International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research

Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch

License Holder and Publisher: Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran Director-in-Chief: Omid Tabatabaei, Associate Professor, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University Editor-in-Chief: Hossein Vahid Dastjerdi, Associate Professor, University of Isfahan, Iran Managing Editor: Mohammad Reza Talebinejad, Associate Professor, University of Isfahan, Iran

Editorial Board

Dr. Bulbaw, Lynn M., Professor, Texas A&M University, USA Dr. Eslami Rasekh, Zohreh, Professor, Texas A&M University, USA Dr. Hayati, A., Majid, Professor, Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran Dr. Larke, J., Patricia, Professor, Texas A&M University, USA Dr. Marashi, Hamid, Associate Professor, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran, Iran Dr. Tabatabaei, Omid, Associate Professor, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University Dr. Talebinejad, M. R., Associate Professor, University of Isfahan, Iran Dr. Tavakoli, Mansour, Professor, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran Dr. Vahid Dastjerdi, Hossein, Associate Professor, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 License No. issued by Islamic Azad University, Deputy Office of Research Affairs; 87/171272. Date issued: Khordad ISSN: 2322-3898 Production Manager: Mostafa Salehi Sedeh Persian & English Editor: Shima Ghobadi, Lecturer, Islamic Azad University, Journal Office Coordinator: Lili Rezaei Cover Designer: Mohsen Ghasemi Address: International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://jfl.iaun.ac.ir Tel: +98-31-42292704, 42291110 Fax: +98-31-4229-1110

Disclaimer Neither the editor nor the EdiEditorialtorial Board is responsiresponsibleble for authors’ expressed views and the contents of the published articles in the journaljournal.. The originality, proofreading of manuscrimanuscriptspts and language problemsproblems are the sole responsibility of the individual authors.

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 2

Referees for this issue

Dr. Ahmadi, Alireza, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Dr. Ameri-Golestan, Ahmad, Islamic Azad University, Majlesi Branch, Isfahan, Iran

Dr. Baharlooie, Roya, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, Najafabad, Iran

Dr. Chalak, Azizeh, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan Branch, Isfahan, Iran

Dr. Heidari Darani, Laya, Islamic Azad University, Falavarjan Branch, Isfahan, Iran

Dr. Heidari Shahreza, M. A., Islamic Azad University, Shahreza Branch, Isfahan, Iran

Dr. Heidari Tabrizi, Hossein, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan Branch, Isfahan Iran

Dr. Marashi, Hamid, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran, Iran

Dr. Nezakat-Alhossaini, Marzieh, University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Dr. Rezvani, Ehsan, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan Branch, Isfahan Iran

Dr. Roohani, Ali, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran

Dr. Salehi, Hadi, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, Najafabad, Iran

Dr. Shafie, Sajjad, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord Branch, Shahrekord, Iran

Dr. Tabatabaei, Omid, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, Najafabad, Iran

Dr. Taki, Saeed, Islamic Azad University, Shahreza Branch, Shahreza, Iran

Dr. Talebinezhad, M. R., Islamic Azad University, Shahreza Branch, Shahreza, Iran

Dr. Vahid Dastjerdi, Hossein, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 3

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research Contents

Task-based Language Teaching in L2 English Writing Classrooms: Insights from Chinese Senior Secondary Schools 11-28 Miner Chen*

A Qualitative Investigation of Students' Perceptions of Flipped learning 29-38 Shahriar Jalili, Hamidreza Khalaji*, Hossein Ahmadi

Exploratory-cumulative vs. Disputational Talk on Cognitive Dependency of Translation Studies: Intermediate level students in focus 39-57 Samaneh Yazdani, Hossein Heidari Tabrizi*, Azizeh Chalak

Exploring Effects and Learner Attitudes of Gadget-Based Internet Multimedia Reading Hani Mansooji, Ahmad Mohseni*, Alireza Ameri 59-79

The Most Common Challenges Facing Iranian English Majors in the Translation Process from English into Persian 81-97 Narcisse Memarzia, Rahman Sahragard*, Seyyed Ayatollah Razmjoo, Shahram Afraz

How Does Explicit and Implicit Instruction of Formal Meta-discourse Markers Affect Learners’ Oral Proficiency? 99-113 Mohammad Ebrahim Moghaddasi, Mohammad Bavali*, Fatemeh Behjat

Hedges in English for Academic Purposes: A Corpus-based study of Iranian EFL learners Hossein Khazaee, Parviz Maftoon, Parviz Birjandi,Ghafour Rezaie Golandouz 115-129

A Comparison of ESLE Web-based English Vocabulary Learning Application with Traditional Desktop English Vocabulary Learning Application: Exceptional learner parents’ point of view 131-146 Shima Ghobadi, Shahrokhi Mohsen*, Ahmad Abedi

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 5

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH

Notes for Contribution

The International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research, the refereed journal sponsored by Islamic Azad University–Najafabad, solicits and welcomes the submission of papers on various aspects of English language teaching and learning. Submissions should mirror relevant theoretical foundations and pedagogical implications, and should reflect a clear understanding of the contribution in the related literature.

Manuscripts should not have been published previously or be under consideration for publication elsewhere in any form. In addition, IJLTR will consider only one submission per author per volume. Manuscripts undergo a two-phase evaluation process. First, they are read by in-house committee. If the topic and scope are considered appropriate, they are then sent out for blind review to at least three readers selected from the editorial board.

The research areas include, but are not limited to, the following topics: Teaching foreign language (including technology in the classroom) Theories and methods Language acquisition Linguistics and ASL Language Assessment Language Planning Sociolinguistics and ASL Psycholinguistics and ASL Discourse Analysis & CDA Phonology and Phonetics Language Attrition Cross-linguistic Influence Individual Differences Age effects and Ultimate attainment translation and Language Teaching Translation Studies Issues

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· Font size of the title: 14 and bold. All words with more than four letters should be capitalized. · Length: up to 7,000 words (including Abstract & References) · First page should include your first name(s), family name(s), current position(s), and affiliation(s) plus an abstract of not more than 250 words. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 6

For each author, please provide name with all credentials; title; department; institution; complete mailing address; phone number; and e-mail address. Please indicate which author should receive correspondence regarding the submitted paper (* as corresponding author). · Font: Times New Roman · Font size: 12 · Top: 2.5cm · Bottom: 2.5cm · Left: 2.5 cm · Right: 2.5 cm · Gutter: 0cm · Size: A4 · Line spacing: single · Alignment: justified · Spacing before and after paragraphs: 0 pt

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International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 7

Headings of APA

Sample:

Abstract (level 1)

Teaching communication strategies is one of the most challenging subjects which has its own supporters and opponents.

Keywords: teaching, strategies

Teaching communication strategies is one of the most challenging subjects which has its own supporters and opponents. Teaching communication strategies is one of the most challenging subjects which has its own supporters and opponents.

Methodology (level 1) Participants (level 2)

Teaching communication strategies is one of the most challenging subjects which has its own supporters and opponents.

Materials and Instruments (level 2)

Teaching communication strategies is one of the most challenging subjects which has its own supporters and opponents. Many studies have been done to support teaching communicative strategies.

Pretest. (Level 3)

Proficiency test. (Level 4)

Writing test. (Level 4)

Multiple choice. (Level 5)

Composition. (Level 5)

Posttest. (Level 3)

Motivation questionnaire. (Level 3)

Procedure (level 2)

Treatment (level 3)

Assessment (level 3)

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 8

Data Analysis (Level 1)

Discussion (Level 1)

References

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Literature References: Lynch (2000) describes strategy as an organization’s sense of purpose. At least, three different levels of strategy within all organizations can be identified (Chaffey, 2002; Hackbarth & Kettinger, 2000).

References Instructions (Hanging Indentation): Books with one author: Example: Doniger, W. (1999). Splitting the difference. University of Chicago Press.

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Story. In M. Joos (Ed.), Readings in linguistics I. The development of descriptive linguistics in America (85-87). University of Chicago Press. Journal Articles: Example: Picard, R. G. (2002). Research note: Assessing audience performance of public service broadcasters. European Journal of Communication, 17(2), 227-235.

Example: Hlatky, M.A., D. Boothroyd, E. Vittinghoff, P. Sharp, & M.A. Whooley (2002).The measurement of consistency and occasion with latent class models.Journal of the American Medical Association,287(5), 90-99. Retrieved November 19, 2000, from http://jama.ama- assn.rg/issues/v287n5/rfull/joc10108.html#aainfo

Books with no author/editor/no date/in press: Examples: Alejo, R. (in press). Where does the money go? An analysis of the container metaphor in economics: The market and the economy. Journal of Pragmatics. Cameron, L., & Low, G. (n.d.). Researching and applying metaphor. Cambridge University Press. Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary (10th Ed.). (1993). Springfield, MA: Merriam- Webster.

Theses and Dissertations: Examples: Martinez, F. E. (2003). Exploring figurative language processing in bilinguals: The metaphor interference effect. Unpublished master’s thesis, Texas A& M International University. Amundin, M. (1991).Click repetition rate patterns in communicative sounds from the harbor porpoise. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stockholm University.

Paper presented at a meeting or conference: Example: Doyle, B. (2002). Howling like a dog: Metaphorical language in Psalm 59. The Annual International Meeting for the Society of Biblical Literature, Berlin, Germany.

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

Task-based Language Teaching in L2 English Writing Classrooms: Insights from Chinese Senior Secondary Schools

Miner Chen*, M.A. University of Reading, China [email protected] Abstract There is little research on the task-based teaching approach in senior secondary L2 English writing classrooms. This study carried out an exploratory sequential mixed methods study to explore the suitability and adaptations of task-based language teaching in the domain of secondary schools in small cities. First, the researcher surveyed six EFL senior secondary teachers of different teaching experiences in China by convenient and purposive sampling to get background information, then had semi-structured interviews with them individually. To followed the interviews, the researcher surveyed 148 students via an online questionnaire also by convenient and purposive sampling. Findings indicated that, although most teachers acknowledged the usefulness of TBLT, they regarded it unsuitable and unfeasible in the context of Chinese senior secondary L2 writing classrooms. Also, students in the study ranked clear instruction and vocabulary increase as the first two contributors in improving their L2 English writing. But half of all students also valued an interesting writing classroom and took it as a third facilitator to develop their writing. Besides, adaptations were suggested to include professional task design, teacher discussion, reward mechanism and teacher profession development. In the future, further research is needed to examine the findings in this study, generalizing them to different contexts, ages and domains, and exploring teachers’ individual differences and their choice of teaching approaches.

Keywords: Task-based language teaching (TBLT), L2 writing teaching approach, Chinese secondary teachers of English, a mixed methods study, teaching theory and practice

Introduction In the recent East Asia region, concepts of communicative language teaching (CLT) and task-based language teaching approach (TBLT) gain popularity for education policies (Nunan, 2003). For example, in 2001, the new round national curriculum innovation was launched by the Chinese government, and TBLT was advocated as a teaching approach in the official syllabus (Hu, 2005a). Six years later, Ministry of Education [MOE] (2017) acclaims that teachers should increase open task-based activities and explorative learning content, offer an opportunity for students to express their own perspectives in EFL context, encourage students to learn to cooperate with peers, improve their capabilities of communication. But what the document promotes maybe not corresponds to what teachers practice. Indeed, though with the wide promotion in Asian area, the suitability of TBLT in this context is in great need (Nunan, 2003) as the traditional presentation-practice-production (P-P-P) approach is still more preferable for a lot of teachers in this context (Tang, 2004; Tong, 2005). According to Richards and Rodgers (2001, p. 228), “tasks are believed to foster a process of negotiation, modification, rephrasing and experimentation that are at the heart of second language learning”. However, whether TBLT is feasible in Asian EFL settings still needs to be verified (Carless, 2009). At the present China, although the amount of research on TBLT in the secondary L2 English classrooms has increased since the past decades (Carless, 2012), there is still rather little on its specific implementation in secondary L2 English writing classrooms. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 12

Therefore, the present research adds to this line of studies and seeks to shed light on the practical implementation of TBLT in L2 English writing classrooms in Chinese senior secondary schools, to examine its perceived suitability and adaptations in the context. In the research, perspectives from senior secondary teachers and learners will be provided through a mixed research design via leading interviews and additional questionnaire methods.

Literature Review Task-based language teaching Task-based language teaching (TBLT), a member of the communicative language teaching (CLT) family, follows the key role played by communicative tasks (Wen, 2019). In TBLT, the basic concept for designing a linguistic program or a lesson is called “task” (Ellis, 2009). A pedagogic task was defined as “a piece of classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning, and in which the intention is to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form” (Nunan, 2004, p. 4) The aim of the task was to activate students to use a range of language functions and structures including making suggestions, agreeing, disagreeing, talking about quantity, how much/ how many, wh-questions, and so on (Nunan, 2004, p. 21). In terms of classroom practice, according to Nunan (2004), there are seven rules in task based classrooms: supportive materials and lectures, related or unrelated tasks, language recycling, active learning, target language use, a mixture of language form, function and meaning, reflection and a transmission from reproducing to creating.In a task based classroom, Ellis (2003, p. 20) put forward a framework for task-based lesson designs with three “stages of task cycle” as a chronology of task-based lesson (see Table1). The pre-task stage is a stage that prepares students for the later tasks by introducing these tasks, making requirements clear and ensuring that students clearly know what the following tasks require them to do and be ready psychologically; the during task phase is a stage that engages a particular number of students in real communicative tasks in a particular duration to use the target language and produce outcome; the post-task phase is a stage for feedback and correction and reinforcement. In order to distinguish a pedagogic task from a common teaching activity, Ellis (2009) put forward four specific standards: meaning-focus, learning gap for communication, opinion expression or meaning inference, various tools for task completion and outcome statement. These standards make the pedagogic task in task-based classrooms distinctive from a common deed in usual classrooms. In practice, there are two forms of TBLT, the strong form and weak form that needs to be differentiated (Carless, 2007; Shehan,1996). The strong one admits the significance of meaning-making in real word context and highlights authentic tasks, while the weak form is not so strict with the above requirements but allow various tasks to enhance language communication.

TBLT in Chinese secondary schools It is claimed that Chinese senior secondary schools should take into account the design of tasks with seven factors: clear objectives, practical meanings, information reception, management and delivery, English use, doing things, a specific outcome and students’ life experience and interests (MOE, 2017).In fact, the implementation of TBLT in Chinese secondary contexts is confronted with considerable challenges, mainly including the exam system, teachers’ knowledge and attitudes and classroom management (Wen, 2019; Xu, Liu & Jiang, 2008; Zheng & Adamson, 2003; Zheng & Borg, 2014). In fact, the biggest and constant barrier against the International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 13

localization of TBLT in China may be the exam system, which will strongly impact the suitability of TBLT and thus teachers’ attitudes. Willis and Willis (2012) pointed out that TBLT had been regarded as inappropriate to prepare examinations and it was claimed to lack priority over the instructions of grammatical knowledge. Therefore, for some national systems, it might be more productive to enhance the effectiveness of P-P-P rather than introducing TBLT (Carless, 2009, p. 63). Another obstacle stems from teachers’ limited knowledge of TBLT on its basic theory and practice. Chen and Wright (2016) supported that not all secondary school instructors were capable to employ tasks in teaching, particularly for novice teachers, and most teachers reported lack of inner confidence in utilizing tasks. Moreover, Wen (2019) doubted that some of the English teachers who claimed to employ TBLT in their classroom actually hadn’t carefully studied this theory, nor would they blend teaching practice, research and textbook compilation together and devote themselves to the localization of TBLT. A third obstacle stems from management of classes, particularly large-size ones, which is widespread in China. According to Zheng and Borg (2014), it was hard for the teachers to keep their large classes disciplined, quiet and orderly which were inclined to become noisy quite easily in Chinese secondary schools. To address the above issues, adaptations should be made to the current context and task- based teaching support should be provided with training, materials and assessment system. It is suggested that a weak version of TBLT, a “situated task-based approach”, was required in this context: the role of grammar instruction, tasks and examinations are blended and adapted to support each other (Carless, 2007), with a tasked based exam system built to enhance this communicative method (Davison, 2007) and with a more efficient assessment system (Xu et al., 2008). In addition, Xu et al. (2008) suggested that teachers’ education conceptions should be updated and sufficient training courses should be supplied in time. And Wen (2019) publications about proper implementation of TBLT are in great need in China.. Besides, it is necessary to acknowledge teachers’ teaching autonomy in secondary schools so that they can blend authentic tasks in classrooms as they like (Chen & Wright, 2016). Thus, despite the fact that TBLT has gained a widespread acknowledgement from policymakers, educators and teachers, it is undoubted that they also need to address many challenges to localize it and obtain sufficient support from education institutes.

Second language (L2) writing teaching To classify diverse paths to teach L2 writing, according to Barkaoui (2007), there are three focuses as per what students are required to gain for a successful essay in a second language.The first text-oriented category considers L2 writing improvement in the light of the features of the produced texts. As per this direction, an efficient writer is required to learn the spelling, lexical rules, dictionaries, sentence structure, passage and rhetorical routines of the second language (Barkaoui, 2007). Secondly, the process-oriented category regards the learning of L2 writing as the learning of effective writing strategies (Barkaoui, 2007). They include macro-strategies like scheduling, making a draft and correcting, and micro-strategies like simultaneously concentrating on content and form, and automatically searching for lexical and syntactic ingredients (Cumming, 2001).Lastly, the sociocultural dimension considers the composing improvement as the acquisition of the text types, concepts, and activities of the audience, which highlights the significance of setting and target audience in the course of L2 writing learning (Barkaoui, 2007). The text-oriented dimension is compatible with the widespread traditional teaching method or specifically the P-P-P method in Chinese secondary English writing classrooms, while the sociocultural and especially the process-oriented directions are suitable in a task-based International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 14

writing classroom. This combination has been increasingly welcomed by many pioneer teachers. However, the sociocultural approach may be sometimes ignored by teachers in a conventional or an innovative classroom because of lack of time or inadequate consciousness in an L2 English writing classroom.

TBLT in L2 English writing classrooms In recent years, a series of studies have started to investigate the effectiveness of TBLT on English writing classrooms, but mostly at a tertiary level (Ahmed, Jamilah & Bidin, 2016; Marashi & Mirghafari, 2019; Sundari, Febriyanti & Saragih, 2018). For example, Ahmed et al. (2016) indicated that task-based instruction was more effective than the traditional type in terms of freshmen’s L2 English writing performance as per complexity, fluency and accuracy. Also, Tabar and Alavib (as cited in Sundari et al., 2018) argued that task-planning had a positive effect on participants’ performance in personal and decision-making tasks, and concluded that planning via cooperation vitally had facilitated EFL students’ writing ability in general. Thus, it may be obvious that TBLT was significantly effective in improving adults’ L2 English writing performance in tertiary classrooms. In addition, findings from reflective journals suggested that most learners considered TBLT as the most interesting method since it enabled them to make use of existing linguistic resources (Ahmed et al., 2016). Therefore, TBLT not only outstands in educational experiments in contrast to the traditional method, but also tends to be supported by EFL learners in colleges and universities. It is the same case when it comes to Chinese context. In China, TBLT has been proved to be more effective in improving students’ English writing performance than the traditional method in the context of senior secondary school, senior secondary vocational school and university (Fang, 2013; Ji, 2014; Wang & Wang, 2015; Wu & He, 2014). For example, Ji (2014) argued that senior secondary schoolers in the experiment group (task-based writing group) achieved 40% higher scores than those in the control group (traditional writing group). This study also indicated that TBLT contributed to motivate students to write, increase their confidence in writing and raise their awareness of cooperation in learning writing. In addition, Wu and He (2014) found that both lexical tokens and density in the writings of vocational secondary students in task-based writing classrooms were significantly higher than those in P-P-P writing classrooms. In other words, students in task-based writing lessons were more likely to produce writings with more varied words and lexical words. According to Wang and Wang (2015), considerably larger proportion of university students in task-based experimental group than the control group considered writing classrooms satisfied due to their salient improvement in terms of content points and vocabulary use. Thus, task-based writing classrooms could enhance Chinese secondary and tertiary students’ writing attainment, boost their confidence and strengthen their satisfaction in writing and writing lessons. However, there are still little research on this topic in Chinese context as only the above four studies and few others are accessible and relevant to Chinese task-based writing teaching at present. Furthermore, all the above studies were investigations on the effectiveness of TBLT in comparison to the traditional pattern while few mention the in-depth opinions and interpretations of Chinese teachers of English. According to Willis and Willis (2012, p. 188), “even though TBLT has become increasingly recognized as an effective pedagogy, its location in generalized socio-cultural theories of learning has led to misunderstandings and criticisms”. And “there were actually a number of factors challenging large-scale adoption of TBLT in Chinese context” (Carless, 2009, p. 62). Hence, it is much needed that we investigate what secondary teachers of English and their students in Chinese context are thinking of this innovation. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 15

Therefore, the current study will explore the suitability and domestication of TBLT in senior secondary English writing classrooms by carrying out a small scale study in the context of five senior secondary schools in three less developed cities of southern China as these cities are more common than metropolises in China.

Research Questions

Q1. To what extent is TBLT suitable for senior secondary writing classrooms in Chinese secondary schools? Q2. What adaptation can be made to increase the feasibility of TBLT in senior secondary writing classrooms in Chinese secondary schools?

Method Design To address the research questions, an exploratory sequential design, with dominant qualitative and supportive quantitative approaches, was carried out in the current study to gain a wide range of triangulated data, combining individual interviews and questionnaires. According to Creswell (2012, p. 535), a mixed method design is a procedure in collecting, analyzing and mixing both quantitative and qualitative methods in a single study or a series of studies to understand a research problem. A mixed method research provides a better understanding of how effective developed task-based materials for writing class are and in what aspect of writing skill is more effective. Thus, research tools are more reliable and valid in a mixed method research (MMR) as opposed to a single paradigm (Zohrabi, 2013).

Participants Participants in this study were 6 secondary teachers of L2 English (referred as Teacher A, B, C, D, E and F) and their students chosen via convenience and snowball sampling, which could be inclined to bias but offer feasibility and convenience (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2017). In the process of sample selection, teaching backgrounds such as training experience, teaching grades, teaching experience, and dwelling city were taken into consideration in order to make sure participants were a set of representative samples of senior secondary teachers of L2 English in Chinese southern average-developed cities. As shown in Table 2, six teacher participants were selected from three modestly developed cities in southern China, where school education hasn’t developed as fast as those in metropolitans. Though most teachers in these cities would have been trained before their teaching practice, they usually found themselves stuck in both students’ low achievement and lack of teaching development. Among them, two had teaching experiences of about 5 years in high schools, two over 10 years and two about half year. Five in six teachers were teaching English in 2 classes in a term with only one teaching one class. Besides, 148 students (56 males and 92 females; 27 10th graders, 31 11th graders and 90 12th graders) taught by these teachers, senior secondary school learners learning English as a second language in the less developed cities, were also participants in this study. In particular, most of them were low-achievers in English examinations. These teacher participants were asked to have a semi-structured interview with the researcher while student participants were required to respond to an online questionnaire on English writing classrooms. Prior to this study, an information sheet and consent form were sent to all participants to get their permission to participate in this study.

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 16

Instruments A. Teacher interview Semi-structured interview is a widespread and efficient tool to explore teachers or educators’ opinions and attitudes on task-based teaching in a qualitative study (e.g., Carless, 2009; Chen & Wright, 2016; Zheng & Borg, 2014), which helps to gain a thorough and in-depth emic view on participants’ viewpoints. Based on the interview protocol in Carless (2007), a semi- structured interview protocol was adapted by the researcher in this study (see Appendix 2) to carry out online interviews with senior secondary teachers of English from several schools in a Chinese southern city. This protocol first started with a framework of open questions and allowed new questions to arise according to what interviewees had said. In the study, semi-structured interview contributed to dig out teachers’ understandings and interpretations of TBLT in English classrooms and specifically in English writing classrooms in senior secondary schools. However, some interviewees might not tell the truth or hide some truth because of the interview attitude or face problem. Thus, the researcher was patient to make interviewees feel safe and verify the immediate interpretations in interviews. Further, in order to improve the validity of the qualitative data, member check was conducted by sending the final report back to interviewees to examine its accuracy; a rich, thick description, as well as contradictory evidence were presented in results part (Creswell, 2014, p. 201-202). Meanwhile, steps in procedures of case studies would be documented as detailed as possible (Yin, 2009; as cited in Creswell, 2014), and the transcripts of recordings and definitions of codes would be checked repeatedly in order to improve the reliability of the qualitative data (Gibbs, 2007; as cited in Creswell, 2014).

B. Teacher questionnaire and student questionnaire Two online questionnaires were produced by the researcher (see Appendix 1 and 3), one for teacher interviewees and another for their students. The first one in English was sent prior to semi-structured interviews to get teachers’ teaching background information first, like “How many years have you been an English teacher at high schools?”. To follow semi-structured interviews, another questionnaire in Chinese was sent to interviewees’ students to obtain learners’ attitudes and opinions towards task-based writing classrooms to triangulate teachers’ perceptions and suggestions. Its questions consisted of 4 parts, including background information questions (4 items) like “What’s your type of class, key class or parallel class?”, 5-point Likert Scale questions (5 items) on attitudes like “Do you enjoy teacher-centered instructive English writing classes?” rated from “Not at all”(1) to “Very much”(5), interview-based multiple-choice questions (5 items) like “Which section do you prefer in an English writing class?” with interview-based answers like “teachers’ explanation”, “doing exercises” or “group discussion” and last an open question on suggestions asking “Do you have any questions if your English teacher is going to conduct interactive activities in an writing class?”. Here, multiple-choice questions provided verification to the 5-point Likert Scale ones. However, it couldn’t be guaranteed that all students of interviewees would respond to this interview, which was unavoidable. The composite reliability of the questionnaire items was .779, indicating acceptable reliability.

Procedure First, a questionnaire was answered by 6 teacher interviewees before the semi-structured interviews. Then each teacher participant had an individual semi-structured interview with the researcher and each interview lasted from about half an hour to about 1 hour. During the interviews, questions were asked by the resarcher based on the interview protocol (see Appendix International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 17

2) and further questions were asked based on interviewees’ answers. In the process, the researcher would identify inconsistent descriptions and confirmed the real one by asking a similar question from another perspective. The interview would be recorded during the interview, transcribed within 24 hours in mandarin Chinese, then translated into English, and coded by the researcher to elicit insightful points about teachers’ perspectives of the implementation and suitability of task-based writing lessons. Also, quick notes on key statements would be collected during the interview to support the later notes from the transcriptions and coding. Meanwhile, a questionnaire was responded by the secondary student subjects. Data from this questionnaire would be collected, analyzed and compared with that from interviews to support or reject teachers’ views when it came to the second research question. Overall, although the samples might not represent the entire picture of views in southern China, I believed that the data from 6 carefully selected interviewees and their students were sufficient to offer a diversity of in-depth views and rich interpretations on the practical implementation and suitability of task-based teaching approach in secondary English writing classrooms.

Data Analysis Data from teacher questionnaire and the interview were collected and analyzed in an inductive and qualitative way. In the process, emergent thematic analysis (Mackey & Gass, 2005) was used. The transcripts for each interviewee were set apart as per the questions in the interview protocol (see Appendix 2), and then checked again for emergent themes and patterns for comparison to verify common or different conceptions and arrangement across teacher subjects. Data from student questionnaire were analyzed in an inductive and quantitative way.

Results Teacher questionnaire Two teachers had taught English in senior secondary schools for less than 2 years, two around 5 years and two over 10 years (see Table 2). Most of them except one had been trained as an English teacher prior to teaching life. As demonstrated by Table 2, most English learners except those in Teacher E’s class were low achievers in school English exams, which implied that most of the students in the study had a low level of English language proficiency.

Semi-structured interview A. Teachers’ interpretations of TBLT Two consistent themes turned up from the process of data analysis: the definition of TBLT and task, and strengths and weaknesses of TBLT. Variance was found among interviewees when asked to describe about TBLT and “task”. Their answers were summarized in Table 3. as shown in Table 3, almost no teachers could interpret TBLT or task thoroughly, but saw TBLT as a classroom activity to involve students, and sometimes group work. And most agreed that TBLT was learner-centered and required teachers’ comment after task completion, and more suitable in reading classrooms. Half teachers emphasized student interaction, scaffolding for task completion, antecedent explanation of tasks and purpose for language improvement. In other words, these teachers may know about TBLT only to some degree, and perhaps most are not clear about it, as Some teachers perhaps can’t come up with proper tasks to match the teaching content some time or they don’t take students’ reactions as priorities but are more concerned about whether they complete the teaching of learning objectives. Honestly, only a few around me would International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 18

pay attention to the upgrade of teaching methods. (Teacher B) Teachers around me are too overwhelmed by routine teaching, homework correction, school scrutiny and other management work to explore innovative teaching approaches. Besides, age may be a big thing here as novice teachers have great initiative in learning new things while those over 40 perhaps can’t afford to learn or know about a brand-new teaching approach. (Teacher C) In terms of advantages of TBLT, as shown in Table 4, most teacher participants mentioned students’ greater interest as half referred to effective teaching of learning objectives and student involvement, as it Can motivate the students for they will get bored if listening to teachers for a long time and it seems that students can learn well in a task-based classroom. (Teacher B) Helps teachers and students know exactly what they need to do. I think this approach is ok in secondary English classrooms since the students are required to learn independently in a task-based class. That’s presently required by the education bureau. (Teacher D) Can reduce learners’ resistance against English learning and raise students’ interest in English because this innovation is learner-centered, takes advantage of learners’ strengths and thus tend to involve students more effectively. (Teacher F) When it comes to disadvantages of TBLT, as shown in Table 5, most teacher interviewees reported the restrictions from students’ averagely low English proficiency, as In a task-based classroom, teachers can’t input adequate language knowledge, which students truly long for and need to obtain. Weaker and shy students with scanty vocabulary are common in our class and would be passive in such a communicative classroom as they would have difficulty understanding basic language points when led by instructors. Beside, secondary learners may have adapted to traditional classrooms. (Teacher C) Most students cannot follow the guidance and meet the requirements of tasks in my class. They would not listen to or cannot follow teachers’ explanation in a traditional lesson, not to mention a leaner-centered one. They lack vocabulary and grammatical knowledge greatly. (Teacher D)

B. Teachers’ beliefs on the suitability of TBLT in task-based writing classrooms Two themes emerged in the data analysis on this topic: usual teaching practice in writing classrooms, and feasibility of task-based writing classrooms. Firstly, when asked what they usually did in an English writing classroom, all teacher interviewees consistently reported the utilization of the traditional method and little use of task design in a secondary writing classroom, as: We usually instruct the language points of topic words, sentence patterns and writing steps in an English writing classroom while tasks or classroom games are seldom used in this context. We generally concentrate on grammar review and exercise practice instead of English communication in a graduating year 12 English classroom. (Teacher C) We focus on sentence making, essay writing, content instruction and example correction in examination-oriented English writing classrooms. Usually, we only have limited amount of time in a lesson, so we seldom use tasks but ask learners to write as soon as instructed. (Teacher B ) Our English writing classrooms are mostly teacher-centered and focus on sentence making, correction and corrective feedback, but students may still fail or refuse to follow teachers in such a less challenging traditional classroom. (Teacher D) Secondly, almost all of the interviewees except Teacher C were positive about the International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 19

suitability of TBLT in overall Chinese context, for example: It is feasible in the majority of places. (Teacher A) TBLT is certainly feasible in the local context and it is great to make students learn through English use. (Teacher B) This approach is definitely feasible in our context and actually many teachers around me are using it. (Teacher F) However, in the specific context of their secondary writing classrooms, all interviewees were pessimists towards TBLT, doubting the suitability and feasibility of this innovation due to students’ low proficiency, student introverted characteristics, examination system and unnecessity of tasks, and thus presently insisting on the use of the traditional teacher-centered approach to teach writing, claiming that: TBLT is not suitable for considerably low-achievers in parallel classes who can’t understand basic learning content, not to mention be engaged in task-based classroom, who greatly lack with vocabulary and wouldn’t speak English in classrooms; and few of whom would finish the tasks, which would exhaust and frustrate teachers. It is a waste of time when a majority of students look at each other with confusion, unwilling to communicate, and fail to complete the task whereas students actually can learn something in a traditional classroom. (Teacher A) TBLT can be used in year 10 and 11, but it may be impractical to utilize it in a year-12 English writing classroom since the input and enhancement of language points are the priorities to prepare students for the university entrance examinations. (Teacher B) If we have out-going students who have a certain level of English knowledge, this method will be used successfully and achieve a satisfying outcome, but the fact is almost the opposite. Most students in my class are rather shy and not good at expressing ideas in English. (Teacher C) Tasks are impractical, infeasible in the context because they aren’t suitable for all students, ignoring the need and abilities of some students. It’s almost impossible for them to prepare a small public speech in several minutes. This approach is only suitable in English classrooms in megacities or only public classes in the context of small cities. I don’t believe my students can finish the tasks nor can they adapt to this approach at a night. Most importantly, these activities are unnecessary in English writing classrooms. (Teacher E) Unlike reading class, TBLT is unsuitable in secondary English writing classes which had better focus on instructions and practice as secondary students in my classrooms now can’t write in English fluently and correctly. We can only use instruction-based class(Teacher F) Thus, it was a complicated case here in Chinese less developed city. Teachers might be positive about this innovation, but implementation was another issue. And some were even skeptical of the effectiveness of TBLT teaching approach, as Low-level achievers in less developed areas would do better in a traditional writing classroom in comparison to an innovative one. My experiences have proved it. (Teacher C) Students won’t lag behind too far away if following teachers step by step in a traditional classroom, otherwise some low-achievers would fail to catch up with others and give up listening in a task-based class. (Teacher C) Apart from the above three factors, there might be another issue that hindered the feasibility of TBLT in English writing classrooms, the teachers’ knowledge about TBLT, for example: I suppose there are a considerable number of novice teachers, maybe half in our school who may find this teaching approach difficult to carry out in their classes. (Teacher B) Many teachers are not familiar with this approach and won’t take risk implementing it before ready. (Teacher E) International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 20

Thus, most teachers in this research didn’t consider TBLT suitable in their secondary writing classrooms, and some didn’t think there was room for TBLT and even adaptations for it.

C. Teachers’ beliefs on adaptation for task-based writing classrooms Two themes emerged in the data analysis on this topic: positive strategy and reasons behind students’ low achievement. When it came to strategy to adapt TBLT in English writing class, teachers emphasized the significance of the practicality of tasks in terms of task complexity, task types, language support, student needs and teaching coherence, as well as teaching discussion, incentive mechanism, teaching profession and pilot teaching, claiming that: Task complexity must be adjusted to the English knowledge of students. So it is necessary to discuss about it in teaching meetings to ensure that different levels of complex tasks be assigned to students of varied English proficiency. Besides, to motivate students to involve themselves in task completion, an competitive incentive mechanism should be designed to make them competitive. (Teacher A) Teachers should be concerned about whether the task is practical in a writing class, how a task can be used in the class and how to raise students’ interest in task completion. Besides, teachers should make sure the fluent use of tasks in writing classrooms and all the teaching steps are coherent in the whole class, which is solvable in most cases. Also, a variety of tasks instead of only one type of task should be utilized in class to engage students more effectively. (Teacher B) It is better to localize it as too learner-centered may cause may problems, so teachers need to increase assistance in such an interactive classroom. Besides, learners should be mentally encouraged to speak English and remove their shyness. Designed tasks must be feasible and adjusted to students abilities and led by teachers step by step otherwise students can only look at it and sigh. (Teacher C) Teachers should try their best to know details about this innovation. It is unreasonable to promote it in a short term. In the long run, pilot teaching should be arranged to check students’ reactions and this approach can’t be implemented until satisfying results emerge. (Teacher E) In addition, teacher participants also referred to the factors behind students’ common low attainment in English, learning history and family influence: These senior secondary students are low achievers in English because they didn’t learn well in junior secondary levels and failed to fill this gap in the recent years. Besides, the high achievers have been selected by several celebrated high schools with most low achievers left behind for other schools like ours. (Teacher C) My students don’t hate English but they also don’t like it. They haven’t learn English well since at a young age and felt helpless when failed. Families’ perceptions play a role in their initiative in learning English, too. (Teacher D)

Questionnaire data A. Students’ beliefs on writing classrooms According to the 148 questionnaire responses from students respondents in the study (see Table 3), half of all respondents had conservative attitudes towards the writing classrooms while about 30% enjoyed the features of this innovation. Also, in terms of concerns in a writing classrooms, half students hoped that teachers could emphasize vocabulary and grammar knowledge while half were willing to have a more interesting writing class, and 21% showed objections towards interaction in writing classroom. In terms of reasons behind their improvement in writing performance, the majority of students valued clear instruction from teachers, 57% referred to upgrade of vocabulary while 54% thought highly of interest in writing International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 21

classrooms. This quantitative finding was consistent with that from semi-structured interviews, which suggested that clear instructions on language knowledge and examinations were of most significance, and some teachers also regarded this innovation as useful and effective when used appropriately.

B. Students’ suggestion on effective writing classrooms When giving advice on improving their writing classrooms, the majority show indifference saying “I don’t know” or “I think it is already ok” while about 30% respondents mentioned teachers’ more focus on basic language knowledge, and 18% hoped for a more interesting and interactive writing classrooms. The indifference answers might be because of the low English proficiency, lack of confidence or passive attitudes. However, the above results still supported that in semi-structured interviews which found that knowledge instructions suited their classroom most and TBLT did have some advantages.

