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Incidental vocabulary learning involves unintentional, unconscious learning of a new lexical item while listening to a speech or reading a passage. Corrective feedback can influence language learning of EFL learners in general, and their incidental vocabulary learning in particular. If teachers and practitioners of language teaching know which types of feedback can be more effective, they may be more prone to use them in their classes. The purpose of the present study was to illustrate if age was a determining factor in the effectiveness of giving “repetition” feedback on new lexical items to L2 learners. The participants of the study were thirty students of a language institute in Shiraz, Iran who were provided with a collection of new vocabulary items. As for the instrument of the study, the first two lessons of an IELTS test which contained 20 lessons were involved. Each incorporated 20 multiple choice questions to be done in 20 minutes. A list of vocabulary items were selected from the aforementioned online vocabulary test to be included in a pre-test that participants took. Then half of the most unknown items were identified to be used in the post-test. The teacher was asked to provide repetition type of corrective feedback on students’ errors when teaching those items. The statistical procedures included one-way ANOVA and the relevant data were analyzed using SPSS version 22. The results of the study showed that the background variable of age did not influence incidental lexical learning.

Learning a second language is of paramount importance as it equips one with the ability to communicate with people of other cultures. There are some factors that affect the success of learning a new language. The most omnipresent of all are students‟ attitudes and motivation. L2 learners‟ motivation helps them move forward and make progress and is deemed to be the key to successful language learning. Motivation for learning a language can have a variety of natures, the most important of which being „instrumental‟ and „integrative‟. Some students strive to learn a language for practical purposes such as entering college or meeting some requirements (i.e. instrumental) whereas others have an affinity for a particular language or for identifying with its native speakers (integrative). This study encompassed Iranian postgraduate students who were studying in Universiti Kebangsaan, Malaysia (UKM), doing either their master‟s or PhD in a variety of majors. The objective was to shed light on their attitudes towards learning English, the second language studied there, and the comparative nature of their motivation, in terms of being instrumentally or integratively oriented. Using a number of instruments, it came to light that those students had highly positive attitudes towards learning English. Moreover, results showed that they had high levels of both integrative and instrumental motivations although the instrumental motivation outweighed the other type. Stated differently, the majority of students were interested in learning English mainly to get a better job or to pursue their studies at a higher degree.

The demanding task of language learning necessitates great efforts on the part of the learners. In the process of learning, some learners are overawed by language anxiety via setting some unreasonable standards. Different factors influence a learner’s anxiety one of which is educational level of the learner. In this respect, this study sought to investigate the effects of educational level on learner anxiety. To this end, both learner’s educational qualifications and parents’ qualification were considered and their influences were measured on the learner anxiety. 150 students were involved who attended some language institutes in Shiraz, Iran. The participants were asked to fill in the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety questionnaire. The statistical analysis applied in this study was Multivariate of Analysis (MANOVA) and the pertinent data were analyzed using SPSS version 22. It came to light that participants with different levels of education and different mother’s educational levels did not differ in their anxiety level. In other words, neither learner education nor his or her parents’ education had any significant effects on the learner anxiety. Delving into factors which may hamper successful language learning is not only worthwhile but also promising and learner anxiety is one of them.

Digital learners, who are now entering schools and universities, have learning expectations, styles, and needs different from past students. Today’s Gen-Z communicates in a language that older generation may not fully understand; the aforementioned learners have a vernacular of their own. It’s an ever-evolving language of interpretation and expression, an interactive approach to learning, creating and responding to information through a complex montage of images, sound, and communication. Students are pushing learning into a new dimension. It’s a mistake to continue to try to teach these learners in time-worn ways. Their choices of communication need to be diversified to encompass visual interpretations of texts and historical figures. Vast challenges have arisen and the impact of technology on the socio-economic landscape is becoming more significant. Gen-Z takes advantage of the enormous resources of the Web, transforming what they find there by using digital technologies to create something new and expressive. More advanced and specialized courses could also be converted, although some level of face-to-face contact is necessary to master such material. Unless teachers are trained to expect and accept content gathered through social networks with emphasis on teaching students how to check validity and reliability of the web, the full power of the digital natives cannot be released or expanded. Educators have to adjust their teaching styles to accommodate a new generation of Gen-Z. This paper, which is a predominantly theoretical one, maintains that creative thinking and a firm commitment are needed to move teaching and learning into the digital age.

In order to meet the demands of the changing world, students should become endowed with the ability to learn perpetually and regard learning as a life-long enterprise. This study investigated those learners belief which showed learners’ predispositions toward autonomy and some social factors such as gender, academic achievement, marital status and age were taken into consideration. All BA and MA students majoring in English Literature at the department of Foreign Languages of Shiraz University of Iran were involved. The data were collected through a questionnaire the items of which were obtained from two questionnaires by Cotterall (1995) and Cotterall (1999) which were incorporated into a five-point Likert-type rating scale. Factor analysis of responses of students revealed the existence of five underlying factors for learner autonomy which were learner independence, dependence on the teacher, learner confidence, attitudes towards language learning and self-assessment. Based on t-test for independent samples and Analysis of Variance it came to light that age and gender did not have impact on students’ readiness for autonomy while martial statues influenced students’ self-assessment. Moreover, good academic achievement positively influenced their predispositions towards autonomous language learning.