scholarly journals The Effect of Mnemonic Keyword Techniques Instruction on Vocabulary Achievement and vocabulary Size of Iranian EFL Learners

Author(s):  
Amir Marzban ◽  
Mojgan Firoozjahantigh

This study aimed at probing the effect of using mnemonic keyword techniques, a number of less used procedures, in teaching vocabulary in an EFL context in Iran on the vocabulary achievement level and vocabulary size of language learners. to this end, 70 EFL intermediate students were selected because they were all intermediate level learners. They were assigned to control and experimental groups. The instructor taught the two groups new vocabulary items in their textbooks as part of the class procedures. The first group received vocabulary instruction through mnemonic keyword techniques while the second had vocabulary taught in conventional ways. Both groups were tested for their EFL vocabulary achievement and vocabulary size. The results revealed significantly higher achievement and vocabulary size levels for the participants in the experimental group. Certain implications were provided for EFL instructors, material developers and EFL learners who pursue to boost their vocabulary levels more effectively.

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sima Farhadi ◽  
Nader Asadi Aidinloo ◽  
Zahra Talebi

In the framework of language teaching, the writing skill requires to be encouraged during the language learners’ course of study. Since metadiscourse markers help transform a tortuous piece of text into a coherent and reader-friendly one, knowledge about the metadiscourse, amongst other things, is used to improve writing skill. The current study aimed to investigate the influence of instruction of metadiscourse markers on intermediate EFL learners’ writing performance by using metadiscoursal taxonomies proposed by Hyland (2005). For this purpose, a pet test was administrated to 60 intermediate students in Iran Language Institute in Urmia. Having being homogenized by Preliminary English Test (PET), they were assigned randomly into two groups. Both the control and the experimental group sat for a pretest of writing test in the form of a cloze test which aimed to measure the learners’ initial knowledge of writing performance. The experimental group was exposed to explicit instruction of metadiscourse markers for seven successive sessions. On the other hand, the control group didn’t receive any instruction.  Eventually,  a post  test  designed to evaluate  their  writing  ability  with the focus of  metadiscourse markers  was  administered to both groups. The findings implied generally that the implementation of metadiscourse markers (via instruction) significantly improves EFL learners’ writing ability.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeedeh Rajayi ◽  
Mahpareh Poorahmadi ◽  
Mahpare Poorahmadi

A considerable body of research has been conducted on effective vocabulary instruction to improve vocabularylearning. However, no research has been done to empirically document the link between teaching vocabulary through“Kik’ application and vocabulary learning. Thus, this study was conducted to fill this gap in research related to thisphenomenon. To this effect, 61 intermediate EFL learners from Joyandegan language institute were selected throughconvenience sampling and randomly assigned to two groups; experimental and control group. In this pretest, posttestexperimental study, only the experimental group received training through “Kik” application. The comparison of thescores of Teacher Made Vocabulary Test showed that the scores of experimental group were higher than those of thecontrol group. The comparison of the scores of Teacher Made Vocabulary Test showed that the scores ofexperimental group were higher than those of the control group. This provided a statistically significant relationshipbetween the independent variable, teaching vocabulary through “Kik” application, and vocabulary learning which isthe dependent variable. The results of this study point to a probability that on using of “Kik” for teaching vocabularyand the results of this study showed that using “Kik” for teaching can have a significant impact on EFL learners’vocabulary learning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 956
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hossein Keshmirshekan

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.


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 (2) ◽  
pp. 166
Author(s):  
Alireza Mousavi Arfae

English speaking proficiency requires more than knowing its grammatical and semantic rules.  It also includes the knowledge of how native speakers of one language use the language in the context of structures of interpersonal exchange in which many factors interact.  In this study, autonomy was implemented by journal or diary writing, sharing and discussing journals, sharing feedback on journals, reflection, promoting dictionary use, introducing useful internet websites, forming yahoo groups, sharing valuable links, creating online self-access center, watching preferable movies, and goal setting.  The present quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate the impact of teaching autonomy on the speaking skill of Iranian EFL learners.  To this end, 44 male and female intermediate students at Respina Talk (i.e., Iran-Canada) language school with the age range of 20-35 were selected in order to achieve the objectives of the study.  According to the obtained results, there was a significant relationship between teaching autonomy and EFL learners’ speaking skill.  The findings of this study may have some theoretical and practical implications for material developers, EFL teachers, language learners, etc.