Discussion In summary, the above rich, thick results yielded two main findings: 1) TBLT might be recently unsuitable for Chinese senior secondary writing classrooms; 2) suggested adaptions included proper task design, incentive measures, pilot implementation and profession development that would facilitate successful and fluent implementation of this innovation in the context. Responding to question 1, it was unreasonable to say TBLT now suited for English writing classrooms in Chinese senior secondary school context. Indeed, all interviewees in the study admitted that they mainly adopted the traditional method in a usual senior secondary English writing class in a text-oriented dimension (Barkaoui, 2007), when focusing on the teaching of vocabulary, grammar, mainly sentence construction, and perhaps paragraph and passage production. And mixed methods data indicated that the implementation of traditional teaching method catered to both instructors and learners in this context. Further, most interviewees regarded TBLT unsuitable, even unnecessary in their senior secondary writing classrooms in practice due to the realities. However, surprisingly, TBLT was recognized as culturally suitable in Chinese classrooms by almost all teachers in the study. And some teachers and learners still valued this innovation. Thus, though perceived as unsuitable, a task based EFL writing class still had a place in Chinese secondary classrooms. Responding to question 2, there were four measures suggested in the study to ensure the feasibility and improve the suitability of tasks. Firstly, teachers should consider task complexity, task types, teacher support, student needs and teaching coherence, taking students’ proficiency, teaching objectives, involvement of the whole class into account when designing task-based lesson, which could be further discussed in teaching counsels. Secondly, an incentive mechanism should be put forward to raise students’ interest and engagement in task completion. Thirdly, pilot practice of senior secondary task-based writing classrooms was a must before its widespread implementation, to ensure that the utility of TBLT had adequate premise. In that case, pilot practice could examine students’ attitude and abilities to complete task and fully prepare them in task-based instructions. Lastly, many Chinese senior secondary teachers needed to develop their profession such as getting a whole picture of TBLT (Ellis, 2009; Nunan, 2004) before implementing tasks in the teaching of secondary writing. This included how to design a task- based lesson (Ellis, 2003), how to implement tasks as per four specific standards in Nunan (2004) and how to make them feasible and effective in secondary writing classrooms. In this process, International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 22

guidance of task design and control was in great need at present (Wen, 2019). However, qualitative results suggested that teachers were too busy with daily routine work to upgrade their profession and the aged teachers might not have sufficient time nor energy to keep upgrading themselves. A report of the findings was sent back to teacher interviewees and three randomly selected respondents and all of them agreed with the findings, improving the accuracy of data. Findings indicated that the teacher-centered approach tended to function better in current Chinese senior secondary classrooms where most students, especially those in graduating level, were faced with high pressure from examination competition. This finding backed up many previous studies (Carless, 2009; Willis & Willis, 2012; Zheng & Borg, 2014). For example, Carless (2009) pointed out that strengthening instructive P-P-P method might be more profitable that trying the communicative TBLT in context of some exam systems, and Willis and Willis (2012) argued that tasks had been considered as improper to prepare learners for examinations, away from the focus of grammar instructions. Additionally, Zheng and Borg (2014) claimed that the implementation of TBLT would consume too much time to make learners acquire adequate language knowledge in a lesson to achieve good attainment. Thus, we could claim that the traditional teaching method was likely to be more effective and popular in non only Chinese English classrooms but also specifically the senior secondary L2 writing classrooms. Besides, the popularity of the teacher-centered method were also ascribed to students’ low proficiency of basic L2 writing skills and shyness characteristic which supported Hu (2005 a) which stressed that most secondary learners in Chinese less developed cities had considerably low level of English attainment as they were likely to lack exposure to English-using environment and find university or college entrance examination the only reason to learn English (Hu, 2005a). Also, findings showed that these senior secondary students hadn’t learnt English well since they were at a primary school or junior secondary school, leaving a huge knowledge gap between their English knowledge and their school level. Thus, as a learner-centered approach, TBLT may not have the “right” learners in the context of Chinese senior secondary writing classrooms in small cities. Also, the overwhelming withdrawal from TBLT might be due to teacher profession. The research found that most teachers in the study actually had a vague picture of TBLT, which supported previous studies (Willis & Willis, 2012; Chen & Wright, 2016; Wen, 2019). For example, Willis and Willis (2012) emphasized the difficulties for some secondary teachers like in-service teachers in using tasks properly in English classrooms and Chen and Wright (2016) indicated that a large proportion of Chinese secondary teachers were unconfident in employing them in English classrooms. Further, Wen (2019) speculated that some teachers who thought they were using TBLT actually didn’t implement it appropriately. Thus, teacher profession development had been blocked by some practical issues and then had hindered the suitability of TBLT in the context, to some extent. Additionally, the lack of suitability of TBLT in the context may be related to the type of English class, writing class, where TBLT was perceived as redundant or unsuitable. This was consistent with Ellis (2003) which indicated that it was almost impossible to timely monitor every students’ task completion and gave detailed corrective feedbacks to them in a 40-minute task-based English classroom when encouraging students to prepare for English report in a short time. This was true especially when weaker students might have more detailed spelling or grammatical errors and prefer a teaching approach for all but not for some students. However, the perceived unsuitability of TBLT writing class contradicted previous studies like Ji (2014). This might be because Ji (2014) had more advanced EFL senior secondary students in a more developed city. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 23

Overall, though senior secondary teachers had overall positive attitudes towards TBLT to some degree and a certain proportion of learners valued classroom interest, most teachers didn’t believe the practicality of this innovation in the teaching of specific L2 skills, English writing, nor did they presently implement it in practice. This finding was consistent with a series of previous studies on TBLT in Chinese overall English classrooms (Wen, 2019; Xu et al., 2008; Zheng & Adamson, 2003; Zheng & Borg, 2014). For example, Carless (2007, 2009) similarly found that teachers preferred traditional test-oriented method compared with TBLT, regarding the former more effective. Also, the acknowledgement of TBLT in China culture supported many previous studies, like Chen and Wright (2016), which stated that teachers in secondary schools were generally positive towards TBLT. But this study expanded the field from EFL teaching to EFL writing teaching and specified the context in a representative less developed areas in China. However, the above findings contradicted many previous quantitative studies like Ahmed et al. (2016), Ji (2014), and Wu and He (2014). These empirical studies found that task-based English writing classrooms were more effective than the traditional one as per learners’ productive achievement in the context of overseas tertiary, Chinese secondary and Chinese vocational secondary writing classrooms, respectively. But these researchers didn’t specifically mention the English proficiency of students in their studies. The contradiction may be due to the age of university participants in Ahmed et al. (2016) and the students’ English proficiency in Ji (2014) and teachers’ profession in task design and implementation in Wu and He (2014). We could infer that TBLT might have the potential to improve secondary learners’ writing performance more efficiently than the traditional teaching method, but on the condition that students had a certain level of communicative ability in English and teachers had the capability of designing and employing appropriate tasks. Meanwhile, even though TBLT was not as effective and popular as the traditional teaching method in the context of the present research, classroom interest was regarded by student respondents as the third facilitator to achieve writing improvement, following clear instruction and vocabulary increase. This conformed to the advantages reported by teacher interviewees, increasing learners’ interest, initiatives and engagement in class. Thus, though not as effective as traditional method, TBLT is still needed to match student needs. To balance the mainstream need of basic language knowledge instruction and the additional requirement to make writing classroom more interesting, a weak form of task-based language teaching approach (Shehan,1996; Carless, 2007) was suggested in this context. It meant that teacher-centered and text-oriented (Barkaoui, 2007) instruction and practice played a dominant role while learner-centered and process-oriented (Barkaoui, 2007) teaching was supportive in a senior secondary English (L2) writing classrooms. In other words, tasks could be used to assist the instruction of language knowledge to improve students’ performance in exams (Carless, 2007). It seemed that a weak task-based language teaching approach might be the most effective way to teach English writing, with grammar instruction dominant and TBLT feasible in the context. As such, the traditional text-oriented method would be mainly adopted to make sure clear and explicit instruction of language knowledge while process-oriented task-based language teaching approach be added to stimulate students’ interest and involvement. Therefore, future reach could be conducted on the implementation of the weak form of Task-based writing class in the field of L2 writing teaching.

Conclusion Though TBLT has been globally recognized as an effective L2 teaching approach and become the orthodox in English teaching in China, it is another issue when it comes to practical International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 24

implementation in the domestic context. Findings in the current investigation indicated that TBLT still lacked suitability and feasibility as a dominant teaching approach in the teaching of senior secondary English writing in Chinese small cities, due to practical issues about students, teachers, class type and the exam system. Besides, findings also suggested that adaptive actions, including careful task design, teaching discussion, motive mechanism and teachers’ profession development, could be taken to guarantee effective and successful implementation of TBLT in the context. While previous literature claimed that TBLT was more effective than traditional teaching method in the teaching of writing in Chinese secondary and tertiary EFL classrooms, and overseas tertiary EFL classrooms, this study provided empirically in-dept evidence from secondary teachers and students, revealing that TBLT actually seemed unfeasible in the context at least at the moment. It did contribute to explore the internal views and attitudes of in-service secondary writing teachers and their students, which helped to give a hint on whether TBLT were adopting as promoted by the authority and why it was turned down in Chinese EFL writing classrooms. In that case, this study also offered realistic suggestions on adaptations to localize TBLT in the context. The above findings implied that there were actually a series of practical issues in the way to its successful and feasible implementation as imposed by the Ministry of Education, which were impossible to circumvent and entailed immediate and patient measures to resolve. As such, a weak form of task-based writing classrooms might be more localized and effective than a strong one or the sole traditional method in Chinese EFL senior secondary context, combining the advantages of both language instruction and pedagogic tasks as attractors, prompters and motives for learners. It also indicated that education authorities had better publish guidance materials to inform how to implement TBLT properly and effectively and developed a localized national or municipal syllabus based on local pedagogic conditions. And school authorities should arrange sufficient teaching training courses to update teacher profession and therefore ensure effective use of this innovation. I recommend that future L2 investigators replicate this investigation to further justify generalizability of my findings to other social or cultural settings, different school levels in the teaching of L2 writing. Besides, it would be productive if future researchers investigate the relationship between TBLT and Chinese secondary writing, in both qualitative and quantitative ways. Also, future researcher can study the suitability and effectiveness of a weak form of Tasked based EFL or L2 writing classroom. In addition, since teachers’ individual differences like teaching profession may also play a part in interpretations and implementation of TBLT, I present that other researchers consider these features to scrutinize the suitability and feasibility of TBLT in Chinese secondary context. In the future, if the education authorities were serious about the study, they would add more feasible details and materials as guidance for enormous secondary EFL teachers stuck in actual implementation of TBLT and promoted this innovation in a more cautious and practical way. However, the current study confronted some limitations. First, classroom observation could have supported the interview findings, but it was not allowed in the current situation. Alternatively, opinions from learners of teacher interviewees were collected to give a triangulated view to justify the interview outcomes. Also, as a common limitation of a qualitative study, generalizations were unlikely to be achieved in this study but I believe this research still provides insightful clues about the present, practical implementation of TBLT in the teaching of English writing in Chinese senior secondary schools in average developed cities.

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English Literature, 7(3), 119-124. Wang, Q. W. & Wang, X. (2015). Study on teaching efficiency of task-based English writing classrooms. Journal of Heze University, 37(1), 83-86. Wen, Q. F. (2019). Foreign language teaching theories in China in the past 70 years. Foreign Language in China, 16(91), 14-22. Willis, D., & Willis, J. (2012). Doing task-based teaching. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 2007) Wu, R. & He, X. J. (2014). The effects of TBLT on lexical richness in ESL students’ writing. Overseas English, (July), 82-83. Xu, J., Liu, F., & Jiang, M. (2008). Task-based language teaching: From the practical perspective. International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering 2008 (pp. 1054-1057), Piscataway, America. Zheng, X., & Borg, S. (2014). Task-based learning and teaching in China: Secondary school teachers' beliefs and practices. Language Teaching Research, 18(2), 205-221. Zheng, X. M., & Adamson, B. (2003). The Pedagogy of a Secondary School Teacher of English in the People's Republic of China: Challenging the Stereotypes. RELC Journal, 34(3), 323-337. Zohrabi, M. (2013). Mixed Method Research: Instruments, Validity, Reliability and Reporting Findings. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3, 254-262. DOI: 10.4304/tpls.3.2.254-262

Appendices

Appendix 1. Teacher questionnaire. Nick name: Teaching subject: Teaching grade： Q1:how many classes are you teaching? Q2:how many years have you been an English teacher? Q3:how many years have you been an English teacher in this school? Q4: how many years have you been an English Teacher At high school? Q5: how many students in your class? Q6: how many students in each of your classes? Q7: what are the average attainment scores of English in each of your classes? Q8: have you got teacher training before working as an English teacher? If so, how long does your teacher training last?

Appendix 2. Semi-structured interview protocol for teachers. 1.In terms of English language teaching (ELT) approaches, what do you think Chinese teachers are good at doing? 2.What do teachers usually do in their English writing lessons? 3.What do you understand by the term task-based teaching? 4.How often do you use a task in your language writing classroom? 5.Can you give an example of a task you have carried out with your students in writing lessons? 6.What do you do in the post-task stage of the task cycle in writing lessons? 7.What are the positive elements of task-based teaching? International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 27

8.What are the negative elements of task-based teaching? 9.What do you think are teachers’ main objections to task-based teaching? 10.What are the main issues/problems in the classroom implementation of tasks? And in writing lessons? 11.How well do you think teachers in your school understand task-based teaching? 12.Have you been able to get your students to interact much in English in writing lessons? 13.Do you think task-based approaches put too much emphasis on oral communication? 14.To what extent are your school tests and examinations task-based? 15.Do you think examinations play a role in the acceptability of task-based approaches? 16.How do you see the relationship between task-based teaching and grammar? 17.Can you give an example of a task you integrated with grammar in writing lessons? 18.Do you think task-based approaches are culturally suitable for Chinese? 19.What might make task-based teaching more manageable or feasible for your school context? English writing classrooms?

Appendix 3. Student questionnaire. A learner questionnaire on Chinese senior secondary writing classrooms of English 1.Nickname: 2.Grade： 3.Class Type: A. Key class B. Parallel class C.weaker class 4.Average achievement in usual English exams: A.Excellent B.Merited C.Modest D.a bit bow E.very low Questions: 5.Do you like learning English? A. Not at all(1) B. not really(2) C. undecided(3) D. somewhat(4) E. very much(5) 6. Do you like English writing class? A. Not at all(1) B. not really(2) C. undecided(3) D. somewhat(4) E. very much(5) 7. Do you prefer that the teacher mainly instruct knowledge in your writing class? A. Not at all(1) B. not really(2) C. undecided(3) D. somewhat(4) E. very much(5) 8. Do you like an English writing class mainly consisting of classroom activities like group discussion, role play, or response competition? A. Not at all(1) B. not really(2) C. undecided(3) D. somewhat(4) E. very much(5) 9. What has made you like your English teacher? A. Clear and understandable instruction B. interesting class C. good looking D. patient and kind E. exam-based expertise 10. What do you like your English teacher mainly focuses on? A. Classroom activities B. key points in university entrance exams C.vocabulary D. grammar like tenses E. sentence structures 11. Do you like interacting with your teachers or other classmates? A. Not at all(1) B. not really(2) C. undecided(3) D. somewhat(4) E. very much(5) 12.. What has made you seldom speak English in your English writing class? A. Don’t know how to pronounce words B. lack of vocabulary C. be afraid of making mistakes D. Lack of collocations or sentence structures E. unwilling to speak because of other reasons 13. Do you often play games, discuss within a group or compete responding to teachers? A. Not at all(1) B. not really(2) C. undecided(3) D. somewhat(4) E. very much(5) International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 28

14. Which activities do you prefer in your English writing class? A. Tearchers’ instructions B. doing exercises C. anwering oral questions D. group discussion E. playing games like role plays 15. What do you think has improved your English writing? A. My flow in class B. my study after class C. teachers’ clear instructions D. interesting lessons E. preview 16.Do you have any suggestions if your English teacher brings activities in future English writing class?

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

A Qualitative Investigation of Students' Perceptions of Flipped learning

Shahriar Jalili, Ph.D. Candidate of TEFL, English Language Department, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran [email protected] Hamidreza Khalaji*, Assistant Professor, English Language Department, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran [email protected] Hossein Ahmadi, Assistant Professor, English Language Department, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran [email protected]

Abstract Along with growing technology, the flipped learning model has emerged as an alternative to conventional teaching methods. The present study attempted to investigate the students' perceptions of a flipped learning classroom experience contrasted with those of a non-flipped or conventional classroom. To this end, 23 Iranian EFL learners were assigned to two groups. During the first ten weeks, non-flipped teaching was applied to class A and flipped learning to class B. After the midterm, during the next ten weeks, the teaching methods were reversed. The students were interviewed in-depth about their impressions of the learning experience. Also, a questionnaire and students' portfolios were used to draw comprehensive conclusions. The qualitative analysis of data revealed four themes: flipped or non-flipped, working with technology, group commitment, and student-teacher relationship. Overall, learners had contrasting views about learning in the flipped classroom. In general, they preferred non-flipped classroom.

Keywords: Flipped classroom, students' perceptions, Bloom's taxonomy, Iranian EFL students

Introduction Educators have introduced several innovative language teaching models such as the flipped learning classroom to improve the quality of language instruction (Obari & Lambacher, 2015 Alhamami, 2018; Zainuddin and Halili, 2016).This pedagogical approach has attracted researchers looking for alternatives to conventional methods which spend considerable time explaining lesson contents, and they have insufficient time to practice the language. In flipped learning classrooms, teachers reverse traditional homework and class lecture; the learners acquire knowledge at home and put the knowledge into practice in the class (Bergmann & Sams, 2012). Teachers are increasingly using the flipped learning strategy with various methods (Flipped Learning Network, 2014) and with respect to a wide array of activities inside and out of the classroom, it can include different implementations, but research findings have not yet converged to a single implementation model for the flipped classroom to best engage students and to promote learning (O’Flaherty and Phillips, 2015). Additionally, they have carried out limited studies on potential of the flipped classroom to offer a significant improvement over more traditional teaching forms in general (Hsieh, Wu & Yang, 2017) and the use of flipped learning in relation to specific language skills in various contexts in particular. In this paper, the authors are interested in investigating the EFL students' perceptions of the learning experience in a flipped classroom contrasted with those of a conventional or non- International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 30

flipped classroom. A review of the literature reveals that a large part of the research has focused on quantitative studies or mixed methods followed by quantitative approaches (McLaughlin et al. 2014; Wilson 2013). The results of previous researches made us curious to undertake a qualitative research to find out answers to the following question: Q. How do students perceive the differences between the flipped learning and conventional classroom?

Review of Literature Theoretical foundation of flipped learning The Bloom's taxonomy and constructivism are among the theories that underlie flipped classroom learning. The bloom's taxonomy consists of six levels arranged from remembering at the lowest to creating at the highest level. First, the learners do their best to recognize and recall information presented by the instructor, and understand the main concepts and principles of the lesson contents. Then, learners interpret the information, summarize, and demonstrate their understanding. Third, they put the knowledge gained from previous stages to practice in actual situations. Fourth, learners solve problems, share their ideas with their classmates, compare their answers with others, and make a summary. Next, the students evaluate what they learned and decide how successfully they achieved their goals. In the last stage, they design, construct and develop new concepts from what they acquired in previous stages (Anderson et al., 2001). In the flipped learning, students practice remembering and understanding prior to class time through recorded video lectures, readings, and other materials. They practice higher skills of applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating inside the classroom through tasks such as peer and group activities, storytelling, discussion, and other learner-centered activities. Flipped learning complies with the Constructivist theory of Piaget and the sociocultural theory of Vygotsky. In both of these theories, teachers scaffold learners inside the classroom, require them to study and prepare at their own pace (Hamdan et al., 2013). According to these theories, humans construct knowledge through their interaction, engagement, and collaboration with the environment and other people. From Vygotsky's view, learning occurs when competent people such as peers or teachers within their zone of proximal development assist the student. In a flipped classroom, the instructor monitors learners who work individually and in groups inside the classroom. They perform problem-solving tasks by applying the knowledge they have developed outside of the classroom through watching videos or listening to audios. In line with Piaget's theory of cognitive development, learners in the flipped learning try to make sense of reality or to construct their own new knowledge through an experiment with the environment. Their experience enables them to develop mental representation or schemata in their heads.

Previous researches The findings of studies investigating the effects of flipped learning on the perception of EFL/ESL learners are contradictory. The study by Webb, Doman, and Pusey (2014) in a Chinese University EFL Course revealed that students from both the flipped and non-flipped classrooms preferred traditional teacher-fronted instruction. Choe and Seong (2016) conducted a study to explore the students; perceptions of the flipped classroom in a Korean university English course. Over half of the students felt that the flipped classroom model aided their studies, gave them more opportunities to communicate in English and helped them have a deeper understanding of the course content. However, some students reported dissatisfaction with the flipped classroom. Hsieh et al (2017) reported that flipped instruction using written and oral interaction enhanced the participants' motivation, making them more active in class. In addition, Prefume (2015) explored International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 31

the effect of a flipped approach in a Japanese language classroom. The data suggested that students expressed favorable attitudes towards the flipped classroom approach. Also, Gross et al. (2015) examined the effect of flipped classroom model on student engagement and satisfaction. The finding indicated that high levels of student engagement and course satisfaction characterized flipped courses. Besides, Hung (2015) examined the possible impacts of flipping the classroom on English language learners’ attitudes and participation levels. The findings showed that the flipped lessons helped the students attain better outcomes, and develop positive attitudes toward learning experiences. Additionally, Haghighi, et al. (2018) conducted a study to investigate the impact of the flipped classroom on EFL learners’ achievement, participation, and perception. The results suggested that most participants enjoyed the flipped learning experience. Finally, the findings by Fraga and Harmon (2015) indicated that participants liked the flipped classroom model of instruction. Very few qualitative studies have investigated the perception of learners about flipped and conventional classrooms. Nguyen et al. (2016) analyzed the interviews and identified three themes within the flipped classroom. The themes included learning outcomes, interaction with the instructor, and preparation. The analysis of data from students in a business class by Findlay- Thompson and Mombourquette (2014) revealed both positive and negative views about flipped learning. Tawfik and Christopher (2015) analyzed data from a problem-based flipped classroom; they particularly emphasized using videos for self-directed learning. After an in-depth analysis of interviews, they identified relevance, teacher as facilitator, self-efficacy, and reciprocal learning as main themes.

Methodology Design The researcher applied the concept of flipping strategy to his groups in twelve weeks. The same teacher instructed participants in both the flipped and non-flipped teaching modes. A counter-balanced design was used in the current study. During the first ten weeks, the teacher implemented non-flipped method in class A and flipped learning in class B. After the midterm, during the next ten weeks, the teacher reversed the teaching methods; he instructed class A via flipped instruction and the second class through the non-flipped method. To control for factors of instructor and subject matter, the same teacher taught the similar topics in both classes.

Participants We selected a number of 23 EFL male students, ranging from 19 to 23 years of age, from a private English institute in Iran. They had studied EFL in secondary school for at least six years. Based on an Oxford Placement Test administered by the institute, we assigned a group of intermediate-level learners whose grades were between 12 and 22 (total score=30) to two classes. Because our sample included two intact classes, the selection was not based on randomization. The researchers divided the participants divided into 4 groups in each of the classes.

Instruments We utilized four instruments in this study: interviews, weekly quizzes, students' portfolios, and a flipped experience questionnaire.

Weekly quizzes The teacher delivered five teacher-made tests including multiple-choice and short-answer questions to learners via the Socrative application at the end of each week. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 32

Questionnaire To measure the attitudes of flipped classroom participants toward the learning experience, researchers administered a researcher-made questionnaire in both groups. In consisted of 20 questions on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Two experts examined both content and face validity of the questionnaire. Finally, the reliability of the questionnaire was calculated to be a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .78.

Learner portfolio The participants recorded a portfolio of their activities including the types of materials they used, the time they allocated to each activity during the preparatory stage at home, and an audio summary of lessons.

Interview Interview included just one question as follows: How did students perceive the flipped and non-flipped learning experiences?

Procedures The researchers chose the Telegram application for online interaction between the teachers and participants of the study. Researchers also chose another application named Socrative to assess students in forms of true/false, multiple-choice, and short answer questions in real-time. The teacher could identify problems and then provide appropriate feedback to the class. In the flipped classroom, the learners listened to an audio lecture or read a PowerPoint presentation explaining what they to do at home. The teacher introduced only one topic every week. The topic of audios included ''work-life balance'', ''an interview about listening skill'', ''a design presentation'', ''a digital detox podcast'', and ''joining a gym''. Learners listened to the audios in order to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words, check the pronunciation and spelling of new vocabularies, find synonyms and antonyms for unknown vocabularies, and collocations. Pre-class activities aimed to engage learners in lower-level thinking skills of remembering, understanding and applying as defined by Anderson, et al. (2001). They had to keep a portfolio of the activities and materials during the pre-class stage. Each topic, within both classes, lasted for one week. At the beginning, the class expressed their questions about the issues they had noticed at home. Then, they engaged in sentence arrangement and communicative activities, pair and group discussion, role-play, and storytelling. These activities aimed to engage learners in higher-order thinking skills as defined by Anderson et al. (2001). On the contrary, the teacher in the conventional classroom didn’t ask them listen to audios at home. In fact, the instructor did not inform them about the lesson topic in advance. The teacher played the audio and explained the content in the classroom. He explained grammar, unknown vocabularies, and answered some comprehension questions related to the audio. Then, the teacher replayed the audio, stopped after each sentence, and asked students repeat the sentences one after another. Next, the teacher checked the pronunciation and comprehension of the whole audio and lexical meaning. Detailed description of the instructional procedure is illustrated in table1.

Table 1. Phase-specific procedures for flipped learning Phase Participants Teacher Multiple-choice vocabulary pre-test International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 33

One Participants listen to audios The teacher delivers On-line and off-line prior to class time instructional audios to the self-directed study participants. before the class

Two Participants record an audio The teacher listens to learners' On-line assignment summary of the audios and audio recording and provides deliver it to teacher feedback on their pronunciation Three Participants take on-line The teacher creates multiple- On-line individualized individualized quizzes choice and short-answer tests, assessment and delivers them to participants Four Learners take part in different The teacher asks participants to Classroom participation face to face, pair and group use certain vocabularies in pair activities and group activities. He provides feedback on their pronunciation and vocabulary use and clarifies their misconceptions

Results Because the study aimed to find out about the students' perceptions of their experience in both flipped and conventional vocabulary learning classroom, the authors carried out a careful analysis of semi-structure interviews as well as a flipped learning experience questionnaire. The questionnaire included 20 items ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree, and the interviews consisted of two open-ended questions. Before their final exam, the authors interviewed the students individually. Then, they audiotaped and transcribed the interviews. To elicit students' perceptions of flipped learning contrasted with conventional classroom experience, we analyzed the contents of the interviews and questionnaires. Detailed analysis and interpretation of data revealed several themes. Finally, authors compared the themes with previous research findings, and develop four themes. The themes are: flipped or non-flipped, group commitment, working with technology, and student-teacher relationship.

Discussion From the analysis, we developed four themes recurring in the data. In this section, we present and discuss these as our main results. We provided excerpts from interviews to illustrate the participants’ answers.

Flipped or non-flipped The participants had adverse ideas about both modes learning. Majority of students believed that in-class tasks and practices in the flipped classroom were interesting but they were not necessarily helpful for enhancing vocabulary achievement. Most of them thought flipped learning was fun, but if you want to cope with exams, the conventional learning is more helpful. For one of the students, both traditional and flipped learning were effective, but he preferred the first one because it was the way they had experienced previously; they learn the course content International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 34

more steadily and it enhances their performance. A few participants thought they would learn better in traditional learning since the teachers' explanation provided direct help to their final score. Flipped learning was not directly helpful because spending too much time on out-of-class preparation and in-class activities prevented them from memorizing words. Additionally, they claimed they couldn't easily recall vocabularies since they took online quizzes before class activities. But in the traditional classroom, they had classroom quizzes after teacher lecture so they wouldn’t forget words. With regard to instructors' explanations in the face to face context, almost all of them agreed when the teacher explained, they could understand clearly because he was available to help them correct their answers during the lecture. Additionally, when the teacher told them the Persian meaning of words, provided them with synonyms and antonyms and checked their pronunciation, they could memorize those words unconsciously. A few of participants thought the flipped learning was not a good idea because they didn't have not equipped themselves with learning strategies for practicing self-regulated study. Therefore, due to week preparation, peer and group activities couldn’t bring about changes in their vocabulary knowledge.

S10: I think the flipped classroom is not very good because students don't know how to study by themselves. I think flipped learning is good for active learning not for good scores. They liked the conventional classroom because they argued when the teacher explained about the textbook contents, they didn’t need participating in class activities, so that they could spare the time to prepare for quizzes in class.

S3: you have to do many activities in the flipped classroom so you don’t manage to read material in class. I think my grades improve in the regular classroom because I need just to read the book in class. Finally, they expressed dissatisfaction with the flipped learning because believed performing out- of-class activities would occupy their time, and put a burden on them as well.

Working with technology Majority of students had positive views about receiving audio files through the Telegram application. S10: I like telegram because I use it all the time. I message my friends when I am studying. Student1: working with telegram is easy. Also, it is not expensive

They had Telegram installed on their phones and they could communicate with their friends easily and share files with them. When the teacher asked them whether they enjoyed listening to or watching lessons or lectures at home or in the classroom, almost unanimously, they favored listening at home. In general, they believed they could pause and rewind the audios as many times as they wish at home so they could take notes easily. They thought when they were listening to audios at home, they could reflect on the contents and self-pace their learning. However, coming up with the teacher's pace of speaking was not always simple, so that taking notes in the conventional classroom. Additionally, due to time management or other issues at large, the teacher couldn’t pause and rewind videos and audios countless times in the classroom. However, one of the students argued when he reflected on a word or something in the audio or videos and couldn’t work out the answer, he would lose track of the strings of ideas in the file, even after several rewindings. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 35

S12: sometimes when I tried to find an answer to the problem, the audio had proceeded and it was past that point. But, in the regular classroom, you could ask the teacher to clarify the point. Sometimes, background knowledge, cognitive or metacognitive strategies matter. Individuals may not manage to come to a conclusion, or even if they found an answer, they couldn’t decide whether their solution was correct. So, the learner still needed to seek support from his teacher or classmates. In general, participants expressed positive attitudes about Telegram and the online platform for content delivery and assessment. However, almost all participants mentioned being seduced by distracting contents one or more times when searching for materials on line. Mostly, students performed homework because either the teacher required them to do so or they had to contribute to their groups. Only a few of them believed individualized preparation through technology in general and audios and videos in particular improved their performance.

Group commitment When the author asked them about their reasons for group commitment in the flipped learning context, they stated they were obliged to contribute to their groups or peers and they had to collaborate with peers to complete group activities. They had different views about class participation in the other class. Such a feeling was not evident when they talked about traditional learning.

S2: I felt it necessary to take part in class activities because I belong to a group. I go to my group and my group members contribute too. But in my regular class, nobody knows if I come or not. Learners in the flipped classroom had to form groups before they commence the course, and the teacher reminded them to work with their group members, but, they could work in groups or individually in the conventional class. Some students thought group membership or commitment necessitated shared responsibility and sense of belonging. After they formed their groups, they felt a sense of community and they could work out the problems significantly.

S1: We tried to work as a group not in person. We formed a community to discuss problems and it was fun. They mentioned that they could talk, ask questions, and discuss with their classmates. They could share their experience and sometimes explain to them better in their own terms. This is in line with the zone of proximal development concept by Vygotsky (1978). Besides, students felt a sense of achievement if they could explain instruct others. When they become a part of a group, their classmates accept to recognize them as individuals; consequently, they put their best to practice to appear helpful to their group.

Student-teacher relationship Some students stated a positive point about recognition by the teacher. Because the teacher, circulating around the class, frequently called upon them to do various activities, they became more visible, so they felt more confident to raise questions or initiate a conversation with him. But, in the regular classroom, they were routinely listening to the teacher' lecture, and he was not always available as in the flipped classroom; so that, the participants thought the teacher didn’t care about them, or it was not natural to ask questions even when many of them were wandering about the same issue. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 36

S3: I didn’t feel embarrassed to ask questions in the flipped classroom, but I always felt discomfort asking questions in my regular classroom. I think it doesn't matter whether we ask questions or not. Students have adverse perceptions of their relationship to their teachers in the flipped and traditional classrooms. Majority of participants remarked that usually their teacher was not available in the regular class most of the time. But, they could easily contact with their teacher in the flipped classroom because he was always moving around the class.

S6: we liked it when he moved around the class and talked to us. As the course continued, I found it easier to ask questions. The students didn’t like the strict teacher-student relationship in the conventional classroom. Routinely, the teachers were transmitting information via direct instruction to students. However, students expressed positive opinions about their teacher in the flipped classroom. They thought the close relationship with the teacher created a student-center environment for optimized learning. In their opinion, the teacher was a facilitator and guide in the flipped learning environment while he was the knower of information in the conventional classroom. In general, due to their close relationship with the teacher, the students could ask questions or initiate a conversation with him or their classmates comfortably. On the contrary, they described their relationship with the teacher a disciplined one that always instigated feeling discomfort and anxiousness.

Conclusions We found certain indications that learners thought conventional or regular classroom was still more helpful for vocabulary learning. They did not think the flipped learning could enhance their word knowledge. We found out that most of them got used to conventional teacher lectures in the classroom and they were reluctant to study lesson contents before class time. The students still liked to take quizzes after teacher explanations in the classroom because they thought teacher comments would suffice and doing out of class preparation and in class activities was a waste of time and burden to learning. They didn’t like self-regulated pre-study of textbooks. From the results of interviews, the researcher found it was difficult for students to adapt to self-pace active learning in flipped learning. They commented that they had to prepare for class activities because the teacher forced them to do so, and they were obliged to contribute to their group as well. Such findings indicated that since students didn’t have a deep interest in what they were engaged in, learning became frustrating for them. Additionally, due to the lack of learning strategies and prior knowledge, the majority of students had low self-directed learning readiness and lack of preparation for the flipped classroom. However, there were certain promising points about the flipped learning experience including the lively and fun learning context in the classroom, a sense of commitment and contribution to the group, the sense of belonging to the group, and the close teacher-student relationship; they all seemed to be emotional rather than cognitive.

References Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., Airasian, P., Cruikshank, K., Mayer, R., Pintrich,P. & Wittrock, M. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy. New York: Longman Publishing. Alhamami, M. (2019). Effectiveness of flipped language learning classrooms and students’ perspectives. Journal in English as a Foreign Language, 9 (1), 71-86. Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2012). Flip your classroom: Reach every student in International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 37

every class every day. Washington, DC: Internal Society for Technology in Education. Choe, E. & Seong, M.-H. (2016). A case study of the flipped classroom in a Korean university general English course. Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 20(2), 71-93. Findlay-Thompson, F., & Mombourquette. P. (2014). Evaluation of a Flipped Classroom in an Undergraduate Business Course. Business Education & Accreditation. 6 (1) 63- 71, 2014, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2331035 Flipped Learning Network, (2014﴿. The four pillars of F-‐ L-‐ I-‐ P™. Retrieved from The Educate, 2015. Hsieh, S. J., Huang, Y. M., & Wu, V. (2016).Technological acceptance of LINE in flipped EFL oral training, Computers in Human Behavior. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.066 Fraga, L. M., & Harmon, J. (2014). The flipped classroom model of learning in higher education: An investigation of pre-service teachers’ perspectives and achievement. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 31(1), 18–27. Gross, D., Pietri, E. S., Anderson, G., Moyano-Camihort, K., & Graham, M. J. (2015). Increased pre- class preparation underlies student outcome improvement in the flipped classroom. CBE-Life Sciences Education. https ://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.15-02-0040. Haghighi, H., Jafarigohar, M., Khoshsima, H, & Vahdany, V. (2018). Impact of flipped classroom on EFL learners' appropriate use of refusal: achievement, participation, perception, Computer Assisted Language Learning, DOI:10.1080/09588221.2018.1504083 Hamdan, N., McKnight, P., McKnight, K., & Arfstrom, K. (2013). A review of flipped learning. Retrieved from the Flipped Learning Network, 1/5/2015, http://flippedlearning .org/cms/lib07/VA01923112/ Hsieh, J. S., Wu, W. C. V. & Marek, M. W. (2017). Using the flipped classroom to enhance EFL learning. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 30 (1–2), 1–21. Hung, H. -T. (2015). Flipping the classroom for English language learners to foster active learning. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 28 (1), 81-96. McLaughlin, J. E., M. T. Roth, D. M. Glatt, G. Nastaran, C. A. Davidson, L. M. Griffin, and R. J. Mumper. 2014. “The Flipped Classroom.” Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 89 (2): 236–243. Nguyen, B., X. Yu, A. Japutra, and C.-H. S. Chen. 2016. “Reverse Teaching: Exploring Student Perceptions of “Flip Teaching”. Active Learning in Higher Education 17 (1): 51–61. Obari, H., & Lambacher, S. (2015). Successful EFL teaching using mobile technologies in a flipped classroom. In Helm, F, Bradley, L, Guards, M, & Thouësny, S (Eds.), Critical CALL – Proceedings of the 2015 EUROCALL Conference, Padova, Italy (pp. 433- 438). Dublin: Research-publishing.net O’Flaherty, J., and C. Phillips. 2015. The Use of Flipped Classrooms in Higher Education: A Scoping Review. The Internet and Higher Education 25: 85–95. Perfume, Y. N. (2106). Exploring a Flipped Classroom Approach in a Japanese Language Classroom: A Mixed Methods Study (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation). Baylor University Tawfik, A. A., and L. Christopher. 2015. Using a Flipped Classroom Approach to Support Problem-Based Learning. Technology, Knowledge and Learning 20 (3), 299–315. Vygotsky, L. S. 1978. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. London, UK: Harvard University Press. Webb, M., Doman, E., & Pusey, K. (2014). Flipping a Chinese University EFL International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 38

Course: What Students and Teachers Think of the Model. The Journal of Asia TEFL, 11 (4), 53- 87. Wilson, S. G. 2013. “The Flipped Class: A Method to Address the Challenges of an Undergraduate Statistics Course. Teaching of Psychology 40 (3): 193–199. Zainuddin, Z., and S. H. Halili (2016). Flipped Classroom Research and Trends From Different Fields of Study. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 17 (3): 313–340.

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

Exploratory-cumulative vs. Disputational Talk on Cognitive Dependency of Translation Studies: Intermediate level students in focus

Samaneh Yazdani, PhD Candidate, Department of English, Isfahan (Khorasgan Branch), Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran [email protected] Hossein Heidari Tabrizi*, Associate Professor, Department of English, Isfahan (Khorasgan Branch), Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran [email protected] Azizeh Chalak, Associate Professor, Department of English, Isfahan (Khorasgan Branch), Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran [email protected]

Abstract The present study set out to determine the effect of implementing exploratory-cumulative talk in comparison to disputational talk on cognitive (meaning development and organization of thought as well as problem solving ability) dependency of intermediate level students in translation studies. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, a quasi-experimental-pretest-posttest- statistical study was conducted in which 63 linguistically homogeneous B.A students in translation studies at the IAU-Shahreza branch, in experimental and control groups were the participants. Administering cognitive dependency questionnaire before and after implementing the treatment, exploratory-cumulative talk, helps the researcher to find out the possible effect of it against the control group, disputational talk, in translator training courses. The results of the data analysis indicate that the difference between the posttest mean scores of the experimental and control groups do not reach statistical significance. However, by conventional criteria, the difference between the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group was considered statistically significant by large effect size. The application of the present study findings in translator training courses may pave the way for translation teachers and translation students to follow more fruitful approaches.

