Motivation and Attitude of Iranian Student Pilots towards Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL)

<p><em>Today technology, especially computers, has revolutionized many aspects of our lives and computers play crucial roles in the process of language learning and teaching. Moreover, English is a vital and survival mean in aviation to teach related materials to pilots and those who are engaged in aviation. This study explored the attitude and motivation of Iranian student pilots toward computer-assisted language learning. To this end, 30 Iranian intermediate student pilots who were studying at Islamic Republic of Iran Army Aviation College in Isfahan participated in this study. The data were collected through the Oxford Placement Test, a questionnaire on attitude towards computer-assisted language learning and another questionnaire on motivation for language learning through computer. Then, data analysis was carried out via calculating the frequency and percentage of the responses to the questions as well as the statements of the questionnaires. The results obtained revealed that Iranian student pilots showed positive attitude towards computer-assisted language learning and they were motivated for learning English through the use of computers since through such learning, anxiety is reduced and they can learn English in an independent learning atmosphere. The results suggested that computer-assisted language learning curriculum can significantly motivate students and thus it should be improved in aviation educational settings.</em></p>

Communication Strategies Used by Iranian EFL Learners and English Native Speakers: Gender in Focus

<p>This article was intended to explore the frequency and order of communication strategies used by Iranian male and female EFL earners as well as English native speakers while facing communication breakdowns. Furthermore, it was aimed to investigate the difference between native speakers and non-native speakers of English in their use of communication strategies. In addition, it was probed whether gender had any effects on the use of these strategies among native and non-native speakers. To this end, the data were collected through the communication strategy questionnaire distributed among 30 male and female Iranian intermediate EFL learners and 15 English native speakers. The design of this study was a quantitative one in which the questionnaire and thus numerical data were applied. To analyze the data, Cronbach alpha and independent-samples t-tests were used. The results indicated that non-verbal and social affective strategies were the most frequent strategies used by non-native speakers and native speakers of English, respectively. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between male and female Iranian EFL learners, but a significant difference between male and female English native speakers were seen. It can be concluded that language proficiency can contribute to the type and frequency of communications strategies which are used non-native speakers; likewise, it can play a significant role in gender differences in language use.<em></em></p>

Assertion of Professional Identity through Classroom Discourse

Professional identity has been a contentious issue widely researched in the domain of educational studies for decades. How teachers view themselves professionally is believed to have a direct impact on their discourse in classrooms as well as how they utilize their expertise while teaching. This paper examines the understanding and assertion of the professional identity of two academics through classroom discourse. It takes the form of case study in an English department of a Chinese higher education institution. Classroom observation is used and lesson recordings are transcribed. In addition, transcriptions of semi-structured interviews are subjected to content and thematic analysis. Findings have revealed that teachers use classroom discourse as a way of asserting their professional identity, as what they believe they are differs significantly from what they are expected to be. Furthermore, although participants’ claims show a tendency of creating a hybrid professional identity (The Third Space), classroom discourse seems to provide more evidence in support of Foucault’s ‘utopia’ explanation.

On L2 Learners’ Metalinguistic Ability and Related Issues: A Synthesis of Theory and Practice

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it presents an overview of pertinent research dealing with aspects of metalinguistic awareness (MLA) and to posit a link between (MLA) and students’ performance in multi-dimensional linguistic problems. Second, it reports on the outcomes of an experiment on some foreign language learners. The subjects of the present study (N=80) were in their fourth year of academic study in the Department of English and Literature, Faculty of Arts, Menufia University, Egypt. Forty subjects were males and the other forty were females. Two tasks were used: (1) “Sentence Completion” task, and (2) “Error Recognition and Correction” task. In the first task, a list of 15 incomplete sentences was given to the subjects who were asked to choose the word or phrase that best complete the sentence. The focus, in this task, was on the meaning of the sentence rather than the form, although accurate understanding of the formal properties of language is a must. In the second task, students were asked to detect the word or phrase that must be changed in order for the sentence to be correct. A list of 25 sentences with four words underlined, and marked (A), (B), (C), and (D) was given to the subjects. Finally, students were individually interviewed to explain and comment on their performance in the previous tasks. The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results were obtained and conclusions were made.

