Search

Using concordancers in English classes is demanding, time-consuming, and challenging to both teachers and learners. On the other hand, research points to the effectiveness of data-driven learning (DDL) in improving second/foreign language learning. The present study proposed a new task type, that is, DDL focus on form (FonF) tasks, as a combination of DDL and FonF approaches, and investigated if using such tasks improves students' comprehension of English academic lectures. Drawing on a quasi-experimental validating quantitative data triangulation model, 124 intermediate English learners were pretested, randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, exposed to the treatment and control treatment, and post-tested on immediate and delayed academic English lecture comprehension tests. The treatment required working with 12 DDL FonF tasks, specifically proposed for the present study, during 12 45-min sessions. On the other hand, the control treatment involved working with 12 FonF tasks during 12 45-min sessions. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the study was done remotely and the tasks were sent through WhatsApp in Word and PDF formats. As part of the validating quantitative data triangulation model, semi-structured interviews were held with the learners in the experimental group to shed light on the treatment. The results of the study suggested that using DDL FonF tasks results in both temporary and durable improvement in the learners' comprehension of English academic lectures. The study concludes that integrating DDL and FonF approaches to second/foreign language learning in the form of tasks improves academic English lecture comprehension through increase in the learner's noticing, metalinguistic awareness, discovery learning, and agency.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate if following data-driven learning (DDL) to raise the learners' awareness of discourse organizers through concordancing improves their comprehension of English academic lectures. To address this issue, the current study adopted a quasi-experimental (comparison group, pretest-posttest) design. 96 English-major university students, divided into comparison and intervention groups, took part in the study. Next, the students' awareness of importance markers, as discourse organizers, in authentic English academic lectures was raised. This involved nine one-hour sessions of explicit instruction on such expressions for the students in the comparison group. On the other hand, raising the intervention group students' awareness of such expressions involved working with a concordancer as a DDL approach with the help of a teacher. Drawing on an English academic lecture comprehension test, a self-assessment survey, and a free-response survey, the findings of the study showed that following DDL to raise the learners' awareness of discourse organizers through concordancing with the help of the teacher improves their comprehension of authentic English academic lectures significantly, but not from the learners' perspective. The study has pedagogical implications for language teaching, learning, and materials development.

A great wealth of investigation has inspected the psycho-emotional aspects of second/foreign language (L2) learning in the past decades. It has been contended that L2 students need capacities to self-regulate and direct their language-learning journey. To do so, they require different strategies to get involved in their own learning process. A group of such crucial strategies concerns self-regulated learning (SRL), which has been increasingly reported to influence classroom learning and engagement. However, the way SRL strategies correlate and predict task engagement in L2 contexts has remained under-explored. To fill this gap, this study administered two online questionnaires to a sample of 384 English learners to disclose the relationship and predictive power of different components of SRL and task engagement. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) pointed to positive associations between behavioral engagement and meta-cognitive and meta-affective strategies; emotional engagement and meta-affective strategies; cognitive engagement and meta-cognitive and cognitive strategies; agentic engagement and meta-affective strategies; and social engagement and sociocultural-interactive and meta-sociocultural-interactive strategies. Practical implications for L2 teachers and suggestions for further research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the explanatory sequential mixed‐methods design, the present study aims to investigate the relationship, if any, between self‐regulated learning (SRL) strategy use and task engagement. The participants of the study were 361 Iranian EFL students majoring in English language teaching or English language and literature for the B.A. degree, with a B1 English language proficiency level, based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Questionnaire surveys, narrative frames, and semi‐structured interviews were used to collect the data remotely during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The results of quantitative data analysis showed that SRL strategy use is a significant predictor of task engagement. The results of the qualitative analysis also pointed to the importance of SRL strategies, including (meta)cognitive, (meta)affective, (meta)motivational, and (meta)social strategies, to maintain task engagement. The results of the study may be used to inform English language teachers, learners, materials developers, and measurement instrument developers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate and develop a cost-effective and superhydrophobic ceramic membrane for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) applications. Two types of mullite-based composite membranes were prepared via extrusion and sintering techniques. To create a small and narrow pore diameter distribution on the membrane surface, the dip-coating technique with 1 µm alumina was employed. The hexadecyltrimethoxysilane eco-friendly grafting agent was adopted to modify low-cost multilayer mullite-based composite membranes, transforming them from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic. The prepared membranes were characterized via field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), liquid entire pressure (LEP), contact angle, atomic force microscopy (AFM), porosity, and membrane permeability. The results of the prepared membranes validate the appropriateness of the material for membrane distillation applications. The optimized membrane, with a contact angle of 160° and LEP = 1.5 bar, was tested under DCMD using a 3.5 wt.