Hani Mansooji; Ahmad Mohseni; Alireza Ameri
Abstract
A significant proportion of academic exercise today, even for those who do not speak English as a first language, has to do with the English Internet and the texts within. Accordingly, the present study focused on examining the effects of extensive multimedia-based English Internet reading on enhancing ...
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A significant proportion of academic exercise today, even for those who do not speak English as a first language, has to do with the English Internet and the texts within. Accordingly, the present study focused on examining the effects of extensive multimedia-based English Internet reading on enhancing motivation in EFL learners’ English reading. Specifically, the quasi-experimental pretest-post-test design was used to compare the performance of three groups of Iranian university EFL students (i.e., one control and two experimental groups) in terms of their degrees of motivation, prior to and following university-level general English courses which included a multimedia-based Internet extensive reading program on the one hand, and a linear text extensive reading program on the other. Analysis of the results revealed that the extensive reading of both linear and multimedia Internet texts enhanced Iranian EFL readers' reading motivation, an enhancement which was not observed in the motivation of the participants in the control group who did not experience any such program. However, there was no statistically significant difference observed in the amount of motivation improvement between the linear text and the multimedia Internet groups. Teachers may be the most beneficiaries of the present study as they can gain insights into how far they should enter the realm of integrating Internet-based reading programs into general English courses.
Monir Ghasemi Mighani; Massood Yazdanimoghaddam; Ahmad Mohseni
Abstract
Developing intercultural communicative competence in EFL learners is one of the most recent aspects of language competency that aims at equipping learners with appropriate attitudes and skills to be able to interact more effectively in culturally-diverse settings. The current study was an attempt to ...
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Developing intercultural communicative competence in EFL learners is one of the most recent aspects of language competency that aims at equipping learners with appropriate attitudes and skills to be able to interact more effectively in culturally-diverse settings. The current study was an attempt to explore the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) of a group of English majors and investigate what aspects of ICC explicit teaching could improve.Thus, an intercultural course was designed and implemented through an academic semester. A questionnaire of intercultural communicative competence was administered before and at the end of the semester to find out any possible significant change in the ICC level of the participants. The study also explored if there was any correlation between language proficiency of the participants and their level of ICC. The results of the study indicated that the overall ICC level of the learners increased significantly through the intervention of the intercultural course with the most significant rise in behavioral, cognitive and affective dimensions of the construct respectively. The results showed that there was not any significant correlation between language proficiency and the overall level of intercultural communicative competence; however, regarding the components of ICC some differences were found across two groups. The results of the study have implications in teacher education programs, teaching methodology, curriculum and materials development and the assessment of the ICC construct.
Fatemeh Taghipour; Ahmad Mohseni; Hossein Rahmanpanah; Abdollah Baradaran
Abstract
Since English for Specific Purposes (ESP) programs have been one significant component of university and vocational schools, being informed of academic and professional language needs of the learners seems incredibly vital. This study aimed at exploring the pre-service flight attendants’ English ...
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Since English for Specific Purposes (ESP) programs have been one significant component of university and vocational schools, being informed of academic and professional language needs of the learners seems incredibly vital. This study aimed at exploring the pre-service flight attendants’ English language needs from their own perspectives along with their teachers’ at an aviation school. In order to accomplish this purpose, the data was collected from two different sources, including a needs analysis questionnaire in addition to semi-structured interviews with 120 learners and 20 English teachers. Results of the data analysis revealed that both learners and teachers indicated Communicative skills, Speaking, and Listening skill among the first most important skills/sub-skills in learning English; furthermore, poor Speaking and Listening Comprehension skills were reported as the learners’ weaknesses by both groups of participants. The obtained data also declared that both groups considered Understanding and Making Conversations, as well as Writing for Practical Purposes among the most concentrated aspect of the main language skills. Additionally, there were not any significant differences between the importance of English skills among learners and teachers, indicating that they perceived English skills and sub-skills quite similarly. The findings could be a great bonus to material developers as well as teachers instructing to-be cabin crew members.