Keywords: Cognitive dependency, disputational talk, exploratory-cumulative talk, translator training courses

Introduction Teaching as acceleration means in education and guided acculturation seeks to outpace the teacher's role. Emphasizing the important role of the teacher, Mercer has proposed a new neo- Vygotskyan concept in which he joins the zone of proximal development and the concepts of scaffolding (Littleton & Mercer, 2013; Mercer, 2000; Mercer & Hodgkinson, 2008; Mercer & Littleton, 2017). He calls it the Intermental Development Zone. It is a zone, or a bubble, created by language in which either teacher or learners reason about and develop common knowledge. It also represents a continuing state of shared consciousness, focused on the task in hand and dedicated to the objective of learning (Littleton & Mercer, 2013). Building largely on Vygotsky’s theories, many sociocultural researchers and educators have promoted the collaborative use of language in the classroom (Alexander, 2014; Barnes, 1969; Bowskill, 2010; Britton, 1970; Coultas, 2012; Enghag, Gustafsson & Jonsson, 2019; Harris & Ratcliffe, 2005; Howe, 1992; International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 40

Kerawalla, Petrou & Scanlon, 2013; Mercer, 1995; Rojas-Drummond, Torreblanca, Pedraza, Velez & Guzman, 2013; Sutherland, 2006). According to T'sas (2018), nowadays the dominant theory is socio-constructivism, which can be defined as an approach according to which individual knowledge relies on its social construction. Particularly relevant in this respect are the communication processes that is learning dialogues occurring in situations where at least two persons try to solve a problem. International research on exploratory-cumulative talk found and confirmed its educational potential in collaborative activities in that learners improve their reasoning skills, work better together and also get better at solving problems as negotiation for meaning, both at group and individual level. In addition, teachers discover the added value of dialogic teaching by modelling exploratory- cumulative talk themselves by observing the results in their practice. Additionally, social cognitive theory is grounded in Bandura’s (1986) emphasis on the reciprocal nature of interactions between behaviors, environmental factors, and cognition and affect. Self-regulation is seen by social-cognitive theorists as situation specific, and strongly influenced by students’ self-efficacy beliefs. Accordingly, T'sas (2018) proposed a classification upon which exploratory- cumulative talk has four types of effects, including on cognitive dependency, which is in terms of two elements, meaning development and organization of thought as well as problem solving ability. Mercer (1995) and Mercer and Littleton (2017) confirmed that opportunities for learners in such classes for real discussion about what they are learning in the classroom are rare. As stated by Kumaravadivelu (2012, p.41) “emphasis on learner needs and learner rights has the potential to pave the way for greater learner participation in classroom activities leading to increased and sustainable learner motivation.” Finally, previous studies repeatedly showed that when students were taught how to reason together through exploratory-cumulative talk, they were able to transfer their reasoning skills to other educational experiences. As learners learn how to use exploratory-cumulative talk, primarily they improve language skills, which are inherent to this type of talk (Barnes, 1996, and Mercer, 1995).

Research Question The focus of this study was to investigate the possible effect of implementing exploratory-cumulative talk versus disputational talk on cognitive dependency of intermediate level students. The following research question was, therefore, addressed. Q. Is there any significant difference between the effect of using exploratory-cumulative talk as compared to disputational talk on the cognitive dependency of intermediate level students?

Review of Literature As collaborative learning is one of the principles of social constructivism, it is obvious that various work forms have been developed to stimulate students to work together. Group work is one of the work forms that encourage the exploration of ideas (Barnes & Todd, 2005). In group talk learners can risk hesitation, confusion and rejection of their ideas by their peers. Moreover, when learners feel secure, they can think aloud, reshape, and interpret ideas (Enghag, Gustafsson & Jonsson, 2017). They have to develop their language skills and receive significant opportunities to practice by interacting with one another and as they participate in conversation more actively, their language development improves.

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According to Rutter (2016), engaging in exploratory discussions through group work is seen as essential for students’ current and future participation in key institutions of society. Contributing rather than just listening to exploratory talk will be conducive to students’ educational achievement. Dawes and Mercer (2008) state that a teacher is require ensuring that group activities are well designed to elicit debate and joint reasoning. What does group talk look like? Higgins (2011) argues that in group talk there should be no authoritarian figure and taking turns has to be managed amongst the members. This gives students the opportunity to set their own ground rules, initiate questions, pool responses and draw their own conclusions. Sutherland (2006) reported that the quality and cognitive level of students’ talk improves through group work. They are more focused when working in groups, participated more equally, asked a greater number of questions, including higher-order questions, and engaged in less off-task talk. However, implementing the group work approach effectively was not an easy task. One of the biggest challenges teachers felt they faced was being able to guide learners towards using the kind of talk that would develop their understanding without dominating the discussion, as this would prevent the them from independent talk and thinking. Therefore, teachers who position themselves as fellow learners are more effective at developing group talk. Finally, developing exploratory talk through group work is not just the teachers’ responsibility. Curricular developers and educational policy designers also have a part to play in this process. They must consider the importance of developing teachers’ skills in managing group work and promoting exploratory talk thus sowing the seeds of learners’ understanding. It is essential to pay more attention to the whole process of learning in different courses as well as language classes. Cross-curricular development, over a sustained period of time may lead to use exploratory talk for a successful learning (Mercer & Hodgkinson, 2008).

Cognitive Effect of Exploratory-cumulative Talk The context in which exploratory-cumulative talk has added value has been suggested by a number of studies in terms of psychological, social, cognitive and educational significance. As a matter of cognitive effect and according to T'sas (2018), in disputational talk, self-identity is challenged as it makes participants create their self-identity at the cost of the self-identity of others. In exploratory-cumulative talk, however, self-identity becomes irrelevant, as it is transferred to the group level. Nobody in the group has to lose his face as it offers the possibility to create shared ownership or, as Enghag (2019) call it, group ownership, which refers to the group's choice and control of the management of the task and how the task is determined, performed, and finally reported. Cognitive distribution is called as an equivalent of collaborative argumentation, Golanics and Nussbaum (2018), state that exploratory talk has been found to deepen subject matter understanding and cause conceptual change. In addition to knowledge building, collaborative argumentation promotes more complex and critical thinking when critical thinking can be defined as the ability to identify, construct and evaluate arguments. According to Haavind (2019), cognitive presence grows among learners as they co- construct their understanding of new content. Bransford and the National Research Council, in How People Learn (2012), point out the value of such social interaction for cognitive engagement in group learning: Teachers must attend to designing classroom activities and helping learners organize their work in ways that promote the kind of intellectual camaraderie and the attitudes toward learning that build a sense of community. In such a community, they might help one another solve problems by building on each other's knowledge, asking questions to clarify explanations, and suggesting avenues that would move the group toward its goal. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 42

The use of dialogue as a learning activity is also fruitful. Harasim (2015) identifies the emerging role for computer-mediated conversation described by Brown (2017) as the shift from seeing exploratory-cumulative talk as a cognitive delivery system to using it as a means to support collaborative conversations about a topic and the ensuing construction of understanding. Therefore, collaborative dialogue is a potent, new form of collaborative work. Bruffee (2017) highlights the potential of conversation for deepened thinking. Aviv (2018) describes asynchronous learning networks as cooperative learning enhanced by extended think time since the asynchronicity provides learners the opportunity to reflect and think through a response before responding. Bender (2018), suggests, teaching and learning could be thought as being comprised and communicated by the words that flow between teacher and student, as well as student and student. Specifically, invitations to learners to make comments to discussions of class readings, science investigations, or math problems; to peer-review one another’s assignments; or to share questions and insights about a learning experience can prompt participants to collaborate, or co-labor. That co-laboring becomes collaborative dialogue. The researchers cited here focused on higher education by appropriate teaching methods. When describing the community of inquiry framework, Garrison (2019) points to design features, discussion facilitation, and pedagogic leadership that must blend social and cognitive issues and expectations in order to achieve an effective teaching presence in an asynchronous, text-based environment. He notes these considerations go well beyond deciding what content will be covered. The interplay among collaborative, constructive processes that effectively shape inquiry experiences can be revealed through case studies. It maximizes the potential for learners to construct shared meanings and reach agreements, allowing for collective problem solving. Mercer (2011) finds exploratory talk most effective for solving problems through collaborative activity. As stated earlier, learning transfers changes (behaviorism) and creates new knowledge or increases information (cognitive skills). The constructivist perspectives of learning had a major theme that learning is an active process in which the individual learner constructs new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge. Finally, the educational benefit also serves the teachers, as they are encouraged to teach more dialogically and to create an interactive learning environment (Webb, 2016). He also showed exploratory-cumulative talk improves verbally explicit higher-level strategies in meaning development and organization of thought. Likewise, Rojas and Zapata (2014), based on Vygotsky (1978), remarked that argumentation represents a powerful tool for promoting collective and individual reasoning and clarification, which is related to critical thinking and problem solving. Webb (2016), based on Spearman, proposed that there is a common or general factor in mental ability, commonly known as Spearman’s g. The Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) test has been described as the best assessment of abstract or non-verbal reasoning and is widely regarded as measuring the essence of the educative aspects (Jensen, 2016; Kaplan & Saccuzzo 2017; Lynn, 2014). The RSPM test is a widely used, well-established, reliable standardized psychological test of non-verbal abstract reasoning and problem solving (Kunda, 2019). The use of abstract representations in the test is a valued cognitive ability as many of the concepts and processes used. The RSPM provide a means to assess, measure, and compare a person’s capacity for observation and clear thinking relative to other people, irrespective of past experience or present ability for verbal communication, the ability of a person to deal with new knowledge and figures, the ability to perceive the relationship between them, and the capacity for systematic reasoning.

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Methodology Design In order to achieve the intended objectives of the present study and based on the nature of the addressed question, the quantitative experimental design was employed. The present study was conducted in a foreign language learning setting in the English department of Islamic Azad University (IAU), Shahreza Branch, where the researcher herself worked. The study comprised linguistically homogeneous groups of students regarding their language abilities in two experimental and control groups. Therefore, to answer the question and in order to make methodological triangulation, some ethnographic research methods such as questionnaires also were employed.

Participants The participants included Iranian undergraduate translation studies students for whom non-probability sampling technique (convenience/opportunity sampling) was utilized. They were both male and female with the age range of 21 to 24. All of them were passing their two latest educational semesters. They had a similar educational background. Their first language was Persian and only spoke English as their foreign language, without any specific experience in translating or teaching English.

Materials and Instruments Since the present study was run in translator training courses, the book Literary Text Translation by Khazaee Far, SAMT publications and Political Text Translation by Birjandi, Gorjian, and Molonia, Rahnama publications were used. In order to control the language proficiency factor an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was used since it is a highly reliable, validated, easy to administer and available test to provide accurate measure of a test taker’s language ability. Another instrument was the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM), which is described as the best assessment of abstract or non-verbal reasoning in cognitive sphere and is widely regarded as measuring the essence of the educative aspects. It is a set of highly reliable and validated nonverbal group of questions typically used in educational settings to measure abstract reasoning undertaken by Webb (2016). The participants were asked to choose one of the answers based on the allocated time.

Pretest In order to control the language proficiency factor, an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was used. In order to check the possible changes in cognitive dependency, the cognitive dependency questionnaire was administered at the beginning of the semesters for both experimental and control groups. The cognitive dependency questionnaire was adopted from Webb (2016) to check meaning development and organization of thought and problem solving ability. It consists of 20 revised selected questions (based on defined age range of 18-25) of Raven's progressive matrices (RPM) items based on studies undertaken over a decade with similar designs using exploratory talk in the classroom to measure reasoning abilities. They took 30 minutes.

Posttest In order to check the possible changes in cognitive dependency, the same cognitive dependency questionnaire was administered at the end of the semesters for both experimental and control groups. They took 30 minutes. As the cognitive questionnaire was non-verbal, it was needed to be printed in color on A4 paper. Although the first section of the questionnaire International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 44

addressed the participants’ demographic information, a pseudonym was asked to make sure about the participants' privacy. However, they were wanted to use the same one in posttest to check the possible effect of the treatment.

Procedure The first step to collect the needed data was administering OPT and Cognitive dependency questionnaire as the pretest for all of the students in both experimental and the control groups. The next step was implementing the treatment, exploratory-cumulative talk in translation training courses. The last step was administering the Cognitive dependency questionnaire as the posttest for all of the students in both experimental and the control groups to check the possible effect of implementing exploratory-cumulative talk in comparison to disputational talk.

Treatment Taking into account the different aspects of applying the treatment, it was important to decide about the grouping of the students, the number of them in each group, what are they exactly supposed to do, how they were expected to engage into exploratory-cumulative talk in their groups and manage the connection among themselves, clearly define the role of teacher, and the way the teacher and the groups interacted. Employing the exploratory-cumulative talk to intermediate level students in translation training courses was the independent variable, or the treatment, and the extent to which their cognitive dependency changed compromised the dependent variables. In this regard, the students are not only learners, but they learn how to learn as well in this type of treatment. However, what does group talk look like? In group talk, there should be no authoritarian figure and taking turns has to be managed by the group's members themselves to provide the opportunity to set their own ground rules, initiate questions, pool responses and draw their own conclusions. Accordingly, the students participated in 90-minute translation classes, one session a week, for 12 succeeding sessions and the classes were held at approximately the same time. Discussing the ideal size of groups, Wall (2016) found that tables of four (± 1, based on the circumstances of the present study) were best suited to developing exploratory-cumulative talk through group work and produced many indicators of the positive impact of this kind of collaborative learning. Similarly, it was reported that small groups self-selected, usually on a friendship basis, work well, and there was a direct relationship between the length of time groups worked together and the amount of exploratory-cumulative talk engaged with (Edwards, 2015). It is also very evident that the longer learners work in groups on open-ended tasks the greater the authority of the students over their learning and development of higher level of reasoned thinking (Sutherland, 2006). They remained in the same group for the whole period of the semester. After the introduction of the value of feedback and the opportunity of having frequent self- and peer-checks, the students were encouraged to provide it in their groups actively along with teacher's feedback that supports their learning. Since the desired type of relationship was applying exploratory-cumulative talk, didactic strategies, the ground rules, and the basic notions of implementing exploratory-cumulative talk were introduced to the students in order to interact effectively. That is, they were told that are expected to do activities such as peer-to-peer learning in small groups where students worked on their translations together independently from the teacher, share, challenge and counterchallenge opinions constructively, group decision-makings and reach to a consensus about how to solve and revise their translation problems, and engaging in evaluating their translation quality. In order to start the process, first, the different types of International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 45

using exploratory-cumulative talk have been modelled by the teacher to negotiating the meaning of ideas and made explicit her expectations of how students are supposed to talk together in their groups. In the next step, the teacher provided a set of prompts that were made visible to the students as they worked in a group. An example list of prompts is set out here. Why do not we try this equivalent? Do you agree? What do you think we should do? Is that right? How about this structure? I have a different idea. What else could we do? So do we all agree? I am not sure your idea can help us. Why do you think that? The teachers introduced the use of prompts with the students as they worked in groups across the curriculum. All the students cared about the progress of other members and the whole group as a unit of performance, since the key part of exploratory-cumulative talk was reaching a consensus. Finally, the ground rules or prompts were focused more closely by asking one of the groups to remodel the use of exploratory-cumulative talk in their group work. The students were asked to consider the same process in all of the following sessions of the semesters.

Control Groups The control groups, the same as the experimental ones, took part in pretest and posttest, filled up cognitive dependency questionnaires in very similar circumstances. The only difference was that they were enjoying disputational talk in class. The students participated 90-minute translation classes, one session a week, for 12 succeeding sessions and the classes were held at approximately the same time. In these sessions they were supposed to do translation of the related textbooks at home, conventionally some of the students got the chance to read their translations in class with a small talk (as so called disputational) about their flaws and sometimes providing some suggestions by other students and finally, provided by proper translation of the teacher.

Data Analysis and Results After systematic collection of data and according to the nature of the collected data, both descriptive and inferential statistics were essential. In order to answer the research question, the effect of using exploratory-cumulative talk in comparison to disputational talk on the cognitive (organization of thought as well as problem solving ability) dependency, the pretest and posttest scores collected from 20-item Raven's questionnaire were used to find out the cognitive dependency differences at the first and the last session in exploratory-cumulative talk groups via paired-samples t-test. The same statistical procedure was also used to compare the pretest and posttest scores of the disputational talk groups. Finally, one-way ANCOVA was conducted to compare the posttest scores of the experimental groups and the control ones. In the pretest, the overall mean score of the experimental groups was 13, and it showed improvement by increasing to 16.87 in the posttests. To see whether this difference was statistically significant, the p value under the Sig. column in the paired-samples t-test table was checked as follows.

Table 1. Results of Paired-Samples t-Test for the Pretest and Posttest Scores of the Experimental Groups Mean N T df Sig. (2-tailed) Experimental 13 63 5.85 62 0.0001 Groups Pretest

Experimental 16.87 63 Groups Posttest

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In Table 1., the p value was .0001, that is by conventional criteria, this difference is considered to be extremely statistically significant between the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group. In addition, the effect size, computed through the eta squared formula was .21, which based on Cohen (1988), eta squared values larger than .14 imply large effect sizes. The same procedure was adopted to compare the pretest and posttest scores of the control groups. The change of their mean scores was from 13.62 in the pretest to the 15.62 in the posttest. The p value in Table 2., below shows whether this improvement was of statistically significant.

Table 2. Results of Paired-Samples t-Test for the Pretest and Posttest Scores of the Control Group Mean N t Df Sig. (2-tailed) Control Group 13.62 63 3.26 62 .0014 Pretest

Control Group 15.62 63 Posttest

The p value equals 0.0014, that is by conventional criteria, this difference is considered statistically significant. The eta-squared value showed a moderate effect size (.07) for this comparison. Comparing the posttest scores of the experimental group and control group to see whether the difference between the two posttest mean scores was statistically significant, the results of one-way ANCOVA, are shown in Table 3.

Table 3. One-Way ANCOVA Results for the Posttest Scores of the Experimental Groups and Control Groups Groups Mean Std. Deviation N F Sig.Partial Eta Squared 16.87 0.53 63 2.94 .22 2.94 Experimental Group Control Group 15.62 0.88 63

The p value was found as 0.22, which is greater than the significance level (.05). It indicates that the difference between the posttest mean scores of the experimental and control groups did not reach statistical significance. Therefore, the changes in cognitive dependency in exploratory-cumulative talk and disputational talk groups are not statistically different at α = 0.05).

Discussion The research question was: what is the effect of using exploratory-cumulative talk in comparison to disputational talk on the cognitive dependency? In order to check the possible changes in cognitive dependency, the cognitive dependency questionnaire was administered at the beginning and at the end of the semesters for both experimental and control groups. The cognitive dependency questionnaire was adopted from Webb (2016) to check meaning development and organization of thought and problem solving ability under the title of cognitive dependency. It was a selection of 20 revised questions (based on defined age range of 18-25) of Raven's progressive matrices (RPM) items. The change of the mean scores of control groups was from 13.62 in the pretest to the 15.62 in the posttest. The results of paired sample t-test between International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 47

pretest and posttest mean scores of control groups showed statistically significant difference and the eta-squared value showed a moderate effect size. The overall mean score of the experimental groups was 13, and it showed improvement by increasing to 16.87 in the posttests. In this case, by conventional criteria, the difference between the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group was considered extremely statistically significant by a large effect size. The findings have presented via one-way ANCOVA suggest that the difference between the posttest mean scores of the experimental and control groups did not reach statistical significance. Then, the changes in cognitive dependency in exploratory-cumulative talk and disputational talk groups were not statistically different. Therefore, implementing exploratory-cumulative talk in comparison to disputational talk has greater positive effect and may lead to train more cognitively independent learners. These are in line with the following findings about the positive effect of exploratory- cumulative talk on cognitive aspects in terms of higher problem solving abilities (Mercer, 2009; Rojas-Drummond & Zapata, 2014; Topping & Trickey, 2014); more critical thinking (Soter, 2018); better scientific and creative reasoning (Wegerif, Mercer & Dawes, 2009); better verbal and non-verbal reasoning (Topping & Trickey, 2014); general learning gains academic performance (Luby, 2014; Mercer. 2009; Rajal, 2012; Tin, 2013); internalization of reasoning strategies on individual level (Wegerif, Mercer & Dawes, 2009); better development of meaning and organization of thought (Brevig, 2016; Golanics & Nussbaum, 2018; Webb, 2016); stronger retrieval practice and better memory (Webb, 2016); and finally, increased confidence in writing (Robins, 2011).

Conclusion The present study sought to investigate the effect of using exploratory-cumulative talk versus disputational talk in translator training courses for intermediate students with focus on cognitive dependency. Having the ability to transfer linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge as the highest demand for translators, they are required to be able to negotiate about not only words, grammatical and semantic aspects of language, but also mental images implied in the text. As a complex cognitive activity, assimilation of stereotyped patterns and rules in all situations seems not to be the proper purpose in academic translator training. On the contrary, translation students should instill a variety of translation strategies and techniques to choose the optimal options for different text styles. Then, overcomplexity of the content, ambiguous and inconsistent structure and terminology both semantically and syntactically as well as textual drawbacks in terms of typos, and even faulty punctuation can be corrected by a precise analysis of the text in group discussions. On the other hand, according to the findings of the present study, exploratory-cumulative talk students benefit from learning exploratory-cumulative talk and become cognitively more independent. Therefore, teachers may facilitate exploratory-cumulative talk more frequently, especially in the initial stages of translation courses, as this is where students are forming and merging different concepts in both languages to put in texts properly. From a pedagogical point of view, by exploratory-cumulative talk teachers can put into practice what is essential for effective and constructive learning: the critical exploration of foreknowledge and personal experiences (as existing mental structures) to clear the path for new insights and knowledge. However, if this is going to be succeed, the ground rules of exploratory-cumulative talk must be embedded in the curriculum in a coherent way, making them a must-teach as a vertical line of development during education.

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Harasim, H. (2015). The sociology of the classroom. In A. Hartnett (Ed.), The Social Sciences In Educational Studies (pp. 33–45). London: Heinemann. Harris, R. Ratcliffe, M. (2005). Socio-Scientific Issues and the Quality of Exploratory Talk- What can be learned from Schools Involved in a "Collapsed Day" Project. Curriculum Journal, 16(4), 439-453. Higgins. G. (2011). Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Chichester (UK): John Wiley & Sons. Howe, A. (1992). A Climate for Small Group Talk, in M. Brubacher, R. Payne & P. Rickett (Eds). Perspectives on Small Group Learning: Theory and Practice. Ontario: Rubicon Publishing. Jensen, D. H. (2016). Arguing to learn: Design justifications and guidelines. Educational Technology Research and Development, 49(4), 439-457. Kaplan. K., Saccuzzo, j. (2017). Promote Conceptual Understanding. Social Science Research Unit: Institute of Education, University of London. Kerawalla,l. N., Petrou, S., Scanlon, D. (2013). An Introduction to an Analytic Framework. Learning and Instruction, 9, 449–473 Khazaee Far, A. (2017). Literary Text Translation. SAMT Publications. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2012). Recognizing, Doing and Seeing. New York: Routledge. Kunda, B. M. (2019). Does Output Promote Noticing And Second Language Acquisition? TESOL Quarterly, 34. Littleton, K. Mercer, N. (2013). Interthinking: Putting talk to work. London: Routledge. Lynn, E. (2014). Emergent Leadership in Children’s Discussion Groups. Cognition and Instruction, 25(1). Mercer, N. (1995). The Guided Construction of Knowledge: Talk amongst Teachers and Learners. Bristol: Multilingual matters. Mercer, N. (2000). The Quality of Talk in Children's Collaborative Activity in the Classroom. Learning and Instruction, 6(4), 359-377. Mercer, N. (2009). Sociocultural Discourse Analysis. Journal of applied linguistics, 1(2), 137- 168. Mercer, N. (2011). The Analysis of Classroom Talk: Methods and Methodologies. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(1), 1-14. Mercer, N., Hodgkinson, H. (2008). Words And Minds: How We Use Language To Think Together. London: Routledge. Mercer, N., Littleton, K (2017). Interthinking: Putting talk to work. Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge. Robins, G. (2011). The Effect of Exploratory Talk on the Development of Sentence Structure in Able Writers. Literacy, 45(2), 78-83. Rojas-Drummond, S., Zapata, M. P. (2014). Exploratory Talk, Argumentation and Reasoning in Mexican Primary School Children. Language and Education, 18(6), 539-557. Rojas-Drummond, S., Torreblanca, O., Pedraza, H., Velez, M., Guzman, K. (2013). 'Dialogic scaffolding': Enhancing learning and understanding in collaborative contexts. Learning Culture and Social Interaction, 2(1), 11-21. Rutter, T., Edwards, R., Dean, P. (2016). Who's That Talking in My Class? What Does Research Say about Pupil to Pupil Exploratory Talk That Leads To Learning? Teacher Education Advancement Network Journal, 8(1), 22-32. Soter, A. O. (2018). What The Discourse Tells Us: Talk And Indicators Of High-Level Comprehension. International Journal of Educational Research, 47(6), 372-391. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 50

Sutherland, J. (2006). Promoting Group Talk and Higher-Order Thinking in Pupils by "Coaching" Secondary English Trainee Teachers. Literacy, 40(2), 106-114. Topping, K. J. Trickey, S. (2014). The Role of Dialog in Philosophy for Children. International Journal of Educational Research, 63, 69-78. T'Sas, J. (2018). Learning Outcomes of Exploratory Talk in Collaborative Activities. Unpublished PhD dissertation, university of Antwerp. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Mental Process. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Walls, F. (2009). Challenging Task-Driven Pedagogies of Mathematics. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia. Building Connections: Research, Theory and Practice, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Webb, P. (2016). From Exploratory Talk to Abstract Reasoning: a Case for Far Transfer? Educational psychology review, 1-17. Wegerif, R., Mercer, N. Dawes, L. (2009). Software design to support discussion in the primary curriculum. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 14(3), 199-211.

Appendix Cognitive Abilities Practice Test The objective of the present questionnaire is to check the level of Cognitive Dependency. Your cooperation is highly appreciated and you may feel completely confident that your responses will be kept highly confidential and be limited to the present study analysis. None of the research outcomes or components will be used for any other purpose except purely academic. You may complete the questionnaire in 30 minutes. Name------Age------Gender------Semesters completed at university------

Select the answers instantly. Time: 30 minutes

1. Look at the pictures in the top two boxes. Do you see how they go together in a certain way? Now look at the picture in the bottom row. Which picture goes with the picture on the bottom row the same way the pictures in the top row go together?

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2. Parent: Say to your child - "Look at this puzzle." circle the answer.

3. Look at the pictures in the top two boxes. Do you see how they go together in a certain way? Now look at the picture in the bottom row. Which picture goes with the picture on the bottom row the same way the pictures in the top row go together?

4. Look at the shapes in the boxes across the top. Do you see how they are related to each other? Can you find the answer that goes in the empty box so the shapes in the next row will relate to each other in the same way as the shapes in the top row?

5. Look at the shapes in the boxes across the top. Do you see how they are related to each other? Can you find the answer that goes in the empty box so the shapes in the next row will relate to each other in the same way as the shapes in the top row? International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 52

6. Look at the shapes on top. They are alike in some way and so they belong together. Choose one shape from the bottom row that belongs with the figures on top.

7. Look at the shapes on top. They are alike in some way and so they belong together. Choose one shape from the bottom row that belongs with the figures on top.

8. "Which of these answer choices goes here?" International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 53

9. Look at the shapes in the boxes across the top. Do you see how they are related to each other? Can you find the answer that goes in the empty box so the shapes in the next row will relate to each other in the same way as the shapes in the top row?

10. Take a look at the first box. There is a cell phone, a hairbrush, a wallet and a pen in Mommy's purse. She took the pen out. Then she put a pair of glasses in, along with a piece of candy. Mark the picture that shows what is in Mommy's purse now.

11. Look at the shapes in the boxes across the rows and up and down the columns. Do you see how they are related to each other? Can you find the answer that goes in the empty box so the designs inside the rows and columns follow a pattern or rule? International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 54

12. Look at the squares on top. They go together in a certain way. Choose the square among the answer choices that goes in the empty space because it belongs with the square(s) on the bottom the same way the squares on top belong together.

13. Look at the squares on top. They go together in a certain way. Choose the square among the answer choices that goes in the empty space because it belongs with the square(s) on the bottom the same way the squares on top belong together.

14. Look at the shapes in the boxes across the rows and up and down the columns. Do you see how they are related to each other? Can you find the answer that goes in the empty box so the designs inside the rows and columns follow a pattern or rule? International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 55

15. Look at the squares on top. They go together in a certain way. Choose the square among the answer choices that goes in the empty space because it belongs with the square(s) on the bottom the same way the squares on top belong together.

16. Look at the shapes in the boxes across the rows and up and down the columns. Do you see how they are related to each other? Can you find the answer that goes in the empty box so the designs inside the rows and columns follow a pattern?

17. Look at the shapes in the boxes across the rows and up and down the columns. Do you see how they are related to each other? Can you find the answer that goes in the empty box so the designs inside the rows and columns follow a pattern?

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 56

18. Look at the pictures on top. When the outside pieces of the first square are folded in, it will look like the picture on the top right. Now look at the picture in the next row. If the outside pieces of the first square are folded in, it will look like one of the answer choices. Can you find the answer that shows what this square will look like after the outside pieces are folded in?

19. Look at the pictures on top. When the outside pieces of the first square are folded in, it will look like the picture on the top right. Now look at the picture in the next row. If the outside pieces of the first square are folded in, it will look like one of the answer choices. Can you find the answer that shows what this square will look like after the outside pieces are folded in?

20. Look at the pictures on top. When the outside pieces of the first square are folded in, it will look like the picture on the top right. Now look at the picture in the next row. If the outside pieces International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 57

of the first square are folded in, it will look like one of the answer choices. Can you find the answer that shows what this square will look like after the outside pieces are folded in?

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

Exploring Effects and Learner Attitudes of Gadget-Based Internet Multimedia Reading

Hani Mansooji, Ph.D. Candidate, English Department, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran [email protected] Ahmad Mohseni*, Associate Professor, English Department, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran [email protected] Alireza Ameri, Assistant Professor, English Department, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran [email protected]

Abstract This mixed-methods study aimed at investigating the effects of a gadget-based Internet multimedia extensive reading program on promoting language proficiency. In so doing, a pretest- posttest design was applied in the quantitative phase to comparatively analyze outcomes of three classes of college-level EFL learners (two experimental groups and one control, each including 30 university students) on how much they improved in their receptive proficiency, before and after the general English language course they were taking. The first group took the General English course along with a multimedia-based Internet extensive reading program as the study’s treatment, and the second group took a linear text (traditional) extensive reading program with their English course. The posttest scores showed that students in experimental group 1 (extensive reading using multimedia texts) outperformed both experimental group 2 (extensive reading using linear texts) and the control group. Furthermore, experimental group 2 had higher scores in comparison to the control group. As for the qualitative phase, results of the follow-up interviews and open-ended questionnaires also indicated that the learners liked, and would prefer to substitute traditional reading programs by gadget-based multimedia ones. EFL teachers may be most interested in outcomes of this study since insights may be gained regarding the extent to which Internet-based reading should enter language courses.

Keywords: Extensive reading, internet reading, linear text, receptive skills, multimedia text

Introduction Extensive reading has been investigated quite thoroughly (Bell, 2001; Hafiz & Tudor, 1989; Lao & Krashen, 2000; Pigada & Schmitt, 2006 Tanaka, 2007) when it comes to the reading of printed texts, which are otherwise called linear since one must usually begin from the very first page and continue up to the last so as to understand them thoroughly. The results of such studies have shown that reading linear texts extensively influences English proficiency positively. In this regard, fiction, and especially graded readers are considered suitable kinds of texts to be applied since they are the materials used in most investigations and suggested by most researchers (Bell, 2001; Lao & Krashen, 2000; Mason & Krashen, 1997; Pigada & Schmitt, 2006; Rodrigo et al., 2007; Tanaka, 2007). Comparatively, there is very little data on the reading of multimedia Internet texts which exist quite predominantly in Information and Computer Technology (ICT) and on electronic gadgets everybody has, and even far less on the extensive reading of them. What can be found in International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 60

the literature at present (Evans, 2005; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006; Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004; Smolin & Lawless, 2003; Warschauer & Ware, 2008) points to the fact that enhancing new literacies has now become essential with regard to the advent of ICT. Furthermore, the reading of multimedia texts contributes to the development of English literacy (Al-Othman, 2003; Coiro & Dobler, 2007). However, it has yet remained unknown whether extensive reading of multimedia Internet texts, which is believed to enhance the new kind of literacy, will be advantageous to EFL learners either to the same degree or even more when compared to the traditional model of reading extensively. Answering this may not be inferable but needs to be investigated for two reasons. The first is that what exists in present-day research on Internet reading is majorly concerned with the reading of informational kinds of multimedia texts, (Coiro & Dobler, 2007; Pino-Silva, 2006), that differ quite a lot from fiction, whereas what has mostly been used in connection with reading linear texts extensively so far has mainly been fiction. The second reason is that multimedia texts present on the Internet are usually authentic since their target audiences are not EFL learners with their various limitations in their language proficiency. Therefore, more research is required to see if students’ exposure to multimedia texts of fiction, which are mainly fictional and also authentic, helps develop second language proficiency. Since the influences of extensive reading of linear texts on language proficiency and motivation have already been proven fairly strongly in many studies (Bell, 2001; Hafiz & Tudor, 1989; Lao & Krashen, 2000; Pigada & Schmitt, 2006 Tanaka & Stapleton, 2007) conducted to date, a reasonable approach to analyze probable influences of multimedia texts’ extensive reading is to evaluate the possible proficiency enhancement created by extensive reading for Internet and linear texts comparatively. Multimedia Internet extensive reading occurs when texts include more than one mode, like a written story accompanied by an audio file, video clips clarifying parts of the text, and/or hyperlinks within the written text. In the current study, it seemed logical for the researcher to include a control group with identical general English courses but with no program for extensive reading, since the classes that were going to take part in the program were going to be convenience groups of students attending English courses at university. When there is a comparison group present, it is possible to check the effects of extensive reading on proficiency, since the English course variable – the course that both multimedia text and linear text groups were going to take – could be held constant. This study is considered significant due to two reasons. First, it is among the pioneers of studies aiming at investigating the effects of Internet-based multimedia extensive reading on increasing receptive skills. Second, it provides implications for changing the way ELT stakeholders deal with the saying that multimedia gadget-based materials are ones that language learners are engaged with on a daily basis, and learners need to advance their mastery for coping with them. Finally, the results of this study provide information which language teachers can ponder over for their increased possible future incorporation of Internet texts in their curricula. The aim of this paper was to investigate the influences of reading multimedia gadget- based Internet texts extensively on developing Iranian university-level students’ receptive skills in English, and seeking whether learners would prefer such an approach over traditional paper reading The insight about this purpose was gained through two categories of the literature reviewed. The first concerns those studies which claim extensive reading linear texts in an extensive manner, specifically if the texts are graded stories, impacts on promoting learners’ vocabulary knowledge (Lao & Krashen, 2000; Pigada & Schmitt, 2006), speed of reading (Bell, 2001; Lao & Krashen, 2000; Tanaka, 2007), writing (Mason & Krashen, 1997), comprehension in reading (Bell, 2001; Mason & Krashen, 1997; Tanaka, 2007), as well as motivation in English International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 61

reading (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; Lao & Krashen, 2000). The second category concerns those studies that either present new literacies as a result of the popularization of ICT or uphold Internet-based reading since it increases the pace of reading (Al-Othman, 2003) and motivation of English reading (Arnold, 2009), and applies self-controlled strategies of reading (Coiro & Dobler, 2007). There are very few studies that have investigated the effects of multimedia extensive reading on listening and reading simultaneously in the Iranian context. In addition, studies that have looked into the effects of multimedia-based instruction on reading and listening have reported mixed findings. This study therefore aims at filling these gaps. In order to serve the objective of this study, the following research questions were raised: Q1. Are there any statistically significant differences between the receptive English proficiencies of students who extensively read (a) multimedia Internet texts, (b) linear texts and (c) those who took the same English courses without extensive reading programs? Q2. What are Iranian EFL learners' attitudes towards multimedia-based extensive reading?

Literature Review A fairly large number of empirical investigations in EFL settings have proven that the extensive reading of printed materials, where information is usually conveyed linearly, helps develop the learners’ vocabulary knowledge (Seiter, 2020; Suk, 2016; Webb & Chang, 2015), speed of reading (Huffman, 2014; McLean & Rouault, 2017, Nakanishi, 2015), writing (Mermelstein, 2015; Park, 2016), comprehension in reading (Tanaka, 2007), as well as motivation in English reading (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; Lao & Krashen et al., 2018). Students also develop wider and deeper knowledge about the world, which is essential in relating and connecting with the text and other people (Renandya, 2016). The fundamental idea lying underneath these investigations concerns the input hypothesis proposed by Krashen (1982), which is based on the fact that the reception of comprehensible input by a learner enhances their target language acquisition. An example of this is written information which can be read, understood and comprehended easily and independently by a learner. Hung (2011) believes that exposing learners to comprehensible input would be parallel to the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) idea of Vygotsky (1978), which concerns the area between what one knows and their subsequent ability which requires help and support as facilitators for its development. However, ZPD is usually considered as a theoretical basis for studies which see the development of language as something social; these are consequently focused on investigating such impacts as, for example, teacher-student communications and scaffolding (Gibbons, 2003; Ko, Schallert, & Walters, 2003). A number of other researchers have claimed that a majority of the young individuals who live in this century are frequently in contact with electronic gadgets and Information and Computer Technology (ICT) (Evans, 2005; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006; Smolin & Lawless, 2003; Warschauer & Ware, 2008). People use mobile phones, send e-mails and text messages and very frequently search the net and are somehow engaged with other web-based communicative functions on an almost daily basis. The importance of multimedia-based instruction has been pointed out by many scholars. Some scholars have proposed changing the definition of literacy from a traditional paper-based one, turning into one based on the modern digitalized world we live in today (Coiro, 2003; Kress, 2003; Leu et al., 2004).The aforementioned examples all indicate the fact that learners today are no longer only reading linear texts, but they are interacting with multimedia texts, which include a blend of forms like written texts, images (whether motionless or moving) and spoken language. In addition, the interaction of present-day International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 62

students with ICT has changed the concept of literacy altogether. It has been found that the reading of online multimedia texts contributes to reading which is more self-regulated (Coiro & Dobler, 2007), while it also builds up motivation (Arnold, 2009) and reading speed (Al-Othman, 2003). Such positive effects of reading multimedia texts thus lay emphasis on the importance of preparing the grounds for leading EFL learners to further interact with such Internet-based texts in extensive reading programs.

Extensive Reading: Linear Text There have been a large number of studies on the linear kind of extensive reading programs (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; Bell, 2001; Lao & Krashen, 2000; Mason & Krashen, 1997; Rodrigo et al., 2007; Tanaka, 2007) which can serve as a basis for extracting the fundamental guidelines for implementing them, and also for understanding what the proper materials for reading are supposed to be. If one recognizes what these two exactly are, they will actually have understood what extensive reading is. Moreover, the aforementioned studies posit that extensive reading possesses a good potential for enhancing EFL learners’ English language skills and competence.

