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Papers by Ehsan Abbaspour

Journal of Modern Languages , 2021

Whether corrective feedback is effective in L2 writing has always been a controversial issue amon... more Whether corrective feedback is effective in L2 writing has always been a controversial issue among Second Language Acquisition (SLA) scholars despite a vast body of research investigating the issue. This conflict is rooted in the fact that different researchers subscribe to different theories of SLA which are at times contradictory in nature. The present article reviews and investigates major SLA theories with respect to their views and stance toward the efficacy of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) and error correction in second language writing. Many of these theories do not address the role of corrective feedback explicitly or merely focus on the role of oral feedback. Polio (2012) and Bitchener and Ferris (2012) have partially investigated the issue at stake reviewing a number of SLA theories. In this study, however, attempt is made to shed light on the role of WCF especially in the theories which are not directly concerned with L2 writing.

Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies, 2020

The prevalence of Sociocultural Theory (SCT) as a major theory in SLA has spurred a considerable ... more The prevalence of Sociocultural Theory (SCT) as a major theory in SLA has spurred a considerable number of studies to investigate the various aspect of L2 acquisition through the lens of this theoretical framework. The present study aimed at investigating the impact of Scaffolded Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) on Iranian EFL learners’ writing performance in terms of fluency, accuracy, grammatical complexity, and lexical complexity. Additionally, the study sought to inquire about the Iranian EFL learners’ attitudes toward Scaffolded WCF through a series of post-interviews and a questionnaire. For this purpose, 25 students who had enrolled in a university-level writing course were conveniently sampled after a homogeneity test for the study. The pedagogical treatment the participants received throughout the study was Scaffolded WCF (i.e. a ZPD-based teacher/peer corrective feedback on their writing performance). The data obtained from the pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest were analyzed using a series of ANOVA and Friedman’s tests. The findings indicated that Scaffolded WCF statistically significantly contributed to the participants’ writing performance regarding grammatical complexity, fluency, accuracy, and lexical complexity. The results obtained from the attitude questionnaire and the post-interviews also revealed that the participants held a positive attitude toward the adopted approach. The findings provide promising implications for the adoption of this approach in large classes typical of Iranian university-level writing courses.

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 2020

With the latest paradigm shift in SLA from Cognitivism to Sociocultural Theory (SCT), more studie... more With the latest paradigm shift in SLA from Cognitivism to Sociocultural Theory (SCT), more studies are carried out to investigate the efficacy of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) through a social and cultural lens. A more recent offspring of SCT is Activity Theory which provides an explanatory framework for scrutinizing an activity in a social setting. The present study aimed at investigating the impact of Scaffolded WCF within the framework of Activity Theory on Iranian EFL learners' writing performance in terms of reduction of the learners' writing errors with respect to the content, vocabulary, mechanics, organization, and grammar. Finally, different types of Activity Theory-based strategic mediations (i.e. artifact, rule, community, and role mediations) Iranian EFL learners employed in their writing revisions were investigated. Accordingly, 25 Iranian university-level students, through convenient sampling, were chosen to participate in the study. The treatment they received on their writings was a graduated Scaffolding WCF in their Zone of Proximal Development in the form of both peer and teacher feedback. The findings indicated that Scaffolded WCF statistically significantly contributed to the participants' writing performance in terms of content, vocabulary, mechanics, organization, and grammar. With respect to the mediation strategies used by the learners, it was discovered that the learners benefitted from all the available mediators although with various degrees. It is hoped that the findings of this study will promise implications for promoting a teacher/learner-friendly method of providing WCF based on SCT, which can be utilized in large classes typical of Iranian EFL university courses.

The present study investigated the effect of grammatical gender on object categorization. To this... more The present study investigated the effect of grammatical gender on object categorization. To this end, two experiments were designed. In the first experiment, German and Arabic native speakers' perceptions of similarity between objects and people were compared via picture matching tasks in which the participants were asked to match a series of people's pictures to pictures of a series of inanimate objects along with body parts. The pictures chosen were of opposite grammatical gender in German and Arabic (none of the chosen pictures was neuter in German). The results indicated that there was a significant difference between both groups' choice pattern, i.e., each group had a tendency to match the pictures based on their mother tongues' grammatical gender. Further, to investigate the effects of grammatical gender on concepts of objects in bilingual speakers of two languages that assign opposite gender to the same object, the second experiment was implemented. In experiment two, similar to experiment one, picture matching tasks were carried out by Spanish native speakers and Persian-Spanish bilinguals as experimental groups and Persian native speakers as control group. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between Spanish native speakers and Persian native speakers' performances. However, the inferential analysis did not show any significant difference between Persian-Spanish bilinguals' performance with those of the other two groups. The overall findings showed that mother tongue significantly affects the cognition of the speakers while second language does not have such salience in affecting the cognition.

