Mutual Information (MI) is a powerful concept from information theory used in many application fields. For practical tasks it is often necessary to estimate the Mutual Information from available data. We compare state of the art methods for estimating MI from continuous data, focusing on the usefulness for the feature selection task. Our results suggest that many methods are practically relevan...

Natural language makes considerable use of recurrent formulaic patterns of words. This article triangulates the construct of formula from corpus linguistic, psycholinguistic, and educational perspectives. It describes the corpus linguistic extraction of pedagogically useful formulaic sequences for academic speech and writing. It determines English as a second language (ESL) and English for acad...

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of critical thinking (CT) versus brainstorming (BS) as pre-writing stage activities on English as a foreign language (EFL) pre-intermediate learners’ expository writing. To achieve this aim, 100 pre-intermediate level participants studying at Naft Language Center in Ahvaz were selected based on convenience sampling method. They took part in Ox...

The effect of motivational self-regulatory strategies on L2 learners’ achievement has scarcely been examined within the context of our country, Iran. This study is concerned with examining the relationship between motivational self-regulatory strategies and their L2 reading and L2 writing achievement. It also explores the relationship of motivational self-regulatory strategies and use of langua...

This study focused on comparing the effects 32 students’ argumentative writing qualities when they worked alone or collaborated in pairs and groups explored opinions towards critical thinking across different activities. The students were divided into of four (n=8), (n=16) individuals (n=32). Their papers rated terms content, language use, organization by three raters. research employed rubrics...