Ehsan Namaziandost; Sajad Shafiee; Fariba Rahimi Esfahani
Abstract
This study attempted to investigate the effects of cultural background knowledge on vocabulary learning through reading culturally oriented texts. The study was conducted with 150 upper-intermediate male (n = 75) and female (n = 75) EFL students. The participants of each gender were randomly assigned ...
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This study attempted to investigate the effects of cultural background knowledge on vocabulary learning through reading culturally oriented texts. The study was conducted with 150 upper-intermediate male (n = 75) and female (n = 75) EFL students. The participants of each gender were randomly assigned into three equal groups: group A (Target Culture = TC), group B (Source Culture = SC) and group C (Culture-Free = CF). After homogenizing the participants through a researcher-made vocabulary pretest, three groups received the treatment which was reading comprehension materials reflecting a particular culture. During the treatment, some reading passages related to American and English cultures, Persian culture, and culture free materials were taught to group A, group B, and group C, respectively. At the end of the study, a researcher-made vocabulary posttest was administered. Results of one-way ANCOVA and paired samples t test revealed the significant effects of cultural familiarity whereby vocabulary gains were greater after participants read within the culturally oriented text. Moreover, the results showed that there was no significant difference in vocabulary knowledge posttest between male and female learners.
Learning
Yeganeh Haddad; Nabi-Allah Akbarnataj-e Shoob; Jamal Sadeghi
Abstract
Educational self-efficacy and its relationship with learners' different psychological traits can have a tremendous effect on the success or failure of the students. Thus, the present research sought to investigate whether academic self-efficacy has an effect on the students' stress derived from the education ...
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Educational self-efficacy and its relationship with learners' different psychological traits can have a tremendous effect on the success or failure of the students. Thus, the present research sought to investigate whether academic self-efficacy has an effect on the students' stress derived from the education expectations based on such mediating factor as the difficulty of emotion regulation. The research method was descriptive-correlational based on structural equations. The statistical population consisted of all 800 junior female high-school students, 9th grade, from 16 State schools in the third district of Tehran. To decide on the sample size according to the number of observed variables, assigning a coefficient of 25 for each (7 variables in the model), and taking the possibility of incomplete questionnaires into account, 200 people were chosen by cluster sampling method. The data were gathered using three questionnaires: self-efficacy (Jinks & Morgan, 1999), difficulty in emotion regulation (Gross & John, 2003), and educational expectation (Ang & Huan, 2006). Using the structural equation modelling, the data analysis revealed that educational self-efficacy and difficulty in emotion regulation had a direct and significant effect on the stress caused by educational expectations. Also, an indirect effect of educational self-efficacy with the mediation of difficulty in emotion regulation was captured and the research model was revealed to predict 63% of the stress variable due to educational expectations. The study revealed the importance of cognitive factors in explaining the stress caused by academic expectations.
Nabiollah Malekzadeh; Alireza Ghasemizad; Abdolmohmmad Taheri; Pari Mashayekh
Abstract
This study aimed to compare the effect of using conceptual map and traditional instruction on cognitive learning of Senior high school students in thinking and media literacy course. This is a quasi-experimental research using experimental and control groups. Three classes were chosen randomly (one for ...
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This study aimed to compare the effect of using conceptual map and traditional instruction on cognitive learning of Senior high school students in thinking and media literacy course. This is a quasi-experimental research using experimental and control groups. Three classes were chosen randomly (one for conceptual map teaching, one for the combination of lecture-based and conceptual map teaching (combined) and one as the control group). In the combined group, learners were taught though conceptual mapping while the experimental group was exposed to both teacher-made conceptual map and combined method in eight sessions and the control group experienced traditional instruction. All the three groups completed the teacher-made academic achievement test in both levels of knowledge and high level of thinking. The validity of the instrument measured through S. H. Lawshe formula was 0.78 and the reliability measured through Kuder - Richardson was 0.807. In order to analyze the data, covariance analysis was used. The findings of this study showed that the instruction was not effective at the level of knowledge, but there was a significant difference in the high level of comprehension which means that the highest effect was observed in the lecturing and conceptual mapping group (combined) while the lowest effect was attributed to the control group. Keywords: Presentation and construction of concept map, Bloom cognitive levels, Concept map, Meaningful learning
Azam Aghdar; Sirous Allipour; Manijeh Shehni Yeilagh
Abstract
Today, education experts mostly aim to detect significant causal variables leading to students’ achievements in educational settings. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between executive functions and self-regulated academic learning regarding the mediating role of metacognition ...
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Today, education experts mostly aim to detect significant causal variables leading to students’ achievements in educational settings. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between executive functions and self-regulated academic learning regarding the mediating role of metacognition and working memory among university students. This research was a correlational study using structural equation modeling. The statistical population included of all students of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz in the academic year 2018-2019. A total of 351 students were selected by multi-stage cluster random sampling. The research instrument included the Metacognitions Questionnaire (MCQ-30), Cognitive Abilities Questionnaire, the Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ), and the Test of Information Processing Skills (TIPS). The collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings revealed no significant and direct relationship between executive functions and self-regulated academic learning (P>0.05). However, there was a significant and direct relationship between executive functions with metacognition and working memory (p <0.01). Moreover, a significant relationship was observed between metacognition and working memory with academic self-regulated academic learning (p <0.01). In this regard, metacognition and working memory fully mediated the relationship between executive functions and self-regulated academic learning. The study findings provide university students and experts with an appropriate model since, as the theoretical foundations of the proposed model documented, academic achievement and well-being are mainly dependent on executive functions. Accordingly, metacognitive skills, including self-regulated academic learning, can be improved by promoting the executive functions among university students.
Omid Mallahi; SaidehSaadat Hosseini
Abstract
The present quantitative study examined the role of a set of socially-mediated personal attributes that might intervene in the speaking performance of Iranian EFL learners. The possible relationship between three factors (namely, Willingness to communicate (WTC) in L2, L2 communication confidence, and ...
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The present quantitative study examined the role of a set of socially-mediated personal attributes that might intervene in the speaking performance of Iranian EFL learners. The possible relationship between three factors (namely, Willingness to communicate (WTC) in L2, L2 communication confidence, and Beliefs about L2 group work in L2 speaking), which are hypothesized to influence learners’ oral performance, was investigated. In fact, a model reflecting the hypothesis that these three variables would influence the learners’ speaking performance was constructed and tested by collecting data from a convenient sample of 100 B.A. university students in Iran. In order to collect the required data on the above-mentioned variables, a comprehensive questionnaire developed by Fushino (2010) and IELTS speaking test module 1 were utilized. The structural equation modeling confirmed that these three variables were very good predictors of performance of Iranian EFL learners on speaking skill. In other words, the measurement model of this study was approved and the conceptual model of research had an acceptable level of fit index. In addition, the result of multiple regressions indicated that L2 communicative confidence made a higher level of contribution in explaining the L2 speaking performance of the learners, which corroborates the association of these two constructs. The findings of present study also implied that increasing EFL learners’ WTC, communication confidence and beliefs about L2 group work is likely to help to improve their speaking ability and learners who have higher levels of L2 WTC and confidence are likely to achieve higher scores on their speaking performance.