scholarly journals Effectiveness of Proactive Intensive FFI in Cultivating Grammatical Knowledge of Iranian EFL Learners at Different Proficiency Levels

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 197
Author(s):  
Amir Rooholamin ◽  
Reza Biria ◽  
Hamid Reza Haghverdi

<p>The present study provides a report on an experiment seeking the effect of proactive intensive form-focused instruction on the grammatical development of intermediate and advanced Iranian EFL learners. More specifically the aim of the study was to discern (a) whether the grammatical knowledge of Iranian EFL learners at different proficiency levels ameliorated in the wake of exposure to proactive intensive FFI (b) whether the grammatical knowledge of the learners at the two proficiency levels improved equally or not, and (c) whether there was an interaction effect between the FFI and the proficiency level, which affected the grammatical development of the learners. To meet these objectives, 119 intermediate and advanced EFL learners at Sadr Institute of Higher Education in Isfahan, Iran were asked to take part in this study. To ascertain the homogeneity of the participants, a QPT was administered to them. The learners in each proficiency level were assigned to a control and an experimental group and they sat for a grammar pretest. Subsequently, the learners in the treatment groups received proactive intensive FFI (metalinguistic explanations followed by repeated form-focused tasks and explicit corrective feedback on form) in their free discussion classes, while those in the control groups participated in classes bereft of FFI. After 9 sessions of instruction, the learners took a posttest. Such statistical tools as paired sample <em>t</em> test and two-way ANOVA were utilized to analyze the collected data, and the following results were obtained: (a) both intermediate and advanced group learners experienced a boost in their grammatical knowledge after being exposed to proactive intensive FFI (b) the treatment in the current study was more beneficial to intermediate EFL learners’ grammatical development than it was to advanced learners’, and (c) proactive intensive FFI, proficiency level, and the interaction between them all were instrumental in molding the grammatical knowledge of Iranian EFL learners. The implications for EFL practitioners are enumerated in the paper.</p>

2020 ◽  
pp. 136216882092896
Author(s):  
Mostafa Zare ◽  
Zohreh Gooniband Shooshtari ◽  
Alireza Jalilifar

This study aims to explore the impact of oral corrective feedback types on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ willingness to communicate across proficiency levels. It also investigates how EFL learners view different types of feedback in relation to their willingness to communicate. Sixty Iranian EFL learners were tracked in four proficiency levels. Initially, the participants filled in a questionnaire to measure their attitudes to oral CF and their willingness to communicate. Subsequent to the teachers’ employment of explicit correction, recasts, and prompts, the learners’ willingness to communicate was measured anew. A semi-structured interview was also conducted. The results revealed learners’ high preference for prompts. A two-way mixed between-within ANOVA demonstrated a significant effect for both oral corrective feedback and proficiency level on willingness to communicate. Furthermore, elicitative types of feedback were ranked as the most contributory feedback type to L2 willingness to communicate.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-100
Author(s):  
Islam Namazian Doost ◽  
Soheila Tahmasbi

This study aims to investigate the possible effects of peripheral learning on elementary EFL learners’ grammar improvement: the case of prepositions of time and place. Two elementary classes were selected as experimental and control groups. Before beginning the treatment, a grammar test was administered to both the groups as a pre-test. Then, as treatment, the experimental group was exposed to realia, pictures, posters and texts, while the control group was not. After term-long treatment of 10 weeks, the two groups received the same grammar test as post-test. The results of t-test showed that the experimental group improved their grammar ability, i.e., knowledge of prepositions of time and place more than their friends in the control group. The finding of the study may open an optional path for teachers to include some peripheral materials in their teaching environment to further invest on unconscious learning abilities of the students.   Keywords: Peripheral learning, reposition of time, prepositions of place, grammar.


Author(s):  
Mojtaba Maghsoudi ◽  
Sahar Saeedi

This study presents the findings of an investigation of the impact of teacher error corrective feedback on 180 field-dependent/ field-independent (FD/FI) male and female pre-intermediate and advanced Iranian EFL learners writing skill. The participants were separated into two experimental groups and one control group and were asked to write three paragraphs of about 100-150 words around three different topics, each in odd days of a week; then they received direct (in experimental group 1), indirect (in experimental group 2) and no correction feedback (in control group). The results based on Mean Scores, Standard Deviation, Multivariate Analyses and 1-way ANOVA showed that there was not any significant difference between the FD/FI learners' writing skill scores who had received corrective feedback on their errors; however, as indicated by the second finding of the present study it would be better to feedback field-dependent/-independent EFL learners indirectly. It was also indicated that, learners' learning styles had made a significant change in their writing skill scores.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 354
Author(s):  
Mustapha Hajebi

This research is done to prove the effect of life syllabus in assessing proficiency level and collocational categories of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, four hundred and twenty EFL learners from Yazd and Shiraz universities were selected. They were in intermediate and advanced proficiency groups. The participants were assigned into three groups of one hundred and forty learners and took each of the tests separately. The result appeared to manifest that learners’ perception improve by advanced learners who received life syllabus instructions. It also yielded compelling reason to argue that advanced participants based on life syllabus performed more efficiently compared to their intermediate peers and indicated more collocational competence. The study suggested important implications for language learners, EFL instructors and materials developers.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 337
Author(s):  
Shahram Esfandiari Asl ◽  
Asgar Mahmoudi

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.


