Papers by Mahboobeh Saadat
mahsaadat @ gmail.co The C-test is widely known as a test of overall language proficiency. Most o... more mahsaadat @ gmail.co The C-test is widely known as a test of overall language proficiency. Most of the evidence in this regard has been obtained through correlational studies. Nonetheless, construct validity of the C-test is just partially established. Moreover, such studies do not reveal anything about the mental processes going on in the mind of the testees. Verbal protocol analysis has been recommended as an important tool to validate the C-test. A C-test consisting of 5 texts with 100 deletions was given to a sample of 26 Iranian English seniors, and subsequently a retrospective verbal protocol analysis was carried out to learn what happened in the mind of the testees while they were restoring the test items. The results of the study showed that the subjects used 13 different strategies, consisting of both bottom-up and top-down processes. However, the use of different strategies varied as a function of both the types of items in the C-test as well as the proficiency level of th...
Although the literature on collaborative writing has revealed the advantages of collaboration in ... more Although the literature on collaborative writing has revealed the advantages of collaboration in improving the writing quality of learners, few studies have examined the development of the interaction qualities during collaboration. Thus, the present study tracked the development of scaffolding episodes (SEs) in the collaborative performance of two purposively selected pairs (from among eight pairs) of EFL learners within the frameworks of sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978) and dynamic systems theory (Thelen & Smith, 1994). The pairs were asked to write on eight tasks during the semester. The microgenetic analysis of the pairs’ interactions in terms of SEs showed that suggesting was the most frequently used SE by Pair C and Pair D; instructing was the least frequently used SE by Pair C; translating was the least frequently used SE by Pair D. In addition, the analysis of the language related episodes (LREs) used during the scaffolding process indicated that although Pair C produce...
Applied Linguistics, 2005
The C-test is widely known as a test of overall language proficiency. Most of the evidence in thi... more The C-test is widely known as a test of overall language proficiency. Most of the evidence in this regard has been obtained through correlational studies. Nonetheless, construct validity of the C-test is just partially established. Moreover, such studies do not reveal anything about the mental processes going on in the mind of the testees. Verbal protocol analysis has been recommended as an important tool to validate the C-test. A C-test consisting of 5 texts with 100 deletions was given to a sample of 26 Iranian English seniors, and subsequently a retrospective verbal protocol analysis was carried out to learn what happened in the mind of the testees while they were restoring the test items. The results of the study showed that the subjects used 13 different strategies, consisting of both bottom-up and top-down processes. However, the use of different strategies varied as a function of both the types of items in the C-test as well as the proficiency level of the subjects. The resul...
Mahboobeh Saadat Sahar Zahed Alavi (Corresponding author) Department of Foreign Languages and Lin... more Mahboobeh Saadat Sahar Zahed Alavi (Corresponding author) Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics Shiraz University, Iran ABSTRACT The present study tracked the development of general measures of complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF), and specific measures of accuracy and complexity in the writings of two EFL learners writing individually, and those of two pairs of EFL learners writing in pairs within the framework of dynamic systems theory. The individuals and the pairs were similarly asked to do 7 tasks during a semester. The learners’ developmental pathways as well as the differences between individuals and pairs in terms of general and specific measures of CAF across the 7 tasks were depicted through graphs. Results indicated that the performance of learners in each of the measures was non-linear during the semester. Moreover, concerning general measures of CAF, learners writing individually outperformed in terms of fluency and complexity features. However, no clear dis...
Iranian Evolutionary and Educational Psychology
prepared to respond to the students' written texts and provide them with feedback on the quality ... more prepared to respond to the students' written texts and provide them with feedback on the quality of their performance. It is generally believed that the provision of appropriate feedback, which is effectively aligned with the instructional procedures and goals, can act as a scaffolding tool which help learners become more self-regulated and improve their writing (see e.g.
Language is a social phenomenon affected by various factors including gender. In different societ... more Language is a social phenomenon affected by various factors including gender. In different societies, language sexism causes oppression and discrimination against one of the genders (usually females) explicitly and implicitly. The aim of the present study is to see if there is language sexism in Iranian social magazines and if so, whether it is explicit or implicit. To accomplish the above goal, a random sample of sixty stories was drawn from four high-circulating periodicals: Khanevade Sabz, Ruzhaye Zendegi, Khane Sabz and Fazilat Khanevade. The texts of these stories were scrutinized with respect to such features relevant to men and women as depiction of names, emotional and personality characteristics, reaction in stressful situations and finally attributes, 1 (DOI): 10.22051/JLR.2015.2093 2. MA Linguistics; [email protected] 3. * Corresponding Author: Assistant Professor , Shiraz University; [email protected] Journal of Language Research (Zabanpazhuhi) VOL. 10, ...
