Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies | Imam Khomeini International University(IKIU) (original) (raw)

Papers by Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies

i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, Sep 15, 2015

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

The writing process is founded principally upon language learners' decision-making behaviors that... more 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) learners' writing skills, and (b) to explore whether L1 writing experiences are transferable to L2 writing situations. Therefore, a class of 33 sophomore students, in Advanced Writing course was selected. They were asked to write a short Persian paragraph on six different topics using different methods of paragraph development such as comparison and contrast, description, cause and effect, narration, process, and classification. Then, the whole term was divided into two main teaching periods, i.e. the Baseline and Treatment phases. Each teaching period consisted of three 2week time intervals during which a particular type of paragraph development was practiced. To avoid order effect, the paragraph types assigned to Baseline and Treatment phases were randomly selected and assigned. Hence, paragraph types narration, classification, and comparison and contrast were administered during Treatment intervals and description, process and cause and effect were used for the Baseline intervals. The results indicated that triggering the proper cognitive processing and planning strategies would ameliorate the quality of written texts with various rhetorical purposes. However, the findings did not support the second objective of the study, i.e. L1/L2 transferability. This can indicate that teachers should focus on developing a number of strategies, keeping in mind that resorting to L1 composing abilities may not be the only and the best solution.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

Despite paradigmatic research advancements and movements in applied linguistics, the issue of rhe... more Despite paradigmatic research advancements and movements in applied linguistics, the issue of rhetoric, which serves as one of the fundamental pillars of each paradigm, remains largely unaccounted for. Considering the commensurability of argumentation and meta-analysis, coupled with the increasing rate of meta-analytic studies in the field of applied linguistics, there arises a need to examine the argumentation behavior of applied linguistics' meta-analysts. As such, following research synthesis techniques and an argument-mining approach, we examined the academic argumentation genre of meta-analysis published in leading applied linguistics journals through argument-mining techniques in light of the modified Toulmin framework proposed by Qin and Karabacak (2010). The current study, employing the modified Toulmin framework, examined the argumentative writing components represented in the introduction section of 54 meta-analytic studies published in leading journals of applied linguistics through argument-mining techniques. Our findings highlight the complexity and argumentativeness of the meta-analysis genre. We further found that the Modified Toulmin Model is implementable for the task of argument mining, which can have a great impact on argumentation, metaanalysis, and argumentative academic writing. Implications and recommendations for academic argumentative writers and meta-analyzers are discussed.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

This study explored the effect of three models of flipped learning through shad application on th... more This study explored the effect of three models of flipped learning through shad application on the lexical and grammatical knowledge of Iranian high school EFL learners. 120 male pre-intermediate English learners took part in the study. They were placed in four groups (three experimental and one control) based on their performance on a placement test. The control group received conventional methods of teaching while experimental group one was taught through traditional flipping, experimental group two through demonstration-based instruction, and experimental group three through double-flipped instruction. Data were collected using pretests and posttests of lexical and grammatical knowledge. The results of ANCOVA showed that generally, the learners in the three experimental groups performed better than the control group, suggesting that using flipped instruction was effective in teaching lexical items and grammatical structures. The findings of this study can have valuable implications for those who are involved in learning and teaching English, materials preparation, and curriculum development.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

The importance of studying teachers' identity is to guide teachers to choose an appropriate metho... more The importance of studying teachers' identity is to guide teachers to choose an appropriate methodology to teach as well as to lead learners to learn the target language, which is related to the notion of identity. The present study was an attempt to develop and validate an identity questionnaire regarding English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teachers. In doing so, 350 Iranian EAP teachers from Azad and State universities of Tehran, Qazvin, and Zanjan were selected. Semi-structured interviews were randomly done with 100 teacher participants. In order to develop the EAP Teachers' Identity Questionnaire (EAPTIQ) in the Iranian context through individual, pedagogical, and social dimension, the related literature was taken into account. A total of 51 items were extracted to develop raw factors of EAPTIQ. They were then factor-analyzed in order to remove the communalities and develop the final version of the questionnaire and determine the main components. Factor analysis resulted in the development of 44-item EAPTIQ with three components: 1) Identity and EAP Teachers' Self-Efficacy, 2) Identity and EAP Teachers' Pedagogical Issues, and 3) Identity and EAP Teachers' Social Issues. Findings of the study can be useful for some people who can benefit from the results namely EAP teachers and researchers. The results contribute to researching EAP teachers' identity and inform teacher education to provide them with the sufficient and adequate raised awareness to self-develop their identity.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