Presupposition has long been used as a property of language to mold the audience’s ideology. Usin... more Presupposition has long been used as a property of language to mold the audience’s ideology. Using presupposition triggers, surprisingly the author or speaker impinges on readers or listeners’ interpretation of facts and events, establishing either a favorable or unfavorable bias throughout the text. The role of presupposition in mass media’s use of language is of paramount importance in that media writers attempt consciously or unconsciously to influence the audience understanding of news events. The present paper is aimed at pinpointing the oral discourse structure of two English news channels i.e. PressTV and CNN as varieties of Persian and American English respectively, in terms of presupposition triggers, employed to share non-asserted meaning. Accordingly, 40 transcripts (20 selected from PressTV and another 20 from CNN) were analyzed in terms of presupposition triggers, namely existential, factive, lexical, non-factive, structural, counter-factual, adverbial, and relative. Analysis of the transcripts revealed that the most frequently used presupposition trigger in both varieties of oral discourse was Existential.

Whether culture should be taught as a separate subject is a controversial issue in the field seco... more Whether culture should be taught as a separate subject is a controversial issue in the field second language education. Another equally important question is what the main aims of teaching culture are. Regarding the importance of teaching culture in second language classrooms, many scholars today believe that culture and language are inseparable and culture learning must be an integral part of language learning. The present study is to give an account of the important place that culture holds in foreign and second language education. It further elaborates on what culture is and different approaches to teaching it. Finally, some key and practical issues concerning integrating culture into second language classrooms will be addressed.

To date, numerous books and research articles have focused on the notion of syllabus design and c... more To date, numerous books and research articles have focused on the notion of syllabus design and curriculum development. Nevertheless, very few works have had an inclusive and concise look upon the issue. This paper is an account of current trends on syllabus design and curriculum development in Second Language Acquisition in the recent past decades. This is hopefully intended to offer a descriptive and critical interpretation of the existing syllabuses in the domain of language learning and teaching. After a brief introductory remark on curriculum and syllabus types, 13 of the most prominent syllabuses in SLA will be elaborated on separately. In pursuit of doing so, definition, rationale, merits, and drawbacks attributed to each syllabus will be touched upon. Although the emergence of some of these syllabi coincides with each other, while presenting them, it has been tried to follow a roughly chronological order of their emergence.

The Iranian EFL Journal, Jan 1, 2012

In the 20th and 21st centuries English has become an indispensable part of educational curriculum... more In the 20th and 21st centuries English has become an indispensable part of educational curriculum in Iranian schools. Despite all the efforts and investments devoted to cultivate and popularize English among Iranian language learners, the resultant outcome could not live up to the authorities’ expectations. A great body of research has proved that learners’ attitude towards foreign language learning and success in learning a foreign language are highly related. This study is to investigate Iranian junior high school students’ overall attitude towards learning English as a foreign language. As well as, the possible difference that exists between boys’ and girls’ attitude towards learning English as a foreign language. The findings indicate that Iranian junior high school students generally have a positive view of using and learning English. It was also observed that there is no significant difference between female and male learners’ attitudes, although that of the girls was slightly more positive.

Talks by Ehsan Abbaspour

The study has aimed at observing English teaching in practice and has attempted to see whether te... more The study has aimed at observing English teaching in practice and has attempted to see whether teaching practice is in congruence with teachers' claims to teaching according to CLT. In pursuit of fulfilling the aims of the study, the ideas of 17 EFL teachers, all of which were selected from private language institutes in Tehran, were measured through an attitude questionnaire. In addition, 16 EFL classes were observed to measure the state of the practice of language teaching and learning in the classrooms against the principles of CLT. The findings revealed that although teachers held a positive claim towards practicing CLT, the state of the practice of language teaching and learning was not in favor of the premises of CLT.

Books by Ehsan Abbaspour

Handbook of research on individual differences in computer-assisted language learning, 2015

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether there is any statistically significan... more The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether there is any statistically significant difference between the effects of asynchronous online peer WCF through blogging and face-to-face peer WCF on the writing achievement of Iranian EFL learners. The study also investigated the extent to which students revise their writings based on peer comments provided. This study also measured the attitude of students towards peer WCF through blogging as compared with that of the participants receiving face-to-face peer WCF. The findings indicated that there is no statistically significant difference between the effects of face-to-face and asynchronous online peer WCF on the writing achievement of the Iranian EFL learners. In terms of the extent of incorporating the peer comments in their final drafts, the participants in the FF group incorporated more of the comments they received into their second drafts in comparison with the OL group. Finally, it was revealed that the participants of each group generally expressed their satisfaction with both methods of peer review.

