provides anothe... more The present study builds on recent claims that investigating the L3 initial state provides another test case for UG's involvement in adult language acquisition (Leung, 2005, 2006, 2007; Rothman & Cabrelli, 2007). It focuses on two competing approaches to adult language acquisition, so-called Failed Functional Features approaches (FFFAs) (Beck, 1998; Franceschina, 2001) and Full Access approaches (FAAs) (Duffield & White, 1999; Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996). Crucially, each approach makes different predictions for L2 ultimate attainment and thus indirectly makes different predictions for possible transfer at the L3 initial state. FFFAs claim that adult L2 learners are unable to acquire new functional features. In contrast, FAAs claim that adult L2 learners have continued full access to UG. Assuming transfer, both FFFAs and FAAs make contrasting predictions for the initial state of L3 acquisition. FFFAs predict that learners at the L3 initial state are restricted to transfer of featur...
The appearance of different types of educational technology (Ed Tech) tools has paved the way for... more The appearance of different types of educational technology (Ed Tech) tools has paved the way for teachers and learners in all fields of study including second/foreign language learning in order to use them for making the education and learning process more fruitful and exciting. This study aimed to investigate and compare the impact of common WhatsApp group in which participants could have interactions versus Restricted WhatsApp group in which participants did not have any interactions, as two quittances of social network on enhancing English Foreign Language (EFL) learners' writing ability with a focus on process analysis type of paragraph writing. In this regard, 64 Intermediate EFL learners were homogenized through the administration of the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and divided into two virtual groups randomly. Next, a paragraph writing pretest was taken. And then, both virtual groups received the same treatment and material based on the Model-Practice-Effect instruction c...
In countries where textbooks are considered as the main source of teaching/learning process, text... more In countries where textbooks are considered as the main source of teaching/learning process, textbook evaluation seems to be inevitable and necessary. The current study aimed at evaluating the new English textbook entitled “Vision 1”, developed for the Iranian first grade high school students. To achieve this goal, two groups of participants took part in the study. They consisted of 30 teachers teaching this book in Baghmalek in Khuzestan province and 70 students studying in the first grade high school in the city mentioned. The quantitative data were collected through two questionnaires. The questionnaires were designed to evaluate the book in terms of seven criteria namely, practical considerations, layout and design, activities, skills, language type, subject and content and cultural considerations. The findings showed that teachers and students were interested in the book in all criteria except cultural considerations. The results also showed no significant difference between Ir...
This study reports on the way nonnative Iranian writers make use of verbs in the discussion secti... more This study reports on the way nonnative Iranian writers make use of verbs in the discussion section/chapter of their master theses in the field of English Language Teaching. Although verbs have been studied extensively in academic writing, there has been little attention given to the verbs in the discussion of theses written by English Foreign Language (EFL) students. To fill this gap, sixty M.A. theses were purposively selected and analyzed. These theses were first categorized based on the research approach they had employed. There were three broad categories of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method theses. The verbs in these theses were analyzed with reference to their reporting and nonreporting status. Then, other linguistic features; namely, tense, aspect, and voice were examined. Descriptive statistics was exploited to reveal differences among the theses representing each research approach. The findings indicated that there are no differences between the theses written wi...
The emergence of computer technology in English language teaching has paved the way for teachers'... more The emergence of computer technology in English language teaching has paved the way for teachers' application of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (mall) and its advantages in teaching. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the face to face instruction with Telegram mobile instruction. Based on a toefl test, 60 English foreign language learners with intermediate level of language proficiency were selected and randomly assigned to the class attendees group, which received the intended treatment program in a classroom environment, and the Telegram group which received the treatment in a virtual environment. Two pre-tests and post-tests were administered before and after the treatment. Related non-parametric statistics were applied, and the results were encouraging for the Telegram group. Moreover, the findings of the study might support the claim that innovative instructional approaches and Telegram mobile-learning/teaching specifically could provide new opportunities for the teaching-learning process and that teaching/ learning through new mobile-based methods, Telegram m-learning/teaching in particular, helped Iranian students to perform better on narrative writing tasks. The result of this study would be valuable for methodologists, teachers, and learners.
Uploads
Papers