Although many ESL university students know grammar rules, most cannot write competently. Meanwhil... more Although many ESL university students know grammar rules, most cannot write competently. Meanwhile, effective writing would affect students' overall academic performance. This article examined the written errors of the Indian Tamil learners of English as their Second Language (ESL). The study adopted a cross-sectional research design and collected data through written essays. The participants were studying Master of Arts in English second-year integrated class. The participants were purposely selected. The study assessed errors as they occurred in students' written essays. Data were descriptively analysed in which they were categorised based on the themes. The findings showed several errors, categorised as subject-verb errors, word order patterns, spelling errors, and omissions. Findings have depicted error cases in word order errors, unnecessary insertion, misplaced inversion and sentence fragment errors. The results have shown that some students made apparent errors that could be termed as negligent ones, while others could be associated with transfer from the first language. In addition, other errors are associated with the way the English language is taught. Based on the results, this study recommends that ESL teachers should focus their teaching on these problematic areas and provide the students with many writing tasks that would improve the writing of the Tamilians, whose English is their second language.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

Recent research favors specific academic wordlists over a general academic wordlist for preparing... more Recent research favors specific academic wordlists over a general academic wordlist for preparing university students to read and publish academic papers in English. Although researchers have developed wordlists for various disciplines, some academic fields do not enjoy a well-developed technical wordlist. The present study aimed at developing and evaluating a specific academic wordlist for political sciences. A 3.5-million-word corpus of political sciences papers created and analyzed in order to develop the Politics Academic Word List (PAWL). The list included 2000 word families which were selected across and beyond the BNC/COCA wordlist based on frequency and range criteria. The word families enjoying an aggregate frequency of a hundred or more in the corpus and a minimum frequency of 10 in at least four of the seven sub-corpora were incorporated into the wordlist. The PAWL accounted for over 88% of the running words in the Politics Academic Corpus (PAC) and outperformed the list of General Service List (GSL) plus Academic Word List (AWL) words in coverage by 3 percent, despite containing 556 fewer word families. The study corroborates the value of a subject specific wordlist as a more fruitful source for academic vocabulary learning. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

This study aimed at investigating teachers' behaviours that co-occur with the oral corrective fee... more This study aimed at investigating teachers' behaviours that co-occur with the oral corrective feedback strategies and their influence on the students' responses to oral corrective feedback (OCF) in teaching English in Tanzanian secondary schools. The study was qualitative, and applied classroom non-participant observation and interviews to collect data, which were analysed thematically. It involved 901 students from two secondary schools (at the general certificate level) in Form I to Form IV classes and six English language teachers. Using the Vygotskyan Sociocultural Model, the findings of the study showed some teachers' behaviours that frequently accompanied the oral corrective feedback strategies, which then influenced students' uptake in the classrooms. These behaviours include nonverbal actions; oral corrective feedback implementing styles, translanguaging, and the use of negative comments. These behaviours influenced students' uptake by leading to no uptakes, hesitations in response to feedback, repetition of the same errors, random peer responses which subsequently discouraged self-repair of errors. Findings contribute to knowledge on OCF and the students' uptake in to ELT classrooms especially on students' error treatment atmosphere.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

