Reza Biria

• PhD in TEFL
• Senior Lecturer at Shahid Ashrafi Isfahani University -Isfahan- Iran

The writing process is founded principally upon language learners’ decision-making behaviors that are believed to be under the influence of their first language experiences. Hence, the main objectives of this study are to investigate the extent to which activating cognitive processing strategies can improve second-language learners’ writing skills,...

Abstract The writing process is founded principally upon language learners’ decision making behaviors that are believed to be under the influence of their first language (L1) experiences. Hence, the main objectives of this study are (a) to investigate the extent to which activating cognitive processing strategies can improve second language (L2) l...

The present study was an attempt to investigate the impact of using ENGAGE model on the speaking components of Iranian EFL learners. A thorough review of the related literature revealed poor record of practical work in the domain of ELT concerning the effect of using ENGAGE model in speaking skill of L2 learners. A quasi-experimental study was desi...

The study was an endeavor to investigate the impact of self and peer assessment on learner autonomy and its dimensions as well as language proficiency. It also aimed at finding the students attitude toward practicing the technique. The study enjoyed a quasi-experimental pretest post test design. To meet the objectives, 49 intermediate participants...

Purpose: An important facet in learning a language is expanding reading comprehension capability. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of implementation bias tasks through cooperative learning and gender on the reading comprehension process of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. Methodology: Two groups of 30 learners took p...

This study aimed to explore the possible effect of critical thinking-oriented dynamic assessment (CT-DA) on learners' reading comprehension performances. 21 Iranian language learners, who were homogenized in terms of their language proficiency, reading comprehension and critical thinking abilities, participated in this study. Learners were divided...

Abstract The current study was an effort to investigate the impact of strategy-based instruction (SBI) on Iranian tertiary learners’ perception of autonomy. To this purpose, forty-eight English Translation students in a reading comprehension course at Islamic Azan University, Islamshahr, Iran, were selected and randomly assigned to experimental and...

Self-Direct-Learning and Developing Speaking Skills

This book is useful source for refining EFL learners' word power through exploiting reading skills.

The present study is part of a Ph.D. program that explores the possible effect of critical thinking-oriented dynamic assessment (CT-DA) on learners' learning potential in reading comprehension skills. 21 Iranian language learners who were homogenized in terms of their language proficiency, reading comprehension, and critical thinking abilities part...

Teacher professional development, as a burgeoning term, has attracted a surge of interest in English language teaching. In second language (L2) professional development, the common orthodoxy has been one which considers teachers as that of knowledge consumers. It is commonly argued that top-down approaches to teachers' professional development has...

The preparation of English teachers to teach is a complex and multitudinous undertaking. Traditionally, in line with positivist paradigm which has focused on notion of transfer, teacher education has been concerned with depositing bodies of pre-defined information to teachers and has considered teachers as that of knowledge consumers. As an alterna...

The preparation of English teachers to teach is a complex and multitudinous undertaking. Traditionally, in line with positivist paradigm which has focused on notion of transfer, teacher education has been concerned with depositing bodies of pre-defined information to teachers and has considered teachers as that of knowledge consumers. As an alterna...

The present study sought to identify the similarities and/or differences between texts written by Iranian university students majoring in English Teaching and those written by English natives in terms of syntactic complexity. To this end, an automated computational web tool, namely Coh-Metrix was used to scrutinize a corpus containing 83 text excer...

Blended learning is a combination of traditional and technology-enhanced learning. Social networks services can be used in blended learning settings as they support collaboration, resource sharing, and socialization. Edmodo is an educational social network which can facilitate the development of second or foreign language skills. This study intende...

There is controversy on the conditions under which cooperative learning methods can improve academic achievement. Group-specific motivational aspects might contribute to the effectiveness of cooperative learning among which classroom goal structures were focused on. More specifically, the study aimed at investigating the efficiency of cooperative w...

The purpose of this study was twofold. First, it aimed to determine whether the application of backward design model has any significant effect on improving the writing ability of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. Second, the study sought to evaluate the superiority of backward design to conventional forward models in the improvement of the writin...

Inspired by critical discourse analysis and regarding language as a social medium whereby individuals, social groups, and institutions tend to express their beliefs and values, this study seeks to explore the persuasion and discourse strategies utilized in sermons. By focusing on the sermon of an influential native English orator and by employing W...

The present study sought to investigate the effectiveness of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in enhancing Iranian aviation students' attitude and motivation in dealing with the highly specialized features of aviation English. To this end, 40 pilots studying at Mahan air in Tehran were randomly placed in the experimental (n = 20) and...

This study examined the effects of two types of pre-listening activities: bottom-up and top-down on Iranian elementary EFL learners' listening comprehension performance. By TOFEL (PBT) test, 90 learners were selected as elementary ones for this study. They were randomly assigned to two experimental and one control groups each consisting of 30 learn...

