Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research

COVID-19 has been a major issue in most countries throughout the world with 213 countries being affected till date due to the disease. The pandemic has raised concerns over the healthcare facilities available in various countries and question the government decisions made during this period of outbreak. Despite having the best healthcare facilities several countries across Europe and America have found it difficult to contain the disease outbreak questioning the available solutions to contain an area. This paper focuses on presenting information on solutions available to control outbreaks in order to prevent another pandemic occurring in the future. The paper also highlights the strategies and plans implemented by various governments who have been successful in combatting the disease with minimum damage. By using available resources such as technology, scientific innovation and digitalized healthcare this paper focuses on providing solutions which are already available to be utilized in the right manner.

The present study sought to investigate deviation in translation of poetry based on Berman's (1985) model of “Text Deformation System”. Primarily, English translation of one hundred fifty lines of Book II of Rumi's Mathnavi, translated by Nicholson, in 1926, were analyzed based on twelve deforming items of Berman's model and compared to Persian lines corrected by Nicholson as the source to find out the deformations. Then, chi-square test was conducted to investigate the differences among the frequencies of occurred deformations. The results revealed the deviation, especially syntactic deviation, of poetry translation based on Berman's model. There were statistically significant differences among the occurred deviations. The findings also revealed that Rationalization, Destruction of rhythm, Destruction of linguistic patterning, Destruction of underlying network of signification, and Expansion were the most frequent items among the twelve deforming items.

Article Review Tellier, M. (2008). The effect of gestures on second language memorization by young children. Gestures in language development Tellier, M. (2005). How do teacher's gestures help young children in second language acquisition? International Society of Gesture Studies Abstract This article tries to review two related articles written by Tellier (2005) and (2008). Tellier in both articles tries to show the impact of gesture, especially reproduction of gesture, on memorization of words. Tellier (2005) works on the impact of teaching gestures on short-term memorization of first language words by young children of about five years of age. Three groups of students participated in the study. Participants in the first group had to listen to the words and try to recall them; but students in the second group had to repeat the words and look at the gestures; and in the last group, participants had to repeat the words and reproduce the gestures. Results show that children who reproduced the gestures could memorize words better than those in the control and comparison group. On the other hand, Tellier (2008) examines the impact of gesture-motor modality-on long-term memorization of second language words by young children of about five years of age. She compares two groups of young children; words in the first group were taught with pictures and in the second group with accompanying gestures. Students in the first group had to look at the pictures and repeat the words, while students in the second group had to repeat the words and reproduce gestures. Results of the study show that gestures and especially their reproduction influence memorization of second language words. Tellier, in both articles, come to the conclusion that reproduction of gestures has positive influence on memorizing words.

This case study is based on a research that was carried out as part of a more extensive PhD research. This article presents the gaps in English taught in colleges as preparatory ground for entrance in universities of Pakistan. The main objective of teaching English as a compulsory subject at secondary and tertiary levels is to prepare students to successfully enter and sustain in the academic mainstream. One would believe that Pakistani students of Intermediate level are being equipped with Communicative Competence in English as Second Language (ESL) to be ready to use the target language and skill for communication in academic and social contexts at the target levels. However, a common observation of English language teachers is that students face difficulty in performing the basic tasks required of all college students. The factual as well as interpretive findings reveal the existence of wide gap between English taught at college level and the proficiency required at the university level, which eventually makes students struggle and suffer. This is critical for the stakeholders and challenges them to understand the learning choices offered to English language students in Pakistani settings. This case study explores the language competencies developed at the Intermediate level of education and their suitability to meet the demands of higher education. The scope of the study also involves the inquiry about the teaching philosophies and pedagogical responsibilities of the subject teachers materialized in the classroom and learning speculations forming learners' learning attitude.

This mixed-method study aimed to investigate the effect of Oral feedback (OF) vs. Written feedback (WF) on overall L2 writing performance and on the relevant sub-scores: organization, lexis, grammar, and coherence & cohesion. EFL (English as a Foreign Language) university students (N=74) from English Preparatory Program at a state Turkish University were selected and then divided into comparison (N=35) and experimental group (N=39) through convenient sampling. While completing three writing tasks on an argumentative essay for four weeks, the comparison group was exposed to traditional WF and the experimental group was exposed to OF. The quantitative data was collected from the scores of the first and last writing papers and was analyzed through independent and paired samples t-tests. The qualitative data was collected from semi-structured interviews with three participants from the experimental group and was analyzed through open and structural coding. The empirical findings indicated a significant effect of OF on both the overall writing performance and on the sub-scores. The qualitative results showed that the opportunity for meaningful interaction, clarification, and negotiation between the students and the teacher during OF helped the students from the experimental group to receive more detailed and constructive feedback, and to significantly improve their writing skills. Keywords: EFL writing, negotiation, oral feedback, teacher-student conferences, written feedback

The present study is intended to investigate metadiscourse, as a way of talking about a specialized topic common to a specific discourse community, in 20 abstracts of Persian and English research articles in two disciplines, applied linguistics and Computer Engineering, based on Hyland (2005) taxonomy. The interlingual analysis revealed Persian's greater writer responsibility and its priority over guiding the reader through the text rather than involving him/her in the arguments. The interdisciplinary study of research articles abstracts showed generally the preference of this genre and specifically humanities trends towards providing the readers with convincing and comprehensive materials rather than engaging with them or expressing the writers' personality.