The integration of reading and writing has recently been of interest to researchers. This study i... more The integration of reading and writing has recently been of interest to researchers. This study investigated the effectiveness of instructing integrated writing (IW) strategies to EFL learners. In addition, the changes in writing self-efficacy, anxiety, and motivation were examined. To gain a deep understanding of the issues, a convergent mixed-methods design was employed. A convenient sample of 30 students of English Literature studying in an EFL context participated in an IW course and their performances before and after instruction were compared using a rubric. Interviews and thinkaloud protocols were also conducted to find themes regarding the effectiveness of the course. Moreover, the changes in the learners' selfefficacy, anxiety, and motivation were measured through questionnaires administered at the beginning and the end of the course, and the interviews and think-aloud protocol themes regarding the changes were examined. The results of the analysis of the quantitative data by paired-samples t-tests and Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests indicated an improvement in the learners' IW ability and strategy use, especially in source use. The qualitative data also revealed that the learners found the instruction and strategies effective. However, while the learners' self-efficacy improved and their anxiety diminished largely due to learning, their motivation remained statistically stable. The results were interpreted from an activity theory perspective. The implications of the study for the theory, pedagogy, and research methodology of IW were also presented.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

There is currently a growing tendency to a meaning-based approach to the analysis of syntactic co... more There is currently a growing tendency to a meaning-based approach to the analysis of syntactic complexity in academic writing. While previous studies have offered illuminating insights into linguistic realizations of rhetorical structures in relation to syntactic complexity, they have typically analyzed lexicogrammatical features in a decontextualized manner. Drawing on a corpus-based cross-sectional design, this study takes a function-first approach to investigating the rhetorical functions of syntactically complex structures in research article (RA) abstracts in applied linguistics. To that end, a corpus of 270 texts from leading applied linguistics journals was constructed. Based on the model proposed by Pho (2008), we manually annotated the texts for the moves, and measured their syntactic complexity using phrasal, clausal, and global metrics. SPSS (version 25) was run for the analysis of data. Results of one-way MANOVA (multivariate analysis of variance) and Chi-square tests revealed significant variations among rhetorical moves in terms of clausal and phrasal complexity measures. The findings also showed that academic writers varied the complexity of their written structures according to their rhetorical goals. The results establish form-meaning mappings between syntactically complex structures and rhetorical functions. The findings carry pedagogical implications for student writers to adjust their prose using functionally appropriate complex structures following expert writers through comparing their own writing with that of expert writers to notice the gaps.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

Flipped instruction constitutes an approach to language teaching that prompts the teachers to giv... more Flipped instruction constitutes an approach to language teaching that prompts the teachers to give priority to the learners' active engagement in second language interaction by assigning them to examine their instructional lectures outside the context of the classroom. The present study made an endeavor to determine the degree to which online and flipped approaches to writing instruction affected the EFL learners' writing ability. To this end, first, the researchers selected 75 intermediate-level female EFL learners in three intact classrooms of a private language institute in Urmia (Iran) as the participants. Second, the researchers administered the writing pretest of the study to all of the groups. Third, they used the Adobe Connect learning management system to provide the online and flipped groups with the pertinent writing instruction treatment in ten sessions. Nonetheless, they provided the control group with in-person writing instruction. Fourth, they administered the immediate and delayed writing posttests of the study to all of the groups immediately after the termination of the treatment sessions and one month subsequent to the end of treatment respectively. Finally, they used SPSS 24 to perform the data analysis. Based on the obtained results, although both the online and flipped approaches had immediate and delayed positive impacts on the participants' writing ability, the flipped approach was more beneficial than the online. The results may provide EFL teacher educators, course developers, syllabus designers, and teachers with guiding principles regarding the uses of online and flipped courses in foreign language contexts.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