Proper reading materials The primary principles for implementing extensive reading programs emphasize the importance of the reading materials’ being interesting so that they can be comfortably read and comprehended independently, and consequently be read fast, accompanied with a sense of joy. Most researchers whose works were investigated for this study (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003; Bell, 2001; Mason & Krashen, 1997; Tanaka, 2007) made use of graded readers. Graded readers are mostly made simple and have been prepared for systematic control on the vocabulary items and grammatical structures to result in a leveled sequence of difficulty and complexity for various levels of learners. Nonetheless, novels, which are authentic, and which were clearly not written in a way so as to match the levels of EFL learners, and are not simplified either, have also been used in a number of studies successfully (Lao & Krashen, 2000; Rodrigo et al., 2007). Such a fact reasonably implies not only is it the large amount of reading that is important, but also reading the right things is certainly influential as well, and simplified stories as well as those written for native speakers are suitable extensive reading materials in case they seem interesting to the learners and also if the learners have no problem with the degree of their syntactic and lexical difficulty levels.

Extensive Reading: Internet Multimedia Gadget-Based Text Scholars who have taken into account the effect of ICT on modern-day literacy (Evans, 2005; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006; Smolin & Lawless, 2003; Warschauer & Ware, 2008) advocate a meaning shift in the very concept of literacy, moving from a traditional viewpoint on mastery over linear texts toward a subsequent viewpoint focused on multimedia gadget-based texts. Based on this support for the new concept of literacy, together with investigations which show the influences of Internet reading on reading pace (Al-Othman, 2003), interest (Arnold, 2009; Naderi Anari, Rostami Aboo Saeedi, & Shariati, 2019), and reading strategy application (Coiro & Dobler, 2007), this study investigates how extensively reading multimedia Internet texts affects Iranian university-level students’ receptive proficiencies. Multimedia extensive reading occurs when texts include more than one mode, like a written story accompanied by an audio file, video clips clarifying parts of the text, and/or hyperlinks within the written text.

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Multimedia texts and listening With regard to the wide use of audio files existing side by side with the texts available on the Internet in this era, the listening skill is definitely affected if learners are exposed to programs which require them to make use of the audio files for better understanding the story or text they are reading. Accordingly, a number of researchers have attempted to investigate the effect of exposure to multimedia texts on the listening skill of language learners. In a mixed-methods study by Jiang (2016), it was found that multimodality could improve learners’ autonomous listening significantly and enhance their comprehension, as well as their multiliteracy capacity. Another study by Yongjin (2013) indicated that after a 16 week research, multimodality facilitated students’ competence of English-listening when used appropriately. In yet another investigation on the effects of multimedia texts on listening, Cahyono and Widya (2017) found that using visual textbooks helps the students answer questions of the book simply. They can predict the answer by the images given in their books. In addition, by adding video clips to the listening classroom, students become more enthusiastic and enhance their listening abilities more enjoyably. Consequently, the learners become more powerful in listening.

The necessity for including multimedia texts in literacy programs Luke (2003), in line with the perceptions of Smolin and Lawless (2003), believes that effects of ICT on reading and writing today are quite significant. He implicitly emphasizes the need to include multimedia texts in literary curricula. Stressing the role of new hybrid research methodologies and theories, Luke (2003) claims that today’s texts, which are multimedia and exist in the present era’s scripts, like hypertexts, text messaging and games, have changed into multifaceted, hybrid sign-based forms, and require different dimensions from reading, observing, social exchange, and communication. Such new demands in the field of literacy definitely reveal their fundamental position in academic learning.

Multimedia texts and extensive reading Pino-Silva (2006) directly claims that ICT must be considered when dealing with extensive reading. In his study, Pino-Silva applied an Internet-based kind of program for extensive reading which had been developed on the basis of a paper-based one which had in turn been started more than 10 years before. His participants studied articles taken from the Internet and from journals like the Newsweek, the Scientific American and Discover. The task which students were obliged to do subsequently was to fill in worksheets and send them to an Internet group which had been created for the program. The answers which were given by the students in an open-ended questionnaire showed their beliefs in their learning new words, and their joy in the flexible nature of being able to choose what to read and also when to read it, as well as the fact that the Internet-based nature of the study had provided them with a chance to access a large number of new and fascinating magazine articles. The students also mentioned that, thanks to the Internet, they had enjoyed being able to contact their teachers frequently. Accordingly, Pino-Silva concluded that integrating the Internet into programs which concern extensive reading was an instructional approach worthy of development. However, in another study by Pellicer-Sanchez et al. (2018), through tracking the eyes of the participants on what they mostly read when exposed to multimedia texts, it was found that more time was spent on reading texts compared to pictures. Pictures were looked at more when they were accompanied by audio playbacks, but the result of this, much like the results of reading multimedia texts without devoting much time to questions, was that reading comprehension was not affected. Nevertheless, when considering all aspects of multimodality, and even with the consideration of the few cases where its effects are not great International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 64

enough, it can still be said that instructional approaches based on involving multimedia texts are worthy of development. To sum up, the irrevocable trend of ICT has already certainly called for a direction shift from the outdated literacy of linear texts toward a more modern type of it, which has as its centerpiece multimedia texts. Furthermore, a number of studies, though not a very large number of them, show that reading Internet texts enhances online reading motivation and speed, in addition to facilitating learners’ use of reading comprehension strategies. The literature reviewed thus approves of reading multimedia texts extensively in connection with enhancing motivation and proficiency in English. Because the advantageous nature of extensively reading linear texts has already been proven somehow firmly, it seems logical to further investigate effects of multimedia texts’ extensive reading through comparing it with the impacts of identical reading but this time with linear texts. However, since the learners participating in this study were EFL university students taking a four-stage English class aimed at enhancing reading, this study also made use of a group of students which neither took part in extensively reading multimedia texts, nor did it take part in extensively reading linear texts.

Methodology Design This research adopted an explanatory sequential mixed methods design. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis were used. Three classes were used to conduct the research, namely the multimedia group (n-30), the linear group (n30) and the control group (n=30). All three groups took a pre-test at the beginning of the term, checking for their receptive proficiencies, and a post-test at the end, where results of changes were checked to find the effect of multimedia-based extensive reading on receptive proficiency in comparison with extensive reading of linear texts, as measured by the receptive proficiency test of TOEIC. Following the first phase of the study, the second phase was qualitative, with a semi- structured interview and an open-ended questionnaire to extract participants’ attitudes.

Participants Two sets of participants were selected for each phase of the study. The participants of the quantitative section were 90 intermediate level English language learners at Mazandaran University of Science and Technology. Before starting the study’s main treatment sessions, the participants were required to be homogenous in terms of their proficiency level. Although Mazandaran University of Science and Technology has all its freshmen interviewed by language experts in order to place them in one of its EFL levels ranging from pre-intermediate through advanced (Language 1, Language 2, Language 3, and finally Advanced General English (Language 4)), in this study, even though the learners who were chosen were all students of the third level, that is Language 3 (High-Intermediate) it was still decided to have the students sit for a standardized placement test to further strengthen the validity of the placement results. As the researcher decided to choose intermediate level EFL learners, the students took the OPT test in order to have their current proficiency levels checked. They were students in different fields of study like mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer engineering. 49 male and 41 female learners were included in this study whose first language was Persian and ranged in age from 19 to 24 years old. The participants of the quantitative phase of this study were selected through a random sampling procedure. Three intermediate classes (each including 30) were randomly selected from among the intermediate classes which had been formed and were going to be held in the following semester. One class (experimental group 1) received extensive reading International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 65

practices using linear texts, that is, the Oxford readers; the other one experienced an extensive reading program of using gadget-based multimedia Internet texts in the process of their class, and the third group, the control group, was only used for the sake of comparison, only received the university’s default general language instruction without any sort of extensive reading program. For the qualitative phase of the study, however, 20 participants were chosen from the multimedia experimental group through a purposive sampling technique. The researcher contacted those experimental group participants who displayed more activity in class and were also more naturally engaged with their smartphones and tablets, as opposed to under-users and over-users. Under-users are those individuals who are somehow different from ordinary people in the amount they use technological devices such as tablet computers and cellphones. They only seem to start using such devices when there is a degree of obligation from the outside. On the contrary, over- users are those who are excessively engaged and into their electronic gadgets and can therefore not be considered as good samples with generalizability in research studies. That resulted in 20 of the students agreeing to take part in the interview.

Instruments Oxford Placement Test This study used the original pencil-and-paper Oxford Placement Test (1985) which was first developed by Dave Allan. It is both easy to administer and practical at grading students into different levels of proficiency. In this study, students whose scores ranged between 30 and 47 were included as the researcher’s aim was to include intermediate-level learners. Furthermore, the reliability index for the OPT test was calculated and reported to be .80 (Wistner, Sakai, & Abe, 2009). Moreover, it has been reported that this placement test enjoys construct validity (Wistner et al., 2009).

The TOEIC Test In order to measure EFL learners’ receptive proficiency levels before and after treatment sessions, a TOEIC pretest and a TOEIC posttest were used. Reviewing the related literature, many researchers like Pigada and Schmitt (2006) and Tanaka (2007) indicated the advantageous nature of reading extensively in the reading comprehension classroom and its impact of proficiency scores. Furthermore, regarding the reliability and validity of TOEIC tests, Woodford (1982) and Zhang (2006) approve that scores gained on the TOEIC test possess validity and reliability in the evaluation of learners’ proficiency in English.

Semi-Structured Interview The qualitative data of this study was obtained through twenty interviews with twenty participants from the experimental group. The interview was a semi-structured one. A semi- structured interview includes a set of questions to give direction to the interview but does not dictate those directions. This provided the interviewer with the freedom to probe more deeply into the perceptions of the participants regarding the extensive reading of multimedia texts through asking relevant questions based on active conversation (Lodico et al., 2006). The questions were developed for the interview early on in the study. However, once the quantitative data were reviewed, the list of questions was consulted in order to make sure that they were aligned with the results of the quantitative data analysis. This was done so that the researchers could make sure that the line of the qualitative questioning was going to be an additional piece of information to use in the triangulation process of reviewing the data. The questions which had originally been written were aligned quite well with the results of the quantitative data analysis, International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 66

meaning that they only required some slight adjustments. The results of the quantitative phase of the study were not revealed to the interview participants so that their focus would completely be turned to their opinion and perceived usefulness of the multimedia-based extensive reading program itself. The data collected from the interviews was recorded, transcribed and then analyzed to formulate the findings.

Open-Ended Questionnaire In order to obtain more detailed data in the qualitative phase of the study, an open-ended questionnaire was used by the researcher which would subsequently be used for cross-validating the data gained through the interviews to further demonstrate the participants’ opinions and feeling towards multimedia-based instruction. This questionnaire included a total of 8 questions, which the learners had to answer in a few sentences in English. Through these questions, the learners were asked to give their opinions regarding the multimedia-based instruction, such as whether they enjoyed the treatment, or which part of the multimedia was more helpful to their reading comprehension. In addition, a few other questions about the treatment existed in the questionnaire, which have all been provided as the supplementary materials to this study.

Reliability and validity of the qualitative phase As for the credibility of the data, the researcher applied member checking, peer debriefing and methods triangulation. In the member checking stage, the participants reviewed the drafts and themes which emerged from the data to evaluate and access the feedback concerning the accuracy of interpretations. In the peer debriefing phase, a colleague went through an external check of the process of the study. The external instructor received the raw data and the researchers understanding and explanations beforehand so that he could review and question the process of the study so as to make sure the study makes sense and the understandings drawn from the research were plausible and correct. Regarding methods triangulation, two qualitative tools were applied namely the open-ended questionnaire and the semi-structured interview, to create the credibility of the research. To address the transferability issue of the data obtained in the current study, the researcher applied thick and rich description. Through thick, rich and sufficiently detailed descriptions of the context, individuals who subsequently study the research results will be enabled to make the required comparisons and judgments about the amount of similarity, and consequently transferability. Addressing this issue is regarded as descriptive adequacy. Dependability is one of the other necessary issues which must be taken into consideration when conducting such qualitative methods. To check for the dependability of the current qualitative study, the inter-rater method was made use of. The researcher chose a number of transcriptions in a random manner and asked a peer to code them with the coding labels specified in advance by the researcher. This second coder was told that he was to choose whether he himself preferred to add other codes he himself might find necessary. Following the second coder’s coding of the data, the outcome was compared with the researcher’s coding results so as to check to what extent the two coders labeled the parts of the transcription identically.

Procedures As mentioned before, in order to conduct this study, both quantitative and qualitative data collection procedures were adopted. In order to do so, for the quantitative part, overall 107 EFL learners were initially considered in the three classes out of which 90 were chosen after the OPT test. The participants who scored 30- 47 were chosen because the researcher aimed at choosing International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 67

intermediate-level EFL learners. Overall, 90 EFL learners were chosen and divided into three groups: experimental 1, experimental 2, and control group. The first week of the term included the following procedures: How to read linear texts extensively and multimedia texts extensively were explained by the instructor to experimental group 1 and 2. This was done through a number of papers handed out among the students for clarification, and also some PowerPoint slides presented by the instructor. The explanation stage encompassed the aim of the researcher’s plans, how much the students were expected to read in a week and the necessary homework, as well as a page including possible story books which could be read for the linear experimental group and a list of websites for finding multimedia stories for the multimedia experimental group. The teacher in the control group told the learners that he invited them to take part in the research so that they would serve as a base for the research study. Stating the treatment sessions, the work on extensive reading was preformed once a week, while the learners were told and supposed to go on with their reading when they had spare time. As for the second phase of the study which was qualitative, two tools were designed and applied. A semi-structured interview and an open-ended questionnaire were used to check for the modes of multimedia texts the students preferred, the extensive reading program they participated in, their attitudes towards multimedia-based instruction and their ideas concerning English language proficiency.

Linear text group In experimental group 1, extensive reading was practiced using linear texts. The teacher in this class was supposed to provide support, encourage each student to read by themselves, and also ask them to share what they read with their peers. First, the teacher gave them the general information using PowerPoint presentations. For example, procedures regarding how to choose the material for reading and student-related tasks were described. After presenting the general information, the learners had around half an hour time to do the extensive reading each on their own. This period is known as continuous individual reading because in it, learners read on their own in class. After that reading, students were requested to respond to questions like “What do I know about the story?” and “What do I want to know about the story?”—prior to commencing the reading activity or “What do I learn after reading the story?” Subsequently, the students were asked to share their ideas with their friends in pairs.

Multimedia text group In experimental group 2, the same procedure was followed as well as searching the net regarding related topics, pictures, or movies which could help learners comprehend the text better or increase their knowledge. Hence, the participants of this group were asked to search the net for anything he/she considered as appealing and related to the text they had read beforehand. Again, in this group, like the former one, the learners explained to their peers the story of the text they had selected in a short 2-3-minute period. At the end, the teacher asked a few students to come to the front of the class and tell the class the stories they had chosen and had read beforehand. Participants of the multimedia text group got support by two means. The first was being introduced to a number of websites which included stories with a range of difficulty levels. It was quite practical because what we usually find on the net has not been specifically designed for language students. Furthermore, the net has such a large number of texts available that the explanations the students received most probably helped them find their stories more quickly. The second help was in relation to the text types present on the net. The teacher of the multimedia text group illustrated the way a learner might find, for example, a short video or pictures about International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 68

the theme of the story, a voice file telling that story, or a second story with an identical theme. The teacher presented short explanations on how to read online extensively and also how to use a number of hyperlinks which would guide students to websites including Basic to Advanced stories in his PowerPoint presentation.

Comparison group In group 3, which was the control group and was just used for the sake of comparison, English language classes were held as usual without any extensive reading practices. The treatment sessions were run in 10 weeks. Eventually, in the final week of the study, the students in all three groups answered the TOEIC questions a second time.

Data Analysis In order to check for any significant differences between the receptive English proficiencies of students who extensively read (a) multimedia Internet texts, (b) linear texts and (c) those who take the same English courses without extensive reading programs, the TOEIC pre- test and post-test data were analyzed for their parametric data assumptions. Then in order to check the difference in groups’ means, ANCOVA tests were used to see how the learners’’ receptive proficiencies were effected through holding constant scores gained on the pre-test as the covariate so that the influence of the learners’ varying levels of proficiency from the first stages of the investigation on the post-test outcomes at the end of it would be eliminated.

Results This study investigated if there were any statistically significant differences between the receptive English proficiencies of students who read (a) multimedia Internet texts, (b) linear texts and (c) those who take the same English courses without an extensive reading program. In order to do so, 90 EFL learners were put in three groups each containing 30 learners. After homogenizing them based on their OPT scores, learners took a TOEIC test as a pretest. The treatment sessions were then started. In experimental group 1, extensive reading was practiced using linear texts. In experimental group 2, extensive reading was practiced using multimedia, and group 3 was considered as a control group. After treatment sessions, the learners took another TOEIC test to see if there was any improvement or not. In order to check for the differences, the means of these three groups should have been compared. The means of these groups are presented in Table 1. As can be seen in this table, there are differences in the groups’ posttest scores; however, it should still be checked to see whether the differences are significant or not.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of TOEIC scores (Dependent Variable: Post-TOEIC)

Groups Mean Std. Deviation N 1 52.33 7.73 30 2 57.86 9.09 30 3 44.63 6.32 30 Total 51.61 9.44 90

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In order to check for the group’s mean differences controlling for the initial difference on the pre- test, ANCOVA was run. However, before running ANCOVA, there were three assumptions that needed to be met. According to Dancey and Reidy (2007), the assumptions of ANCOVA are: 1.The covariate must be linearly related to the dependent variable. 2.The covariate should be measured without error (i.e. reliably). 3.The regression lines for the different groups must be parallel to each other (p. 435). The assumption of linearity was checked by a scatterplot of the covariate (i.e., TOEIC pretest before treatment) and the dependent variable (i.e., TOEIC posttest after treatment). As seen in Figure 1, there is a linear relationship, as opposed to a curvilinear one.

Figure 1. Scatterplot of covariate and dependent variable

The second assumption was already checked since the TOEIC pre-test had an acceptable reliability of .85. Regarding the third assumption, a test of between-subjects was consulted. In order to meet the assumption of homogeneity of regression, the interaction of the covariate and the independent variable must be insignificant (Pallant, 2013, p. 298). Therefore, as highlighted in Table 2, the interaction of the treatment (i.e., group) and the TOEIC pretest before the treatment is statistically insignificant (F = .79, p = 0.45 > .05). As a consequence, it can be concluded that this assumption also holds.

Table 2. The homogeneity of regressions (Dependent variable: Post-TOEIC)

Source df F Sig.

Corrected Model 5 12.514 .000 Intercept 1 13.725 .000

groups 2 1.786 .174 Pre-TOIC 1 9.178 .003 groups*Pre- 2 .790 .457 TOEIC Error 84 Total 90

Corrected Total 89 a. R Squared = .427 (Adjusted R Squared = .393) International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 70

After meeting all the assumptions and as a final step, an ANCOVA test was run. As Table 3 indicates, there was a statistically significant difference between the performances of the students in the experimental and control groups on the TOEIC test after treatment (F = 19.86, p = .00 < .05). That is, the treatment had a significant impact on the learners’ receptive skills as measured by the TOEIC test after treatment. It is important to note that this F value was obtained after partialling out the initial differences on the TOEIC pre-test.

Table 3. The result of ANCOVA test for TOEIC pre and post tests Partial Source df F Sig. Eta Squared Corrected 3 20.431 .000 .416 Model Intercept 1 12.772 .001 .129

Pre-TOEIC 1 12.173 .001 .124 groups 2 19.862 .000 .316

Error 86 Total 90

Corrected 89 Total

a. R Squared = .416 (Adjusted R Squared = .396) It was found that there was a difference between the means of the control and experimental groups. Hence, a post hoc test was run to find the exact differences between groups. According to Table 4, it was found that there was a significant difference between the three groups. Hence, considering the mean scores in Table 1 and the post hoc results in Table 4, it can be concluded that the students in experimental group 2 (extensive reading using multimedia texts) outperformed both experimental group 1 (extensive reading using linear texts) and the control group. Furthermore, experimental group 1 had higher scores in comparison to the control group. Table 4. Results of the Post hoc Test Dependent Variable: TOEIC Post 95% Confidence Interval

(I) (J) Lower Upper Sig. groups groups Bound Bound 1 2.00 .007 -9.5378 -1.5289 LSD 3.00 .000 3.6955 11.7045 2 1.00 .007 1.5289 9.5378 3.00 .000 9.2289 17.2378 1.00 .000 - -3.6955 3 2.00 .000 11.7045- -9.2289 Based on observed means 17.2378 The error term is Mean Square (Error) = 60.886. *The mean difference is significant at the .05 level.

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The last research question asked for the participants’ attitudes and viewpoints concerning Internet-based extensive reading and the different parts of multimedia texts (audio, image or video) in it. In this regard, and in order for the researcher to find the participants’ opinions, twenty of the experimental group participants took part in a semi-structured interview and filled an open-ended questionnaire. The aim of the researcher was to obtain the learners’ ideas on the different amounts of effectiveness which the different kinds of modality had on their receptive proficiencies. Questions used in the qualitative phase can be grouped into these themes: (a) the effect of each mode on listening and reading (b) learner’s degree of mastery on technology (c) multimedia-based instruction and its role in learning (d) expectations learners had from the program. The semi-structured interview and questionnaire included 8 questions, the results of which are provided below based on the questions in the interview.

Which mode of multimedia texts (hyperlinks, images, audio files, video clips…) has a more significant role in enhancing your receptive skills? Most of the learners spoke very positively and eagerly of the different modes which are commonly made use of in multimedia-based texts usually available on the Internet. 15 of the students stated that images had a very strong role to play in enhancing understanding, whether it be for listening or reading. Three of the learners said that the video clips available in some story websites had the largest impact, while only one of them stated that audio files which read the story out was more influential. As for hyperlinks, all the participants believed that they had a very constructive effect since they explained words or concepts that were unfamiliar to the reader with further explanations and entries.

How much do you make use of technological tools and devices in the process of your learning? From the answers of the participants in the study it could quite clearly be seen that multimedia materials and technology played a key role in the process of their learning. All the participants said that they were in frequent contact with their technological devices such as their laptop computers, desktop computers, tablet computers, televisions, smart phones and the Internet. Among these, seven of the learners said that they commonly made use of these technological devices for learning, while three claimed that they did not apply such tools for education, but rather for getting in touch with friends and family, social networking and entertainment.

Does the use of multimedia and Internet-based tools for learning help enhance your English proficiency? All the participants believed so. One of the participants believed that watching video clips and listening to audio files in English is the best way to learn how to communicate in English. Or another student mentioned that even when he was looking for and studying something in English related to his own field of study, considering the fact that dictionaries and hyperlinks guided him to more simply understand the details of it, he actually learned some English in addition to the specific texts he was researching in his own field of study. Thus, he believed that he was learning English indirectly while working on his own studies.

Which one do you prefer? Learning with printed books or learning through multimedia materials? International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 72

All participants believed that multimedia texts were superior to printed ones when it comes to learning. For instance, one of them said that at present we are mostly using printed books for education and learning while we actually need to shift this trend toward a majorly Internet-based one which could make more use of all the links and modes of communications absent in printed book so as to help learners get more than simply reading and trying to decipher the meanings laid within. He added that multimedia texts were more easily understandable, and could quickly be directed toward supplementary information that may be helpful. Participants also implied that getting access to information was much easier through multimedia tools. Another participant for example said that finding the information you want on a computer or Internet-based software is much more convenient than finding it in books.

How much are multimedia texts made use of in your English classes? Which kinds of multimedia materials are most commonly used? Seven of the participants said that in most of the English classes they attended, multimedia materials linked to the Internet were very rarely used, while the rest said that they were used minimally. These three said that their teachers made use of PowerPoint slides, computers, CDs and, in some occasions, movies in their classes, but still not the direct Internet. A number of the participants believed that their instructors had to make more use of multimedia and the Internet in the process of their teaching or at least in the assignments they gave the students since multimedia texts are now a common part of people’s everyday life. However, it could be understood from the responses that the teaching style instructors had, also played a significant role in the amount of interest students had regarding the overall class procedure. Although they claimed that multimedia would make the class more interesting, compared to teaching printed books, they still believed that they had experiences of teachers not having used multimedia materials, but who, through their interesting ways of handling classes, made the learning process very appealing and fruitful.

What are your expectation regarding the use of Internet-based multimedia in language learning classes? Most students said that further integration of Internet-based activities would be very helpful for the learning process. The major basis of the students’ opinions was that, considering the role of the Internet in their everyday life, it seemed strange why most language teachers were only making minimal use of it in their teaching processes. They also said that while there are so many materials freely and easily available on the net, sticking to traditional ways and teacher- centered classes was not supposed to be this much prevalent as it is today. Overall, most of the students who took part in the qualitative phase of this study expresses high expectation regarding further implementation of such programs in language learning environments.

Is there any part of your English proficiency that this type of instruction does not affect much? While some of the participants believed that speaking is not influenced much because reading only develops reading, others, who were 10 of the participants believed that such instruction also influenced speaking and writing. This second group of learners believed that an increase in vocabulary learning would somehow help you speak better and even write better. They also believed that reading a lot can have a good effect on speaking as well. One participant went on to say “just like film lovers are usually good speakers of English, good readers can be, too”. However, almost half the students didn’t agree with such a point of view and saw International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 73

multimedia-based Internet extensive reading as being helpful to reading, and to a smaller extent, listening only.

Did the extensive reading program cause you to feel more motivated to read and take part in class? Once again, almost half the participants had a positive view, while the others had a negative one. Those who believed multimedia on the Internet motivated them to read more and take more active roles in the class mostly pointed to the enjoyment factor as the reason for such motivation. On the other hand, the detractors’ standpoint was that being required to read as part of a class process or assignment makes leads to a reduction in motivation and enjoyment factors. While they still believed that in essence, using such materials was very useful and enjoyable for language learners, they only preferred to carry out the activities in class, and not have anything to do before the arrival of the next session at home. In other words, they preferred a classroom- based program to a more comprehensive one that included after-class assignments as well.

Discussion Reading comprehension is one of the most important skills which should be practiced both inside and outside the classroom. One way to improve reading is to practice extensive reading outside the class. Extensive reading is a method of language learning which consists of reading a relatively large number of texts that are easy and enjoyable. These texts can exist in both linear and multimedia formats and can be further categorized based on learners’ proficiency levels and learners can enjoy reading them. In today’s modern world, the old concept regarding literacy has converted to a literacy of multimedia texts as a result of the dominant application of digital content. In addition, since the popularity of all these new devices is a continuing process, multimedia texts must play a role in literacy programs. The present study tried to examine the impact of multimedia extensive reading on the possible promotion of Iranian university-level students’ reading motivation through comparatively analyzing it against the somehow widely accepted influence of reading printed texts extensively. The results of the study indicate that extensively reading multimedia texts is more effective than reading printed ones in promoting EFL students’ receptive proficiencies. The current study indicated that students who experienced extensive reading using multimedia texts outperformed the ones who experienced linear texts in listening and reading performance, and both of these groups outperformed the control group learners who did not experience any type of extensive reading. This finding is logical as there were treatments in the experimental groups and the learners studied more materials than the control group. Moreover, they had the opportunity to check vocabulary meanings online and they had access to audio files which helped them learn better. Considering the outperformance of experimental groups, it is worthy to note that the materials used in the experimental group were graded books with different levels for students’ own choice, while the materials for the control group were at the same level as the textbook used during the experimental period. As the result indicates, the positive outcome lends support to Krashen’s Input Hypothesis (1982) which says a learner naturally learns when they are exposed to input which is one level above the linguistic level they are currently at. Thus, second/foreign language teachers have to be aware of selecting the appropriate levels of graded books with various topics, and students can have an opportunity to read what they are willing to read to achieve natural communicative input that is also comprehensible. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 74

According to hypotheses and evidence reported by many researchers (Bell, 2001; Hafiz & Tudor, 1989; Lao & Krashen, 2000; Pigada & Schmitt, 2006 Tanaka & Stapleton, 2007), it is believed that if the students form a habit of reading through extensive reading programs with adequate comprehensible input in a low anxiety environment, they will improve their reading comprehension in the long run. After all, reading ability doesn’t happen overnight. If working on multimedia story texts is as influential as reading linear texts, one can at least conclude that they must have a similar share in literacy programs. The importance of multimedia-based instruction has been pointed out by many scholars. These scholars have proposed changing the definition of literacy from a traditional paper-based one, turning into one based on the modern digitalized world we live in today (Coiro, 2003; Kress, 2003; Leu et al., 2004). However, the present paper aims at a different view. Multimedia texts do play a significant role in modern literacies, and considering this point, teachers can improve their teaching quality through using it more in classes. What was found in this study is in contrast to the findings of Arnold (2009) who, as a result of his findings, claimed that there seems to be an overestimation considering the large amount of attention multimedia-based instruction is getting. The result of his qualitative study was that a big majority of his participants (74%) chose to read journalistic texts when they were given complete freedom to choose any kind of text they preferred, the point being that they did not show much tendency toward multimedia kinds of texts. Even though the learners, as a result of the Internet-based multimedia course, had claimed to have become more motivated, more self- confident and more powerful in their reading skills, they still did not show much interest for reading multimedia texts. The present findings regarding the influence of extensively reading linear texts support what Krashen (1982) believed in connection with the significance of comprehensible input and its role in becoming proficient in a language. Pica (2005) also was of the belief that comprehensible input is a must when considering language learning, but not at all enough. As a result, comprehensible input is an important part of learning a language, but it is not the only element required.

Conclusion The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of extensive reading using both linear and multimedia texts in EFL learners’ achievements in receptive skills (reading and listening). In this part, the summary of findings, and the conclusions are presented. Furthermore, theoretical and pedagogical implications are shown and some research venues for further investigations are provided. Considering the effect of extensive reading on learners’ performance in the TOEIC test, it was found that students in experimental group 2 (extensive reading using multimedia texts) outperformed both experimental group 1 (extensive reading using linear texts) and the control group. Furthermore, experimental group 1 had higher scores in comparison to the control group. The current study can be seen as a leader in investigating the impact of extensive reading of English on the language skills of Iranian EFL learners. Whether the narrative reading text is multimedia or linear, numerical studies state extensive reading as an entry to developing receptive skills. As stated by Day and Bamford (1998), when properly set up and conducted, extensive reading can help learners read better in the target language, and can also cause learners to take pleasure in reading. Findings suggest that reading extensively will provide understandable input to language learners. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 75

The key result of this study concerns the fact that extensively reading multimedia texts on the net is more influential than reading written linear texts in enhancing the receptive English proficiency of Iranian EFL learners as assessed by the TOEIC exams. The numerical findings, in other words, support the fact that extensively reading, whether it be that of linear or multimedia texts has an important role in improving receptive proficiency. However, the findings of the study turned out to support the notion made by Krashen (1982) which stated understandable input to be a major player in developing language skills because the input given to the learners seemed to have four features of the effective input stated in the hypothesis (1982) for language development. Statistical results obtained from this research study make it possible to postulate that EFL learners benefit from a robust linear or multimedia text reading program. The first pedagogical implication is that practitioners can undertake the practice of extensively reading multimedia or linear texts, depending on the facilities of the educational school. The overriding explanation for this is that extensively reading multimedia texts is suggested to be more influential than linear texts in developing the English skills of EFL learners. Therefore, in case an academic organization does not possess a large-enough number of graded readers, at least one single unit class can be arranged for all learners to experience the multimedia or linear type of extensive reading with the anticipation of gaining good benefits for the students. Nevertheless, if accessing English Internet is more difficult for the learners than accessing graded readers, instructors can perform extensive reading with books in print, and they don’t need to worry about the development of English skills for their students through such methods, since they are not much less beneficial. Another pedagogical implication for course developers resulting from this study is to include the specific types of information and story texts when online reading is performed extensively. This implication is because the kind of multimedia-based reading that has had a positive impact on the study of participants has mostly been that of information texts, e.g. journal articles or stories (Arnold, 2009; Pino-Silva, 2006). In addition, it is likely that extensively reading multimedia texts online will have good influences if structured as a method which acts as a problem-solver, as the study by Coiro and Dobler (2007) indicated, or the collection and sharing of information, as exemplified by the study by Pino-Silva (2006). Through this study, it has been realized that it is possible to make further modifications and improve the thesis due to the limited understanding of the theories of extensive reading and motivation. Many important theoretical issues in reading have not yet been resolved, and the result of this study is only tentative on a preliminary research basis due to the limitations of the experimental conditions such as time, reading materials and class management. Such extensive reading research may have a common relevance in many other foreign language learning activities, and in-depth studies will continue to support such hypothesis of thesis and viability if extensive reading if incorporated into the curriculums of schools and language institutes. For future research, it is suggested to investigate the effects of informative styles of multimedia texts, as opposed to literary forms used in this study. As mentioned earlier, the type of text used in this study, for both linear and multimedia groups, was stories. However, since information texts most often provide authentic texts to their readers, it seems logical to apply such texts in future extensive reading programs. As for the last research question and the results of the open-ended questionnaire and semi- structured interviews, it was revealed that learners think that the various kinds of text modes, that is, audio files, video clips, graphical elements and pictures can be considered positively International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 76

influencing factors in the process of enhancing receptive proficiency. Most learners, however, preferred texts which were accompanied by more than one mode of multimedia instruction. That is, it was not only the audio mode which was preferable for the participants to go with texts, but rather the presence of hyperlinks, images and online dictionaries was desired and emphasized so as to make the learning process more enjoyable and fruitful. The semi-structured interviews prove that the learners in this study were aware of the aims of the present study. In the interviews, the participants also said that they saw multimedia texts as a part of modern life, and that they made use of multimedia and technology for entertainment, social networking, communication and learning. The interviewees also said that they believed in the key role multimedia texts played in the process of language learning and specifically in enhancing their receptive proficiency, as well as the fact that they had decided to incorporate it in their life more than they used to. They also stated that multimedia texts available on the English Internet were much better than linear printed books, since they more easily allowed for accessing information and comprehension. Eventually, they said that their other instructors did not make much use of multimodality even though such texts were much more beneficial to language learners in the present era. Their demand was for their teachers and instructors to start introducing courses which would give a larger share to Internet-based activities and materials when designing lesson plans.

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International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

The Most Common Challenges Facing Iranian English Majors in the Translation Process from English into Persian

Narcisse Memarzia, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of English Language, Qeshm Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qeshm, Iran [email protected] Rahman Sahragard*, Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran [email protected] Seyyed Ayatollah Razmjoo, Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran [email protected] Shahram Afraz, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language, Qeshm Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qeshm, Iran [email protected]

Abstract The main priority for university translation educators is to improve the quality and outcomes of translation courses. To achieve such a goal, the instructors are required to integrate learners' needs, identified with the help of a needs survey, into syllabus content. Accordingly, the present study was conducted to identify the Iranian English majors' difficulties in translating English texts since once a problem is identified, exploring the best pedagogical solutions would follow. The aim was accomplished through qualitative descriptive research conducted at Islamic Azad University, Shiraz Branch tracing the errors committed by the English majors in their exam papers in academic years 2016-2019. Following the model proposed by Miremadi (2008), the syntactic and lexical problems were identified in the exam papers collected during six semesters. Moreover, three more categories were added to the list as the data analysis moved forward: culture problems, stylistic problems, and miscellaneous errors with detailed subdivisions. What appeared to be worthy of attention in the results was the students' weakness in text and sentence segmentation to find the function of the components to approach textual meaning, resulting from the students' poor English language proficiency. The results also revealed the students' poor topical knowledge as well as the lack of knowledge of translation techniques and strategies.

Keywords: Error analysis, pedagogical solutions, topical knowledge, translation problems, translation strategies

Introduction The term medical diagnosis is defined as "the identification of the cause of a patient's illness or discomfort" (Medical Dictionary, 2009). Diagnosing problems in educational research also follows the same procedures as medical research does to find the sources of the problems using a variety of measurement tools to prescribe what seems to result in adequate efficient remedies. Based on the researchers’ experience, students and novice translators are generally not aware of the requirements of the task of translation they are assigned. More importantly, they seem unable to realize many of the problems related to the task in hand. This leads to the gap that exists in translation training programs which is the lack of a detailed classification of International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 82

problems of translation on the one hand, and of the translation requirements of particular texts on the other. Accordingly, the decision to work on this topic was based on the fact that identifying problems is the first step towards positive evaluation and analysis of successful solutions or strategies to design a course in which the students can realize many of the problems related to the task in hand and get awareness of the requirements of the task of translation they are assigned. In defining a translation problem, however, a distinction should be made between a process difficulty, on the one hand, and a product error, on the other as the former refers to a problem as a source of puzzlement and the latter implies a defect in performance, i.e., a product "error" (Deeb, 2005). Such a distinction is crucial in the present study as the data comes from the students' errors to find out the sources of puzzlement. The proposed study draws the attention of instructors to the importance of their own role in teaching and guiding the students to adopt useful techniques and procedures for accurate translation through developing curriculum and materials more effective in translation courses. In fact, as Bowker (2000) argues, "trainers must be able to point out specific problems rather than relying on vague impressions, and they must be able to back up their decisions with more than just instinct or gut feeling" (p.186). In practical terms, consequently, this study intends to provide translation instructors at both undergraduate and postgraduate level with a graded checklist of problems encountered by Iranian students translating from English into Persian in order that they can employ the best possible effective teaching strategies to guide the students to solve such problems. Moreover, it provides a guideline to the students to identify some of their most crucial weaknesses in translation and to develop skills necessary to be proficient enough in standing against translation difficulties. The study, also, will benefit the future researchers who intend to investigate the same problems in some other educational institutes. To follow the objectives of the research, the following questions were raised and answered through corpora analysis: Q1. What difficulties do Iranian English majors have in the translation process from English into Persian as reflected in their common errors? Q2. What is the nature of such errors and how can they be classified?