The present research was conducted in order to investigate if there was any significant difference between abstracts written by native (N) English speakers and abstracts written by Iranian nonnative (NN) speakers of English based on Swales' (1990) IMRC model. Investigating the possible differences between abstracts written by male vs. female N and NN speakers of English was a further aim in the present study. To achieve these objectives, a total of 140 research papers were randomly selected from the journals published in the field of English Language Teaching in 2014 and 2015. The papers were divided into two categories: 70 papers written by Iranian authors as NN English writers and 70 papers written by N English writers. The four-move theory of IMRC developed by Swales (1990) was used to examine the abstracts. The findings showed that in terms of number of words, the male N authors wrote wordier abstracts compared with male NN authors. On the contrary, the number of words used by NN female authors were more than the number of words used by female N authors. In addition, the number of words used by female authors in both N and NN corpora were more than that used by male N and NN authors. Statistically speaking, the results of Chi-square tests showed that there were significant differences between the number of words used by N and NN male authors on the one hand, and N and NN female authors on the other. Finally, the results of the move analysis of the corpus under study, using Swales' (1990) model, revealed that this model was followed only in fourteen NN abstracts and 16 N abstracts.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) has recently received an enormous amount of interest within the educational settings when pioneers have found integration between EI and academic performance among foreign language learners. Therefore, the present paper is an attempt to discuss the EI in three main sections. In the following sections, the origin and a theoretical framework and major models of EI is presented. Then, the relationships between EI and academic performance will be elaborated. Finally, a review on the studies focusing on the correlation between EI and language learning specifically in different language skills will be presented. On the basis of the results, the researchers conclude that overall EI has a close relationship with academic achievement and is an important requirement for academic success. Thus, it can be claimed that teachers should make a great effort to employ the principles which includes higher levels of EI to activate the interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences to improve learners' performance in classroom settings.

In congruence with the studies corroborating the significant role of higher-order thinking skills and metacognitive abilities, this study intended to investigate the association between the two subcomponents of critical thinking, inference-making and deduction, and one subcomponent of self-regulation, self-monitoring, as well as the role of gender in each of these constructs. To attain the purpose of the study, 120 EFL university learners were selected according to a convenience sampling. They were requested to complete the Watson-Glaser's Critical Thinking Appraisal and the Self-Regulation Trait Questionnaire. They were also asked to indicate their gender on their questionnaires. It was revealed that there were significant interrelationships among all variables as follows: self-monitoring and inference-making (r = 0.353), self-monitoring and deduction (r = 0.350), and inference-making and deduction (r = 0.389). In addition, gender did not play a part in students' inference-making, deduction, and self-monitoring. This study has some implications for EFL instructors, curriculum designers, and learners to make appropriate use of these relationships and take the required steps for encouraging EFL university students' self-monitoring, inference-making, and deduction irrespective of their gender.

The present study was an attempt to investigate the effects of online tasks on improving critical thinking and academic writing achievement of Iranian EFL learners. To perform this study, 150 Iranian EFL learners studying English in a private Language Institute in Isfahan were selected. They took an Oxford Placement Test and 100 intermediate-levels were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. Then, both groups were given a pre-test of writing and critical thinking questionnaire before the treatments sessions to determine the participants' writing ability and critical thinking at the beginning of the research period. During the treatments, both groups were taught writing courses. The experimental group received the courses through online program while the control group received traditional teaching of the writing courses. Having finished the treatments, the learners in the both groups were given the post-test of writing ability and critical thinking questionnaire. Data were analyzed through Independent Samples t-test to test the hypotheses of this study. The findings revealed that writing ability of the experimental group improved after the instruction while the instruction did not have significant effect on developing writing ability of the control group. In other words, the experimental group outperformed the control group at the significant level. Moreover, critical thinking ability of both experimental and control group did not improved after the instruction.

