This paper aims at discovering and investigating the effect of l1 translation, l1 gloss andcontext on vocabulary learning on EFL Iranian learners. A total number of 120 EFL students inprivate English institutes in Sari participated in the present study. They were divided into twoproficiency groups and three learning conditions. In order to make a list of words unknown to thelearners the partici...

Background: The P600 brain wave reflects syntactic processes in response to different first language (L1) syntactic violations, syntactic repair, structural reanalysis, and specific semantic components. Unlike semantic processing, aspects of the second language (L2) syntactic processing differ from the L1, particularly at lower levels of proficiency. At higher L2 proficiency, syntactic violatio...

One of the theories accounting for pragmatic development of L2 learners is Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural  theory.  This  study  investigated  the  development  of  EFL  learners'  pragmatic competence through the lens of an important concept of Vygotsky’s theory, i.e.  the  zone  of proximal  development.  The  study  was  conducted  to  answer  two  questions.  The  first  question was wheth...

This paper reports findings from a study that assesses metacognitive awareness and reading-strategy use of Chinese senior high school students who are learning English as a foreign language (EFL). A total of 270 students responded to a 28-item survey of reading strategies (SORS). The strategies were classified into 3 categories: global, problemsolving, and support. The results showed that the s...

This study investigated the relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ use of strategies in producing English collocations and their proficiency level. Participants were 115 undergraduate university students at 3 proficiency levels, that is, low, intermediate, and high, majoring in English language at the Faculty of Letters and Humanties at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran. Their select...

How do proficiency-based accountability systems affect inequality in academic achievement? This paper reconciles mixed findings in the literature by demonstrating that three factors jointly determine accountability's impact. First, by analyzing student-level data from a large urban school district, we find that when educators face accountability pressure, they focus attention on students closes...

An EEG coherence study was performed with a twofold objective: first, to scrutinize the theoretical concept of "cortical efficiency" in connection with second language (L2) acquisition and, second, to detect cooperations between cortical areas in specific frequency bands indicative for highly proficient L2 processing. Two groups differing only in their level of L2 proficiency were contrasted du...