The Influence of Sociological Factors on Teaching English Phonetics in Polish Lower and Upper Secondary Schools

<p>The aim of this study is to analyse a few sociological factors which may exert influence on the secondary school EFL teachers’ decisions whether to teach or not to teach English pronunciation to their students. A group of English teachers from various areas of Poland participated in the research. The factors which were analysed included sex, age, place of living, place of work, as well as education background. The results have shown that there is a high probability that some of those factors may be supremely important for the analysed topic.</p>

English Professors’ Attitudes towards the Use of ICT in Moroccan Universities

<em>Computers offer several opportunities that encourage the promotion of teaching and learning experiences. The implementation of computer technologies in education has become the main goal of many educational reforms throughout the globe. The Moroccan kingdom, like many other nations, has understood the importance of using computers in schools and universities. For this reason, the Moroccan government has launched numerous projects aiming at the diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education system. This paper examined the attitudes of professors of English toward the use of computers in teaching practices. The Theory of Diffusion of Innovation ( Rogers, 1995) served as the theoretical framework. A survey questionnaire, “Computer Attitude Scale” (CAS), was distributed to the EFL professors during the university year 2015-2016. The CAS that was developed by Loyd and Gressard ( 1984) was utilized to collect data regarding professors’ attitudes. These attitudes were assessed based on four components: anxiety, confidence, liking and usefulness. Descriptive analysis of percentages, means, and standard deviations were used to analyse the collected data. The study revealed that Moroccan professors of English language posses positive attitudes toward the implementation of computer technologies in instructional practices.</em>

Role Play and Iranian Male and Female EFL Learners’ Pragmatic Competence

Although a large body of research now exists on pragmatic competence, relatively few researchers have explored the impact of role-play on the pragmatic competence. Therefore, the present study is designed to investigate the effect of role-play as a pragmatic development activity after the formal instruction on the development of Learners’ pragmatic competence. The participants included 40 EFL students (15 male and 25 female) that studied English at Maham institute in Tehran. Nelson proficiency test (Fowler &amp; Coe, 1976) was used in order to select the sample out of the population of 90 students who agreed to take part in the study. Based on the results, 40 high intermediate students were selected as the sample of the study. They formed two mixed groups (male and female role play group A, male and female conversation group B). The instruction took place; group A did role play, and group B did conversation followed by free discussion techniques. Having finished the treatment, the two groups gave the similar posttest. The results show there is not any significant difference between male and female learner’s pragmatic competence when they received instruction through conversation and there is not any significant difference between male and female learner’s pragmatic competence they received instruction through role play.

The Structural Parts of Paragraph Writing by Indonesian EFL Learners

This research is aimed at describing the structural part types of paragraph writing made by the undergraduate students at University of Kutai Kartanegara. This study used content analysis as the design, focusing on the structural parts and the unity of paragraph writing in developing English academic essays written in English language. The study assigned 9 students as a subject of the study. Data of this study included English essays using different topics. This study revealed that not all students understand how to write a good and unified paragraph. The fact is that some students tend to having problem in writing structural parts of paragraph such as topic sentence, supporting sentences, and concluding sentence. In this case, appropriate structural parts of a paragraph leads to the unity of the paragraph. Furthermore, failures of the students in producing unified paragraph dominantly caused inappropriate supporting sentences. The mistake done by the students in developing supporting idea of a paragraph is caused by their lack knowledge of the function of topic sentence.

Reading Comprehension and Its Importance in Learning English as a Second Language

Reading can be the most important skill for second language learners in the academic contexts. In other words, in the academic settings, reading is the central means for acquiring new knowledge and gaining new access to alternative explanations and interpretations (Grabe &amp; Stoller, 1997, cited in Celce-Murcia, 2001). If a student cannot read and comprehend a written language, they cannot be expected to be good in other content areas which will indispensably require some reading ability (Decker, 2007). So this study aims at studying and reviewing reading comprehension and its importance.

They prepare you what to say, but do they teach you how to say it?

It cannot be denied that research on L2 pronunciation has developed greatly in the last decades, nevertheless the conclusions drawn from such studies are rarely applied in practice, especially in the school curricula. Studies carried out in Poland since early 2000s have proven that pronunciation teaching is still almost absent at schools (apart from the academic level) and that L2 learners are highly critical concerning both their own as well as their teachers’ pronunciation in EFL. Although it has been shown that correct pronunciation is crucial in L2 communication and that this element of L2 competence has been included in the oral part of the school-leaving (<em>Matura) </em>exam (CKE, 2013), the popular claim is that it is still difficult to find any elements of pronunciation training in textbooks designed for this kind of schools. The first aim of this paper is to compare the latest versions of compendia (<em>repetytoria </em>in Polish) usually applied in the last class of this type of school. The books are used to revise all the previously acquired knowledge about an L2 and are supposed to include theory and exercises in all skills and elements of a target language. And as learners graduating from upper-secondary school are about nineteen years old and, moreover, some of them may stop learning L2 intensively after graduation, it is the last chance to work seriously on English phonetics. The study results show that in most cases, although a separate pronunciation module is not included, word-lists in compendia are usually accompanied by audio tracks and, in some cases, even IPA is applied. Another aim of the study is to examine whether upper-secondary L2 teachers pay attention to their learners’ pronunciation and train it. An online questionnaire concerning pronunciation teaching practices was completed by 51 teachers from all over Poland and this did not bring optimistic results.