The Effect of Employing Electronic Peer Assessment on Iranian EFL Learners’ Writing Ability and Autonomy

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (12) ◽  
pp. 2272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samareh Abbassi Ghadi ◽  
Hossein Khodabakhshzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Peer Assessment ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Electronic Interventions ◽  
Experimental Group

Peer assessment known as an effective technique in improving English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' achievement as well as their autonomy has taken a new form thanks to the employment of electronic applications and web-based tools. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of employing electronic peer assessment on Iranian EFL learners’ writing ability and autonomy. To achieve the goals of the study a sample including 48 Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners were selected from among 90 female learners studying English in a language institute in Kashmar, Khorasan Razavi, according to their scores in Quick Placement Test (QPT), Version1. These participants were randomly assigned to control (N=24) and experimental (N=24) groups. Both groups took writing pretest and Learner Autonomy Questionnaire developed by Zhang and Li (2004). Throughout the experiment which lasted for 12 sessions, the experimental group benefited from the treatment, electronic peer assessment. However, the control group received the same treatment but peer assessment technique was carried out without any electronic interventions. Finally, both groups sat for the posttest being the same as the pretest. In addition, a semi-structured interview was conducted to the participants in the experimental group. Results of data analysis indicated the experimental group's outperformance in both writing and autonomy scale administered at the end of the study. Results of qualitative data (interview), also, showed that these participants had positive beliefs about employing electronic peer assessment. Pedagogically, the present findings support the employment of the treatment in EFL settings.

scholarly journals The Effect of Collaborative Writing on Iranian EFL Learners' Task Achievement in Writing and Their Perception

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Khodabakhshzadeh ◽  
Farideh Samadi
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Collaborative Writing ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Teacher Authority ◽  
Test Of Homogeneity ◽  
The City ◽  
Experimental Group

Collaborative writing has gained interest in the last decade; however, as stated by Shin, Lidster and Sabraw (2016) more research is required to delve into various aspects of this multifarious class activity. This true experimental research examined the effect of writing collaboratively on task achievement of Iranian EFL learners in writing. Oxford Placement Test was given to 60 language learners in the city of Kashmar, Iran,  as the test of homogeneity. Considering +/-1 standard deviation of the mean score, 40 learners were chosen to pursue the purpose of the study. These learners formed an experimental group and a control group with 20 participants in each. Collaborative writing was implemented in the experimental group and individual writing was used in the comparison group. The participants in the experimental group were later interviewed and their perception toward collaborative writing was investigated. The findings of the study through t-test revealed that the experimental group participants outperformed the ones in the control group in terms of task achievement. In addition, the results of the semi-structured interview through thematic analysis revealed that most participants found collaborative writing effective in terms of motivation, peer feedback, comprehensive view over the topic, changing ineffective writing habits, and vocabulary learning; though peer authority and teacher authority were considered as inhibiting factors. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Using Podcasts to Improve Second Language Comprehension in Iranian Language Classrooms

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Mohammad Davoudi ◽  
Mojtaba Rezaei
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Good Method ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
Transcript File

<p>The present study aims at investigating the influence of podcasts (POD) on language comprehension of Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners. An Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered to 60 male and female university students. The participants were considered as pre-intermediate learners and were divided into two groups (one experimental group and one control group). During the fifteen sessions of the treatment, thirty podcasts were presented to the two groups. The experimental group received just the audio file of the POD, and the control group received a different treatment which was the transcript file of the same audio podcast file of the experimental group. The results of the t-tests revealed that there was no significant difference in language comprehension scores across the posttest between two groups. Based on the interview results after the post-test, all of the participants (100%) agreed that both audio and the transcripts (written texts) were useful for them and claimed that it is a good method of improving language comprehension.</p>

scholarly journals EFFECTIVENESS OF VAGINAL CONE THERAPY ON URINARY INCONTINENCE AMONG WOMEN IN SAVEETHA MEDICAL COLLEGE HOSPITAL, THANDALAM, CHENNAI

2019 ◽  
pp. 133-136
Author(s):  
JAGADEESWARI J ◽  
KALABARATHI S ◽  
MANGALAGOWRI P
Keyword(s):  
Urinary Incontinence ◽  
Muscle Tone ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Moderate Level ◽  
Control Group ◽  
College Hospital ◽  
Study Results ◽  
And Control ◽  
Experimental Group