Author(s):  
Nahla Al-Hazzani ◽  
Sultan Altalhab

Saudi students encounter many problems in writing skill as several studies revealed (e.g. Alhazmi, 2006; Alsamdani, 2010). Providing effective and useful feedback may help to overcome these challenges. Therefore, this study examines the effect of teachers’ written corrective feedback on female Saudi EFL students’ written essays and to what extent it affects students’ written grammatical and lexical accuracy. The sample comprises 50 foundation level students, across two groups: an experimental group (n=29) and a control group (n=21). Data were gathered over a 10-week period using a pre-/post-test/delayed post-test design for comparable groups. The findings show that although many errors were made in the writing performances, the students in the experimental group had significantly better achievements than the students in the control group on the measure. The results lend support to the efficiency of teachers’ written corrective feedback, showing it has a significant positive effect on the participants’ grammatical and lexical accuracy.


Author(s):  
Madhubala Bava Harji ◽  
Peter Charles Woods ◽  
Zhinoos Kamal Alavi

Second language development could be achieved through various teaching or learning processes; however, employing multimedia has recently intruded the process in easing or complicating manners. This study has focused on the effectiveness of English subtitles on the EFL learner’s vocabulary learning. The participants were 92 Iranian degree university students studying Translation at Islamic Azad University of Mashhad, Iran. Having set two homogenized groups on the basis of their English language proficiency level, each was randomly assigned to be control and treatment groups. They were given two different instructions, one practicing instructional video episodes with subtitles and the other without subtitles. Their vocabulary learning was tested by a Content Specific Test (CST). The mean scores of the two groups were compared through a t-test. The findings illustrated that participants viewing the videos with subtitles could obtain a significantly higher mean score of the CST vocabulary tests than that of the ones who viewed the videos without subtitles. The findings of this research can get educators well informed of the effectiveness of subtitles on EFL learners’ better vocabulary learning.


Author(s):  
Mahtab Zadkhast ◽  
Majid Farahian

The present study investigated the impact of immediate and delayed corrective feedback on Iranian EFL learners’ willingness to communicate. To attain the purpose of the study, 45 females intermediate students that were roughly selected according to their previous grades and their assigned  level in language school were chosen to participate in this study. Then they were divided to three equal groups: Experimental group 1(immediate feedback), Experimental group 2 (delayed feedback) and control group. In the first session, WTC questionnaire (MacIntyre ,2001 modified by Pourya Baghaei and Ali Dourakhshan) was administered to all groups as pretests. In group 1 the students’ errors were corrected by the teacher immediately after committing but in the second group, the students’ errors were written by the teacher and her comments were given to them when they finished their tasks. For the control group, the routine procedure of New Headway intermediate was followed. After about 12 sessions WTC was repeated as posttests. The findings revealed that immediate and delayed corrective feedback have a significant effect on EFL students’ level of WTC. The results, also demonstrated that experimental group 1 (immediate feedback) outweighed the other two groups in relation to their WTC. The findings have implication for pedagogy as well as further research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-473
Author(s):  
Mohammad Awad Al-Dawoody Abdulaal

This research study aims at replacing monoglossic approaches with a stego-translanguaging pedagogy (i.e., the indirect use of the mother tongue to enhance the target language perception and acquisition). To solve the problematic constant decline in the learners’ reading and writing IELTS scores in Port Said Language Center and to check the influence of the stego-translanguaging approach, two groups of participants were randomly chosen, an experimental group with 33 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners from different colleges in Port Said University in Egypt and a control group with 30 EFL learners. The participants in the experimental group followed a heteroglossic pedagogy, whereas the control group followed a strictly non-plurilingual monolingual approach. The results of Kruskal-Wallis test showed that the stego-translanguaging approach was much more influential in teaching IELTS reading than the monoglossic conventional approach with 1.483 as a mean difference between the two groups as (µ1=7) in the experimental group and (µ2= 5.517) in the control group. Another crucial result was displayed by a parametric test conducted to examine the significant differences between the IELTS writing posttest scores in the experimental and the control groups. The test showed that µ1 > µ2 with an estimation difference of 1.535, where µ1= 6.818 and µ2 = 5.28


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