Metadiscourse (MD) markers help writers present their arguments and research findings and represent themselves more effective in their academic writings. This study intended to examine the MD features in both the discussion and the conclusion sections of Iranian and native English writers in the hard science of geology. For this purpose we randomly selected two groups of Research Articles written by Persian and English native writers. The MD markers including interactive and international devices were manually counted and recorded. The quantitative analysis of the result showed that the native English (NE) writers used more interactional MD devices than the interactive MD features in the argumentative sections of their research articles (RAs). However, native Persian (NP) authors applied more interactive MD resources than the interactional ones in the discussion and conclusion sections of their RAs. The findings implied that although the NP writers well organized their discourse flow, they could not make an effective interpersonal relationship with their own readers.

It is generally suggested that exposure to language through extensive reading can enhance the learners' language competence. This study aims at exploring the effect of extensive reading (ER) on advanced EFL learners' expository paragraph writing. A total of 42 advanced-level students were concentrated on in the study who belonged to three groups, namely the extensive reading group, intensive reading group and a control group, the latter one of which was mainly engaged in oral activities during the research. For extensive reading, three prose fictions, i.e. Animal Farm, The Grapes of Wrath, and A Farewell to Arms were chosen. Towards the end of the study, which took two semesters, the participants were asked to write four expository paragraphs on four topics already chosen based on brainstorming and random selection. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the complementary tests indicated that the grammatical accuracy in terms of Mean value of Error-Free T-Units (EFTUs) differed significantly between extensive and intensive reading groups but not extensive and control or intensive and control groups. Also, the data obtained from a 5-point Likert-type scale showed that the participants mostly favored extensive reading as a generally useful task; however, they did not agree that grammatical points are teachable exclusively through extensive reading. Implications of the study are discussed.

This study explored the influence of instructor's written direct/ indirect comprehensive corrective feedback on intermediate Kuwaiti university students' writing accuracy. It also examined the subjects' opinions regarding the impact of the provided types of feedback on their motivation. In order to reach this end, a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods were implemented. The informants of the current study were 134 intermediate undergraduate Kuwaiti university students. The participants were randomly divided into five groups. These five groups involved a control group and four treatment groups. The control group did not receive any type of feedback. The treatment groups received different types of treatment. The participants of the first treatment group received direct feedback. The participants of the other three treatment groups received different types of indirect feedback, underlining only, underlining in addition to metalinguistic comments and underlining in addition to face to face conference. All the participants had to generate 7 writing tasks in nine weeks. After submitting each writing task, the treatment was provided then each participant had to generate a new draft of the same writing. In week nine the participants had to generate a new piece of writing. The Findings of the current study highlighted the importance of direct written comprehensive corrective feedback in improving the writing accuracy in revision tasks. In addition, a significant short-and long-term effects of direct written comprehensive on improving the grammatical accuracy of the participants of the current study were found. Furthermore, the participants of the current study have reported their dire need to receive written direct comprehensive feedback as they believed it was the most effective type of feedback and it had a great impact on their motivation.

The current experimental study attempted to investigate which medium of providing indirect corrective feedback, digital /traditional handwritten feedback, could help Kuwaiti undergraduate university students improve their writing accuracy. Moreover, it attempted to examine Kuwaiti undergraduate students' preferences regarding the aforementioned mediums of providing written corrective feedback. To reach this end, an amalgamation of qualitative and quantitative methods was utilized. The subjects of the present study were 75 Kuwaiti undergraduate students who were randomly divided into three groups, two experimental and one control group. While the control group received no feedback, each of the experimental groups received indirect comprehensive corrective feedback via different mediums. The first experimental group received indirect digital written comprehensive feedback via Google Classroom. On the other hand, the second experimental group was provided with indirect handwritten comprehensive feedback. In addition to completing an online survey, all the participants had to generate five writing tasks in twelve weeks. Error ratio was used to measure the short and long term accuracy gains. SPSS program was utilized to analyze the data. The findings of the current study showed that providing written comprehensive feedback digitally has a significant impact on improving the grammatical and the non-grammatical accuracy of the participants during the revision tasks. Regarding the short term effects, while providing digital corrective feedback was found effective in improving the grammatical accuracy gains, providing traditional handwritten feedback was found to have a significant importance in improving the non-grammatical accuracy gains of the understudies of the current study. Concerning the long-term effects, providing corrective feedback digitally was found to have a long term effect on the grammatical accuracy gains of the participants. Conversely, neither of the utilized mediums in providing corrective feedback had any long-term impact on the non-grammatical accuracy gains of the subjects of the current study. More importantly, the participants of the current study reported that the digital medium of providing feedback is more effective in enhancing their grammatical and non-grammatical accuracy gains than the traditional medium.