 Objectives: The present aims to assess the level of urinary incontinence in experimental and control group, to assess the effectiveness of vaginal cone therapy on urinary incontinence in experimental group and control group and to associate the post-test level of urinary incontinence with the selected demographic variables among women in the experimental group. Methods: A quantitative quasi-experimental research design was conducted among 60 women with urinary incontinence. Convenience sampling technique was used. Semi-structured interview method was used to collect the demographical data and level of urinary incontinence among women was assessed by urinary incontinence diagnosis questionnaire. Results: Among 60 samples in experimental group 26 women had a moderate level of urinary incontinence, and 4 women had slight urinary incontinence whereas in control group 24 women had moderate level of urinary incontinence and 6 women had slight urinary incontinence. The study results show significant improvement in level of urinary incontinence among experimental group than the control group after the intervention at the level of p<0.05. This reveals that vaginal cone therapy is highly significant in the experimental group because pelvic muscle strength had improved and allows the patient to increase the physiological consciousness and promotes the muscle tone after the use of a vaginal cone. Conclusion: This study proves that vaginal cone therapy is the effective non-pharmacological method, cost-effective method and had no side effects which can be used to treat female urinary incontinence.

scholarly journals Effect of Elaborative Text Modification on Pre-intermediate Male and Female EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 337
Author(s):  
Shahram Esfandiari Asl ◽  
Asgar Mahmoudi
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Comprehension Ability ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
Reading Comprehension Ability

The current study was carried out to investigate whether elaborative text modification improves reading comprehension ability of pre-intermediate male and female EFL learners. To do this, 60 pre-intermediate learners were chosen based on their performance on a standard version of Longman's New Opportunities Placement Test. The participants also received a piloted version of a researcher-made reading comprehension test as the pretest to ascertain their homogeneity. The participants were then divided into two equal groups to represent the experimental and the control groups. Each group was further subdivided into male and female groups. Five reading passages in two formats (unmodified and elaborated) were administered to the participants in five weeks which was followed by a posttest. The experimental group received the elaborated texts, while the control group received the unmodified baseline texts. The results of a Two-way ANOVA indicated no significant effect for gender but there was a significant difference between the experimental and the control groups' reading comprehension. Findings of the study suggest that elaborative text modification can be a worthy option in EFL reading classes.

scholarly journals Improving Upper-intermediate EFL Learners’ Communicative Competence through Authentic Materials

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 956
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hossein Keshmirshekan
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Authentic Materials ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Experimental Group

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of authentic materials on enhancing Iranian English as a foreign language learners' communicative competence. To this end, 106 upper-intermediate participants out of 136 were selected based on their performance an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and randomly assigned to two equal groups- one experimental group and one control group. Then a pre-test was administered to assess the participants' communicative competence at the beginning of the course. Then, the experimental group received the treatment. The control group was taught the course content using the regular communicative method through which students received teacher-course from the textbook. After the treatment, the two groups took the post-test. The data analysis through paired and independent sample t-tests revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the posttest. In other words, teaching authentic materials showed to have a significant effect on improving learners' communicative competence. The implications, limitations, and suggestions of this study are explained at the end of the study.

scholarly journals Enhancing Writing Ability and Self-regulation through Teacher-led Collaborative Modeling

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 239
Author(s):  
Reza Tahmasebi ◽  
Hossein Khodabakhshzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Self Regulation ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Writing Performance ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Modeling Instruction ◽  
Writing Test ◽  
Collaborative Modeling ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Experimental Group

Teacher-led collaborative modeling can provide a condition through which the teachers and learners cooperate, negotiate, discuss, and provide different degrees of support to compose and edit written texts. The presupposition in this study was that this type of modeling can improve the writing ability of the EFL learners as well as their self-regulation in writing. To test the main hypotheses of the study, eighty five female upper-intermediate EFL students studying English as a foreign language at the Ayandehsazan Language Institute (A.L.C) in Torbat-e- Heydarieh , Iran, ranging in age from 14 to 20 sat for the Quick Placement Test (QPT) and 50 students were selected based on their scores on the QPT test. They were divided into two groups. The learners in the experimental group received instruction according to the stages of instruction using collaborative modeling. The participants in the control group, on the other hand, didn’t receive any collaborative modeling instruction. The participants in both groups sat for the writing test as well as a self-regulation test for writing. The results revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group concerning their writing performance. However, there was no significant difference between the self-regulation ability of the participants in these two groups. The findings of the study have implications for pedagogy as well as research.Keywords: Teacher-led collaborative modeling, self-regulation, writing performance

scholarly journals Effectiveness of art therapy on pain and anxiety level among postoperative children

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL4) ◽  
pp. 50-55
Author(s):  
Resmy V ◽  
Raj Kumar N
Keyword(s):  
Art Therapy ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Simple Random Sampling ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Experimental Group