The empirically-validated link between teachers' professional role identity and explicit manifest... more The empirically-validated link between teachers' professional role identity and explicit manifestations of teacher efficacy has resulted in a burgeoning literature on educational programs/settings influential in teacher identity formation. In an attempt to expand on this strand of research, the present study explored how taking part in an academic multi-faceted teaching practicum may contribute to professional role identity construction/reconstruction among Iranian EFL student teachers. To this end, 45 third-year undergraduates majoring in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) were traced throughout a twoyear (four-semester) teaching practicum held by Farhangian University, Iran. Based on a concurrent triangulation mixed methods design, the participants' identity was gauged at five different time points: At the outset of the practicum and after every practicum semester. The quantitative data were gathered through the repetitive administration of a standard Likert-scale questionnaire developed based on Farrell's (2011) tripartite model of professional role identity. Coincident with the surveying process, the qualitative data were gathered through a semi-structured interview held at the beginning of the practicum and four integrative reports developed by the participants at the end of every practicum semester. Withingroup comparison of the survey data in tandem with content analysis of the qualitative data based on the focus framework revealed that the multi-faceted practicum helped the student teachers strike a balance in their identity as a manager and a professional. Additionally, the results called into question the contribution of the practicum to acculturator identity development. The influential role of a multi-faceted practicum in promoting professional role identity among student teachers calls for an investment of cost and time to exploit the full potential of practicums of the same quality.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

Even though interactional competence (IC) has recently been at the center of attention, its const... more Even though interactional competence (IC) has recently been at the center of attention, its constructs/sub-components and influencing factors still require profound scrutiny. The features associated with IC have indeed been probed in various language learning and teaching realms. However, the effect of language learners' gender on their perception of IC remains to be addressed. To bridge this gap, the present research, as one of the stages of development and verification of the Learners' Interactional Competence Questionnaire (LICQ), investigated how gender may affect IC and its sub-constructs as perceived by males and females. A total of 407 male and female intermediate-level Iranian EFL learners, selected through convenience sampling from several language institutes, participated in the study and responded to the LICQ. Subsequently, a twogroup multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to measure the potential effects of students' gender on perceived IC, including conversational management, speech acts, register, nonverbal semiotics, and requests and complaints. The results showed that gender has a small significant effect on learners' perceived interactional competence. Even though this effect is not visible in conversational management, but exists in the other four sub-components, namely speech acts, register, nonverbal semiotics, and requests and complaints. Language teachers could consider the different perceptions of male and female learners of IC as an influential aspect of IC realization and development in the language classroom setting. Besides, the study findings provide learners with a selfassessment scale to identify their present state of IC perception and monitor its development through time.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

Literature of TESOL arena (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) recruitment procedure... more Literature of TESOL arena (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) recruitment procedure states that the legend of monolingual speakers affected the recruitment approach in different lands. The monolingual speaker possesses an advantage superiority in English language instruction, reflecting not only the model speaker but also the perfect instructor. Bilingual English teachers are typically understood not as proficient as their native peers in Oman. The goal of the research was to investigate and criticize the workplace and employment matters that differentiate between bilingual and monolingual instructors of English in Oman in a critical way. This research states the outcomes of a small-scale qualitative investigation done at the English Language Centre (ELC) at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences in Oman via getting data by face-to-face oral interviews from six participants who got chosen on the basis of their personal tendency to get involved in this research. The outcomes displayed that the fallacy of native speakers is "alive and kicking" in Oman. The outcomes specified that there is a wide differentiation on the basis of the range of salary between native and non-native instructors, in spite of doing the same career. Colonial influence is one other cause about native speakers' advantage. The effect of differentiation is that non-native instructors are given the sense of inferiority. Thus, it is vital to take policies that encourage higher job security sense to develop inspiration and creativity. The research recommends that recruitment procedure in Oman has to be revised to constitute sameness making a secure work context.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

The importance of the metacognitive awareness raising strategy has been well-documented in resear... more The importance of the metacognitive awareness raising strategy has been well-documented in research findings as a type of support for the language skills acquisition of English as a foreign language (EFL) learner in overall; nevertheless, the efficacy of this strategy on EFL learners' reading comprehension and self-regulation level has received little notice. This research investigated the effectiveness of metacognitive awareness raising in a flipped educational environment on Iranian EFL learners' reading skills and their self-regulation levels as a partial attempt in this direction. In order to do this, a sample of 56 low-intermediate EFL students from one of the private language schools in Kerman, Iran, were chosen for the study relying on a convenient sampling strategy. The Oxford placement test, a reading pre-test, a reading post-test, a self-regulation scale, and a semi-structured interview were used to gather the results. Independent samples t-test findings indicated that from the pre-test to the post-test, EFL students in the treatment group outperformed the control group in both reading comprehension and selfregulation level. The findings of the semi-structured interview supported those of the t-test, and it was determined that the treatment's collaborative, entertaining, and educational elements had impressed the students. In sum, the results confirmed that integrating flipped classrooms with metacognitive development increased EFL learners' reading comprehension and selfregulation levels. The pedagogical implications of the strategy are discussed.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