Journal of Modern Languages , 2021

Whether corrective feedback is effective in L2 writing has always been a controversial issue amon... more Whether corrective feedback is effective in L2 writing has always been a controversial issue among Second Language Acquisition (SLA) scholars despite a vast body of research investigating the issue. This conflict is rooted in the fact that different researchers subscribe to different theories of SLA which are at times contradictory in nature. The present article reviews and investigates major SLA theories with respect to their views and stance toward the efficacy of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) and error correction in second language writing. Many of these theories do not address the role of corrective feedback explicitly or merely focus on the role of oral feedback. Polio (2012) and Bitchener and Ferris (2012) have partially investigated the issue at stake reviewing a number of SLA theories. In this study, however, attempt is made to shed light on the role of WCF especially in the theories which are not directly concerned with L2 writing.

Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies, 2020

The prevalence of Sociocultural Theory (SCT) as a major theory in SLA has spurred a considerable ... more The prevalence of Sociocultural Theory (SCT) as a major theory in SLA has spurred a considerable number of studies to investigate the various aspect of L2 acquisition through the lens of this theoretical framework. The present study aimed at investigating the impact of Scaffolded Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) on Iranian EFL learners’ writing performance in terms of fluency, accuracy, grammatical complexity, and lexical complexity. Additionally, the study sought to inquire about the Iranian EFL learners’ attitudes toward Scaffolded WCF through a series of post-interviews and a questionnaire. For this purpose, 25 students who had enrolled in a university-level writing course were conveniently sampled after a homogeneity test for the study. The pedagogical treatment the participants received throughout the study was Scaffolded WCF (i.e. a ZPD-based teacher/peer corrective feedback on their writing performance). The data obtained from the pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest were analyzed using a series of ANOVA and Friedman’s tests. The findings indicated that Scaffolded WCF statistically significantly contributed to the participants’ writing performance regarding grammatical complexity, fluency, accuracy, and lexical complexity. The results obtained from the attitude questionnaire and the post-interviews also revealed that the participants held a positive attitude toward the adopted approach. The findings provide promising implications for the adoption of this approach in large classes typical of Iranian university-level writing courses.

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 2020

With the latest paradigm shift in SLA from Cognitivism to Sociocultural Theory (SCT), more studie... more With the latest paradigm shift in SLA from Cognitivism to Sociocultural Theory (SCT), more studies are carried out to investigate the efficacy of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) through a social and cultural lens. A more recent offspring of SCT is Activity Theory which provides an explanatory framework for scrutinizing an activity in a social setting. The present study aimed at investigating the impact of Scaffolded WCF within the framework of Activity Theory on Iranian EFL learners' writing performance in terms of reduction of the learners' writing errors with respect to the content, vocabulary, mechanics, organization, and grammar. Finally, different types of Activity Theory-based strategic mediations (i.e. artifact, rule, community, and role mediations) Iranian EFL learners employed in their writing revisions were investigated. Accordingly, 25 Iranian university-level students, through convenient sampling, were chosen to participate in the study. The treatment they received on their writings was a graduated Scaffolding WCF in their Zone of Proximal Development in the form of both peer and teacher feedback. The findings indicated that Scaffolded WCF statistically significantly contributed to the participants' writing performance in terms of content, vocabulary, mechanics, organization, and grammar. With respect to the mediation strategies used by the learners, it was discovered that the learners benefitted from all the available mediators although with various degrees. It is hoped that the findings of this study will promise implications for promoting a teacher/learner-friendly method of providing WCF based on SCT, which can be utilized in large classes typical of Iranian EFL university courses.

The present study investigated the effect of grammatical gender on object categorization. To this... more The present study investigated the effect of grammatical gender on object categorization. To this end, two experiments were designed. In the first experiment, German and Arabic native speakers' perceptions of similarity between objects and people were compared via picture matching tasks in which the participants were asked to match a series of people's pictures to pictures of a series of inanimate objects along with body parts. The pictures chosen were of opposite grammatical gender in German and Arabic (none of the chosen pictures was neuter in German). The results indicated that there was a significant difference between both groups' choice pattern, i.e., each group had a tendency to match the pictures based on their mother tongues' grammatical gender. Further, to investigate the effects of grammatical gender on concepts of objects in bilingual speakers of two languages that assign opposite gender to the same object, the second experiment was implemented. In experiment two, similar to experiment one, picture matching tasks were carried out by Spanish native speakers and Persian-Spanish bilinguals as experimental groups and Persian native speakers as control group. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between Spanish native speakers and Persian native speakers' performances. However, the inferential analysis did not show any significant difference between Persian-Spanish bilinguals' performance with those of the other two groups. The overall findings showed that mother tongue significantly affects the cognition of the speakers while second language does not have such salience in affecting the cognition.