Review of Literature Translation problems are referred to by different terms in the literature. Some translation scholars such as Clark (2000) use the words challenges and pitfalls while some others alternate between difficulties and problems. Using the terms problems and difficulties both, Newmark (1988) does not differentiate between the two; Nord (1991), on the other hand, makes a distinction between what she calls translation problems and translation difficulties. She explains that a translation difficulty relates to a difficulty encountered by an individual translator, due to a certain weakness or inability, and a translation problem is a challenge for most, if not all, professionals translating into a certain language. Similarly, Schaffner (2001) believes that translation problems are objective problems to be identified before producing the target text; "they must not be confused with subjective difficulties a translator may have due to deficient translation competence" (p. 24). Differentiating between problems and difficulties, Nord (1991, 2005 as cited in Schaffner, 2001) classifies translation problems into four main types: pragmatic, intercultural, interlingual (linguistic), and text-specific problems. Pragmatic problems are due to the contrast between International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 83

communicative situations in ST and TT including place, time, and address. Intercultural problems result from different cultural conventions such as formal, text type and genre conventions. Structural differences in syntax, vocabulary, and suprasegmental features of the two languages involved result in Interlingual translation problems. Text- specific translation problems arise when specific features such as puns, rhetorical figures, alliteration, and rhyme appear in specific texts. Theoretical problems of translation, according to Miremadi (2008), are generally divided into two main categories: lexical problems and syntactic problems. Noting that there are certain words in the SL that correspond imperfectably to the words of the TL, Miremadi subcategorized lexical problems into straight/denotative meaning, which refers to the words, like father, in the SL that can be matched with the TL words as they create the same image, ironical meanings, or words or utterances that have contextually opposite meanings, metaphorical expressions, semantic voids, referring to the words or expressions that have referents in a speech community but not in others, and the problems of proper names. Syntactic problems, as Miremadi (2008) has quoted from Nida (1975) originate from different systems of organizing syntactic constituents such as word classes, grammatical relations, and word order. Analyzing the errors made by the professional and novice translators, Hubscher-Davidson and Borodo (2012) categorized them into formal, lexical, grammatical, text-level errors and other errors such as idiomaticity and cultural specificity. Among the recent empirical investigations focusing on the difficulties and challenges facing university students of translation, the studies conducted by Arab researchers seem to be significant in the field. Ghazala (2008) classifies translation problems facing Arab university students of translation into grammatical, lexical, stylistic, and phonological problems. The reasons for grammatical problems are complicated SL grammar, different TL grammar, and different word order. In a study conducted by Montasser Mohamed (2013) some practical lexical problems in English- Arabic translation confronted by undergraduate students were investigated. The translation problems embraced thirteen lexical features: polysemy, technical terms, proper nouns, compounds, collocations, phrasal verbs, fixed expressions, idioms, proverbs, connotative meaning, synonyms, Arabization, and lexical gaps. Focusing on the university students’ failure to achieve the appropriate equivalence and use the proper techniques in translation, Dweik and Suleiman (2013) conclude that cultural influence resulted in the poor performance of the students. As far as translation problems of language learners in the Iranian context are concerned, the following recent studies are worth mentioning: Abbasi and Kariminia (2011) compared the errors of junior and senior students to reach their possible dominant errors which had not been remedied during the years of studying at the university. The identified errors were classified into two main categories namely, lexico-semantic and syntactico-morphological. Lexico-semantic errors included cross-association, the cases where there is one word in the source language for which there are two words in the target language and false cognates. Syntactico-morphological errors included a variety of errors such as wrong use of tense, prepositions, and articles. In a study conducted to find out students’ main problems in translating from English into Persian, using Na Pham’s (2005) error analysis, Ardeshiri and Zarafshan (2014) found out that understanding the pragmatic senses was the most distinctive problem the students had, the main reason for which was misunderstanding the source text main message. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 84

The study carried out by Yousofi (2014) investigated the common problems found in the translation products of Iranian graduate or undergraduate students seeking a job as an English translator. The data came from 100 test samples the analysis of which led to categorizing the difficulties into linguistic, cultural, and stylistic ones. Linguistic difficulties included lexical and structural features. Terms or expressions loaded with religious, social, and political connotations led to cultural problems. The results of a study conducted at Islamic Azad University, Salmas Branch to understand the nature of translation problems of Iranian EFL learners revealed that the biggest challenge the students faced was Persian-English translations since it was much easier to comprehend than to compose English. The most common problems were related to word-order, structure, and vocabulary choice. The researcher, Sadeghi (2011), concluded that inappropriate linguistic competence in English is responsible for the bulk of translations blunders made by the students. Challenges in English to Persian translation of contracts and agreements were investigated by Karimi, Heidari Tabrizi, and Chalak (2016). The participants were 20 Iranian MA students at Islamic Azad University, Khorasgan Branch receiving a translation task including a land selling contract and a consignment agreement. The findings reflected the students' lack of basic knowledge of legal systems and terminology and layout of legal texts. Ilani and Barati (2016) investigated the challenges in translating journalistic texts. The analysis of the errors committed by Iranian senior translation students studying at Zand Institute for Higher Education, Shiraz, Iran indicated that the most frequent errors were grammar and terminology errors as well as misunderstanding of original texts. Focusing on tourism industry guidebooks, Vahid Dastjerdi and Abdolmaleki (2013) investigated the problems of translating such texts trying to discover the most frequent error patterns committed by the Iranian translators. The errors were traced in three hundred sentences randomly extracted from the corpora and subjected to error analysis resulting in categorizing the errors into syntactic ones mostly including grammar patterns, semantic errors including word choice patterns, and pragmatic errors. Reviewing the relevant literature indicates that focusing on the Iranian students' performance in translation, most of the researchers have discussed the general objective problems faced by the students. However, there seems to be lack of a detailed dissection of English-Persian translation subjective difficulties resulting from deficient translation competence. Accordingly, the present research has attempted to have a thorough investigation into the nature of errors resulting from poor translation competence to answer the research questions.

Method The present study is a qualitative descriptive research based on content analysis, one of the goals of which, according to Ary, Jacobs, and Sorenson (2010), is to ‘analyze types of errors in students' writings and classify their errors in different areas’ (p.457). This design, therefore, was chosen to investigate the hindrances or problems confronting the Iranian undergraduate students of translation when translating different texts from English into Persian by analyzing the errors they had made in their exam papers. The purpose of the study was actually conducting a kind of action research that can serve as a significant form of teacher professional development.

Setting and Participants The study was conducted at Islamic Azad University, Shiraz Branch, English Department during the six semesters of the academic years 2016 to 2019. The participants in the study, the researcher's students at different translation courses, were 564 Iranian junior and senior students International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 85

enrolled in the undergraduate program of translation. They were of both sexes, aged between 19 and 26 years old. The selection of the participants was based on the convenience sampling technique. They were the researcher's students in translation classes. The participants, of course, had already studied many specialized courses including language skills, English grammar, linguistics, Persian language structure and English writing courses. They had also completed at least two courses in translation.

Instruments The data collected for the present research came from the assigned papers, quizzes, and exams given to the undergraduate translation students. In order to have dependable findings, increasing the validity and reliability of the results, the strategy of data triangulation and replication logic (Ary et al., 2010) was chosen. The homework assigned to the students, short assigned homework in class individually or in group, quizzes, and formal exams all provided different sources of data for the researcher. Moreover, the study was conducted with the multiple groups during six semesters so that the researcher could obtain consistent findings during three years of teaching translation courses to undergraduate students.

Data Collection and Analysis Procedures Methodologically, the present research employed a product-oriented descriptive research method to present the description or analysis of ST-TT pairs. As a result, to detect the problems in the corpora, the researcher followed the procedures of error analysis put forward by Corder (1987) including sampling, identification, explanation, evaluation, and correction of errors. Initially, the errors found in the students' assignments and exam papers were regularly recorded in a notebook under headings referring to the nature of the problem. A labeling system mainly based on Miremadi's taxonomy of translation problems including syntactic and semantic problems was created to identify the type of potential problems. Those errors belonging to the same category were subsequently grouped together with some sample examples illustrating them. The errors, of course, were gradually and subsequently added to the categorized list during the whole semesters under investigation. As a result, three more categories, stylistic, cultural, and miscellaneous errors identified by the researchers were added to the list to classify the errors found in the corpora. In addition to the notes, the researcher added some memos checking the translation error identification and classification with two teacher-evaluator colleagues involved in teaching translation courses to increase the reliability of the results. The next stage was describing the errors mostly through the sample examples including a few stages following the model selected by Lai (2013). First, the problem as reflected in the error was introduced. The source text and its Persian translation by the students were presented. The students' translation, then, were back translated into English so that English speakers could see what the problem was. To increase the credibility of the research the researcher used triangulation method including peer review so that three of the researcher's colleagues were provided with the raw data along with the researcher's interpretation and explanation in order for them to decide if the findings and interpretations are credible through discussion (Ary et al., 2010).

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Results In order to answer the research questions the researcher followed the model proposed by Miremadi (2008) which identified two main categories: syntactic problems and lexical problems. Each of these two categories was subcategorized into different types. Furthermore, three more categories were added to the list as the data analysis moved forward: culture problems, stylistic problems, and miscellaneous errors which were further divided into their related subcategories under distinct topics. Miscellaneous errors, the last category, were those errors that could not fall under any of the other categories. Accordingly, these errors were categorized as miscellaneous, which consisted of the errors related to the lack of general information or the knowledge of the world and the students' weak deduction as well. The syntactic problems were reflected in two general levels: the problems at the level of words and the problems at the level of sentences. The problems at the level of words included those relating to parts of speech listed as nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, articles, and conjunctions. The problems at the level of sentences were those observed in sentences including deleted subordinate clauses and main clauses, as well as those problems related to the linked elements by coordinators. In terms of general categories of the problems, in fact, the results of the study are in line with other Iranian researchers such as Abbasi and Kariminia (2011) and Yousofi (2014), working on the university students' translation errors; however, the detailed subdivisions and the nature of problems are, in most cases, different from the other studies. Moreover, the syntactic errors fall under two general categories as word level and sentence level including detailed analysis of different components of the sentences individually as well as investigating the linkage or logical relationship between the components in English sentences.

Discussion The following source text samples and their translations present the problematic areas. Of course, the samples are abridged forms of the original data due to word limitation. The back translation of each sample is presented to compare the source and the target text to evaluate the compatibility of meaning between the two languages, thereby assessing the accuracy and quality of translation. In addition, the problem reflected in each of the samples is explained and in some cases the suggested translation is added to the discussion.

Syntactic Problems Problems at the level of words Nouns Problem: Changing the grammatical function of the head word in a noun phrase ST: female activists /zænɑne fæʔʔɑle sijɑsi/ زنان فعال سیاسی :TT Back translation: women who are activists zænɑn/ (women), a noun in Persian; activists is/ زنان The adjective female is translated into translated as an adjective, so that the noun has functioned as a modifier and the modifier has fæʔʔɑlɑne sijɑsi/ فعاالن سیاسی زن .replaced the noun. The suggested translation of this phrase is zæn/.

Pronouns Problem: Missing the pronoun referent International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 87

ST: Modern American households are coming to resemble those of centuries past,… خانواده های آمریکایی در حال شبیه شدن به قرون گذشته /qorune gozæʃte/ هستند،… :TT Back translation: The American families are coming to resemble the past centuries, In the above example, those which replaces the American families is ignored as the head word of the noun phrase those of centuries past, and the past centuries has played the role of complement for the verb resemble.

Verbs Problem: Ignoring tense harmony ST: Margaret sat on the foot of her bed and watched the trees tossing in the wind. مارگارت پایین تختش نشست /neʃæst/ و درختان را نگاه میکرد /TT: ./negɑh mikærd Back translation: Margaret sat on the foot of her bed and was watching the trees. The conjunction and in the source text has led to a harmony between the tense of the verb phrases joined together. This sense of harmony is not built in the target text where the simple past and past progressive are joined together by and.

Problem: Misuse of tenses ST: We will have lived in this house for ten years by the end of this month. ما در این خانه تا آخراین ماه ده سال زندگی خواهیم کرد /TT: ./xɑhim kærd Future perfect in English expresses an action that will be completed before some other point in the future. The simple future has replaced future perfect in the translation. The error can be explained as interference of L1 because in Persian, there is no a precise equivalent for future perfect; the present perfect or simple present is used for the same context. The suggested tɑ ɒxære in mɑh/ تا آخر این ماه ده سال است که در این خانه زندگی میکنیم :translation of this sentence is dæh sɑl æst ke dær in xɑne zendegi mikonim/.

Problem: Having difficulty recognizing the verb phrase replaced by an auxiliary in ellipsis- substitution ST: The violence between Christian and Muslim militias has escalated in recent months, as have attacks on UN peacekeepers. TT: خشونت بین شبه نظامیان مسیحی و مسلمان ماههای اخیر افزایش یافته زیرا به حافظان صلح سازمان ملل حمله شده hæmle ./zirɑ be hɑfezɑne solhe sɑzemɑne melæl ʃode/ Back translation: The violence between Christian and Muslim militias has escalated in recent months because UN peacekeepers are attacked. In English grammar, auxiliaries can be used to avoid verb repetition. As substitution is one of the methods of cohesion (Nordquist, 2018), in the above example, it seems that the students had problem connecting two pieces of information, in one of which the verb phrase has escalated is substituted by the auxiliary verb have and the word as is a preposition, meaning like, not a subordinate conjunction. One of the reasons might be the confusing structure of the second deleted clause: the inversion of subject and auxiliary after as in English, a specific grammatical structure that does not exist in Persian.

Adjectives and Adverbs Problem: Wrong modification ST: Developing a smart statewide network of educational programs /bærnɑmehɑje ɑmuzeʃi huʃmænd/ توسعه شبکه برنامه های آموزشی هوشمند سراسری :TT International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 88

Back translation: Developing the network of smart nationwide educational programs The adjective "smart" modifies network, while the translator has used this adjective to modify program. This problem might be due to either the length or complexity of the noun phrase with multi modifiers and possessive of phrase (Swierzbin, 2014) or the order of adjective and noun in Persian which is different from English in that in contrast to English, Persian descriptive adjectives typically come after the noun they modify.

ST: There is even peace in the storm. آرامش حتی در طوفان /hættɑ dær tufɑn/ هم هست. :TT Back translation: There is peace even in the storm. The position of the adverb even in a sentence varies depending on which element is focused on. In the above example, the translator has moved the focus from peace to the phrase in the storm. The suggested translation of this sentence is: ./hættɑ ɑrɑmeʃ hæm dær tufɑn hæst/ حتی آرامش هم در طوفان هست.

Prepositions Problem: Misunderstanding the function of the preposition "for" in adverb phrases of purpose ST: Thousands of people were killed in order for him to remain in power هزاران نفر بخاطر او/bexɑtere u/ کشته شدند تا در قدرت باقی بماند. :TT Back translation: Thousands of people were killed for him in order that he can remain in power. The preposition "for" in adverbial phrases of purpose in English just introduces the agent of the verb in the phrase and does not have the same meaning as for in a phrase like do something for somebody. In the above examples for is translated as due to since the function of for in purpose clauses seems to have been unknown to the translator. The correct translation of this sentence is hezɑrɑn næfær koʃte ʃodænd tɑ u dær qodræt bɑqi/ هزاران نفر کشته شدند تا او در قدرت باقی بماند bemɑnæd/.

Problem: Having difficulty finding appropriate equivalents ST: I feel that I'm dying, and, through the medium of art and mystical experience, I want to be reborn. حس میکنم در حال مردن هستم و در میان /dær mijɑne/ هنر و تجربه مرموز میخواهم دوباره زاده شوم. :TT Back translation: I feel that I'm dying, and I want to reborn between art and mysterious experience. This problem might be attributed to the various numbers of prepositions in English, many of which have more than one meaning in different situations. It seems that the first and the most frequent and familiar meaning of the preposition is chosen by the translator without focusing on the contextual clues to find the appropriate equivalent. Through in the example means by, the ./æz tæriq/ از طریق bɑ/ or/ با Persian equivalent of which is

Articles Problem: Distorting the message by changing a definite article into an indefinite one and vice versa ST: The accident was ordinary enough. حادثه ای /hɑdeseɁi/ معمولی بود. :TT Back translation: It was an ordinary accident. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 89

When sentences having the English definite article the are going to be translated into hɑdese/) or a/ حادثه) Persian, the definite article the seems to be replaced by a zero article ɑn hɑdese/). However, the lack of precise/ آن حادثه) demonstrative adjective such as this or that equivalent for definite article "the" in Persian leads to misuse of indefinite and definite articles.

Conjunctions Problem: Misunderstanding the cohesive function of conjunctions ST: Every culture has developed preferences for certain kinds of food or drink. However, these preferences are mostly formed in our heads and not in our tongues, for something can taste delicious until we are told what it is. TT: هر فرهنگی تمایل خاصی برای غذاها و نوشیدنیهای خاصی توسعه میدهد گرچه /gærʧe/ این سالئق بطور گسترده در ذهن ما شکل گرفته اند تا در زبان ما برای /bærɑje/ چیزی که میتواند خوش طعم باشد تا زمانیکه به ما گفته شود چه چیزی است. In English, however as a conjunctive adverb expresses both contrast and concession. The data showed that this conjunction, most of the time, is translated as a synonym for although ægær ʧe/ in Persian, resulting from the students' focusing on the concessive use of/ اگرچه meaning however ignoring the fact that what is contrary to expectation follows this conjunction in a compound multiple sentence in contrast to the structure of the complex multiple sentence including although, based of which the although clause expresses the fact and contrary to expectation clause forms the independent clause. The students' failure to notice this point leads to misunderstanding the cohesive function of this conjunction and a translated text without any logical relation between the clauses. Moreover, for is a coordinate conjunction, the cohesive function of which is sometimes misunderstood by the students and is misused as a preposition in their translation. In the example, bærɑje/, a preposition in Persian, without paying attention/ برای the translator has translated for as to the comma before for that can act as a contextual clue showing the function of for in forming logically linked ideas with a cause- effect relationship in a compound sentence.

Problems at the level of sentences Subordinate clauses Problem: Missing the link between the reduced subordinate clause and the main clause ST: "From being self-made, I want my children to feel the money is precious." برای خودساخته بودن /bærɑje xodsɑxte budæn/ میخواهم فرزندانم احساس کنند پول ارزشمنداست :TT Back translation: In order for my children to be self-made, I want my children to feel money is precious. The initial phrase "From being self-made" in this example is the reduced form of the full subordinate adverbial clause of reason Because I am self-made. The poor knowledge of the students on such phrases leads to ignoring the link between the initial phrase and the following main clause and missing the subject of the phrase.

Problem: Missing the link between the antecedent and reduced adjective clause ST: People with the problem of overweighting often try some of the popular fad diets being offered. مردم با مشکل اضافه وزن اغلب تالش می کنند که تعدادی رژیم غذایی رایج را پیشنهاد کنند. :TT ./reʒime qæzɑji rɑjeʤ rɑ piʃnehɑd konænd/ International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 90

Back translation: As people financially search for a solution to the problem of overweighting, they often try to offer some of the fad diets. tælɑʃ/ (, and the participle/ تالش) The verb “try” is misunderstood as making an effort “being offered”, which is the short form of which is offered is mistakenly considered to be the verb coming after “try” as the participle phrase structure is unknown or ignored by the translator.

Problem: Sentence fragment ST: Not much has been done by authorities to address some of the causes of domestic terrorism such as rich- poor inequities and the grievances of Muslim youths in Mumbai. هیچ اقدامی توسط مسئولین برای نشان دادن بعضی از دالیل تروریسم صورت نگرفته است. برای مثال اختالف :TT طبقاتی و نارضایتی جوانان مسلمان در بمبئی. /bærɑje mesɑl extelɑfe tæbɑqɑti væ nɑrezɑjæti ʤævɑnɑne mosælmɑn dær bæmbæɁi/ Back translation: Not much has been done to show some of the causes of domestic terrorism. For example, social class differences and youth discontent in Mumbai. For example, a conjunctive adverb used to introduce examples in English, is followed by a sentence with the subject and predicate. This conjunction most of the time is treated as "such as" by the students ignoring the fact that a gerund phrase follows such as. This may be due to the fact that both of these devices are used to illustrate something in English sentences.

Problem: Literal translation ST: Nora is happily married with a 4-year-old daughter. نورا به همراه دختر چهارساله اش با شادمانی ازدواج کرده است. :TT /Norɑ be hæmrɑhe doxtære ʧɑhɑr sɑleæʃ bɑ ʃɑdmɑni ezdevɑʤ kærde æst/ Back translation: Nora, along with her daughter, is happily married. The phrase with a four-year-old daughter in the example is the short form of who has a 4- year-old daughter, so the lack of knowledge about such a structure leads to misunderstanding the message and literal translation.

Linked coordinated elements Problem: Faulty Parallelism ST: Religious artwork often portrays Jesus as a baby, as an undernourished weakling, or as an ascetic who passively submits to whatever befalls him. TT: آثار هنری دینی اغلب مسیح را مثل یک بچه /bæʧe/، الغر و گرسنه /lɑqær væ gorosne/ یا /jɑ/ مثل یک ریاضتکش /jek rijɑzætkeʃ/ که با بی تفاوتی تسلیم چیزی بود که برای او اتفاق میافتاد نشان میدهند Back translation: Religious artwork often shows Jesus as a baby, undernourished and weak, or as an ascetic who passively submitted to whatever befell him. The coordinate conjunction or in the source text joins noun phrases. However, the noun phrase undernourished weakling with weakling as the head word is translated as an adjective phrase modifying the preceding noun baby distorting the structural balance between the elements joined by or.

Problem: Having difficulty recognizing the elements joined together by the coordinate conjunction "and" when the sentence is long ST: We have all heard stories about people being fed a meal of snake or horse meat or something equally repugnant in American culture and commenting on how tasty it was until they were told what they had just eaten. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 91

TT: همه ما داستانهایی شنیدهایم در آمریکا که مردم با گوشت مار و اسب تغذیه شدند /tæqzije ʃodænd/ و /væ/ توضیح آنکه /towzihe ɑnke/ مزه آنها چطور است تا زمانی که به آنها گفته شود که چه چیزی خورده اند. Back translation: We have all heard stories about people in America who were fed a meal of snake and horse meat and to explain how its taste is until they are told what they had eaten. The participle phrase (commenting on …) after the coordinate conjunction and is joined to being fed in the source text, but the translator has translated it as an infinitive phrase functioning as a subject without a predicate distorting the logical connection between the elements.

Lexical Problems Problem: Unacceptable collocations or wrong choice of synonym ignoring contextual clues ST: The driver suffered severe injuries. راننده از جراحات زیاد رنج برد /TT: ./rænʤ bord rænʤ bordæn/, the first synonym of suffering in an English-Persian/ رنج بردن The verb dictionary, is used for physical or mental pain or disease and is collocated with pain or illness in .motehæmmel ʃodæn/ (endure) is collocated with injuries/ متحمل شدن Persian, while the verb

Problem: Having difficulty translating multi-morphemic words not found in the dictionary ST: unlexicalized type of object یک چیزغیرلغوی /ʧize qejre loqævi/ یا یک صفت غیرواژگانی /TT: /qejre vɑʒgɑni Back translation: an object which is not lexical The word unlexicalized could not be translated by most of the participants as it was not found in their own dictionaries. It seems that when a multi-morphemic word cannot be easily found in a dictionary, some students have difficulty guessing the meaning of the word by processing it in terms of its component morphemes, i.e., focusing on the meaning of each یک morpheme and combining them to get the whole. The suggested translation for this phrase is ./bærɑjæʃ loqæti voʤud nædɑræd/ شیئی که برایش لغتی وجود ندارد bedune vɑʒe/ or/ شیء بدون واژه

Problem: Having difficulty finding accurate equivalent in Persian for some participle adjectives in English ST: Surrounding yourself with happy fun-loving, optimistic people will bring out your happy side. مردمی که سرگرمی را دوست دارند. /TT: /mærdomi ke særgærmi rɑ dust dɑrænd Back translation: people who love fun Some of the participle adjectives are problematic for translators as they cannot be easily found in English-Persian dictionaries. In such cases, literal translation proved to be one of the common translation strategies used by the students. Finding the definition of such terms in the source language to understand what exactly the term means may be a useful strategy that can be followed by the translator's creativity to find an appropriate equivalent or a way to achieve the same meaning. The suggested translation of this ./bɑneʃɑt / با نشاط særzende/ or/ سرزنده compound adjective is

Problem: Inharmonious combination of words ST: Confucius believed that respect and obedience are owed by subjects to their rulers. کنفسیوس معتقد بود که افراد /æfrɑd/ احترام و اطاعت را مدیون حکمرانان /hokmrɑnɑn/ هستند. :TT Back translation: Confucius believed that individuals owe the rulers respect and obedience. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 92

The source text indicates an association between the terms placed side by side as a couple. ,æfrɑd/), which is equal to individuals in English/ افراد) The Persian term used for subjects hokmrɑn/). The correct Persian/ حکمران) however, does not match the Persian word for rulers /hokkɑm/ حکام roɁɑjɑ/, which can be collocated with/ رعایا equivalent of subjects in this context is in Persian.

Culture Problems Problem: Difficulties translating clothing and cuisine terms ST: the ladies dressed in demi-state toilets /xɑnomhɑ bɑ lebɑs væ ɑrɑjeʃe kæm/ خانمها با لباس و آرایش کم :TT Back translation: ladies with light dress and make-up The term demi-state toilet refers to a semi-official dress that is less elaborate than full dress. lebɑse/ لباس مهمانی This term has no a direct equivalent in Persian. The nearest equivalent is .lebɑse mæʤlesi/) which is the same as English evening dress/ لباس مجلسی mehmɑni/ or

ST: If you want one last burrito, you'd better visit Tito's Taco Palace today. اگر باریتو /bɑrito/ میخواهی بهتره کاخ /kɑx/ تیتو تاکو را ببینی. :TT Back translation: If you want burrito, you'd better visit Tito Taco palace (a palace called Tito Taco). The dish names are names with strong ethnic and regional characteristics, for which there are hardly similar names in the target language. The translator, as a result, has borrowed and transliterated the term as a strategy (Pym, 2017), leading to a translation that seems to be confusing to the Persian readers as they have no any concept of what burrito is specifically when the term Palace as a proper noun is supposed to be a common noun and translated by the kɑx/, meaning mansion. Adding some information such as the main/ کاخ translator into Persian as ingredients of the food, as a semantic strategy (Chestarman, 2002), can supposedly convey the meaning of this dish term better than using only transliteration strategy.

Problem: Difficulties translating metaphors, similes, and expressions ST: The Mother’s Milk of Politics شیر مادر برای سیاست /TT: /ʃire mɑdær bærɑje sijɑsæt The data in this study showed that most of the students have difficulty using the appropriate strategy to face challenges of metaphor and simile translation. They usually render such items by literal translation. Of course, literal translation can be used as a strategy whenever it contains cultural elements familiar or clear to the target reader (Newmark, 1988). The Persian suggested ./næbze hæjɑt/ نبض حیات equivalent of mother's milk is

ST: surrounding yourself with happy fun-loving, optimistic people will bring out your happy side. افراد خوشحال و خوشبین در محیط اطراف شما جنبه شاد شخصیت شما را خارج میکنند. :TT /ʤænbe ʃɑde ʃæxijæte ʃomɑ rɑ xɑreʤ mikonænd/. Back translation: Happy optimistic people around you will bring the happy side of your character out. Expressions are always one of the main reasons for translation problems particularly when the source and the target languages belong to totally different cultural backgrounds. Literal translation, the strategy used in the example, in cases when the TT reader is not familiar with the International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 93

source language culture may appear weird to the TT audience. The underlined phrase can be ./ʃɑdi rɑ dær ʃomɑ zende mikonænd/ شادی را در شما زنده میکنند translated into Persian as

Stylistic Problems Formality VS Informality ST: I’ve got loads to do today. امروز کارهای زیادی برای انجام دادن دارم. :TT /emruz kɑrhɑje zijɑdi bærɑje ænʤam dɑdæn dɑræm/. Back translation: Today, I have a lot of work to do.

Fronting ST: Such was a beautiful day we could not sit at home. روز بسیار زیبایی بود بطوریکه نتوانستیم در خانه بنشینیم. :TT /ruze besjɑr zibɑɁi bud betowrike nætævɑnestim dær xɑne benʃinim/. Back translation: It was such a beautiful day that we couldn't sit at home. Although moving some elements like adverbs to the beginning of the sentences to emphasize the initial element is usual in Persian (Mahootian and Gerbhardt, 1997), it seems that some of the students, ignoring the word order, translate the emphatic sentence as a sentence with ordinary word order. The example, for instance, begins with such to emphasize the adjective, while the translated text does not imply such an emphasis.

Passive vs. Active Style ST: A one-year ban was put on new fast-food restaurant by Los Angeles City Council. ممنوعیت رستورانهای جدید فست فود توسط شورای شهر لوس آنجلس گذاشته شد. :TT /mæmnuɁijæte resturɑnhɑje ʤædide fæst fud tævæssote ʃorɑje ʃæhre losɑnʤeles gozɑʃte ʃod/. Changing the passive voice into active while translating is not advisable as each mode presents a different function in English. However, unlike English, Persian does not usually introduce the agent by using a by-phrase in its passive structure. One way to translate English passive sentences including the agent into Persian is moving the patient of the verb to the rɑ/ before the subject of the/ را beginning of the clause and placing the Persian object marker active clause in order to keep the focus on the patient as the English passive structure does (Abdollahi and Hua Tan, 2016). The data, including the above example, show most of the students' tendency to translate توسط English passive sentences including agent by-phrase word by word using the Persian term /tævæssot/ meaning by.

Punctuation Marks ST: Searching for answers, Michael went to the public body he thought could provide some: Ingle Wood's Police Oversight Commission. TT: مایکل به دنبال جواب به جامعه جایی که فکر میکرد میتواند کمسیون نظارت پلیس شهر اینگل وود را تشکیل دهد رفت. /ʤɑmeɁe ʤɑji ke fekr mikærd mitævɑnæd komsijune nezɑræte polise ʃæhre ingelvud rɑ tæʃkil dæhæd/. Back translation: Searching for answers, Michael went to the society where he thought could form Ingle Wood's Police Oversight Commission. Marks of punctuation play very important role in giving intended meaning to the language; as a result ignoring the punctuation marks or not knowing their functions in the sentences leads to International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 94

changing the meaning of the sentence completely and sometimes even convert the sentence to complete nonsense. In the above example, the colon introduces the public body which was thought to provide some answers, i.e. Ingle Wood's Police Oversight Commission, while the translator has changed this noun phrase to an object for the verb provide.

Miscellaneous Errors Problem: Lack of the knowledge of the world (topical knowledge) ST: Former President George W. Bush First Lady /hæmsære ævæle reɁis ʤomhure sɑbeq/ همسر اول رییس جمهور سابق :TT Back translation: The first wife of the former president The term "First Lady" is a title used for the wife of an American president. The translator guesses the meaning of the term Lady as wife but the word first is used to place the president's wives in order as the translator does not have any information about this title.

Problem: Weak inference or deduction ST: Two American Indian teenagers who pleaded guilty to attacking a man; instead of were sent to their people in Alaska for traditional tribal punishment. /do nowʤævɑne ɑmrikɑji hendi/ دو نوجوان آمریکایی هندی :TT Back translation: Two American teenagers from India (in Asia) The translator has used the first definition of the word Indian as s/he does not know that the term Indian can also refer to the original inhabitants of America; however, it is possible to guess the nationality of these two teenagers by referring to the context. The noun phrase "their people in Alaska" provides enough information to conclude that these two teenagers cannot be from India. Ignoring the context, s/he does not make any inference to evaluate the target term guessing the nationality of these two teenagers.

Conclusion The findings of the error analysis procedure indicated the syntactic, lexical, cultural, and stylistic problems the translation students face while translating different English texts into Persian. The miscellaneous errors, also reflected the students' poor general or, in terms of Hatim and Mason (2005), the encyclopedic knowledge, and their weakness in reasoning from one or more sentence elements to reach a logically certain conclusion about the meaning of the whole. A number of factors seem to be linked with these problems. The syntactic problems can result from students' low level of the source language proficiency resulting in having difficulty comprehending the source texts due to inability to parse the sentences into their constituents and recognize their functions especially when the sentences are long multiple sentences with complicated structure. One of the common errors was losing the text coherency so that the sentences in the target text took separate directions as if there were no any logical connections between them. This problem may be due to the students' poor knowledge of linking devices and ellipsis or clause reduction rules in English. Lexical problems can be related to the students' insufficient linguistic knowledge of both the source and the target languages. The Findings from the analysis of the data showed that the students misused dictionaries in the process of looking for the appropriate equivalent for the source text terms. As the researcher has experienced in translation classes, it seems that ignoring contextual clues to get the correct equivalence, most of the time, the students prefer to select the International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 95

first definition of a word without searching for another alternate meaning that may better fit the context. Translation problems posed by culture-specific terms, of course, can be attributed to lack of cultural awareness and interaction as well as the cultural gap or a distance between the source and target languages (Newmark, 1991). With regard to culturally untranslatable terms, the students lack sufficient skills and experience to apply appropriate strategies to cope with such terms and transfer the cultural information encoded by the SL vocabulary to the TL. A large number of the stylistic errors observed in the data are the result of the students' lack of awareness about and sensitivity towards textual features forming the style of a text. In fact, there is a wide range of textual features that makes the style of a text different from others such as "the diction (choices of words); sentence structure and syntax; modality and attitude; processes and participants; the figurative language; recording speech and thought; the patterns of rhythm; cohesion; and narrative structure" (Huang, 2011, p.61). Failing to understand the importance of paying attention to the stylistic features of a text, the students usually translate different texts such as literary and scientific ones in the same way. Such errors become more obvious when some lyrical or artistic words are used in technical texts and scientific terms are used in literary texts. On the whole, the benefits of detecting problematic areas in translation students' performance have been demonstrated in countless studies as mentioned in literature review (Hubscher-Davidson, ‎2008; Nicodemus, B., & Swabey, L., 2015; Wang, 2011). What all the experts in the field of translation agree upon is the fact that problem identification is prior to prescription and medication. Once the problems are identified, the first step to prepare for the battle is course design and planning. In sum, what can be ranked as a highly problematic issue may easily be handled by the interaction and cooperation of teachers and students in the teaching program.

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International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

How Does Explicit and Implicit Instruction of Formal Meta-discourse Markers Affect Learners’ Oral Proficiency?

Mohammad Ebrahim Moghaddasi, PhD Candidate, Department of Foreign Languages, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran [email protected] Mohammad Bavali*, Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Languages, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran [email protected] Fatemeh Behjat, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language, Abadeh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Abadeh, Iran [email protected] Abstract Meta-discourse markers are an inevitable part of oral proficiency which improve both the quality and comprehension of learners’ speech. While studies of oral meta-discourse have been conducted since the 1980s in a European or US context, they have remained relatively untouched in Iran. Therefore, this study aimed to seek the impact of both explicit and implicit teaching of formal meta-discourse markers on EFL learners’ oral proficiency. To this end, the quantitative data were collected from ninety upper-intermediate students at Shiraz University Language Center. Two groups went through an instruction for an eight-session treatment. However the experimental group ‘B’ (N=45) were instructed the formal meta-discourse markers implicitly, the target formal meta-discourse markers were taught to the experimental group ‘A’ (N=45) explicitly. To compare the participants’ performances, an SOPI (Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview) posttest was administered. The results revealed that the instruction of meta-discourse markers had a positive effect on the learners’ oral outcome. Moreover, the findings showed that learners who received explicit method of teaching formal meta-discourse markers could perform better in speaking than learners who received implicit instruction. The findings can have pedagogical implications for EFL educators and materials developers to enhance learners’ oral proficiency. The findings also provide important insight into the effect of teaching discourse markers and raising learners’ awareness through explicit instruction to make pupils produce more cohesive and coherent speech.

Keywords: Explicit instruction, implicit instruction, meta-discourse markers, oral proficiency

Introduction One of the most significant and essential criteria for having an appropriate use of the English language is using meta-discourse markers that are a group of cohesive ties or connecting items that lead to cohesion and fluency of speech. The omission of meta-discourse markers in one's speech can make learners’ speech seem incoherent, impolite, and awkward to talk to. As it is quite evident in native speakers’ oral speech patterns, a bulk of various categories of discourse markers with various roles are used. Moreover, it is quite common for native speakers of every language to make use of discourse markers (DMs) in their daily conversations and that is why their speech looks pretty spontaneous and natural. In other words, meta-discourse markers have a pivotal role in smoothing spontaneous communication between speakers as well as facilitating comprehension of the addressees. Hence, if EFL learners wish to have a more natural and native- like speech, they ought to apply meta-discourse makers to their speech properly (Fuller, 2003). International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 100

Several definitions for the term ‘Discourse marker’ have been provided by different scholars. For instance, terms such as discourse marker (Schiffrin 1987), pragmatic marker (Fraser 1996), discourse particle (Schourup 1985), pragmatic particle (Östman 1981), pragmatic expression (Erman 1987), and connectives (Blakemore 2001) were used by some authors to refer to the linguistic elements that are applied as connecting devices in any given discourse. Nevertheless, the word “Discourse markers” is the most applied one used by most scholars who made research on English language discourse. While there has always been a controversy on an appropriate term that can best clarify these kinds of cohesive ties, DMs do play a significant role in the organization of native speaker discourse. As an instance, in the same regard, Schiffrin (1987) defined DMs as “sequentially dependent items which bracket units of talk.” DMs can facilitate hearer comprehension and help smooth spontaneous interaction between speakers through conveying different roles. For example, you know is usually used to indicate the salience of the data sent by the speaker, oh might be used to point to a speaker’s receipt of a piece of new information, and ok may be used as moving towards closure of speech. Furthermore, taking into account the everyday use of meta-discourse markers in the spoken discourse of native speakers and the significant role that DMs play in the appropriateness and naturalness of speech, it can be argued that they should be included in EFL learners’ syllabus as well. But, based on some previous studies such as the one done by Shen Ying (1998) on the application of discourse markers, maintained that these connecting ties are not included in the EFL curricula despite the critical role they play in learners’ everyday oral discourse. As De Klerk (2005) puts it, this might be due to “their lack of clear semantic denotation and syntactic role, which makes formal or explicit commentary on their use fairly difficult”. Further, if a non-native speaker does not use any type of discourse markers, native speakers will not be able to distinguish the possible grammatical mistakes. Consequently, because of the fact that Discourse markers are not explicitly instructed in classroom settings and EFL pupils can speak grammatically without the use of discourse markers, these cohesive ties are often underused and underestimated for Iranian EFL learners who try to learn English in a formal setting. Overall, it could be stated that there exists a lack of instruction on the employment of formal meta-discourse markers in formal English language classrooms. Also, the use of DMs is of great importance in the native discourse context. Research done on discourse markers so far have ascertained that if an L2 speaker is more accustomed to the L2 culture or wishes to sound more like a native speaker, he might notice how “things are said” and employ those “conventional expressions” (that is, DMs) by the native speakers in the target community (de Klerk, 2005; Hellermann and Vergun, 2007). Further, Sankoff et al. (1997) mentioned that applying DMs is an ideal indicator of the extent to which an L2 learner desires to be accultured into the local community since DMs are normally not part of the traditional classroom setting curriculum, and L2 speakers generally perceive these cohesive items through interaction with native speakers. To put it in another way, it is believed that in case that an EFL speaker has more contact with the native speakers or tries to be more integrated in their community, he will definitely make use of more discourse markers compared to those who do not. Concerning the fact that it has been previously proved that meta-discourse markers render a well-organized structure to speech patterns, this research provides the educators with a palpable roadmap about how Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners might benefit from knowing more about the salience and employment of DMs in their speech. Research on the differences between English discourse produced by a native and non-native speaker (Tyler, 1992) has shown that native speakers’ discourse includes a wide range of discourse organizing devices that make their International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 101

speech more and more coherent to their listeners. Nonetheless, a lack of discourse use in non- native discourse might result in communication misunderstandings for English native listeners. Moreover, a bulk of studies done on DMs in Iran dealt with the two receptive skills of listening and reading. On the other side of the coin, little work has been done on Iranian EFL learners’ oral proficiency. One of the significant yardsticks of EFL language learners’ speaking competence is the ability to produce a coherent speech and possess discourse cohesion (McCarthy, 1993). As a result, In case language learners wish to develop organized, connected, and well-formed speech, they should enhance the skills to use a spectrum of cohesive ties and connectors, consisting of formal meta- discourse markers, to organize their oral outcome cohesively and coherently. However, it is argued that EFL learners often have various obstacles in organizing their speech into a well-structured meaningful whole (Shen Ying, 1998). This issue might be due to the fact that English language learners have their own specific process of conveying messages through employing oral discourse and because language learners attempt to transfer their mother tongue system into the destination system, they have problems in managing their speech in a natural and coherent way. On the other side, the lack of sufficient hours of teaching on the appropriate use of meta- discourse markers in EFL formal language learning settings is often observed and as a consequence, EFL learners who are mostly detached from native speaker contexts and their language learning opportunities are limited to classroom environments suffer from this lack of instruction (Shen Ying, 1998). Thereof, there seems to be an urgent need to deeply explore and distinguish EFL learners’ oral discourse patterns to evaluate the way they attempt to convey meaning in English by the use of cohesive items, and also distinguish their problems. So, through the instruction of formal meta- discourse markers, instructors can aid them to have a deeper viewpoint of discourse markers and the way they are applied in order to have a cohesive speech in English. In order to help Iranian EFL language learners to increase their communicative competence and solve their problems in the complicated process of learning, English instructors have to distinguish learners’ ability to maintain discourse cohesion. Therefore, this research, aimed at investigating Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners’ use of formal cohesive devices (discourse markers) in their English speaking, and exploring if there exists any inappropriate use, underuse, or overuse of these cohesive ties. Furthermore, it is aimed to explore the possible impact of explicit instruction of formal-meta discourse markers on learners’ oral proficiency. Moreover, the current study wants to determine the distribution of frequent target formal meta- discourse markers used by learners in speaking and comparing. Taking into account the goals of the current research, the following research question is proposed: RQ: Is there any meaningful and significant difference in the oral outcome of those who receive explicit instruction on formal meta-discourse markers and those who receive implicit instruction?

