Jels 4

Journal of English Language Studies
Volume 1, Number 4, Summer 2010
English Department
Faculty of Foreign Languages
Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch
Vol. 1, No. 4, Summer 2010
Director
Mona Khabiri Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch,
Iran
Editor-in-Chief
Parviz Birjandi Professor, Alameh Tabatabayi University, Iran
Executive Manager
Hamid Marashi Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University Central Tehran
Branch, Iran
Editorial Board (in alphabetic order)
Ramin Akbari Assistant Professor, Tarbiat Modares University, Iran

Abdollah Baradaran Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University Central Tehran
Branch, Iran
Reza Didari Assistant Professor, Shahid Beheshti University, Iran
Mansoor Fahim Associate Professor, Alameh Tabatabayi University, Iran
Farzaneh Farahzad Associate Professor, Alameh Tabatabayi University, Iran
Ravinder Gargesh Professor, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea
Farid Ghaemi Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University Karaj Branch, Iran
Carol Griffiths Assistant Professor, Yeditepe University, Turkey
Adrian Holliday Professor, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK
Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz Professor, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus
Soo-Im Lee Professor, Ryukoku University, Japan
Parviz Maftoon Associate Professor, Iran University of Science and Technology,
Iran
Joo-Kyung Park Professor, Honam University, South Korea
Yadollah Samareh Professor, University of Tehran, Iran
Nasim Shangarffam Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University Central Tehran
Branch, Iran
Published by the Research Deputy of Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch
Address
English Department
Faculty of Foreign Languages
Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch
Simayeh Iran Street
Shahrakeh Ghods
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IRAN
Tel: +98 21 88370650, Fax: +98 21 88372692, E-mail: jels@iauctb.ac.ir
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JELS is a refereed journal which publishes
original empirical research studies on a wide
range of issues related to applied linguistics
including the following:
English Language Teaching, Learning,
and Management
Teacher Development and Education
Language Testing, Assessment, and
Evaluation
English for Specific Purposes (ESP)
English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
Global Language Issues
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Examples of references (note the use of
punctuation marks within references):
Ard, J. (1983, March). Towards an applied
phonology. Paper presented at the
Conference on the Uses of Phonology,
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
Baker, F. M., & Lightfoot, O. B. (1993).
Psychiatric care of ethnic elders. In A. C.
Gaw (Ed.), Culture, ethnicity, and mental
illness (pp. 517-552). Washington, DC:
American Psychiatric Press.
Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language
learning and teaching (4th ed.). New York:
Addison Wesley Longman.
Ellis, R. (1985). Understanding second

language acquisition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Feyten, C. M. (1978). The power of listening
ability: An overlooked dimension in language
acquisition. Modern Language Journal,
75(2), 169-183.
Plann, S. (1976). The Spanish immersion
program: Towards native-like proficiency or
a classroom dialect? Unpublished masters
thesis, University of California, Los Angles.
Schwartz, B. (2002). Translation in a confined
space: Film subtitling. Retrieved October 12,
2006, from www.accurapid.com/journal/22
subtitles.htm
Wenden, A. (1987). Conceptual background
and utility. In A. Wenden & J. Rubin (Eds.),
Learner strategies in language learning (pp.
3-14). Cambridge: Prentice-Hall.
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Contents
Comparing the Effect of Individual and Group Pre-Task Planning on EFL

Learners Accuracy and Complexity in Speaking
Parviz Birjandi and Somayeh Alipour
Iranian TEFL Students Perception of Plagiarism

Soroush Sabbaghan
The Impact of Utilizing Computer Assisted Language Learning on EFL

Learners Foreign Accent Reduction
Abdollah Baradaran and Zahra Davvari
Error Correction in Socio-Cultural Perspective: Feedback and Noticing in

ZPD
Morvarid Lavasani
The Relationship Between EFL Teachers Emotional Intelligence and Their

Effectiveness in Managing Young Learners Classrooms
Hamid Marashi and Zaynab Zaferanchi
1
23
41
63
85
The Comparative Effect of Summarizing and Concept Mapping on ESP

Learners Reading Comprehension of EAP Texts
Behdokht Mall Amiri and Hojat Sarlak
Improving EFL Learners Oral Proficiency Through Metacognitive Strategy

Instruction
Mojgan Rashtchi and Parvin Khani
A Comparative Study of Culture Specific Items in Two English Translations

of Savushun
Kourosh Akef and Tahmineh Vakili
113
137
157
Editors Note
The support our readers, colleagues, and students have lent to JELS is the
best reward for the sustainable work our team in JELS endeavors to carry
out. In return, we are pleased to announce that JELS has been awarded the
science-research ranking by the Central Bureau of Islamic Azad University.
While expressing our wholehearted and sincere gratitude to all those who
made this accomplishment possible by their contributions in various forms,
we wish to call upon all our readers to assist us in further improving the
quality of our work with their constructive feedback.
The fourth issue of JELS opens with Birjandi and Alipours comparison of
the effect of individual and group pre-task planning on EFL learners accuracy
and complexity in speaking. Highlighting the importance of plagiarism in
academic contexts, Sabbaghan surveys Iranian TEFL students perception of
plagiarism and discusses the reasons for committing such an act of
deception. Baradaran and Davvari investigate the effect of computer assisted
language learning on foreign accent reduction among EFL learners. Through
a classroom-based research, Lavasani deals with error correction in a sociocultural perspective by using procedural feedback. Marashi and Zaferanchi
find a significant correlation between EFL teachers emotional intelligence
and their effectiveness in managing young learners classrooms. In their
study in an ESP context, Mall Amiri and Sarlak compare the impact of
summarizing and concept mapping on EFL learners reading comprehension
of EAP texts. Rashtchi and Khani investigate whether teaching metacognitive
strategies to EFL learners improves their oral proficiency and use of
language learning strategies. Finally, the culture specific items in two English
translations of the Farsi novel Savushun are compared by Akef and Vakili.
We hope that the collection of research work in this issue has
implications for the practitioners in the field and motivates further related
research in each domain. We once again invite more professionals to join the
forum created by JELS and share their research experiences with our
readers. We would also like to encourage our readers who wish to comment
on any of the papers published in JELS to contribute their commentaries to
our review article section to be added in future issues with the hope that
such a scholarly exchange of ideas serves the development of our discipline
along with the proliferation of high quality research work.
Parviz Birjandi
Editor-in-Chief
August 2010

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JELS, Vol. 1, No. 4, Summer 2010, 1-22

IAUCTB
Comparing the Effect of Individual and

Group Pre-Task Planning on EFL Learners
Accuracy and Complexity in Speaking
Parviz Birjandi
Professor of Applied Linguistics, Alameh Tabatabayi University, Tehran, Iran
Somayeh Alipour
MA in TEFL, Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch, Iran
Abstract
The present study was conducted to compare the effect of individual and
group pre-task planning on EFL learners accuracy and complexity in
speaking. To fulfill the purpose of the study, 60 intermediate female
learners at the first grade of high school were chosen by means of a
sample Preliminary English Test (PET) and randomly divided into two
experimental groups of 30 students; the individual and the group pre-task
planning groups which were provided with 15 tasks (personal, decisionmaking, and narrative tasks) over 16 sessions with the last one devoted to
the posttest. The students in both classes were given the same planning
time (two, three, and five minutes depending on the task complexity) but in
one group, the participants carried out the task individually and in the
other, they performed in groups of five. After the treatment, the two groups
were given a posttest on a narrative task. After the planning time, all
students were asked to discuss the task and the accuracy and complexity
of their speech were measured. The results of the Mann-Whitney test
indicated that whereas the individual planning group outperformed the
group planning group in terms of speaking accuracy, the group planning
learners performed significantly better than the individual planners in
terms of complexity.
Key words: accuracy in speaking, complexity in speaking, individual pre-task

planning, group pre-task planning
Introduction
Oral tasks are commonly used in second or foreign language classes, which
are at times challenging for language learners. The reason seems to be that
unlike writing tasks where learners can review and revise their output, an oral
presentation demands online language processing. Therefore, students are
Individual & Group Pre-Task Planning
often given some time to prepare for their presentation prior to the conduction
of the task. Ellis (2005) refers to such a preparation as strategic or pre-task
planning. Over the past decade there has been a growing interest in the
effect of pre-task planning on the subsequent performance. For example,
Ortega (2005) claimed that one of the main benefits of strategic planning was
that it enabled the learners to access the upper limits of their interlanguage
systems without time pressure, thus, making a wider linguistic repertoire
available for subsequent on-line use (p. 90). In other words, strategic
planning reduces the cognitive pressure of online performance.
Moreover, researchers (e.g., Crookes, 1989; Foster & Skehan, 1996,
1999; Mehnert, 1998; Sangarun, 2005; Wendel, 1997; Wigglesworth, 1997;
Yuan & Ellis, 2003) have manipulated various aspects of planning (e.g.,
planning time, foci, guided/unguided) in an attempt to investigate the effect of
different task planning conditions on subsequent task performance. In this
attempt learners performance has been usually analyzed in terms of different
dimensions of language production such as fluency, complexity, and
accuracy.
The body of research has consequently shown that pre-task planning
leads to more complex language production (e.g., Ortega, 1999), but the
findings for accuracy are somewhat surprising. For example, a study by
Foster and Skehan (1996), which investigated the effect of three conditions of
individual planning (unplanned, detailed planning, and undetailed planning)
on task performance, demonstrated that less detailed planning activity
resulted in more accurate language production. Wendel (1997), who also
found that pre-planned discourse was not significantly more accurate than
unplanned performance, explained that accuracy might depend on online/
moment-by-moment processing while learners perform the task and not on
the offline/pre-task planning.
Most planning studies so far have focused upon individual planning, in
which participants are given time to plan in isolation and may take notes to
ensure that they are mentally engaged. The rationale for this individual
planning has been that such a planning provides a more dependable basis
for initial studies since it is easier to control experimentally (Tuan & Neomy,
2007).
Foster and Skehan (1999), however, suggest that group planning may
be more common in language classes than individual planning. They have,
therefore, investigated and compared individuals and groups with and without
planning in terms of their subsequent performance on a problem solving task.
2
The researchers found that individual planning had the greatest influence on
complexity and turn length. Of particular interest was the finding that
performances following group planning were not significantly different from
those following no planning. As a result, they concluded that whatever was
happening in the group planning did not affect the learners subsequent
performance (p. 238).
On the contrary, Cook, William, Hill, and Canning (1990) state that
allowing students to work in small groups encourages them to share and
contributes to their language development. It also provides, as they claim,
greater intimacy and involvement and the opportunity to respond to and act
on what others say, which makes a better situation for developing students
listening abilities. Moreover, Cook et al. state that small groups enable
students to teach each other explaining, questioning, imagining, and
reminding in the language and through patterns of interaction which are
frequently practiced and comfortable. Cook et al. further argue that students
learn best if their intention to learn is aroused and that students are most
likely to become actively involved in the learning activities taking place in
the classroom if they have time to explore how they learn and have a high
degree of choice and responsibility for what, when, and how they learn.
However, only a few studies have investigated the nature of group
planning. Donato (1994) investigated what happened in group planning in a
French L2 class. During a one-hour planning session, the students had to
prepare for the conclusion of a given scenario and then present their
conclusion orally. Donato investigated how learners focused on linguistic
items, and the nature of the group relations formed. He found that preplanning encouraged learners to engage in what he termed collective
scaffolding, that is, a pooling of linguistic resources. However, not all groups
benefited equally from the opportunity to plan in groups. Donato found that
there were more instances of collective scaffolding in groups working
cohesively as collectives than in loosely knit groups. Subsequent research by
Storch (2001, 2002) has confirmed that the nature of small groups (dyads)
relationships is an important factor in terms of the opportunities for language
learning group (and pair) interaction provided for the learners. However,
Donatos study focused on the learners negotiations and construction of
linguistic items rather than the content of the presentation. Thus, it still
remains unclear how beneficial group planning is to subsequent individual
oral presentations.
Accuracy and Complexity in Speaking

Accuracy reflects grammatical and lexical correctness and the L2 learners
efforts to control attentional resources in order to avoid errors in language
(Ellis, 2005, p.15). Lennon (1990, p. 390) defines accuracy as the ability to
produce error-free speech. On the other hand, Complexity refers to the
utilization of interlanguage structures that are cutting edge, elaborate, and
structured. It is achieved by learners drawing on their rule-based system and
thus requires systematic processing (Skehan, 1995). According to Ellis
(2005, p.15), complexity entails more elaborate language, that is, the effect of
risk taking on restructuring language.
As discussed above the findings of research on the positive impact of
pre-task planning on complexity have been more conclusive than those on
the accuracy. In other words, as mentioned above some studies (e.g., Foster
& Skehan, 1996; Wendel, 1997) concluded that planning was not effective on
accuracy, nevertheless Wigglesworth (1997), who investigated the effect of
planning on the performance of different task types and at different
proficiency levels in a language testing context, found that planning led to
greater accuracy and complexity only on high-proficiency candidates and
generally on the most demanding tasks (e.g., summary of a conversation).
However, the results indicated that low proficiency candidates did not benefit
from planning time. Wigglesworth suggested that this may have been due to
the fact that the low proficiency learners did not use the planning time
effectively or may have focused on the content rather than the language of
their performance. However, later investigation by Mochizuki and Ortega
(2008) advanced the proposal that guided planning that involves specific
grammatical features may be a suitable pedagogical tool to be used with
beginning levels in foreign language classrooms since this type of guided
planning may lead to a balance between communication and grammar.
Crookes, in line with Wigglesworth (1997) found that planning
opportunity resulted in significantly more complex language in terms of longer
utterances, higher number of S-nodes per utterance, and more and longer
subordinate clauses. Regarding accuracy, however, no support was found for
the hypothesized favorable effect of the planning condition. Crookes (1989)
concluded that a tension appeared to operate in the L2 production between
complexity and accuracy, and that planning opportunity seemed to have a
more powerful effect on language complexity than on language accuracy, in
that the urge for complexity may undermine or weaken simultaneous efforts
in achieving accuracy. This pay-off between complexity and accuracy led
4
Crookes to the conclusion that no differences in accuracy are to be expected

when learners are given opportunity to plan.
The controversy in the impact of pre-task planning led some researchers
to focus on other variables that might influence this causal relationship. For
example, Ortega (1999) argued that majority of the studies focused on the
production rather than the process of planning and through her studies
concluded that a number of factors such as task complexity, the degree of
developmental readiness, learners orientation toward meaning or form, and
learners proficiency level affected the quality of planning. Later, Ortega
(2005) also investigated the strategies learners used while planning and
discovered metacogintive strategies of advanced planning, performance
evaluation, and production monitoring as well as cognitive strategies of
writing for retrieval, avoidance, and translating.
On the basis of what was reviewed above, one can conclude that due to
the fact that pre-task planning is an important phase in the accomplishment
of a task, manipulating different variables in such a planning seems to be an
important research orientation. Moreover, since in todays language
classrooms tasks can be approached either individually or collaboratively in
groups, teachers may need to know whether it is better to group the students
for pre-task planning or encourage the learners to plan individually before
they start doing the task. Consequently, comparing the effect of group and
individual pre-task planning seems to be essential. Accordingly, in the
present study, the researchers compared the effect of individual and group
pre-task planning on EFL learners accuracy and complexity in speaking.
Therefore, the following null hypotheses were stated:
H01: There is no significant difference between the effect of individual and
group pre-task planning on EFL learners accuracy in speaking.
H02: There is no significant difference between the effect of individual and
group pre-task planning on EFL learners complexity in speaking.
Method
Participants
The participants of this study were 60 EFL students. They were all Iranian
adult females, ranging in age from 14 to 16 who were at the first grade of
5
Nikan High School which is located in Aryashahr, Tehran. The participants

were homogenized by a sample Preliminary English Test (PET) at the
beginning of the term. As the classes were assigned for the teacher (one of
the researchers), the sample was selected based on convenient non-random
sampling.
After homogenizing the participants, they were randomly divided into two
experimental groups of 30 students, one served as the individual pre-task
planning group and one as the group pre-task planning group. Thirty other
students who were studying in another first grade class in the same school
served as the participants of the pilot study.
Instrumentation
Preliminary English Test (PET)
At the onset of the study, a sample of Preliminary English Test was used to
homogenize 60 students among the 105 first grade students of the
mentioned high school. The PET consisted of speaking section and 67 items
in the reading, writing, and listening sections. The test had a total score of 75
and the administration of the test took 120 minutes. The mean of the scores
was calculated and students who achieved between one standard deviation
above and below the mean were chosen as the participants of this study.
Posttest
A task which was selected by the researchers was given to the students at
the end of the treatment. The task type was narrative which was supported
by visual material, but which required some degree of organization of
material by the students to orally tell a story. The participants in both classes
listened to the teachers description of the task and were told that they would
receive a five-minute planning time during which they could think about what
they would say when carrying out the task. The students in the individual
planning group planned individually and those in the group planning group
discussed the given task in groups. Each student had two minutes for the
story-telling task itself.
Top Notch (2a)

Top Notch is a six-level communicative English course book for adults and
young adults with two beginning levels. Top Notch 2a by Saslow and Ascher
(2006) was the course book which students studied in the mentioned
language school during the term. It contains five units and each unit provides
vocabulary, grammar, and social language contextualized in all four skills.
During the treatment, one of the researchers taught the first three units.
Language Tasks
Fifteen tasks were given to the students during the term. The prototype tasks
were based on the classroom materials which contained three task types
following Skehan and Fosters (1999) classification: four personal tasks
(based on the information that was well known to the participants and was
therefore assumed to reduce the cognitive load of the task involved), six
narratives (which were supported by visual material, but which required some
degree of organization of material to tell a story effectively), and five decisionmaking tasks (which required the capacity to relate a set of reasons to a set
of decisions that had to be made).
Procedure
Prior to the experiment, a sample of a Preliminary English Test (PET) was
piloted among 30 intermediate EFL learners at the same school to make sure
that it could be used confidently for homogenizing the target sample. Then
the Preliminary English Test (PET) was given to 105 first grade high school
students and 60 participants whose scores ranged between one standard
deviation above and below the mean were chosen as the participants of this
study. The participants were randomly divided into two experimental groups
of 30 students who formed the individual and the group pre-task planning
groups.
Every session, a task was given to the participants as part of their
regular classroom instruction. The instruction was carried out over 15
sessions and the 16th session was allocated to the posttest. The prototype
tasks were based on the classroom materials which contained three task
7
types following Skehan and Fosters (1999) classification as already

explained in the instrumentation section.
The participants in the individual pre-task planning group listened to the
teachers description of the task and were told that they would receive some
time to plan (two, three, or five minutes depending on the task complexity)
during which they could think about what they would say when they carry out
the task. The participants in this group worked on the pre-task planning
individually. After the planning time, two students were randomly asked to
talk about the task.
However, the participants in the group pre-task planning group worked
on the same task in groups with the same planning time and the same
teachers description of the task but were required to plan the given task in
groups. For this purpose, the students were randomly assigned to groups of
five students. The students carried out the tasks in groups, working with the
same members during all sessions. At the end of the group work, two
participants were randomly chosen from different groups to talk about the
given task. Students in each group did not know in advance who was going
to talk about the task after the group planning.
Pre-task planning was done with close teacher monitoring in both
groups. The teacher observed students work in order not to use their L1 in
group discussions. If they wished, the students in both classes could take
notes during the planning time, but the notes were taken away prior to the
individuals speech after the task. During the individuals speech, the teacher
gave feedback to both groups and made corrections.
As the posttest, an oral task the same as one of the task types used
during the treatment period was selected by the researchers and was given
to the participants in both classes at the end of the term. The task type was
narrative and supported by visual material, but required some degree of
organization of material to tell a story effectively. The participants in both
classes listened to the teachers description of the task and had five minutes
planning time. The only difference in the posttest of the two groups was that
the individual pre-task planning group did the planning in the posttest
individually while group pre-task planning group carried out the planning in
groups of five. The rationale for different conduction of planning in the
posttest was that each group had a different experience during the treatment
period and thus, the same context needed to be set for the posttest. After the
planning time, all students were asked one by one to talk about the task, that
8
is, tell the story. All students speech in both classes was audio recorded
using a mini digital recorder.
Then the oral accuracy and complexity of each speech were measured
in both groups. These measures have all been used in previous studies (e.g.,
Bygate, 2001; Foster & Skehan, 1996; Mehnert, 1998; Ortega, 1999; Skehan
& Foster, 1999, 2005). Accuracy was measured by counting the number of
errors per a hundred words. It was obtained by dividing participants total
number of errors by the total number of words produced and multiplying the
result by 100. All errors in syntax and morphology or the lexical choice were
counted including repetitions. Errors which were immediately self-corrected
were not counted and errors in pronunciation were not included in the
analysis. Complexity was counted by the number of lexical words divided by
the total number of words and multiplying the result by 100 (Ortega, 1999).
The design to carry out this study was quasi-experimental since the
participants were selected based on convenient non-random sampling.
Independent variables of this study were individual pre-task planning and
group pre-task planning. The dependent variables were accuracy in speaking
and complexity in speaking. Finally, the control variables were gender and
language proficiency.
Results
Descriptive Statistics of the Proficiency Test Piloting
The first step in the analysis of the result was to pilot the Preliminary English
Test (PET). The PET consisted of 67 items including three sections of
reading, writing, and listening. The test had a total score of 75 and the
administration of the test took 120 minutes. This test was administered to a
group of 30 intermediate EFL learners at the same school bearing almost the
same characteristics as the target sample. All items went through an item
analysis procedure and no item was discarded.
Following the piloting of the test, the mean and standard deviation of the
raw scores and the reliability were calculated. The mean and the standard
deviation of the scores obtained in this administration were found to be 58.97
and 10.44, respectively. Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of the PET in
the pilot phase.
9
Table 1 Descriptive statistics for PET (pilot study)

PET SCORE
Valid N
N
30
30
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Std. Deviation
35.00
94.00
58.97
10.447
To ensure the reliability of the test, the researchers calculated the Cronbach
Alpha and as it is shown in Table 2, the results came out to be 0.851, which
was high enough for the test to be safely used for the main study.
Table 2 Reliability for PET piloting

Cronbachs Alpha
.851
N of Items
67
Descriptive Statistics of the PET Main Administration

The researcher used the piloted test as an instrument for homogenizing the
participants of the study. The piloted PET was administrated among 105
intermediate first grade high school students and to ensure the homogeneity
of the participants, 60 participants whose scores fell within the range of one
standard deviation above and below the mean were chosen. This procedure
was done by using the individual control chart considering the area between
one standard deviation above and below the mean . The control chart
for the scores of 105 candidates on PET test is demonstrated below (Figure
1).
Based on figure 1, the mean of the scores for the 105 candidates on
PET test came out to be 29.45, and UCL and LCL were found to be 39.91
and 19.00, respectively. Finally, 60 participants scores were found in this
range and the selected subjects were randomly divided into two experimental
groups, each containing 30 participants. The descriptive statistics for PET
before and after homogenizing are demonstrated in Table 3.
10
Figure 1 Individual chart for homogeneity of samples
Table 3 Descriptive statistics for PET scores before and after homogenization
PET Scores before
homogenization
PET scores after
homogenization
Mean
Std. Deviation
105
29.45
11.54
60
27.22
6.25
First the concentration and dispersion indices of variables were calculated.

As demonstrated in Table 3, the mean and standard deviation of PET scores
before homogenizing came out to be 29.45 and 11.536, respectively and the
same index of PET scores after homogenizing came out to be 27.2167 and
6.25203, respectively. Thus, standard deviation of PET scores almost
decreased to half which was the effects of homogenization. As it is depicted
in Figure 2 and Figure 3 below, it is clear that the homogeneity was effective
and it caused a decrease in the dispersion of the scores.
11
12
10
Frequency
2
Mean =29.45
Std. Dev. =11.536
N =105
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
PET scores before homogeneity
Figure 2 Histogram for PET scores before homogenizing
12
10
Frequency
2
Mean =27.22
Std. Dev. =6.252
N =60
0
10.00
15.00
20.00
25.00
30.00
35.00
40.00
PET scores afterhomogeneity
Figure 3 Histogram for PET scores after homogenizing
The Measures of L2 Speech Production

Measures of accuracy and complexity were used in the present study to
evaluate participants oral performance. Accuracy was operationalized in this
study in terms of the number of errors per a hundred words (based on studies
12
by Fortkamp, 2000; Mehnert, 1998; Sangarum, 2005). It was obtained by

dividing participants total number of errors by the total number of words
produced and multiplying the result by 100. All errors in syntax, morphology
or lexical choice were counted, including repetitions. Errors which were
immediately self-corrected were not counted and errors in pronunciation were
not included in the analysis.
Participants total number of errors
Accuracy = ------------------------------------------------ 100
Total number of words produced
Complexity was counted by number of lexical words divided by total number
of words and multiplying by 100 (Ortega, 1999).
Number of lexical words
Complexity = --------------------------------------------- 100
Total number of words produced
Descriptive Statistics of the Posttest

A task which was selected by the researchers was given to the students as
the posttest. Table 4 demonstrates the descriptive statistics on the posttest
and the results of the accuracy and complexity counts for both groups are
demonstrated therein.
Table 4 Descriptive statistics for all quantitative variables
Accuracy Ind.
Complexity Ind.
Accuracy Group
Complexity Group
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Skewness
Std. Error of
Skewness
30
30
30
30
3.39
70.5
2.13
87.07
2.14
4.16
.82
1.32
1.05
-.54
.032
-.02
.43
.43
.43
.43
As Table 4 demonstrates, the mean of accuracy scores for the individual pretask planning group came out to be 3.39 but the mean of accuracy scores for
group pre-task planning group came out to be 2.13. In other words, the
individual pre-task planning group performed better than the group pre-task
13
planning group in terms of accuracy in speaking. However, the complexity

mean scores for the group pre-task planning participants came out to be
higher (87.07) than that of the individual pre-task planning group (70.5).
Figure 4 demonstrates the comparative charts for individual and group
planning accuracy scores.
10
individual
group
Frequency
10
group
10
4
5
3
1
0.000
2.000
4.000
6.000
8.000
10.000
accuracy scores in the post test
Figure 4 The comparative charts of individual and group pre-task planning

groups accuracy scores
As it is shown in the above figures, there is a difference between individual

and group pre-task planning in terms of their speaking accuracy. The
accuracy scores of individual pre-task planning group were almost distributed
between 0.00 and 6.00, whereas the ones for group pre-task planning group
were distributed between 0.00 and 4.00. Figure 5 demonstrates the
comparative charts of individual and group pre-task planning participants
complexity scores.
A difference between the complexity scores of individual and group pretask planning groups is observable in Figure 5. Complexity scores of
individual pre-task planning participants were placed between 60 and 80,
14
whereas in group pre-task planning group these scores were placed between
80 and 90.
25
20
individual
15
10
7
5
2
group
Frequency
25
20
group
15
10
15
14
5
1
0
50.000
60.000
70.000
80.000
90.000
complexity scores in the post test
Figure 5 The comparative charts of individual and group pre-task planning

groups complexity scores
Testing the Null Hypotheses of the Study

Since in this study the impact of one independent variable namely pre-task
planning type was investigated on two dependent variables, complexity and
accuracy in speaking and since the two dependent variables were related in
being two different aspects of the same construct, namely speaking ability, a
Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was needed to compare the two
groups on their speaking in terms of accuracy and complexity. However, first
the assumptions of MANOVA had to be checked. Table 5 reports the results
of the test of homogeneity of variance for accuracy and complexity scores.
Table 5 Levenes test of homogeneity of variance for accuracy and

complexity scores
Accuracy
Complexity
F
12.59
18.86
df1
1
1
df2
58
58
Sig.
.001
.000
Tests the null hypothesis that the error variance of the dependent variable is equal across groups.
a. Design: intercept+group
15
As Table 5 indicates, the error variance was not homogeneous in the two
groups in terms of the dependent variables (F(1, 58) = 12.59, p = 0.001 < 0.05
for accuracy) and (F(1, 58) = 18.86, p = 0.0005 < 0.05 for complexity). Thus, the
assumption of homogeneity of variance for running MANOVA was violated.
Moreover, as demonstrated in Table 4, the skewness ratio came out to be
2.44 for the accuracy scores of the individual planning group, 1.26 for the
complexity scores of the individual planning group, -0.07 for the accuracy
scores of the group planning group, and finally -0.047 for the complexity
scores of the group planning group. Among all the ratios the one for the
accuracy scores of the individual planning group fell outside of the acceptable
1.96 and thus not normally distributed. Therefore, the two assumptions of
running MANOVA were violated. Furthermore, the researchers could not run
two t-tests for comparing the two groups accuracy and complexity scores
either as the normality assumption for t-test was not observed. Consequently,
the researchers were left with no option but running two Mann-Whitney tests
as the nonparametric equivalent for the independent samples t-test. Table 6
demonstrates the mean ranks of the two groups for the accuracy scores.
Table 6 The mean ranks of the two planning groups on the accuracy scores
Accuracy
Planning Type
Individual pre-task planning
Group pre-task planning
Total
N
30
30
60
Mean Ranks
35.73
25.27
Sum of Ranks
1072.00
758.00
As Table 6 demonstrates, the individual pre-task planning group achieved a

higher mean rank (35.73) on the accuracy than the group pre-task planning
group (25.27). Table 7 demonstrates the results of the Mann-Whitney test
which was used to investigate whether the difference in the two groups mean
ranks was significant or not.
Table 7 The result of the Mann-Whitney test for comparing the mean ranks of
the two planning groups on the accuracy scores
Mann-Whitney U
Wilcoxon W
Z
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)
Accuracy
293.000
758.000
-2.321
.020
a. Grouping Variable: Planning Type
16
As demonstrated by Table 7, the difference between the two mean ranks

came out to be significant (Z = -2.32, N1 = 30, N2 =30, p = 0.02 < 0.05).
Therefore, the researchers were able to reject the null hypothesis that stated
there was no significant difference between the effect of individual and group
pre-task planning on EFL learners accuracy in speaking.
As the next step, the same procedure was carried out for the complexity
scores. Table 8 reports the mean ranks of the two planning groups on the
complexity scores.
Table 8 The mean ranks of the two planning groups on the complexity scores
Complexity
Planning Type
Mean Ranks
Sum of Ranks
Individual pre-task planning

Group pre-task planning
Total
30
30
60
15.50
45.50
465.00
1365.00
As the results in Table 8 show, the group pre-task planning participant

achieved a higher mean rank (45.50) on the complexity scores than the
individual pre-task planning students (15.50). These mean ranks were then
statistically compared by the Mann-Whitney test, the result of which is
demonstrated in Table 9.
Table 9 The results of the Mann-Whitney test for comparing the mean ranks
on the complexity scores
Mann-Whitney U
Wilcoxon W
Z
Complexity
.000
465.000
-6.653
.000
Table 9 shows that the difference between the mean ranks of the two groups
on the complexity scores was significant (Z= -6.65, N1= 30, N2=30, p=
0.0005 < 0.05). Therefore, the researchers were also able to reject the
second null hypothesis of the research which stated that there was no
significant difference between the effect of individual and group pre-task
planning on EFL learners complexity in speaking.
17
Discussion and Conclusion

