English language teaching
Zahra Memarnia; Abbas Ali Zarei
Abstract
Objective: The involvement load hypothesis posits that the higher the involvement load of a task, the more effective it will be in improving students’ lexical learning. It does not differentiate between the different components of involvement load (need, search, and evaluation). Nor does it assume ...
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Objective: The involvement load hypothesis posits that the higher the involvement load of a task, the more effective it will be in improving students’ lexical learning. It does not differentiate between the different components of involvement load (need, search, and evaluation). Nor does it assume that the type of words to be learnt has any role in the effectiveness of tasks with different involvement load indices. This study compared the effect of the components of task involvement load on the comprehension, production, and retention of concrete and abstract words.
Methods: Sixty upper-intermediate students were assigned to two groups. One group received a task in which the search component was dominant, the other group received a task (with the same overall involvement index) in which search was not present, and the evaluation component was the determining factor of task difficulty. A pretest, posttest, control group design (quasi-experimental method of research) was used to address the research questions.
Results: One-way MANOVA results on the immediate posttest were in line with ILH predictions, showing no significant differences between tasks with equal involvement indices. On the other hand, the delayed posttest results showed that in case of receptive knowledge, there was a meaningful difference between abstract and concrete vocabulary, and the search group outperformed the evaluation group. However, the results of the productive posttest showed that the evaluation group outperformed the search group in abstract words.
Conclusions: The findings can have significant implications for language learners, teachers, materials designers, and researchers.
English language learning
Hadi Heidari; Ali Malmir; Abbas Ali Zarei
Abstract
The two most important defining aspects of L1 national identity are language and social belonging that are manifested through the individual’s inclinations toward the mother tongue or the official language and the sociocultural heritage of the country in which people are living. Moreover, based ...
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The two most important defining aspects of L1 national identity are language and social belonging that are manifested through the individual’s inclinations toward the mother tongue or the official language and the sociocultural heritage of the country in which people are living. Moreover, based on the available literature, L2 identity may also exert an influence over the L1 national identity; however, this claim has not been securitized through valid large-scale and comprehensive surveys. Therefore, this study sought to shed light on the relationship between various second language identity dimensions (SLID) and L1 national identity. A sample of 1018 Iranian EFL learners who were selected based on the purposive snowball sampling filled out a researcher-made and validated Multidimensional L2 Identity Questionnaire (MLIQ) and a National Identity Questionnaire (NIQ). Data analysis using multiple regression revealed that the constructed SLID model could significantly contribute to the L1 national identity. The results also showed that the following four dimensions of SLID were significant predictors of national identity: transitive vs. intransitive, convergent vs. divergent, homogeneous vs. heterogeneous, and active vs. passive dimensions. Among these, active vs. passive and convergent vs. divergent dimensions had strong contributions to explaining the degree of the L2 national identity. These findings can help EFL teachers and learners develop a positive L2 identity with balanced dimensions that also promotes L1 national identity
English language learning
Farzaneh Arjmand; Mohammad Bagher Shabani; Reza Khani; Abbas Ali Zarei
Abstract
This study represents the findings of a systematic review (SR) of literature in the teacher professional development (TPD) domain to outline the research patterns through content examination of 199 research articles (RAs) in the area of TPD over the previous 40 years (1982 -2021). RAs were investigated ...
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This study represents the findings of a systematic review (SR) of literature in the teacher professional development (TPD) domain to outline the research patterns through content examination of 199 research articles (RAs) in the area of TPD over the previous 40 years (1982 -2021). RAs were investigated and their research content areas, utilized research methods, data collection procedures, and findings were analyzed and coded. The broad investigation of the RAs showed a wide variety of themes that corresponded to 22 research areas. TPD program effects, TPD & technology, and TPD & Sociolinguistics were the most searched content areas. It was also found that the qualitative method with 52.26% of occurrences appeared to be the dominant research method used in RAs. Exploring data collection procedures, it was uncovered that interview, questionnaire and observation were the main data collection strategies utilized within the TPD RAs. Analyzing the findings, changes in teacher practices, attitudes and knowledge, learner achievements, and determining priorities for TPD programs were the most reported findings in TPD RAs. This corpus-driven SR underpins the notion that TPD makes a difference in altering teachers’ practices and attitudes and improves learner abilities if specific characteristics are taken into account in the planning and administration of TPD programs.