As children grow, they learn each day, of how to live tomorrow watching the grace and disgrace that surround them. The utilization of imaginative strategies to treat mental issues and upgrade emotional well-being is known as art treatment. Art treatment is a strategy established in the possibility that inventive articulation can cultivate recuperating and mental prosperity. Craftsmanship, either making it or survey others' specialty, is utilized to assist individuals with investigating feelings, create mindfulness, adapt to pressure, help confidence, and work on social abilities. Postoperative care may be an emotional and developmental set back to the child. It causes anxiety and pain due to imbalance between environmental and societal demands and child's coping abilities. The present study aims to assess the effectiveness of art therapy on anxiety and pain level among postoperative children. A quantitative true experimental research design was conducted among 30 postoperative children by using a simple random sampling technique and 15 were divided in control and experimental group. The demographic data were collected using structured interview questionnaire. The pre-test was done to assess level of anxiety by five facial anxiety scale and pain by numerical pain scale for both the experimental and control group. The experimental group was given art therapy, the control group was given a routine care and then the post test was done. The study results show that the level of pain and anxiety was considerably reduced in the experimental group than the control group in the post test at p<0.005. This indicates SART therapy is effective non-pharmacological method and cost effective method to treat pain and anxiety among postoperative children. The result of the study is it was concluded that art therapy as no side effects and it is an easy and comfortable method which can be practiced to treat pain and anxiety.

scholarly journals The Impact of Writing Self-Assessment and Peer Assessment on Iranian EFL Learners’ Autonomy and Metacognitive Awareness

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Maryam Ebrahimi ◽  
Siros Izadpanah ◽  
Ehsan Namaziandost
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Peer Assessment ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Metacognitive Awareness ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Metacognitive Awareness Inventory

One of the most significant current discussions in writing is self-assessment and peer assessment. This study aimed to investigate the impact of writing self-assessment and peer assessment on autonomy and metacognitive awareness of Iranian EFL learners. One hundred and twenty participants were selected using convenience sampling. Four instruments were used in this test: (1) Nelson placement test; (2) Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI); (3) Zhang and Li’s autonomy questionnaire; and (4) rubric. A quasiexperimental design was used in this study. They were divided into two experimental groups, self-assessment (N = 40) and peer assessment (N = 40), and one control group (N = 40). Collected data were tested and compared using covariance analysis (ANCOVA). Results from the tests indicated that both self-assessment and peer assessment are effective ways to improve autonomy and metacognition awareness of EFL learners in the completion of writing tasks. Findings also showed that self-assessment was more effective than peer assessment and the results showed that the types of assessments increased the learners’ knowledge in the writing, teaching, lexicography, spelling, grammar, and similar models and were significantly effective in developing their writing skills. The findings of the present research study might have some implications for researchers, instructors, language teachers, and language learners.

scholarly journals The Effect of Peer Assessment and Collaborative Assessment on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners' Writing Ability

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (13) ◽  
pp. 08-16
Author(s):  
Ghasem Aghajanzadeh Kiasi ◽  
Sona Rezaie
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Alternative Assessment ◽  
English Language ◽  
Peer Assessment ◽  
Teacher Assessment ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Collaborative Assessment ◽  
Significant Difference

As an attempt to shed more light on the effectiveness of alternative assessment in second language learning, the current study sought to explore the effects of peer assessment (PA) and collaborative assessment (CA) on the Iranian intermediate EFL learners' writing ability. To fulfil the purpose of this study, 36 Iranian EFL learners studying English at Kadous English Language Institute in Rasht, Iran, were homogenized as intermediate learners based on their performance on Oxford Solutions Placement Test (OSPT). The final pool of qualified candidates was assigned to one control and two experimental groups comprising 12 learners. All the participants sat for a pretest of L2 writing so that their initial level of writing could be appraised and their homogeneity in writing could be determined. The experimental groups received treatment on English writing through utilizing PA and CA strategies. On the other hand, the control group was taught through the conventional method (i.e. teacher assessment, TA). At the end of a twelve-session experiment, a post-test measuring the effectiveness of the treatments and the participants' writing ability was administered. The results of descriptive and inferential analyses revealed a statistically significant difference among CA, PA, and TA strategies. The results also demonstrated that the CA and PA groups outperformed the control group. However, the CA group performed significantly better than the PA group. Based on the findings of this study, language teachers, materials developers, and education authorities can concentrate on employing CA as the main strategy to foster the writing ability of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. However, PA may also be utilized to teach writing where possible.

scholarly journals The Effect of Reading Short Stories on Learning English Collocation among Pre-Intermediate EFL Learners

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lida Mohammadnejad
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Spss Software ◽  
And Control ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
Learning English

One of the most problematic areas for foreign language learning is collocation. Iranian EFL learners mostly complain about being unable to talk voluntarily in class since they are not able to produce collocations and new vocabularies because they have of feeling anxious. This study aimed at investigating the effect of reading short stories on learning English collocations among pre-intermediate EFL Learners. The study had an experimental design and the sample of the study consisted of 54 students chosen from the results of a placement test to determine the pre-intermediate level students in Simin Language Institute in Sari. They were placed into 2 groups of experimental and control. Data of the study were collected through a collocation test used as pretest and posttest. The teacher assessed the effect of reading short stories on learning English collocations among pre intermediate EFL learners. The collected data were analyzed through statistical methods by SPSS software version 21. Results showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the measure. This indicated that reading short stories had a statistical significant effect on EFL learners’ collocation learning. Results had implications for teachers, learners and material developers. 

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