Many studies have been done on the effect of pre-task planning on students
language performance (e.g., Crookes, 1989; Foster & Skehan, 1996, 1999;
Mehnert, 1998; Sangarun, 2005; Wendel, 1997; Wigglesworth, 1997; Yuan &
Ellis, 2003). What research evidence has shown so far is that giving learners
extended planning time before task performance seems to have beneficial
effects for complexity, but the findings have been controversial for accuracy.
For example, Yuan and Ellis (2003) found that whereas pre-task planning
time promoted higher complexity and lexical variety, it did not have significant
effects on accuracy. Therefore, different types of pre-task planning may
influence different aspect of speaking in various manners.
The findings of the present study led to the rejection of the first null
hypothesis which stated that There is no significant difference between the
effect of individual and group pre-task planning on EFL learners accuracy in
speaking indicating that individual pre-task planning was significantly more
effective than the group pre-task planning on the EFL learners accuracy in
speaking. Majority of the studies so far have demonstrated that pre-task
planning is not very effective for accuracy as stated earlier in this paper (e.g.,
Crookes, 1989; Yuan & Ellis, 2003). Moreover, those who found some
evidence for a positive impact of strategic or pre-task planning on accuracy
considered other variables such as language proficiency or task type.
For instance, Skehan and Foster (1997) found that undetailed planning
boosted accuracy on the personal and narrative tasks but not on the
decision-making tasks demonstrating the significant role of task type in the
effect of pre-task planning on accuracy. Therefore, to interpret the results of
the current study, it is necessary to reiterate that the posttest task in this
study was a narrative task. Therefore, the higher accuracy of the participants
in the individual pre-task planning group could be inferred as a greater focus
of learners on their errors when they plan for a narrative task in isolation
rather than in a group. Therefore, the question remains whether or not
individual planning is also more effective than group planning for other task
types.
The result of testing the second null hypothesis which stated that There
is no significant difference between the effect of individual and group pre-task
planning on EFL learners complexity in speaking led to the rejection of this
hypothesis indicating that group pre-task planning significantly affected the
EFL learners complexity in speaking. The results of research on pre-task
planning are clearer for complexity as mentioned before. Majority of the
18
studies have proved that pre-task or strategic planning positively influences

complexity (e.g., Crookes, 1989; Foster & Skehan, 1996; Mehnert, 1998;
Wendel, 1997; Wigglesworth, 1997; Yuan & Ellis, 2003). However, note has
to be taken that some of these findings depended on the proficiency level of
the participants, difficulty of the task, or the duration of planning.
For example, Wigglesworth reported that one-minute planning time led to
more complexity in the case of high proficiency learners performing on the
more difficult tasks. Or Mehnert found a positive effect only for the ten-minute
planners with the one-minute and five-minute planners performing similar to
non-planners. Therefore, the planning time which was five minutes in the
posttest task of this study might have influenced the findings which indicated
that learners produced more complex oral output when they planned in
groups than in isolation. Moreover, the issue of type of task which was a
narrative in this study might have affected this particular result.
The finding of this study about complexity, however, was in contrast with
that of Foster & Skehans (1999) who concluded that individual learner
planning worked better for complexity than the teacher-led planning and
group-based planning and that the learners focus on form or content had no
differential effect. However, since Sangarun (2001) found that only planning
entailing attention to content led to increased complexity, it might have been
the case that the participants in this study focused more on the content when
planning in groups and more on the form when planning individually and thus
the individual pre-task planning group outperformed the group pre-task
planning group on accuracy due to their focus on form while they performed
poorer than the group pre-task planning group on complexity due to their lack
of focus on content.
Ultimately, it can be concluded from the findings of this study that when
the focus is improving oral accuracy of intermediate EFL learners, the better
practice is to encourage the learners to conduct the pre-task planning
individually and when the objective is to increase their oral complexity, it is
advisable to have the learners plan in groups. However, note has to be made
that this conclusion is valid if learners are involved in a narrative task and
have five minutes planning time.
With other planning durations, other task types, and with learners at
other proficiency levels a different practice might be more effective, and to be
able to identify and determine that effective practice extensive research is still
required to investigate the interaction among the various factors that
19
influence the quality of pre-task planning and its subsequent effect on EFL
learners complexity and accuracy in speaking.
Received on January 5, 2010
Accepted on May 6, 2010
The Authors
Parviz Birjandi is a full professor holding an MA in Applied Linguistics from Colorado
State University and a PhD in English Education from the University of Colorado,
Boulder. He is currently the Head of the English Department of the College of
Foreign Languages and Literature at Islamic Azad University, Science and Research
Branch. He has published over 30 articles in the area of TEFL, and is also the author
of several college textbooks.
pbirjand@yahoo.com
Somayeh Alipour holds an MA in TEFL from Islamic Azad University Central Tehran
Branch. She has been teaching English at different places for five years. She is
presently a teacher at Shokooh and Iranmehr Schools. Her main areas of research
interest include task-based language teaching, oral proficiency, and translation.
som_alipour@yahoo.com
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22

IAUCTB
Iranian TEFL Students Perception of

Plagiarism
Soroush Sabbaghan
Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics, Islamic Azad University Science and Research
Branch, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Plagiarism is considered to be a very serious offence in most academic
communities, particularly among Western academia. There has been
much discussion regarding the influential factors which result in
plagiarism, such as ignorance and cultural attitudes. In the case of
EFL/ESL students, it has been suggested that acts of plagiarism are often
committed because students lack the proficiency to produce the academic
discourse necessary to clearly express themselves. The current study was
conducted to investigate what Iranian TEFL students consider as
plagiarism. To do so, a survey was conducted among fourth-year
undergraduate and first-year graduate students of TEFL. The results of
the survey suggest that Iranian TEFL students believe direct copying of
material to be an academic transgression but tolerate closely paraphrased
texts. The study offers the conclusion that although plagiarism occurs
frequently in the material submitted by TEFL students mainly in the form
of closely paraphrased texts, it is probably due to a lack of understanding
of the principles of plagiarism, rather than a deliberate act of deception.
Keywords: plagiarism, TEFL, patchwriting, perception of plagiarism
Introduction
Most Iranian TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) students seem
to have difficulty in incorporating borrowed words and ideas in academic
writing. At the same time, foreign language writers are at a disadvantage
when competing with native language writers. Therefore, the added task of
learning to properly give credit to outside sources makes academic writing
even more of a challenge for EFL/ESL students.
In most academic settings, acknowledging where the borrowed words
and ideas are from is very important. Failure to give credit appropriately to
the copied or paraphrased material might be construed as plagiarism. In
Plagiarism in TEFL
most universities, especially in North America, students who include

plagiarized material in their writing could face serious punishment, including
expulsion. The significance of this issue has given rise to a series of
discussions focusing on the complex nature of plagiarism in different cultural
settings (Anglil-Carter, 2000; Buranen, 1999; Flowerdew & Li, 2007; Gu &
Brooks, 2008; Price, 2002; Sutherland-Smith, 2008; Wheeler, 2009). In Iran
however, discussion regarding plagiarism is limited, and mostly treated in the
field of medicine (Afifi, 2007; Farrokhi, 2009; Habibzadeh, 2008, 2009;
Habibzadeh & Winker, 2009).
The motivation behind plagiarism is a complex and controversial issue.
Some scholars suggest that students cannot accurately define plagiarism
(Dant, 1986; Kroll, 1988) and due to ignorance of academic citation practices,
commit acts of unintentional plagiarism (Carroll, 2002; Howard, 1995;
Leatherman, 1999). A study by Maxwell, Curtis, and Vardanega (2008)
proposes that both Asians and Australians seem to understand the
seriousness of plagiarism, but self-reports suggest instances of plagiarism
because the students have difficulty understanding the construct of
plagiarism. Yeo (2007) submits that although most students can give an
accurate account of what plagiarism constitutes, they regard some forms of it
less serious than others.
There is also some dispute regarding students beliefs and attitudes
towards plagiarism and their cultural background (e.g., Bloch, 2001; Deckert,
1993; Dryden, 1999; Gilmore, Strickland, Timmerman, Maher, & Feldon,
2010; Pennycook, 1996; Sherman, 1992; Shi, 2010; Yazici, Yazici, & Erdem,
2011). For example, Bloch (2001) suggests that Chinese writers use classic
texts to validate their arguments, but providing the citation of a classic text,
which is assumed to be known by everyone, can be considered redundant,
condescending, or even insulting. Dryden (1999) suggests that in Japan,
ideas and expressions are considered to be developed collaboratively,
therefore, using them is not considered to be plagiarism.
In the EFL/ESL context, plagiarism might be the result of the students
inability to write academically (Counsell, 2004; Marshall & Garry, 2006). A
study by Galloway and Sevier (2003) not only supports this claim, but also
asserts that some international students believe that by copying, their work
seem to resemble that of an educated person. Campbell (1990) suggests that
students copy as part of their learning process in academic development. In
her study, beginner writers used direct copying of the text. However, as they
became more proficient, they used summarization and paraphrasing
techniques. In any case, the proposition that EFL/ESL students copy text as
means of developing their academic writing skills is supported by many
24
studies (such as Anglil-Carter, 2000; Bloch, 2001; Flowerdew & Li, 2007;
Larkham & Manns, 2002; Marsden, Carroll, & Neill, 2005; Pennycook, 1996;
Wheeler, 2009).
At present, most Iranian universities show more leniency toward
plagiarism than western universities. In fact, most universities do not have a
students guide that properly defines plagiarism. As a result, there are many
instances of unintentional plagiarism as well as intentional ones. For
example, many term projects I have read include what Howard (1999) calls
patchwriting, which involves copying from a source text and then deleting
some words, altering grammatical structures or plugging in one-for-one
synonym-substitutes (p. xvii). She argues that while direct copying of text is
involved, patchwriting cannot be labeled as plagiarism because it is textual
strategy used in the process of learning academic writing. She also maintains
that for our undergraduate students, nearly every class is an encounter with
whole new fields of discourse. Little wonder that they might struggle for ways
to insert themselves into that discourse, searching for language other than
that of the text (p. 2). Therefore, in her opinion, not having the ability to
correctly express themselves using the appropriate academic discourse,
students should not be punished for copying bits and pieces from other
scholars.
Iran does not observe international copyright law and copying other
authors work has become common practice even in universities. For
example, I have seen many instances where university professors and
lecturers take reading passages from the Internet and include them in their
final exams without giving credit to or citing the author. This practice is not
limited to universities, considering that national university entrance exams are
known to have used direct copying from newspaper articles (see Holt, 1995;
Hui, 2006, articles used in 1390 university entrence exam) without
mentioning the source or the author.
In the universities where I have though, plagiarism is quite widespread.
Many of my colleagues complain that most of what students submit as their
own work is copied, usually from an Internet source. In the field of TEFL,
students are required to produce academic discourse in a foreign language
with limited resources. The question that arises here is that in such difficult
circumstances, should students who plagiarize always be labeled as
dishonest and deceitful? It may well be the case that students believe that
copying and patchwriting are part of academic development. They may even
expect their professors to be more tolerant of plagiarism in their assignments.
The purpose of this study was to investigate TEFL students attitudes towards
25
Plagiarism in TEFL
plagiarism. The study examined the reaction of TEFL students concerning

direct copying and paraphrasing.
Method
The research method in this study was adopted from the investigation
conducted by Wheeler (2009). A survey was conducted during the second
semester of the 2010-2011 (1389-90) academic year.
Participants
The participants consisted of 82 fourth-year undergraduate and 38 first-year
graduate students of TEFL from three Islamic Azad University branches. The
undergraduate students took the survey as part of the Language Testing
course they were taking. The graduate students were asked to participate on
a voluntary basis.
Instrumentation
The survey consisted of three paragraphs. The topics of all three paragraphs
were persuading students to continue their education. All three paragraphs
were written by the researcher. The students were told that the first
paragraph (see Appendix A), had been submitted as a homework assignment
by a (fictional) student given the pseudonym Maryam Maleki.
The second paragraph (Appendix B) was fabricated as if it was taken
from a newspaper article. The (fictional) author was John Smith and the
article was dated about a year before Maryam Malekis homework
assignment. This paragraph was very similar to Maryams paragraph, both in
content and wording as direct copying of text was involved (a total of 27/137
words were altered or deleted, mostly conjunctions from the beginning of
sentences)
The third paragraph (Appendix C) was the submission of Ali Salehi,
another student. As with Maryams piece, the content was identical to that
of Smiths composition. In fact, the paragraph outline and most of the wording
remained the same. However, unlike Maryams paragraph, Ali used
26
synonyms, and restatements of Smiths ideas as to reduce similarity between

his text and Smiths composition.
The paragraphs were kept small so as not to take a lot of class time and
avoid confusion (Maryam = 137 words; John = 133 words; Ali = 161 words).
The texts were not particularly difficult and were designed so that students
would not require a dictionary to understand them.
Procedure
The students were instructed to read the paragraphs during the class time.
As this study was conducted to investigate students perception of plagiarism,
and since this perception could have been affected by their educational and
cultural backgrounds, the researcher did not discussion plagiarism with the
participants. After reading the first paragraph (Maryams work), students were
asked to evaluate the writing style and give it a score from one to twenty (this
is the standard scoring scale in Iran). Maryams work was evaluated first
because it was almost identical to smiths piece. Therefore, when they read
smiths piece the perception of plagiarism would probably have been
instantaneous.
When the task of reading and scoring the first paragraph was complete,
the students read the second paragraph (Smiths piece). Next, they were
invited to re-evaluate and score Maryams work (the first paragraph). Finally,
it was requested that the students read and evaluate Alis (third) paragraph
and score it from a scale of one to twenty. The students were encouraged to
provide an explanation for the reasoning behind their scores during each
evaluation. The plagiarism conducted by Ali was more difficult to recognize
than Maryams work because of the synonyms and the restatements that Ali
used. Therefore Alis work was evaluated only once and after the second
evaluation of Maryams work, when the students probably realized that they
are to evaluated Alis text considering plagiarism.
The students did not use dictionaries during the task, but they were
permitted to use them if required. They were given 20 minutes to complete
the task for every paragraph, but given that they were TEFL students, most
completed the task in less than that time. Overall, no more than 50 minutes
was required for the completion of all three tasks for the undergraduate
students, and about 40 minutes for graduate students.
27
Plagiarism in TEFL
The instructions for the tasks were in English. Furthermore, the students
were asked to provide their justifications in English. Discussing matters
related to evaluation and scoring was prohibited. The students were asked to
direct their questions only to the professor.
The data analysis of this study included three non-parametric tests. The
reason why non-parametric statistical analysis was used is stated in the
results section. To examine whether the students scored the texts differently,
thus providing insight into students perception of plagiarism both at the
graduate and undergraduate level, first the Kruskal-Wallis test was
computed. Then, two Friedman tests were performed to investigate whether
the three ratings were different within each level. Finally, a post hoc-test in
the form of a Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test was performed to compare
Maryams first and second and Alis evaluation. Also, the scores given to Alis
paragraph were compared with Maryams scores, both before and after the
students read Smiths piece. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test statistical
analysis was done separately for the undergraduate and graduate students.
Results
Descriptive statistics for the first and second evaluation of Maryams text and
the evaluation of Alis work, classified by academic level is shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Descriptive statistics for the first and second paragraph evaluations
Undergraduate
Graduate
Maryams First
evaluation
Maryams Second
evaluation
Alis evaluation
Maryams First
evaluation
Maryams Second
evaluation
Alis evaluation
Mean
SD
Skewness
Ratio
82
18.29
1.61
-3.02
82
11.21
2.80
-.101
82
15.75
3.11
-2.08
38
16.28
2.34
-.215
38
8.50
2.06
.240
38
14.68
2.26
-.041
Based on the data in Table 1, with the exception of Maryams second

evaluation at the undergraduate level and Alis evaluation at the graduate
level, all skewness ratios were outside the acceptable range of a normal
28
distribution (1.96). Therefore a Kruskal-Wallis test, the nonparametric

equivalent of a one-way ANOVA, was used. The results are displayed in
Table 2.
Table 2 Results of Kruskal-Wallis for the evaluations

df
1
Undergraduate-Graduate
Chi-square
16.63
Asymp. Sig.
.000
The results of Table 2 indicate that there is a significant difference between

the graduate and the undergraduate scores for both Maryams evaluation (x2
= 16.63, p = 0.0005 < 0.05) with the mean rank of 147.76 for the graduate
scores, and 195.67 for the undergraduate scores. In other words, it seems
that the undergraduate and the graduate students have different perceptions
regarding plagiarized material with the undergraduate students being less
sensitive to plagiarism.
Two Friedman tests were used to test whether the graduates and the
undergraduates rated the texts differently within groups. The results are
presented in Table 3.
Table 3 Results of the Friedman tests

Undergraduate
Graduate
df
2
Chi-square
111.42
Asymp. Sig.
.000
63.22
.000
The results of Table 3 indicate that there was a significant difference between
the three ratings at the undergraduate level (x2 = 111.42, df = 2, p = 0.0005).
Moreover, there was a significant difference between the three scores
provided by the graduate students (x2 = 63.22, df = 2, p = 0.0005).
In order to reveal where the difference in evaluation of graduates and
undergraduates lay, post hoc test was implemented. The results of the post
hoc test (Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test) are displayed in Table 4.
29
Plagiarism in TEFL
Table 4 Results of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test
Undergraduate
Graduate
Pair
Maryam first evaluation Maryam second
evaluation
Maryam first evaluation Ali evaluation
Maryam second evaluation Ali evaluation
Maryam first evaluation Maryam second
evaluation
Maryam first evaluation Ali evaluation
Maryam second evaluation Ali evaluation
Sig
-7.72
.000
-5.87
-7.15
.000
.000
-5.38
.000
-4.30
-5.37
.000
.000
Table 4 shows that the results of all Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were
significant. In other words, there was a significant difference between
Maryams first and second evaluation, and Maryams second evaluation and
Alis evaluation. Based on the mean scores of the evaluations presented in
Table 1, it can be tentatively concluded that the students realized that
Maryams writing was in fact plagiarized material, and that is why the mean
score of the second evaluation is much lower than the mean score of the first
evaluation in both academic levels when students were exposed to the
original Smiths writing and could compare Maryams with it. Although there is
a significant difference between Maryams second evaluation and Alis
evaluation, the mean scores are closer to each other than Maryams first and
second evaluations. This increase in proximity might be an indication that
some of the students at both academic levels did not immediately realize that
Alis work was also plagiarized, because Ali did not use the exact words that
Smith used.
Maryams First Evaluation

The data indicates that the majority of the students had high regards for
Maryams paragraph. Fifty one of the undergraduate students (62%) gave a
score ranging from 18 to a perfect score of 20. The graduate students also
believed Maryams work to be of high quality, with 19 (50%) high scores
above 18.
The students comments on Maryams piece were generally very
positive. Many students praised the cohesion in her paragraph. All the words
and sentences are supporting the topic in a good way, an undergraduate
student justified her score of 19. Another wrote, She is able to use academic
words, but she is not very wordy; also I did not notice any spelling mistakes.
A graduate student commented, The positive point [of the paragraph] is that
30
the writer knows the structure of a paragraph, and how to provide and
support the mean idea. Overall, there were many similar sentiments such as
the ones mentioned by both graduate and undergraduate students.
None of the students gave Maryams paragraph a failing score (any
score bellow 10 is a failing score). However, there were students who gave
her a borderline pass/fail mark. Among these students, some believed that,
The text has minor grammatical mistakes. Others added that the language
in the text was influenced by the L1. It is a writing that clearly shows that it is
written by a Persian [speaker], a student wrote to justify a score of 14. Three
undergraduate students made reference to the lack of persuasive power of
the paragraph. One commented that, The reader should understand that the
reason of continuing education is a need and not option, but the paragraph is
unclear about this. Notwithstanding the criticism, based on the scores, most
students agreed that Maryams paragraph was better than average.
Maryams Second Evaluation

After the students read Smiths article, there was a substantial shift in
judgment towards Maryams paragraph. Table 1 provides data on the scores,
which shows an obvious decline in scores.
In the reevaluation, 29 of the undergraduate students (35%) gave a
failing score to Maryam. Four students gave her zeros. About 13% of the
undergraduate respondents gave her the lowest passing grade (10), and four
students did not change their scores, which were considerably high (three
18s, and one 19). The graduate students were much less lenient. Twenty
eight of them (73%) failed Maryam. From those who gave her a passing
score, none gave a score higher than 11. Every graduate student changed
their score; all considerably lower than their original scores.
In both the graduate and undergraduate levels, plagiarism was cited as
the main reason for the decline in scores. Some of the comments they made
are as follows:
This paragraph is a copy of the original. In fact, the writer has

kept the structure of the sentences and changed some words.
She didnt even paraphrase it. (Original score: 17, reevaluated
score: 8)
31
Plagiarism in TEFL
The paragraph is exactly the same as the authentic text by John

Smith. As a matter of fact, this paragraph is not qualified for a
score. We should give her another topic to write about. (18,0)
Most of the sentences are copies for the Mr. Smiths paragraph. I
cannot give it a good mark. (17,6)
Text is a copy, but not exact. (15,5)
This writing uses all parts of the professional writing [Smiths

article]. (19,10)
Of course, it is a copy of the professional text. She reworded

very carefully, but there is no creativity in this writing. (16,0)
The problem with this paragraph is that it is [a] copy from the
authentic one. It is copying and pasting. (18,9)
I will give her one point for handing in her assignment and for
finding an authentic text and copying it. (17,1)
Furthermore, the comments of two of the students who did not change their
score indicated that they did not understand the instructions. Despite being
allowed to ask questions at any time during the task, they evaluated Smiths
article rather than reevaluating Maryams paragraph. One wrote, Why should
I score a paragraph taken from a magazine where it has already been
proofread by a native editor? The other two students acknowledged that
Maryam has copied parts but they felt that sufficient changes were made in
the text, which would abolish any plagiarism. One commented, The two
paragraphs are similar, but not the same. Some parts are changed so it is not
all copied. I think the copied parts make Maryams paragraph, good writing.
Alis Evaluation
Table 5 provides descriptive statistics for the scores given to Alis paragraph.
The results indicate that the scores range between the two scores given to
Maryams writing.
32
Table 5 Descriptive statistics for Alis paragraph evaluation

Undergraduate
Graduate
N
82
38
Mean
15.58
13.92
Sd
2.37
3.04
The results indicate that the scores given to Alis paragraph were generally
lower than Maryams first evaluation, but higher than Maryams second
evaluation. Only four undergraduate students and six graduate students gave
Ali a failing grade.
Most students acknowledged the similarities between Maryams and
Smiths paragraphs with that of Alis. However, most did not believe that Ali
deserved to fail. The following is a sample of the comments provided by the
students including the three scores they gave in parentheses.
He is trying to convey the ideas from John Smith but with

different words. (First evaluation = 15, Second evaluation = 5,
Score given to Alis paragraph = 13)
He has put complex ideas into his own words. He has

Iranianized the writing. (18,10,17)
It seems that the writer picked the sentences up from Smiths

text to make this paragraph. (17,8,12)
I think he should have quoted from Smith. The words are

different, but the ideas are the same. (19, 11,12)
For creativity in restating sentences for an authentic text, I give

him four. (17,3,4)
I think he has paraphrased word by word from the authentic text,

the words are his, but the ideas are not. (17, 5, 13)
The writer copied from the text and he tried to paraphrase it, but
the result wasnt good. (16, 0, 0)
The writing is a writing that uses all parts of Smiths writing. (18,
8, 10)
Interestingly, none of the graduate students failed Ali. Most cited that the
ability to paraphrase is a skill that needs to be rewarded. One graduate
student wrote, This was a homework assignment, not an exam. I will reduce
33
Plagiarism in TEFL
scores for originality because the ideas are not his, but the vocabulary and
grammar are his. So, I must give him the marks for them. Another student
wrote, All writers get their ideas from somewhere. I think he chose suitable
vocabulary to express his ideas.
Only four of the 82 undergraduates gave Alis paragraph a failing score.
All four commented that Ali simply copied Smiths paragraph. One of them
stated, He tried to deceive the teacher by plagiarism. Another student
remarked that, He did a vocabulary exercise, not writing. He only found
some synonyms.
Although most undergraduate students criticized Alis writing, they did
not give him a failing score. The overall consensus was that Ali took
someone elses ideas and made it his own. A student commented, He
organized the ideas in a good way, and changed some words so that it is not
a copy. Another student remarked, He used the ideas of the professional
author for cohesion and coherence, but there is Persian influence in his
writing, so it shows that it is not a copy and it is his own work.

The result of the Kruscal-Wallis test indicated that the undergraduates and
the graduates perceived plagiarism differently. Table 1 shows that the mean
scores of all three ratings given by the graduate students are lower than
those given by undergraduate student. Therefore, it can be cautiously
concluded that the graduate level students have more awareness regarding
plagiarized material and seem to have a stricter policy for plagiarism than
undergraduate students.
Additionally, based on the results of the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test
computed for the scores given to Maryams paragraph, it appears that Iranian
TEFL students, both at the graduate and undergraduate levels, seem to
grasp the basic principle of plagiarism. Based on their comments, we can
assume that they realize that direct copying of material without citing the
source is wrong, as was the case in Maryams second evaluation, when
student realized the Maryams work is actually direct copying. Therefore, it
seems that some western standards regarding plagiarism have been
integrated with the Iranian students beliefs on what constitutes as academic
integrity.
34
The students remarks and scores given to Alis paragraph were

interesting. One the one hand, most scores were lower than Maryams first
evaluation, but higher than the second evaluation. As mentioned before, this
was probably because Ali did not use the exact wording from Smiths article,
using synonyms and paraphrase instead. Furthermore, most students
criticized Ali, for not using his own ideas. However, the majority did not fail
Ali, citing that originality is part of a total score for a text. In fact, most
believed that if a student has not used original ideas, he or she should not
receive the points for originality, but should receive point for the other aspects
important in assessing writing.
Although some of the arguments regarding originality of ideas in writing
offered by the TEFL students were plausible, plagiarism is defined as An
object which has been taken from a particular source by an agent without
acknowledgement and with or without intention to deceive (Pecorari, 2002,
p. 60). With regards to what can be classified as objects, Pecorari mentions
that different universities have different policies. Some regard ideas as
objects, while others limit the definition to word, language, or texts. Therefore,
in some academic settings, what Ali has done is clearly plagiarism. It seems
that for the Iranian student, borrowing ideas is frowned upon, but it is not truly
considered as plagiarism.
It is difficult to say whether students who borrow ideas are truly trying to
deceive. For the cases such as Ali who engaged in patchwriting but did not
cite the sources, research conducted by Pecorari (2003) suggests that
deceptive plagiarism is not involved. She suggests that given time (see
Pittam, Elander, Lusher, Fox, & Payne, 2009) and sufficient practice (see
Storch, 2009), todays patchwriter is tomorrows competent academic writer
(p. 338).
A limitation of this research was the matter of the extent of exposure the
TEFL students had with the concept and principles of plagiarism before
participating in this study. As mentioned before, the participants were fourth
year undergraduates and first year graduate students. They had probably
submitted many homework assignments, and had most likely been warned
about the penalties of plagiarism. However, they had been taught by many
different instructors, each with their own rules of what is considered as
plagiarism. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the students had different
beliefs regarding what is and is not plagiarism.
The fact that TEFL students consider presenting direct copying without
proper citation, deceitful, immoral, and wrong is truly quite remarkable. These
students live in an environment where newspapers translate material from
35
Plagiarism in TEFL
other newspapers or websites without providing the source. Photocopying

copyrighted books is not considered wrong. I have personally witnessed
some university professors taking material from books and journals without
mentioning the source. Surely, in such a setting one would actually expect
students to plagiarize material (which in many instances they do). However,
the result of this study suggests that the students know that some forms of
plagiarism (such as direct copying) is indisputably wrong, while they are
tolerant of other types (such as patchwriting).
One must remember that in the field of TEFL, courses are taught using
academic discourse often alien to EFL students. Most universities in Iran do
not offer a broad array of books and academic journals to their students, yet
expect them to present their assignments in high standard academic text.
Under these circumstances, there is bound to be some plagiarism.
Although some leniency is often shown towards students plagiarism,
members of the academic community must advocate that plagiarism is
wrong. Also, Iranian universities could provide guidelines that clearly define
what would constitute plagiarism and set the penalties associated with this
act. By enforcing the rules hopefully plagiarism will decrease. Failure to do
so, would most likely promote the belief that plagiarism is tolerated in our
field. Such an act would ultimately result in the reputation that in Iran, TEFL
students and academics alike do not comprehend the basic properties of
plagiarism. This would be unfortunate, because based on the finding of the
current study, an undesirable outcome such as this, would have little factual
basis.
Received on December 4, 2009
The Author
Soroush Sabaghan is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at Islamic Azad
University, Science and Research Branch where he teaches English. His research
interests are foreign language teaching and learning from an ecological perspective,
language awareness, plagiarism in the foreign language setting, and the writing
process.
publications@soroushsabbaghan.com
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Appendix A
Why Higher Education is Important
Date: 1386/2/18 (May 2007)
Nowadays, continuing education has become a need, and not an option. From an
employers viewpoint, having a graduate or post-graduate degree says a lot about
your personal character. Such a degree will surely impress your employer, and will
give you an advantage for getting a job. Continuing your education also increases
your financial value. Many people with higher education degrees get higher salaries.
Also, studies have shown that people with graduate and post graduate degrees are
happier with their jobs. This is because they have higher chances of finding a
satisfying job or getting a promotion because they have experience and expertise.
Finally, those who have higher education degrees have more respect. As a result,
they usually lead more rewarding and filling lives. These are just a few reasons why
continuing education is now more important than ever.
Maryam Maleki
Appendix B
Reasons Why You Should Continue Your Education
Financial Times, June 2006
By John Smith
In todays competitive job market,
continuing education has become more
of a necessity, rather than an option.
From an employers perspective,
having a graduate or post-graduate
degree speaks positively about your
personal character. Such a degree will
surely impress your employer, and will
give you an advantage over those who
have not set time aside to continue
their education. Continuing your
education also increases your financial
value. Many people with higher

education degrees enjoy higher
salaries. Furthermore, studies have
shown that people with graduate and
post graduate degrees have higher job
satisfaction. This is most often because
they have higher chances of finding a
rewarding job or getting a promotion
because they will have an edge over
others both in experience and
expertise. Finally, those who have
higher education degrees have more
39
Plagiarism in TEFL
prestige and respect. As a result, they

usually lead more gratifying and filling
lives. These are just a few reasons why
continuing education is now more

important than ever.
Appendix C
Continuing to Higher Education
Date: 1390/01/29 (April 2007)
In the current economy, it has become increasingly important to have graduate and
post-graduate degrees. Those who do have such degrees produce a positive image
of themselves, which a perspective employer is surely to like. University degrees
almost always provide better chances of getting a job than those who do not have
them. Continuing to higher education increases the value of your services. Thus,
there is a better probability of getting a higher than average salary. Moreover, those
who have graduate and post-graduate degrees often enjoy job satisfaction. They are
more likely to get a promotion because of their expertise. The general public also
shows more respect to masters and PhD holders. Therefore, these people
appreciate a more satisfying life. In sum, it seems to be a good idea to continue your
education.
40

