The Impact of Students’ Training in Questioning the Author Technique on EFL Reading Comprehension

AbstractThe purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of student-generated questions on reading comprehension of EFL students. Ninety-eight adult students participated in this study. There were three experimental groups and one control group. The participants in the first experimental group read two unmodified reading passages and answered fifteen multiple-choice comprehension questions. These participants were asked to generate a number of questions based on the given texts and discuss them with a peer before answering the reading comprehension questions. Similarly, the participants in the second experimental group were asked to generate a number of questions and discuss them with a partner. However, they were trained in Questioning the Author technique (QtA).The participants in the third experimental group read the simplified version of the same passages and answered the same comprehension questions without generating any questions. Finally, the participants in the control group read the unmodified texts and answered the same comprehension questions individually without any support. The results revealed that the participants in all the experimental groups outperformed their peers in the control group. Nevertheless, the participants’ reading scores who had been trained in QtA were significantly higher than the scores of their peers in the other three groups. This indicates the value of training students in generating their own comprehension questions

The Impact of Student-Initiated Interaction on EFL Reading Comprehension

The study reported in this paper aims to compare the reading comprehension of three groups of intermediate adult EFL learners on a reading comprehension passage under three input conditions: simplified condition (SC) characterized by both lexical and syntactic simplification, negotiated condition (NC) with no linguistic adjustments but with opportunities for interaction with the teacher, and unmodified condition (UC) without any modification or intervention. The results of the study revealed that the participants in both SC and NC groups significantly outperformed their peers in the UC group on the reading comprehension test. Moreover, the participants in the NC group achieved a significantly higher mean score than the participants in the UC group. This suggests that opportunities for negotiation of meaning facilitate reading comprehension more than linguistic adjustments. The conclusions drawn from the findings of this study highly recommend the use of authentic reading materials accompanied by negotiated interaction between the teacher and the learners. Key words: interaction; negotiation; simplification; reading comprehensio

The Effect of etymology elaboration on EFL learners’ comprehension and retention of idioms

This article reports on a study that investigated the impact of etymological elaboration on EFL students’ comprehension and retention of English idioms. The participants for the study were 32 Iranian upper- intermediate EFL students. They were members of two intact classes randomly assigned to an experimental and a comparison group. The treatment lasted for six two-hour sessions, during each session of which the participants in both groups received five idioms which they were supposed to define. The participants in the experimental group received the idioms along with the pertinent etymological elaborations, while the participants in the comparison group received the same idioms without etymological elaborations. The results revealed that etymological elaboration has a positive effect on EFL students’ comprehension and subsequent retention of idioms

El uso de diferentes estrategias ortográficas entre jóvenes estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera

The present study aimed to investigate the frequency of children’s spelling strategy use in the primary levels of learning English. It also compared the use of these strategies in good and average spellers with those of poor spellers. The participants of this study were 32 Iranian children at the first stages of learning to spell rated as being either low, average, or above average spellers. The children were asked to spell 20 words in a dictation. They were observed while spelling and were asked about the strategy they used to spell each word immediately after spelling. The results showed that retrieval was the most frequently used strategy by the participants most frequently used by the participants followed by sounding out and analogy. Considering the use of strategies in good, average, and poor spellers, it was concluded that the most common strategies for spelling were used more often by good and average spellers and less often by poor spellers.Este trabajo tiene como objetivo investigar la frecuencia en el uso de estrategias ortográficas de los niños en los primeros niveles del aprendizaje del inglés. También se compara el uso de estas estrategias entre alumnos que escriben bien y normal con los que obtenían pobres resultados. Los participantes de este estudio fueron 32 niños iraníes en los primeras etapas de aprendizaje de la escritura que han sido clasificados en buenos, regulares y pobres atendiendo a su ortografía. Se pidió a los estudiantes que escribieran 20 palabras en un dictado. Se les observó mientras las escribían y se les preguntó sobre las estrategia que empleaban inmediatamente después de escribir cada palabra. Los resultados muestran que la recuperación fue la estrategia que más empleaban seguida de la pronunciación y la analogía. Considerando el uso de las estrategias por parte de los tres grupos, los que escriben bien, normal y mal, se puede concluir que las estrategias más comunes para escribir las empleaban con más frecuencia los que escribían bien y normal, y con menor frecuencia los que obtuvieron pobres resultados

TEACHING GRAMMAR FOR ACTIVE USE: A FRAMEWORK FOR COMPARISON OF THREE INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES

Teaching grammar in a way that enables students to use grammatical structures correctly in their active use has always been one of the intricate tasks for most practitioners. This study compared the effectiveness of three instructional methods: games, dialogues practiced through role-play, and unfocused tasks for teaching grammar. Forty eight pre-intermediate female students participated in this study. The structures chosen were Conditional Sentence Type 2 and Wish structures for expressing present desires. A posttest was administered to assess the subjects’ productive knowledge of the grammatical patterns. The results showed that there were no significant differences in the performance of groups. In other words, all three methods were equally effective to boost students' grammatical knowledge of the two structures

Autoevaluación y Evaluación Docente en una Clase de Escritura de Inglés como Lengua Extranjera