Literature Review Meta-discourse markers, already defined as expressions like well, but, oh, and you know, are linguistic elements that function in discourses of different contexts or registers. Concerning this issue, Fraser (1998) attempted to introduce the analysis of meta-discourse marker as an emerging concept in linguistics. Also, since the 1980s meta-discourse markers have been analyzed in a variety of languages and evaluated in a variety of genres and interactive contexts, International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 102

although many educators and authors do not agree on how to categorize them, let alone what to call them. Redeker (1991, 1168) preferred to call them discourse operators and defined them as “a word or phrase, for instance, a conjunction, adverbial, comment clause, interjection that is uttered with the primary function of bringing to listener’s attention a particular kind of the upcoming utterance with the immediate discourse context.” Schiffrin proposed “an operational definition” defined discourse markers more theoretically as “constituents of a functional category of verbal and nonverbal elements which provide contextual coordinates for ongoing conversation” (1987, 41). Discourse markers have a critical role in interactions (Carter and McCarthy 2006), and they have a high frequency of occurrence in spoken English context. So far, a bulk of literature exist on discourse markers (Clark and Fox Tree 2002; Fraser 1990, 1996, 1999; Jucker and Ziv 1998; Schiffrin 1987, 1994; Schourup 1985; Fox Tree and Schrock 2002). However, experts and educators’ viewpoints are not in the same line concerning their taxonomies and categorizations. This challenge has led to applying different terms by many researchers. Furthermore, Fung and Carter (2007:410) have asserted that ‘relatively little work has been done on the distribution and variety of DMs used in spoken English by EFL/ESL language speakers. However, in spite of this disagreement, there are many DMs that can be easily spotted in daily conversations. They are terms like uh, um, yeah, and you know. Discourse markers are primarily defined by Schiffrin (1987, p.31) as “sequentially dependent elements which bracket units of talk” and they usually make conversations and interactions coherent by connecting the different parts of discourse in a comprehensible way. In the same vine, Akande (2008, p.81) claimed that DMs are “peripheral to the syntax of the sentence or the clause they relate to since they can be omitted without making any special changes to the overall format of the phrase or paragraph”. This means that DMs could be deleted and such omission does not influence the real value of the proposition in the sentence or the text. Meta-discourse markers are performance additions that transfer different interactive intentions without which effective communication in spontaneous talks may be impaired (Levelt, 1989). In addition, Blakemore (2006) argued that the concept of meta-discourse marker is generally used to refer to the set of similar types of expressions that are known by their function in any given discourse and the type of meaning they convey.” The main indicator of all these is that discourse markers are communicative elements through which participants in oral speech can give and take meaning and negotiate with one another cooperatively. From a syntactic point of view, DMs do not have major roles and can be omitted without impairing the real values of the propositions in which they represent (Rouchota, 1998). Besides, DMs are often employed optionally due to the fact that they do not affect the propositional nature of the sentences in which they occur. This is confirmed by the fact that the grammaticality of an utterance remains intact even after the DM in it is omitted. Accordingly, the constituents of DMs can be a single word, a phrase, or a clause (Gupta, 2006). Brinton (1996) also mentioned that DMs have been the most common name for “seemingly empty expressions found in oral discourse”, however, she suggested the term pragmatic markers, as pragmatic “better explores the range of functions filled by these items”. Though Brinton argued that the fact that there has been little agreement on the items that can be labeled pragmatic markers, she tried to list an inventory of thirty-three connectors that have received the attention of many scholars and suggested a vast number of features typical of these words. Those characteristics were later used by Jucker & Ziv (1998) who reexplored them to gain features that relate to the same level of linguistic description: phonological and lexical, syntactic, semantic, functional, and sociolinguistic features. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 103

Since 1987, DMs have been the center of attention in the European or American contexts. In this regard, three proposals were developed at nearly the same era; Schiffrin (1987), Blakemore (1987), and Fraser (1988). Schiffrin (1987) introduced a very complete and detailed analysis of DMs as linguistic items; she studied the semantic and grammatical functions of these expressions, their status, and features. She asserted that DMs, as one of the major figures in the coherence of utterances, contribute to the coherence of the text or speech by establishing cohesive and coherent relations among several units of talk (Schiffrin, 1987). Schiffrin, moreover, proposed a detailed analysis of twelve DMs in the English language: and, but, or, so, well, then, now, because, oh, well, you know, and I mean. She, then, claimed that DMs can function on different levels of discourse structure (linguistic or non-linguistic). Meanwhile, they can operate on the ‘ideational’ (informational) structure in the sense that they refer to relations between concepts in discourse. To put it in another way, discourse markers mark the organization of ideas in discourse. For instance, a cohesive item such as but can be an indicator of the fact that what follows it is in contrast with what precedes it. That is, they play a major role in controlling the conversational act between speakers and hearers just the same as oh and well.

Discourse Marker Use in Spoken Language Considering the increasing interest in discourse markers analysis, in the past decade, a bulk of research on conversation analysis and pragmatics has been dedicated to the related set of expressions mostly referred to as discourse markers, known by a wide variety of other similar terms, such as pragmatic markers, discourse particles or discourse operators. In addition to the mentioned terminology, researchers and educators have no consensus over the other major issues of discourse markers, such as their definitions, taxonomies, and usages. The debate still exists for further explanation (Lee and Jung, 2005). The characteristics of well, you know, and I mean as DMs in learners’ speech was explored by Schiffrin’s (1987) preliminary study on DMs, which defined DMs as sequentially dependent elements.

Explicit vs. Implicit Teaching and Learning According to (Lee and Jung, 2005), almost all experts in the realm of EFL instruction and learning agree upon the fact that there exists a challenge over the possible influences of explicit and implicit instruction. In the same line, a group of educators were of the opinion that explicit teaching is more helpful for EFL learners. In contrast, some others believe that implicit instruction methods are more fruitful for EFL language learners. Also, it is interesting to know that some scholars maintain that a combination of these two techniques is the ultimate remedy to put an end to this controversy.

Explicit Learning and Teaching Poole (2005) held the view that explicit instruction is a kind of instruction that both focus on the significance of the interactive nature of the language teaching tenets such as smooth communication and learner-authority, and also implies the salience of the occasional and overt study of problematic L2 grammatical structures, which is more common in non-communicative teaching. Moreover, Long and Robinson (1998) maintained that second language teaching and learning should direct most of its attention to exposing students to oral discourse that is similar to real-life activities such as job interviews, and engaging in classroom tasks, nevertheless, when it is observed that pupils are having difficulties in the perceiving and or production of particular L2 grammatical structures, teachers and their peers should help them learn and revise their International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 104

inappropriate comprehension of these forms and assist them to produce the proper and correct models of them. Further, instructors can help their pupils and learners can help their peers learn the forms that they presently lack or have problems with, yet must notice to enrich their general L2 grammatical development. Explicit method of teaching grammatical principles, particularly simple rules involving form-function relations, proves to be fruitful to adult learners’ speaking skill (Alanen, 1995). Considering explicit instruction from another point of view, it can be observed that it involves directing learners’ attention to a particular learning goal in a highly structured form. Hence, each topic is presented to students by the instructor through presentation, explanation, and practice. Explicit learning, then, is a "conscious awareness and attention" to teach (Brown, 2007, p.291). Also, explicit learning include "input processing to realize whether the input information has regularities to convey the ideas and rules with which these regularities can be captured" (Brown, 2007, p. 291). As a result, explicit learning is a dynamic process by which learners try to comprehend and perceive the structure of related information they are provided with.

Implicit Learning and Teaching Implicit learning can be defined as “learning with no conscious attention or awareness” (Brown, 2007, p.291). Hence, implicit learning is a passive procedure through which students are exposed to the required information, and obtain knowledge of that information simply through that exposure. Implicit teaching involves teaching a particular set of topics in a suggestive or implied way; the objective is not directly expressed. Implicit teaching is closely tied to inductive teaching, which means that rules are implied from examples given first. It makes students create their own schemas for learning rules instead of merely memorizing certain rules which allows long-term retention of them in the memory. The main goals of implicit instruction could be twofold. Firstly, introducing new concepts in a learner-centered fashion, and secondly, providing students with instruction through making use of a variety of several instances, without teaching any actual grammatical rules (Burns and Mason, 2002).

Empirical Studies on Meta-discourse Markers Concerning the present issue, Fraser (1999) tried to point out to their challenging and debatable aspect. He argued that meta-discourse markers have been studied by different scholars under different viewpoints. Fraser held the viewpoint that educators have got the same idea over the fact that meta-discourse markers are generally cohesive ties that make discourse parts connected. However, on the other side of the story, they did not agree upon the fact that how they are explained and what sense they transfer. Through reviewing the related research done in this field, the following works are among the most salient ones. In a study, De La Fuente (2009) who conducted a study with 24 learners in the fifth semester found out that explicit method instruction was more fruitful in the comprehension of discourse markers compared to those learners instructed through the input enrichment. As a result, De La Fuente concluded that explicit teaching of these items could be more beneficial. In the same vein, Rahimi and Riasati (2012) investigated the possible relation between the explicit and implicit teaching of discourse markers and learners’ oral outcome. In their study, they provided the experimental group ‘A’ with four sessions of explicit instruction on discourse markers, about 25 minutes in every session. Also, they used semi-structured interviews to collect International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 105

the pertinent data. Finally, the findings of their research the poor performance of those learners in the experimental group ‘B’ who were instructed the target meta-discourse markers implicitly. On the other side of the coin, the students in the experimental group ‘A’ who were taught the DMs explicitly were able to use them more appropriately in their conversations which could support the better influence of the explicit instruction method of teaching DMs. In the same regard, Innajih (2007) tried to work on the impact of explicit method of teaching DMs on the reading comprehension ability of EFL students. In his study, the pupils present in the experimental group ‘A’ were instructed the discourse items explicitly, and learners in the experimental group ‘B’were provided the DMs implicitly. The results of the study revealed that the experimental group ‘A’ performed quite better than the experimental group ‘B’ on the use of discourse markers. In addition, concerning the influence of implicit or explicit method of teaching of meta- discourse markers, Nazari (2013), tried to investigate the possible influences of implicit and explicit instruction on students’ potential ability to comprehend and use of some grammatical structures and their correct use in their writing. The findings indicated that the performance of participants taught explicitly outperformed the pupils receiving implicit teaching of the same items. Last but not the least, in another related study, Sahebkheir and Davatgari Asl (2014) investigated the impact of input enhancement on the writing skills of Iranian EFL learners language instruction. The findings of their study supported the fact that those learners who were given input with regard their writing ability made use of more cohesive times (DMs) in their writing samples, and consequently performed better in comparison to the group pupils who were not provided with any type of input enhancement treatment.

Methodology Participants The participants of the present study were 90 randomly selected Iranian upper- intermediate EFL learners, including both male and female students with the age range of 20 to 30. Students were preparing themselves for the speaking module of SOPI (Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview) through attending speaking courses held in Shiraz University Language Center, Shiraz, Iran. All participants had studied English as a foreign language for nearly five years before taking part in this course. This could ensure the researcher that all the learners had already provided with almost the same level of instruction in English, and as a consequence, quite a homogeneous sample groups of participants in terms of English proficiency is chosen. Moreover, the sample was randomly divided into two equal groups with 45 members. The experimental group ‘B’ participating in the speaking class received implicit instruction on the target formal meta-discourse markers, while students in the experimental group ‘A’ taking part in the same course, received an explicit teaching on the same target formal meta-discourse markers.

Materials and Instruments In the present research, three main instruments were employed. In the beginning, an Oxford placement test (OPT) was carried out to ensure that learners are homogenous and congruent. Respecting the content of OPT, it is worth noticing that it comprised test items to evaluate test-takers’ ability to comprehend a set of grammatical structures and the sense they transfer in a wide range of different contexts. In addition, it takes into account to what extent pupils are able to make use of these linguistic items in order to have better communication in English language contexts. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 106

The target formal meta-discourse markers selected to be taught were based on the classifications presented by Hyland (2005). Therefore, the way DMs categorized was kept with the same format, except for a few changes to match the purpose of DM usage in speaking for the current study. Learners were then asked to have different conversations with each other on a wide range of topics which were later evaluated through the SOPI test of speaking Furthermore, regarding the oral test, it is worth mentioning that participants were interviewed for about fifteen minutes both before and after the instruction of our target formal meta-discourse markers. Then, it is necessary to point out that the whole process of the oral proficiency test was done on a Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview (SOPI). Furthermore, regarding the oral test, it is worth mentioning that participants were interviewed for about fifteen minutes both before and after the instruction of our target formal meta-discourse markers. Then, it is necessary to point out that the whole process of the oral proficiency test was done on a Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview (SOPI). The SOPI was developed by the Center for Applied Linguistics. The SOPI is a tape- mediated test of speaking proficiency. As with the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages), the SOPI is designed to elicit speech samples that are rated according to the ACTFL proficiency scale. As a tape-mediated test, the SOPI uses an audiotape and test booklet to obtain a speech sample from the examinee rather than the face-to-face procedure of the OPI. In a SOPI, the examinee listens to a series of speaking tasks on a master tape and records his or her responses on a second blank cassette. A global rating is then assigned by comparing the examinee's responses with the criteria in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. To be rated at the intermediate and upper-intermediate-level on an ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) or a SOPI, the speaker must, therefore, be able to use discourse markers to produce a cohesive and coherent paragraph-length narration. Further, concerning the reliability of the test scores and the SOPI test itself, it is worth mentioning that primarily, the Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview (SOPI) is a reliable and valid means of assessing the level of a person's proficiency in a second language. The accuracy of a SOPI assessment, however, is dependent upon the collection of a large number of samples in order to “calibrate” the test. Further, regarding the reliability of the gathered scored, the SOPI test was applied to the same group of learners after the conduction of the treatment, and the results of the two trials were compared to one another to check the reliability of the scores. For ensuring the reliability of the SOPI test of speaking, Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was used. Usually, in terms of reliability by Cronbach’s coefficient alpha, the estimated coefficient alpha under 60% is considered weak, and consistency estimated to 70% is acceptable, and over 80% is considered good (Danaeifard, Khaef Elahi, & Hosseini, (2011). The instruments used in this study were already reliable by the author; however, after collecting data, the coefficient alpha of the test was calculated. According to Table 1, the obtained coefficient alpha for the SOPI test was over 80%. Consequently, it can be claimed that the SOPI test of the present study was of applicable reliability.

Table 1. Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha for the SOPI test The SOPI Number of Participants Cronbach’s items coefficient alpha International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 107

Simulated 10 90 0.88 Oral Proficiency Test of Learners’ speaking performance

Finally, Learners’ performances on the use of correct formal DMs were rated on a scoring scale of 0-10 for each item in their essays in both pre and posttests to ascertain the reliability and validity of various traits.

Data Collection Procedures To assess students’ use of discourse markers prior to instruction, an Upper-intermediate- Level speaking task from the SOPI was administered as a pretest during the second week of the semester, and learners’ speech in the interviews (with a similar topic in both pretest and posttest) were recorded. Then, each of their appropriate use of the 10 target formal meta-discourse marker items was scored from a scale of 1 to 10. The treatment sessions began in the third week after the administration of the pretest speaking task. Instruction of the target formal meta-discourse markers began in the third week of the semester. In the next step, students in both groups received four hours of instruction within two weeks on narrating a past experience. Moreover, students in the experimental group ‘A’ received explicit instruction on the function and use of discourse markers on how to narrate an event or experience in the past tense. However, no explicit mention of discourse markers was provided for students in the experimental group ‘B’. The instructor spent around 20 minutes each session on explaining clearly the correct use of meta-discourse markers to the experimental group ‘A’. However, they did not point out to the function of the target formal meta-discourse markers s to the experimental group ‘B’. Also, it is worth noticing that students in both groups received four hours of instruction within two weeks on how to narrate a past event or experience. Students in the experimental groups (n = 45) received explicit instruction on the function and use of discourse markers to narrate an event or experience in the past time frame. Students were then presented with opportunities for communicative practice and corrective feedback. In contrast to the experimental group ‘A’, students in the experimental group ‘B’ (n = 45) received implicit instruction on the function and use of formal discourse markers to narrate a past event. No explicit mention of discourse markers was provided. Students were then presented with opportunities for communicative practice and corrective feedback. Regarding the instruction for the experimental group consisted of several activities including providing learners with a brief review of the forms and uses of the appropriate form of DMs to prepare them for communicative activities requiring them to narrate in the past. Also, in order to assist students in noticing and processing the discourse markers in subsequent input activities, the instructor distributed a handout to students concerning the function and use of discourse markers to narrate an event or experience in the past time. Then, the instructor asked students to complete an oral assignment based on one of the communicative activities. Again, the instructor directed students’ attention to discourse markers and the correct use of DMs. In contrast to the experimental group ‘A’, students in the experimental group ‘B’ did not receive explicit instruction on the function and use of discourse markers. They answered questions limited to the content of the passage. Students received corrective feedback on the oral assignment. The focus of the feedback was on students' correct use of the DMs. There was no International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 108

mention of discourse markers. As with the experimental group ‘A’, the instructor then provided the students with a handout of the sample response.

Data Analysis Procedures The data gathered from the respondents were submitted to the SPSS software for quantitative analysis. The findings of the gathered data are summarized and represented in the following tables in this chapter. The main research question of the present study aimed at seeking the impact of the explicit and implicit instruction of formal meta-discourse markers on Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners’ oral proficiency. To answer this research question, the experimental group ‘B’received the implicit instruction of formal meta-discourse markers, and the pupils in the experimental group ‘A’ were taught the target formal meta-discourse markers explicitly based on Hyland’s (2005) classification of meta-discourse markers. Therefore, an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed on the data in order to determine if there were significant differences between the two groups with regard to their use of discourse markers prior to the treatment. Then, their performances in the pretest and posttest SOPI speaking task were analyzed to determine if these differences were significant.

Results The descriptive analysis was provided to show the performances of the students in SOPI tests. The following table reports the learners’ performances in the pre and post-tests. This descriptive table presents the participants’ performances in each group (explicit group and implicit group).

Table 2. Descriptive statistics for Learners’ Performance in Pretest and Posttest

group N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Pre-test implicit 30 1.9000 .92289 .16850 explicit 60 2.0000 .92057 .11885 Post-test implicit 30 3.2667 .69149 .12625 explicit 60 5.8000 1.65499 .21366

According to the above table, in the pre-test, the mean score of the implicit group was 1.9 and the mean score of the explicit group was equal to 2.0. On the other hand, the mean score of implicit and explicit groups were 3.2 and 5.8 in the post-tests respectively. An independent samples t-test was run in order to ensure that the explicit and implicit mean scores were different or not. Table 4.2 results are reported in the following table.

Table 3. One-way ANCOVA of the Participants’ Scores on the SOPI Speaking Test

Skill Sum of df Mean Squares f Sig. Partial Eta Squares Squared Implicit Group 166.83 1 166.83 78.83 0.000* 0.66 International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 109

Explicit Group 184.10 1 184.10 85.95 0.000* 0.68 Speaking SOPI 927.78 1 927.78 76.15 0.000* 0.65 (overall)

Table 3 shows statistically significant differences (at α = 0.05) between the mean scores of the two groups on the individual skills of speaking fluency and accuracy of the target formal meta-discourse markers regarding the use, appropriacy, and speaking proficiency as a whole, in favor of the experimental group ‘A’. According to the above table, through conducting an analysis of variance (ANCOVA), it was observed that there was a statistically significant difference between post-test mean scores of implicit and explicit groups (sig=000). As can be seen in the above tables, there was a statistically significant difference between the pre- and post-test mean scores of the implicit group. In other words, the implicit group had an improvement in the post-test compared to the pre-test. Hence, the amount of difference in the pretest and posttest is significant with regard to their mean scores. In other words, the performance of those who were instructed the DMs explicitly was far better from pretest to posttest compared to that of the implicit group.

Distribution of Meta-discourse Markers Along with the correctness in the use and application of formal meta-discourse markers, the frequency rate of each single target formal meta-discourse item is calculated at this point. This is to explore which formal meta-discourse markers are used more, and which one is used less by learners through explicit and implicit instruction of the target items. The distribution of discourse markers on the pre- and posttest speaking task is shown in Tables 4 and 5.

Table 4. Distribution of Formal Meta-discourse Markers Used on the SOPI Task for the experimental group ‘B’

Target Formal DM Pretest Posttest Grain Score Moreover - 3 (13.6%) 3 Finally 1 (6.2%) 3 (13.6%) 2 In general 2 (12.5%) 3 (13.6%) 1 Recently - - - With regard to - - - For instance 3 (18.7%) 4 (18.7%) 1 As a result - 2 (9%) 2 Meanwhile 1 (6.2%) - -1 Likewise 3 (18.7%) 1 (4.5%) -2 However 6 (37.5%) 6 (27.2%) 6

Total 16 22 6

The results of the distribution rate of the target formal DMs of those who were instructed the target items implicitly demonstrated that the learners in the first group (experimental group ‘B’) did not incorporate a meaningful number of different discourse markers on the posttest SOPI. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 110

Table 5. Distribution of Formal Meta DMS Used on the SOPI for the experimental group ‘A’

Target Formal DM Pretest Posttest Grain Score Moreover 1 (5.8%) 4 (7.1%) 3 Finally 2 (12.5%) 5 (8.9%) 3 In general 1 (5.8%) 5 (8.9%) 4 Recently 3 (17.6) 6 (10.7%) 3 With regard to - 4 (7.1%) 4 For instance 3 (17.6%) 7 (12.5%) 4 As a result - 7 (12.5%) 7 Meanwhile 1 (5.8%) 4 (7.1%) 3 Likewise 1 (5.8%) 6 (10.7%) 5 However 5 (29.4%) 8 (14.2%) 3 Total 17 56 39 In contrast, students in the experimental group ‘A’ used a broad range of different discourse markers to sequence and organize their responses on the SOPI task. This is further evidence that explicit instruction was more effective than the implicit method of teaching the target formal meta-discourse markers in promoting students’ use of these cohesive ties on the SOPI task.

Discussion The main research question which was previously proposed at the beginning of the study is going to be answered in detail here in order to reach helpful solutions to the already mentioned obstacles in the instruction and learning of DMs and consequently filling the existing gaps in this regard. Firstly, concerning the impact of formal meta-discourse instruction on learners’ oral proficiency, it was observed from the findings of the gathered data that the students in the experimental group ‘B’who were taught the target formal meta-discourse markers implicitly used less amount of these cohesive elements in their classroom conversation. This was also obvious from their scores in the pretest. In contrast, compared to the experimental group ‘B’, pupils in the experimental group ‘A’ who learned the same set of DMs explicitly, had a better performance after the conduction of the treatment in their posttest. This enhancement in their scores could be clearly observed as they used more meta-discourse items in their classroom conversation. Furthermore, the results of the performances of learners in the experimental group ‘B’were in line with the research hypothesis that Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners’ oral outcome was increased by learning meta-discourse markers as a result of the explicit instruction. Further, it was observed that in the experimental group ‘B’, where pupils did not learn formal meta-discourse markers explicitly, were not successful in their posttest after the conduction of the treatment. Therefore, it could be stated that the explicit instruction of the formal meta-discourse markers might be considered as a helpful and effective treatment in this concern. Regarding the main research question of the present study which wanted to see if there is a meaningful difference in the oral outcome of those who receive explicit instruction on formal meta-discourse markers and those who receive implicit instruction, the researcher aimed to explore which group of learners; namely explicit (those who underwent explicit instruction) and the experimental group ‘B’ (those who were taught the target DMs implicitly) performed better International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 111

on appropriate use of formal meta-discourse markers. In fact, the researcher was in search of a significant and meaningful in this concern. Hence, as in Alanen (1995), the results of this study support Schmidt's (I 990, 1993, 1995, 2001) prediction regarding the importance of explicit information in directing students' attention to certain L2 forms. Consequently, to find the answer to the above question, it was observed after analyzing the pertinent data that learners who underwent the explicit method of teaching the target formal meta-discourse items in the experimental group ‘A’ had a drastic positive change in their speaking skill. In contrast, on the other side of the story, those students learned the same set of items implicitly performed poorly in their posttest after taking the SOPI test of speaking. In addition, These findings are consistent with previous research demonstrating the effectiveness of explicit instruction or explicit rule presentation on students' L2 acquisition (Alanen 1995; DeKeyser 1995; Ellis 1993; Robinson 1996, 1997; VanPatten and Cadiemo 1993). In a nutshell, the revealed results lead us to conclude that compared to the implicit instruction, explicit teaching of DMs can be far more fruitful for learners concerning their oral proficiency. In the same line, supporting the findings of the present paper, Trillo (2002) and Muller (2005) maintained that ignoring these pivotal items can result in impairing learners’ oral proficiency specifically concerning the cohesion, coherence, and organization of their speech patterns.

Conclusion The current research was an attempt to see if there exists a difference in the explicit and implicit instruction of formal meta-discourse markers on the one hand, and the possible influence of these items in EFL learners’ oral outcome on the other hand. Results of the SOPI test revealed a positive impact of teaching formal meta-discourse markers in enhancing learners’ oral outcome. In addition, the findings indicated that the explicit method of instructing meta-discourse markers has a better influence on learners’ speaking ability compared to the implicit method of instruction. Several insightful implications can be drawn from the findings of the current study. First and foremost, due to the better performances of learners in the experimental group ‘A’ compared to that of the implicit group, the results can shed light on the effectiveness of explicit instruction of formal DMs in the improvement of learners’ writing and speaking skills. Secondly, this research can be a call to all instructors, practitioners, and researchers in language teaching and learning to focus more on meta-discourse as a pivotal part of the language. Next is that it provides a useful pathway to materials developers by making texts more coherent since cohesion and coherence are factors that should be taken into account while applying the markers effectively. Hence, the syllabus designers should believe that including these important elements in textbooks and materials is an indispensable factor in the EFL learning and teaching domain. Last but not the least, it was revealed that teaching formal DMs explicitly can be influential in the consciousness-raising of learners and end in their usage of these units in their writings. It can also be implied that not using DMs is not due to underestimating them or not counting on them as essential by learners, but it is owing to not being aware of the usage and role of DMs or not being sure of how to use and what to use DMs for. Concerning the suggestions for further studies, it could be noted that reading and listening, as the receptive skills can also be tested to find out if DMs can have the same impact on those skills or they just enhance the writing and speaking product of learners. If it can be proved that DMs can enhance all aspects of fluency, accuracy, and complexity of learners’ speaking, as International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 112

revealed in writing and speaking skills, it can be claimed that DM awareness has a significant effect on receptive skills in general. Based on the same line of argument, we can claim while the present study showed little effect of implicit instruction, it does not rule out the possibility that longer instructional treatments might produce different results given that short-time instruction is inherently biased against implicit learning (Dekeyser, 2009) and this type of learning is a cumulative process. Therefore, further studies should incorporate longer periods of treatment and more exposure to target features in order to better assess the efficiency of implicit instruction. Furthermore, the results of the current work were based on limited classes of DMs, without classifying their usage to investigate which types of DMs are used more after instruction and which types less. Therefore, replicating this study while considering different categories of DMs and their usage after intervention can clarify if learners have the tendency to apply some certain types of DMs more than others, or they are used equally. The research was conducted in an EFL atmosphere, considering the fact that the only medium of instruction was English. It can be replicated in an ESL atmosphere to test whether the same results could be obtained or ESL learners show different attitudes towards DMs.

References Akande. A. T. (2009). Discourse markers in the spontaneous speech of Nigerian university graduates. Lagos Papers in English Studies, 4, 28-37. Alanen, R. (1995). Input enhancement and rule presentation in second language acquisition. Attention and awareness in foreign language learning, 259, 302. Blakemore, D. (2001). Discourse and relevance theory. The handbook of discourse analysis, 100-118. Brinton, L. (1996). Pragmatic markers in English: Grammaticalization and discourse functions. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Brown, D. H. (2007). Principles of language learning & teaching. (5th Eds.). Burns, R.B., & Mason, D.A. (2002). Class composition and student achievement in elementary schools. American Educational Research Journal, 39(1), 207–233. Carter, R., & MNCARTHY, M. (1995). Grammar and the spoken language. Applied linguistics, 16(2), 141-158. Clark, H. H., & Tree, J. E. F. (2002). Using uh and um in spontaneous speaking. Cognition, 84(1), 73-111. De la Fuente, M. J. (2009). The role of pedagogical tasks and focus on form in acquisition of discourse markers by advanced language learners. Little words. Their History, Phonology, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics, and Acquisition, 211-221. Erman, B. (1987). Pragmatic expressions in English. A study of you know, you see and I mean in face-to-face conversation. Stockholm studies in English, 69, 1-238. Fraser, B. (1988). Types of English discourse markers. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 38, 1, 19-33. Fraser, B. (1990). An approach to discourse markers. Journal of Pragmatics 14, 383- 395. Fuller, J. M. (2003). The influence of speaker role on discourse marker use. Journal of Pragmatics 35, 23-45. Gupta, A. (2006). Blurred boundaries: The discourse of corruption, the culture of politics, and the imagined state. The anthropology of the state: A reader, 22(2), 211. Hellermann, J., & Vergun, A. (2007). Language which is not taught: The discourse marker use of beginning adult learners of English. Journal of pragmatics, 39(1), 157-179. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 113

Hyland, K. (2005). Representing readers in writing: Student and expert practices. Linguistics and Education, 16(4), 363-377. Innajih, A. (2007). The effect of conjunctive types on the English language reading comprehension of Libyan university students. ARECLS, 4. Jucker, A., & Ziv, Y. (1998). Discourse markers: Descriptions and theory. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Klerk, V. D. (2005). The use of actually in spoken Xhosa English: a corpus study. World Englishes, 24(3), 275-288. Lee, B. and Jung, C. (2005). Discourse marker teaching in college conversation classrooms: Focus on well, you know, I mean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Levelt, W. J. (1993). Lexical access in speech production. In Knowledge and language (pp. 241-251). Springer, Dordrecht. Long, M. H. (1998). Focus on form Theory, research, and practice Michael H. Long Peter Robinson. Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition, 15, 15-41. Müller, S. (2005). Discourse markers in native and non-native English discourse (Vol. 138). John Benjamins Publishing. Nazari, N. (2013). The effect of implicit and explicit grammar instruction on learners' achievements in receptive and productive modes. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 70, 156-162. Östman, J. O. (1981). A functional approach to English tags. Poole, A. (2005). Focus on form instruction: Foundations, applications, and criticisms. The Reading Matrix, 5(1). Rahimi, F., & Riasati, M. J. (2012). The effect of explicit instruction of discourse markers on the quality of oral output. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 1(1), 70-81. Redeker, G. (1990). Ideational and pragmatic markers of discourse structure. Journal of Pragmatics 14(3), 367-81. Rouchota, V. (1998). Procedural meaning and parenthetical discourse markers. PRAGMATICS AND BEYOND NEW SERIES, 97-126. Sahebkheir, F., & Davatgari Asl, H. (2014). The role of input enhancement on using conjunctions in Iranian EFL learners' written performance. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 2(2), 115-120. Sankoff, G., Thibault, P., Nagy, N., Blondeau, H., Fonollosa, M. O., & Gagnon, L. (1997). Variation in the use of discourse markers in a language contact situation. Schiffrin, D. (1986). Discourse markers: Studies in interactional sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schiffrin, D. (1987 ). Discourse markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schourup, L. (1999). Discourse markers. Lingua 3(4), 227-265. Swain, C. M. (1995). Black faces, black interests: The representation of African Americans in Congress. Harvard University Press. Trillo, J. R. (2002). The pragmatic fossilization of discourse markers in non-native speakers of English. Journal of pragmatics, 34(6), 769-784. Tyler, A. (1992). Discourse structure and the perception of incoherence in international teaching assistants' spoken discourse. Tesol Quarterly, 26(4), 713-729.

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

Hedges in English for Academic Purposes: A Corpus-based study of Iranian EFL learners

Hossein Khazaee, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of English, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran [email protected] Parviz Maftoon, Associate Professor, Department of English, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran [email protected] Parviz Birjandi, Professor, Department of English, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran [email protected] Ghafour Rezaie Golandouz, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Garmsar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Garmsar, Iran [email protected] Abstract Hedges, as tools to express tentativeness and doubt, have been studied in plenty of research papers in the Iranian EFL research setting. However, their use in a learner corpus, portraying Iranian learner English, is in need of more research attention. With this end in view, this study aimed at investigating how Iranian EFL learners who have majored in English-related fields in Iran deployed hedges in their academic, expository essays. This study was conducted through running the corpus analysis software MonoConc Pro-Semester version 2.2 on the electronically compiled Iranian Corpus of Learner English, totaling 436,035 words. Automatic and manual analyses suggested that hedges comprised only 7.4% of the total metadiscourse in the Iranian Corpus of Learner English, with 0.68 occurrences per 1,000,000 words. In a comparable native corpus, a sub-corpus of the British Academic Written English, hedges were used with 1.43 occurrences per 1,000,000 words (21% of the total metadiscourse in the corpus). Log-likelihood statistical analysis confirmed statistically significant differences between the two corpora in terms of the use of hedges, with underuse of hedges in the Iranian academic, expository essays relative to the English natives’ essays. Implementations of the results for English academic writing instruction including genre-based, explicit teaching of hedges through data-driven techniques with the aid of tools such as AntConc software and corpora such as the BAWE are considered.

Keywords: Academic writing, Corpus Builder Software, hedges, Iranian corpus of learner English, learner corpora

Introduction English for academic purposes (EAP), as a strand of English for specific purposes (ESP), aims at equipping English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) learners with the academic language knowledge, critical thinking, and cultural skills that are necessary for attaining full academic potentials. Among the issues that have been the focus of EAP researchers during the last decades was the compilation of electronic corpora as sources of information concerning EFL learners’ use of hedges in genres such as academic essays, academic research papers, Ph.D. dissertations, and so forth. Hedges are linguistic tools that are used to express tentativeness, doubt, and possibility (Hyland, 2017). Hedges have received considerable attention in studies on both spoken discourse International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 116

and written academic discourse. In spoken discourse, for example, their role “in qualifying categorical commitment and facilitating discussion” (Hyland, 1996, p. 433) has been investigated by many researchers in fields such as conversation analysis (e.g., Varma & Tan, 2015). In Written academic discourse, plenty of studies have been conducted on the significant role that hedges play in writers’ need to propose their unverified suggestions with care (e.g., Dontcheva- Navratilova, 2016; Plappert, 2019, among others). Hedges have also been studied as tools for indexing fuzziness in discourse (e.g., Channell, 1994), as metadiscourse markers (e.g., Hyland, 2005; Vande Kopple, 1985), and as a means of indexing detachment between a speaker and what he/she is saying (e.g., Ahn & Yap, 2015). A glance through the literature of EAP studies reveals that the use of hedges in written academic discourse has been focused on in various theoretical models (e.g., Burrough-Boenisch, 2005; Hyland 1996, 1998, 2005; Markkanen & Schröder, 1997; Mauranen, 1997). Hyland (1998, pp. 39-50) categorizes the linguistic approaches that deal with hedges into three classes, namely (a) “speech acts and interpretive maxims,” (b) “epistemic modality,” and (c) “metadiscourse.” In Hyland’s (1998) conceptualization of hedging, “hedges are the means by which writers can present a proposition as an opinion rather than a fact: items are only hedges in their epistemic sense, and only when they mark uncertainty” (p. 5). Based on Hyland (1998), hedges are categorized into lexical and strategic categories. Lexical hedges are again grouped into modal auxiliaries, epistemic lexical verbs (including epistemic judgment and evidential verbs), epistemic adverbs, epistemic adjectives, and epistemic nouns. Strategic hedges are grouped into reference to limited knowledge, reference to limitation of model, theory, or method, and reference to experimental limitations. Analyses of language corpora have revealed some of the characteristics of hedges in textbooks (Bouhlal, Horst, & Martini, 2018), economic forecasting (Resche, 2015), scientific articles (Vass, 2017), abstracts (Li & Pramoolsook, 2015), medical discourse (Martikainen, 2018), and so forth. A corpus is an electronic collection of naturally occurring texts that is used in language-related studies (Hunston, 2002). Hedges have also been studied in plenty of corpus- informed, corpus-based, or corpus-driven learner language investigations (e.g., Larsson 2017; Sun & Hu, 2020, among others). Learner language is defined as “the oral or written language produced by learners” (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 4). In corpus-informed investigations (e.g., Ackermann, Biber, & Gray, 2011; Hawkey & Barker, 2004), researchers analyze a learner corpus for information concerning the existence, non-existence, or probable errors with reference to a specific linguistic feature (Callies, 2015). As Tognini-Bonelli (2001) mentions, in corpus-based analysis procedures (e.g., Hawkins & Filipović, 2012), the researcher initiates the analysis of a learner corpus with a list of pre-categorized linguistic features, while in corpus-driven analyses (e.g., Wulff & Gries, 2011), results emerge out of the learner corpus without any linguistic pre- specifications. Taking the importance of hedging as a resource for expressing uncertainty in academic discourse, lack of analysis of hedges in a learner corpus, portraying academic, expository essays of Iranian EFL learners, is really felt. Contributing to this line of investigation, this study, with the aid of the electronically compiled Iranian Corpus of Learner English and a sub-corpus of the British Academic Written English (BAWE), aims at finding the probable overuses or underuses of hedges in Iranian EFL learners’ academic, expository essays from a metadiscursive aspect. As a learner corpus research (LCR) investigation, based on Hyland’s (2005) interpersonal metadiscourse model, hedging is considered as a sub-category of metadiscourse in the present paper. It should be mentioned that there is not a consensus among researchers in including hedges as metadiscourse (e.g., Ädel, 2006, 2010; Mauranen, 1993a, 1993b, 2010). Hyland’s (2005) International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 117

metadiscourse model includes 101 hedging items that consist of categories such as lexical and strategic hedges including epistemic modal auxiliaries (e.g., could, couldn’t, may, etc.), epistemic lexical verbs (e.g., appear, argue, assume, claim, etc.), epistemic adverbs (e.g., about, almost, apparently, approximately, etc.), and so forth. With this end in view, the research questions of this study are: Q1. From a metadiscursive aspect, what are the most frequently used hedges in the academic, expository essays of Iranian intermediate EFL learners who have majored in English-related fields in Iran? Q2. From a metadiscursive aspect, what what are the most frequently used hedges in the English- native, linguistics students’ academic, expository essays? Q3. Concerning the frequencies of the use of hedges, are there any statistically significant differences (overuses and underuses) between the Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ and English-natives’ academic, expository essays? Q4. If any differences (overuses and underuses) exist between the Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ and English-natives’ academic, expository essays in terms of using hedges, what are the possible reasons of such overuses or underuses? Q5. If any differences (overuses and underuses) exist between the Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ and English-natives’ academic, expository essays in terms of using hedges, are there any mechanisms to alleviate such differences?