Investigating language teacher cognition and ways of promoting their cognition are the building b... more Investigating language teacher cognition and ways of promoting their cognition are the building blocks of teacher education because their practices are highly contingent on their cognition about underlying concepts in language pedagogy. This study explored the development of novice teachers' cognition about corrective feedback (CF) through task-based teacher education. The data were culled from two novice Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers through a questionnaire, observation, and journal. They took part in a course centering on the ways of enhancing knowledge about CF. The course was based on task-based teacher education. The teachers were to learn and practice giving feedback through some task-based teacher education activities such as role-plays and observations. The data before the course indicated that the teachers had restricted knowledge about the functions and types of CF. However, the taskbased teacher education course raised the teachers' awareness about the scaffolding potentialities of CF. They also gained insights into implicit and explicit CF types as well as their functions. In addition, CF helped them enhance their awareness about the intrusiveness of error correction in the process of communication flow. Finally, the contribution of the findings of the study for novice teachers and teacher educators and how they should educate novice teachers are discussed.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

Attempting to improve teaching instructions, researchers have proposed numerous instructional tec... more Attempting to improve teaching instructions, researchers have proposed numerous instructional techniques. In vocabulary learning, as one of the key areas in EFL, inadequate knowledge leads to complications and frequent challenges faced by the learners. This study explores how an instructional technique that employs semantic, structural, and semantic/structural elaboration affects vocabulary learning. The research was carried out with 114 participants who experienced the above-mentioned elaborations in three groups. For creating a + semantic, + structural, and + semantic/structural climate in each group, participants were given flashcards containing words beside the equivalents, words by numbered letters without any equivalents, and words by numbered letters beside the equivalents, respectively. The data-obtained from Lexical Production Scoring Protocol (LPSP)-were then input into One-way ANOVA and Post-Hoc tests. To check the accuracy of Transfer Appropriate Processing (TAP) theory, different tasks during the teaching and testing phases in +semantic were designed. Due to this inconsistency, the findings proved to be in line with TAP theory, suggesting that Level of Processing (LOP) theory should be accompanied with TAP to end in facilitating results. Data analysis-mirroring the Type of Processing-Resource Allocation (TOPRA) effect-indicated that while the + semantic as compared to + semantic/structural facilitated performance on recall of words, had a negative effect in comparison with + structural. Based on the results, the limited processing resources remind curriculum developers to bear in mind which aspect of learning is of more importance to let the learners make the most and best use of their inborn gifts.

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023

Competitive and individualistic approaches are the more predominant manners of classroom practice... more Competitive and individualistic approaches are the more predominant manners of classroom practice. The alternative approach for competition and individualism is the cooperative or collaborative teaching approach that has drawn significant attention in the TEFL field in recent years. This study intends to explore the fluctuation of students' reading skill and reliance on teacher who were received collaborative assessment practice. Forty intermediate EFL learners from a language center were recruited through administering Oxford Placement Test (OPT). A researcher-made reading comprehension test and a reliance-on-teacher questionnaire were utilized as other instruments of this study to collect required data. The experimental group was subjected to collaborative assessment practice during the instructional phase; meanwhile, the conventional teacher-led assessment was executed for the control group members. The educational phase consisted of eight sessions, each lasting thirty minutes and occurring twice per week for one month. The data analysis revealed that students reading skill and independency improved through implementation of the collaborative assessment practice. This study suggests that collaborative assessment has the potential to be a useful tool for improving learning outcomes and fostering learner autonomy. In addition, this study has some suggestions for researchers seeking further studies.

i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, Sep 15, 2015

Journal of Modern research in English Language Studies, 2023