The present study investigated how fifteen Iranian EFL learners developed the ability to self-assess their writings through having access to the rater’s scores. The participants were supervised for four weeks as they went through their first experience in self-assessment. They were provided with a detailed evaluation sheet for assessing their work, and after each self-evaluation they were able to have access to the teacher-assigned scores. The results indicated a high correlation between self-assessment and teacher-assessment. It was revealed that students’ self-assessment throughout the study turned out to be highly correlated with the teacher-assessment. It was also shown that the learners assessed different components of their writing in a manner comparable to that of the teacher. The findings confirmed that self-assessment could not only be viewed as a useful tool for evaluating learners’ performance but also be regarded as an efficient instrument for developing their writing skill.Este estudio investigó cómo 15 estudiantes iraníes de inglés como lengua extranjera desarrollaron la capacidad de evaluar sus escritos al tener acceso a las puntuaciones de los evaluadores. Los participantes fueron supervisados durante cuatro semanas al ser su primera experiencia en el proceso de autoevaluación. Se proporcionó una hoja de evaluación detallada a cada estudiante para que evaluara su trabajo y después de cada autoevaluación, los estudiantes pudieron tener acceso a las puntuaciones globales asignadas por el profesor. Los resultados indicaron una alta correlación entre la autoevaluación y la evaluación del profesor. Esto reveló que la autoevaluación de los estudiantes durante todo el estudio resultó estar altamente correlacionado con la evaluación docente. También se demostró que los estudiantes evaluaron diferentes componentes de su escritura de una manera comparable a la realizada por el profesor. Los resultados confirmaron que la autoevaluación podría no sólo ser vista como una herramienta útil para evaluar el rendimiento de los estudiantes sino también podría ser considerada como un instrumento eficaz para desarrollar sus destrezas de escritura

Un análisis contrastivodel orden de las palabras, de los verbos y de los tiempos verbales en mazandaraní, farsi y inglés

This study deals with contrasting three languages, namely English, Farsi (Persian), and Mazandarani (Tabari). The study followed two main goals: first, providing Mazandarani and Farsi teachers with pedagogical implications in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL); and second, taking a step toward preventing the Mazandarani (Mazani) language from gradual extinction. By comparing the word order, verbs, and tenses of the three aforementioned languages, it was concluded that in some cases Mazandarani, and in other cases Farsi, is more similar to English. With respect to word order, Mazandarani and Farsi are SOV but English is SVO. Regarding verbs and tenses, contrary to English, Mazandarani and Farsi are inflected. This inflection plays an important role in forming different tenses in the conjugation process.Este estudio contrasta tres idiomas: el inglés, el farsi (persa) y el mazandaraní (Tabari). Se plantea dos objetivos principales: por un lado, ofrecer a los maestros de mazandaraní y de farsi implicaciones pedagógicas cuando enseñan el inglés como lengua extranjera (EFL); y, el segundo, colaborar en los mecanismo de prevención de la lengua mazandaraní (Mazani) de su extinción gradual. Al comparar el orden de las palabras, los verbos y los tiempos de los tres idiomas antes mencionados, se concluye que, en algunos casos el mazandaraní, y en otros casos, el Farsi, son más similares al inglés. En cuanto al orden de las palabras, el mazandaraní y persa son lenguas SOV, mientras que el inglés es SVO. En cuanto a los verbos y tiempos verbales, a diferencia del inglés, el farsi y el mazandaraní son lenguas flexivas. Esta flexión juega un papel importante en la formación de diferentes tiempos verbales en el proceso de conjugación

Investigating the relationship between depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension across different proficiency levels among Iranian EFL learners

This study was an attempt to investigate the particular role of learners’ depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge in their listening comprehension. Moreover, it also sought to find out whether there is any difference between high and low listening proficiency groups in performance on depth and breadth dimensions of vocabulary knowledge. To this end, a total of 117 junior university students majoring in English language and literature participated in the study. In order to assess the learners’ listening comprehension, the listening section of a paper-based version of the TOEFL was administered. Their depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge were measured through performance on Word Associate Test and Vocabulary Levels Test, respectively. The results of data analysis indicated that both depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge are determining factors in successful listening comprehension. However, it was found out that breadth or size of vocabulary knowledge provides a more significant contribution than depth to listening comprehension. Furthermore, the results of the study indicated that depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge are not significant predictors of listening comprehension in the low listening ability group

Motivation and Quality of Work Life among Secondary School EFL Teachers

This study set out to investigate the relationship between quality of work life and teacher motivation among 160 secondary school English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Tehran, Iran. In addition, 30 of the participants were randomly selected to take part in follow-up interviews which asked why they felt the way they reported. The results revealed that the participants enjoyed a medium level of quality of work life and experienced a medium-to-low level of motivation. In addition, a significant relationship was found between motivation and quality of work life categories. Furthermore, the sub-scales of the quality of work life that best predicted teacher motivation were identified. The findings of this study have implications for teacher educators and educational decision makers in bringing about higher levels of motivation and quality of work life among English language teachers