Reflection is a professional development strategy that equips language teachers with opportunities to explore, articulate and represent their own teaching practices. This research was conducted to evaluate the impact of English teachers' reflection on EFL learners' speaking proficiency as measured in terms of accuracy, fluency and complexity. Employing a quasi-experimental design, the researchers collected the required quantitative data through the audio recording of interviews conducted with the participants in the study and through a measure of teacher reflection. Sixty students (30 males and 30 females) and thirty instructors (15 males and 15 females) were randomly selected from English institutes in Bandar Abbas as the sample of the study. The results revealed that teachers' reflectivity significantly affects Iranian EFL learners' oral performance in terms of fluency and learners' syntactic complexity of oral speech but it was found that those instructed by the high reflective teacher did not show any progress in accuracy of oral speech.

This paper is a report of a study on speaking fluency performed by six low level students using retelling technique. The aim of the study is to find out the effect of retelling on the students’ speaking fluency and to know the strategies used by those students while retelling a story. The data were the speaking transcripts which were analyzed to see the progress after six-time treatment was given. The result reveals that the speaking fluency of the students increased in some areas as shown by the improvement on their vocabulary and comprehensibility. The result of this study may be used for promoting the students’ speaking accuracy and fluency in high schools and universities where their teachers try to Speak English for presenting their lessons.

In teaching-learning processes, some methods which teachers use and the teachers' own speaking accuracy and fluency in the ELT classes for the foreign language students especially in Iran may have some positive and negative effects on ELT students' speaking fluency and accuracy. This study attempts to probe one of the main concerns of language learners, that is, how to improve their speaking components, e.g. oral fluency and accuracy through comparison of the effects of teacher's speaking accuracy vs. fluency on EFL learners' oral skill. The current study was designed as a true experimental research and the data were gathered from 60 ELT students of English language and literature in Iran. The data were the recorded speaking transcripts which were analyzed to show the probable progresses after four-time (10 weeks) treatment. The factors to be considered in present study were the numbers of filled and unfilled pauses in each narration, the total number of words per minute, mean length of utterance, and number of stressed words. The results were compared and their temporal and linguistic measures were correlated with their fluency scores.

Against postcolonial and cultural readings of Chinua Achebe's works, this article approaches Achebe's fiction and non-fiction using Freud's theory on narcissism and creative writers as well as Otto Rank's views on art and the artist. It highlights the narcissistic formation of the ego ideal of Achebe and explains its growth according to Freud's views on the psychology of repression and wish-fulfillment. This assumption is built upon a reading of Achebe's novels and some of his non-fiction to argue that Achebe followed in his works the ideals he internalized during his childhood and narcissistically repressed. An analysis of some of Achebe's works is used to support our argument that Achebe's attempts to prescribe the direction of African art and letters as well as his didactic concern with the value and effect of African literature all testify to the writer's narcissistic repression and the family ideals founded on such repression within a colonial, missionary setting. Achebe's use of English language in his fiction and criticism and his following of Christianity support the same notion of ego ideal we postulate. Equally significant is the notion of " ambivalence " we find in Achebe's treatment of themes like language, tolerance, and religion and which we can justify using the same theory we posit and in terms of conflicting ideals. The article interrogates whether we can come up with the term " the intellectual ego " and connect it with the authors and scholars and their works as the literary and artistic theories they embrace are a manifestation of the ideals they practice or simply aspire to.

This paper examines the novels of Chinua Achebe; Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of the People, and Anthills of the Savannah to determine common motifs and patterns running through them. These motifs and patterns are arrived at after a critical reading of the novels. Subsequently, the researchers apply Sociolinguistic Functional Stylistics (SFS) in the analysis of the motifs in the novels. The paper observes that the recurring literary elements and techniques include change in point of view, folktales, proverbs, rhetoric, Igbo (vernacular) words, songs, Pidgin English, prayers, corruption, and in medias res plot. The paper concludes that the motifs and patterns enhance the meanings of the works, add to their aesthetic quality, while the folklore elements give them the outlook of African Literature. Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God are concerned with the pre-colonial and colonial Igbo society, while No Longer at Ease, A Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah are preoccupied with the developments in postcolonial or post-independence Nigeria. The paper recommends that critics and writers of African Literature should emphasize on the aesthetic, thematic and folkloric qualities.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether applying semantic mapping strategy to teach new vocabulary for preparatory-year EFL Saudi female students was useful on reading texts. To achieve the purpose of this paper, the study attempted to provide answers to two research questions: How does the use of semantic mapping in teaching vocabulary affect EFL female Preparatory-year students' learning of new reading texts? Which types of semantic maps are effective in teaching vocabulary based-reading material? The study participants were forty students divided into two groups: control and experimental group. The control group received a traditional instruction of vocabulary whereas the experimental group was taught through using five different types of the semantic mapping strategy, namely, concept categories map, hierarchical organization map, compare-contrast map, definition, description, example map and fishbone map. Both groups were tested before and after the experiment. Additionally, the experimental group was given a questionnaire to evaluate the five types of semantic mapping strategy. The results of the study indicated that semantic mapping strategies had a positive impact on students' vocabulary performance and reading. Moreover, concept-categories maps were regarded to be the best type of semantic mapping strategies preferred by students, followed by compare-contrast map. Finally, the questionnaire findings reflected students' positive attitudes towards using semantic mapping strategies with all its different types.

Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) has recently been addressed in a good proportion of research in the scope of applied linguistics. Consequently tasks are widely used in most English teaching course books. With regard to increasing interest of learning English which has, nowadays, been expanded to even rural areas, the question of compatibility of different types of task with rural areas arises. Thus, the present study is aimed at comparing language learners' achievement (performance) in Real-world task and Pedagogical task in rural and urban areas. Participants are 80 female English language learners at elementary level aged from 15 to 25. Half of the participants are selected from an urban area, and another half are from a rural area. To measure participants' language achievement (performance) through each task type, two different Real-world Task Test and Pedagogical Task Test were given to the students at the end of the term. To analyze the data, two T-Tests were run. The results showed that urban participants had a better performance in real-world task compared to rural participants, but both rural and urban groups did not differ in their performance in pedagogical task. The findings of this study, on the one hand, are in line with some theories and models in the related literature, and on the other hand, can appeal not only to English language teachers working in different urban and rural institutes or schools but also appear to be of high importance for English language teaching material developers.

This study investigated the role of Telegram, a mobile messenger app, in mastering word stress patterns of English by Iranian EFL learners. In addition, it was intended to survey EFL learners' attitude about using Telegram to learn word stress patterns. Thus, 60 students were selected from a language institute in Isfahan, Iran. To homogenize the participants, Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) was administered and the participants were divided into two groups accordingly, a Telegram group and a control group. At the beginning of the study, a word stress pattern pre-test was given to the participants. Then, during the study, the experimental group received the treatment (teaching word stress patterns via Telegram). However, the control group received explanation on stress patterns traditionally. After 10 sessions, 20 minutes each, a post-test was administered to the groups. The results of independent samples t-test revealed a statistically significant difference. Moreover, the participants had positive attitude about using Telegram to learn word stress patterns. The findings of this study may inspire teachers to use mobile applications and also course developers to modify and improve not only the curriculum, but also the methodology of teaching pronunciation.

The present study is a review of the usage based theory of language acquisition introduced by Tomasello (2003). Based on this theory structure emerges from use. Among semantic, syntax, and pragmatics, the usage based theory emphasizes the primary role of pragmatics in human communication. At the first sight it may looks contrary to the nativism. However, it can be said that this theory also believes in some universality of linguistic structures similar to the concept of universal grammar in nativism but, in a different way.

With regard to the nature of simultaneous bilingual acquisition, more studies on different aspects of bilingual language acquisition are required to determine whether these two linguistic systems are developed autonomously or interdependently. This corpus-based longitudinal study aims to provide new evidence concerning this controversial issue by examining the acquisition of English plural marking by a Cantonese-English simultaneous bilingual child and an English-speaking monolingual child. The results revealed that, overall, the bilingual child produced more errors in plural marking, with all of them being required but omitted (RO) errors. Moreover, it was found that over-regularisation (OG) was absent in the bilingual's production of plurals. Furthermore, regarding the development sequence, it was found that the bilingual child lagged behind the monolingual child and achieved mastery of plural marking at a later age, which may have been related to the inevitably less frequent English input received by the bilingual child.

Raising EFL students' awareness on how to communicate appropriately using English language is very important. Thus, the aim of this research was to investigate the effect of using sitcoms to improve EFL students' use of speech acts of request, refusal, apology, and compliment response. Sitcoms which mean situational comedy were used as the treatment in this research. Sitcoms sessions were held for three weeks, one-hour session a week. In each session, the students were exposed to targeted speech acts through the use of English sitcoms (The Big Bang Theory, Friends, and Seinfeld). The participants of this research were 18 Saudi female freshmen students. Their ages were between 19 to 25, majoring in Applied linguistic at Yanbu University College. This research was quantitative research where the data was collected using a written discourse completion test as pre-post-test and a close-ended questionnaire. The result of this research showed that the participants' use of speech acts improved after the treatment. This result suggests that using sitcoms might help in EFL's acquisition of speech act of request, refusal, apology, and compliment response.