IAUCTB
The Impact of Utilizing Computer

Assisted Language Learning on EFL
Learners Foreign Accent Reduction
Abdollah Baradaran
Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics, Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch, Iran
Zahra Davvari
Abstract
This study aimed at investigating the impact of utilizing CALL on EFL
learners foreign accent reduction. To this end, 62 participants out of 100
undergraduate freshman English students at Islamic Azad University
Central Tehran Branch were selected based on a piloted sample PET and
a text-to-read. The selected participants were then nonrandomly assigned
to an experimental and a control group, each containing 31 participants.
The control group followed teacher instruction on pronunciation (Focus on
Pronunciation 2 book and its CD). However, the experimental group
received pronunciation instruction through CALL including the use of
accent reduction software (Pronunciation Power 2) both inside and
outside the class and e-learning by means of conducting group chats via
Skype, receiving feedback by email, and doing some online exercises to
practice pronunciation. Reaching the end of the semester, both groups
took a posttest through the speaking section of the PET and a text-toread. The results of the study revealed that the experimental group
significantly performed better on the posttest following the utilization of
CALL applications.
Keywords: computer assisted language learning (CALL), self-paced

learning, computer mediated communication (CMC), synchronous and
asynchronous communication, electronic learning (e-learning), foreign accent
reduction
Introduction
The technological development that the world has been facing during last
decades has also influenced areas such as education. Along the same lines,
the growing application of technology in foreign language learning has led to
the establishment of a new discipline known under the name of Computer-
CALL & Foreign Accent Reduction
Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Interestingly, CALL systems have

evolved together with the approaches to the teaching of foreign languages, in
which the focus has shifted from teaching writing skills, grammar, and
vocabulary to teaching oral skills and thus also pronunciation and prosody
(Liu, Moore, Graham, & Lee, 2002). As a result of the latter development,
teachers and researchers in the field have insisted on paying more attention
to segmental and supra-segmental features of speech, the main argument
being their importance for communication (Chun, 1998; Eskenazi & Hansma,
1998).
However, other motives for acquiring L2 pronunciation and prosody are
mentioned by some scholars; for example, Cylwik et al. (2009) maintained,
Strong foreign accent may cause integration problems which makes it
particularly important in the times of global migration and the policy of
integration (p. 124). They further stated that the growing interest in teaching
and learning foreign language pronunciation and prosody has also been
reflected in the development of computer-assisted pronunciation learning
(CAPT) within which programs based on different technologies have been
created.
According to Underwood (as cited in Bangs & Cantos, 2004), CALL
provides a means for the individualized learner practice which is one-on-one,
self-paced, without need for supervision. Students can practice what they
want, whenever they want, for as long as they want. These devices will do all
the things the teacher has neither the time nor the inclination to do (p. 222).
In his thorough overview of CALL settings, Hubbard (2009) categorizes
speaking practice in such settings to two types, pairs or groups of students
speaking to one another as they sit in front of a computer engaged in a task,
or individual students using the computer to record their voice, often in the
context of pre-determined dialogs (p. 6). Citing from Bernstein, Najmi, and
Ehsani, Hubbard states that few limited spoken dialog systems are also
allowed by automatic speech recognition (ASR). However, according to
Hubbard, these applications are quite different from the ordinary face-to-face
interactions. But he claims that interactions created through asynchronous
means like using online audio discussion boards (e.g., Wimba) and
podcasting are closer to the natural speaking practice. Not only audio and
video connections through Skype and other VOIP (Voice Over Internet
Protocol) applications provide easy and low-cost interactions, but also some
studies (e.g., Abrams, 2003; Beauvois, 1997; Payne & Whitney, 2002) have
demonstrated that even asynchronous text-based interactions can indirectly
improve speaking proficiency.
42
In the area of pronunciation, as Hubbard (2009) states, there are three

major types of applications. The simplest is mentioned to be the digital
version of the tape recorder by means of which learners, after listening to a
native speakers model, record their own voices and compare it with the
model. The second model is mentioned by Hubbard to be a combination of
recording and speech visualization through which the learners not only listen
to the model, but also view a graphic representation of it: the complex
waveform, the spectrogram showing bands of stronger and weaker
resonance at different frequencies, or an extracted wavy line representing the
pitch contour (p. 7). Chun (2002) reports various studies (e.g., Bluhme &
Burr, 1971; Bot & Mailfert, 1982; Leon & Martin, 1972; Vardanian, 1964, all
cited in Chun, 2002, pp. 95-96), which have attempted for such visualizations
and further maintains that:
Although several studies report positive effects of the use of visual
displays of intonation among language learners (de Bot, 1983;
Hengstenberg, 1980; Lane & Buiten, 1966), other studies found no
such effects (Vardanian, 1964; Wichern & Boves, 1980), and none of
these display systems came into widespread use. (p. 96)
The third application highlighted by Hubbard (2009) is using automatic
speech recognition (ASR) which roughly assesses how close a learners
speech is to a norm for native speakers. Hubbard mentions that the feedback
given when applying ASR is usually presented in the form of a meter or
numerical score. However, he maintains that the method lacks judgmental
accuracy at times as native speakers may be tagged as non-natives for
instance (p. 7), plus the fact that feedback through this method faces certain
limitations since it does not inform the learner where the problem lies and
how it can be improved. He finally maintains that, A few recent applications
such as Carnegie Speech (www.carnegiespeech.com) have been able to
pinpoint specific phonemes within a word or phrase that need work and offer
targeted explanations and exercises for improvement (p. 7).
Computer Mediated Communication

Computer mediated communication (CMC) is widely practiced and has
become perhaps the most researched area in the field of CALL. According to
Romiszowski and Mason (2004, p. 398) and Hubbard (2009), CMC is divided
along two main dimensions: time synchronous and asynchronous and
modality text, audio, and video. Hubbard further adds that:
43
Synchronous or real-time CMC includes chat, instant messaging,

and MOOs (multi-user domain object oriented) in the text mode and
most commonly VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) in the audio
mode. Asynchronous CMC, where there is delay between sending
and reading/responding, includes email, bulletin or discussion boards
and voice boards in the audio mode. There are also a number of
newer formats such as blogs allowing posted comments and SMS
text messaging on mobile phones. (p. 10)
In terms of modality, thus far, the overwhelming majority of CMC studies
have been dedicated to text; though according to Romiszowski and Mason
(2004), with the recent popularity of online audio and video communication,
this might show a shifting trend. In terms of time dimension, despite the
strong interest in synchronous CMC, there is also a body of research on
asynchronous CMC using email and discussion boards. Warschauer (1995)
states that, E-mail has been used for some time to allow teachers and
students to communicate with one another (p. 95). Ghasemi and Hashemi
(2010) maintain that, The use of CALL and CMC clearly shows the
effectiveness of using e-mailIt offers authentic language drills and skill
practice, a stimulus for highly motivated discussions and real interactions with
native speakers all over the world (p. 297). In terms of the increasing use of
asynchronous CMC, Hubbard (2009) mentions that, outside of class, the
penpals of traditional language learning have been replaced by keypals and
the possibilities for tandem language learning by pairs of classes have
increased dramatically (p. 11).
Along very different lines, an increasing number of studies look at
settings in which asynchronous and synchronous CMC are mixed. For
example, in her study, Belz (2001) made use of both synchronous chat by
discussing, questioning, and answering as well as asynchronous chat
through which the participants had again question and answer pairs in the
form of email exchanges. Or the study by Thorne (2003, pp. 55-60) in which
a number of Internet communication tools such as email (asynchronous),
web-based threaded discussions, video conferencing (no sound was
available rather typing at computer stations), and synchronous chat were
utilized in a way that each fitted the communicative task the participants were
supposed to accomplish. Thorne concludes that, For both synchronous and
asynchronous CMC, we are moving into an era where language students will
already be familiar with a range of communicative options and will be more
inclined to select the one that seems to fit the task best (p. 55).
44
Electronic Learning
As Middleton (2010) posits, The term electronic learning or e-learning has
been around since at least the mid-1980s and has come to mean a variety of
things (p. 5). According to Shepherd (as cited in Middletone), it has at least
three meanings; first, a means by which teaching is conducted through the
internet and could also include the use of CDs and DVD-ROMs. The second
is mentioned to be a way of reaching distant learners and is said to be more
predominant in higher education. The third is mentioned to be virtual
classroom which replaces the actual and physical classrooms. He adds that,
The growth in the use of e-learning has been phenomenal from the very first
steps which involved lecturers putting their notes on a web page to the fully
formed tutorials which make up learning resources such as doing political
research (p. 5).
According to Middleton (2010), Accounts of e-learning tend to have two
features. First, they are uncritical of the method, whatever that might be.
Second, they are designed to convince an audience perceived to be skeptical
(p. 7). The starting point of the literature was based on what Booth (2007)
called an evaluation bypass (p. 298), according to which the evaluation is
more likely to be based on the popularity of the methods and techniques
rather than their efficiency. It is due to what Middleton speculates: Popularity
is far easier to measure than effectiveness (p. 7).
However, Lambeir, and Ramaekers (2006) in their criticism point to the
fact that such virtual learning environments focus on the individual and the
personal and alter learning into a process of managing information rather
than discovery and state that, E-learning environments go hand in hand with
procedures of normalization and standardization that tend to turn education
into an activity which predominantly consists of the delivery of information
and ways of retrieving and referring to it (p. 544). In their attempt to
underscore the dialogic and critical models of learning as desirable for higher
education, they further argue that, The individualization of the learning
process, which is put high in these contexts, promises to be rather
minimalistic, since what is at center stage is an individual learning path,
rather than the individual person themselves (p. 544).
Foreign Accent Reduction

What constitutes a foreign accent? A foreign accent, as Felps, Bortfeld,
Gutierrez-Osuna (2008) state, can be defined as deviations from the
45
expected acoustic (e.g., formants) and prosodic (e.g., intonation, duration,

and rate) norms of a language (p. 922). According to the modulation theory
of speech (Traunmller, 1994, p. 5), a speakers utterance results from the
modulation of a voice quality carrier with linguistic gestures. In this context,
Traunmller identifies the carrier as the organic aspects of a voice that reflect
the morphological between-speaker variations in the dimensions of speech,
such as those that are determined by physical factors (e.g., larynx size and
vocal tract length). Thus, in analogy with the source/filter theory of speech
production, which decomposes a speech signal into excitation and vocal
tract resonances, modulation theory suggests that one could deconvolve an
utterance into its voice quality carrier and its linguistic gestures (Fant, as
cited in Felps, Bortfeld, & Gutierrez-Osuna, 2008, p. 922). Therefore,
according to this view, a foreign accent may be removed from an utterance
by extracting its voice quality carrier and convolving it with the linguistic
gestures of a native-accented counterpart (p. 922).
In contrast with voice conversion, which seeks to transform utterances
from a speaker so that they sound as if another speaker had produced them
(Abe, Nakamura, Shikano, & Kuwabara, 1988; Arslan & Talkin, 1997;
Childers, Wu, Hicks, Yegnanarayana, 1989; Kain & Macon, 1998;
Sundermann, Ney, Hoge, 2003; Turk & Arslan, 2006), accent conversion
seeks to transform only those features of an utterance that contribute to
accent while maintaining those that carry the identity of the speaker.
Moreover, according to what Dogil and Reiterer (2009) posit, the
phonetic subsystem is generally thought to be more difficult to acquire, as it is
assumed to rely mostly on hard-wired biological processes that cannot be
easily influenced by conscious learning efforts (p. 5). Accordingly, everyone
who acquires an L2 after a certain critical period (Lenneberg, 1967) will
exhibit a foreign accent. According to Lenneberg, there is, however, no
agreement regarding the cut-off point, that is, the age at which accent-free
mastery of the L2 on both the segmental and supra-segmental levels should
still be possible.
Along with Stevick (1978, p. 145) and Pennington and Richards (1986, p.
207), Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin (2007, p. 29) also point out the
vulnerability of learners who, while wishing to attain native-like pronunciation
in the target language in order to avoid stigma attached to having a foreign
accent, may be reluctant to lose their accent for fear of alienating themselves
from their native language peers. As a consequence, they think that affective
and personality factors (e.g., extroversion and sociability) may either impede
or promote acquisition of second language phonology.
46
In fact, Pennington (1994) suggests that, Learners perceive three

barriers to pronunciation improvement: physiological (I cant change),
psychological (I dont need to change), and socio-cultural (I dont think its
good to change) (p. 92). She further suggests that the goal of instruction is
not only to improve learner performance, but also to provide a basis for
change in the psychological and social dimensions of pronunciation (p. 105).
Facing all the varieties of factors that influence the acquisition and thus,
the instruction of pronunciation, one is left with the startling challenges of
assisting the learners in their attempt to remove their foreign accent. In this
regard Gilbert (2008) mentions that, Teaching pronunciation involves a
variety of challenges. To begin with, teachers often find that they do not have
enough time in class to give proper attention to this aspect of English
instruction (p.1). He further maintains that, when teachers are able to
manage the time:
The instruction often amounts to the presentation and practice of a
series of tedious and seemingly unrelated topics. Drilling sounds
over and over again (for example, minimal pair work) often leads to
discouraging results, and discouraged students and teachers end up
wanting to avoid pronunciation altogether. (p. 1)
According to Cylwik et al. (2009), CALL has a number of potential
advantages: liberating from time limitations and teacher dependence by
being able to study and practice at ones desired setting and extent, being
able to practice at ones own pace, being able to store the users profile to
monitor the progress, having access to a number of additional materials such
as visualizations, recordings, animations, individualizing learning process,
and finally removing the stress related to the fact that the learner is being
listened to by his/her colleagues, the last of which seems particularly
important in the case of pronunciation/prosody learning (p. 124).
As a result of the literature studied and presented here, the researchers
sought to find out whether utilizing CALL could reduce EFL learners foreign
accent. To scrutinize the issue under investigation, the following question
was raised:
Does utilizing computer-assisted language learning have any
significant impact on intermediate EFL learners foreign accent
reduction?
47
Method
In order to find a proper answer to the posed question, the researchers
followed certain procedures and utilized certain instruments, which are
reported in the following section.
Participants
The participants were selected from among English-majoring freshman
students taking oral/aural course at Islamic Azad University Central Tehran
Branch. From among four intact classes (100 students), 62 students ranging
in age from 18 to 35 were selected firstly, based on their scores on a
language proficiency test (a sample PET) and secondly, based on their
scores on a text-to-read. The two-stage selection and homogenization was
for the purpose of including participants who were homogeneous in terms of
both their overall proficiency and the strength of their foreign accent prior to
the treatment.
The selected participants were then non-randomly assigned to two
equal-sized groups, one experimental and one control, each scattered in two
classes. Since the male participants were very few, to remove gender as an
intervening variable, the tests were only given to female students.
It is worth noting that 30 other freshman students, who were similar to
the actual participants of this study, participated in the pilot study of the aforementioned language proficiency test and a text-to-read. In addition, all the
weekly quizzes and educational tutorials were also piloted with this group.
Instrumentation
To homogenize the participants based on their language proficiency and
minimize the individual differences among the participants, a piloted sample
PET (Preliminary English Test) was employed, which is published by
Cambridge English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL, 2009). The
PET consisted of four sections: reading (35 items), writing (eight items),
listening (25 items), and speaking (four subparts). The writing section
included three subparts. The first subpart consisted of five items, which were
48
scored objectively. However, the other two subparts were scored applying
General Marks Scheme (PET handbook, 2009).
It must be mentioned that each paper was rated by two raters. The PET
speaking test was conducted by two examiners (an interlocutor and an
assessor) with pairs of candidates. The assessor took no part in the
interactions. It took 10-12 minutes for each pair of candidates. The speaking
test is generally divided into four parts (a two-minute interaction on a general
topic, a two-minute interaction on a visual stimulus, a three-minute speech on
a verbal prompt, and a three-minute general discussion). To rate this section,
the same two raters used the Cambridge ESOL Common Scale for Speaking.
Since the focus of the study was on foreign accent reduction, the
researchers also needed to homogenize the participants in term of the
strength of their foreign accent. For this purpose, a text was given to the
participants to read and their voices were recorded to be rated based on an
analytic pronunciation rating scale (0-12 point) drawn from the pronunciation
section of Rating Scale for Oral Proficiency Test at UC Berkeley (derived
from UCLAs OPT).
Some weekly-quizzes were also used in both groups. These quizzes
were made up of two sections, the first section included some short video
clips based on which the participants had to answer the related questions
and the second part consisted of some pronunciation questions focusing both
on the segmental and supra-segmental features.
In addition to the tests and quizzes, certain instructional instruments
were utilized in each group. The Pronunciation Power 2 software was used
in the experimental group. This software is designed based on foreign accent
reduction at intermediate level of language proficiency and focuses on
segmental and supra-segmental features as well as overall speech rate by
capturing the speech of any user after (s)he has listened to a native-like
model trying to reproduce the models speech as similarly as possible. The
software covers almost all the salient properties of a foreign accent, which
according to Gut (2007), include the durational features, vowel reduction,
consonant cluster reduction, overall speech rate, intonational variables, pitch
range, and pitch movement (p. 75).
Moreover, to operate the instructions in both groups, there were some
course books like Focus on Pronunciation 2 covered in the control group
and Expressways 4 covered in both groups, which contains a full range of
situations and contexts, offers intermediate-level students expanded
vocabulary, complex grammar, and a choice of functional expressions. It
49
must be mentioned that both the Focus on Pronunciation 2 and

Pronunciation Power 2 cover the same content, that is both focus on
segmental (vowels and consonants), supra-segmental (pitch, rhythm,
intonation, contours, word stress, sentence stress), and overall speech rate
features. That is why these two materials were selected to be applied in the
present study, the former in the control and the latter in the experimental
group.
Furthermore, to remove any probable problems dealing with computer
and online sessions and interacting via Skype, a series of educational
tutorials were designed and given to the participants of the experimental
group in the form of CDs. It is worth noting that these educational tutorials
were designed, with the help of Captivate 4 software by the researchers, in
a very easy-to-grasp manner. To be exact, all the steps of working with a
computer and the software Pronunciation Power 2, getting online and
working with the Skype program, doing the online exercises, searching for a
new word via online dictionaries, and sending the completed exercises to the
researchers for scoring were explicitly demonstrated in the CDs. The
demonstrations were accompanied by Persian narration for the purpose of
reducing the participants technophobia in dealing with CALL applications.
At the end of the treatment and as the posttest, the speaking section of
the PET (applied during the homogenization phase) and a piloted parallel text
to that of the homogenization phase were administered to the participants of
both groups. Then, their voices were recorded and rated applying the abovementioned analytic pronunciation rating scale (0-12 point). Ultimately, a
questionnaire, containing six open-ended questions, was given to the
participants in the experimental group to find out how they felt about and
thought of using CALL applications.
Procedure
At the outset of the study, a piloted sample PET was administered to 100
students. The researchers aimed at selecting the participants obtaining
similar levels of language proficiency. The set criterion for selecting the
participants was considered as one standard deviation above and below the
mean score (which turned out to be 25 to 40). Then, to further homogenize
the 74 selected participants in terms of their foreign accent the speaking
section of the PET and a text-to-read was given to them. As a result, 62
female participants whose scores fell within one standard deviation above
50
and below the mean score of the participants retained for the purpose of the
study. Subsequently, they were non-randomly assigned to two groups, each
including 31 of the targeted participants, in four classes: two classes as the
control and two classes as the experimental group.
The experimental group underwent pronunciation instruction through
utilizing CALL applications both inside the class (face-to-face teachinglearning) and via online sessions (e-learning). The inside-the-class sessions
were held four hours and a half once a week and the online sessions were
held for an hour twice a week. Moreover, the e-learning included both
synchronous (via Skype, conference calls, group chats) and asynchronous
communication (via email while the recipient was offline). Prior to starting the
treatment in the experimental group, as explained before, tutorial CDs were
distributed among the participants.
To fulfill the instruction during the face-to-face classroom learning, the
pronunciation software (Pronunciation Power 2) was employed. Moreover,
the participants would take the software home and practice with it at their
own tempo to get feedback on the inappropriateness of their speech
production not only at the level of segmental features but also suprasegmental. Furthermore, to accomplish the e-learning, the participants
appeared online for an hour twice a week based on a timetable at their
conveniences. During online sessions, they were first referred to some
educational websites (mainly www.esl-lab.com) to practice pronunciation and
do some online listening exercises which chiefly focused on discrimination of
sounds.
The participants in this group were also asked to read a text, which was
given to them every session, record their voice, and email it to the
researchers to rate. The researchers would also send by email their feedback
pinpointing all the mispronunciation and aspects of foreign accent. Then, they
had to take part in a group chat or a conference call during the class sessions
(synchronous conferencing) to speak about a topic they had in their book
(Expressways 4) and based on which they received feedback on the
appropriateness of their speech after their speech was over to prevent
making them embarrassed in front of other partners.
Nevertheless, the control group got the chance to have pronunciation
instruction merely inside the class using a course book (Focus on
Pronunciation 2) and its related CD. Of course, the participants here were
also asked to read the same texts, those given to the participants in the
experimental group, and record their voice and hand it to the researchers in
51
the coming session to be rated. In their feedback, the researchers would take
into account exactly the same features they considered for the experimental
group as explained earlier. As an out-of-class practice, the participants in this
group were asked to do all the listening and pronunciation exercises in their
book Focus on Pronunciation 2 and hand the completed exercises to the
researchers the next session.
Moreover, the participants of the control group were put into groups of
four or five students and were asked to prepare a conversation and act it out
in the class in the following session, the topics of which were selected from
the more-practice-section of the Expressways 4. They were also asked to
read and gather information about the topics and discuss them in class in the
coming session, on which they again would receive feedback from the
teacher. The CALL instruction was entirely absent in the control group. The
time allotted to the sessions was exactly similar to that of the experimental
group (four hours and a half once a week), however, due to the nature of
homework exercises in this group which were done individually, the
researchers could not control the time students would spend on them.
It is worth mentioning that every session both groups received listening
and pronunciation weekly-quizzes as an opportunity to listen to and imitate
the correct and native-like pronunciation patterns in an attempt for foreign
accent reduction. After nine instructional sessions, the two groups took a
posttest on a PET speaking section and a text-to-read. All the performances
were recorded and rated by two raters applying the analytic pronunciation
rating scale explained earlier. Also, a questionnaire was administered to
gather data on the attitudes and feelings of the participants in the
experimental group regarding CALL applications in pronunciation instruction.
Results
To both guarantee maximal accuracy of the procedure and verify the
hypothesis, the following statistical analyses were conducted.
Piloting the PET

Firstly, the PET was piloted with 30 intermediate students who were similar to
the participants of the study regarding their level of language proficiency.
Afterward, NRT item analysis including item facility and item discrimination
52
was conducted for each item. After omitting 10 malfunctioning items five
items in the reading section, one item in the writing section (which was
scored objectively), and four items in the listening section the reliability of
the test was estimated using the Cronbachs alpha formula and it came out to
be 0.75 (Table 1).
Table 1 Reliability of the modified PET

Cronbach's Alpha
N of Items
N of cases
.748
55
30
Administering the PET

Following the piloting phase, the PET was given to 100 intermediate
students, the descriptive statistics of which are presented in Table 2. The
participants who scored one standard deviation above and below the mean
(N = 74) were selected to take part in the second phase of the
homogenization process based on their scores on a text-to-read.
Table 2 Descriptive statistics of the PET

N
Mean
SD
Range
Minimum
Maximum
100
32.0900
7.41292
33.00
16.00
49.00
Inter-rater Reliability of Rating the PET Writing and Speaking

Sections
The writing sections of the PET were given to two raters to rate based on the
PET General Mark Scheme for Writing (2009). The inter-rater reliability of the
writing parts came out to be 0.84, showing a significant correlation between
the two raters scores (Table 3).
53
Table 3 Inter-rater reliability of rating the PET writing and speaking sections
Writing
Rater 2
Pearson Correlation
.839**
Rater 1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
28
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Speaking
Rater 2
Pearson Correlation
.845**
Rater 1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
28
The participants were also rated by the same two raters, the interlocutor and
the assessor, on the speaking section utilizing the PET Cambridge ESOL
Common Scale for Speaking (2009). The inter-rater reliability of the speaking
section was 0.85, showing a significant correlation between the two sets of
scores (Table 3).
The Results of Homogenizing the Participants for

Foreign Accent
In the next phase of the study, since 74 out of 100 students held the same
level of the language proficiency, the participants had to be homogenized in
terms of holding a foreign accent. Therefore, their scores on the text-to-read
were taken into consideration. In this fashion, two raters rated the participants
performances on the text they had read based on the analytic pronunciation
rating scale described before and 62 of the participants were selected. Table
4 below illustrates the descriptive statistics of the amount of holding a foreign
accent. Table 5 demonstrates the inter-rater reliability between the two raters
set of scores, which came out to be 0.88, showing a significant correlation.
Table 4 Descriptive statistics of the scores of both groups on the amount of

holding a foreign accent
54
Mean
SD
Range
Minimum
Maximum
74
6.27
1.81
9.00
2.00
11.00
Table 5 Inter-rater reliability between the two raters sets of scores indicating
the amount of holding a foreign accent
Rater 2
Pearson Correlation
.884**
Rater 1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
28
Checking the Homogeneity of the Two Groups

In order to ascertain the homogeneity of the groups; first, the descriptive
statistics of each group was measured, the results of which are shown in
Table 6 below. Second, the amount of the Skewness ratios (-0.12 and -0.49)
indicated that the two sets of scores were distributed normally, since they
range between 1.96 and thus, comparison through t-test was legitimate.
Table 6 Descriptive statistics of the two groups on holding a foreign accent

prior to the treatment
Groups
Mean
SD
Skewness
Std. Error of
Skewness
Skewness
ratio
Control
31
6.185
1.209
- .052
.421
- .12
Experimental
31
6.266
1.184
- .208
.421
- .49
The next step was to run an independent samples t-test to compare the
mean scores of the two groups on holding a foreign accent. The result, as
indicated in Table 7, showed that the variance fulfilled the condition of the
homogeneity at 0.05 level of significance (F = 0.045, p = 0.83 > 0.05).
Since the homogeneity of the variances of the two groups was proved,
the results of the t-test with the assumption of equal variances are reported
here. The results (t = 0.26, df = 60, p = 0.79 > 0.05) indicated that there was
no significant difference between the two groups mean scores on the foreign
accent prior to the treatment meaning that the two groups were
homogeneous (Table 7).
55
Table 7 Comparing two groups mean scores and variances prior to the
treatment
Levene's
Test for
Equality of
Variances
Sig. (2tailed)
Sig.
df
Mean
Difference
Std. Error
Difference
Equal
variances
assumed
Equal
variances
not
assumed
t-test for Equality of Means

95% Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Lower
Upper
.045
.83
-.26
60
.792
-.080
.304
-.688
.527
-.26
59.9
.792
-.080
.304
-.688
.527
The Results of the Two Groups Posttest

Following the treatment, the two groups took a posttest through the speaking
section of the PET along with a text-to-read. Subsequently, their voices were
recorded and rated by two raters utilizing an analytic pronunciation rating
scale. After that, the statistical computations required to respond to the
research question and verify the hypothesis were put into effect. To begin
with, the descriptive statistics of the scores of both groups on the posttest
were obtained. Table 8 illustrates the scores of both groups on holding a
foreign accent.
Table 8 Descriptive statistics of both groups on holding a foreign accent

posttest
Groups
Mean
SD
Skewness
Std. Error of
Skewness
Skewness
ratio
Control
31
6.387
1.134
.072
.421
0.171
Experimental
31
7.588
1.153
- .160
.421
- 0.380
As demonstrated in Table 8, the amount of the Skewness ratios (0.17 and 0.38) indicated that the two sets of scores were distributed normally, since
they range between 1.96. It is apparent that the participants in the
experimental group obtained a higher mean score, which showed that they
56
performed better on the posttest. To indicate the significance of the difference

between the mean scores, an independent samples t-test was run. As Table
9 below demonstrates, the results of the Levenes test of equality of
variances did not turn out to be significant (F = 0.002, p = 0.96 > 0.05) and
consequently the results of the t-test with equal variances are reported.
Table 9 t-test of the two groups mean scores on the posttest

Levene's
Test for
Equality of
Variances
Sig
df
Mean
Difference
Std. Error
Difference
95% Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Lower
Upper
Sig. (2tailed)
Equal
variances
assumed
Equal
variances not
assumed
.002
.96
4.13
60
.000
1.201
.290
.6202
1.782
4.13
59.9
.000
1.201
.290
.6202
1.782
According to Table 9, the results of the t-test (t = 4.13, df = 60, p = 0.0005 <
0.05), indicated that there was a significant difference between the groups
mean scores. Furthermore, since according to Table 8, the experimental
group obtained a higher mean than the control group on the accent posttest
(7.58 and 6.38, respectively), the conclusion is that utilizing CALL
applications had a significant impact on the foreign accent reduction of the
participants.
Following the rejection of the null hypothesis, the researchers intended
to determine how much of the obtained difference could be explained by the
effect of the treatment and thus computed the effect size. The effect size
using Cohens d turned out to be 1.07 and partial eta square came out to be
0.22 (F1,60 = 17.09, p = 0.0005, partial eta-squared = 0.22, power = 1.0). This
indicated that CALL instruction accounted for 22% of the variance in the
accent reduction of the participants in the experimental group which is a large
effect size. Moreover, considering the fact that power was 1 and based on
what Larson-Hall (2010) posits, We would like power to be at least 0.80 so
that we have a four in five chance of finding a statistical effect (p. 309), it is
concluded that the findings of the study were statistically powerful.
57
Results of the Open-Ended Questionnaire

To find out how the participants in the experimental group felt about and
thought of CALL applications, an open-ended questionnaire was given to
them and reading their opinions, the following points were obtained: Almost
all of them expressed their satisfaction with CALL. They wrote that it was an
innovative method they had never experienced before. Few of the students
mentioned they felt uneasy about dealing with technology, but they declared
that the tutorials helped them a lot and as they were gradually into the
procedures the unease was removed.
Moreover, most of them welcomed the software (Pronunciation Power
2). Majority wrote that they not only reduced to some extent their foreign
accent (we call it to some extent since reducing a foreign accent needs
much more time than a semester, i.e., four months, to occur), but also
learned how to improve speaking and listening comprehension abilities. They
pointed out that having software as an instructor was helpful because they
were able to practice pronunciation at their own pace. They were even able
to pre-study and re-practice what they had practiced before as much as they
desired. They maintained that they were able to listen, watch, read, and at
the same time speak via the software, which they mentioned was impossible
to do in a routine classroom setting.
Nonetheless, they mentioned some technological problems they
encountered. The most frequently reported technological problem dealt with
connection breakdowns and slow pace of dial-up connections. Another
problem that the researchers also witnessed was an occasion in which
everyone faced stop connecting via Skype after the fourth session of elearning due to which all participants had to make use of Yahoo Messenger
and Google talk. Moreover, some of them reported that they had to upgrade
their computers at home to be able to install the software or connect via
Skype. Finally, they stated that doing the online exercises helped them learn
surfing the internet and assisted them in overcoming their fear of learning
through CALL applications.