Literature Review Previous Corpus Studies on the Use of Hedges A glance through the literature of corpus studies reveals plenty of large-sized corpus research papers on the important role that hedges play in the academic writings of both native and non-native speakers of English. Such studies refer to the differences in the use of hedges between English-native writers and writers from other first language (L1) backgrounds. Most of the studies in the Iranian EFL context, however, focus on the use of hedges in small-sized corpora of genres such as academic research papers, Ph.D. dissertations, and examples of LCR studies on academic essays, especially expository essays that Iranian university-level EFL learners write, are rarely found. With this end in view, following are a number of recent corpus studies on the use of hedges in the Iranian EFL context. Tahririan and Shahzamani (2009) compared the frequency of the use of hedges between English and Persian social, economic, and political newspaper editorials. The results indicated that English newspaper editorials employed more hedges than Persian ones. Moreover, English political editorials were slightly more hedged than the economic and social ones. With regard to the Iranian context, economic editorials were slightly more hedged than the political and social ones. Jalilifar, Shooshtari, and Mutaqid (2011) investigated the impacts of the explicit instruction of hedges on the reading comprehension of ESP materials of Iranian English-related university students. The results indicated the facilitative effects of explicit instruction in recognizing hedging devices that improved the language proficiency of the students and therefore improved their reading comprehension scores. Falahati (as cited in Rasti, 2011) investigated the use of hedges in 24 research articles, written in English by English-native writers and Persian EFL learners. His quantitative analysis revealed that English writers employed hedges more frequently than their Iranian counterparts. In a study with rather contradictory findings compared with the literature of research on the use of hedges in the Iranian EFL context, Abdi and Behnam (2014) investigated the use of International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 118

hedges in the abstracts of medical articles written by English and Persian writers. They found that there were not any statistically significant differences between Iranian and American writers in terms of the use of hedges. Rezanejad, Lari, and Mosalli (2015) compared the frequency of the use of hedges in different sections of research papers written by Iranian authors and English-native authors. The results showed an underuse of hedges by Iranian authors, and there was a statistically significant difference between these two groups of authors’ use of hedges. Azarbad and Ghahraman (2018) investigated the distribution of functions and forms of hedges in the English and Persian abstracts of master’s theses, written by Iranian students. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between English and Persian texts concerning the use of hedges, with underuse of hedges in the Persian ones. Azarbad and Ghahraman referred to the degree of awareness, purpose, cultural background of the learners, and so forth as determining factors with regard to the observed differences of the use of hedges in their investigation. Sabzevar, Haghverdi, and Biriya (2020) explored the use of epistemic adverbs in academic essays written by English-native speakers and Iranian EFL learners. The findings revealed the underuse of hedges among Iranian EFL writers. Weisi and Asakereh (2020) investigated the impact of gender and nativeness on the use of hedges in the discussion section of applied linguistics research papers, written by natives of English and Iranian EFL research writers. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between Iranian male and female research writers in terms of the frequency of use of hedges, that is, gender had a determining impact on the use of hedges. Moreover, the results showed that the discussion sections of applied linguistics research papers, written by English-native research writers, were more hedged than those written by their Iranian counterparts.

Method Corpus Use of corpus analysis software and online corpus-related websites (with in-built engines to extract and analyze features such as concordancing lines, hypertext, N-grams, PoS tags, range, etc.) in language teaching (for purposes such as data-driven learning (DDL), has become a common practice among LCR investigators. Such software and websites are also used in EAP instruction courses and research. Among the software and websites for DDL practices and analyses of corpora, Anthony’s (2017) AntConc series, Tsukamoto’s (2002) KWIC, Barlow’s (2017) MonoConc Pro, and Cobb’s (2016) the Compleat Lexical Tutor can be named here (a complete and up-to-date list of corpus analysis software and online corpus-related websites can be found at https://corpus-analysis.com). The common technicality issue among most of these software and websites is their user- friendly interfaces that users can search different aspects of a language within them and get their intended results. Even teachers can apply them in their DDL practices and obtain excellent results in terms of helping learners to reach learner autonomy and flooding them with input from real language use. The search interface of AntConc software version 3.5.7, from Anthony’s (2019) AntConc series, is presented in figure 1.

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Figure 1. Search Interface of AntConc

As is seen in figure 1, the researcher or the teacher can write a language term in the search space and obtain different results including the frequency of the searched term in the intended corpus, keywords, common collocations that are used with the intended term, and so forth. Besides these software and websites, there are numerous online and archived corpora around the world now. Examples are the British National Corpus, the Corpus of Contemporary American English, and so forth. Learner corpora are no exceptions in this regard, and now there are plenty of learner corpora around the world, which have been designed by researchers from various L1 backgrounds (a complete and up-to-date list of learner corpora around the world can be found at https://uclouvain.be/en/research-institutes/ilc/cecl/learner-corpora-around-the-world.html). A very important issue in compiling learner corpora is the design criteria that are followed in them (Atkins, Clear, & Ostler, 1992). Without such criteria, as Granger (2012) points out, we will face a haphazard compilation of learner data that cannot be called a leaner corpus. Ellis (2008) names learner and task variables as important criteria in designing leaner corpora. Granger (2003) follows a rigorous account of more than 20 learner and task variables in designing the International Corpus of Learner English, which has been frequently referred to as a well- established paradigm for corpus designers to follow along (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005; Lozano & Mendikoetxea, 2013). An illustration of the design criteria of the International Corpus of Learner English is provided in figure 2 Below:

Figure 2. Task and Learner Variables in the International Corpus of Learner English

Compilation and Features of the Iranian Corpus of Learner English The Iranian Corpus of Learner English, designed for the sake of the Ph.D. dissertation of the first author of the current paper, was compiled between March 2017 and January 2018. It International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 120

includes 436,035 words and consists of 1,744 expository essays that were written by male and female Persian native speakers, who attended English-related fields at both State Universities and Islamic Azad University branches of Iran. These EFL learners were in junior and senior years of their education, and before the compilation of the corpus, they had passed courses such as paragraph development and essay writing in the Iranian curriculum on English-related fields. With regard to the variable of age, these learners were between 21 and 35 (Mean= 28). All of the participants were students of the same university for at least four consecutive semesters. The 50-min EF Standard English Test (EFSET) was used to check the proficiency level of these learners, and before the compilation of the corpus, learners’ essays whose proficiency levels were intermediate (EFSET’s B1) were put aside for further analyses. These task and learner criteria were checked through a learner profile form that the learners filled in and together with their essays sent to the first author of the current paper. Part of the corpus data was obtained from two female colleagues whose research also included expository essays of Iranian intermediate university-level learners who were majoring in English related fields in Iran. The learners were asked to write 250-word expository essays on the topics of the book Expository Eureka: Model Expository Essays for Today’s Secondary School Students (Tham, 2013). They were also asked to submit copies of their hand-written or typed essays to the first author of this study. The essays were gathered as untimed, authentic texts. This means that the learners had access to reference tools such as dictionaries, and no corrections were made to the errors in the essays. After gathering the essays, the handwritten ones were scanned and converted to the JPEG format. Next, through applying the optical character recognition software (OCR), they were converted into machine-encoded texts (i.e., Microsoft word document files). Part of the data that was given by the two female colleagues included typed essays and did not require this step. In the next step of the compilation of the corpus and through applying the AntFileConverter freeware (Anthony, 2017), the essays were converted into PDF and then plain texts. Finally, the files were uploaded in the corpus builder engine at http://www.lextutor.ca/ (Cobb, 2016), and the Iranian Corpus of Learner English was built and ready for the analysis of use of hedges.

Compilation and Features of the BAWE Sub-corpus The BAWE corpus, totaling 6,506,995 words, includes texts in genres such as case studies, empathy writings, essays, and so forth in four academic domains, namely arts and humanities, social sciences, life sciences, and physical sciences. The texts in the corpus have been compiled from university students across four levels of study in 35 disciplines. For the sake of comparison with the Iranian Corpus of Learner English, 44 texts from a sub-part of the BAWE corpus including English-native, bachelor of arts (BA), linguistics students’ expository essays, totaling 92,984 words, was used. These essays were downloaded as resource number 2,539 from the University of Oxford text archive at http://ota.ahds.ac.uk/headers/2539.xml and compiled as a corpus through the corpus builder engine at http://www.lextutor.ca/ (Cobb, 2016).

Procedure With the aid of the text analysis and concordance software MonoConc Pro-Semester version 2.2. (Barlow, 2017), the Iranian Corpus of Learner English and the sub-part of the BAWE corpus were electronically searched for 101 hedges (appendix of Hyland, 2005). Later, based on justifications to distinguish metadiscoursal hedges from non-hedging elements proposed by Hyland in his various publications (e.g., 1996, 1998, 2005), all seemingly metadiscoursal hedges were manually checked by the first writer of the present paper to ensure they were International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 121

performing the role of hedges. This second step (manual checking) is of utmost importance in any LCR study since language items can play various roles in discourse, and as Hyland (2005, p. 218) asserts, every instance of any metadiscoursal element (including hedges per se) “should therefore be studied in its sentential co-text.” To clarify the multi-functionality of hedging items, an example of seems is presented here. 1.I like and respect him. But recently I've been thinking a lot about a person I see once a week at a club. She seems very masculine, with short hair, jeans and heavy boots and she has a sort of butch look I can't describe. (British national corpus, CH1, W_newsp_tabloid) 2.The priority given to each of the above rules has depended on the temperament of the president in power but it seems that the president's role has been much more forceful, interventionist and political than a reading of the constitution would imply. (ICLE-brsur1.cor-codes 16-33) As is seen, in (a) seems shows ideational (non-hedging) content, while in (b), it functions as epistemic hedge marker.

Results In the first step of analysis (automatic and then manual), raw frequencies of hedges were obtained from both corpora. As raw frequencies in corpora with different sizes provide uncomparable results, in the second step, these raw frequencies were normalized per 1,000,000 words. Normalizing per 1,000,000 words can be done manually with the formula (raw frequency x 1,000,000) ÷ number of words in the corpus, or electronically, through a number of websites designed for such purposes. Here and in this study, normalizing (per 1,000,000 words) was conducted with the use of the normalizing calculator at http://www.thegrammarlab.com/?p=160. The raw and normalized frequencies of the analyses are depicted in table 1.

Table 1. Hedges in the Iranian Corpus of Learner English Versus the BAWE Sub-corpus Hedges Raw frequencies Normalized frequencies % of total Metadiscourse ICLE 2,964 0.68 7.4 BAWE Sub-corpus 1,327 1.43 21.0 Note. ICLE stands for the Iranian Corpus of Learner English.

In order to find out whether the observed differences of the use of hedges between the Iranian Corpus of Learner English and the BAWE sub-corpus were statistically significant, table 2 shows the results of the log-likelihood test (G-test). The log-likelihood test is a common statistical procedure in LCR that looks at the probable frequency differences between two corpora and analyzes whether a frequency difference is statistically significant or not. The log-likelihood test can be conducted with the aid of many statistical programs such as R. Here and in this study, it was computed with the use of an online calculator (Rayson, 2019) at Lancaster university’s center for computer corpus research on language (http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/llwizard.html).

Table 2. Log-likelihood Test Results to Compare the Frequency of Hedges Between the Iranian Corpus of Learner English and the BAWE Sub-corpus Item O1 %1 O2 %2 LL Bayes Hedges 2,964 0.68 1,327 1.43 - 452.16 438.98

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Note. Based on Rayson (2019), O1 and O2 are the observed frequencies of hedges in the Iranian Corpus of Learner English and the BAWE sub-corpus; %1 and %2 values show normalized frequencies in O1 and O2 per 1,000,000 words. LL indicates the log-likelihood value ; “+” before LL indicates overuse in O1 relative to O2, “-” before LL indicates underuse in O1 relative to O2. Bayes Factor (BIC) indicates effect size: 0-2: not worth more than a bare mention; 2-6: positive evidence against H0; 6-10: strong evidence against H0; > 10: very strong evidence against H0; For negative scores, the scale is read as “in favor of” instead of “against”.

As table 2 shows, a statistically significant difference was detected between the two corpora in terms of the use of hedges ( >3.8; p < 0.05; with a very large effect size (BIC > 10), with underuse of hedges in the Iranian Corpus of Learner English, relative to the BAWE sub- corpus. In addition to the above-mentioned analysis results, it should be mentioned that in the Iranian Corpus of Learner English the epistemic modal verbs had the highest frequency among all hedging items with should (340 cases of occurrence) as the most frequent one. In the BAWE sub-corpus, too, the epistemic modal verbs had the highest frequency with may (162 cases of occurrence) as the most frequently occurring hedging item. The observed frequency of all hedging items in the two corpora are presented in Appendix A of the current study. Below are a number of examples of the use of hedges from both corpora. 3.Finally part time job can make student improve faster but they have to manage their time because it wastes lots of time for studying and they have to be careful. A universal language should be replacing all languages. (Iranian Corpus of Learner English) 4.One must note however, that due to the employers misunderstanding of the proper use and meanings of his/her first words (i.e. mismatches, overextensions, holophrasing...), some may not consider them as the being true language. Finally, the first 50 words may also determine different backgrounds, reflecting the culture into which they were socialized. (The BAWE sub-corpus) 5. In my opinion, I think children from family where both parents work may have some certain advantages. (Iranian Corpus of Learner English) 6. One of the other things that it might make you sick of working when you are a student is finding some jobs that.... (Iranian Corpus of Learner English) 7. It is likely that people who are more powerful will not receive compliments, therefore complimenting maybe a form of subordinating women into a less powerful position in society. (The BAWE sub-corpus)

Discussion Hedges are lexical/strategic devices that are frequently used by writers of different genres of texts to present claims with caution. In the present study, they constituted 7.4% of all metadiscourse types in the Iranian Corpus of Learner English (ranked third among all metadiscourse types) and 21% of the total metadiscourse in the BAWE sub-corpus (ranked second among all metadiscourse types). A number of factors are influential concerning the observed underuse of hedges in the Iranian Corpus of Learner English. Among them, previous instruction, culture and L1, and increasing proficiency are the most significant ones.

Role of Previous Instruction Concerning the role of previous instruction, the most frequently used hedging devices in the Iranian academic, expository essays were modal auxiliaries (e.g., may, should, might, etc.) and epistemic adverbs (e.g., about, almost, sometimes, etc.), which are directly instructed in International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 123

courses such as grammar, paragraph development, and essay writing in the Iranian universities. However, other categories including epistemic lexical verbs, which are not instructed explicitly as such, were used less frequently (e.g., appear with 9, argue with 24, and assume with 16 cases of occurrence among all metadiscourse items). This claim on the role of previous instruction is in accordance with the influential effects of instruction on the use of hedges reported by Jalilifar, Shooshtari, and Mutaqid (2011). They found empirical support for the facilitative effect of explicit instruction in recognizing hedging devices that improved their subjects’ language proficiency and reading comprehension scores. In the same vein, Skelton (1988) claims that through the purposeful and explicit teaching of hedges with the aid of a) sensitization exercises, b) rewriting exercises, and c) sets of potential comments, EFL learners will be able to communicate much more successfully with their native counterparts.

Role of Culture and L1 The influence of culture and L1 on the use of hedges has been frequently reported in the literature of research. It is believed that in languages such as Persian, a more direct style of writing (requiring less hedges) is common, while in other languages such as English a more cautious and indirect style (requiring more hedges) is preferred (Hinds, 1987; Hu and Cao, 2011; Mauranen, 1993b). With regard to the differences in using hedges between Persian and English, Abdollahzadeh (2011), for example, asserts that Iranian postgraduates lack full access to a complete repertoire of hedges in comparison with their English counterparts, although the genre under investigation in Abdollahzadeh’s paper differs from the current study, and as is known, genre itself has a significant effect on the frequency of use of hedges. Falahati (cited in Rasti, 2011), too, asserts that English writers employ hedges more frequently than Iranian writers.

Role of Increasing proficiency Increasing proficiency, too, can have influential effects on the use of hedges (Hinkel, 2002), meaning that as Iranian EFL learners become more proficient English language users, they may try to use such features in a more native-like way. Providing proof to this claim, Hyland and Milton (1997) suggest that more proficient EFL learners approximate more closely to native speaker patterns in their use of hedges. In the same vein, Jalilifar, Shooshtari, and Mutaqid (2011) show that EFL learners who have a higher level of language proficiency take better advantage of the explicit instruction of hedging, to the degree that there is an interactive relation between the proficiency level of learners and their metadiscourse knowledge of hedges. The findings of this study are also in accordance with Azarbad and Ghahraman (2018) and Davoodifard (2006) who found significant differences between the frequencies of hedges in English and Persian abstracts, with underuse of hedges in the Persian ones. They, besides Jalilifar et al. (2011), Nikroo (2010), and Tahririan and Shahzamani (2009), pointed to a number of influential factors in this regard, namely differences between the structure of English and Persian, differences between the culture of Iranian and English writers, language proficiency, and even differences between gender. Differences between Iranian and English natives are also mentioned in studies on genres such as scientific research articles (e.g., Rezanejad, Lari, & Mosalli, 2015), English and Persian editorials (e.g., Tahririan & Shahzamani, 2009), and so forth.

Conclusions What connects this study to the research literature in learner corpora and hedges is its source of data, that is, EFL learners in university settings. This corpus-based study on hedges International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 124

revealed statistically significant differences between Iranian EFL learners’ and English-natives’ use of hedges. Such differences reside in a number of underlying factors including the fact that English-native writers in the BAWE sub-corpus aimed to show their knowledge of the essay topics, while Iranian EFL writers in the Iranian Corpus of Learner English primarily aimed to show their skills in the English language. Cultural and L1 differences between Persian and native writers as well as the influence of genre, familiarity or lack of awareness concerning hedges resulting from previous instruction, and proficiency level of Iranian EFL learners from whom the essays have been collected in this study, were also key elements that brought about differences with regard to the use of hedges between the two groups of writers. Generally, it is assumed that direct and explicit instruction of hedges according to the norms of the genre of interest seems to be the best strategy in order to alleviate the overuse/underuse of hedges among Iranian EFL learners in university settings. For this, applying corpus software and online websites could be a great help. Using software such as AntConc through DDL practices can result in great changes in the Iranian university-level learners’ production of hedges in their academic essays. For this to happen, teachers should be encouraged to learn the function of hedges first, and then through becoming familiar with corpora and corpus software and integrative approaches to computer-assisted language learning (CALL) (Warschauer, 1996) such as flip teaching (Bergmann & Sams, 2012), they can provide learners with enough sources to learn for themselves and reach learner autonomy in the use of hedges.

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Appendice Raw Frequency of Hedges in the Iranian Corpus of Learner English and the BAWE Sub- corpus Items ICLE the BAWE Items ICLE the BAWE sub-corpus sub-corpus about 167 5 A lmost 146 5 apparent 4 4 Apparently 10 3 appear 9 26 Appeared 2 2 International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 128

appears 3 26 approximately 16 7 Argue 15 0 Argued 5 4 Argues 4 0 Around 24 4 Assume 16 3 Assumed 3 7 broadly 3 0 certain amount 1 1 certain 0 1 certain level 4 1 extent claim 27 9 Claimed 6 20 Claims 0 10 could 156 68 couldn’t 4 3 Doubt 2 0 doubtful 0 1 essentially 4 0 estimate 7 1 Estimated 5 1 fairly 2 4 Feel 6 22 feels 3 4 Felt 0 8 frequently 1 26 from my 0 0 perspective from our 0 0 from this 0 0 perspective perspective generally 76 38 Guess 4 1 indicate 15 18 Indicated 3 8 indicates 11 9 in general 18 5 in most 9 1 in most instances 0 0 cases in my 0 0 in my view 8 2 opinion in this view 0 0 in our opinion 0 0 in our view 0 0 Largely 4 6 likely 100 58 Mainly 21 24 may 246 162 maybe 76 4 might 176 45 Mostly 52 2 often 126 127 on the whole 2 0 ought 1 1 Perhaps 48 26 plausible 0 0 Plausibly 0 0 possible 120 22 Possibly 19 12 postulate 0 0 Postulated 0 1 postulates 0 0 Presumable 0 0 presumably 0 0 Probable 0 2 probably 42 10 Quite 54 11 rather x 12 0 Relatively 7 20 roughly 1 3 Seems 76 34 should 340 12 Sometimes 148 17 somewhat 13 5 Suggest 4 37 suggested 7 51 Suggests 10 61 suppose 3 1 Supposed 14 4 supposes 0 1 Suspect 0 0 International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 129

suspects 0 0 tend to 48 42 tended to 2 8 tends to 13 8 to my 0 0 Typical 21 19 knowledge Typically 19 9 Uncertain 0 3 uncertainly 0 0 Unclear 1 6 unclearly 0 0 Unlikely 5 7 Usually 120 14 Would 172 84 wouldn't 41 11 TOTAL 2964 1327 Note: ICLE stands for the Iranian Corpus of Learner English

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

A Comparison of ESLE Web-based English Vocabulary Learning Application with Traditional Desktop English Vocabulary Learning Application: Exceptional learner parents’ point of view

Shima Ghobadi, Ph.D. Candidate, Shahreza Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahreza, Iran [email protected] Shahrokhi, Mohsen*, Assistant Professor, Shahreza Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahreza, Iran [email protected] Ahmad Abedi, Department of Psychology of Children with Special Needs, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran [email protected]

Abstract The aim of this study was to compare the Exceptional Student Learning English (ESLE) web application and traditional application and the evaluation of the ESLE app mainly from the exceptional student parents' perspective. To this end, five exceptional student parents with their exceptional children were selected among 30 parents in Isfahan in Isfahan province. Open- ended questionnaires were sent to five parents to collect the parents' feedback on the ESLE app and their perceptions of mobile apps-assisted language learning experiences. Results indicated that, ESLE game-based app has encouraged exciting opportunities for personalized and learner- centered environments with flexible access to learning materials anytime and anywhere. The novel and enjoyable ways of learning would have a great potential to increase learning motivation and encourage lifelong learning habits. More research will be needed in the young filed of MALL in order to suggest the right direction to effective language learning. Findings have illuminative implications for teachers, exceptional students, parents, and app developers.

Keywords: ESLE app, exceptional students, learning English vocabulary, MALL

Introduction Clare (2020) stated that “throughout the coronavirus epidemic, learning outside of school is a challenge, but it is especially for exceptional students, who are already struggling with their education. The coronavirus creates a unique challenge for exceptional students, and teachers share recommendations for applications to help them learning at home”. Clare (2020) believes that Exceptional student’s education faces serious challenges as remote education becomes the new standard of coronavirus epidemic. Providing comprehensive courses in a classroom can be influential on a day, but now that most schools are closed, or closing, teachers who work with exceptional students must completely recreate their approach (Clare, 2020). According to Clare (2020), the most important concern for both parents and teachers is keeping students on track to gain the goals and objectives of the individualized Education Program (IEP) as they are designed for each student. Clare (2020) maintains that parents now have to work much more closely with exceptional students to support this learning at home. In some situations, exceptional students are accustomed to having assistants, in addition to teachers in the classroom. This is a great responsibility for parents to bear, but fortunately, some of the digital apps now available can help. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 132

Herward (2012) believes that an exceptional student deviates from a regular student intellectually, physically, socially, or emotionally that students cannot take advantage of the standard curriculum. They require changes in the school curriculum, methods and need special education or additional instruction and physical accommodations to take full advantage of education (Heward, 2012). Such a student starts to show indications of exceptionality from birth or during the stages of development. All students differ from their physical characteristics and learning abilities (Yell, 2017). Others require curriculum enrichment and more challenging instruction and have difficulty generalizing and maintaining newly acquired knowledge and skills. However, the physical characteristics and learning abilities of exceptional students differ slightly from the norm that they require the special curriculum and services to ultimately benefit through education (Dela Cruz, et al, 2018). According to Dela Cruz, et al (2018), the term exceptional student includes all those students who have difficulty in learning and those whose performance is so superior that changes in the curriculum, teaching method and instructions are essential to help them fulfill their abilities. Therefore, the exceptional student is a comprehensive term that refers to students with learning and behavior difficulties, students with sensory impairments or physical disabilities, and intellectually gifted students or have a unique talent (pp.13-24). In recent years, particular attention has been paid to students with Learning disabilities. Students have average intelligence, but they have difficulty mastering necessary skills like reading, writing, arithmetic, listening, and oral language (IGNOU, 2017). There are four stages of learning input, integration, memory, and output. Learning disabilities can occur in any of the four stages. Types of disabilities are (A) Dyslexia (Reading problem), (B) Dysgraphia (Writing problem), (C) Dyscalculia (Mathematics problem) (D) Language Learning disability (Dela Cruz, et al, 2018).

Learning Disabilities in reading and vocabulary, Dyslexia (Reading problem) and Dysgraphia or Learning Disabilities in Writing words Learning vocabulary involves two kinds of learning disabilities. There are two kinds of learning disabilities in learning vocabulary. One is in fundamental skills of reading and vocabulary and includes the foundational skills required to realize the connection between letters, sounds, and the words they represent. The second one is reading comprehension impairment, that comprises complicated reasoning skills such as learning words, expressions, phrases, and meanings of passages (IGNOU, 2017). According to IGNOU group (2017), in writing skills, vocabulary learning disabilities include difficulty with composing phrases and letters. Expressive writing disabilities may include organizing and comprehending written thoughts on paper. These can be expressive writing disabilities in terms of Learning disabilities in fundamental writing skills (pp.36-52). The use of smartphones and other portable and wireless devices has been tremendously changing the ways of learning vocabulary (Kukulska-Hulme, 2009). Ghobadi & Taki (2018) argue that numerous mobile applications have been developed to support different aspects of second language learning, including listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar. Although these apps, usually with sound, images, and interactions, are certainly appealing to learners, the second language pedagogy that underpins these resources and activities should never be ignored. It seems that English vocabulary Mobile apps be the supplementary support for learning English vocabulary. It could provide stress-free situations that allow unlimited tries until exceptional students feel relax and confident (Ghobadi & Taki, 2018) International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 133

As mentioned by Ghobadi and Taki (2018), mobile technology from the beginning of its existence, has been used for various instructional purposes, including English vocabulary learning and teaching. Today’s generation of exceptional students is growing up in advance digital world. Using English vocabulary app every day is a massive part of their experience outside school (pp.139-158). Most of the social communications are happening online, and since the internet language has a significant impact on users’ language, it would be essential to do research on these issues and their role in language learning (Ghobadi & Taki, 2018). As Stockwell (2007) maintains, in recent years vocabulary has been one of the most frequently taught through technology. We can use technology to help EFL exceptional students and teachers learn and teach better and more efficiently. Mobile apps appear to be the ideal form of vocabulary learning. It could offer private, stress-free environments that allow unlimited tries until exceptional students feel confident and relax (pp.105-122).

What are the benefits of using Web Applications versus Traditional Desktop Applications? Applications are classified into web-based application and traditional desktop application based on the usability of the application or the intended users of the app. Web-based applications are a particular type of app that allows users to interact with a remote server via an interface to the web browser (lvivity, 2018). As mentioned in Lvivity site (2018), users don’t have to install additional software with web-based applications, and developers don’t have to write different versions of the application for various operating systems. The app can be written in different programming languages and make use of multiple frameworks and technologies. No matter which operating system is installed, a web-based application will run on the browser of the client computer. This makes web-based apps one of the today’s most universal cross-platform solutions available (Lvivity, 2018). According to EDUCBA (2020), Desktop applications are installed over the personal or work computer, and such installations are necessary over each computer separately. The important disadvantages related to desktop application is that the update of such applications is very difficult and needs to be pushed on each computer where the application is installed separately (EDUCBA, 2020). According to Lvivity (2018), “Web-based applications have a number of advantages over traditional desktop apps, their portability is most prominent”. Lvivity (2018) acknowledges that users don’t have to install additional software with web-based apps, and developers don’t have to write multiple versions of the same application for different operating systems. The app can be written in various programming languages and make use of multiple technologies and frameworks. On the whole, web-based applications are a unique solution that can provide the app with a wide range of multifunctional online tools that can optimize countless processes and solve multiple issues (Nation, 2020). Based on what was stated above, the following research question was addressed in the present study:

RQ. What are the strengths and weaknesses in utilizing ESLE game-based app for effective learning of English vocabulary from exceptional students parents' perspectives?

Literature Review English vocabulary skill is critical to be a successful and quality of life (Seo, & Bryant, 2009). Misqutta (2011) believes that, exceptional students have difficult learning vocabulary situation (pp.109-111). Although they need more time and special services in relation to their needs, the current trend in education is inclusion (Misqutta, 2011), and students do not always International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 134

benefit from instruction in inclusive classrooms (Seo & Bryant, 2009). Darling-Hammon ( 2010) mentions that exceptional students need more time to process when teachers teach new vocabularies and they need differentiated practices compared to their peers who are not struggling in English vocabulary (pp.35-47). However, teachers realize lack of time although they want to provide instruction based on the students’ needs. Problems increase when teachers lack knowledge (Darling-Hammond, 2010). Because of problems including teacher qualifications, lack of time and resources, researchers such as Ross and Bruce (2009), support use of technology that “could provide the sequencing and scaffolding that teachers might have difficulty providing” (pp. 713-727). Technology also allows people to learn English vocabularies (Allsopp, Kyger, & Lovin, 2007). Many exceptional students find difficulty in learning grade-level English vocabularies. Baumann and Kameenui (1991) argue that the ability to understand English vocabulary matches with the ability to understand different components of a given word (pp.117-128). For instance, root words, suffixes, prefixes and word etymology are also essential in determining meaning of word (Bryant, Goodwin, Bryant, and Higgins, 2003). In addition, English vocabulary teaching can include the synonyms, definition, part of speech, antonyms, and proper use of contextual phrases. Memorizing the meaning of a word simply does not mean mastering the correct understanding of the vocabulary (Whitescarver, 2018) As mentioned by Whitescarver (2018), students learn vocabulary terms in various ways, as each individual has unique skills and preferred learning styles. To best meet the needs of each exceptional student, educators need to use a variety of teaching materials such as auditory, visual, and kinesthetics. According to Beach, Sanchez, Flynn, and O’Connor (2015), particular vocabulary instruction is important to enhance the success of exceptional students in various classrooms where many students are struggling readers (pp. 36-44). Beach, Sanchez, Flynn, and O’Connor previous research in 2015 showed that a concrete framework with changes for learning exceptional students ensures instruction that is more effective to struggling readers. Exceptional students with learning disabilities sometimes struggle to learn new English vocabulary. A review of research findings for vocabulary teaching is lacking for exceptional students. Three reviews have been done within the last fifteen years. Johnson, Gersten, and Carnine (1987) searched the influence of number of vocabularies presented to exceptional students while utilizing computer-assisted instruction. Results of this study indicated that over 11 sessions of instruction, exceptional students in the small teaching set outperformed students in the large teaching set in terms of time required to reach satisfactory achievement (pp.206-2013). In general, there are many tools to assist exceptional students in acquiring new vocabulary knowledge. According to Nahmod (2017), although exceptional students may have poor language skills, and tend to read less than their non-disabled peers, these exceptional students have right to learn the same material as their classmates. Some exceptional students may have poor verbal ability, poor retention skills, or may simply not be given enough chances to use different vocabularies in reading, writing or daily conversation (Nahmod, 2017). Condus, Marshall, and Miller (1986) examined the word mnemonic strategy as a means to enhance vocabulary learning and retention. Results improved that, exceptional students in the keyword- image exposure outperformed students exposed to the other conditions under both immediate and long-term time intervals (pp.609-613). In today’s culture technology continues to grow rapidly. Many teachers use technology in the classroom in an effort to make learning more easily accessible, creative, and fun. Musti-Rao International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 135

(2016) explains that there are gaps between meaningful curriculum and instruction and technology. Abrams and Walsh (2014) analyzed how exceptional students best learn vocabulary using adaptive technology and vocabulary instruction using online tools. The study concluded that game-like aspects of the website was an “effective hybrid teaching tool that honored independent and flexible learning opportunities (pp.49-58). Franklin (2011) maintained that with Mobile-Learning, exceptional student can reach the content faster and efficiently. M-Learning does not need people to be in any specific location for the learning process; it brings the content to people where they are (p.261). Mobile -Learning app also supports group work, increases the opportunity of communication and cooperative learning by improving exceptional students’ motivation to engage with learning activities in classrooms (Cakir, 2011). Applications on mobile devices help all exceptional students from different ages, levels, and even abilities (Jeng, Wu, Huang, Tan, & Yang, 2010). According to Walker (2011) mobile learning provides opportunities for exceptional learners to build their own knowledge in different contexts, and help learners construct their own understanding (pp.59-63). Many of these game-based apps were developed for different purposes, but the main goal was to increase engagement of students and enhance the time students were exposed to content matter (NCTM, 2008). NCTM (2008) stated, the number of studies examined the effectiveness of applications on mobile devices to deliver elementary English vocabulary learning to improve academic achievements is few even though many studies showed positive correlation between engagement and academic success in English (Simsek, 2016). According to Zichermann as indicated by Abrams and Walsh (2014) gamification is the process of using game mechanics and game thinking to engage audience in learning activities and solve problems. Kapp as stated by Abrams and Walsh (2014), Gamification includes game-like elements such as points, rewards, and top score leaderboards in non-game activities and environments. Ultimately Gamification promotes learning by allowing exceptional students to monitor their own learning. Exceptional Students have a sense of control over their learning. According to Abrams and Walsh (2014), with the use of technology exceptional students can have control over learning because they can choose to play the game again outside class and could decide the amount of time, they wish to spend reviewing the material. Using exercises by interactive games was suggested since it is natural that exceptional students in 7th to 9th grades like to play academic games in English vocabularies (Griffin, 2007); therefore, game-based learning achieve popularity among teachers in regards to teaching English vocabularies. Use of English vocabulary games promise advantages for exceptional students due to games enhance engagements and motivations of students (Carr, 2012). Taking into consideration the feature of games, and the students with vocabulary learning disabilities, these games might help them to overcome English anxiety by enhancing their motivation for trying to solve problem when they are failed.

Methodology Design of the study This study has a qualitative research design, with vocabulary learning and using ESLE app as the main variables.

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Participants The participants of the current study were 5 parents of exceptional students at intermediate level, and their 7th grade exceptional children in Isfahan province in summer 2020. Parents were selected because all of them have expressed their children’s needs for improving English vocabulary for learning and examination. The parents were selected from among 30 individuals who sat for Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and were qualified as intermediate level.

Table 1. profile of parents Name Age Gender Occupation Location English proficiency Parent A 40 Female Teacher Isfahan Intermediate Parent B 35 female housewife Isfahan Intermediate Parent C 55 female employer Isfahan Intermediate Parent D 50 Male teacher Isfahan Intermediate Parent E 65 Male business Isfahan Intermediate

All the parents’ names and exceptional students’ names are anonymous.

Table 2. profile of exceptional students Name Gender Grade Location English proficiency

Exceptional student A Girl 7th Isfahan Low-level Exceptional student B Girl 7th Isfahan Low-level Exceptional student C Boy 7th Isfahan Low-level Exceptional student C Boy 7th Isfahan Low-level Exceptional student E Girl 7th Isfahan Low-level

Instruments The research instruments consisted of the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), ESLE app, and an open-ended questionnaire.

Vocabulary level test for exceptional students A vocabulary test was designed to examine the exceptional students’ knowledge of vocabulary items. The test items were selected from exceptional students coursebook. Then, a 20 multiple-choice item test was prepared. The test consisted of 20 multiple-choice items. The results of Cronbach’s alpha analysis showed that the test was reliable (α = 0.83). The content validity of the test was evaluated through expert opinions by TEFL specialists.

ESLE Application description To use the app, exceptional students had to download it from ESLE application website and install it on their smartphone devices. Exceptional students had the opportunity to choose one out of 7 complete courses. After the exceptional students select which course they wish to learn, the app asks them to “select a course” from the list appearing before them. The app then inquires whether exceptional student already knows anything about English vocabulary, and if so, it International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 137

If the exceptional student is new to the ).آزمون اولیه(provides the student with a pre-test language, the student must start with the English Alphabets. It is safe to say that ESLE is a straightforward and simple app to use. Without any more questions or even registration for the course, the exceptional students can go right into their first lesson by tapping Start. The activities are of many types as follows:

Ⅰ) Matching activities, in which exceptional students hear the word and see a picture and match it with the pictures given.

Ⅱ) Pairing activities, in which exceptional students are given an even number of equivalent words and are asked to pair them.

