Search

This article investigates the effects of stroke on students' L2-grit levels in an EFL context in Northern Iraq. A model was created to find how various components such as verbal, non-verbal, valuing, and activities that determine stroke levels affect students' grit. This study adopted the L2- Grit scale and a language domain-specific grit scale to measure the learners' L2-grit levels. Also, the Students' Stroke Scale (SSS) was used to measure the participants' stroke levels. The study's sample consisted of 199 participants from various academic levels, undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate at several Northern Iraq universities. The results reveal a positive and statistically significant association between the score on the L2-Grit scale and the score on the Stroke scale; more specifically, as the scores on the L2-grit scale rise, so do the scores on the Stroke scale. The mean of low stroke is lower than the means of medium stroke and high stroke indicating that as people's stroke levels grow, so does their L2-grit status. The regression coefficients estimated within the framework of the regression model structured with the logit, the link function, are the same in each category of the dependent variable, satisfying the parallel curves assumption. The overall results show that positive stroke helps learners' L2-grit levels to arise and lead to a better learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the developments of the internet and digital technology, teachers can have better opportunities to apply technology to improve learning and teaching a second or foreign language. When opting for any kind of technology, educational authorities should consider different aspects of employing technological tools in the process of learning and teaching. This study set out to explore the attitudes of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers toward the educational use of Skype and its integration into the EFL classroom. The participants were five university professors who had experienced Skype-based instruction at Mustansiriya University in Iraq. A qualitative methodology, involving semi-structured interviews, was adopted for data collection. The findings indicated that there was a general positive tendency towards Skype-based instruction in higher education. Moreover, the results showed that teachers' beliefs, intentions, and perspectives on technology are significant factors which can determine how technology is integrated into the classroom. The teachers who had traditional views of language teaching and learning preferred blended instruction (in favor of more traditional methods). Those who held more constructivist conceptions of teaching and learning desired dominant technology-based EFL classrooms. The findings of this study may shed some light on how educational authorities can facilitate the integration of social media into EFL contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]