This study aimed at investigating whether utilizing CALL had any significant
impact on intermediate EFL learners foreign accent reduction. Since the
participants were homogenized both in terms of their overall language
58
proficiency and their foreign accent prior to the treatment and the only
procedural difference in their instruction was use of CALL, the significant
difference between the two groups in terms of foreign accent reduction at the
end of the treatment period could be logically attributed to the impact of
utilizing CALL applications inside the class and through e-learning.
The researchers observed that during the online sessions the students
were actively involved in freely expressing themselves without any anxiety
and fear of making mistakes. It can be interpreted that one reason for the
significant impact of CALL in the context of this study might have been lower
level of oral performance anxiety during the synchronous and asynchronous
interactions which are in nature different from the face-to-face classroom
interactions. Another plausible line of reasoning may be the fact that using
the software in the experimental group provided the participants the
opportunity to practice at their own pace as well as to the extent they desired.
This in turn may have resulted not only in greater quantity of practice but also
a practice of a different quality; perhaps a self-monitored and self-tailored
type of practice.
Moreover, the online sessions and the email exchanges between the
instructor and the students created a friendly atmosphere which could have
been another reason behind the success of the experimental group. Another
advantage of the online interactions was that all participants were able to
express their ideas whenever they wanted without interrupting others,
because the option of typing a text was always available. This of course is
not possible in the classroom setting, since one cannot understand anything
if all learners start talking about their ideas, and when waiting for their turns to
come, parts of those ideas may be lost or even the time may be over before
many get the chance to express themselves.
Finally, part of the success of the experimental group could have been
due to the nature of the feedback given through CALL. Since both the
participants performances and the researchers comments and feedback
were saved as files and then emailed, the researchers could keep all the files
and investigate and evaluate each individuals progress or even regress and
design better activities and curricula for their improvement. While doing all
these inside the usual classroom setting is not achievable due to the time
limitation.
As a final point, some suggestions are provided for the researchers who
are interested in this field of inquiry. In so far as the participants of this study
were adult students, a similar research on students of different age range
59
may come up with different results. Similar studies can also be carried out to
investigate the comparative impact of utilizing CALL applications inside the
classroom through face-to-face teaching-learning and that of the e-learning or
the synchronous and asynchronous modes of e-learning to find out which
one is more effective with respect to its impact on foreign accent reduction.
Furthermore, many teachers seem to sweep pronunciation teaching under
the carpet, and do not deal with it in any systematic way. Research is
required to find out the reasons why teachers are often so reluctant to deal
with pronunciation.
The Authors
Abdollah Baradaran is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics, Islamic Azad
University Central Tehran Branch. He has 24 years of academic teaching experience
and also heads the Graduate English Department of the same university. Dr.
Baradarans major research interest is computer-assisted language learning.
baradaranabdollah@yahoo.com
Zahra Davvari holds an M.A. in TEFL from Islamic Azad University Central Tehran
Branch. She is presently an instructor in different language schools in Tehran. Her
main research interest is computer-assisted language learning and materials
development.
sunbeam.davvari@yahoo.com
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62

IAUCTB
Error Correction in Socio-Cultural

Perspective: Feedback and Noticing in ZPD
Morvarid Lavasani
PhD Candidate in Applied Linguistics, Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch,
Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Researchers have suggested that interactional feedback which is between
teacher and learner during their writing is associated with L2 learning
because it prompts learners to notice L2 forms. This paper reports a
classroom-based study that investigated the role of feedback in sociocultural theory. In this study, 12 EFL learners performed on three writing
tasks and were provided with a three-stage procedural corrective feedback
which started with metalinguistic implicit feedback and moved to
metalinguistic implicit-explicit feedback and finally explicit correction by the
teacher. Feedback was provided to learners in response to their written
problems with past tense forms, subject-verb agreement, and countable
and uncountable nouns. Learners noticing of their written errors was
assessed through verbal recall protocols based on their journals. Their
attitude towards the procedural feedback was also checked through their
reports. The findings suggested that despite being at the same level of
proficiency as determined by the placement test of the language school,
each learner noticed the errors at one of the three stages of the implicitexplicit feedback based on his/her ZPD.
Keywords: Error correction, implicit and explicit feedback, ZPD, noticing,

socio-cultural theory, procedural feedback
Introduction
Socio-cultural theory, which was originally suggested by Vygotsky, has
influenced the domain of EFL/ESL learning to a large extent. In this theory,
the core concept is that human mind is mediated (Lantolf, 2000, p. 1) and it
holds that as human beings, we utilize physical and symbolic artifacts to
establish an indirect, or mediated, relationship between ourselves and the
world (p. 1). In the socio-cultural theory, this external mediation is then
believed to become internalized. Therefore, there came along another legacy
Feedback, Noticing, & ZPD
within the theory which is referred to as zone of proximal development or

ZPD. This zone is in fact, where the social forms of mediation develop
(Lantolf, 2000, p. 16), but not in the sense of a physical location in brain but
rather as a metaphor for observing and understanding how meditational
means are appropriated and internalized (p. 17).
Vygotsky (1978) defined ZPD as the distance between the actual
development level as determined by independent problem solving and the
level of potential development as determined through problem solving under
adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers (p. 86). ZPD has
played important roles in a variety of research domains such as psychology,
education, and applied linguistics.
The implication of the socio-cultural theory and the ZPD concept in
language teaching has been the growing emphasis that feedback and
negotiation have received in the discipline along with the belief that both lead
to a collaborative development of L2 interlanguage. Therefore, teachers are
no more left with the simple question of whether or not to correct the errors of
their students, as error correction seems to be substituted by feedback, but
rather with a plethora of other questions regarding the how of providing the
feedback.
As a result, the manner through which teachers provide feedback or the
way they correct and deal with the students errors or problems seems to be
an important issue in language teaching and learning. This implies that
research on corrective feedback and its relation to L2 development is
substantial and as a matter of fact, a huge number of studies have been
carried out on implicit versus explicit way of error correction or amount, type,
and timing of the feedback.
As an example, Long (1996) asserted that recast provided an implicit
correction strategy that assisted acquisition in a way that learners could
compare their incorrect utterances with the correct input. However, Iwashota
(2003) carried out a research on recast focusing on two structures and the
results indicated that recast had positive influence on only one of the
structures. Nevertheless, Kim and Mathes (2001) and Nagata (1993)
asserted that students preferred more explicit feedback. On the other hand,
Sheen (2004) reported that in various teaching contexts (i.e., Canada
immersion, Canada ESL, New Zealand ESL, and Korea EFL), different
corrective feedback was observed; as an example, explicit correction was
reported to be rare in Canada ESL classes but frequent in New Zealand ESL
ones. Consequently, the findings of the studies on the type of corrective
64
feedback seem to be divergent and there appears to be a controversy

regarding which one is more effective; the explicit or implicit corrective
feedback.
To adhere to one of these stances, one needs to more accurately
explain the differences between the two modes of corrective feedback. Gass
and Mackey (2007, pp. 181-182) maintain that explicit feedback includes
corrections and metalinguistic explanations and highlight some implicit forms
of feedback such as:
Confirmation checks: expressions that are designed to elicit
confirmation that an utterance has been correctly heard or
understood; for example, Is this what you mean?.
Clarification requests: expressions designed to elicit clarification of
the interlocutors preceding utterances; for example, what did you
say?.
Comprehension checks: expressions that are used to verify that an
interlocutor has understood the other; for example, Did you
understand?.
Recasts: a rephrasing of an incorrect utterance using a correct form
while maintaining the original meaning. Mackey, Oliver, and Leeman
(2003, p. 36) provide the following example for recast:
L: Why does the aliens attacked the earth?
T: Right. Why did the aliens attack earth?
Gass and Mackey (2007) assert that feedback may help to make problematic
aspects of learners inter-language salient and give them more opportunities
to focus on their production or comprehension. However, in clarifying the
effective role of feedback in ZDP, Aljaafreh and Lantolf (1994) maintain that
assistance has to be gradual with no more help provided than is necessary,
since they believe that over-assistance decreases the students ability to
become fully self-regulated. They add that, The idea is to offer just enough
assistance to encourage and guide the learner to participate in the activity
and to assume increased responsibility for arriving at the appropriate
performance (p. 469). Lantolf and Thorne (2007) commented on Aljaafreh
and Lantolf's study and mentioned that, This process is dialogic and entails
continuous assessment of the learner's ZPD and subsequent tailoring of help
65
to best facilitate developmental progression from other-regulation to selfregulation (p. 215).

According to Lantolf and Thorne (2007), ZPD has played an important
role in shifting the trends in education and psychology. They further elaborate
that contrary to the traditional tests and measures that only tapped into the
level of development already achieved and possessed, the ZPD is forwardlooking in assessment through its claim that what one can do today with
assistance is an indication of what one will be able to do independently in the
future. They finally conclude that ZPD-oriented assessments provide
developmental achievement as well as developmental potential. The other
outstanding feature of ZPD, as mentioned earlier, is that cognitive
development results from social interaction at the initial stage, meaning that
cognition is first developed interpersonally. As the next step, such an
interpersonal activity becomes internalized and thus, the foundation for
intrapersonal functioning. As Lantolf and Thorne (2006) maintain, the sociocultural theory research links the ZPD together with notions such as
scaffolding and assistance. One can infer that the type of feedback a teacher
uses can determine the type of assistance and scaffolding he/she provides
the learners with and the question remains as of which type results in a better
internalization of the target forms.
Wretsch (as cited in Donato, 1994) describes scaffolding as a
dialogically constituted inter-psychological mechanism that promotes the
novices internalization of knowledge co-constructed in shared activity (p.
41). Applying this concept to the issue of corrective feedback, it can be
deduced that through the process of error correction, negotiation, and
interaction, learners attention will be directed toward the problematic point.
As a result, errors are noticed and learners attempt to modify their output.
Clearly, claims about attention and noticing are important for SLA and
error correction. Schmidt (1990, 1993) and Robinson (1995, 2001, 2003)
argue that learners must consciously notice input in order for it to become
intake. This claim is generally referred to as the Noticing Hypothesis and was
proposed by Schmidt (1990, 1993) and explored in a number of empirical
studies (Izumi & Bigelow, 2000; Mackey, 2006; Truscott, 1998). Long (1996)
mentions that interaction encourages learners to notice and thus, causes
language development. As a result, feedback and noticing are two crucial
elements in language development.
Since the role of feedback is more obvious when students produce
output, feedback on speech or the written production of the students has
66
been investigated in SLA discipline. Hyland and Hyland (2006) believe that
feedback is a central aspect of L2 writing and that there are many ways for
giving feedback in writing but assert that some strategies are not very
effective for learners L2 development. Ellis (2009) tries to investigate error
correction systematically and elaborates on advantages and disadvantages
of the various ways of providing corrective feedback. Table 1 shows the
typology of error correction in L2 writing which is adapted from Ellis (2009).
Table 1 Typology of corrective feedback in writing adapted from Ellis (2009)
The focus of
feedback
Metalinguistic
Indirect
Direct
Feed
back
type
Definition
Advantages
Disadvantages
The teacher provides the

student with the correct form
such as crossing
unnecessary words, inserting
missing words, and writing
the correct form above or
near the erroneous form.
The teacher indicates that
the student has made errors
without actually correcting
them (e.g., by underlining the
errors or placing a cross next
to the line containing the
error).
It is a good way for low level

of proficiency according to
Ferris & Roberts (as cited in
Ellis, 2009).
It requires minimal
processing on the part
of the learner.
It encourages students to
reflect about the linguistic
form of their output and
caters guided learning and
problem solving (Lalande,
as cited by Ellis, 2009).
Not stated.
The teacher comments on

the learners errors by 1)
using some codes and either
showing or not showing the
exact place of the error, and
2) writing some details about
the nature of the errors.
It causes deep processing.a)
The teacher selectively

corrects one type of learners
errors, for example just
articles (Focused).
The teacher corrects all
learners errors (Unfocused).
Focused: Learners obtain a

rich evidence of one type of
error, therefore they reflect
more.
Error codes: There is

limited evidence that
shows error codes help
learners achieve
greater accuracy over
time.
Writing explanation: It
is time consuming for
teachers.
Unfocused: One
disadvantage of this
type of correction is
that processing all
errors is too demanding
for the learners.
b)
67
Reformulation
Electronic
The teacher indicates an

error and provides a
hyperlink to a concordance
file (either constructed or
available by searching in
Google) that provides
examples of correct usage.
It involves the teacher (native
speaker) rewriting the
students text in such a way
as to preserve as many of
the writers ideas as possible,
while expressing them in
his/her own words so as to
make the piece sound native
like (Cohen, 1989, p. 4). The
writer then revises by
deciding which of the nativespeakers reconstructions to
accept.
The students self-correct

their errors.
It is useful only for

experienced learners.
It puts a lot of burden on

students to identify the
changes to the reformulated
text.
It is designed to draw
learners attention to
higher order stylistic
and organizational
errors (Sachs & Polio,
as cited in Ellis, 2009)
As a result of all that was mentioned above, the goal of the current study was
to empirically explore the effect of gradual error correction from a more
implicit feedback to a more explicit one on the linguistic accuracy of learners
writing. That is, the teacher started with the most implicit form of corrective
feedback and in the case the learners were not able to identify the problem
and correct it, the teacher would move to a more explicit form of feedback.
The study addressed the procedural corrective feedback and its progression
from teacher- to learner-regulation within the learners ZPD. Thus, the main
objective of this study was to understand whether this approach to providing
feedback had any developmental effects or not. Therefore, the following
research questions were raised:
68
Does procedural implicit-explicit corrective feedback through

continuous learner-teacher interaction have any effect on the
linguistic accuracy of the learners?
What is learners feeling towards procedural implicit-explicit

corrective feedback?
Method
Participants
The participants in the study were 12 Iranian EFL learners who were all
female adults aged between 20 to 40 years old in an intact group. They
enrolled in a six-week pre-intermediate conversation class in a language
school in Tehran. All the participants had gone through the placement test of
the language school and therefore had more or less the same proficiency
level.
Instrumentation
Data on the procedural feedback were collected through four instruments in
this study in addition to the course book which was part of the requirements
of the language school; writing tasks for each unit of the course book,
learning journals, oral stimulated recall protocols, and a writing task as the
final assessment. In the current study, learning journals were developed to
elicit the learners errors identification (noticing) by the help of the teachers
implicit-explicit feedback on their writings. Oral stimulated recall protocols
were used to carry out continuous teacher-learner interaction and scaffolding.
Moreover, in order to answer the second question of the research, students
reports on their feelings regarding the procedural implicit-explicit corrective
feedback were collected. The details of these instruments and how they were
utilized will be discussed in the procedure section below.
Procedure
In order to be able to answer the research questions of the study, multiple
methods of data collection were utilized and both quantitative and qualitative
analyses were employed. Data was collected through a classroom-based
study and over a period of one and a half months and there was no selection
or homogenization procedure as the researcher conducted the research in
one of her intact classes. Moreover, the study did not focus on comparison
groups, as each individuals change and improvement was the main concern
of the study.
69
The course of study consisted of six hours of instruction per week with
Interchange third edition as the main course book. This book is designed in a
way that after grammar points and conversations, there is a writing task in
each unit on which the students have to write a paragraph. However, since
the aim of the book is improving the speaking ability of the learners, most of
the time writing tasks are ignored especially in conversation classes. The
grammatical points that are the focus in the writing tasks are the same as the
ones introduced in the unit, for instance past tense and used to in unit 1,
comparative and evaluation in unit 2, countable and uncountable nouns in
unit 3, and present perfect and adverbials in unit 4.
During the treatment period, students wrote three writings on the things
you used to do as a child, write a letter to the newspaper editor about the
traffic problem in the city, and write an e-mail and compare your old
apartment to the new one. The students were asked to write 50 to 60 words
on the first writing and 100 to 110 on the second and third writings and the
procedure of providing corrective feedback started with implicit correction
after the writings were collected and reviewed by the teacher.
The procedural feedback which was employed in this study ranged from
implicit, in the form of formulaic hints, to explicit corrective feedback by the
teacher. Thus, in this study all the errors were not corrected by the teacher at
once and in one session to avoid the negative impact of over-assistance
discussed in the previous section. Moreover, it has to be mentioned that in
this study scaffolding was conceived as the interaction or the dialogue
between the teacher (the external mediator) and the learners with the aim of
correction and was not based on the definition of Donato (1994) who extends
the scaffolding framework to peer interaction and suggests that learners can
scaffold one another or mutually construct assistance in much the same way
that experts scaffold the performance of novices. The interaction or the
scaffolding was carried out through oral stimulated recall protocols as fully
explained later in this section. Moreover, noticing, as the other focus of the
study, was operationalized in terms of students report of their error
identification through learning journals which will be discussed hereunder.
The feedback the teacher provided on the writings was unfocused based
on the typology by Ellis (2009), in other words, the teacher corrected all types
of errors that the students made in their writings. However, the teacherstudent interaction which comprised the scaffolding after the feedback,
mainly focused on tenses, especially past tense, subject-verb agreement,
and the use of the correct form of the verbs, articles, modal verbs, and
countable and uncountable nouns. The feedback was carried out in a nine70
stage procedure which moved from implicit to explicit correction. The details
of the procedure are presented in Table 2 below.
Table 2 Regulatory scale: procedural implicit to explicit corrective feedback

used in the study
Stage
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Description
In studying each unit, the learners had to write a piece of writing which was related
to the grammatical points of the unit.
The teacher collected all the writings.
The teacher just wrote below each writing how many errors each learner had. In
addition, the teacher wrote some general rules and formulas regarding the errors.
That is, the teacher did not resolve the problematic points and did not write the
corrected form (detail is explained below).
The teacher returned the students writings which included the implicit feedback.
She asked them to read their writings, find the errors, correct them, and hand in the
writings in the following session.
The following session, the teacher would collect the papers and check whether the
students had identified their errors or not.
1- If they had identified and corrected their problems, the teacher would
give approval.
2- If the errors had gone unnoticed or the learners had not been able to find
all their errors, the teacher would guide them into the next stage.
In the next stage, the teacher tried to give some explicit hints for correction such as
highlighting the number of the line in which the error had appeared. Then the
writings were returned to the students and the same procedure was followed.
If the learners could not yet identify their errors, in the next stage the teacher would
explicitly write the correct form.
Students were asked to note down their errors in the journal that the teacher had
provided them with and to keep all journals until the end of the semester (See
Appendix).
The students were asked to give a verbal report based on their journals. They were
also encouraged to provide a written report about their feelings toward this
procedure.
The ZPD of the learners are not the same. Some learners can detect the
error by one implicit hint and correct it immediately. This group of learners
can manage a task immediately with the teachers help. However, some
learners need more explanation and explicit hints from the teacher in order to
find and correct all their problems. Such learners need to go through more
number of stages. Through Figure 1, the researcher has attempted to
demonstrate the different stages of the procedural corrective feedback as
well as the different layers of learners capability to accomplish the task of
71
error correction. Therefore, it is assumed that the degree of implicitness or

explicitness of the corrective feedback corresponds with the learners
capability or ZPD. As it is demonstrated in Figure 1, learners have different
ZPDs; some learners at stage one (the inner circle) can notice and correct
their errors through the most implicit type of feedback, while others need
more help to develop their inter-language (the outer circles).
Figure 1 Procedural implicit-explicit corrective feedback and the ZPD model

of the study
The types of error correction that were used in this study were based on Ellis
(2009) typology as described below:
1- Metalinguistic implicit corrective feedback: The teacher provided
some kind of metalinguistic clues at the bottom of the writings and
provided some examples. This type of feedback was indirect as the
teacher did not correct the errors. For example, the teacher would
give some hints like a structure formula followed by an example:
(Modal + simple verb I should go), (subject verb agreement
The house has two windows), (using the correct tense for talking
about past I had a good time when I was a child). (The detailed
description of Stage 3 in Table 2)
2- Metalinguistic implicit-explicit corrective feedback: The teacher
highlighted the line which contained the error; she neither underlined
the error itself nor provided the corrected form. Though still implicit,
this stage was a bit more explicit than the previous one as the
location of the error (the line) was highlighted for the student.
3- Explicit corrective feedback: The teacher would directly and
explicitly correct the error by writing the correct form for the student.
72
Figure 2 shows the three-stage procedure for correcting the grammatical

errors used in this study. It has to be noted that methods of implicit and
explicit correction were taken from Ellis error typology discussed earlier.
Metalinguistic
Explicit corrective
implicit-explicit
feedback (Direct
corrective
correction by the
feedback
teacher)
(Highlighting the
Figure 2 The procedure of corrective
line) feedback utilized in the study
Metalinguistic implicit
corrective feedback
(formulas + examples)
After the students wrote their paragraphs and the teacher gave the
metalinguistic implicit feedback, at the beginning of the following session
there was an exchange of writing between the learners and the teacher. The
teacher explained the formulas she had written on the papers and helped the
learners in case there was any confusion. The learners had to write down
their errors in the learning journals they were supposed to keep, the format of
which the teacher had provided them with. According to Allwright (1984),
learning journals should be designed in a way to empirically examine
learners reports on L2 classroom. The learning journals were introduced on
the first day of the classes before the beginning of the experiment. As part of
the regular instructional technique, the learners filled out and collected the
journals. In other words, after each feedback procedure, the learners filled
out the journals and this procedure was repeated for all the three writing
tasks.
The learning journals provided opportunities for the learners to record:
(a) which language forms or concepts they noticed including grammar and
spelling; (b) in which stage of teacher feedback they noticed their errors, that
is, by the first meta-cognitive implicit, the second meta-cognitive implicitexplicit, or the third explicit corrective feedback. Therefore, noticing was
operationalized as the learners report of identifying their errors by the help of
metalinguistic implicit codes or implicit-explicit feedback that the teacher
provided at the end of their writings. The data on noticing were collected
through two procedures; (a) Filling out learning journals after identifying all
errors by the students; (b) Conducting oral stimulated recall protocols
(Mackey & Gass, 2005).
73
To put it in other words, the oral stimulated recall protocols were the
ground for the teacher-student interaction or scaffolding through which the
teacher-researcher tried to encourage students noticing. The learner-teacher
interaction lasted for the three writings and gradually the learners noticing
and attention to different linguistic aspects increased as discussed in the next
section.
According to Mackey and Gass (2005), there are essentially two types of
verbal reports that are used: recalls and think-aloud. They maintain that thinkaloud involves reporting the event as it is occurring, and as such it involves
somewhat a stream of consciousness. The aim is to explore the thought
processes of a learner as he or she is doing a task. Whereas think-alouds are
generally conducted during the activity, Mackey and Gass maintain that
recalls are conducted following an activity. Recalls can be done with some
stimulus (e.g., a video or audio of the event that the participant is reporting on
or a written paper that a learner has written) or without them. In the latter
case, there is no stimulus to rely on; only the individuals recollection of the
event with the same focus on obtaining the thought processes at the time of
the original event.
In addition, after the collection of the recall protocols, the teacher asked
the students to write their feelings about the procedural corrective feedback.
Moreover, these written reports were used to elicit the learners impressions
about the interactions in the classroom. Learners reported the noticed
feedback which they identified and corrected by the implicit clue of the
teacher. As the final assessment, the topic of task 2 which was related to the
grammatical points of Unit 2 and the usage of Wish was given to the
learners since they had made the most errors in that unit (see Figure 3 in the
following section). At the end, the participants also recalled their feelings
regarding the interactional and procedural implicit-explicit feedback in a
report.
Results
Results of Analyzing the Students Writings
The objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of implicitexplicit feedback procedure and to increase the noticing of the errors by the
learners in one pre-intermediate classroom since the activity was highly timeconsuming. Figure 3 demonstrates the number of students errors in the three
74
writings as well as the final assessment. As Figure 3 shows, the number of

the participants errors dropped from the second to the third and again to the
final writing. The reason for the fact that the students committed much fewer
errors in the first writing was that they wrote only 50 to 60 words in the first
writing but 100 to 110 words in the subsequent writings. This difference in the
number of words was set by the researcher deliberately since she did not
want the first writing task to be demanding for the students.
Figure 3 The frequency of errors in all the writing tasks
Table 2 summaries the stages of corrective feedback and the learners

success to notice and correct their errors for each of the writings. Value 1 in
Table 2 demonstrates the success and value 0 the failure of the student to
identify and correct the error. When no value is reported, it means that there
was no error to be corrected. Note has to be made that the first, second, and
third stages of feedback refer to metalinguistic implicit, metalinguistic implicitexplicit, and explicit corrective feedback, respectively. In addition, the last two
columns in Table 2 illustrate the number of learners errors in the second and
the final writing for the purpose of comparison. The reason why the first
writing was not compared with the final assessment was that the two writings
were not equal in terms of the number of words written. Moreover, since the
students had the most number of errors in the second writing task, the same
task was given to them again as the final assessment for a sound
comparison.
75
Table 2 Stage of corrective feedback and learners success/failure in noticing

and correcting the errors
Writing 1
Feedback
stage
Students
S1
S2
S3
S4
S5
S6
S7
S8
S9
S10
S11
S12
1st
2nd
1
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
1
1
0
1
1
Writing 2
3rd
0
0
Number of errors
in the 2nd and
final writing
Writing 3
1st
2nd
3rd
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
0
1st
1
1
0
1
0
1
1
1
0
1
1
0
2nd
3rd
2nd
Writing
Final
writing
2
9
4
8
10
0
5
7
1
6
2
3
2
5
4
3
1
1
1
2
2
4
2
4
As the data for the first writing task demonstrates in Table 2, different
students had different ZPDs. Students 1, 5, 8, 9, 11, and 12 appeared to
have the same ZPD as they were able to notice their errors with the first and
most implicit type of corrective feedback. Students 2 and 10 were also the
same in terms of their ZPD as they both noticed their errors in the second
stage of corrective feedback which included implicit-explicit feedback.
Whereas students 3 and 4 were at the lowest ZPD and the teacher had to
finally explicitly correct their errors, students 6 and 7 were at the highest ZPD
compared to others as they had no errors on the first task.
Comparing the first and the second task in Table 2, students 4 and 10
demonstrated an improvement compared to the first task (even though the
first required fewer number of words) in that they noticed their errors in the
second task with a more implicit feedback compared to the first task.
Students 3, 6, 9, 11, and 12 demonstrated the same level of noticing and
thus no improvement. However, students 1, 2, 5, 7, and 8 had a lower level of
noticing in the second task: students 1, 5, and 7 demonstrated the need for
the implicit-explicit feedback though they had noticed their errors with the
implicit feedback in the first task (student 7 had not had any errors); students
2 and 8 failed to notice their errors at all stages of the feedback in the second
76
writing. This demonstrated that the second task was more difficult for the
majority of the students (as also depicted by Figure 3).
Moreover, the comparison of task 2 and 3 also shows that, on the whole,
task 2 was more difficult than task 3 as well (only students 1, 2, 7, and 8
demonstrated improvement compared to task 2 and the rest performed
worse) and for that reason task 2 was again used for the final assessment to
make a solid ground for comparison.
Finally, the comparison of the second and final task in Table 2 shows
that students 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 10 demonstrated noticeably fewer errors in the
final assessment which is an indication of the effectiveness of the procedural
corrective feedback. However, students 1, 3, and 11 demonstrated the same
number of errors and students 6, 9, and 12 each committed one error more
than the second task in the final assessment.
Figure 4 tries to depict the ZPD of each learner in terms of the stage in
which they managed to identify and correct their errors. In Figure 4 the black
bars show the initial number of errors that students committed in the second
writing task, the lightest gray bars show the noticing in the meta-cognitive
implicit stage, the darker gray bars show the noticing in metalinguistic
implicit-explicit stage, and the darkest gray bars with black borders show the
explicit correction.
As it is evident, students number 4, 9, 10, 11, and 12 successfully
noticed their errors in the first stage of most implicit feedback. Students
number 1, 5, and 7 were able to notice their errors in the second stage of
feedback which included meta-cognitive implicit-explicit feedback. Finally,
students 2, 3, and 8 were unable to notice their errors and therefore relied on
the teachers explicit correction.
When these learners are checked in the final assessment (refer to Table
2), it is observed that students 2, 3, and 8 who noticed their errors in the
second phase of correction on the second task and students 1, 5, and 7 who
failed to notice their errors on the second task and finally resorted to the
teachers explicit correction, all committed fewer errors in the final
assessment. This demonstrates the positive impact of the procedural
feedback on students noticing and improvement of one aspect of their
interlanguage.
77
number of errors
metalinguistic implicit corrective feedback
metalinguistic implicit-explicit corrective feedback
explicit corrective feedback
10
9
88
8
7
66
5
4
4
33
2
11
0
2 2
1 11
2
00
0 0000
1
0
2
1 11
00
22
00
00
00
Figure 4 Students ZPDs based on the stages of procedural implicit-explicit

corrective feedback in the second writing
Results of the Students Reports

As mentioned earlier, the students were also asked to report their feelings
and attitude about the procedural corrective feedback they experienced. They
were also asked to take account or recall the type of error they made. For
example, one of the learners mentioned in her recall protocol that she had
many errors such as spelling problems, tense use (e.g., incorrect usage of
used to) and one of her erroneous outputs was she didnt used to go or had
problems in countable and uncountable nouns, for example, she had
produced many pollution instead of much pollution.
Some of the students reflections in their recall protocols are presented
hereunder as a sample:
78
I understood my errors deeply.

Prior to this way of correction, when the teachers corrected my
mistakes I didnt concentrate on my errors.
I read my writing a lot to find my mistakes and sometimes I study
some grammatical books or use dictionary. By this way I remember
my problems in future.
When I understood my problems I tried hard to solve them.
When I found my mistakes on my own, I will understand better and I
won't forget it.
It was like a game since I had to find my problems I enjoyed a lot.
Before I always put my writings in my book and had never looked at
my mistakes.
By this way I eager to study more and more.
The reports by the learners regarding their feelings toward the task
demonstrated their positive attitudes toward this procedure. Based on their
reports as well as the random feedback they gave to the teacher during the
course, it was realized that prior to this procedure students had experienced
various methods of more or less ineffective correction. But in this new
method students had a different view of their errors and were motivated to
tract their own mistakes to such an extent that one of the students referred to
this procedure as a game.