The rich and still expanding literature on TBLT is helping to mature both its theoretical ‎ conceptualization and practical implementation in foreign and second language education. ‎ Similarly, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has grown as a field, with the use ‎ and integration of technology in the classroom continuing to increase and wi...

The rich and still expanding literature on TBLT is helping to mature both its theoretical ‎ conceptualization and practical implementation in foreign and second language education. ‎ Similarly, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has grown as a field, with the use ‎ and integration of technology in the classroom continuing to increase and wi...

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been drawing researchers’ and practitioners’ interest since its early onset in the 1980s. In a task-based approach, students learn language by doing interesting, relevant, and hands-on pedagogic tasks that raise their interest and keep their involvement. The rich and still developing literature on TBLT is hel...

The current study explored the Iranian EFL instructors" perceptions, practices and challenges related to learner autonomy (LA). Applying a mixed method design, two kinds of instruments were used: Teachers" beliefs questionnaire derived from Borg and Al-Busaidi"s study (2012) and a follow-up focus group discussion. First, the questionnaire was answe...

This study examined the effects of two types of pre-listening activities: bottom-up and top-down on Iranian elementary EFL learners' listening comprehension performance. By TOFEL (PBT) test, 90 learners were selected as elementary ones for this study. They were randomly assigned to two experimental and one control groups each consisting of 30 learn...

The purpose of the present meta-analysis is to the investigate the overall effectiveness of L2 vocabulary instruction and to find the moderator variables affecting its effectiveness. By defining a rigorous inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total number of 16 primary studies (N = 1008), 7 published and 9 Ph.D. dissertations, were included. Under R...

The present study aimed to investigate the possible relationship between ESP learners' critical thinking abilities and their reading comprehension. For this purpose, from the population of students studying in different fields of engineering at Amol Islamic Azad University, a sample of 202 ESP participants were selected based on a purposive samplin...

Pre-listening activities refer to the tasks to be done before the learners go to the while listening stage. The aims of these activities are to prepare the learners to achieve the most of what they will hear. By TOFEL (PBT) test, 180 learners-both male and female-were selected for this study. They were studying English at a private language institu...

Preface This book tends to help EFL/ESL learners at post graduate level to cope with interview sessions which are often used as key assessment tools for evaluating students’ content knowledge and fluency on various issues in the teaching of English as a foreign language. These days, it is becoming increasingly important to interview ESL students in...

This study aimed at examining the possible effects of teacher motivational practices and student demotivation on the way Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners produce request and refusal speech acts. Subsequently, four instruments were selected and administered to the participants under scrutiny. They were: (a) a Quick Placement Test...

Considering the significant position of critical pedagogy in teaching English as a foreign language, there is a need for in-depth investigations of novice teachers' professional identity construction through the interaction with critical notions introduced in teacher education programs. As the impact of such programs on novice teachers' professiona...

This study aimed at exploring the impact of mentor text modelling on Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' accuracy and fluency in writing tasks with different cognitive complexity in comparison with two conventional approaches to teaching writing; namely, process-based and product-based approaches. To this end, 60 Iranian EFL learn...

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...

Generally speaking, writers use various resources for introducing themselves to their readers. Among these, stance and engagement discourse markers are fundamental properties which manifest the underlying interaction process between writers and readers. The present paper sought to investigate whether male and female Iranian EFL learners performed d...

The present study sought to explore the efficacy of a brand-new approach to teaching writing called mentor text modeling in neutralizing trade-off effect between accuracy and fluency in writing tasks with different levels of cognitive complexity. To this end, a total of 60 (30 male and 30 female) Iranian EFL learners were randomly selected and assi...

This book is a dictionary of common biotechnological terms in three languages; namely, English, French, And Persian. The targeted corpus has been chosen from among most frequently used technical terms in biotechnological engineering.

The purpose of the study was to examine how teacher motivational practice might influence Iranian EFL Learners' Request and Refusal Speech Acts Production. To this end, five instruments were used to provide appropriate responses to research questions: (a) Quick Placement Test (b) the Motivational Orientation of Language Teaching classroom observati...

This study aims to operationlise the mediation concept on L2 teacher education. Sixty-two EFL teachers at Isfahan high schools were selected, a 30-item questionnaire was employed, and T-test and one-way ANOVA were used. The findings revealed mediation roles of the teacher educators were instructional while integrative and participative roles were n...

Despite its direct relevance to second/foreign language learning, quality of life has been a neglected area within Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research. The present study sought to investigate the relationship between quality of life factors and speaking skill as one of the most challenging parts of L2 learning. To this end, an adapted versio...

The International Journal of Humanities is one of the TMU Press journals that is published by the responsibility of its Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board in the determined scopes. The International Journal of Humanities is mainly devoted to the publication of original research, which brings fresh light to bear on the concepts, processes, and cons...

