Ehsan Abbaspour; Mahmood Reza Atai; Parviz Maftoon
Abstract
The prevalence of Sociocultural Theory (SCT) as a major theory in SLA has spurred a considerable number of studies to investigate the various aspect of L2 acquisition through the lens of this theoretical framework. The present study aimed at investigating the impact of Scaffolded Written Corrective Feedback ...
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The prevalence of Sociocultural Theory (SCT) as a major theory in SLA has spurred a considerable number of studies to investigate the various aspect of L2 acquisition through the lens of this theoretical framework. The present study aimed at investigating the impact of Scaffolded Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) on Iranian EFL learners’ writing performance in terms of fluency, accuracy, grammatical complexity, and lexical complexity. Additionally, the study sought to inquire about the Iranian EFL learners’ attitudes toward Scaffolded WCF through a series of post-interviews and a questionnaire. For this purpose, 25 students who had enrolled in a university-level writing course were conveniently sampled after a homogeneity test for the study. The pedagogical treatment the participants received throughout the study was Scaffolded WCF (i.e. a ZPD-based teacher/peer corrective feedback on their writing performance). The data obtained from the pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest were analyzed using a series of ANOVA and Friedman’s tests. The findings indicated that Scaffolded WCF statistically significantly contributed to the participants’ writing performance regarding grammatical complexity, fluency, accuracy, and lexical complexity. The results obtained from the attitude questionnaire and the post-interviews also revealed that the participants held a positive attitude toward the adopted approach. The findings provide promising implications for the adoption of this approach in large classes typical of Iranian university-level writing courses.
Karim Shabani; Sekineh Malekdar
Volume 3, Issue 1 , February 2016, , Pages 65-49
Abstract
This study investigated the extent to which peer scaffolding could contribute to the listening comprehension on Iranian EFL learners with elementary level of language proficiency. To fulfill this objective, 33 institute students were selected through Key English Test (KET) and assigned to two groups ...
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This study investigated the extent to which peer scaffolding could contribute to the listening comprehension on Iranian EFL learners with elementary level of language proficiency. To fulfill this objective, 33 institute students were selected through Key English Test (KET) and assigned to two groups in experimental (scaffolding group) and control (non-scaffolding group). After the participants’ initial level of listening comprehension was measured by a pre-test, the interactive strategies of scaffolding were given to the experimental group in 10 sessions and the two groups’ achievement was measured by a post-test and a delayed post-test. The results of T-test indicated that collaborative scaffolding strategies were effective in enhancing EFL learners’ listening comprehension and the experimental group outperformed the control group. Also, the result of the qualitative data analyzes showed the use of peer scaffolding strategies in the experimental group and employment of L1 and background knowledge in the task performance. The frequency analyses of the detected strategies revealed a peer –peer scaffolding framework. On implication side, this study could prescribe different individual learning plans for learners with different learning needs.