The main focus of the study was exploring the process as well as the effect of
the procedural implicit-explicit feedback on learners noticing of their errors
and finally improving those problems as an example of their inter-language
development. As the results demonstrated, the total number of the errors
which all learners made in the final writing decreased to half in comparison to
the second writing. This comparison was justified due to the fact that both
writings had the same topic with the same focused grammatical points.
Another interesting point was that little by little the noticing level of the
learners increased. As Lantolf (2000) believes, social context and interaction
mediate language learning and in this study, teachers continuous mediation
with procedural implicit-explicit feedback had positive effect not only on
noticing the errors but also in terms of the number of errors they made.
79
The findings of this study are also in line with that of Nassaji and Swain
(2000) who set out their study in line with Aljaafreh and Lantolfs (1994) study
which was about the contingency of scaffolding in learners ZPD. Nassaji and
Swain worked with two groups of Korean adult learners and just focused on
the use of definite and indefinite articles in English. For one group they
applied implicit feedback to written assignment at the beginning and in the
case that the learner did not find the error, progressively more explicit
feedback was provided for the learner until the learner could correct the error.
They claimed that scaffolding was done based on the ZPD of the
learner. On the other hand, random explicit or implicit feedback was provided
for the other group. At the end of their study, the first group of learners
outperformed the second group who just received random explicit or implicit
feedback. They claimed that their study was consistent with the Vygotskian
socio-cultural perspective in which knowledge is defined as social in nature
and is constructed through a process of collaboration, interaction, and
communication among learners in social setting and as the result of
interaction with the ZPD ( p. 49).
Taking the individual learners into consideration in this study rather than
focusing on the total number of errors of all students, six students
demonstrated fewer errors in the final assessment compared to the second
one which is again a support for what is mentioned above. However, students
number 1, 3, and 11 had the same number of errors in both tasks and thus
did not show any improvement. Generally, we can conclude that this gradual
correction procedure did not have an impact on these specific learners
performance across writing tasks. Of course, one has to bear in mind that
some intervening variables such as high affective filter, fatigue, classroom
setting and environment, and the attitude of the learners may have had an
adverse effect on their performance in the final writing. Moreover, the type of
grammatical errors in focus might also be a factor. That is to say,
grammatical points differ in terms of difficulty for different learners. Therefore,
some grammatical points may be more difficult for the learners to learn and
they might thus need more corrective feedback. Moreover, the limited
number of the writing tasks and thus the number of times the learners
experienced the procedural corrective feedback might have been another
factor which can yet be evidence for the differing ZPD of different students
when one compares the mentioned students with those who were positively
influenced by the procedure.
On the other hand, students number 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 10 had lower
number of errors in the final assessment. This supports the positive effect of
80
procedural corrective feedback on the development of learners

interlanguage. The reason for the effectiveness of such a procedure might
have been the fact that it resulted in higher degrees of student involvement
both cognitively and meta-cognitively and consequently the analysis and
further correction or the noticing happened at a deeper level.
Furthermore, it can be also said that such a gradual and step by step
implicit-explicit feedback fits into the ZPD of the learners. That is, based on
their ZPDs and the difficulty of the task, learners would quite naturally
respond to teachers feedback in that they would respond to each stage of
feedback (implicit or explicit) in case their ZPD tunes into the type of
feedback. For example, students 1 and 11 who did not show any
improvement from task 2 to the final task, demonstrated almost the same
ZPD throughout the three tasks. Moreover, students 9 and 12, whos noticing
is discussed hereunder and demonstrated an additional error in the final
assessment compared to the second one, demonstrated exactly the same
ZPD throughout all three tasks; they both noticed their errors with the first
stage of feedback in tasks 1 and 2 and completely failed to notice their errors
in task 3.
Therefore, the procedural corrective feedback seems to have had a
reverse effect on students 6, 9, and 12. Note has to be taken, though, that
these learners committed only one error more in the final task compared to
the second one. However, if one does not intend to ignore this small
difference and count it as a reverse effect, one justification could be the
existence of other factors that might have intervened with the learners
performance way beyond their linguistic capacity; factors such as motivation,
attitude, and physical state which might have an unwanted influence on the
construct under investigation. This justification seems to be appealing as
students 9 and 12 demonstrated a very strange pattern as mentioned above:
they both were able to notice their errors with the first implicit feedback on
both tasks 1 and 2 but failed to notice their errors in task 3 and had more
errors in the final task compared to the second task.
Another interesting finding to be discussed is the fact that students who
demonstrated the same ZPD in one task, demonstrated a different ZPD on
the other tasks. This is another evidence for the fact that the difficulty of the
task might be an important intervening variable when the impact of
procedural implicit-explicit feedback is investigated on the noticing of learners
based on their ZPDs. Therefore, further investigation is required to probe into
the effect of the interaction among task difficulty, procedural implicit-explicit
feedback, and learners ZPD.
81
An important issue to note for discussing the findings of this study is its
limitation in terms of the number of participants and the time devoted to the
procedural feedback. Detailed classroom-based studies such as this, with
their use of intact groups may not be generalizable to a larger population of
learners (Packard, as cited in Mackey, 2006, p. 425). However, studies using
intact classes are also more likely to have external validity because they are
conducted under conditions closer to those normally found in educational
contexts (Seliger & Shohamy, 1989, p.149).
Thus, another issue that will need to be addressed in future research is
that of time. The current study was conducted over a relatively short period of
time and thus with few samples of writing. It would be of interest to determine
for how long any effects of interactional feedback persists using an
appropriate longer term measures. The other limitation of this study was that
it did not determine in which grammatical form learners improved or for which
type of linguistic form (e.g., tense, agreement, modal) this gradual implicitexplicit feedback was useful.
The results only showed the general overview of the learners
improvement in noticing and correction and the detail was not investigated.
Moreover, the researcher is aware of the fact that conditions under which the
research was carried out was not void of some undesirable factors as in
controlled experimental conditions. Many factors such as motivation, time of
the day, attitudes, and other factors were not closely taken into consideration.
Finally, this research suggested that there may be an association
between noticing and learning and has pointed to the role of procedural
implicit-explicit corrective feedback as a mediator in the noticing and the
learning of the learners. Therefore, the study highlights the importance of
including the procedural corrective feedback in the teacher educators
agenda and TTC courses.
Received on February 5, 2010
The Author
Morvarid Lavasani is a PhD candidate in Applied Linguistics, Islamic Azad
University Science and Research Branch. She has been teaching English in different
language schools for seven years as well as two years in Alameh Tabatabayi
University and Islamic Azad University Karaj Branch. She has published three papers
82
in the ELT domain and is specifically interested in learner autonomy, critical

pedagogy, and teacher education.
ml.365@hotmail.com
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processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Wertsch, J. V. (1979). From social interaction to higher psychological processes: A
clarification and application of Vygotskys theory. Human Development, 22, 1-22.
Appendix
Sample Learning Journal for Noticing
What did you notice?
Did you get it in first or second time of correction?
Did the teacher correct your errors? What was that?
84

IAUCTB
The Relationship Between EFL Teachers

Emotional Intelligence and Their
Effectiveness in Managing Young Learners
Classrooms
Hamid Marashi
Zaynab Zaferanchi
Abstract
This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between EFL
teachers emotional intelligence (EI) and their effectiveness in managing
young learners classrooms. A total of 25 female teachers of Kish
Language School in Tehran expressed their willingness to participate in
this study and a briefing session was conducted for them. Two sessions of
each teachers classes were observed by two raters who used the
Murdoch (2000) checklist to score the effectiveness of each teachers
teaching once their inter-rater reliability had been established. At the end
of the two observation sessions, the Bar-On EQ-i was administered to
each teacher to test her EI. To find out the relationship between the two
variables of this study, that is the teachers EI and their effectiveness in
managing young learners classrooms, a Pearson correlation was carried
out. The result showed that EFL teachers EI had a significant relationship
with their effectiveness in managing young learners classrooms.
Furthermore, a subsequent linear regression analysis also demonstrated
that teachers EI was a significant predictor of their effectiveness in
managing young learners classrooms.
Keywords: emotional intelligence, effective teaching, managing classroom,

young learners
Introduction
The quest for improving learning has been an ongoing endeavor in all the
subfields of education, language pedagogy being no exception. To this end, a
sizeable portion of the endeavors in terms of theorization and empirical
research has been focused on the variables of both teachers and learners
Teachers EQ and Their Effectiveness in Young Learners Classes
with the aim of investigating how manipulation of such variables could

facilitate language learning as the personal qualities of teachers may very
much affect the effectiveness of their practice (Reynolds, 2000; Yates, 2005).
Gordon (2001) believes that the teacher bears the power to establish a
kind and respectful learning environment to expedite the learning process. He
further argues that the teacher who plays a perhaps indelible role in fostering
the students learning needs is a whole person and it is this very whole
persons personality traits that could conduce more effective classroom
management and thereby higher learning.
One such personality trait is emotional intelligence (EI). Albeit the
concept of EI may be arguably rooted back in the works of Thorndike (1920)
who identified social intelligence as the ability to understand and manage
men and women, boys and girls to act wisely in human relations (p. 228), the
term itself was first mentioned decades later in a doctoral dissertation by
Payne (1985) who proposed one can overcome his/her deficiencies when it
comes to emotional functioning by showing solidity and substance vis--vis
fear or desire.
Three years later, Bar-On (1988) referred to the emotional quotient
which is the term commonly used today to refer to an individuals emotional
intelligence score. He defined EI as being concerned with understanding both
oneself and other people while relating to them and managing to adapt to and
cope with the immediate surroundings thus more successfully handling
environmental demands (Bar-On, 1997). This definition is somewhat more in
line with the practical definition of teachers success in managing their
classes.
Salovey and Mayer (1990) defined EI as ones ability to monitor ones
own and others feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to
use this information to guide ones thinking and actionit is a unique
cognitive ability based upon emotion that is operationalized in an individuals
social environment (p. 189). Subsequent studies in the 1990s implicated the
importance of EI as a variant of standard intelligence and a key component of
self-regulation (Cherniss & Goleman, 1998; Mayer & Salovey, 1997; Salovey,
Hsee, & Mayer 1993).
It was not until the publication of Daniel Golemans best seller EI: Why It
Can Matter More Than IQ in 1995, however, that the term became widely
popularized. Goleman (1995) defined EI as including self-awareness, impulse
control, zeal and motivation, empathy, and social deftness. Golemans work
ignited a vast new interest in EI with different descriptions and studies being
86
documented (Boyatzis & Goleman, 2001; Boyatzis, Goleman, & Rhee, 2000;
Brackett & Mayer, 2003; Ciarrochi, Chan, & Caputi, 2000; Dawda, & Hart,
2000; Sala, 2002).
At the most general level, EI refers to the ability among people to
recognize and regulate emotions in themselves and others (Goleman, 2001).
Spielberger (2006) suggests that there are three major conceptual models of
EI: the Mayer and Salovey (1997) model, the Goleman (1998) model, and the
Bar-On (2000) model. Bar-On (2003) further defined EI by writing that,
Emotional and social intelligence in connection with the EQ-i is a crosssection of interrelated emotional and social competencies that determine how
effectively we understand and express ourselves, understand others and
relate with them, and cope with daily demands and pressures (p. 117).
Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso (2002) define emotions as signals that
convey regular and discernable meanings about relationships; they further
hold that a number of basic emotions are universal. Furthermore, Mayer,
Salovey, Caruso, and Sitarenios (2003) attempted to define EI as a new form
of intelligence. The abundance of definitions, however, have led to a
confusion over the concept as Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso (2008) noted in a
more recent work that:
The original definition of EI conceptualized it as a set of interrelated
abilities, yet other investigators have described EI as an eclectic mix
of traits such as happiness, self-esteem, optimism, and selfmanagement. This alternative approach to the concept the use of
the term to designate eclectic mixes of traits has led to
considerable confusion and misunderstandings as to what EI is or
should be. (p. 503)
Despite the multiplicity and perhaps the inconformity of the definitions of EI,
many researchers have described the importance of emotion in the learning
process and in the construction of meaning and that if an event is related to
positive emotions, there is a greater chance for successful patterning to take
place (Caine & Caine, 1997; Cherniss, 2000; Jensen, 2005; Muijs &
Reynolds, 2001). Hence, a teachers handling of the emotional aspect in a
classroom may be a decisive factor in the degree of his/her effectiveness of
teaching.
Research indicates that a teacher who encourages warm interactions in
the classroom and enables learners to influence their environment actually
consolidates their interest in learning and ability to refrain from self87
destructive behaviors (Borich, 2003; Hawkins & Catalano, 1992; Jones &
Tanner, 2005; Linn & Gronlund, 2000).
Agne, Greenwood, and Miller (1994) argue that effective teachers hold
two discernible features which distinguish them from less effective ones:
positive rapport with the students they teach and genuine respect for them
and that students could more successfully reciprocate love and care towards
others if affection were modeled for them. McBers (2000) report indicates
that the most effective teachers win the day through creating a positive
classroom climate where students feel respect and trust alongside being
supported.
To promote the above positive atmosphere, a teacher needs to be
emotionally fit; teachers with behavior management and classroom discipline
problems are frequently ineffective when it comes to classroom management
and often complain of high levels of stress and symptoms of burnout
(Berliner, 1986; Espin & Yell, 1994).
A multitude of research depicts that effective classroom management
raises student engagement, lowers disruptive behaviors, and makes good
use of instructional time (Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, as cited in Conte, 1994).
Therefore, teachers who walk inside the classroom with effective classroom
management plans obtain more success in eliciting positive student behavior.
Because of the key importance of the teacher in the pedagogical
process, empowering him/her in terms of both knowledge and enthusiasm
would bear a positive impact on the outcome of his/her instruction. This of
course is not what could be expected of the teacher on his/her own. If
teachers, says Richards (2001), are expected to teach well and to develop
their teaching skills and knowledge over time, they need ongoing support (p.
210). Hence, enhancing teacher effectiveness is perhaps more of an
institutional matter rather than an entirely personal endeavor of the teacher.
In line with what has been discussed so far and prompted by a study
conducted by Ghanizadeh and Moafian (2009) who investigated the
relationship between teachers EI and their effectiveness, the researchers
were interested to see the pattern in the context of teaching young learners.
Accordingly, the following two questions were raised:
88
Is there any significant relationship between EFL teachers EI and

their effectiveness in managing young learners classrooms?
Is EFL teachers EI a significant predictor of their effectiveness in

managing young learners classrooms?
Method
Participants
The teachers who participated willingly in the present study were 25 Iranian
female EFL teachers. They were all teaching at one of the Central Tehran
units of Kish Language School and all had more than five years of teaching
experience. These teachers taught in young learners classes only (out of
choice of course) and they did not have any adult classes in this school.
Instrumentation
An EI questionnaire (EQ-i) and a checklist were used in this study which are
described below.
Bar-On EQ-i Test

The EQ-i is a self-report measure of emotionally and socially intelligent
behavior that provides an estimate of emotional-social intelligence. The EQ-i
was the first measure of its kind to be published by a psychological test
publisher (Bar-On, 1997), the first such measure to be peer-reviewed in the
Buros Mental Measurement Yearbook (Plake & Impara, 1999), and the most
widely used measure of emotional-social intelligence to date (Bar-On, 2001;
Bar-On & Handley, 2003).
In brief, the EQ-i contains 133 items in the form of short sentences and
employs a five-point response scale with a textual response format ranging
from very seldom or not true of me (1) to very often true of me or true of
me (5). A list of the inventorys items is found in the instruments technical
manual (Bar-On, 1997). The EQ-i is suitable for individuals 17 years of age
and older and takes approximately 40 minutes to complete. The Farsi version
of the questionnaire which had proven to be valid by Pishghadam (2007) was
applied.
The EI test was scored based on guidelines provided by Bar-On (1997).
The table of the EI scoring and sub-categories is available in the Appendix.
89
Murdochs (2000) Checklist

The instrument used for evaluating effective teaching in the process of this
research was Murdochs (2000) checklist. This checklist was selected since,
according to Brown (2001), it had been prepared exclusively for observing
language teachers. It contains three parts: Part A ELT competences (24
questions), Part B general teaching competences (10 questions), and part C
teaching competences (20 questions). As this instrument was very detailed
and some parts were not directly related to the variables of this research,
classroom management and the teachers personality factor and the
questions relevant to them were selected and used in this study. The
complete checklist contains 54 items each followed by four values from 1 to 4
(i.e., 4 = excellent, 3 = above average, 2 = average, 1 = unsatisfactory) and
N/A meaning not applicable.
The 30 questions which were related to classroom management in this
test were extracted. Both the complete version and the selected type of
Murdochs (2000) checklist are available in the Appendix. The total score was
calculated based on the mean of values given to the teachers by two raters
(one of the researchers and an official supervising observer of Kish
Language School with more than six years of experience of observing
classes) who had demonstrated inter-rater reliability.
Procedure
To conduct this research, a briefing session was first of all arranged for the
participants who were all teachers of young learners in two Central Tehran
branches of Kish Language School (Jomhoori and Komayl). The different
aspects of the research were elaborated mainly to assure the teachers that
the result of the observations was going to be used just for the research
purpose, and also no intervention on the side of the two observers would take
place in their classes. At the end of the briefing session, the teachers who
themselves said they were interested to take part in the study enrolled their
names in the research process (a total of 25).
Next, each of the 25 teachers was observed by the two raters for two
entire sessions. The observation was the main process of collecting data in
this research. According to Bailey (as cited in Carter & Nunan, 2001, p. 114),
classroom observation can serve four functions: first comes the pre-service
teacher observation as a regular part of pre-service training programs.
Second, the observer observes practicing teachers for the professional
90
development. Third is the observation done to judge the extent to which

teachers fulfill the expectation of the administration. Fourth, observation is
used as a means of collecting data in classroom research.
Prior to the observations, a separate briefing session was held for the
official supervisor to inform her about the different dimensions of the study,
particularly, the classroom management factors that had to be observed.
Moreover, during the process of the study, the two raters had different
meetings to arrange the order of observation, and to exchange the data they
would gather in the process through using the Murdoch checklist (described
above).
To further capture the classroom atmosphere, the raters arranged to
observe teachers whenever they wanted to teach songs or chants which by
nature motivate young learners to be more actively involved; consequently,
the classroom had to be managed effectively (the transcription of events in
one sample class which was recorded is available in the Appendix).
For the final phase, the EQ-i was administered to find out if there was a
significant correlation between the obtained scores of the teachers on the
Murdoch checklist and their EQ-i. Applying the EQ-i at first would raise their
awareness toward the emotional aspect that was going to be observed;
hence, it was postponed until the completion of the observation sessions.
Results
A series of both descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted in this
study to respond to the two questions raised. These analyses are presented
below in a chronological order.
Participants Scores on the EQ-i

The descriptive statistics of the administration of the EQ-i to the 25 teachers
participating in this study appear below in Table 1. As is evident, the mean
and standard deviation of the obtained EQ-i scores were 400.08 and 16.92,
respectively.
91
Table 1 Descriptive statistics of the obtained scores on the EQ-i
EQ-i
Valid N
(listwise)
Min
Max
Mean
Std.
Deviation
25
372.00
434.00
400.08
16.92
Skewness
Statistic
.220
Std. error
.464
25
Participants Scores on the Murdoch Checklist

Next, the descriptive statistics of the participants performance on the
Murdoch questionnaire was computed. First, Table 2 below displays the
scores provided by each of the two raters to the 25 teachers.
Table 2 Descriptive statistics of the scores given by the two raters on the
Murdoch checklist
Rater 1
Rater 2
Min
Max
Mean
Std.
Deviation
25
25
74.00
70.00
104.00
105.00
91.24
89.09
9.35
9.81
Skewness
Statistic
-.875
-.606
Std. error
.972
.972
As discussed earlier, the inter-rater reliability of the two raters had to be

checked. As the skewness ratios of the two sets of scores given by the raters
were -0.90 (-0.875 / 0.972) and -0.62 (-0.606 / 0.972) both falling within the
acceptable range of 1.96, running the Pearson correlation which is a
parametric test was legitimized.
Table 3 shows that the inter-rater reliability of the two raters was
significant.
Table 3 Inter-rater reliability of the two raters

Rater 2
Pearson Correlation
.836**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
25
Rater 1
92
Hence, the mean values given by the two raters were taken into
consideration as the final scores of the Murdoch checklist. Table 4 displays
this information with the mean and standard deviation standing at 89.66 and
8.83, respectively.
Table 4 Descriptive statistics of the mean scores given by the two raters on
the Murdoch checklist
Murdoch
Valid N
(listwise)
Skewness
Min
Max
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Statistic
Std. error
25
73.00
104.50
89.66
8.83
-.436
.464
25
First Research Question

To see whether a significant relationship existed between the teachers EI
and their effectiveness in managing young childrens classes, the Pearson
Correlation Coefficient had to be run. Prior to this of course, the assumptions
for running this parametric test had to be checked, that is linearity, normality,
and homoscedasticity of the two distributions of scores. To inspect the first
parameter (linearity), the researchers used a scatterplot of the two variables
of the study (Figure 1). As shown in this scatterplot, there was no kind of
nonlinear relationship between the scores on the two batteries. Hence, the
relationship was assumed linear and running parametric correlation was
legitimate.
Figure 1 Scatterplot of the obtained scores on the EQ-i and the Murdoch
checklist
93
As for the second parameter normality of the distributions going back to

Tables 1 and 4, the skewness ratios of both distributions fell within the
acceptable range of 1.96 (0.220 / 0.464 = 0.474 and 0.436 / 0.464 = 0.939);
hence, the distributions were normal. The remaining assumption which had to
be checked was homoscedastcity, that is, the assumption that the variability
in scores for the EQ-i should be similar at all values of the scores on the
Murdoch Checklist; to this end, the researchers examined the residuals plot
(Figure 2).
Figure 2 Plot of studentized residuals for the Murdoch checklist
As demonstrated by Figure 2, the cloud of data was scattered randomly

across the plot and thus the variance is homogeneous. With all the
assumptions of correlation having been met, the researchers could run the
Pearson Correlation to respond to the first question of the study (Table 5).
Table 5 Correlation of the obtained scores on the EQ-i and the Murdoch
checklist
Murdoch
Pearson Correlation
.436**
EQ-i
Sig. (2-tailed)
.048
N
25
94
As demonstrated by Table 5 above, the correlation came out to be significant

at 0.01 level (r = 0.436, p = 0.048 < 0.05).
Table 6 Correlation report

No of cases
Sig (2-tailed)
R2
25
.436
.048
.19
According to Table 6 above, R2 (or common variance) which is the effect size
for correlation came out to be 0.19. Common variances of 10-25% are
considered to be of medium effect size (Larson-Hall, 2010).
As a result, the researchers were able to conclude that indeed there is a
significant relationship between Iranian EFL Teachers EI and their
effectiveness in managing young learners classrooms.
Second Research Question

To respond to the second question (i.e., whether the teachers EI was a
significant predictor of their effectiveness in managing young childrens
classes or not), a linear regression was run (Table 7). The researchers used
enter method for the regression model and the predictor variable was
teachers EI and the predicted variable was teachers classroom
management.
Table 7 Variables of the regression model 2
Model
Variables entered
Variables removed
Method
EQ2a
---
Enter
a.
All requested variables entered

Dependent variable: Murdoch
b.
Table 8 below represents R and R square for this regression analysis.
95
Table 8 Model summary: R and R square

Model
R square
Adjusted R
square
Std. error of the

estimate
.436a
.191
.148
8.47579
a.
Predictors: (constant), EQ-i
As reported in Table 8, the R came out to be 0.436 and R square 0.191.

Table 9 reports the results of the ANOVA (F1,24 = 4.471, p = 0.048 < 0.05)
which proved significant.
Table 9 Regression output: ANOVA table
Model
Sum of
squares
df
Mean square
Sig.
Regression
321.227
321.227
4.471
.048a
Residual
1364.940
24
71.839
Total
1686.167
25
a.
Predictors: (Constant), EQ2
b.
Dependent Variable: Murdoch
Table 10 demonstrates the standardized beta coefficient (B = 0.436, t =

2.115, p = 0.048 < 0.05) which reveals that the model was significant
meaning that teachers EI could predict their effectiveness in managing
young learners classes.
Table 10 Regression output: Coefficients

Unstandardized
Coefficients
B
Beta
(Constant)
-11.046
47.900
EQ2
.255
.121
a. Dependent Variable: Murdoch
Model
Standardized
Coefficients
Sig.
.436
-.231
2.115
.820
.048
Although normality of the distributions were checked for correlation in the

previous sections, the residuals table (as demonstrated in Table 11 below)
also verified the absence of outstanding outliers as the Cooks distance
values did not exceed 1 and Mahalanobis distance values did not exceed 15.
96
Table 11 Regression output: Residuals statistics

Min
Predicted Value
83.9184
Std. Predicted Value
-1.559
Standard Error of Predicted Value
1.850
Adjusted Predicted Value
83.1892
Residual
-14.2581
Std. Residual
-1.682
Stud. Residual
-1.734
Deleted Residual
-15.1514
Stud. Deleted Residual
-1.840
Mahalanobis Distance
.001
Cooks Distance
.000
Centered Leverage Value
.000
a. Dependent Variable: Murdoch
Max
Mean
99.7457
2.390
4.893
97.3693
11.28409
1.331
1.400
12.48529
1.439
5.713
.162
.286
90.1667
.000
2.513
89.9973
.00000
.000
.009
.16935
-.008
.952
.049
.048
Std.
Deviation
4.00766
1.000
.745
3.92487
8.26117
.975
1.020
9.06521
1.050
1.312
.052
.066
N
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
It was thus concluded that teachers EI was a significant predictor of their

effectiveness in managing young learners classrooms.

Based on the outcomes of this study, there was a significant relationship
between EFL teachers EI and the effectiveness of their management in
young learners classrooms. In simple terms, the higher the EI of teachers,
the more effectively they can manage young learners classrooms.
In addition to demonstrating that there was a linear correlation between
the two aforementioned constructs, a predictability relationship was also
established between the two. Hence, the results indicated that teachers EI
was a significant predictor of the effectiveness of their management in young
learners classroom.
The significant correlation of teachers effectiveness in managing young
learners classroom and their EI indicated that teachers with a high range of
ability to sense and understand the classroom needs can be effective
classroom managers for young learners.
A teacher as a key element in the classroom not only teaches new
subject matter but also by managing a classroom effectively can provide a
97
climate for students to flourish fully and humanely. Teachers who are
emotionally intelligent bear in mind the following principles:
The child has the right to have a teacher who is in a position to, and
will help the child, limit inappropriate self-disruptive behavior.
The child has the right to have a teacher who is in the position to
and will provide the child with positive support for appropriate
behavior.
The child will be able to choose how to behave and know the
consequences that will follow (adopted from Canter & Canter, 1976).
Incorporating these key points and objectives into a management plan can
have positive results. In such a class that is managed by an effective teacher,
students participation will boost through a supportive and disciplinary climate
of classroom allowing them to learn the foreign language more enjoyably,
which in turn, can enhance the students learning opportunity.
The aforementioned findings of this study have shown that EFL teachers
with higher EI scores are more successful in their classroom management.
They give respect to get respect from their students. Besides, there was
clearly more joy among the students who were taught by an emotionally
intelligent teacher. Furthermore, throughout the observation sessions, it was
made clear that effective teachers sometimes controlled their classes by
nonverbal signals; this means access to and employment of advanced
interpersonal ability (i.e., one of the subcategories of EI).
When there is a significant relationship between EFL teachers EI and
their effectiveness in managing young learners classrooms, teachers can
improve their EI ability, which is a teachable ability (Cherniss & Goleman,
1998), to be more effective.
As previously mentioned, advanced EI can be beneficial in many areas
of life. However, the application of its usefulness has been most frequently
documented in the professional workplace. Cherniss (2000) outlines four
main reasons why the workplace would be a logical setting for evaluating and
improving EI competencies:
1. EI competencies are critical for success in most jobs.
2. Many adults enter the workforce without the competencies
necessary to succeed or excel at their job.
3. Employers already have the established means and motivation for
providing EI training.
4. Most adults spend the majority of their waking hours at work.
98
Hence, it is essential to inform teachers about EI and the benefit they can
gain in their workplace, mainly in their classrooms, if they improve it.
Teachers can also be given EI training in their routine teacher training
courses. Implementing EI factors as elements affecting classroom managing
without understanding the importance of emotional factors influencing
teaching and learning processes, however, would not bear much added
value. If the emotional factors of effective teachers thus promoting effective
classroom management were to be borne in mind, reconsideration of
teachers training courses would be indispensable. Therefore, a thorough
revisiting of the syllabus for teacher training programs should be part of the
agenda in order to develop a syllabus which encourages and boosts EI.
Alongside designing such syllabus for teacher training and also inservice training programs, the same approach could also be adopted in
designing teachers guidebooks for young learners textbooks. They could
contain tasks and techniques which would encourage teachers to focus on
and boost their EI in the process of teaching while also endeavoring to uplift
young learners EI in the process as well. To this end, a team of expert
syllabus designers and material developers can engage with first-hand
stakeholders teachers and young learners themselves to receive ideas
from them in the process of producing the materials intended.
Received on March 10, 2010
The Authors
Hamid Marashi is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics, Islamic Azad University
Central Tehran Branch and Executive Manager of the Journal of English Language
Studies (JELS). He currently teaches the graduate courses of seminar in TEFL
issues, discourse analysis, and teaching language skills and his main areas of
research interest include cooperative learning, collaborative teaching, critical thinking,
and critical discourse analysis. He has published in national and international
academic journals and presented in international conferences.
ahmuya@yahoo.com
Zaynab Zaferanchi holds an MA in TEFL from Islamic Azad University Central
Tehran Branch and has been an English teacher in a number of the language
schools in Tehran since 2005. She is particularly interested in teaching young
learners and doing research on the learning and psychological traits of this group.
She also has experience in syllabus design for young learners.
znz_665@yahoo.com
99
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102
32
48
92
107
121
36
51
66
81
95
125
Total=
19
21
110
Independe
nce
Selfactualization
Intra Personal
124
119
98
72
61
55
44
18
Empathy
Total=
119
113
128
104
98
90
76
72
61
46
30
16
Social
responsibility
99
84
69
62
55
39
31
23
10
Interpersonal
relationship
Inter Personal
118
84
75
60
45
29
15
Problem
Solving
127
112
97
88
83
68
53
38
35
Reality
Stress
Total=
131
103
87
74
59
43
28
14
Flexibility
122
108
93
78
64
49
33
20
Total=
Stress
Tolerance
130
117
102
86
73
58
42
27
13
Impulse
control
Adaptability
120
105
91
77
62
47
31
17
Happiness
Mood
Total=
132
108
106
80
54
26
20
11
Optimism
Appendix
EQ-i Sub Categories
103
129
114
116
100
126
88
45
111
63
70
96
52
56
82
35
40
67
23
24
37
9
11
22
7
Emotional
awareness
Assertiveness
Selfregard
Murdoch (2000) Checklist (Complete Version)

Part A: ELT Competencies
1. The teacher presents language points in clear and interesting ways.
1 2 3 4 N/A
2. The teacher employs a range of techniques to teach new vocabulary.
1 2 3 4 N/A
3. The teacher tries to relate language forms, functions and vocabulary to
context relevant to students' interest.
1 2 3 4 N/A
4. The teacher employs a range of techniques for participating grammatical
forms.
1 2 3 4 N/A
5. The teacher sets up interactive pair/group activities appropriately.
1 2 3 4 N/A
6. The teacher employs a variety of activities for developing
speaking/listening/reading/writing.
1 2 3 4 N/A
7. The teacher achieves a good balance of between accuracy focused, and
integrative, content-focused activities.
1 2 3 4 N/A
8. The teacher uses games and puzzles effectively and appropriately.
1 2 3 4 N/A
9. The teacher gives students sufficient time to respond questions.
1 2 3 4 N/A
10. The teacher encourages student to ask questions.
1 2 3 4 N/A
11. The teacher elicits language and background knowledge from students
appropriately.
1 2 3 4 N/A
12. The teacher dose not impede student learning via over-use of the mother
tongue.
1 2 3 4 N/A
13. The teacher is a good language model for the students.
1 2 3 4 N/A
14. Teacher talk time is appropriate to for the language level of the class.
1 2 3 4 N/A
15. The teacher uses, and gets student to use, correct classroom language.
104
1 2 3 4 N/A
16. The teacher deals with errors systematically and effectively.
1 2 3 4 N/A
17. The teacher gets students to self-correct minor mistakes.
1 2 3 4 N/A
18. The teacher gets students to correct/comment on each other's written
work.
1 2 3 4 N/A
19. The teacher makes students aware of the strategies they can use to learn
English more effectively.
1 2 3 4 N/A
20. The teacher uses/develops appropriate quizzes and tests to evaluate
students' progress and increase motivation.
1 2 3 4 N/A
21. The teacher gives students some say in the selection of the classroom
activities.
1 2 3 4 N/A
22. The teacher maintains a dialogue with students to argue their reaction to
the material and his/her teaching methods.
1 2 3 4 N/A
23. The teacher makes students aware of the pedagogic purposes of
classroom activities.
1 2 3 4 N/A
24. The teacher takes into account students different style of language
learning.
1 2 3 4 N/A
Part B: General Teaching Competencies
1. The teacher believes that learning English is vitally important for students'
future success.
1 2 3 4 N/A
2. The teacher sees language learning as a part of a larger process of
promoting international contacts and interest in other cultures.
1 2 3 4 N/A
3. The teacher is knowledgeable concerning the use of different varieties and
style of English in different societies/culture.
1 2 3 4 N/A
4. The teacher believes that education has vital role in determining the future
nature of societies.
1 2 3 4 N/A
5. The teacher considers students' cultural background to be of great
importance when preparing an ELT course.
1 2 3 4 N/A
6. The teacher believes that he/she should empower students to become
increasingly more responsible for their own progress in learning.
1 2 3 4 N/A
7. The teacher is prepared to experiment and carry out classroom research in
other to further improve his/her teaching competence.
1 2 3 4 N/A
8. The teacher makes constant effort to maintain/develop his/her own English
communication skills.
1 2 3 4 N/A
9. The teacher is aware of value of professional development activities and
makes full use of available professional support.
1 2 3 4 N/A
10. The teacher is enthusiastic about working with colleagues to raise the
quality of ELT programs.
1 2 3 4 N/A
105
Part C: General Teaching Competencies

1. The teacher has a good classroom presence and personality.
1 2 3 4 N/A
2. The teacher is patient and enjoys helping students acquire new
skills/knowledge.
1 2 3 4 N/A
3. The teacher positions himself/herself well at different stages of the class.
1 2 3 4 N/A
4. The teacher communicates an enthusiasm for the subject.
1 2 3 4 N/A
5. The teacher's style of dressing is an asset in the classroom.
1 2 3 4 N/A
6. The teacher establishes a good rapport with students.
1 2 3 4 N/A
7. The teacher has good strategies for dealing with inappropriate behavior.
1 2 3 4 N/A
8. The teacher does not intimidate shy students in the class.
1 2 3 4 N/A
9. The teacher recognizes student achievement and develops students
interest in learning.
1 2 3 4 N/A
10. The teacher attends to the learning needs of the various ability levels in the
class.
1 2 3 4 N/A
11. The teacher gives appropriate feedback to students about their progress.
1 2 3 4 N/A
12. The teacher is able to adapt his/her teaching plan to respond to students'
immediate needs and reactions to planned activities.
1 2 3 4 N/A
13. The teacher's lessons have sufficient variety and change of pace to sustain
students' interest.
1 2 3 4 N/A
14. The teacher prepares classes adequately and has clear aims and
objectives.
1 2 3 4 N/A
15. The teacher uses a variety of techniques to ask questions and elicit
responses from students.
1 2 3 4 N/A
16. The teacher organizes students well.
1 2 3 4 N/A
17. The teacher makes good use of the whiteboard.
1 2 3 4 N/A
18. The teacher makes good use of visuals and other media.
1 2 3 4 N/A
19. The teacher constantly checks to find out if students have understood
teaching points or benefited from activities.
1 2 3 4 N/A
20. The teachers lessons have sufficient variety and change of pace to sustain
students interest.
1 2 3 4 N/A
106
The Selected Version of Murdoch (2000)

Checklist
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
The teacher presents language points in clear and interesting ways.

