The consideration of rater training is very important in construct validation of a writing test because it is through training that raters are adapted to the use of students’ writing ability instead of their own criteria for assessing compositions (Charney, 1984). However, although training has been discussed in the literature of writing assessment, there is little research regarding raters’ pe...

Highly proficient German users of English as a second language, and native speakers of American English, listened to nonsense sequences and responded whenever they detected an embedded English word. The responses of both groups were equivalently facilitated by preceding context that both by English and by German phonotactic constraints forced a boundary at word onset (e.g., lecture was easier t...

Reading motivation is a well-researched topic in relation to first language literacy development due to its influence on both reading processes and outcomes. In second language reading, the role of motivation has not been as thoroughly explored. The aim of this review of literature is to highlight established studies as well as recent explorations in some recurring areas of first and second lan...

Second Language System of Motivational Selves and English Language Skills: The Role of Socio-Economic Status among Iranian Language Learners1 A. Parastaar Aski* M.H. Abdollaahi, Ph.D.** A. R. Moraadi, Ph.D.*** H. R. Hassanaabaadi, Ph.D.****   Learning English in Iran is quite popular, yet not all are successful at this task. To shed light on this dilemma and its root causes, the ro...

Learning a new language also involves learning a broad system of norms for social relations.This study broadly showed how EFL learners’ speech act is conveyed from their nativecultures when they are communicating in English and demonstrated that there are somepossibilities of cross-cultural misunderstanding when interlocutors are engaged in the speechact of complimenting with native speakers of...

Epistemologically speaking, second language acquisition research (SLAR) might be reconsidered from a complex dynamical system view with interconnected aspects in the ecosystem of language acquisition. The present paper attempts to introduce the tenets of complex system theory and its application in SLAR. It has been suggested that the present dominant traditions in language acquisition research...

Employing an explanatory sequential design, the present study investigated the effect of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) blog-mediated writing instruction on the students’ learner autonomy. A number of 46 learners who were the students of two intact classes were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups.  Over a 16-week semester, the control group students (n = 21) were taught ba...

This article focuses on the level of using creative teaching methodologies in second language classroom as studied by the researcher. A series of qualitative methods such as using newspaper, media, movies, interpreting advertisements, and creating Sandblot can be employed in the classroom in order to develop students’ second language learning ability. The article focuses on how teach...

The present study aimed to review the instruction of the L2 speech acts in English pragmatics in the Iranian context during the last two decades from 2000 to 2020. To this end, upon the completion of the study search, the retrieved articles were selected and analyzed based on the research domain.  The results of our synthesis from 54 studies carried out on the instruction of the speech act not ...

This study examined the interrelationships of first language (L1) literacy, second language (L2) proficiency, and L2 reading comprehension with 246 Chinese college students learning English. L1 literacy and L2 proficiency were measured with college admission exams in Chinese and English. L2 reading comprehension was measured with the reading comprehension section of a TOEFL and a researcher-dev...