In the present study, the effects of presenting new L2 vocabulary in semantic and thematic sets on vocabulary learning of Persian learners of English were investigated. There were 80 participants: 40 elementary and 40 intermediate levels. Four types of vocabulary sets (i.e., semantically related sets, semantically unrelated sets, thematically associated sets and thematically unassociated sets) were presented through reading passages. For each set, two passages were selected including six words in each reading passage. Consequently, there were eight reading passages with 48 new words at each level, which were presented to the participants to learn. The participants at each level took a placement test, a proficiency test, a pretest and a posttest. The statistical analyses showed that participants recalled more words from the thematic sets, while the semantic sets were the least to recall at each level. These differences were more apparent at the elementary level than in the intermediate. Also, participants recalled more words from semantically unrelated sets than from the thematically unassociated ones. Therefore, a scaled pattern of recalling may appear as: thematically associated sets, semantically unrelated sets, thematically unassociated sets and semantically related sets.

Language learning strategies (LLSs) play a critical role in language learning; thus, remarkable efforts have been made to underline the significance of LLS use as well as factors influencing learners' strategy choice. This research sought to investigate LLS use of Kurdish pre-university students learning English as a foreign language. Additionally, the researchers scrutinized the relationship between the use of language learning strategies and English proficiency. Acting in response to a call made by Oxford (1992) for additional replication of LLS research in different sociocultural contexts, this study was conducted in Kurdistan. Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), individual background questionnaire and a version of English Sunrise Test were administered to 124 Kurdish pre-university students. The findings of the study indicated that Kurdish pre-university learners were equipped with strategies of language learning at a medium level. In addition, the study revealed that metacognitive and social strategies were most preferred, whereas learners turned out to be reluctant to make use of affective strategies. The findings of the present study are in agreement with other results of prior SILL studies, showing significance between LLSs and proficiency of English in favor of advanced learners. The more advanced the learners were in the language, the greater number of strategies they applied. Level of proficiency not only had significant influence on overall strategy use but the use of all six strategy categories. The results might be advantageous in pedagogy and curriculum design. Suggestions are provided for future research concerning issues that need to be further explored.

Language learning strategies (LLSs) play a critical role in language learning; thus, remarkable efforts have been made to underline the significance of LLS use as well as factors influencing learners' strategy choice. This research sought to investigate LLS use of Kurdish pre-university students learning English as a foreign language. Additionally, the researchers scrutinized the relationship between the use of language learning strategies and English proficiency. Acting in response to a call made by Oxford (1992) for additional replication of LLS research in different sociocultural contexts, this study was conducted in Kurdistan. Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), individual background questionnaire and a version of English Sunrise Test were administered to 124 Kurdish pre-university students. The findings of the study indicated that Kurdish pre-university learners were equipped with strategies of language learning at a medium level. In addition, the study revealed that metacognitive and social strategies were most preferred, whereas learners turned out to be reluctant to make use of affective strategies. The findings of the present study are in agreement with other results of prior SILL studies, showing significance between LLSs and proficiency of English in favor of advanced learners. The more advanced the learners were in the language, the greater number of strategies they applied. Level of proficiency not only had significant influence on overall strategy use but the use of all six strategy categories. The results might be advantageous in pedagogy and curriculum design. Suggestions are provided for future research concerning issues that need to be further explored.

The purpose of this article is to investigate EFL teachers' (native and non-native) practices regarding error treatment in teaching English to adult learners in Saudi Arabia. It determines the advantages of current teaching practices in native/non-native divide paradigm, and finds out what care and cautions need to be taken while correcting the errors committed by EFL learners to obtain the desired results. Data were collected by the administering a five-point Likert-scale survey to 50 EFL teachers, 25 natives and 25 non-natives. T-tests for the independence or association between the attributes were run using SPSS version 14. Both qualitative and quantitative research tools were administered to get the relevant data. The qualitative tool of interviews was used and ten teachers (five natives and five non-natives) were interviewed to serve the research purpose. The qualitative and quantitative data was included to complement each other and validate the research at the same time. The results confirmed that all the EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia, regardless of whether they were natives or non-natives, were generally more severe about errors by students. The results of the study also revealed that although teachers believed that students were prone to commit errors, they asserted that students' written errors must be immediately corrected and comments must be given. However, they were in favor of not only peer feedback but also believed that grammatical errors in oral communication should not always be corrected. The results of the t-test revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in the approach to grammar errors between the native and non-native EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia. This paper intends to pave the way to create self-awareness among EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia to analyze their teaching practices while addressing the learners' errors and bring an improvement in this regard.