1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher tries to relate language form, function and vocabulary, to
context relevant to context relevant to students interests.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher sets up interactive pair/group activities appropriately.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher uses games and puzzles effectively and appropriately.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher gives students sufficient time to respond questions.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher encourages student to ask questions.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher elicits language and background knowledge from students
appropriately.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher dose not impede student learning via over-use of the mother
tongue.
1 2 3 4 N/A
Teacher talk time is appropriate to for the language level of the class.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher uses, and gets student to use, correct classroom language.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher deals with errors systematically and effectively.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher makes students aware of the strategies they can use to learn
English more effectively.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher gives students some say in the selection of the classroom
activities.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher takes into account students different style of language
learning.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher has a good classroom presence and personality.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher is patient and enjoys helping students acquire new
skills/knowledge.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher positions himself/herself well at different stages of the class.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher communicates an enthusiasm for the subject.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher establishes a good rapport with students.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher has good strategies for dealing with inappropriate behavior.
1 2 3 4 N/A
The teacher does not intimidate shy students in the class.
107
1 2 3 4 N/A
22. The teacher recognizes student achievement and develops students
interest in learning.
1 2 3 4 N/A
23. The teacher attends to the learning needs of the various ability levels in the
class.
1 2 3 4 N/A
24. The teacher prepares classes adequately and has clear aims and
objectives.
1 2 3 4 N/A
25. The teacher uses a variety of techniques to ask questions and elicit
responses from students.
1 2 3 4 N/A
26. The teacher organizes students well (into different groups).
1 2 3 4 N/A
27. The teacher makes good use of the whiteboard.
1 2 3 4 N/A
28. The teacher makes good use of visuals and other media.
1 2 3 4 N/A
29. The teacher constantly checks to find out if students have understood
teaching points or benefited from activities.
1 2 3 4 N/A
30. The teachers lessons have sufficient variety and change of pace to sustain
students interest.
1 2 3 4 N/A
Transcription of Events in One Sample Class

'Happy House' level (Oxford University; Young Learners' Class-book)
Teacher Maryam Khazrai: Be quiet everybody
Listen, Erfan listen, Kamyab listen
Open your class book Ahoora be quiet (Crowd noise)
Look at page 58oklook at herewhat's the matter here?
Students (all together): MumPolly (Happy House characters)
Teacher Maryam Khazrai: yes, family
Students (sporadically): khanevadegi, samimi (in Farsi) Rodney
T: Ok, Mom, Dad, who's this?
Ss (all together): Polly and Otto
T: and, what's the matter here?
Ss (all together): Family, water
T: water AND
Students (all together): soap
T: ok, that's right, and look at here, what's this
Ss (sporadically): Kooh, khorshid (in Farsi) (laughing sound)
Good morning
T: aha, thismorning, repeat
Morning, morning
(Sound of tapping on a board)
So, I wash my? My? (Pointing at her face)
Ss (all together): face
T: listen I wash my face with? With?
108
Ss (all together): soap

T: I wash my face withsoap and
Ss (all together): water
(Writing sound)
T: what's this? (She draws something like a faucet that is leaking)
Ss (all together): water
T: ok, so, it's morning I wash my face with?
Ss (sporadically): soap and
T: everybody?
Ss (all together): soap and water
T: ok, so I wash my face, after my face I wash my?
Ss (all together): hands
T: so I wash my hands
I wash my hands what's this?
Ss (all together): hand
T: hand, ok!
So I wash my hands with?
Ss (all together): soap and water
T: excellent with soap and
Ss (all together): water.
T: that's right
And (silent time, it seems she is drawing something on the board) so what's this?
Ss (all together): hands
T: ok, it's morning, it's EARLY in the morning, and I wash my face, I wash my hands,
after that I?
Ss (all together): brush
T: I brush my hair, AND I
Ss (all together): brush my teeth
T: excellent, so I brush my teeth. I brush my?
Ss (all together): teeth
T: what's this?
Ss (all together): teeth
T: ok, listen, I brush my teeth with? soap and water?!
Ss (all together): NO
T: hairbrush?!
Ss (sporadically): toothbrush noand water
T: ok, and toothpaste, that's right. Look at here, Dad says I brush my teeth with?
Ss (all together): toothbrush
T: what color is this toothbrush?
Ss (all together): green
T: so Dad says I brush my teeth with my?
Ss (sporadically) and the teacher: green toothbrush
T: it's my?
Ss: toothbrush
T: green toothbrush
Ss (all together): green toothbrush
T: green toothbrush
109
Ss (all together): green toothbrush

S: /rede/ (Farsi intonation)
T: ok, it's red, but look at this magnet, it is green!
Ss: (chaos noise) nemigiri (Farsi)
(One student nags about the picture of book in Farsi) 'akhe marde b en gondegi,
navad sale, toothbrushe khersi dare, marde gonde?!'
T: (patiently) no! It's Polly's!
Listenlisten I brush my teeth
Ss (all together): I brush my teeth
T: I brush my teeth
T: I brush my teeth, WITH my green toothbrush
Ss (all together): with my green toothbrush
T: I brush my teeth
T: with my green toothbrush
Ss (all together): with my green toothbrush
T: Ok, listen; I brush my teeth, with my green toothbrush
Ss (all together): I brush my teeth, with my green toothbrush
T: after that, Polly says I
Ss (all together): I brush my hair
T: ok, I brush, I brush?
Ss (sporadically): my my hair
T: with?
Look at here this is Polly and
(Students are attracted by the cartoons, they speak about details in Farsi) 'teacher
enqad mo dare!'
T: ok, OK
Ok, I, I brush my?
Ss (all together): hair
T: ok listen, Polly says I brush my hair with my toothbrush?
Ss (all together): NO! Hairbrush!
T: but what color?
Ss (all together): blue
T: I bruSH, shshshmy hair with my hairbrush
ok, listen, Kamyab stop it!
Kamyab, Kamyab!
T: blue hairbrush
Ss (all together): blue hairbrush
T: blue hairbrush
Ss (all together): blue hairbrush
T: I brush my hair
T: I brush my hair
T: with my blue hairbrush
Ss (all together): with my blue hairbrush
110
T: with my blue hairbrush

Ss (all together): with my blue hairbrush
T: I brush my hair with my blue hairbrush
Ss (all together): I brush my hair with my blue hairbrush
T: excellent, now, Ahoora! look at here, what's this?
Ss (all together): morning
T: repeat, morning
T: morning
T: now what's this?
Ss (sporadically): time... Time, bath time!
T: listen, listen, listen six in the morning is very?
Ss (sporadically): out'chi bod' (in Farsi) earlyearly early
T: excellent
Ss (all together): early
T: early
T: early
T: early in the morning
Ss (all together): early in the morning
T: I wash my hands (by acting out)
Ss (all together): I wash my hands
T: I wash my hands
Ss (all together): I wash my hands
T: I wash my face
Ss (all together): I wash my face
T: I wash my face
Ss (all together): I wash my face
T: I wash my face with soap and water
Ss (all together): I wash my face with soap and water
T: I wash my hands with soap and water
Ss (all together): I wash my hands with soap and water
T: I brush my teeth
T: I brush my teeth
T: I brush my teeth with my green toothbrush
Ss (all together): I brush my teeth with my green toothbrush
T: excellent, I brush my hair
T: I brush my hair
111

T: I brush my hair with my blue hairbrush
Ss (all together): I brush my hair with my blue hairbrush
T: NOW, listen, look at your book, and then sing the song, ok?
Shshsh Erfan listenEhsan and Hesamshshsh!
(The teacher makes the naughty boys calm by a kind of threatening words about
learning event in Farsi)
T: now listen to the song (she plays cassette player)
"I wash my face with soap and water, soap and water, soap and water, I wash my
face with soap and water, early in the morning.
I wash my hands with soap and water, soap and water, soap and water, I wash my
face with soap and water, early in the morning.
I brush my teeth with my green toothbrush, my green toothbrush, my green
toothbrush; I brush my teeth with my green toothbrush, early in the morning.
I brush my hair with my blue hairbrush, my blue hairbrush, my blue hairbrush; I brush
my hair with my blue hairbrush, early in the morning." (It is repeated twice in the
cassette)
T: ok now, everybody listen and repeat,
Listen, look at the board and repeat!
(She plays it again, stops it, and wants students to repeat.
The third time of playing the cassette, she wants them just to listen and look at the
board.
Finally she divides students into different groups; they sing enthusiastically and
unbelievably correctly, she wants other groups to encourage the group that has
already sung by clapping their hands!)
112

IAUCTB
The Comparative Effect of Summarizing

and Concept Mapping on ESP Learners
Reading Comprehension of EAP Texts
Behdokht Mall Amiri
Hojat Sarlak
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to discover which of the two reading
strategies, concept mapping or summarizing, is more effective on ESP
learners reading comprehension of EAP texts. To fulfill the purpose of the
study, a sample of 94 undergraduate students of accountancy sat for a
standardized sample of Key English Testing (KET). Sixty-two students
whose scores fell one standard deviation above and below the sample
mean were selected and randomly divided into two equal groups. One
group practiced concept mapping and the other group summarizing. A
researcher-made reading posttest was finally administered to the students
in both groups and the mean rank scores were compared by a MannWhitney test. The results led to the rejection of the null hypothesis,
indicating that concept mapping had a significantly higher effect on the
reading comprehension of EAP texts. The implications of the study for
EAP readers and teachers as well as EAP textbook writers are discussed.
Keywords: reading comprehension, concept mapping, summarizing, ESP,

EAP texts
Introduction
To catch up with the changing world, students are supposed to be lifelong
learners. Reading is in charge at that point. With the supposition that majority
of the learning occurs through reading, students need to adopt a meaningful
and critical reading process. In other words, without efficient reading
comprehension strategies, desired level of learning may not be reached
(Yalcin & Sengul, 2004).
Concept Mapping & Summarizing
At college, reading activities are assigned to the learners to assist them

in comprehending the academic materials and learning the conceptual
framework. These materials are complex ones with lots of concepts and often
huge amount of information. Students are supposed to read and understand
the assigned texts on their own before coming to class. Such a reading
process requires reading between the lines and thinking critically (Shelton,
2006).
The role of reading is much more striking in comprehension of EAP texts
where the reader is actively involved in using available content knowledge
(content schemata) and knowledge of the text structure (formal schemata) to
construct the meaning of the text (Carrel, Devine, & Eskey, 1988; Rumelhart,
1984; Swaffar, 1985). Byrd (1995) asserts that reading is the main
emphasized skill in ESP situations.
Johns and Davies (1983) encapsulated the key principles by stating that
for EAP learners, extracting information accurately and quickly is more
significant than language details; that understanding the macrostructures
comes before language study; and that application of the information in the
text is of paramount importance. Therefore, language knowledge is
suggested to be the medium of comprehension of content knowledge which
is of prime importance.
In order to comprehend accounting texts, like other EAP texts, learners
need to employ a variety of reading strategies to cope with the difficulties
imposed by the language of the text. Routman (as cited in Hardebecek,
2006) defines reading comprehension strategies as tools or plans for
facilitating and extending comprehension.
One appealing strategy is to incorporate concept mapping into the
understanding of the text. According to Perkins (1992), pictorial language of
thinking, such as concept maps, is advantageous in that they enable students
to simplify complex patterns of ideas and minimize the load of information
students must hold in their memories.
Another appealing strategy is summarizing, which is in fact a strategy
through which students comprehend knowledge and efficiently transfer it to
their long term memory because as Senemoglu (2001) maintains, it leads
students to a) read to understand, b) distinguish main ideas, and c) express
the information by using their own words.
114
Reading Comprehension and Theoretical Developments

The definition of reading has changed substantially during the past decades
from a focus on reading as decoding or as a set of de-contextualized or
context-free skills to a view of reading as information. Alternatively, our
conception of reading comprehension has shifted to an interactive process in
which a reader is actively involved in using available content and formal
schemata to construct meaning (Carrel, Devine, & Eskey, 1988; Rumelharts,
1984; Swaffar, 1985).
In turn, this has led to a shift in emphasis, in reading instruction, from a
focus on bottom-up processes such as decoding, word attach skills, sounding
out and blending (emphasized in phonic approaches) to an emphasis on the
top-down processes of prediction and confirmation, and then a more
interactive model in which both top-down (knowledge or content driven)
strategies and bottom-up (data or text driven) strategies are called upon as
needed by readers while interacting with and constructing the meaning of the
text (Byrd, 1995, p. 81). Hence, the problems of L2 reading comprehension
are no more viewed as being essentially decoding problems deriving
meaning from printed page but rather more of equipping readers with
appropriate strategies for more efficient reading (Cambers, 1991).
Summarizing
Summarization is a learning strategy that, according to Susar Kirmizi and
Akkaya (2009), can help students use deletion and super-ordination to
construct and retain a succinct summary of important propositions from the
text. They further maintain that summarizing is one of the metacognitive
strategies and leads to effective use of mental skills and increases
remembering and understanding.
Senemoglu (2001) asserts that summarizing helps students to
comprehend knowledge, transfer it to long term memory significantly
because it leads students to read to understand, distinguish important ideas,
and express the information by using their own words (p. 569).
The ability to summarize information seems to be an essential skill in
academic contexts and higher education. In these contexts students often
need to summarize information from lectures, journals, textbooks, and other
sources in order to fulfill certain assignment in their own field of study. Some
115
researchers have investigated the effect of summaries on students learning.

For example, Garner (1982) showed further that efficient summarizers
integrate important pieces of information into semantic wholesand lose
track of unimportant pieces of information (p. 279).
Like any other strategy, however, summarizing needs to be carried out
efficiently to lead to desirable outcomes. In this regard, Brown and Day
(1983) proposed five basic rules of summarization. The first two rules require
the deletion of unnecessary material. The third rule, super ordination,
requires the substitution of a super ordinate term for a list of items or actions.
The fourth and fifth rules deal with topic sentences for each paragraph.
Likewise, Wormeli (2005) and Michaelis and Garcia (1996) suggest certain
steps that can be outlined as follows:
1. Setting main and secondary ideas of each paragraph within the text.
2. Setting the most important paragraph within the text.
3. Discovering and setting the main ideas of the text in general.
4. Referring to the concepts and ideas of the text by paraphrasing the
text using ones own words.
Concept Mapping
In simple terms, concept maps are visual representations of concepts and
their categorizations. Jonassen, Beissner, and Yacci (1993) define concept
maps as spatial representation of concepts and their interrelationships that
are intended to represent the knowledge structure that humans store in their
minds.
According to Novak and Musonda (as cited in Novak & Caas, 2008),
concept maps were developed in 1972 by Novak in a research program
where he sought to follow and understand changes in children knowledge of
science. Novak and Caas (2008) maintain:
This program was based on David Ausubel's theory of meaningful
learning. The fundamental idea in Ausubel Cognitive psychology is
that learning takes place by the assimilation of new concepts and
propositions into exiting concepts and propositional frameworks held
by the learner Out of necessity, to find a better way to represent
children's conceptual understanding emerged the idea of
representing children's knowledge in the form of a concept map.
Thus was born a new tool not only for research but also for many
other uses. (p. 3)
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According to Novak and Caas (2008, pp. 3-4), meaningful learning requires
three conditions:
1. The material to be learned must be conceptually clear;
2. The learner must possess relevant prior knowledge; and
3. The learner must choose to learn meaningfully.
Reviewing Ausubels assimilation theory of cognitive learning, Asan (2007)
explains that, Most new learning occurs through derivative and correlative
subsumption of new concept meanings under existing concept or
propositional frameworks. Learning that is meaningful involves reorganization
of existing beliefs or integration of new information with existing information
(p. 187). Asan further maintains that with less inclusive concepts being
subsumed under more inclusive ones, cognitive structures are organized
hierarchically.
Certain advantages are named for concept maps in the literature. For
example, Huang (2005) suggests that concept mapping can stimulate ones
metacognitive awareness while processing information and thus, assists the
learner to integrate the bottom-up and top-down processing while monitoring
the whole process. Moreover, Liu, Chen, and Chang (2010) write:
Concept mapping can enable learners to recall and organize the
messages from essays; thus, it can strengthen integration efficiency.
As identified in Mayers (1996) concept mapping can also reduce the
tendency of poor readers to forget the content they have read as a
result of constantly checking vocabulary meaning. (p. 437)
Concept mapping is also claimed to be beneficial in increasing the use of
retrieving and memorizing knowledge (Beyerbach & Smith, 1990; Chen &
Chang, 1997; Chiu, Huang & Chang, 2000; Liu, 1998; Mayer, 1991; Novak,
1990; Novak & Gowin, 1984). As for its more direct influence on reading,
Griffin, Malone, and Komeenui (1995) state that it helps readers in a more
systematic and organized way to clarify the important concepts of an article.
Others (e.g., Ruddell & Boyle, 1989; Carrel & Pharis, 1989) have also
underscored the benefits of concept mapping strategy for ESL students.
Finally, Chularut and DeBecker (2003) propose that the benefits of concept
maps may extend beyond achievement gains to include positive effects on
achievement-related variables such as academic self-regulation and selfefficacy.
Heinze-Fry and Novak (1990) suggest that meaningful learning is
facilitated because concepts are seen not as isolated entities, but as existing
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in a network of relationships. Based on Ausubels account (1968), visual

representation also allows the development of a holistic understanding that
words alone cannot convey because the graphical form allows representation
of different parts and whole in a way that is not available in the sequential
structure of the text.
In science education, concept mapping has been widely recommended
and used in a variety of ways. It has been used to help teachers and students
to build an organized knowledge base in a given discipline (Pankratius, 1990)
or on a given topic (Kopec, Wood, & Brody, 1990). It has been used to
facilitate middle level student's learning of science content (Guastello,
Beasley, & Sinatra, 2000). Findings of these studies indicate that concept
mapping is an effective tool for aiding student comprehension and retention
of science material.
Various concept mapping strategies have been developed throughout
the years. The strategy linked with the related nodes in concepts maps is the
most widely used (Novak & Gowin, 1984). According to Novak, it takes one
concept at the center, and the related concepts and details emerge as the
mapping develops from the central to the external. This kind of concept
mapping can be classified into two categories; one is the development from
inner to outer; the other is the development from upper to lower.
Gull and Boman (2006) claim that the hierarchical method is preferred
over other designs of concept maps, because it is clearer and easier to
comprehend. They explain that it presents more general and more inclusive
concepts at top of the map and more concrete and specific ones at the
bottom by:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Identifying a central word or theme;

Identifying all of the concepts, items, descriptive words, or questions;
linking the sub-concepts to the main concepts; and
Identifying the cross links between the information in the map.
Comparing Concept Mapping and Summarizing

The first and the most immediately noticed point in the comparison of concept
mapping and summarizing is that both strategies have the same theoretical
underpinnings. As explained earlier, Novak (1990), who is the pioneer of
concept mapping, has based the theoretical foundations of concept maps on
David Ausubels theory of meaningful learning which claims meaningful
learning occurs while learners try to anchor the newly learned contents and
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concepts into their prior knowledge. Similar to concept mapping, summarizing

uses the same theoretical basis in calling for interrelating new ideas with the
old ones and putting forward authentic ideas (Friend, 2000).
The second point to be considered is the similar procedure which is
followed in order to construct concept maps and write summaries. The
process of constructing concept maps starts from skimming the text and
moves to finding the main concepts, subsuming them, relating the subconcepts to the main ones, and finding the cross-links between concepts,
which is developed through both top-down and bottom-up processes (Novak,
1990). Nearly the same path would be followed in order to summarize the
same given text (Wormeli, 2005; Michaelis & Garcia, 1996).
English for Academic Purposes

EAP and ESP are closely linked to each other. According to Gillet (1996),
EAP is a branch of ESP in which the teaching content is matched to the
requirements of the learners and is also considered to be ESP if one takes
Robinson's (as cited in Gillet, 1996) features which are usually thought of as
being criterial to ESP courses.
Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998) maintain that ESP is designed to
meet specific needs of the learner, make use of the underlying methodology
and activities of disciplines it serves, and is centered on the language
(grammar, lexis, and register), skills, discourse, and genres appropriate to
these activities.
According to Howatt (1984), the study of language for specific purposes
has a long and interesting history going back, some would say, as far as
Roman and Greek Empires. Howatt further states that, since the 1960s, ESP
has become a vital and innovative activity within the teaching of English as a
foreign or second language movement.
Nunan (1988) asserts that ESP courses use language as a vehicle for
communicating about content from other subjects. However, he claims that
these courses have some difficulties as very often the learner has extensive
knowledge in the content domain and is frustrated by what is considered a
trivialization of that content.
For most of its early life ESP was dominated by the teaching of EAP;
most of the materials produced, the course descriptions written, and the
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research carried out were in the area of EAP (Dudley-Evans & St. John,
1998, p. 2). Dudley-Evans and St. John maintain that EAP refers to any
English teaching that relates to a study purpose. Students whose first
language is not English may need help with both the language of academic
disciplines and the specific study skills required of them during their
academic course (p. 34).
They further delineate that unlike general English courses which begin
with the language, EAP commences with the learners and the situation and
whereas General English tends to teach learners conversational and social
genres of the language, EAP courses tend to teach formal and academic
genres. They further explain that the key determinant of what an EAP course
should contain is whether the subject course is taught in English and
therefore, classify EAP situation to four types summarized hereunder (1998,
pp. 34-41),
Situation 1: EAP in English speaking countries such as UK, USA,
Australia where students come from another country with a foreign
system; for them both general and academic culture may be different;
everything around them operates in English.
Situation 2: EAP in ESL contexts such as Zimbabwe where education
at all levels is mainly in English; the civil service uses English, but
people mostly use their L1 in everyday life.
Situation 3: EAP in contexts where subject courses are taught in the
national language (e.g., Jordan); in tertiary education, some subjects
are taught in L1, but others, such as medicine, engineering, and
science, are taught in English.
Situation 4: EAP in contexts where subject courses are taught in the
national language in countries like Brazil; all tertiary education is
taught through L1 and English is the auxiliary language.
The current EAP context in Iran represents the fourth situation and thus the
present study may not have generalizability to the other three situations
explained above. In our country, EAP is often referred to as technical English
and the courses are focused almost exclusively on reading. Since EAP
encompasses a large domain of many different academic fields of study in
our country, the focus of this study was narrowed down to one academic
field, that is, Accountancy. With this focus, this study intended to examine the
comparative effect of summarizing and concept mapping on ESP learners
reading comprehension of EAP texts. For this purpose, the following question
was raised:
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Is there any significant difference between the effect of concept

mapping and summarizing on ESP learners reading comprehension
of EAP texts?
Method
Participants
The participants were selected from 94 male and female students of
accountancy in Payameh Noor University in Aligoodarz. Their ages ranged
between 18 and 39 and since all of them were non-EFL learners, their level
of language proficiency was considered to be elementary. Due to the fact that
the focus of the study was only on students of accountancy and the number
of the students in that field was limited, the researchers had to include all of
the available students in a convenient non-random basis. Out of the available
students, 62 whose scores fell one standard deviation above and below the
sample mean were selected and randomly assigned to two equal groups,
each practicing one of the two strategies for reading their EAP texts during
their instructional period.
Instrumentation
The following tests, textbooks, and handouts were used in this study.
Proficiency Test of Key English Testing (KET)

The English language proficiency test used in this study was a sample KET,
the reliability and item facility of which were checked in the piloting phase of
the study and the test proved to be reliable for the main purpose of
homogenizing the participants. Since the participants were non-EFL learners
and on the assumption that ESP students normally do not have enough
competency in oral skills and are mainly exposed to the written materials and
are chiefly expected to read and comprehend them, only reading and writing
sections of the test, consisting of 55 questions to be answered in 60 minutes,
were administered.
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English Texts for Accountancy

The course book "English for Students of Accounting" written by Moghadam,
Ghalamikian, and Salim (2007) is developed and written for the students of
accountancy in Payameh Noor University and was used to teach both
experimental groups of the study. It includes 14 units each consisting of four
to six short texts followed by multiple-choice items, fill in the blanks items,
and open-ended questions to be answered. Included at the end of every unit
are extra short texts for further study.
Handouts on Concept Mapping

A handout was distributed among the participants in concept mapping group.
It consisted of the definition and advantages of concept mapping, followed by
a detailed explanation on different ways to construct them.
Along with the handout, a hierarchical model of concept mapping
adopted from Gull and Boman (2006) was presented to the participants. It
presented more general and inclusive concepts at the top of the map and
more concrete and specific ones at the bottom as shown below:
A Hierarchical model of concept

mapping
(Gull & Boman, 2006)
Figure 1 A hierarchical model of concept mapping

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Handouts on Summarization
Similar to what was presented to the participants in the concept mapping
group, a handout on the definition, advantages, and the procedure for
construction summarization was distributed among the participants in the
summarizing group.
Reading Comprehension Posttest

In order to measure the reading comprehension of both groups at the end of
the treatment, a researcher-made reading comprehension test consisting of
ten reading passages was utilized. The ten reading comprehension texts
were selected by the researchers from authentic texts of accountancy. Each
text was followed by five multiple-choice comprehension questions. Total
time given to the participants to answer the questions was 75 minutes.
Procedure
At first, a sample of 94 undergraduate students of accountancy, who were
selected through a convenient non-random sampling, sat for a piloted sample
of KET. On the basis of the result, 62 students whose scores fell one
standard deviation above and below the mean were selected for the actual
study. The selected participants were then randomly assigned to two equal
groups, one as the concept map group and the other as the summarizing
group. The study was conducted in Aligoodarz Payameh Noor University and
lasted for 15 sessions of 90 minutes and the class met twice a week. The
textbook in both groups was the same.
Treatment in the Concept-Map Group

At the very beginning, concept maps and the way they are developed,
constructed, and interpreted were introduced to the students. Therefore, they
not only could learn from concept maps, but also were able to construct the
maps by themselves. They were told how this reading strategy could help
them tackle the problem of language, recognize key concepts of the text,
bring them out of the text, and inter-relate them through links, cross-links, and
nods. A hierarchical model of concept map was introduced to the
123
participants. It presented more general and inclusive concepts at the top of

the map and more concrete and specific ones at the bottom.
Along with these instructions, a handout on concept mapping was
distributed among the students, which was adopted from Gull and Boman
(2006). It consisted of three parts. The first part was about different
definitions of concept mapping. The second part was about the advantages
of concept mapping. The last part was about different ways to construct
concept maps.
The instructional period began with the teacher-constructed concept
maps and proceeded toward student-constructed concept maps. For
homework assignment, students were asked to construct the pertinent
concept maps related to the assigned exercises. Feedback was
individualized through marginal written comments on students products. Oral
feedback was also provided generally to all of the students. During the
instructional period, the students were also encouraged to share their
concept maps, give and receive feedback to and from each other, and
construct collaborative concept maps.
Treatment in the Summarizing Group