Why another dictionary on biotechnology? The question may rightly pop up in the mind of a curious student who is related to the science of biotechnology in one way or the other. However, the intelligent reader would soon find out that the new dictionary labeled as Biotechnological Common Terms is meritorious for several reasons. First and foremost,...

This study scrutinized the interaction between gender and risk taking variables in test performance of Iranian EFL learners. The research was conducted on 120 male and female EFL learners from Islamic Azad university of Isfahan (khorasgan). The participants received a Venturesomeness subscale of Eysenck `s IVE questionnaire and were asked to rate e...

Meaning and interaction are the essential parts of socialization process in which the interlocutors try to mitigate and control the negative impact of face threatening acts. As such, the main objective of the present study was to determine whether explicit instruction of FTA strategies could lead to the improvement of EFL students’ oral fluency wit...

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate English language textbooks of grade 7, 8 and 9 in theIranian Pedagogical curriculum to see to what extent students are exposed to national, international and target cultural familiar content in their classes. As Gurkan (2012) and Ganjabi (2014) say students who are familiar to cultural content of the...

Inspired by critical discourse analysis and regarding language as a social medium whereby individuals, social groups, and institutions tend to express their beliefs and values, this study seeks to explore the persuasion and discourse strategies utilized in sermons. By focusing on the sermon of an influential native English orator and by employing W...

Current developments in the areas of discourse analysis and cross-cultural studies have led to an increased interest in the way people of different cultures express their affections on various occasions. Individuals learn how to regulate their emotional reactions according to sociocultural norms of behavior defined by the cultures to which they bel...

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The present study aimed at quantitatively investigating the effectiveness of in-service workshops for teachers on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ L2 grammar achievement in a private language institute. To do so, Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered to homogenize the participants in terms of their level of proficiency. To collect the data...

This paper investigates the effect of translation courses and language proficiency on learners’ metalinguistic knowledge at Isfahan University, Iran. Tests of Metalinguistic knowledge, language proficiency and a background questionnaire were administered to learners of translation fields of study (as the experimental group) and the control group of...

English has been selected as the language of science and technology motivating non-native researchers and scientists to learn the language to have access to different documents and references written in English. One of the most significant current views regarding English used for specific purposes in the past few decades has been the integration of...

The present comparative study sought to explore the gender differences in the use of interactional metadiscourse markers in the discussion section of Research Articles (RAs) in the two disciplines of microbiology and applied linguistics. Using Hyland's (2005a) metadiscourse model, the research study investigated the use of five subcategories of int...

Human beings generally cut the realities of the world in various ways in order to express their thoughts and interact with other people. Naturally, words are linguistic categories which carry the intended concepts; however, humans tend to economize by bundling words into different conceptual classes. Accordingly, the present study sought to explore...

This pragmatic study investigated the speech act of thanking as used by non-native speakers of English. The study was an attempt to find whether the pragmatic awareness of Iranian EFL learners could be improved through explicit instruction of the structure of the speech act of “Thanking”. In fact, this study aimed to find out if there was a signifi...

Student-based instruction is a form of collaborative education that students play an active role in learning the process. Student’s activity is in group forms. The teacher is presenting in class just to answer students’ questions. The paradigm and pattern shifting away from teaching to an emphasis on learning have persuaded power to be changed and...

Effective reading is essential for success in learning a foreign language. EFL learners, therefore, need to master a number of reading strategies to be able to comprehend text information. Strategic reading research has already evidenced the possibility of teaching comprehension strategies to enhance learner’ comprehension and metacognitive abiliti...

Recent studies suggest that the use of multimedia has always been a field of inquiry for practitioners and teachers in the field of second language learning. With the emergence of technological equipment, teaching practices has become more effective in learning experiences and PowerPoint as multimedia in which both words and relevant graphics are u...

To investigate the influence of “summary” as an advance organizer on reading comprehension ability of Iranian EFL learners, eighty four junior high school students were selected via cluster random sampling as the participants of the study. Having gone through a quasi-experimental research design and the statistical analysis procedures the study yi...

Over the last few years mobile assisted language learning has acquired substantial concentration in the pedagogy which led to a significant change in the classroom roles and talk. The present study sought to investigate the influence of tablets with preinstalled interactive book on the dialogic teaching in EFL classes in Iran private language insti...

Since L2 learners cannot learn the mass of words potentially available to them, it would be more useful to teach them specific strategies for dealing with unfamiliar words. One possible solution these days is to provide learners with useful guidance by which they can tackle the problem efficiently. However, the question is how much noticing in the...

Willingness to communicate is the extent to which learners are prepared to initiate communication when they have a choice. It constitutes a factor believed to lead to individual differences in language learning. Those who have high WTC are expected to express themselves more freely. The present study aimed at investigating the relationship among wi...

The key role of advertisement cannot be ignored nowadays and when it comes to education it should be considered more academically, especially when these advertisements are to compensate some defects. In this paper a qualitative study was carried out on discourse differences among advertisement techniques on two different types of institutes; in fac...