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Ⅲ) listening activities, in which exceptional students listen to a word in the second language and have to select it correctly;

Ⅳ) spelling activities, in which learners have to write the correct words.

Each lesson contains 5-10 exercises, and most of the lessons have more than 20 games with sound. Every time exceptional students get an answer right, they hear the clap sound with laugh sticker. Every time they get it wrong, they hear the cry sound with sad sticker. It also allows the exceptional students to go back to whenever they want, whichever lesson they want, even if exceptional students have gotten all the answers right. When the exceptional students accomplish a lesson, ESLE rewards them with surprising sticker and clap sounds, making the exceptional students feel as if they have completed something important. ESLE is a very smart app. For example, if in a spelling exercise, exceptional students type incorrect word instead of International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 139

correct word, the app will know this is a mistake. The exceptional students don’t pass the exercise. Another interesting characteristic of the app is the button on the corner of each page that learners can back to the homepage. It must be noted that ESLE provides many English vocabularies.

Specifications of ESLE Web view applications There are differences among Web applications and traditional software systems, arising from the particular context in which they are managed, created, and used. In "web view app", the Internet and the Web eliminate real distances constraints in space allowing immediate access to information regardless of how far users and servers might be away from each other (Đorđević, 2017). This quality of the Web provides advantages of ESLE app over traditional, desktop applications (Đorđević, 2017), and they include:

– Global approach. ESLE Web application is published centralized in one location and it can be used by the entire world. Every user who has access to the Internet can access ESLE from a home computer.

– Simultaneous work of group of users. Generally, traditional desktop applications are used by one person at a certain time, while ESLE app can be used by several users simultaneously. This includes a greater need for protection and privacy, and higher performances and standards of Web applications compared to desktop applications (pp.785-802). – Ability to work on multiplatform. ESLE app uses publicly accessible and free Web browsers and does not rely on the user’s software framework. Since there are various Web browsers for different operating systems (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Opera, etc.), and since all these readers mostly consist of HTML and JavaScript formats, Web applications depend on HTML clients (Đorđević, 2017).

– Low cost compared to the average number of users. According to Đorđević (2017) most elements of the Internet are open for users, which also applies to Web applications. Organizations that have a need for a Web application can minimize the cost of its purchase and maintenance because employees can set up and use the Web application at home, at work or under field conditions.

– Ease of use by end users. ESLE app is designed for an exceptional student so they are simple to use, similarly to regular Web sites. The ease of use of Web applications facilitates public participation.

– Centralized upgrade. The process of updating ESLE app is quicker and easier, since the changes made are centralized in one location, so changing a program code on the Web server becomes immediately visible to all users.

– Different purposes of use. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 140

Unlike desktop applications whose use is limited to a certain number of users, ESLE app can be used by a broad number of users, for a variety of purposes of classroom activity, or supplementary tool for learning English vocabulary (pp.785-802).

Open-ended Questionnaire In order to collect information about the parent’s perspective on ESLE app, an open- ended questionnaire was administered to parents who used ESLE app for their exceptional children. The questionnaire consisted of 10 questions about the amount of the time that their exceptional child spent on ESLE app, the extent of using the app in their home, classroom, the extent of familiarity with the definition of words and games on the app, the extent of using the app for learning English vocabulary.

Collection Procedure data The application website was given to all parents of the study (n = 5) to install the ESLE app. Moreover, as the study concentrated on learning English vocabularies via ESLE app and in order to clarify the objectives, there was a briefing session for the parents. Open-ended questionnaire was the key means of gathering qualitative data in this study to gain the participants' feedback on the children experiences of using the ESLE app. According to Rabiee (2004), this is because the focus group could provide various information about ideas and feelings that individuals have about certain topics, and thus could elicit deeper and richer data (pp.655-660). Anyway, first, each parent installed an ESLE app on their mobile. They were told to use the ESLE app for teaching their exceptional child whenever their exceptional child wants and wherever they are for one week. However, to ensure that the parents could make a good judgment of the ESLE app based on sufficient time, they were instructed to use the apps for at least 20 minutes per day. Three weeks later, parents were asked to make some notes of their children using experiences and complete an open-ended questionnaire. In an open-ended questionnaire, parents were asked to summarize their using ESLE app patterns for their children English vocabulary learning and write down three things that they like and three things that they dislike about the app their children have been using. They were also encouraged to note down what they feel they have improved in English vocabulary by using the ESLE app for exceptional students.

Results Learner's evaluation of this app was analyzed in three parts which are learners' use patterns of the ESLE app, their comments on this app, and their perceptions of learning English vocabulary through ESLE app.

Learners' Use Patterns of the ESLE App Questions were asked from all the parents about when, where, how often, and for how long exceptional students used the app during the week. This was supposed to recognize the mobility of learners, learning, and even technology for MALL. Through analyzing the questionnaire data, all the parents confirmed that their exceptional child used the app at different time during the day and at different locations, such as at home, at school. The majority of students used the app mostly at home.

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Parent A stated that my child learned all alphabets of the ESLE app. She used ESLE app at home in the morning because morning is an efficient time period for her to learn a lesson.

My child used the ESLE app at home too. This is the only place where she could learn English clearly without shyness. (Parent B)

Basically, I saw the ESLE app as a supplementary tool for my child, so he only used it when he needed, usually at home. (Parent C)

From the responses of parents D and E, we can realize that exceptional students need a quiet and stress-free place to learn English vocabulary. However, with the mobility of smartphones, English vocabulary learning could also happen whenever it is convenient at many other places.

Since using the app was not obligatory, the frequency of English vocabulary learning through the ESLE app and the length of the time that the exceptional students spent were quite different.

Most of the exceptional students studied every day, although few of them used just three or four times during the week. It took several minutes to around thirty minutes for most of the participants, to use the app each time.

Parents' Comments on the ESLE App After a trial period of three-weeks, the parents already seemed to have several opinions about this app as supplementary tool for learning English vocabulary. Almost all of the parents claimed that using ESLE game-based app is a creative way to learning English vocabulary. They also gave feedback for the future potential development of the app from their points of view. At first, the parents found it very flexible to use the ESLE app for English vocabulary learning since exceptional students could easily access to the English vocabulary anywhere and anytime. Exceptional students could either use it as supplementary tool for improving English vocabulary or as study reference when they need.

My child likes ESLE app because it doesn’t take her too long to complete one unit, only about 15 minutes. So, she can simply learn a lesson. In a word, it is flexible and easy to handle. (parent A) It is very useful and helpful. My child could refer to it whenever she needs as long as she has my smartphone at hand, very convenient. (Parent B)

The parents' reports indicate that ESLE app provides English learners accessible and flexible games and activities.

Secondly, the parents like using ESLE app for English vocabulary learning because this game- based app fitted exceptional students’ needs well.

My child likes ESLE app since it is like supplementary tutor. The ESLE app provided English vocabularies and games that exactly what my child wanted as learning materials. This encouraged my child to keep practicing English vocabulary. (Parent C)

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Parent D's statement reflects that ESLE app may provide opportunities for personalized and individualized learning. ESLE app seems to be an effective way of providing self-directed and learner-centered learning experiences, as exceptional students themselves could decide what they would learn.

Therefore game-based app may enhance exceptional students' vocabulary learning motivation and promote development of vocabulary practice and skills.

Moreover, exceptional students' anxiety was reduced significantly by using ESLE app as vocabulary learning assistance.

Finally, the ESLE app for learning English vocabulary was considered playful and engaging. The exceptional students realized the voice and recognition functions interesting and helpful, allowing them to hear the pronunciation.

Parent E really likes the presentation of each lesson. My child can have a colorful lesson on the screen with useful pictures and games. The lesson mentioned and the subtitles at the bottom of each lesson help students to better understand what the games say.

Because all the games are English and it is sometimes difficult for exceptional students to understand, the Persian subtitles are really useful. (Parent D)

The parents' comments reflect that clear presentation and multiple functions of ESLE app has greatly facilitated students' ability to learn and spell vocabularies accurately, and confidently.

Exceptional students’ parents' Perceptions of ESLE app On the whole, the parents had a positive attitude to learning English vocabulary with ESLE app. Parents believed that both of vocabulary and spelling of their child have been improved after using the ESLE app for 3 weeks.

At first my child doesn’t know the meaning of some words such as yogurt and the words related to body, after 3 weeks, she likes ESLE app because it does not take her too long to finish one lesson. So, she can easily learn the meaning of words. (Parent A)

The parents B reports show that her child likes ESLE app since it is like her tutor. Before she began learning English vocabulary, ESLE app provided different lessons. Then it provided English vocabularies with their pictures that really what my child wanted as learning materials. This encouraged my child to keep playing game and practicing English vocabularies.

Parent D comment reflects that ESLE app could provide opportunities for learner-centered learning environment. As exceptional students themselves could decide what they would learn.my child can replace the letters and make a new word. He can learn the spelling of words by using the spelling part of ESLE app.

I really like the presentation of each game. My child can have a colorful alphabet on the screen with colorful pictures. (Parent C)

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I like the voice function of this app.it is very useful and it can improve his pronunciation. (Parent E)

The average rating the parents gave on the ESLE app was 4.16.

In terms of exceptional student’s future use of ESLE app for English vocabulary learning, all of the parents have expressed their interests in trying this app for English vocabulary learning.

Discussion This study intended to investigate the effect of leaning English vocabulary via ESLE app from exceptional student parents’ perspective. The obtained results revealed that exceptional students exposed to the new English words through ESLE app had higher gains. So, presenting English vocabulary via ESLE app appears to be effective and can lead to better results. In general, it seems that the use of ELSE app is useful for exceptional students and is a tool which can assist parents and exceptional students to learn English and facilitate the learning English vocabulary (Mashhadi Heidar & Kaviani, 2016; Srinivas, 2010). The better results can be justified on the grounds that unlike the traditional way of teaching English vocabulary, ESLE app is more appealing for the exceptional students. Despite the facilitative role of ESLE in aiding exceptional students’ English vocabulary learning, the number of conversations to present the essential words exceptional students need is limited. In general, exceptional students have shown positive attitudes towards using ESLE English vocabulary App for English vocabulary learning. The parents in my study have already shown their interest for the new ways of learning English vocabulary. The parents have realized that ELSE app could provide a learner-centered English vocabulary learning opportunity with fun and flexible games and lessons. Moreover, exceptional students could easily access English vocabulary learning materials anywhere and anytime. This seems to enhance exceptional students’ motivation and encourage exceptional students in learning English vocabulary.

Conclusion This study aimed to compare the ESLE web application and traditional application and the evaluation of the ESLE app mainly from the exceptional student parents' perspective. As it has been mentioned, web-based app does not require installed software on the computer. They can be accessed on any device with internet connection. When you have a web application, then you can access the program through almost any browser or operating system. In this situation there is never need to update web application. You receive the upgrades for the app as the development team rolls them out. By using web-based software you can be sure you are using the latest version which is always updated automatically. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 144

Research findings showed that vocabulary learning could be facilitated through presenting the words through ESLE app. Generally, it could be argued that due to the effectiveness of ESLE app as a web application which has already proved to be welcomed by exceptional students and their parents, learning English vocabularies can be further facilitated as exceptional students can easily match words with interesting pictures. Generally speaking, this study proved that ESLE app, as a web application for learning English vocabulary, is a free access mobile app and, is the first vocabulary app for exceptional students. Vesselinov and Grego study (2012) have shown statistically significant improvements in English vocabulary learning as a result of using the ESLE app. The app also leads to improve levels of confidence in learning a new vocabulary (Vesselinov & Grego, 2012). ESLE app helps exceptional students to improve their vocabulary and reduces their fear of learning vocabularies. With 15 to 20 minutes of daily practice, ESLE helps exceptional students believe they have achieved something, a feeling that motivates them. By “game-based” learning, ESLE has been able to keep the exceptional students engaged and less self-conscious of vocabulary learning. Despite these good features in ESLE, the lack of conversation in the ESLE app needs to be mentioned. ESLE may give exceptional students the word and its definition, but since they have not used the phrases or the sentences they have learned, their lexical knowledge will only be passive and difficult to retrieve. In sum, parents have shown favorable attitudes towards using ESLE app for their exceptional students learning English vocabulary. This may be because ESLE is a creative tool for learning English vocabulary and smartphone users are willing to see the potential functions of their smart mobile devices can offer for learning. The parents have found that ESLE app could provide a learner-centered learning opportunity with flexible games and activities for exceptional students. Moreover, the exceptional students could easily access English vocabulary learning games and activities anytime and anywhere. This seems to increase their learning motivation and confidence in English vocabulary learning, and encourage exceptional students to develop life-long learning habits.

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Nation, D. (2020). Improve your understanding of web-based application programs. Lifewire: Internet, Networking, & Security. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). (2008). Position statement on equity in mathematics education. Retrieved from www.nctm.org/?about/content.aspx?id=8452. Rabiee, F., (2004). Focus Group Interview and Data analysis. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 63, 655–660. Ross, J. A., & Bruce, C. D. (2009). Student achievement effects of technology-supported remediation of understanding of fractions. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 40(6), 713-727. Seo, Y. & Bryant, P. (2009). Analysis of Studies of the Effects of Computer-Assisted Instruction on the Mathematics Performance of Students with Learning Disabilities. Computers & Education, 53, 913-928. Simsek, O., (2016). "Use of a Game-Based App as a Learning Tool for Students with Mathematics Learning Disabilities to Increase Fraction Knowledge/Skill”. Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6390. Stockwell, G. (2007). A review of technology choice for teaching language skills and areas in the CALL literature. ReCALL, 19(2), 105-120. Vesselinov, R., & Grego, J. (2012). Duolingo effectiveness study: Final report. New York: City University of New York. Retrieved May 12, 2106 fromhttp:// static. Duolingo .com /s3/ DuolingoReport_Final.pdf. Walker, H. (2011). Evaluating the effectiveness of apps for mobile devices. Journal of Special Education Technology, 26(4), 59-63. Whitescarver, Erin L., (2018). "Effect of mnemonics on the vocabulary acquisition and retention of high school students with learning disabilities". Theses and Dissertations. 2567. https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/2567. Yell, M., (2017). “Individualization Is Special Education: A Response to Czapanskiy.” Journal of Law and Education, 46(2), Jefferson Law Book Company, p. 245.

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

واحد نجف اباد

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International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research

جهت اشتراک این نشریه بهای اشتراک را مطابق جدول تعرفه اشتراک برای مشترکان روبرو به حساب سیبا 2506556226220 نزد بانک نوع اشتراک تعداد پست عادی پست سفارشی ملی شعبه دانشگاه ازاد اسالمی واحد نجف اباد به نام دانشگاه ازاد اسالمی واحد نجف اباد واریز و اصل فیش یکساله)دانشجویان واساتید( 6 022222لایر 522222لایر بانکی را به همراه فرم تکمیل شده به نشانی : یکساله)سازمانهاوموسسات( 6 002222لایر 502222لایر اصفهان – نجف اباد-دانشگاه ازاد اسالمی واحد نجف آباد – معاونت پژوهشی – دفتر فصلنامه علمی-تخصصی

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International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 149

Abstracts in Persian

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 151

روش تدریس مبتنی بر تکلیف در کالس های تدریس نوشتار زبان دوم: دیدگاه های مدارس متوسطه چین ماینر چن چکیده تحقیق کمی حاضر روی روش تدریس مبتنی بر تکلیف در کالس های تدریس نوشتار زبان دوم مدارس متوسطه انجام شده است. این پژوهش با استفاده از روش های مخلوط زنجیره ای کاووشی انجام شده تا مناسب بودن و سازگاری آموزش زبان مبتنی بر تکلیف را در حوزه ی دبیرستان در شهرهای کوچک بررسی کند. ابتدا˓ پژوهشگر شش معلم زبان خارجی دبیرستان از حوزه های مختلف آموزش در چین را با استفاده از نمونه گیری هدفمند و مناسب مورد ارزیابی قرار داد تا به اطالعات زمینه ای دست یابد. سپس با هر یک از آن ها به صورت انفرادی مصاحبه های نیمه ساختاری داشت. در ادامه ی مصاحبه ها˓ پژوهشگر 841 دانش آموز را از طریق پرسشنامه آنالین و با نمونه گیری هدفمند و مناسب مورد بررسی قرار داد. یافته ها نشان داد هرچند اکثر معلم ها˓ کاربرد و سودمندی TBLT را تایید کردند اما آنها را در زمینه ی کالس های تدریس نوشتار زبان چینی دبیرستان نامناسب و غیرعملی دیدند. همچنین˓ دو نفر دانش آموز شرکت کننده رتبه اول از نظر افزایش دامنه لغت و دستورالعمل واضح رتبه بندی شدند. بعالوه سازگاری هایی ارائه شد تا طراحی کار حرفه ای˓ بحث کالسی˓ مکانیزم پاداش و رشد حرفه ی معلمی را در برگیرد. در آینده پژوهش های بیشتری نیاز است تا یافته های این تحقیق را بررسی کنند تا آن ها را به زمینه ها ˓حوزه ها و سنین مختلف تعمیم دهند و تفاوت های فردی معلم ها و انتخاب روش های تدریس آنان را کشف کنند.

واژگان کلیدی: روش تدریس مبتنی بر تکلیف˓ رویکرد تدریس در کالس های نوشتار زبان دوم˓ روش های مخلوط زنجیره ای کاووشی

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 152

بررسی کیفی دیدگاه فراگیران زبان انگلیسی در رابطه با روش یادگیری وارونه

شهریار جلیلی، حمیدرضا خلجی، حسین احمدی

چکیده طی سالیان اخیر، همگام با رشد تکنولوژی و به منظور یافتن جایگزینی مناسب برای روشهای تدریس سنتی ، مدل یادگیری وارونه ابداع گردید. این تحقیق به بررسی دیدگاه شرکت کنندگان نسبت به تجربه یادگیری کالس وارونه در مقایسه با روش سنتی یا غیر وارونه میپردازد. به این منظور، اجرا کنندگان این تحقیق، بیست و سه نفر فراگیر زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان دوم را در دو گروه تقسیم بندی نمودند. معلمین در ده هفته اول روش سنتی را در کالس A و روش وارونه را در کالس B اجرا کرده، پس از امتحان میان ترم، روشهای تدریس را در دو کالس جابجا نمودند، به این صورت که به مدت ده هفته دیگر روش وارونه را در کالس A و روش سنتی را در کالس B اجرا کردند. پس از پایان تحقیق با شرکنندگان مصاحبه شد و بطور دقیق نظرات آنها در رابطه با هر دو نوع روش تدریس یادداشت گردید. برای دست یافتن به نتایج کامل تر و دقیق تر، از پرسشنامه و مجموعه یادداشتهای شرکت کنندگان نیز استفاده شد. محققین پس از بررسی کیفی داده ها، نظرات فراگیران را در قالب چهار الگو یا مضمون تقسیم بندی کردند: وارونه/سنتی، استفاده از تکنولوژی، تعهد به گروه و رابطه معلم و شاگرد. در مجموع، فراگیران نظرات ضد و نقیضی در رابطه با یادگیری وارونه داشتند ولی نهایتا روش غیر وارونه یا سنتی را بر روش وارونه ترجیح دادند.

واژگان کلیدی: یادگیری وارونه، درک و فهم دانش آموزان، فراگیران زبان انگلیسی

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تاثیر بحث اکتشافی-جمعی در برابر بحث تقابلی در دوره تربیت مترجم بر وابستگی شناختی: تمرکز بر دانشجویان سطح متوسط سمانه یزدانی، حسین حیدری تبریزی، عزیزه چاالک

چکیده تحقیق حاضر به منظور تعیین تأثیر شیوه بحث اکتشافی-جمعی در برابر بحث تقابلی بر وابستگی شناختی )رشد معنا شناختی، سازماندهی تفکر و همچنین توانایی حل مسئله( دانشجویان سطح متوسط دوره تربیت مترجم انجام شده است. برای دستیابی به این هدف، پژوهشی شبه آزمایشی)پیشاآزمون-پساآزمون-آماری( انجام شد که در آن 36 دانشجوی دوره کارشناسی تربیت مترجم دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی واحد شهرضا و همگن از نظر مهارت های زبانی در گروه های آزمایش و شاهد قرار گرفتند. پرسشنامه وابستگی شناختی قبل و بعد از اجرای شیوه بحث اکتشافی-جمعی، به محققین کمک کرد تا اثر احتمالی آن را در برابر گروه شاهد، یعنی شیوه بحث تقابلی، دریابد. نتایج تجزیه و تحلیل داده ها نشان داد اختالف بین میانگین نمرات پساآزمون گروه آزمایشی و شاهد از نظر آماری چشمگیر نیست. با این حال، براساس معیارهای متداول، تفاوت بین نمرات پیشاآزمون و پساآزمون گروه آزمایشی از نظر آماری کامال چشمگیر و با میزان تاثیر زیاد بود. بکارگیری یافته های تحقیق حاضر در دوره های تربیت مترجم زمینه را برای مدرسان و دانشجویان ترجمه فراهم می کند تا رویکردهای پر بارتری را دنبال کنند.

واژگان کلیدی: بحث اکتشافی-جمعی، بحث تقابلی، دوره تربیت مترجم، وابستگی شناختی

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بررسی تأثیر گسترده خوانی چندرسانه ای اینترنتی و ابزار محور بر ارتقا مهارت های زبانی

هانی منسوجی، احمد محسنی، علیرضا عامری

چکیده هدف این تحقیق ترکیبی بررسی تأثیر گسترده خوانی چندرسانه ای اینترنتی و ابزار محور بر ارتقا مهارت های زبانی است. از این رو، در ابتدا و در مرحله کمی، یک طرح پیش آزمون-پس آزمون برای مقایسه نتایج سه گروه از زبان آموزان )دو گروه آزمایشی و یک گروه کنترل-- هر یک شامل 63 زبان آموز( جهت تعیین میزان پیشرفت آنها در مهارت های دریافتی استفاده شد. گروه اول دوره زبان انگلیسی عمومی را همراه با یک برنامه مطالعه گسترده چند رسانه ای ابزار محور تحصیل نمودند و گروه دوم یک برنامه مطالعه گسترده خطی )سنتی( را با دوره انگلیسی خود گذراندند. نمرات پس آزمون نشان داد که دانش آموزان گروه آزمایشی 8 )مطالعه گسترده با استفاده از متون چندرسانه ای(، هم از گروه آزمایشی 2 )خواندن گسترده با استفاده از متون خطی( و هم از گروه کنترل بهتر عمل کردند. بعالوه، گروه آزمایشی 2 در مقایسه با گروه کنترل امتیازات باالتری کسب کردند. در مرحله کیفی، نتایج مصاحبه ها و پرسشنامه ها نشان داد که زبان آموزان ترجیح می دهند برنامه های مطالعه گسترده سنتی را با برنامه های چندرسانه ای مبتنی بر ابزار اینترنتی جایگزین کنند. احتمال مفید واقع شدن نتایج این تحقیق برای معلمان زبان انگلیسی بسیار است زیرا بر اساس آن می توانند بینشی نوین در جهت افزایش سهم گسترده خوانی اینترنت محور در کالس های آموزش زبان انگلیسی بدست آورند.

واژگان کلیدی: خواندن گسترده ، خواندن اینترنتی، متن خطی، مهارت های دریافتی، متن چندرسانه ای

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بررسی چالش های پیش روی دانشجویان ایرانی رشته زبان انگلیسی در ترجمه انگلیسی به فارسی

نارسیس معمار ضیا، رحمان صحراگرد، سید آیت اهلل رزمجو، شهرام افراز

چکیده الویت نخست اساتید ترجمه بهبودی کیفیت و بازده کالسهای ترجمه در سطوح دانشگاهی است. نیل به چنین هدفی از طریق شناخت نیازهای آموزشی دانشجویان با تحقیق و کنکاش و سپس برنامه ریزی درسی بر اساس این نیازها امکان پذیر میگردد. از این رو تالش تحقیق حاضر بر شناسایی مشکالتی است که دانشجویان زبان انگلیسی و خصوصا ترجمه در ترجمه متون انگلیسی به فارسی تجربه میکنند، چرا که اولین قدم در حل مشکالت شناسایی آنهاست. این مهم از طریق تحقیقی کیفی در طول سالهای تحصیلی8631 تا 8631 با تمرکز بر اشتباهات دانشجویان در برگه های امتحانی و تکالیف محوله و دسته بندی کلی و مشروح این اشتباهات میسر گردید. در این تحقیق عمدتا دانشجویان سالهای دوم تا آخر رشته مترجمی زبان انگلیسی شاغل به تحصیل در دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی شیراز شرکت داشتند. تحلیل داده ها منجر به دسته بندی کلی اشتباهات به اشتباهات ساختاری، لغوی، فرهنگی، سبکی و متفرقه و تقسیم موشکافانه آنها به دسته بندیهای کوچکترگردید. ضعف دانشجویان در درک روابط اجزاء تشکیل دهنده جمالت که در نهایت منجر به درک معنی متن میشود از نکات مورد توجه نتایج بود. عملکرد ضعیف دانشجویان در کسب و به کارگیری دانش و مهارتهای ترجمه که طیف وسیعی از دانش و مهارتهای زبانی واطالعات عمومی را در بر میگیرد نیز قابل مالحظه می نمود. با توجه به اهمیت موضوع، امید است نتایج توصیفی تحلیلی داده ها یاریگر دانشجویان در شناخت ضعف ها و راهنمای کوچکی برای اساتید و مدرسین محترم در برنامه ریزی درسی و ارائه راهکارهای مناسب برای حل مشکالت دانشجویان زبان انگلیسی در ترجمه متون انگلیسی به فارسی باشد.

واژگان کلیدی: اطالعات عمومی، تجزیه و تحلیل خطاها، دانش ترجمه، راهکارهای آموزشی، مشکالت ترجمه

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 156

چگونه آموزش صریح و ضمنی فرانشانگرهای گفتمانی رسمی بر مهارت گفتاری زبان آموزان تأثیر می گذارد ؟ محمد ابراهیم مقدسی، محمد بوالی، فاطمه بهجت

چکیده فرانشانگرهای گفتمانی بخشی اجتناب ناپذیر از مهارت گفتاری است که هم کیفیت و هم درک بهتر از گفتار زبان آموزان را ارتقاء می بخشد. اگرچه مطالعات مربوط به فرانشانگرهای گفتمانی زبانی از دهه هشتاد میالدی در محدوده آمریکا یا کشورهای اروپایی انجام شده است، اما این موضوع در ایران تقریبا بکر و دست نخور زده باقی مانده است. بنابراین، این تحقیق به دنبال بررسی میزان تأثیرگذاری آموزش صریح و ضمنی فرانشگرهای گفتمانی رسمی زبانی بر مهارت گفتاری زبان آموزان می باشد. به این منظور، داده های آماری کمی از 33 نفر از زبان آموزان سطح باالی متوسط در مرکز زبان دانشگاه شیراز جمع آوری شد. دو گروه به مدت هشت جلسه تحت یک آزمایش قرار گرفتند. اگرچه گروه آموزشیُ دوم ) 41 نفره( تحت آموزش ضمنی فرانشانگرهای گفتمانی رسمی قرار گرفتند، این فرانشانگرهای گفتمانی رسمی بصورت صریح به گروه آموزشی اول ) 41 نفره( آموزش داده شد. به منظور مقایسه عملکرد شرکت کننده گان، یک پس آزمون از طریق مصاحبه مهارت شفاهی شبیه سازی شده برگزار شد. نتایج نشان داد آموزش فرانشانگرهای گفتمانی رسمی تاثیر مثبتی بر خروجی مهارت گفتاری زبان آموزان دارد. همچنین یافته های تحقیق نشان داد زبان آموزانی که بصورت صریح تحت آموزش فرانشانگرهای گفتمانی رسمی قرار گرفته بودند، توانستند عملکرد بهتری نسبت به زبان آموزانی که آموزش ضمنی دریافت کرند، داشته باشند. این یافته ها می تواند کاربرد آموزشی برای مدرسان زبان خارجی و تهیه کنندگان منابع آموزشی جهت ارتقای مهارت های گفتاری زبان آموزان به همراه داشته باشد. یافته های این تحقیق چشم انداز مهمی در خصوص تاثیر آموزش فرانشانگرهای گفتمانی و افزایش هوشیاری زبان آموزان از طریق آموزش صریح ارائه می دهد تا زبان آموزن بتوانند گفتاری منسجم تر و با همبستگی بیشتری تولید کنند.

واژگان کلیدی: آموزش صریح، آموزش ضمنی، فرانشانگرهای گفتمانی، مهارت گفتاری

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 157

چگونه عبارات احتیاط آمیز به عنوان ابزار بیان شک درگزاره های زبانی بر پیکره انگلیسی زبان آموزان ایرانی تاثیر می گذارد؟

حسین خزایی، پرویز مفتون، پرویز بیرجندی، غفور رضایی گلندوز

چکیده عبارات احتیاط آمیز، به عنوان ابزاری برای بیان شک پیرامون امکان پذیر بودن گزاره های زبانی، در بسیاری از مقاالت تحقیقی مربوط به انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجی در ایران مورد مطالعه قرار گرفته است. با این وجود، استفاده از این عبارات در پیکره زبانی زبان آموزان که معرف زبان انگلیسی آکادمیک فراگیران ایرانی است، نیاز به توجه و تحقیق بیشتری دارد. هدف این تحقیق تعیین میزان استفاده دانشجویان ایرانی رشته های زبان انگلیسی از این گونه عبارات در نوشتار توصیفی آنان بود. بدین منظور، پیکره ایرانی انگلیسی زبان آموزان که شامل 8444 انشای توصیفی و میانگین 463361 کلمه می باشد را به کمک نرم افزار مانو کانک پرو سیمستر مورد تحلیل قرار دادیم. پس از تحلیل نرم افزاری، تمامی عبارات احتیاط آمیز بدست آمده به صورت دستی هم بررسی شد تا اطمینان حاصل گردد نتایج بدست آمده در واقع نقش عبارات احتیاط آمیز را ایفا می کنند. پیکره ای هم از زبان بومی زبانها به عنوان پیکره نظیر به همین نحو مورد بررسی قرار گرفت. این پیکره برگرفته از پیکره BAWE مشتمل بر 44 انشای نوشته شده توسط دانشجویان بریتانیایی رشته زبانشناسی و میانگین 32314 کلمه بود. بررسی ها نشان داد عبارات احتیاط آمیز تنها 4.4 درصد کل فراگفتمان ها را در پیکره ایرانی انگلیسی زبان آموزان )31 مورد در هر یک میلیون کلمه( و 28 درصد از کل فراگفتمان ها را در پیکره برگرفته از پیکره BAWE )8.42 مورد در هر یک میلیون کلمه( به خود اختصاص میدهد. تحلیل های آماری به کمک آزمون نسبت درستنمایی حاکی از تفاوت معنادار بین بسامد استفاده از عبارات احتیاط آمیز در دو پیکره و استفاده کمتر ایرانیان از این عبارات است. این نتایج تاثیر آشنایی کمتر پیشین دانشجویان ایرانی با برخی از عبارات احتیاط آمیز، نقش فرهنگ و زبان اول و نیز بسندگی پایین زبان آموزان ایرانی را نشان میدهد. بکارگیری نتایج این تحقیق در امر آموزش زبان از جمله تدریس مستقیم عبارات آحتیاط آمیز به کمک تکنیک های داده محور و با استفاده از نرم افزارهایی مانند انت کانک و پیکره هایی نظیر BAWE مورد تاکید است.

واژگان گلیدی: یادگیری مستقیم، یادگیری غیرمستقیم، گزاره های زبانی، پیکره گفتاری

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 158

مقایسه اپلیکیشن آموزش واژگان انگلیسی مبتنی بر وب ESLE با اپلیکیشن یادگیری واژگان انگلیسی سنتی دسک تاپ: دیدگاه والدین فراگیران استثنایی

شیما قبادی، محسن شاهرخی، احمد عابدی

چکیده تحقیق حاضر با هدف مقایسه اپلیکیشن آموزش واژگان انگلیسی مبتنی بر وب ESLE با اپلیکیشن یادگیری واژگان انگلیسی سنتی دسک تاپ با تمرکز بر دیدگاه والدین فراگیران استثنایی انجام شده است. برای نیل به این هدف، 1 نفر از والدین دانش آموزان استثنایی به همراه فرزندانشان از بین 63 نفر از استان اصفهان انتخاب شدند. سپس، پرسشنامه های آزاد برای این افراد به منظور جمع آوری بازخوردشان در مورد اپلیکیشن ESLE و دیدگاه هایشان در مورد یادگیری با موبایل ارسال شد. نتایج حاکی از آن بود که اپلیکیشن ESLE فرصت های جذابی را برای محیط های یادگیری شخصی و مبتنی بر فراگیر با دستیابی آزاد به مواد یادگیری در هر زمان و هر مکان ایجاد می کند. همچنین، مشخص گردید رویکرد های جدید و لذت بخش یادگیری دارای پتانسیل باالیی برای افزایش انگیزه یادگیری و تشویق عادات یادگیری می باشند. این یافته ها تحقیقات بیشتری را در زمینه ی حیطه جدید MALL جهت ارائه مسیرهای نوین یادگیری سودمند زبان انگلیسی ایجاب می کند. در واقع، یافته های این تحقیق برای معلمان، دانش آموزان استثنایی، والدین و تولید گنندگان اپلیکیشن نوید بخش می باشد.

واژگان کلیدی : اپلیکیشن ESLE، دانش آموزان استثنایی، یادگیری لغات انگلیسی

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 159

فهرست مطالب روش تدریس مبتنی بر تکلیف در کالس های تدریس نوشتار زبان دوم: دیدگاه های مدارس متوسطه چین ماینر چن

بررسی کیفی دیدگاه فراگیران زبان انگلیسی در رابطه با روش یادگیری وارونه شهریار جلیلی، حمیدرضا خلجی، حسین احمدی

تاثیر بحث اکتشافی-جمعی در برابر بحث تقابلی در دوره تربیت مترجم بر وابستگی شناختی: تمرکز بر دانشجویان سطح متوسط سمانه یزدانی، حسین حیدری تبریزی، هعزیز چاالک

بررسی تأثیر گسترده خوانی چندرسانه ای اینترنتی و ابزار محور بر ارتقا مهارت های زبانی هانی منسوجی، احمد محسنی، علیرضا عامری

بررسی چالش های پیش روی دانشجویان ایرانی رشته زبان انگلیسی در ترجمه انگلیسی به فارسی نارسیس معمار ضیا، رحمان صحراگرد، سید آیت اهلل رزمجو، شهرام افراز

چگونه آموزش صریح و ضمنی فرانشانگرهای گفتمانی رسمی بر مهارت گفتاری زبان آموزان تأثیر می گذارد ؟ محمد ابراهیم مقدسی، محمد بوالی، فاطمه بهجت

چگونه عبارات احتیاط آمیز به عنوان ابزار بیان شک درگزاره های زبانی بر پیکره انگلیسی زبان آموزان ایرانی تاثیر می گذارد؟ حسین خزایی، پرویز مفتون، پرویز بیرجندی، غفور رضایی گلندوز

مقایسه اپلیکیشن آموزش واژگان انگلیسی مبتنی بر وب ESLE با اپلیکیشن یادگیری واژگان انگلیسی سنتی دسک تاپ: دیدگاه والدین فراگیران استثنایی شیما قبادی، محسن شاهرخی، احمد عابدی

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 161

مشاورین علمی این شماره : دکتر احمدی، علیرضا، دانشگاه شیراز، شیراز، ایران

دکتر بهارلویی، رویا، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد نجف آباد

دکتر تاکی، سعید، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد شهرضا

دکتر چاالک، عزیزه، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد اصفهان

دکتر حیدری تبریزی، حسین، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد اصفهان

دکتر حیدری دارانی، لعیا، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد فالورجان

دکتر حیدری شهرضا، محمد علی، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد شهرضا

دکتر رضوانی، احسان، دانشگاه هنر، اصفهان، ایران

دکتر روحانی، علی، دانشگاه شهرکرد، شهرکرد، ایران

دکتر شفیعی، سجاد، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد شهرکرد

دکتر صالحی، هادی، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد نجف آباد

دکترطالبی نژاد، محمد رضا، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد شهرضا

دکتر طباطبایی، امید، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد نجف آباد

دکتر عامری گلستان، احمد، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد مجلسی

دکتر مرعشی، حمید، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، تهران مرکز، تهران، ایران

دکتر نزاکت الحسینی، مرضیه، دانشگاه علوم پژشکی، اصفهان، ایران

دکتر وحید دستجردی، حسین، دانشگاه اصفهان، اصفهان، ایران

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020 162

مجله بین المللی آموزش و پژوهش زبان

صاحب امتیاز: دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد نجف آباد مدیر مسئول: دکتر سید امید طباطبایی )دانشیار( سردبیر : دکتر حسین وحید دستجردی )دانشیار( مدیر اجرایی: دکتر محمد رضا طالبی نژاد )دانشیار( اعضای هیئت تحریریه

دکتر زهره اسالمی راسخ، استاد گروه آموزش، یادگیری و فرهنگ، دانشگاه M&A تگزاس دکتر لین برل باو، استاد گروه آموزش، یادگیری و فرهنگ، دانشگاه M&A تگزاس دکتر منصور توکلی، استاد گروه انگلیسی، دانشگاه اصفهان دکتر عبدالمجید حیاتی، استاد گروه انگلیسی، دانشگاه شهید چمران اهواز دکتر محمد رضا طالبی نژاد، دانشیار گروه انگلیسی، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد شهرضا دکتر سید امید طباطبایی، دانشیار گروه انگلیسی، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد نجف آباد دکتر پاتریسیا الراک، استاد آموزش و پرورش و توسعه انسانی، دانشگاه M&A تگزاس دکتر حمید مرعشی، دانشیار گروه انگلیسی، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، تهران مرکز دکتر حسین وحید دستجردی، دانشیار گروه انگلیسی، دانشگاه اصفهان

مجله بین المللی آموزش و پژوهش زبان جلد هشتم، شماره 33، زمستان 2020 شماره مجوز دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی:02/0200525 شاپا:5555-5010

ناشر: انتشارات دانشگاه ازاد اسالمی،واحد نجف آباد مدیر تولید: مصطفی صالحی سده ویراستار فارسی و التین: شیما قبادی، مدرس دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی، واحد شهرضا مسئول دفتر مجالت: لیلی رضایی طراح روی جلد: محسن قاسمی نشانی: نجف آباد، دانشگاه آزاد اسالمی واحد نجف آباد، دانشکده علوم انسانی، دفترمجله تلفن:25065515226و25065510002 فکس:25065510002 ایمیل :[email protected] وب سایت: http://jfl.iaun.ac.ir مقاالت نشانگر آرا نویسندگان است.

این مجله دارای مجوز انتشارشماره 0200525/02مورخ 52مرداد0512 از معاونت پژوهشی دانشگاه آزاد می باشد. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research – Volume 8, Issue 33, Winter 2020