The Possible Differences between Learning Styles Used by Russian, English, French, and Arabic Language Learners

One of the most enduring effects on education has been the search for individual differences that can explain and predict variation in student achievement, with the hope that pedagogical methods can be designed that will capitalize on these. Among the individual differences, ‘Learning styles’ remain a popular choice for filling this role and the number of models of learning styles on offer continues to proliferate. Learning styles are said to be influential factors, in learning a second or foreign language. Despite the fact that there are lots of papers published in this area, but comparing the learning styles employed by those who are learning different foreign languages seems to be untouched. Therefore, in this study we try to address this gap, by comparing the learning styles used by Russian, English, French, and Arabic who are learning these languages as their foreign language. A number of 100 Iranian students took part in this study. They are between 18 to 20 years of age. They were divided into four groups, each including 25 members. The Ehrman and Leaver Learning Style Questionnaire (E&L) was distributed among the language learners. The finding of the study revealed that these four groups of language learners made use of learning styles differently. And also, there are significant differences between Russian, Arabic, English, and French language learners in terms of employing learning strategies

The Differences between English and Russian Language Teachers' Attitudes towards CALL

Teachers play an important role in the implementation of Computer Assisted Language Learning(CALL) into language classes and their attitudes have proved to be significant predictors of using technology in their classes. In other words, Teachers’ attitudes are considered as a major factor that influences the use of new technologies in the educational settings. Thus, their attitudes toward computer can play an important role in the acceptance and actual use of technology in teaching in general and language teaching in particular. A review of the literature shows many examples of student voice reports, but not enough studies have conducted on teachers’ attitudes towards CALL. This study was an attempt to address the possible differences between the English and Russian language teachers' attitudes towards incorporating CALL  into their teaching professions. To this end a number of 53 English teacher and 52 Russian language teachers participated in the study. They were asked to fill  the  E & L teachers' attitude toward CALL questionnaire.The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 22 through running independent sample T- test. The result indicated that there is a significant difference between English and Russian teachers' attitude towards CALL. Moreover, it was concluded that English language teachers have more positive views towards incorporating CALL into their teaching

Determinants of Self-Perceived Health in Iranian Children and Adolescents: the CASPIAN IV Study

Background: Health status is an individual’s relative level of wellness and illness. Self-Perceived Health (SPH) is a single item considered as a health indicator for national and international survey. The aim of this study was to evaluate the SPH measure and its determinants in a National sample of Iranian children and adolescents.   Materials and Methods:  This National study was performed as the fourth National survey of a school‑based surveillance program entitled the Childhood and Adolescence Surveillance and Prevention of Adult Non-communicable Disease (CASPIAN‑IV) study. 14,880 students aged 6-18 years old selected from 30 provinces of Iran by a multistage Cluster and stratified sampling method. Two sets of valid and reliable questionnaires were completed for students and their parents.   Results : Overall 13,846 participated in the present studywith 90.6 % participation. In this study, 80.5 % of boys and 79.4% of girls reported good SPH (95% confidence interval (CI), 79.3-81.6 versus 78.1-80.6, respectively). According to the living area, 79.5% from urban and 81.1% from rural area declared good SPH (95% CI, 78.6-80.5 versus 79.2-82.8, respectively). In the multivariate model, the subjects who had healthy weight compared with excess weight had significantly higher SPH (OR: 1.36; 95% CI, 1.17-1.59). Also, the subjects with high Socio-economic status (SES) had higher odds of SPH (odds ratio [OR], 1.23; 95% CI, 1.06-1.41).   Conclusion: Our results showed that SPH can be influenced by both demographic and life style related characteristics among study population. This association was stronger for SPH and academic success, talking with both parents and having normal body image respectively