% sodium chloride (NaCl) synthetic solution and Persian Gulf seawater as a feed. Based on the acquired results, an average permeate flux of 3.15 kg/(m2·h) and salt rejection (R%) of 99.62% were found for the 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution. Moreover, seawater desalination showed an average permeate flux of 2.37 kg/(m2·h) and salt rejection of 99.81% for a 20-h test without any pore wetting. Membrane distillation with a hydrophobic membrane decreased the turbidity of seawater by 93.13%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research shows that discourse organizers facilitate the students' comprehension of lectures. Importance markers are considered a crucial part of discourse organization. It is not clear, however, whether understanding of importance markers boosts the students' understanding of lectures. Besides, it is not clear whether using corpora and concordancers in the classroom aids their comprehension. To this end, a total of 206 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students (108 males and 98 females, aged from 18 to 23), studying medicine, humanities, engineering, and basic sciences at three major universities in Iran, whose command of English was pretested on a piloted test of Preliminary English Test (PET), were selected for participation in the study. They were then equally divided into a control and experimental group. Learners in the control group attended 15 one-hour general English training sessions (five weeks, three sessions a week) without specific focus on identifying organizational features of lectures, while students in the experimental group attended 15 one-hour sessions (five weeks, three sessions a week) of instruction on importance marking in English academic lectures, using the British Academic Spoken English corpus (BASE) with a concordancer, namely Sketch Engine. Presentation and practice tasks which were developed based on authentic concordance lines which were derived from the BASE corpus were used for the experimental group. Analysis of the scores of participants on a comprehension test of important points of English academic lectures showed that concordancer-based instruction of importance markers enhances EFL learners' identification and comprehension of important points in English academic lectures., Author(s): Javad Zare [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.470229.a, Kosar University of Bojnord, , Bojnord, Iran Introduction Academic speech plays a key role in the classroom context (Carrier et al. 1988) [...]

This study was an attempt to investigate the functions of personal metadiscursive expressions found in academic monologues and dialogues. The analysis was based on verbal data of 16 academic lectures and discussions. Based on Ädel's (2010) taxonomy of the subtypes and discourse functions of metadiscourse, the two data sets were compared in terms of the use of personal metadiscourse functions. The results show that "references to the audience" metadiscourse was much more prevalent in dialogic speech than in monologic lectures; "metatext" was more frequent in monologues than in dialogues. The findings also suggest that academic lecturers made more frequent use of "discourse organization" metadiscourse expressions in their presentations, because of the presence of a discourse whose topic and phorics management is important. On the other hand, interlocutors used more "audience interaction" metadiscourse expressions in dialogues due to the presence of a direct audience whose active understanding and contribution is vital.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate if following data-driven learning (DDL) to raise the learners' awareness of discourse organizers through concordancing improves their comprehension of English academic lectures. To address this issue, the current study adopted a quasi-experimental (comparison group, pretest-posttest) design. 96 English-major university students, divided into comparison and intervention groups, took part in the study. Next, the students' awareness of importance markers, as discourse organizers, in authentic English academic lectures was raised. This involved nine one-hour sessions of explicit instruction on such expressions for the students in the comparison group. On the other hand, raising the intervention group students' awareness of such expressions involved working with a concordancer as a DDL approach with the help of a teacher. Drawing on an English academic lecture comprehension test, a self-assessment survey, and a free-response survey, the findings of the study showed that following DDL to raise the learners' awareness of discourse organizers through concordancing with the help of the teacher improves their comprehension of authentic English academic lectures significantly, but not from the learners' perspective. The study has pedagogical implications for language teaching, learning, and materials development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using concordancers in English classes is demanding, time-consuming, and challenging to both teachers and learners. On the other hand, research points to the effectiveness of data-driven learning (DDL) in improving second/foreign language learning. The present study proposed a new task type, that is, DDL focus on form (FonF) tasks, as a combination of DDL and FonF approaches, and investigated if using such tasks improves students' comprehension of English academic lectures. Drawing on a quasi-experimental validating quantitative data triangulation model, 124 intermediate English learners were pretested, randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, exposed to the treatment and control treatment, and post-tested on immediate and delayed academic English lecture comprehension tests. The treatment required working with 12 DDL FonF tasks, specifically proposed for the present study, during 12 45-min sessions. On the other hand, the control treatment involved working with 12 FonF tasks during 12 45-min sessions. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the study was done remotely and the tasks were sent through WhatsApp in Word and PDF formats. As part of the validating quantitative data triangulation model, semi-structured interviews were held with the learners in the experimental group to shed light on the treatment. The results of the study suggested that using DDL FonF tasks results in both temporary and durable improvement in the learners' comprehension of English academic lectures. The study concludes that integrating DDL and FonF approaches to second/foreign language learning in the form of tasks improves academic English lecture comprehension through increase in the learner's noticing, metalinguistic awareness, discovery learning, and agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to examine whether and the extent to which children’s self-concept of ability is predicted by their gender, parental and teacher’s beliefs. Next, this study aimed to investigate whether and the extent to which children’s dictation performance in their native language is predicted by their gender, parental and teacher’s beliefs, and self-concept of ability. Finally, the study investigated whether and to what extent children’s reading performance in their native language is predicted by their gender, parental and teacher’s beliefs, and self-concept of ability. A total of 89 Iranian Persian-speaking elementary school fourth-graders, along with their parents and teachers, took part in the study. Five instruments were used in the study: two tests measuring the students’ reading and dictation levels in their native language, one questionnaire assessing the children’s reading and dictation-related self-concept of ability, and two questionnaires assessing the teachers’ and parents’ beliefs regarding reading and dictation level of children. Descriptive statistics, correlation, and multiple regression were run to analyze the data. The findings indicate that children’s self-concept of ability is affected by parental and teacher’s beliefs. Moreover, the results showed that children’s dictation performance is affected by their gender, self-concept of ability, parental and teacher’s beliefs. Finally, the study showed that children’s reading performance is affected by their gender, parental and teacher’s beliefs. Overall, the findings of the present study highlight the importance of children’s self-concept of ability and teachers and parents’ awareness of how their beliefs benefit students’ attainment and development of self-concept of ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent introduction of positive psychology (PP) to second language acquisition (SLA) has led to increased interest in researching the relationship between language learning and various positive emotions. Despite this, the concept of learner altruistic teaching has been relatively understudied, compared to other PP aspects. In particular, studies on learner altruistic teaching and English reading comprehension skill have been notably absent. To address this gap, this intervention study aimed to investigate whether learners’ altruistic teaching had a significant effect on their English reading comprehension skill. The study used a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design with a comparison group pretest–posttest experimental design. It involved 116 Iranian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The study included three internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL iBT) reading sections, reflective frames, and semi-structured interviews. The results of independent-samples t-tests and repeated-measures ANOVAs suggested that altruistic teaching had an instructional effect on learners’ English reading comprehension skill. Additionally, the results of the qualitative data pointed to several themes, including enjoyment, responsibility for one another, intimacy, engagement, motivation, success, and self-appreciation in learners. Altogether, the study suggested that learners’ altruistic teaching can significantly enhance their English reading comprehension skill by creating a sense of enjoyment, responsibility, intimacy, engagement, motivation, success, and self-appreciation among learners. The article concludes by discussing the theoretical and pedagogical implications of the study. Finally, it offers suggestions for further research and highlights limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated rhetorical functions and their associated linguistic realizations in English review article abstracts. The analysis was based on a corpus of 100 English review article abstracts from linguistics and applied linguistics disciplines and followed a corpus-driven discourse analytic top-down approach. MAXQDA and WordSmith were used to code the moves and analyze their associated sub-corpora, respectively. The results of calculating range and frequency distributions showed that English conceptual review article abstracts use a rhetorical structure, different from that of research paper abstracts. This rhetorical organization is realized through a different set of moves, namely ) establishing the territory or area of study, 2) identifying the problem, 3) introducing the present research, 4) organizing the paper, and 5) concluding or reflecting. Moreover, each move was realized through a distinct set of sub-moves. In terms of range, the moves dealing with purpose and structure were the most widely present moves; in terms of frequency distribution, the move dealing with structure was the most frequent. Furthermore, the highly frequent use of plural self-mentions indicates that in review article abstracts, the emphasis is on research as a group activity inclusive of the researcher(s) and objects of study. In addition, the presence of ‘establishing the territory’, together with ‘identifying the problem’ can be seen as an attempt to sell the research. Finally, the prevalent use of the five moves showed that most review article abstracts are indicative-informative in function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]