Considering the importance of Discourse Markers (DMs) in EFL writing, this study aims to find out how the teachers teaching adult EFL learners in Saudi Arabia perceive the use of DMs in developing writing skills of their students. The quantitative research tool used in this study is an adapted form of the survey originally developed by Fung (2011). The responses to the survey have been analyzed by comparing the native-nonnative teachers' perceptions and male-female teachers' perceptions. The major research finding is that all the EFL teachers attach great value to the use and teaching of DMs, yet they feel forced to teach only those few DMs which are part of the textbooks and in which the students would be tested. Major recommendation is that all important DMs should be incorporated in the syllabus and made part of the assessment to make EFL adult Saudi learners proficient in writing skills.

The main objective addressed in this study was to investigate the effect of process (negotiated) syllabus on meaning-focused L2 writing in adult and young Iranian intermediate-level EFL learners. Using a stratified sampling method, a total of 104 intermediate EFL learners, 52 from each gender, with an age range of 12 to 28, were randomly assigned to four groups: two control groups and two experimental groups. In order to determine the effect of process-oriented syllabus on adult and young intermediate EFL learners' productive competence, once the scores of the pretest and posttest were obtained, the descriptive and inferential statistics were implemented in data analysis procedure. The data were triangulated from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The statistical analysis of the data revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the posttest of writing after receiving process (negotiated) syllabus. The results of this study also showed that adult experimental group outperformed those in the young experimental group on posttest of writing. The findings of this study can provide certain implications to educational policy makers, material developers, EFL teachers, and second language learners.

The present study was an attempt to investigate the relationship among self-efficacy belief, self-directed learning, and critical thinking among advanced EFL Learners in a private language institute in Bandar Abbas, Iran. Sixty Iranian EFL students who were chosen based on their performance in a TOEFL PBT from among 80 EFL learners to shape the participants of the study. The participants received a validated copy of Honey s'(2004) critical thinking questionnaire, a standard copy of Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) developed by Guglielmino (1977), and The General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), which has been validated by Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1995). The findings of the present study revealed that firstly, there was a significant relationship between self-directed learning and self-efficacy belief of Iranian EFL learners. Secondly, the results revealed that there was a significant relationship between critical thinking and self-efficacy belief of Iranian EFL learners, and thirdly, it was revealed that there was a significant relationship between critical thinking and self-directed learning of Iranian EFL learners. Findings of the present study could be used by material developers, English teachers, and EFL learners in the EFL and ESL context.

This study aimed at investigating the effect of using brainstorming and its subcategories (listing, question and answer, outlining) as a pre-writing strategy. Participants of the study were 60 Iranian EFL advanced learners who were both male and female. Instruments of the study were pretest, instruction, posttest and a questionnaire at the end of the treatment in order to measure the attitude of students toward instruction. Results of the study revealed that there was not any significant relationship between brainstorming, its subcategories and EFL learners writing development. In addition, findings showed that there was not any significant difference between males and females in terms of using brainstorming and the three subcategories.

Iranian EFL students who were studying English at the advanced level in Language Institute in Bandar Abbas, Iran were chosen based on their performance in a TOEFL PBT from among 80 EFL learners to shape the participants of the study. The participants received the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), which has been validated by Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1995) and a standard copy of Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) developed by Guglielmino (1977). The findings of the present study revealed that there was a significant relationship between Self-Efficacy Belief and self-directed learning of Iranian EFL learners at the advanced level of Language Proficiency. The findings of the study could be used by English teachers, and EFL learners in the EFL and ESL context.

This paper seeks to give a descriptive account of a vowel height feature agreement process in Ewe. The paper establishes that the height agreement process is neither height harmony nor metaphony. The paper further demonstrates the systematic difference between the coastal dialects and the inland dialects of Ewe in relation to the vowel height agreement process. The height agreement occurs in the cliticization of diminutive marker to nouns and adjectives as well as the cliticization of the 3 rd person singular object pronominal to verbs. While the agreement process is host controlled in the inland (Ʋedome) dialects of Ewe, it is enclitic controlled in the coastal (Aŋlɔ) dialects of Ewe. A synchronic analysis indicates that while [i] is the underlying form of the enclitic for the 3 rd person singular object pronominal as well as the diminutive marker in the coastal dialects of Ewe, [e] is the underlying representation of the 3rd person singular object pronominal as well as the diminutive marker in the inland dialects of Ewe.

Success in a second language learning and ultimate attainment in target language can be associated with the concept of personality traits. Personality of a learner can impact the overall success in second language learning. Language learning strategies also can impact successful second language acquisition to a great extent. These two trends, although not closely related, when considered in a second language classroom can significantly help students in their endower while learning second language. 70 students from International University of Sarajevo participated in the research. The Five Factor model questionnaire was distributed in order to determine students' personality traits, which is composed of Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism (Costa & McCrae, 1992), and for language learning strategies we used the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). The results showed that students exhibited very high preferences for social learning strategy. Students' dominant personality trait was Openness to Experience. The results also showed that there is a significant relationship between the predominant personality traits and language learning strategies of the respondents.