Author(s):  
Zeinab Ghasemi ◽  
Abdollah Baradaran

The effectiveness of complexity acquisition to enhance intermediate learners’ speaking complexity, is particularly the focus of the present study. The participants of the present study, were 60 female EFL learners, who were selected from a larger population of 90 EFL learners based on their performane on a sample piloted PET test in Zabansara Language Institution. The total of 60 participants were divided into two experimental groups of 30. The experimental group of STAD (Student Team-Achievement Division), and the experimental group of CIRC (Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition), which were both regarded as cooperative methods. The 10-session treatment, included focusing on complexities using STAD cooperative method instruction in one experimental group, and CIRC in the other. A post-test was administered to both groups at the end of the treatment,after applying the mentioned cooperative methods. The statistical analyses were conducted, and the gained results of the study indicated that CIRC had a significant influence on learners’ complexity learning. It concluded the importance of applying appropriate complexities in EFL context to developing speech naturalness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Soodeh Saadati ◽  
Gülşen Musayeva Vefalı

Abstract In the present study, we attempt to develop EFL learners’ metapragmatic awareness of English compliments, which still remains an under-researched issue. Initially, we conducted a cross-sectional survey with intermediate-level Iranian EFL learners, Persian and British English native speakers. Although the analysis of the language learners’ realization of compliments and responses to compliments seemed to indicate that their pragmatic development was overall adequate, it also suggested the influence of the native socio-pragmatic schema on their pragmatic performance. We therefore undertook a pragmatic instruction aimed at developing the EFL learners’ metapragmatic awareness of complimenting. The results suggested that through discussion, analysis, small-scale research, and reflections on the native and target pragmalinguistic and socio-pragmatic complimenting conventions the learners were developing metapragmatic awareness. Finally, we make recommendations for more effective pragmatic teaching in EFL contexts.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Elham Mohammadi Foomani ◽  
Karim Khalaji

<p>A vital aspect of word knowledge is knowledge of collocations. Regarding its central role in accurate and fluent use of words, it is essential to consider collocation learning as integral to the study of vocabulary. While different methods are proposed for teaching collocations, the efficiency of these methods is yet subject to question. This study sought to investigate the effectiveness of corpus-based learning of verb-noun collocations as opposed to the traditional methods. To this aim Collin Collocation Dictionary was used as a concordancing tool for learning collocations. Forty five upper-intermediate students divided randomly into control and experimental groups were studied. A pre-test was conducted to both groups before the experiment. Next, in 4 subsequent weeks, the experimental group was provided with 24 concordance collocations and was required to identify the collocations and miscollocations while the control group received traditional collocation training through texts. At the end of the teaching procedure a post-test as well as a writing task were administered to compare students’ collocation learning and their accurate application of collocations in the writing task. In a final step, an interview was conducted to gain insight into students’ perceptions of the design. The results indicated the experimental groups’ advantage in collocation acquisition as well as their application in writings. The interview results with seven students indicated their positive perceptions of the corpus-based design despite the reported limitations.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Bahram Mowlaie ◽  
Mona Mirzaei

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of explicit instruction of four main spoken grammar features of heads, tails, progressive past tense, and ellipsis on raising EFL learners’ awareness of them. The main impetus came from the fact that these features are usually ignored in ELT textbooks because nearly all grammatical points are restricted to written grammar. To this end, 23 female EFL learners in pre-intermediate level whose homogeneity was confirmed using KET test, were assigned to an experimental group. A pretest was conducted to determine their current level awareness of the spoken features aforementioned. A posttest was administered after 10 sessions of awareness-raising oriented instruction. The data analysis showed that it is both possible and potentially desirable to apply explicit instruction to raise learners’ awareness of aspects of native speaker spoken grammar to EFL learners. The study can have educational implications for language teachers and learners in EFL context.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Danilović ◽  
Jovana Dimitrijević Savić ◽  
Marta Dimitrijević

AbstractGiven that affix knowledge plays a vital role in the development of L1/L2 knowledge, the aim of this paper is to explore Mochizuki and Aizawa’s (2000) notion about the order of affix acquisition in the Serbian EFL context. We will attempt to analyze correlations between the EFL learners’ vocabulary size and their affix knowledge and postulate the order of affix acquisition.


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