Maryam Ahmadi; Abbas Ali Zarei; Rajab Esfandiari
Abstract
Due to the importance of idioms, many researchers and teachers have long sought to find ways of making idiom teaching and learning more effective. This study compared three visual mnemonic devices (pictures, mental imagery, and movie clips) in terms of their effect on EFL learners’ recognition ...
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Due to the importance of idioms, many researchers and teachers have long sought to find ways of making idiom teaching and learning more effective. This study compared three visual mnemonic devices (pictures, mental imagery, and movie clips) in terms of their effect on EFL learners’ recognition and recall of English idioms. Ninety intermediate level EFL learners who were preparing themselves for IELTS participated in this study. They were in three groups of thirty members each. Each group was taught idioms using one of the afore-mentioned visual mnemonic devices. Receptive and productive tests of idioms were administered to all groups after the treatment. The one-way ANOVA procedure was used to analyze the collected data. The results revealed statistically significant differences among these devices, with pictures method being the most effective on both recognition and recall of idioms. The findings of the study can have significant theoretical as well as pedagogical implications for language researchers, textbook designers, curriculum developers, teachers, and language learners.
Omid Allaf-Akbary; Rajab Esfandiari; Abbas Ali Zarei
Abstract
This study investigated personal metadiscourse units across genres. Based on Ädel’s (2006) taxonomy of the discourse functions of personal metadiscourse and Leech’s (2014) grand strategy of politeness, three spoken genres were compared in terms of the use of personal metadiscourse functions ...
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This study investigated personal metadiscourse units across genres. Based on Ädel’s (2006) taxonomy of the discourse functions of personal metadiscourse and Leech’s (2014) grand strategy of politeness, three spoken genres were compared in terms of the use of personal metadiscourse functions and politeness maxims. To that end, a 3,034,025-word corpus consisting of Panel discussion in politics, Interviews with actors, and Comedies genres, which included 30 audio and video transcriptions, was developed. Explicitness, world of discourse, current discourse, speaker qua speaker and listener qua listener were used to identify metadiscourse units. We examined the total frequencies of all personal metadiscourse units used in the corpus. The results of corpus analysis showed that 19.6% of metadiscourse units occurred in comedies, which was the highest among the three genres. The most commonly used metadiscourse units appeared in speaker-oriented metadiscourse with 10.2% in interviews. The results also revealed that in panel discussion the speakers focused more on their own ideas than the listeners or participants. Results of chi-square analysis showed that English speakers used speaker-oriented, participant-oriented, and listener-oriented metadiscourse types statistically significantly differently. A statistically significant difference between speaker-, participant-, and listener-oriented units was found. Results also revealed that speakers in different genres are willing to use such maxims as opinion reticence and modesty more frequently than other maxims. The paper concludes with proposing a new model for analyzing metadiscourse.
Abbas Ali Zarei
Volume 10, Issue 22 , December 2018, , Pages 157-181
Abstract
The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between metacognitive reading strategies, reading self-efficacy, and reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. The participants were 119 Iranian B.A and M.A students majoring in English at Imam Khomeini International University and ...
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The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between metacognitive reading strategies, reading self-efficacy, and reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. The participants were 119 Iranian B.A and M.A students majoring in English at Imam Khomeini International University and Islamshahr Azad University. A Michigan Test of English language Proficiency was given to the participants to determine their language proficiency and reading comprehension. Then, they were asked to respond to the two questionnaires of MARSI (Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory), and RSEQ (Reading Self-Efficacy Questionnaire). To analyze the data, multiple regression analyses and correlation procedures were used. The results revealed a significant relationship between the use of reading strategies and reading comprehension. Also, a significant relationship was found between the use of reading strategies and reading self-efficacy. Moreover, the findings showed a positive relationship between reading self-efficacy and reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. The results of this study may have implications for teachers, learners, and materials developers.