Participants in the other group were exposed to summarizing strategy. At the
very outset, the strategy was introduced in detail. Similar to what was
pursued in the concept map group, the definition of reading comprehension
and its nature was described to the participants. Furthermore, reading
strategies and their importance, especially in reading comprehension of EAP
texts, were explained in detail to the participants and they were told how to
use summarizing strategy and that it could help them tackle the problem of
language and have a faster and better way to get to the content information
which is otherwise hard to comprehend.
Along with these instructions, a handout on summarization was
distributed among participants. It consisted of three parts. The first section
was about different definitions of summarization. The second part was about
advantages of summarization, and the last part was about different ways to
summarize texts.
The instructional period began with teacher-made summaries and
proceeded toward student-made summaries. For homework assignment,
students were asked to write the summaries related to the assigned
124
exercises. Both written and oral feedback was provided to the students
during the instructional period. The students were also encouraged to share
their summaries, give and receive feedback to and from each other, and write
collaborative summaries.
At the end, a piloted researcher-made achievement posttest was
administered among the participants in both groups to see which of the
strategies had a significantly higher effect on the learners reading
comprehension of EAP texts.
Results
At the outset, the selected reading and writing sections of KET was piloted
among 30 students with very similar characteristics to the target group. The
test included 35 reading and 20 writing items to be answered in 60 minutes.
The format of the reading section was multiple-choice and the format of the
writing section was fill-in-the-blank. All items went through an item analysis
and 10 malfunctioning and non-functioning items were discarded.
Following the piloting of the test, the mean and standard deviation were
calculated and were found to be 25.23 and 9.71, respectively. Table 1 shows
the descriptive statistics of the KET in the pilot phase.
Table 1 Descriptive statistics of the KET (piloting)
SCORE
Valid N
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Std. Deviation
30
30
42
25.23
9.71
Table 2 shows the reliability of the test scores gained by the participants in
the KET piloting phase. The Kuder-Richardson 20 formula (KR 20) was
employed for this purpose and an acceptable reliability of 0.81 was
calculated.
Table 2 Reliability of the KET piloting
Kuder-Richardson (KR 20)
N of items
.81
45
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The piloted test was used in order to homogenize the participants in the
target sample with respect to their general English proficiency comprising of
the reading and writing subtests of the mentioned test. Following the
administration of the test, the mean and standard deviation were calculated
to be 22.26 and 7.06, respectively. Table 3 demonstrates the descriptive
statistics of the main administration of KET.
Table 3 Descriptive statistics of the KET main administration
TOTAL
Valid N (listwise)
N
94
94
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Std. Deviation
38
22.26
7.06
Sixty-two students whose scores fell one standard deviation above and below
the sample mean were selected and randomly assigned to two equal groups,
each practicing one of the mentioned strategies.
Prior to the actual administration, the reading comprehension posttest
was piloted on a group of 30 students of accountancy at Golpaygan
Payameh Noor University with very close and similar characteristics to the
participants of the target group. The test consisted of 50 multiple-choice
items to be answered in 75 minutes.
The mean and standard deviation were calculated to be 24.8 and 11.22,
respectively. Table 4 below shows the details of the descriptive statistics of
the posttest at the piloting stage.
Table 4 Descriptive statistics of the posttest (piloting)
TOTAL
Valid N (listwise)
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Std.
deviation
30
30
44
24.8
11.22
All items went through an item analysis, and as a result, five items were
modified and the reliability was calculated through Kuder-Richardson formula.
According to Table 5, the test proved to be reliable in order to be
administered among the participants in the target group.
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Table 5 Reliability of the posttest (piloting)

Kuder-Richardson (KR 20)
N of items
.76
50
Following the piloting of the test, it was administered as the posttest. Table 6
displays the descriptive statistics of the scores obtained by both groups.
Table 6 Posttest descriptive statistics
Reading
Comprehension
Skewness
Grouping
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Stat.
Std. error
Ratio
Concept
mapping
31
35.09
5.95
-1.1
.421
2.39
Summarizing
31
28
9.46
.034
.421
.08
In order to determine whether the differences between the means of the two
groups were significant, an independent samples t-test was to be run. Prior to
the administration of this test, the normality of the distribution of the scores
for each group had to be checked. As depicted in Table 6, the skewness ratio
for the concept map group exceeds the acceptable range of 1.96.
Therefore, running a t-test was not legitimized and the Mann-Whitney U Test,
as the nonparametric equivalent, was run instead. Tables 7 and 8 below
display the results of the Mann-Whitney U Test.
Table 7 Mean ranks of the two groups

Grouping
Concept mapping
Summarizing
Total
Reading
Comprehension
N
31
31
62
Mean Rank
38.42
24.58
Sum of Ranks
1191.00
762.00
Table 8 Mann-Whitney U test

Reading Comprehension
Mann-Whitney U
266.000
Wilcoxon W
762.000
Z
-3.024
.002
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Table 8 shows a significant difference between the means of the two groups
(U = 266.00, p = 0.002 < 0.05). The difference in the mean ranks obtained by
the two groups as reported in Table 7 above indicates the superiority of the
concept-mapping group in their performance on the reading comprehension
posttest. By virtue of the significant difference between the means of the two
groups, the null hypothesis stating that there is no significant difference
between the effects of concept mapping and summarizing on ESP learners
reading comprehension of EAP texts was rejected. The following bar graph
visually shows the mean difference:
36
34
Mean reading comprehension
32
30
28
26
concept mapping
summarizing
GROUPING
Figure 2 The mean difference between the two groups

Based on the results of the data analysis, the null hypothesis of the study
which stated that "there is no significant difference between the effect of
concept mapping and summarizing on ESP learners reading comprehension
of EAP texts" was rejected. The researchers came up with the conclusion
that teaching EAP texts through concept mapping strategy had a significant
superiority over that of summarizing.
The most important factor supporting the findings of this study is the very
strong theoretical underpinning of concept mapping. Ausubel's (1963) theory
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of meaningful learning, which is based on the premise that meaningful

learning happens when new knowledge and already-existing and relevant
concepts are bound together, was the most striking impetus for Novak and
his colleagues who presented and developed concept map strategy (Novak,
1981; Novak & Gowin, 1984).
Another important reason for the significant superiority of concept
mapping in the present study may be the context of use (i.e., EAP). One of
the most important developments in the reading comprehension of EAP texts
was a shift of focus in reading from text as a linguistic object (TALO) to text
as a vehicle of information (TAVI) (Johns & Davies, 1983). Johns and Davies
encapsulated the key principle that, for ESP learners, extracting information
accurately and quickly is more significant than language details. Such
findings entail the importance of specific reading strategies that can
disentangle the ESP readers, namely the readers of EAP texts, from the
hardships of dealing with linguistic structures and present them with the
content information, which is of prime importance in the comprehension of
such texts. As explained earlier, concept mapping is a strategy through which
linguistic redundancies can be eliminated and main concepts and subconcepts can be determined and related to each other through hierarchies
and cross-links.
This line of argument can be supported even more strongly taking into
account the fact that EAP in our country is a sample of the fourth situation
depicted earlier, which includes EAP situations where subject courses are
taught in the national language of the country and mostly through the routine
practice of reading the passages in English and translating them into L1 and
summarizing them. Consequently, introducing a totally new technique or
strategy might have had a large effect on the participants overall reading
performance.
There is also evidence through research studies that summarizing may
at times fail to meet the instructional objective of a course. For example, in
their study, Susar Kirmizi and Akkaya (2009) investigated the use of
summarizing strategy by university students. The results of the study
demonstrated two major deficiencies in the process of students summarizing
of academic texts. The first one was that students mostly digressed from the
main concepts. The second deficiency was the fact that they had no glimpse
of constructive process or significant learning in these summaries.
Furthermore, findings of the present study can be supported by
numerous studies that investigated the impact of concept mapping on
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reading comprehension of different academic subject matters. Gahr (2003),

for example, in the attempt to have fewer repetitive procedural questions
regarding chemistry laboratory exercises, found out that the introduction of a
concept map that gives a visual reference as to how the classroom activities
are to proceed was an effective tool to enable the teacher to observe the
students at work rather than the students observing the teacher in a
demonstration.
In addition, Ritchie and Volkl (2000) found that having sixth grade
science students create concept maps before working on lab activities
produced better long-term retention than using the concept map after the
completion of the exercise. This research leads one to the conclusion that
making important connections prior to doing any activity will lead to a more
effective understanding and learning of the concepts instead of memorizing
them.
Research has also proved that concept mapping can help students make
cross-curriculum connections. It was found that student nurses in Australia
had better knowledge and understanding of the nursing field after
incorporating concept mapping into the curriculum to enable them to link
concepts in science with concepts in nursing. These connections allowed the
student nurses to gain a fuller understanding of how the two fields intertwine.
By incorporating this learning procedure, the nurses were also better able to
educate their patients about their various conditions (Wilkes, Cooper, Lewin,
& Batts, 1999). This demonstrates how concept mapping can be effective for
the students as a tool for enhancement of learning and for the teachers as a
tool for explanation and promotion of understanding.
Three studies (Alvermann & Boothby, 1983; Armbruster, Anderson, &
Meyer, 1991; Griffin, Malone, & Kameenui, 1995) in the area of social studies
used concept-mapping tool to help students organize information from
expository texts and comprehend content area reading. Findings from these
studies concluded that concept-mapping tool helped students select,
organize, and recall relevant information as measured by posttests. Students
were also able to transfer thinking and learning skills to novel situations and
content.
One experimental study (Braselton & Decker, 1994) with sixth-grade
mathematics students found concept mapping to be advantageous in the
improvement of students problem-solving skills. Moreover, DeWispelaere
and Kossack (1996) found that applying concept mapping in a junior high and
high school Spanish as a second language class improved students higher
130
order thinking skills as measured by performance on chapter quizzes, tests,

and student projects.
The above-mentioned research increasingly supports the idea that the
use of concept mapping tools can extend and enrich students learning in
various academic fields because in the world of science, concepts are very
inter-related and many concepts are built on many others. Therefore, concept
mapping would be very useful in content classrooms as a learning tool.
Concept mapping has been widely recommended and used in a variety of
ways in science education in advanced countries such as UK, USA, or
Japan, however, it is still a new method and not adopted by EAP teachers in
Iran. The reason could be the probable problems in developing Novaks style
concept maps in Farsi due to the linguistic differences between Farsi and
English.
Nevertheless, due to the importance and the necessity of employing
reading strategies in reading EAP texts, it seems essential for EAP teachers
to first do away with word-by-word translation as a reading comprehension
technique. The often heard complaint of most of undergraduate and graduate
students in our country is that they cannot get anything out of the word-byword translation of EAP texts by EAP teachers. This complaint becomes
more striking when we know that in such EAP contexts, comprehension of
content information is of prime importance.
Therefore, the first step in order to tackle this problem must be taken by
EAP teachers themselves. Teachers need to familiarize themselves with the
most useful reading strategies such as concept mapping in order to break the
dull and boring translation routine in EAP classes, involve participants in
active reading, and enable their students to both remember and categorize
information. As Guastello, Beasley, and Sinatra (2000) put it, teachers are
better prepared to make connections between difficult scientific concepts that
are understood by students with the use of concept maps.
It must be cautioned here that a teacher must not only provide the
students with the best fish (teach through the best strategies), but also teach
the fishing itself (teach the strategies). The idea of whether it is better for the
readers to be supplied with already-constructed concept maps or ask them to
construct their own concept maps was brought into question by Chang, Sung,
and Chen (2002). It has been stressed that for concept maps to be effective
learning or reading comprehension tools, the process of creating these maps
must be taught to the students in a manner that they can repeat the process
on their own. It is important for students to understand the purpose of using
131
concept maps to bolster their learning experience. If the students are

unaware of the various methods or of the goal of this learning technique, then
the experience of using them is lost on the untrained mind (Mikulecky, Clark,
& Adams, 1989).
Another important implication for language teachers is that they should
not expect perfection on the part of the students right from the first shot. The
main barrier for students in the process of constructing concept maps is the
recognition of main concepts, concepts, sub-concepts, and the
interrelationships among them. Therefore, through practice students can
learn how to locate main them. One effective way is to make students aware
that main ideas are usually stated in titles, topic sentences mostly in the
beginning of every paragraph, words in italics, and the key words.
The second practical step would be to help students learn how to
connect these concepts and sub-concepts through different nods, links, and
cross-links. Providing two forms of individualized and whole-class feedback in
written and oral form is also required. Promoting collaboratively constructed
concept maps both in and out of the class also seems to be very effective.
The last important implication for language teachers is that working with
concept maps in the class is much more timesaving and practical since in the
process of constructing concept maps most of the linguistic redundancies are
eliminated through nods, links, and cross-links.
One can finally conclude, as Chularut and DeBecker (2003) have
rightfully asserted that students may optimize their learning by adopting
concept mapping as a learning strategy. Since concept mapping is a studentdirected strategy that does not rely on teacher involvement or other formal or
complex technological supports, it is easily adopted by the users.
Furthermore, concept mapping is flexible enough to be useful in a variety of
learning settings. Thus, for EAP readers to be strategic and also aware of
their strategies in order to be able to handle the linguistic barriers to achieve
the content information of the EAP texts, they need to be instructed on how to
use concept mapping strategy and how to develop concept maps. However,
constructing efficient concept maps requires much time, practice, and
patience on the part of both the teachers and the students.

Accepted on April 10, 2010
132
The Authors
Behdokht Mall Amiri is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics, Islamic Azad
University Central Tehran Branch. She has published several articles in different
academic journals and is specifically interested in translation, cognitive and learning
styles, motivation, and program evaluation.
b_m_amiri@yahoo.com
Hojat Sarlak holds an MA in TEFL from Islamic Azad University Central Tehran. He
is presently an EAP instructor at Islamic Azad University Aligoodarz Branch. His
areas of teaching and research interest include teaching methodologies, EAP, ESP,
and discourse analysis.
hojat_sarlak_2000@yahoo.com
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136

IAUCTB
Improving EFL Learners Oral Proficiency

Through Metacognitive Strategy Instruction
Mojgan Rashtchi
Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics, Islamic Azad University North Tehran Branch, Iran
Parvin Khani
MA in TEFL, Islamic Azad University North Tehran Branch, Iran
Abstract
The present study adopts the perspective that metacognitive strategy
instruction is bound to occur inside the classroom especially on oral tasks.
Accordingly, the researchers investigated whether metacognitive strategy
instruction prior to oral tasks was more successful than conventional ways
in improving EFL learners oral proficiency. To this end, 56 participants
studying in a language school in Tehran were selected based on their
performance on the Preliminary English Test, an interview, and the
Strategy Inventory of Language Learning (SILL). The participants were
assigned into control and experimental groups. The control group
practiced oral tasks following a warm-up. The experimental group,
however, practiced oral tasks after receiving metacognitive strategy
instruction. A MANOVA comparison of the mean ratings of the two groups
on the posttest interviews and the posttest SILL demonstrated a
significant difference between the oral proficiency and metacognitive
strategy use of the two groups. This result indicated that the experimental
group outperformed the control group leading to the conclusion that
instruction on metacognitive strategy use prior to oral tasks had a
significantly higher impact on EFL learners oral proficiency and
metacognitive strategy use as compared to the only warm-up preceding
oral tasks.
Keywords: language learning strategies, metacognitive strategies

instruction, self-regulated learning, self-directed learning, oral proficiency
Introduction
There has been a great shift within the field of language learning and
teaching over the last 30 years with greater emphasis being put on learners
and learning rather than on teachers and teaching. The way learners process
new information and the kinds of strategies they employ to understand, learn,
or remember the information has been the primary concern of many
Metacognitive Strategy Instruction and Oral Proficiency
researchers (e.g., Cohen, 1998; Lam, 2009; Liu, 2004) dealing with the area
of foreign language learning and teaching.
Language Learning Strategies

The role of learning strategies in second language acquisition has drawn
great attention from language researchers and teachers. Teachers try to help
learners develop the concept that learning is a lifetime process, and learners
need to be equipped with self-directed learning skills (Oxford, 1990, p. 8) or
self-regulated learning skills (Lam, 2009, p. 10). Thus, it could be argued
that language learning itself is a lifelong task, and the strategies that are
employed by language learners make this learning easier, more enjoyable,
and, at the same time, effective.
Research into learning strategies started in the 1960s (Phothongsunan,
2006) and developments in cognitive psychology influenced much of the
research done on language learning strategies (Williams & Burden, 1997).
The first focus for learning strategy research was on identifying the
characteristics of effective learners. Rubin (1975) studied the language
learning strategies used by good language learners with the assumption that,
once identified, such strategies could be imparted to less successful learners.
Since then, the research interests on learners language learning behaviors
and the language they produce have been increasing substantially (Oxford,
1989; Oxford & Ehrman, 1995; Oxford & Nyikos, 1989; Wharton, 2000).
According to Oxfords (1990) definition, language learning strategies
refer to the specific actions, behaviors, steps or techniques that students use
to improve apprehending, internalizing, and using the second language.
Cohen (1998) defines language learning and language use strategies as
those processes which are consciously selected by learners and which may
result in action taken to enhance the learning or use of a second or foreign
language, through the storage, retention, recall, and application of
information about that language (p. 4).
Bremner (1999) believes that second language proficiency is related to
language learning strategies. All language learners use various types of
language learning strategies to a certain level, but there are diversities in the
frequency and choice of use among different learners. It appears that
successful language learners have the ability to orchestrate and combine
particular types of language learning strategies in effective ways according to
138
their own learning needs. Thus, to facilitate learners language learning and
to promote learner autonomy, instructors can benefit from language learning
strategies.
Metacognitive Strategies
Among the strategies found and recognized, the metacognitive-like
processes are used everywhere but mostly subconsciously; especially, when
it comes to the discussion of self-regulated learning. Being involved in
metacognitive strategies is one of the most noticeable features of a gaining
language learner. According to Lam (2009), metacognition is fixed in that
learners initial decisions derive from the relevant fact about their cognition
through years of learning experience. Simultaneously, it is also based on the
sense that it depends on learners familiarity with the task, motivation,
emotion, and so forth.
Individuals need to regulate their thoughts about the strategy they are
using and adjust it based on the situation to which the strategy is being
applied. The application of this notion to the study of foreign or second
language learning has been very much initiated by Flavell (1979) who
attempted to elaborate on the notion of metacognition within a theoretical
framework; learner metacognition is defined and investigated by examining
their personal knowledge, task knowledge, and strategy knowledge. The
framework was then proposed and utilized by Wenden (1991) as well as
Yang (1992) who investigated second language learners metacognition or
metacognitive knowledge. Their efforts were aimed at developing learner
autonomy, independence, and self-regulation.
Metacognition helps people to perform cognitive tasks more effectively.
Strategies for promoting metacognition include self-questioning (e.g., What
do I already know about this topic? How have I solved problems like this
before?), thinking aloud while performing a task, and making graphic
representations (e.g., concept maps, flow charts, semantic webs) of ones
thoughts and knowledge.
According to Chamot (as cited in Brown, 2006), explicit instruction on
strategies is much more effective than simply asking the learners to use and
combine whatever they know. Based on Chamots account (as cited in
Lessard-Clouston, 1997), teaching students how to learn on their own, find
139
the most effective way to learn, and raise their own interest and motivation in
learning are very important issues that require special attention.
Oral Proficiency
A wide percentage of the worlds language learners study English in order to
develop proficiency in speaking; however, the ability to fluently speak a
second or a foreign language is a very complex task. As Lazaraton (2001)
believes, for most people, the ability to speak a language is synonymous
with knowing that language since speech is the most basic means of human
communication (p. 103). Chastain (1988) maintains that in the field of
language teaching and learning, the purpose is the establishment of
communication skills in language learners. In other words, the general goal of
language learning is fluent and accurate use of the target language (Ellis,
2003).
According to Shumin (2002, p. 204), Learning to speak a foreign
language requires more than knowing grammatical and semantic roles.
Learners should also, Shumin continues, acquire the knowledge of how
native speakers use the language in the context of structured interpersonal
exchange in which many factors interact. Therefore, it is difficult for EFL
learners, especially adults, to speak the target language fluently and
appropriately (p. 204).
Brown (2006) argues that speakers should first anticipate and then
produce the expected patterns of any given discourse situation. They should
also manage discrete elements such as turn-taking, refreshing, providing
feedback, or repaying attention to the success of the interaction and adjusting
components of speech such as vocabulary, rate of speech, and complexity of
grammar structures to maximize listener comprehension and involvement
(Ellis, 2003; Hedge, 2000).
Speaking proficiency is a part of language proficiency which can be
developed through using learning strategies. Since fluency and accuracy are
two essential factors in speaking, the choice of teaching strategy helps
language learners become competent speakers. In this study the researchers
intended to analyze the effect of metacognitive strategy instruction on
learners oral proficiency.
140
Based on the issues discussed above, this study was designed to

answer whether instruction on metacognitive strategies lead to the
improvement of Iranian EFL learners oral proficiency and greater use of
learning strategies.
Method
Participants
The participants of this study were 56 (32 males and 24 females)
intermediate adult Iranian EFL learners with no age restriction who were to
take conversation courses in two different classes at a language school in
Tehran. These students had already passed the language schools
placement tests and were assigned to sit at the same level. Furthermore, as
the researchers did not have the luxury of random selection and had to work
with intact groups, they had to conduct the experiment with the participants
available.
To make sure, however, that both groups were homogeneous in terms of
the two attributes under study (oral proficiency and metacognitive strategy
use), the researchers conducted an oral interview and a pertinent
questionnaire among the 56 participants and ran certain statistical
procedures (described in the results section) on the mean scores of both
groups prior to the treatment thus demonstrating that they were
homogeneous.
Instrumentation
Three different instruments were used in this study. First, to have a
homogenous group of learners in terms of their oral proficiency, the
researchers conducted the speaking section of a sample PET among the 56
participants. These interviews were transcribed and rated by two raters using
the General Mark Scheme speaking band descriptors.
Second, for the exploration of the participants metacognitive strategy
use, the Oxfords (1990) Strategy Inventory of Language Learning (SILL) for
speakers of other languages learning English was used which is a language
learning strategy instrument that has been extensively field-tested for
141
reliability (ranging from 0.85 to 0.96 within a sample of 1200 university

students) and validated in multiple ways (Oxford & Burry-Stock, 1995). It has
been used in studies that correlated strategy use with variables such as
learning style, gender, and proficiency level (Oxford, 1998; Oxford & Ehrman,
1995; Oxford & Nyikos, 1989).
The questionnaire consists of 50 close-ended Likert-type questions
ranging from one to five in six parts based on Oxfords classification of
learning strategies, that is, memory strategies, cognitive strategies,
compensation strategies, metacognitive strategies, affective strategies, and
social strategies. In this study, the participants only answered the questions
which were related to metacognitive strategies, and were asked to indicate
their use of metacognitive strategies on a five-point scale, that is: Never: 1;
Seldom: 2; Sometimes: 3; Usually: 4; and Always: 5. Since an interval scale
was necessary for identifying the relationship between variables, numerical
values were given to each option.
The questionnaire used in this study was translated into the learners
mother tongue (Farsi) to ascertain its comprehensibility by the participants of
the study. The Farsi version was reviewed by two experts a priori and then
administered to 20 learners whose language proficiency was identical to the
participants of this study. They were asked to give their comments and pose
questions on its clarity and workability (according to the criteria discussed by
Gillham, 2002). Based upon the comments of the two experts and the
respondents answers and feedback, the researchers modified the Farsi
version of the SILL and computed its reliability (r = 0.87) after administering it
to 30 learners who were studying at the same language school with the same
level of language proficiency. The SILL was used both at the outset and at
the end of the instruction period.
Finally, another PET speaking test was used as the third instrument after
the treatment. Again, the interviews were transcribed and rated by the same
two raters whose inter-rater reliability had been established.
Procedure
Participant Selection
As described above, the researchers only had 56 participants at their
disposal and so they conducted the two oral interviews and SILL described
142
above making sure that the two groups of 28 bore no significant difference
with one another concerning these two attributes.
Treatment
The participants in both groups underwent a two-month instruction period
three times a week (an overall of 24 sessions) with each session lasting for
two hours. The learners in both experimental and control groups practiced
oral production tasks such as conversations, discussions, role plays, lectures,
and surveys done individually, in pairs or in groups. Topics for the class
activities were selected from daily life subjects such as meeting new people,
the effect of modern technology on our lives, the outcome of poverty, the
movie industry, how to reduce pollution, and ways to prevent crimes.
The difference between the two groups, however, was that those in the
control group were not provided with any kind of explanation on the type of
the strategy they should use when performing the tasks. They were given a
warm-up on the topic of the class and were spot checked after task
completion.
The seven metacognitive strategies selected from among Oxfords
(1990) classification for the experimental group included:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Paying attention
Organizing
Setting goals and objectives
Identifying the purpose of a language task (purposeful listening,
reading, speaking, and writing)
5. Planning for the language task
6. Self-monitoring
7. Self-evaluating
In the experimental group, each of the strategies was taught every session of
the course before a speaking task in the following manner:
Step 1: The target strategy was described and explained, sometimes in the
mother tongue, and modeled and exemplified by the teacher (one of the
researchers).
Step 2: Additional examples were elicited from students based on their own
learning experiences.
143
Step 3: There was a small-group/whole-class discussion on the rationale

behind the use of each of the strategies. Also, the participants were asked to
make judgments upon the effectiveness of the chosen strategies.
Step 4: The students were encouraged to experiment the covered strategies.
Step 5: Strategies were integrated into everyday speaking class tasks,
especially into discussions, role plays, and surveys which included oral
production.
Step 6: Again after applying the strategy to speaking tasks, there was a
small-group/whole-class discussion on the practiced strategies. The students
were strongly encouraged to provide some feedback on what they thought
and how they felt when applying the strategies.
Posttest
At the end of the course, the participants were interviewed and asked to
answer the SILL. The purpose was to measure their oral proficiency and
strategy use, respectively. The data were collected and analyzed through the
pertinent statistical procedures.
Results
Selecting the Participants
At the onset of the study, the PET speaking section was administered to the
participants of the study in the two groups to examine their homogeneity.
Table 1 below shows the descriptive statistics of this administration.
Table 1 Descriptive statistics of the two groups scores on the oral interview
144
Group
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Std. Error of
Measurement
Skewness
ratio
Experimental
28
5.45
1.10
.21
-.62
Control
28
5.19
1.52
.28
.31
As discussed earlier, the interviews were scored by two raters. To make sure
that both raters enjoyed inter-rater consistency, the researchers conducted a
correlation between the scores given by the two raters. As the two sets of
scores enjoyed normality of distribution (with the skewness ratios of both
falling within the acceptable range of 1.96), running a Pearson correlation
test was legitimized. Table 2 below shows that the correlation between the
two sets of scores was significant (r = 0.88 at the 0.01 level, two-tailed).
Table 2 Inter-rater consistency of the two raters scoring the oral interviews
Rater 2
Rater 1
Pearson Correlation
.880**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
28
The next step was to make sure that the two groups bore no significant
difference in terms of their oral proficiency before the treatment. In order to
establish this homogeneity, the researchers ran an independent samples ttest on the mean scores of the two groups (which as shown above
enjoyed normality of distribution).
Table 3 Independent samples t-test on the means of the two groups in the
oral interview
Levenes test for
equality of variances
Equal
variances
assumed
Sig.
df
Sig.(2tailed)
Mean
Difference
2.40
.12
.72
54
.47
.25
145
As Table 3 indicates, with the F value of 2.40 at the significance level of 0.12
being greater than 0.05, the variances between the two groups were not
significantly different. Therefore, the results of the t-test with the assumption
of homogeneity of the variances are reported here. With the t = 0.72, p = 0.47
> 0.05, the researchers could rest assured that the two experimental and
control groups manifested no significant difference in their oral proficiency
prior to the treatment.
The next step was to assure that the participants in both groups were
also homogeneous in terms of their metacognitive strategy use prior to the
treatment; thence, the SILL was administered. Table 4 below displays the
descriptive statistics of this administration.
Table 4 Descriptive statistics of the SILL used for homogenization
Group
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Std. Error of
Measurement
Skewness
Ratio
Experimental
28
145.71
27.54
5.20
.50
Control
28
143.21
24.19
4.57
.473
With the skewness ratios of both groups falling within the acceptable range
(0.50 and 0.47), running a t-test was legitimized. As is shown in Table 5
below, the two groups turned out to have homogeneous variances, F = 0.27,
p = 0.87 (two-tailed) being smaller than 0.05. Therefore, with equal variances
assumed, the t-test results indicated that there was no significant difference
between the mean scores of the two groups on the SILL, t = 0.36, p = 0.72 >
0.05; therefore, the two groups belonged to the same population in terms of
their metacognitive strategy use.
Table 5 Independent samples t-test on the SILL

Levenes test for equality
of variances
Equal
variances
assumed
146
Sig.
df
Sig.(2tailed)
Mean
Difference
.27
.87
.36
54
.72
2.5
Posttest
Once the treatment was over, the researchers conducted the posttest oral
interview and the SILL once again. The descriptive statistics of these two
tests together with the administrations at the outset stage are presented in
one table below for easier reference.
Table 6 Descriptive statistics of the oral interview and the SILL before and
after the treatment
Groups
Mean
Std
Deviation
Skewness
Ratio
Interview: Pre
Control
Experimental
Total
28
28
56
5.20
5.45
5.33
1.50
1.10
1.31
.31
-.62
Interview: Post
Control
Experimental
Total
28
28
56
5.16
6.65
5.91
1.54
1.18
1.55
-.24
-.23
SILL: Pre
Control
Experimental
Total
28
28
56
145.71
143.21
144.46
27.54
24.19
25.72
.47
.50
SILL: Post
Control
Experimental
Total
28
28
56
142.85
216.07
179.46
24.62
24.84
24.33
.59
-.14
Previous calculations proved that the two groups bore no significant

difference in terms of oral proficiency and strategy use prior to the treatment.
Nevertheless, there was a difference between the oral proficiency and
strategy use of both groups at the posttest level with the experimental group
outperforming the control group in both factors.
147
Responding to the Research Question

In order to be able to answer the research question proposed in this study,
the researchers had to compare the performance of the participants in the
control and experimental groups on the interviews and SILL. For this
purpose, a test of Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was run
between the performances of both of the groups on the interviews and the
strategy questionnaire. This was of course made possible with all the sets of
scores enjoying normality of distribution as displayed in Table 7 above.
To begin with, Table 7 shows the within-subjects factors which include
the dependent variables; that is, the learners oral proficiency and strategy
use.
Table 7 Within-subjects factors

Factor 1
Dependent Variable
1
2
3
4
Interview. Pre
Interview. Post
Strategy. Post
Strategy. Pre
Furthermore, the between-subjects factors are shown in Table 8 below.

