Considering the significance of corrective feedback to improve language learners’ speaking performance, the current study aimed to examine the impact of direct oral corrective feedback on speaking accuracy and motivation to speak of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 46 EFL learners who were preparing themselves for the IELTS exam, both male and female, were invited to participate in this study. Having homogenized the participants through the Oxford Placement Test, the researchers divided them into one experimental and one control group. As to the pretest, a valid IELTS speaking test and a motivation to speak questionnaire were administered to both groups in order to measure the learners’ speaking ability and motivation to speak level. The experimental group received direct oral corrective feedback on their speaking performance for 15 sessions. The control group did not receive any special kind of corrective feedback. A posttest, equivalent to the pretest, was administered after the end of the treatment sessions to both groups to find whether direct oral corrective feedback affected the learners’ speaking accuracy and motivation to speak. The results of statistical data analysis indicated that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on both speaking accuracy, and motivation to speak. Pedagogical implications are suggested to language teachers and teacher trainers.
Author : Mohammad Kazemian
Instruction on Intercultural Communicative Competence and Its Application by Iranian EFL Male and Female Writers
The influence of globalization on applied linguistics has recently generated considerable debate.
With the advent of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) at the start of the twentyfirst
century, many theoreticians and practitioners have accentuated the ICC perspectives and
its incorporation into teaching language skills. This mixed methods research study tries to verify
whether instruction on ICC encourages Iranian advanced EFL learners to incorporate ICC in their
writings, and whether gender plays any role in the tendency to use that competence. To this end,
33 male and female Iranian advanced EFL learners were chosen via an Oxford Placement Test and
then placed in two experimental classes. All the participants received a five-week instruction on
ICC in a writing class at a private language institute in Rasht, Iran. The data analyzed via T-tests,
content analysis technique, and η revealed that instruction on ICC assisted learners in coping with
intercultural issues differently in their writing; however, gender did not play any role in using the
ICC in writing. This study can shine a light on the writing course and language teaching in general
and teaching how to incorporate ICC in writing in particular.