Inspired by the tenets of the scenario based instruction, the present study focused on the effect of content-based multimodal instructive animations on Iranian EFL students’ listening skill. The selected participants were 240 male and female elementary students, in the 8-11 age range. The experimental group members were assigned to two sub-groups: animation and ordinary. The sub-groups were exposed to instructive topic-based video clips in animation and ordinary forms, respectively. The control group, however, received only audio CD instruction. TOEFL Primary tests were administered as both pre- and post-tests. The results indicated that animation exposure group significantly outperformed the ordinary exposure group and the control group, and that ordinary exposure had more vigorous performance than the control group. Independent sample t-tests showed that gender had no significant effect on both animation and ordinary groups’ listening skill. The obtained results can provide a deeper pedagogical insight into the way we expose learners to English language listening skill.

This study shows that literary writings have their own features and these features distinguish them from other writings. Translation of especial features of literary text needs familiarity with cultural, linguistic and semantic features. Simin Daneshvar's Suvashun as a postmodern Iranian novel and as an outstanding literary masterpiece is full of literary terms and one of them is the taboo that has been used so many times in it. Translation of taboo words needs great cultural familiarity with L1 and L2 by the translator and this paper tries to consider Translation of taboo words in Ganoonparvar's requires a great attention and this thesis tries to analyze the correctness, possibility and acceptability of these kinds which needs transferring of correct cultural elements that translation of Simin Daneshvar's Suvashun as a postmodern Iranian novel is full of them and their translation for transferring these special correct cultural elements in target language is a very difficult task.

This paper tries to show that literary writings have their own features and these features distinguish them from other writings. Translation of especial features of literary text needs familiarity with cultural, linguistic and semantic features. Translation of taboo words needs great cultural familiarity with L1 and L 2 by the translator and this paper tries to consider and study Ganoonparvar's translation according to translation of taboo words from Persian to English language and determine how these taboo words translated according to cultural models and patterns of target language. Translation of taboo words in Ganoonparvar's requires a great attention and this thesis tries to analyze the correctness, possibility and acceptability of these kinds which needs transferring of correct cultural elements that translation of Simin Daneshvar's Suvashun as a postmodern Iranian novel is full of them.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of cooperative learning on L2 reading comprehension ability for pre-university students by comparing the cooperative learning instruction and traditional lecture instruction. Another objective was to discover the effect of cooperative learning on reading anxiety of students. It also tried to figure out the students' attitudes after providing cooperative learning intervention. In addition, the study intended to find the relationship among students' reading anxiety, attitudes and their reading performance. Seventy pre-university students majoring in experimental sciences in Shiraz (35 subjects in experimental group, 35 subjects in control group) participated in this study. The cooperative learning technique 'Ask together – learn together' model was used in the experimental group and the usual method, which is traditional lecture instruction, was used in the control group to teach four reading comprehension lessons from pre-university textbook for a period of eight weeks. The required data for the study were collected through three instruments: two reading comprehension achievement tests and an attitude questionnaire. The findings of the present study showed that cooperative learning method had a higher effect on L2 reading comprehension skills when compared with the effects of traditional teaching methods. The results also revealed that control group was more anxious in reading than experimental group. In the case of students' attitudes, the average mean of attitude score for students in the cooperative learning group showed a strong relationship with this learning approach. Finally, it was found that the correlation between reading performance, attitude and reading anxiety was significant.

Although there is increased attention on investigating foreign language reading anxiety around the world, factors causing EFL reading anxiety have rarely been investigated, especially in the researched setting. Therefore, this study aimed to explore and understand the underlying problems and factors that lead to foreign language reading anxiety in a Taiwanese university context. The study employed two survey instruments (i.e., the background questionnaire and FLRAS) and one English reading test to answer the research questions. A total of 98 undergraduate English-major students participated in this study. The results reveal that gender has an important impact on foreign language reading anxiety. While time spent each week reading in English and learners' English proficiency levels did not have significant results, they still have an influence on individual differences.

The diversity of languages and the variation in cultures throughout the world make the process of second language learning and intercultural communication difficult. Apologies as inseparable parts of Iranian's interpersonal relationship create ambiguities for the parties as they are extended with different functions. Interpretation of these elements gets more troublesome when they are used with phatic function owing to the fact that unlike ordinary apologies, they are used when no offence has occurred and by extending them the interlocutors solely intend to open, prolong or end a conversation. Despite their importance, these types of apology have been neglected by the previous Persian speech act studies. Thus in this paper we aim at identifying apologies which have phatic function in a number of Iranian movies. Therefore we initially realize the forms (strategies) of the apologies and also find the indicators of phatic functions which distinguish them from ordinary apologies.