It is with great pleasure to welcome our
readers to the 4
th
volume and 1
st
issue of
Applied Research on English Language. I
would like to take this opportunity to thank
not only our authors and readers but also the
anonymous reviewers whose help and
constructive feedback made the publication
of the current issue possible.
The current issue opens up with an article by
Abbas Ali Rezaee, Shiva Kaivanpanah and
Sedigheh Najibi. The authors examine the
relationship between EFL learners’
motivational beliefs and learning strategies.
The focus of the study is on the three
components of motivation, i.e. expectancy
component, value component and affective
component. The study shows a significant
effect of proficiency level on test anxiety
and extrinsic goal orientation. Furthermore,
the study reveals that self-efficacy, control
of learning beliefs, intrinsic goal orientation,
and task value can account for 70% of the
variation observed in self-regulated learning
strategies.
Azizeh Chalak’s study examines the effects
of task-based instruction on reading
comprehension. The study has adopted a
quasi-experimental design including 135
Iranian female students who were divided
into four groups, two control groups and two
experimental groups. The findings of this
study suggest that using flexible and
interactive tasks in English classes can
improve vocabulary and reading
comprehension ability of EFL learners. This
study has pedagogical implications for a
host of practitioners working in the field.
The third study addresses the interface
between L2 learners’ pragmatic
performance, language proficiency and both
individual and group zones of proximal
development (ZPDs). Analyzing data
pertaining to 20 EFL learners, Zia Tajeddin
and Farhad Tayebipour do not find any
significant relationship between the
proficiency level of the participants and the
amount of scaffolding given for the
production of the speech acts of request and
apology. Nevertheless, the findings of the
study point to the existence of a relationship
between the participants’ individual ZPD
and their group ZPD. The authors also argue
that scaffolding has learner-specific effects.
Mohammad Amiryousefi’s study is
motivated by the fact that language learners
tend to constantly complain that vocabulary
items are easily forgotten. The author
believes that if vocabulary teaching and
learning are planned to be effective and
enjoyable, various methods and strategies
should be employed. In this respect, the
author recommends the use of multiple-mnemonic method. As the study shows, the
multiple-mnemonic method group
significantly performed better than the
control group in terms of vocabulary
development and retention.
The next study, by Nasser Fallah and
Habibollah Mashhady, sets out to test a
model of L2 communication among Iranian
EFL learners. Using willingness to
communicate (WTC) and socio-educational
models as a framework, the study examines
WTC in English and its underlying variables
in a sample of Iranian non-English-major
EFL learners. The results of the study show
that international posture and motivation are
important predictors of L2WTC. The
findings also show that L2 communication
anxiety, motivation, personality trait of
agreeableness and teacher immediacy can
influence L2WTC.
In the sixth study, Laleh Moghtadi, Mansour
Koosha and Ahmad Reza Lotfi investigate
the differences between Persian monolingual
and Azeri-Persian bilingual learners of
English when learning relative clauses. To
carry out the study, the authors selected a
total of 200 female high school students
from two educational districts in Tabriz and
Shiraz. After administering a general
proficiency test, a language history
questionnaire and two syntactic structure
tasks, the authors conclude that
monolinguals and bilinguals differ in the
comprehension and production of English
L3 relative clauses.
Many thanks, once again, to this issue’s
researchers for submitting their papers and
to the reviewers for providing us with
immensely constructive feedback. We hope
you will find the present issue informative.
We are now accepting submissions for our
next issue. Please don’t forget to send us
your feedback! The journal’s email address
is jare@res.ui.ac.ir.
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