Presupposition has long been used as a property of language to mold the audience’s ideology. Usin... more Presupposition has long been used as a property of language to mold the audience’s ideology. Using presupposition triggers, surprisingly the author or speaker impinges on readers or listeners’ interpretation of facts and events, establishing either a favorable or unfavorable bias throughout the text. The role of presupposition in mass media’s use of language is of paramount importance in that media writers attempt consciously or unconsciously to influence the audience understanding of news events. The present paper is aimed at pinpointing the oral discourse structure of two English news channels i.e. PressTV and CNN as varieties of Persian and American English respectively, in terms of presupposition triggers, employed to share non-asserted meaning. Accordingly, 40 transcripts (20 selected from PressTV and another 20 from CNN) were analyzed in terms of presupposition triggers, namely existential, factive, lexical, non-factive, structural, counter-factual, adverbial, and relative. Analysis of the transcripts revealed that the most frequently used presupposition trigger in both varieties of oral discourse was Existential.

Whether culture should be taught as a separate subject is a controversial issue in the field seco... more Whether culture should be taught as a separate subject is a controversial issue in the field second language education. Another equally important question is what the main aims of teaching culture are. Regarding the importance of teaching culture in second language classrooms, many scholars today believe that culture and language are inseparable and culture learning must be an integral part of language learning. The present study is to give an account of the important place that culture holds in foreign and second language education. It further elaborates on what culture is and different approaches to teaching it. Finally, some key and practical issues concerning integrating culture into second language classrooms will be addressed.

To date, numerous books and research articles have focused on the notion of syllabus design and c... more To date, numerous books and research articles have focused on the notion of syllabus design and curriculum development. Nevertheless, very few works have had an inclusive and concise look upon the issue. This paper is an account of current trends on syllabus design and curriculum development in Second Language Acquisition in the recent past decades. This is hopefully intended to offer a descriptive and critical interpretation of the existing syllabuses in the domain of language learning and teaching. After a brief introductory remark on curriculum and syllabus types, 13 of the most prominent syllabuses in SLA will be elaborated on separately. In pursuit of doing so, definition, rationale, merits, and drawbacks attributed to each syllabus will be touched upon. Although the emergence of some of these syllabi coincides with each other, while presenting them, it has been tried to follow a roughly chronological order of their emergence.

The Iranian EFL Journal, Jan 1, 2012

In the 20th and 21st centuries English has become an indispensable part of educational curriculum... more In the 20th and 21st centuries English has become an indispensable part of educational curriculum in Iranian schools. Despite all the efforts and investments devoted to cultivate and popularize English among Iranian language learners, the resultant outcome could not live up to the authorities’ expectations. A great body of research has proved that learners’ attitude towards foreign language learning and success in learning a foreign language are highly related. This study is to investigate Iranian junior high school students’ overall attitude towards learning English as a foreign language. As well as, the possible difference that exists between boys’ and girls’ attitude towards learning English as a foreign language. The findings indicate that Iranian junior high school students generally have a positive view of using and learning English. It was also observed that there is no significant difference between female and male learners’ attitudes, although that of the girls was slightly more positive.

The study has aimed at observing English teaching in practice and has attempted to see whether te... more The study has aimed at observing English teaching in practice and has attempted to see whether teaching practice is in congruence with teachers' claims to teaching according to CLT. In pursuit of fulfilling the aims of the study, the ideas of 17 EFL teachers, all of which were selected from private language institutes in Tehran, were measured through an attitude questionnaire. In addition, 16 EFL classes were observed to measure the state of the practice of language teaching and learning in the classrooms against the principles of CLT. The findings revealed that although teachers held a positive claim towards practicing CLT, the state of the practice of language teaching and learning was not in favor of the premises of CLT.

Handbook of research on individual differences in computer-assisted language learning, 2015

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether there is any statistically significan... more The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether there is any statistically significant difference between the effects of asynchronous online peer WCF through blogging and face-to-face peer WCF on the writing achievement of Iranian EFL learners. The study also investigated the extent to which students revise their writings based on peer comments provided. This study also measured the attitude of students towards peer WCF through blogging as compared with that of the participants receiving face-to-face peer WCF. The findings indicated that there is no statistically significant difference between the effects of face-to-face and asynchronous online peer WCF on the writing achievement of the Iranian EFL learners. In terms of the extent of incorporating the peer comments in their final drafts, the participants in the FF group incorporated more of the comments they received into their second drafts in comparison with the OL group. Finally, it was revealed that the participants of each group generally expressed their satisfaction with both methods of peer review.