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.
Mehrshad Ahmadian; Parviz Maftoon; Parviz Birjandi
Abstract
From the very outset, postmethod pedagogy has shaken the long-held concept of language teaching and has recognized the importance of contextualized language teaching in the field of TESOL. Furthermore, and to respond to contemporary English language teaching requirements, language teacher education programs ...
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From the very outset, postmethod pedagogy has shaken the long-held concept of language teaching and has recognized the importance of contextualized language teaching in the field of TESOL. Furthermore, and to respond to contemporary English language teaching requirements, language teacher education programs have also tried to furnish postmethod language teachers with the much-needed development to have their own contextualized praxis. By the same token, the current study aimed to find out whether involving language teachers in writing diaries of self-practice and peer practice and then discussing their findings with circle members in regular gatherings would nurture the required self-growth and self-development in language teachers and help them with (the underlying components of ) reflective teaching. To do so, the present research employed a mixed method design whose quantitative part enjoyed a pre-experimental design consisting of three phases--a pretest, an educational treatment phase, and a posttest – and for its qualitative part the current researchers asked the participating language teachers to keep diaries of both self-practice and peer practice. The results of the study gained through both quantitative and qualitative analyses bore witness to the significant changes in the reflectiveness of language teachers who took part in these collaborative language teachers' diary circles.
Saeedeh Erfanrad; Ali Mohammad Fazilatfar; Parviz Maftoon
Abstract
Although there is a myriad of theoretical and pedagogical research studies into L2 grammar, the instruction in this area remains traditional and there have been calls for more usage-based approaches that can fill the gap between theory and practice. Accordingly, this quasi-experimental compared the effects ...
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Although there is a myriad of theoretical and pedagogical research studies into L2 grammar, the instruction in this area remains traditional and there have been calls for more usage-based approaches that can fill the gap between theory and practice. Accordingly, this quasi-experimental compared the effects of two pedagogical frameworks, namely Systemic-Theoretical Instruction (STI), derived from Vygotsky’s ideas and proposed by Gal’perin and discovery learning (DL), derived from Piaget’s ideas mainly proposed by Bruner, on learning English tense-aspect system. To this end, 71 Iranian low-intermediate EFL learners, aged 12 to 19, were instructed in three groups through STI, DL (experimental) and traditional method (comparison). They took a pretest, a posttest and a delayed posttest consisting of grammar tests checking their receptive and productive grammar knowledge. Results of one‐way repeated‐measures analyses of ANOVA revealed that all groups improved significantly in both the entire test and its subcomponents in the immediate posttest, suggesting that the three kinds of form-focused intervention were efficient in creating immediate progress. However, significant differences were identified among the groups in the delayed posttest accounting for the inadequacy of traditional method of instruction in the long run, and for the superiority of STI over DL. These findings can have significant implications for materials developers and teacher education programs in considering the tenets of more innovative approaches such as STI through systematic representations of target language features by taking advantage of materialized tools and verbalization in teaching.