Table 8 Between-subjects factors
Groups 1.00
2.00
Value Label
Control
Experimental
28
28
It was necessary to check for the homogeneity of intercorrelations to see if for

each of the levels of the between-subject variable (i.e., type of treatment) the
pattern of intercorrelation among the levels of within-subjects variables (i.e.,
oral proficiency and strategy use) were the same.
148
To test this assumption, Boxs M statistic with the more conservative

alpha level of 0.001 was used. In other words, Boxs M statistic tested the null
hypothesis that the observed covariance matrices of the dependent variables
were equal across groups. Table 9 displays the result and indicates that this
assumption was met (p = 0.023 0.001).
Table 9 Boxs test of equality of covariance matrices

Boxs M
22.517
F
df1
df2
Sig.
2.071
10
13941.036
.023
Table 10 below demonstrates the Multivariate test.

Table 10 Multivariate tests
Effect
Value
Sig.
Partial Eta
Squared
Factor 1
Pillais Trace
Wilks Lambada
Hotellings Trace
Roys Largest Root
.98
.15
67.00
67.00
1161.37
1161.37
1161.37
1161.37
.000
.000
.000
.000
.985
.985
.985
.985
Factor 1* Groups
Pillais Trace
Wilks Lambda
Hotellings Trace
Roys Largest Root
.788
.212
3.720
3.720
64.489
64.489
64.489
64.489
.000
.000
.000
.000
.788
.788
.788
.788
According to Table 10 above, the result of the Pillais Trace Test specified
that F = 64.489 and p < 0.001; it could thus be concluded that the treatment
149
was effective between the groups and there was a statistically significant
difference between the experimental and control groups. Moreover, with the
partial Eta square coming out to be 0.79, the treatment accounted for 79% of
the overall variance in the scores.
Table 11 below demonstrates the test of between-subjects effects as part
of the MANOVA output. As illustrated in Table 11 below, the two groups
turned out to have a statistically significant difference in the interview
posttest, F(1,54) = 16.25 and p = 0.0005 < 0.05. The effect size, using Eta
squared was 0.23, indicating a relatively large effect size, which means that
the oral proficiency by itself accounted for 23% of the overall variance.
Furthermore, Table 11 specifies that there is a statistically significant
difference in both experimental and control groups in the SILL posttest: F(1,54)
= 122.65 and p = 0.0005 < 0.05. The effect size, again using Eta squared
was 0.694, indicating a large effect size, which means that metacognitive
strategy instruction by itself accounted for 69% of the overall variance.
Table 11 Tests of between-subjects effects

Dependent
Variable
150
Type III
Sum of
Squares
df
Mean
Square
Sig.
Partial
Eta Sq.
Corrected
Model
Interview .Pre
Interview Post
SILL Post
SILL Pre
.875
30.75
75044.6
87.5
1
1
1
1
.875
30.75
75044.64
87.5
.499
16.25
122.6
.130
.48
.000
.000
.720
.009
.231
.694
.002
Intercept
Interview Pre
Interview Post
SILL Post
SILL Pre
1591.11
1956.45
803616.1
168716.1
1
1
1
1
1591.11
1956.45
1803616.1
1168716.1
907.9
1034
2947.8
1738.8
.000
.000
.000
.000
.944
.950
.982
.970
Groups
Interview Pre
Interview Post
SILL Post
SILL Pre
.875
30.75
75044.64
87.5
1
1
1
1
.875
30.75
75044.64
87.500
.499
16.254
122.65
.130
.483
.000
.000
.720
.009
.231
.694
.002
Error
Interview Pre
Interview Post
SILL Post
SILL Pre
Total
Interview Pre
Interview Post
SILL Post
SILL Pre
Corrected
Total
Interview Pre
Interview Post
SILL Pre
SILL Post
94.64
102.17
33039.29
36296.43
1686.63
2089.38
911700.0
205100.0
95.51
132.93
108083.93
36383.93
5
4
5
4
5
4
5
54
6
5
6
5
6
5
6
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
1.75
1.89
611.84
672.16
However, in order to specifically locate the differences and determine which

of the two dependent variables was more influenced, pairwise comparison
was carried out. Table 12 demonstrates this comparison between the control
and experimental groups oral proficiency and learning strategy use.
Table 12 Pair-wise comparisons of control and experimental groups

Dependent
Variable
(I) Groups
(J) Groups
Mean
Difference
(I-J)
Std.
Error
Sig.
a
95% Confidence
Interval for
Difference
Lower
Upper
Bound
Bound
-.959
.459
-.459
.959
-2.219
-.745
.745
2.219
-86.468 -59.960
59.960
86.468
-11.392
16.392
-16.392
11.392
Control
Experimental
-.250
.354 .483
Experimental Control
.250
.354 .483
Control
Experimental
-1.482*
.368 .000
Rater.post
1.482*
.368 .000
Control
Experimental
-73.214*
6.611 .000
Stategy.post
73.214*
6.611 .000
Control
Experimental
2.500
6.929 .720
Strategy.pre
-2.500
6.929 .720
Based on estimated marginal means
* The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.
a Adjustment for multiple comparisons: Least Significant Difference (equivalent to no
adjustments).
Rater.pre
151
Table 12 demonstrates that there was no significant difference between the

control and experimental groups prior to the treatment on their oral
proficiency (p = 0.48 > 0.05) and their learning strategy use (p = 0.72 > 0.05).
Bearing no significant difference at the onset, the two groups demonstrated a
significant difference after the treatment on both oral proficiency and learning
strategy use (p = 0.0005).
Estimated Marginal Means
250.00
Groups
200.00
Control
Experimental
150.00
100.00
50.00
0.00
Rater pre
Rater post
strategy post
strategy pre
Figure 1 Mean difference between the control and experimental groups on

the tests before and after the treatment
Figure 1 illustrates the finding explained above plus the fact that the
participants in the experimental group gained a higher mean on the SILL
posttest compared to that of the interview posttest; this fact thus
demonstrates that the treatment of metacognitive strategy instruction indeed
influenced the EFL learners learning strategy use to a greater extent
compared to the oral proficiency.
152

The present study recommends the use of metacognitive strategy instruction
in EFL speaking classes. The instruction is an interactive process through
which the teacher can negotiate the most effective way of performing a task
with the students. The instruction helps the learners develop an autonomous
learning, promote their oral proficiency, and encounter difficult or unknown
tasks. As Lam (2009) argues, the instruction helps the learners develop an
autonomous learning, promote their oral proficiency, and encounter difficult or
unknown tasks.
Additionally, the result of the present study shows that the inclusion of
metacognitive strategy instruction in syllabus can be an integral program in
EFL courses. One reason for this inclusion could be the fact that nowadays,
there is an urgent need to implement speaking English in both high schools
and universities in many educational settings.
One of the difficulties of EFL learners lies in planning what they are
supposed to talk about. According to the results of this study, teaching
metacognitive strategies by offering different topics and working on them
through using these strategies can provide the needed basis for speaking.
Implementing this instruction in classes can solve one of the deficiencies of
speaking classes; that is, lack of interaction, which results in poor
communicative skills.
Students can benefit from the strategy instruction prior to the
commencement of practice on speaking the result of which can be
improvement of their oral proficiency. As Oxford (1990) maintains, strategies
are important for language learning because they are tools for active, selfdirected involvement, which is essential for developing communicative
competence (p. 1).
Training these strategies should be the goal of any language teaching
center as language learning is a dynamic process which necessitates the
training of autonomous learners who can manage their own learning. This
instruction will require learners to think more deeply, plan what they are going
to say, and evaluate themselves, all leading to expanded oral proficiency.
Being aware of the strategies language learners use, as OMalley and
Chamot (as cited in Lessard-Clouston, 1997) argue, helps learners become
good language learners who are able to complete learning tasks successfully
(Vann & Abraham, 1990).
153
Another advantage of using metacognitive instruction is making the

students aware of these strategies since such strategies involve conscious
thoughts and actions that learners take in order to achieve a learning goal.
Students should have metacognitive knowledge about their own thinking and
actions which can only be achieved through strategy instruction. In other
words, language instructors and learners should understand both language
learning strategies and the relationships between language learning
strategies and speaking proficiency. They need to confront the importance of
language learning strategies in improving oral proficiency. Moreover, to make
language instruction more effective, language instructors should focus on
teaching the language as well as the appropriate strategies helpful in
language learning.
Received on February 5, 2010
The Authors
Mojgan Rashtchi is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at Islamic Azad
University, North Tehran Branch, Iran. She has published several articles and books
on teaching English to children and adults and has participated in different national
and international conferences. Her main areas of interest include philosophy for
children (P4C) as well as issues of first language acquisition and second language
teaching to children and adults.
mojgan.rashtchi@gmail.com
Parvin Khani obtained her MA in TEFL from Islamic Azad University, North Tehran
Branch and has been teaching English in private language schools in Tehran for the
last seven years. Her main areas of interest include second language teaching and
testing.
pkh6183@yahoo.com
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156

IAUCTB
A Comparative Analysis of Culture Specific

Items in Two English Translations of
Savushun
Kourosh Akef
Tahmineh Vakili
MA in Translation Studies, Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch, Iran
Abstract
This study was conducted to identify and compare the strategies applied
by two native Farsi translators in rendering the culture specific items
(CSIs) of a literary text titled Savushun in their English translations. In this
study, CSIs refer to the materials, social customs, religious concepts, and
traditions available in one language and culture but nonexistent in the
other language and culture. Aixels proposed strategies of translation of
CSIs (as cited in Alvarez & Vidal, 1996) were taken as the model of this
study and 191 extracted CSIs from the original novel were categorized
accordingly. The researchers compared the two translated versions, one
of them titled Savushun translated by Ghanoonparvar (1990), and the
other one translated by Zand (1991), titled Persian Requiem. The results
of the comparison revealed that while the most frequently used strategy
by Ghanoonparvar was extra-textual gloss, Zand was keen on using
linguistic translation. Furthermore, neither of the translators used a single
strategy in rendering CSIs under a specific subcategory and both had
different trends towards using conservative or substitutive strategies.
Keywords: culture, culture specific items (CSIs), translation strategies,

inverse translation, literary translation, translation into non-mother tongue
Introduction
The discipline of translatology or translation studies has witnessed the
emergence of a new shift of paradigm, that is, culture-oriented translation
studies, since the 1980s (Leppihalme, 1997, p. 1). In fact, as Munday (2006)
states, Linguistic theories of translation have been sidelined and attention
has centered on translation as cultural transfer and the interface of translation
with other growing disciplines within cultural studies (p. 141). How to deal
with features like dialect and heteroglossia, literary allusions, culturally
specific items such as food or architecture, or further-reaching differences in
Culture Specific Items in Translations of Savushun
the assumed contextual knowledge that surrounds the text and gives it
meaning are indeed complex technical issues raised in cultural translation
(Sturge, 2009, p. 67).
Culture Specific Items

The issue of translating culture specific items (CSIs) is primarily
problematized by the diversity and even heterogeneity of opinion when it
comes to defining culture. From the Kantian pro-enlightenment view of
culture to the mid-nineteenth century German non-positivist sociologist Georg
Simmel who used the term to refer to a universal human capacity and defined
it as the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which
have been objectified in the course of history (Levine, 1971, p. 6), the
controversy is further amplified by Romanticist definitions of culture focusing
on human refinement.
The 20th century brought with it an anthropological perspective in the
study of many phenomena culture being no exception (Murdock, 1981;
Stringer & McKiew, 1996; Tomasello, 1999); Larson (1984) subscribes to this
epistemological stance in defining culture as a complex of beliefs, attitudes,
values, and rules which a group of people share (p. 431). She further holds
that the translator needs to understand beliefs, attitudes, values, and the
rules of the source language audience in order to adequately understand the
source text and adequately translate it for people who have a different set of
beliefs, attitudes, values, and rules (p. 431). In line with this specific
conceptualization of culture, Aixel (as cited in Alvarez & Vidal, 1996) writes
that:
In translation, a CSI does not exist of itself, but as the result of a
conflict arising from any linguistically represented reference in a
source text which, when transferred to a target language, poses a
translation problem due to the nonexistence or to the different value
of the given item in the target language culture CSIs are those
textually actualized items whose function and connotations in a
source text involve a translation problem in their transference to a
target text, whenever this problem is a product of the nonexistence of
the referred item or of its different intertextual status in the cultural
system of the readers of the target text. (pp. 57-58).
The above demonstrates that translating these items from one language to
another is a complicated and vital task and that a translator needs to be
cognizant of cultural differences between the ST and the TT in literary
translation. To translate CSIs, translators resort to translation strategies that
158
various translation scholars have presented. Lrscher (as cited in

Leppihalme, 1997, p. 24) defines a translation strategy as a potentially
conscious procedure for the solution of a problem which an individual is faced
with when translating a text segment from one language to another. In this
regard, Aixel (as cited in Alvarez & Vidal, p. 60) groups all possible
strategies applied to CSIs in translation with this categorization being
intended to have a methodological usefulness in describing objectively any
supposedly preexisting classes.
Literary Translation
Among different types of translation, Literary translation is an original
subjective activity at the center of a complex network of social and cultural
practices (Bush, 1998, p. 4). Therefore, Literary translators are often seen
as communicators between cultures (Jones, 2009, p. 156). And translation
of these texts is the most testing type of translation, because the first, basic
articulation of meaning (the word) is as important as the second (the
sentence) and the effort to make word, sentence and text cohere requires
continuous compromise and readjustment (Newmark, 1988, p. 162).
Tymoczko (as cited in Jones, 2009, p. 153) argues that, The focus on
literary translation provides the discipline with high-quality evidence about
interfaces between cultures and about the linguistic challenges of
translating, hence it can inform theories, models of practice and research
methodologies relevant to other genres, and vice versa.
The problem with translating CSIs in literary texts is perhaps related to
the lexical and cognitive gaps between the SL and the TL. This is why
Leppihalme (1997, p. 19) conceives the translator as a cultural mediator
and decision-maker who is competent and responsible. He points out
that, those reading the TT texts enjoy a different cognitive environment from
ST readers, which means that the translator will need to consider also the
implicit part of the massage, the contextual and referential part, and to decide
whether it needs to be explicated in the TT (1997, p. 20).
Translation into a Non-Mother Tongue

Although most translation theoreticians do not discuss openly the possibility
of choosing ones TL in translation, they do covertly express their conviction
that only translation into ones mother tongue guarantees a good translation
(Pokorn, 2005). According to Pokorn (2005), this hidden assumption can be
159
found in contemporary theories of Snell-Hornbys integrated approach,

Steiners hermeneutic work on translation theory, and Venutis terminologies.
Pokorn (2005) points out that contrary to common belief, the principle
that translation should always be done into ones mother tongue does not
have a long history. He notes that translating into a tongue other than ones
L1 can also be found in the ancient world, when the native language of the
translator was not an issue, or at least not one of the criteria according to
which the quality of the translation was assessed (p. 34).
In the 20th century, too, translation out of ones mother tongue was not
such a rare occurrence. According to Pokorn, It was and still is a common
translation practice in communities which use a language of restricted
distribution or limited diffusion and which are forced to translate into foreign
languages if they want their works to be translated at all (p. 35).
Pokorn (2005) goes on to argue that there is no scientific proof to the
claim that translation into a mother tongue is superior to translation into a
non-mother tongue and continues that:
The stigma of inappropriateness given to inverse translation by the
majority of Western translation theorists stems from a postRomantic, aprioristic, scientifically-unproven and sometimes
ethnocentric conviction of theorists coming from major and central
linguistic communities, since inverse translation is mainly practiced in
peripheral and minor linguistic cultures. (p. 122).
In line with what has been discussed so far, the present study was conducted
to address the following research questions:
What strategies have been used by Ghanoonparvar in rendering the

CSIs of Savushun according to Aixels model?
What strategies have been used by Zand in rendering the CSIs of
Savushun according to Aixels model?
Method
Corpus
Savushun ( )is the number one best-selling novel by an Iranian
woman published inside the country (16 printings since 1969). Few works of
Iranian fiction deal with the World War II occupation of Iran by British and
Russian forces, a period of immense historical significance for Iran. The
writer, Simin Daneshvar (born in 1921 in Shiraz), is an academic, renowned
novelist, fiction writer, and translator of literary works from English, German,
160
Italian, and Russian into Farsi. Daneshvar has used folklore and myths in
writing Savushun and illustrates an era of growing nationalism prior to the
emergence of the 1979 Revolution.
Savushun was deliberately chosen for this study based on two reasons.
Firstly, this literary text contains profound Farsi CSIs such as religious
concepts, social customs, and kinds of foods, clothes, and many proper
names. It evokes images of shrines and Sufis, of the tombs of the great
poets, of Persepolis and the great monuments of pre-Islamic Iran, and, of the
hinterland of the nomadic (Qashqai) tribes. Secondly, there are two different
translations of this novel into English thereby allowing a comparative
analysis. One is by Mohammad-Reza Ghanoonparvar in 1990 titled
Savushun: A novel about modern Iran. This translation includes a useful
glossary and a thoughtful introduction by Brian Spooner.
The second translation is by Roxane Zand in 1991 titled A Persian
Requiem. Both translators are native speakers of Farsi and have translated
an L1 text into an L2 text while it is commonly believed that translators have
better performance in translating an L2 foreign text into their native language
and inverse translation, especially of literary texts, has always been frowned
upon within translation studies in Western cultures with a dominant language
(Pokorn, 2005, p. ix).
Theoretical Framework
The researchers adopted Aixels comprehensive taxonomy of CSIs (as cited
in Alvarez & Vidal, 1996) into account in order to identify the strategies
applied by the two translators in rendering the CSIs of Savushun. In this
study, the researchers categorized the extracted CSIs from the original 304page Savushun. Aixel (as cited in Alvarez & Vidal, 1996) points out that,
The scale, from a lesser to a greater degree of intercultural manipulation, is
divided in two major groups separated by their conservative or substitutive
nature (p. 61).
Conservative Strategies
The conservative strategies are considered to include:
1. Repetition: According to Aixel (as cited in Alvarez & Vidal, 1996), by
applying this strategy translators keep as much as they can of the original
reference (p. 61). The obvious example can be the treatment of names
especially in annotations [Seattle Seattle].
161
2. Orthographic adaptation: Aixel (as cited in Alvarez & Vidal, 1996)

states, This strategy includes procedures like transcription and transliteration
which are mainly used when the original reference is expressed in a different
alphabet from the one target readers use (p. 61). Example:
Khani Hammam.
3. Linguistic (non-cultural) translation: In this case, Aixel (as cited in
Alvarez & Vidal, 1996, p. 62) states that the translator chooses in many
cases a denotatively very close reference to the original, but increases its
comprehensibility by offering a target language version which can still be
recognized as belonging to the cultural system of the source text. Example:
New Mosque
4. Extra-textual gloss: According to Aixel (as cited in Alvarez & Vidal,
1996), by applying this strategy, the translator uses one of the
abovementioned procedures but considers it necessary to offer some
explanation of the meaning or implications of the CSI in an annotation or
glossary.
5. Intra-textual gloss: This is when translators feel they can or should
include their gloss as an indistinct part of the text, usually so as not to disturb
the readers attention (Aixel, as cited in Alvarez & Vidal, 1996, p. 62).
Example: the prayer that is said during the solar and lunar
eclipses or earthquakes.
Substitutive Strategies
The substitutive strategies, on the other hand, are mentioned to encompass
the following:
1. Synonymy: The translator resorts to some kind of synonym or parallel
reference to avoid repeating the CSI (Aixel, as cited in Alvarez & Vidal,
1996, p. 63). Example: clerical garb.
2. Limited universalization: In principle, as Aixel (as cited in Alvarez &
Vidal, 1996) states, by applying this strategy translators feel that the CSI is
too obscure for their readers or that there is another, more usual possibility
and decide to replace it (p. 63). He points out that Usually for the sake of
credibility, translators seek another reference, also belonging to the source
language culture but closer to their readers another CSI, but less specific, so
to speak (p. 63). Example: the dervishs drinking bowl.
3. Absolute universalization: The basic situation is identical to the
previous one, but translators do not find a better known CSI or prefer to
delete any foreign connotations and choose a neutral reference for their
162
readers (Aixel, as cited in Alvarez & Vidal, 1996, p. 63). Example:

bread.
4. Naturalization: In the words of Aixel (as cited in Alvarez & Vidal,
1996, p. 63), the translator decides to bring the CSI into the intertextual
corpus felt as specific by the target language culture. He also mentions that
currently, this strategy is infrequently used in literature (with the clear
exception of childrens literature, where it also is beginning to decline).
Example: homemade bread is as sweet as rose petals.
5. Deletion: By applying this strategy, translators consider the CSI
unacceptable on ideological or stylistic grounds, or they think that it is not
relevant enough for the effort of comprehension required of their readers
(Aixel, as cited in Alvarez & Vidal, 1996, p. 64). Therefore, they decide to
omit it in the target text. Example:
the mullahs in town even spread
a rumor that he had turned into a heretic and a Babi.
6. Autonomous creation: Aixel (as cited in Alvarez & Vidal, 1996) points
out that, This is a very little-used strategy in which the translators decide that
it could be interesting for their readers to put in some nonexistent cultural
reference in the source text (p. 64).
In addition to the above two categories of conservative and substitutive
strategies, Aixel (as cited in Alvarez & Vidal, 1996) proposed some other
potential strategies such as:
Compensation (deletion + autonomous creation at another point of
the text with a similar effect);
Dislocation (displacement in the text of the same reference); and
Attenuation (replacement, on ideological grounds, of something too
strong or in any way unacceptable, by something softer, more
adequate to target pole written tradition or to what could, in theory,
be expected by readers).
Procedure
This descriptive study was completed through several steps described in
detail in this section. As the first step, the CSIs in the original Farsi Savushun
comprising 23 chapters were extracted. These CSIs which totaled 191 in
number were then categorized according to the theoretical framework of the
study. Next, the English equivalents of these 191 CSIs were extracted from
both English translated versions of the original novel and placed alongside
163
the Farsi item in two separate tables according to their cultural categories.
The reason behind this alignment is that according to Piao (2002, p. 210),
For a parallel corpus to be useful, an essential step is to align the source
texts and their translations, i.e. to produce a link between the two, at the
sentence or word level.
At the third stage, the strategies adopted by each translator in rendering
the CSIs of the original novel were identified according to the strategies
presented by Aixel (as cited in Alvarez & Vidal, 1996). Subsequently, the
frequencies of applications of strategies adopted by each translator were
calculated and then the percentages were shown in Table 2.
The next stage was comparing the given percentages in order to identify
the most frequently used procedure by each translator. The sixth and last
step was assessing whether the two translators have used a single strategy
in rendering all the cultural items classified under a specific category.
Results
To start with, Table 1 below represents the number of CSIs within the Farsi
novel under each subcategory.
Table 1 Classification of 191 CSIs of Savushun
164
Cultural category
Classification
Number of
items
Material culture
Food
Clothes
Houses
Transport
Objects
Measurement
Places
26
26
2
1
3
1
56
Social culture
Work and leisure
18
Organizations, customs,
ideas
Social customs
Legal ideas
Religious concepts
11
5
42
As is evident in Table 1, the most frequent subcategory of CSIs was places

and next, religious concepts while the least frequent were the two
subcategories of transport and measurement.
Table 2 below displays the frequencies and percentages of the different
strategies used by the two translators in rendering the CSIs in Savushun in
order of frequency.
Table 2 Frequencies and percentages of strategies used by the two
translators in rendering the CSIs in Savushun
Ghanoonparvar
Type of
strategy
Extra-textual
gloss
Naturalization
Linguistic
translation
Synonymy
Absolute
universalization
Intra-textual
Gloss
Orthographic
adaptation
Limited
universalization
Dislocation
Deletion
Attenuation
Repetition
Compensation
Autonomous
creation
Total
Zand
Type of
strategy
Frequency
Percentage
51
26.7
42
22
Linguistic
translation
Naturalization
42
22
Synonymy
34
17.8
13
6.8
3.1
.5
191
100%
Absolute
Universalization
Extra-textual
Gloss
Orthographic
adaptation
Intra-textual
Gloss
Limited
Universalization
Dislocation
Deletion
Attenuation
Repetition
Compensation
Autonomous
creation
Total
Frequency
Percentage
43
22.513
34
17.801
31
16.230
24
12.565
19
9.947
4.712
4.712
4.712
6
5
2
-
3.141
2.617
1.047
-
191
100%
The data in the above table could be used to respond to the two research
questions raised in this study. The first one was concerning the strategies
used by Ghanoonparvar in rendering the CSIs of Savushun; as is evident, he
has used the eight strategies of (in order of frequency) extra-textual gloss,
165
naturalization, linguistic translation, synonymy, absolute universalization,

intra-textual gloss, orthographic adaptation, and limited universalization.
Accordingly, Ghanoonparvar did not use the strategies of repetition, deletion,
autonomous creation, compensation, dislocation, and attenuation.
As for the second question which focused on the strategies used by
Zand in her translation of Savushun, as is evident in Table 2 above, she has
used 11 strategies which (in order of frequency) include linguistic translation,
naturalization, synonymy, absolute universalization, extra-textual gloss,
orthographic adaptation, intra-textual gloss, limited universalization,
dislocation, deletion, and attenuation. Zand has thus not used the strategies
of repetition, autonomous creation, and compensation.
While linguistic translation is the most frequently used strategy by Zand,
Ghanoonparvar has used it as his third most frequently used strategy in
translation. Naturalization is both translators second most frequently used
strategy. The least frequently used strategy by both translators is limited
universalization.

The aim of this study was to compare the strategies used by two Iranian
translators in rendering the CSIs of Savushun in English. The findings
showed that in the translation of the CSIs of Savushun, Ghanoonparvar had
a greater tendency towards conveying the sense of cultural terms outside the
text by giving extra-textual explanations for 120 items (together with the
proper names used in Savushun), whereas Zand has explained 35 items
(together with proper names), extra-textually.
In addition, linguistic translation has been actively used by both
translators in case of many items under the subcategory of places. This
means that the translators had kept the name and translated the function of
the place. Also in the subcategory of social customs, the translators have
preserved the referential meanings of the expected items and have not
explained the symbolic meanings of those CSIs under these subcategories.
Furthermore, this study showed that neither of the translators has
adhered to a single strategy in the process of translating Farsi CSIs of a
certain subcategory into English. Therefore, they have both subscribed to the
practice of employing a diversity of strategies in translating CSIs.
Received on April 5, 2010
166
The Authors
Kourosh Akef is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics, Islamic Azad University
Central Tehran Branch where he has been a faculty member for 13 years. He
teaches courses in both the graduate TEFL and Translation Studies programs. His
primary research interests are EFL writing, second/foreign language teaching and
learning, and translation studies.
kourosh.akef@gmail.com
Tahmineh Vakili holds an MA in Translation Studies from Islamic Azad University
Central Tehran Branch. She has been working as a translator in a translation
company for two years while having been an English teacher for five years. Her main
research interest is comparative cultural studies in translation.
t.vakili.2010@gmail.com
References
lvarez, M., & Vidal, C. (1996). Translation, power, subversion. Clevedon, UK:
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Bush, P. (1998). Literary translation. In M. Baker & G. Saldanha (Eds.), Routledge
encyclopedia of translation studies (pp. 127-130). New York: Routledge.
Daneshvar, S. (1990). Savushun: A novel about modern Iran (R. Ghanoonparvar,
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Daneshvar, S. (1992). A Persian requiem (R. Zand, Trans.). New York: G. Braziller.
(Original work published 1969)
Jones, F. (2009). Literary translation. In M. Baker & G. Saldanha (Eds.), Routledge
Larson, M. L. (1984). Meaning-based translation: A guide to cross-language
equivalence. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
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Levine, D. (1971). Simmel: On individuality and social forms. Chicago, IL: Chicago
University Press.
Munday, J. (2006). Introducing translation studies, theories and application. London:
Routledge.
Murdock, G. P. (1981). Atlas of world cultures. Pittsburgh, PA: The University of
Pittsburgh Press.
Newmark, P. (1988). A textbook of translation. New York: Prentice-Hall.
Piao, S. (2002). Word alignment in English-Chinese parallel corpora. Literary and
Linguistic Computing, 17(2), 207-230.
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Stringer, C., & McKiew, R. (1996). African exodus: The origins of modern humanity.
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Journal of English Language Studies

Volume 1, Number 4, Summer 2010

Journal of English Language Studies

Vol. 1, No. 4, Summer 2010

Editorial Board (in alphabetic order)

Ramin Akbari Assistant Professor, Tarbiat Modares University, Iran

Notes for Contributors

between the two referees.

parentheses should be listed in alphabetical

Ellis, R. (1985). Understanding second

Comparing the Effect of Individual and Group Pre-Task Planning on EFL

Iranian TEFL Students Perception of Plagiarism

The Impact of Utilizing Computer Assisted Language Learning on EFL

Error Correction in Socio-Cultural Perspective: Feedback and Noticing in

The Relationship Between EFL Teachers Emotional Intelligence and Their

The Comparative Effect of Summarizing and Concept Mapping on ESP

Improving EFL Learners Oral Proficiency Through Metacognitive Strategy

A Comparative Study of Culture Specific Items in Two English Translations

JELS, Vol. 1, No. 4, Summer 2010, 1-22

Comparing the Effect of Individual and

MA in TEFL, Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch, Iran

Key words: accuracy in speaking, complexity in speaking, individual pre-task

Individual & Group Pre-Task Planning

JELS, Vol. 1, No. 4, Summer 2010, 1-22

Individual & Group Pre-Task Planning

Accuracy and Complexity in Speaking

JELS, Vol. 1, No. 4, Summer 2010, 1-22

Crookes to the conclusion that no differences in accuracy are to be expected

Individual & Group Pre-Task Planning

Nikan High School which is located in Aryashahr, Tehran. The participants

JELS, Vol. 1, No. 4, Summer 2010, 1-22

Top Notch (2a)

Individual & Group Pre-Task Planning

types following Skehan and Fosters (1999) classification as already

JELS, Vol. 1, No. 4, Summer 2010, 1-22

Individual & Group Pre-Task Planning

Table 1 Descriptive statistics for PET (pilot study)

Table 2 Reliability for PET piloting

Descriptive Statistics of the PET Main Administration

JELS, Vol. 1, No. 4, Summer 2010, 1-22

Figure 1 Individual chart for homogeneity of samples

First the concentration and dispersion indices of variables were calculated.

Individual & Group Pre-Task Planning

PET scores before homogeneity

Figure 2 Histogram for PET scores before homogenizing

PET scores afterhomogeneity

Figure 3 Histogram for PET scores after homogenizing

The Measures of L2 Speech Production

JELS, Vol. 1, No. 4, Summer 2010, 1-22

by Fortkamp, 2000; Mehnert, 1998; Sangarum, 2005). It was obtained by

Descriptive Statistics of the Posttest

Table 4 Descriptive statistics for all quantitative variables

Individual & Group Pre-Task Planning

planning group in terms of accuracy in speaking. However, the complexity

accuracy scores in the post test

Figure 4 The comparative charts of individual and group pre-task planning

As it is shown in the above figures, there is a difference between individual

JELS, Vol. 1, No. 4, Summer 2010, 1-22

complexity scores in the post test

Figure 5 The comparative charts of individual and group pre-task planning

Testing the Null Hypotheses of the Study

Table 5 Levenes test of homogeneity of variance for accuracy and

Individual & Group Pre-Task Planning