The purpose of the study was to explore the effect primarily of written corrective feedback (WCF)... more The purpose of the study was to explore the effect primarily of written corrective feedback (WCF) provided by peers on enhancing learners’ internalization/retention of grammatical structures and further of task type in determining learners’ engagement with WCF. Participants in the study were a group of EFL students (n = 36) who completed a number of controlled and free-writing tasks and provided metalinguistic feedback on the errors in the tasks accomplished by their peers. The grammatical structures, which the participants were to focus on included primarily errors of verb use and after some sessions of receiving WCF from their teacher, errors of noun, pronoun, and article use as well. The results of RM ANOVA suggested significant improvement in not only the accuracy with which learners used these structures after involvement in peer WCF, but also in the precision of the metalinguistic feedback they provided.
The present study employed a cumulative format of Group Dynamic Assessment (G-DA), an assessment ... more The present study employed a cumulative format of Group Dynamic Assessment (G-DA), an assessment approach that integrates instruction into assessment, and adopted an interactionist approach to DA to conduct a semester-long mediation program in a writing course, which aimed at improving the writing ability of 15 (8 males and seven females) intermediate proficiency level sophomore students of English Language and Literature, in a State University in Iran. The students’ performances on non-dynamic writing preand post-tests and nine in-class dynamic writing tasks, completed during the DA sessions, were compared using independent samples t-test and mixed between-within subjects analysis variance (ANOVA), respectively. More specifically, the participants were divided into the two groups of more-skilled and less-skilled student writers, and then their performance was compared. The results indicated that the mediation offered had been highly effective in improving the writing competence of ...
The main objective of this study was to investigate how Iranian EFL learners used their literacy ... more The main objective of this study was to investigate how Iranian EFL learners used their literacy practices and multimodal resources to mediate interpretation and representation of an advertisement text and construct their understanding of it. Fifteen female adolescents at an intermediate level of proficiency read the «مبلمان برليان» (“Brelian Furniture”) advertisement text and re-created their understandings in pictures and sentences. The data was analyzed based on Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (1996, 2001) theory of social semiotics. The findings suggest that students situated the meanings of the advertisement texts in specific contexts that reflected their own social and cultural experiences. Furthermore, the students demonstrated that the use of multimodal resources had the potential to enhance language and literacy learning in a way that was transformative and was affected by their identities. In addition, the use of multimodal/multiliteracies pedagogy permitted the students to ente...
Due to the importance of humanistic and learner-centered views of language teaching, many instruc... more Due to the importance of humanistic and learner-centered views of language teaching, many instructors and curriculum planners are sensitive of the learners’ needs in creating tailor-made instructional programs and designing effective syllabus for their courses. Accordingly, the present study used a needs analysis procedure to inspect a group of Iranian undergraduate EFL learners’ problems and needs in writing. In fact, the primary stakeholders’ (i.e., 58 learners and 3 writing instructors) views regarding the students’ difficulties in writing and their expectations and suggestions regarding the roles and effects of the writing course, instructors and the materials on resolving their problems and, thus, improving their writing ability were explored by using two sets of open-ended surveys. Subsequently, in light of the findings of the study a socioculturally-informed syllabus, which can guide the selection of materials, teaching methods and assessment techniques in a writing course, w...
Journal of Integrative Neuroscience
To evaluate transcranial direct current stimulation-induced changes in resting state quantitative... more To evaluate transcranial direct current stimulation-induced changes in resting state quantitative EEG and cognitiveverbal performance of second language learners, 16 healthy individuals were randomly recruited to sham and real transcranial direct current stimulation groups receiving eight sessions of second language instruction accompanied by a 2 mA transcranial direct current stimulation over Broca's area with the cathode placed over the left arm. Quantitative EEG was recorded during the resting state after the stimulation session and second language instruction. Reduced theta activity at Fp1, F7, F3, and T5 caused by the stimulus current was reported. Multisession stimulation resulted in a significant increase in current density for beta power (25 Hz) in the language network. Cognitive-verbal pre-post stimulation performances suggest that anodal vs. sham transcranial direct current stimulation significantly improved the subjects test score on digit span, a cognitive-verbal ability. It is concluded that transcranial direct current stimulation of Broca's area increase cognitive-verbal performance by modulating brain electrical activity in language-related regions.
Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies, 2018
Due to the importance of humanistic and learner-centered views of language teaching, many instruc... more Due to the importance of humanistic and learner-centered views of language teaching, many instructors and curriculum planners are sensitive of the learners' needs in creating tailor-made instructional programs and designing effective syllabus for their courses. Accordingly, the present study used a needs analysis procedure to inspect a group of Iranian undergraduate EFL learners' problems and needs in writing. In fact, the primary stakeholders' (i.e., 58 learners and 3 writing instructors) views regarding the students' difficulties in writing and their expectations and suggestions regarding the roles and effects of the writing course, instructors and the materials on resolving their problems and, thus, improving their writing ability were explored by using two sets of open-ended surveys. Subsequently, in light of the findings of the study a socioculturally-informed syllabus, which can guide the selection of materials, teaching methods and assessment techniques in a w...
The present study was conducted to compare the impact of direct and metalinguistic written correc... more The present study was conducted to compare the impact of direct and metalinguistic written corrective feedback on Iranian EFL learners ’ grammatical knowledge. The participants were a convenient sample of students in two intact writing classes. The instruction provided in both groups was similar; however, the students in one group received direct feedback and the students in the other group received metalinguistic feedback in the form of error codes on writing accuracy (i.e., grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation) of their in-class written texts. Moreover, all the students took a grammar test serving as pre- and posttests before and after the treatment. In addition to the computation of gain scores, descriptive statistics and a mixed between-within subjects ANOVA were run to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics revealed that the grammatical knowledge of the learners in both groups developed as a result of the two types of feedback; nonetheless, there was not a statistically signi...
Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences
The purpose of the present study was to investigate individual factors that mediate Iranian EFL s... more The purpose of the present study was to investigate individual factors that mediate Iranian EFL students’ engagement with feedback they receive on their writing. In fact, the purpose behind such a consideration was to identify the factors that may contribute to students' using or ignoring feedback as well as the emotions they may have during or after receiving feedback. A convenient sample of 10 students was recruited from an intact writing class in which students were usually provided with different types of feedback in both oral and written forms. The study enjoyed a qualitative case study design. The findings of the focused-group interviews revealed that students favored selective, individual and dialogic feedback by the teacher. In addition, they ignored feedback when they were not interested to learn or when the person providing it was not of interest to them. Finally, they liked to receive feedback and anxiety reduced their uptake from the received feedback. The findings a...
Journal of Language and Cultural Education
Self-selecting of the material has been the arena of discussion by the researchers of L2 pedagogy... more Self-selecting of the material has been the arena of discussion by the researchers of L2 pedagogy. While some believe that it can be effective, others believe that it is detrimental to L2 learning. Hence, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of self-selected and teacher assigned writing prompts on the writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency of Iranian EFL learners at beginning, intermediate, and advanced proficiency levels. The theoretical aspects of the current research were founded based on Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) and Choice Theory (Glasser, 1998). Given that, 52 Iranian EFL learners (beginning N = 19, intermediate N = 16, advanced N = 17) participated in this study. Each student was asked to write about two writing prompts: one selected by the students and the other by the teacher. Using relevant indexes, we measured writing complexity, accuracy and fluency with regard to the two writing prompts. The results indicated that there was...
3L The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies
The present study examined the use of grammatical cohesive features in two types of paragraphs (c... more The present study examined the use of grammatical cohesive features in two types of paragraphs (chronologyvs. cause-effect) written by EFL learners and native speakers. In addition, the study investigated if the use of grammatical cohesive devices affected raters' evaluation of the paragraphs written by the EFL learners. To investigate the non-native speakers' performances, 60 paragraphs) 30 cause-effect and 30 chronology paragraphs) written by 30 intermediate Iranian EFL learners were examined. Furthermore, to investigate those of native speakers, 20 paragraphs (10 cause-effect and 10 chronology paragraphs) were randomly selected from among the sample paragraphs presented in books teaching paragraph writing written by English native speakers. To analyze the data, Halliday and Hasan's (1976) taxonomy of cohesive devices was used, and MANOVA was conducted. To investigate raters' judgments, four raters were asked to rate the paragraphs written by six randomly selected learners. The results showed that EFL learners more frequently used reference, conjunction, ellipsis and substitution, respectively in their chronology and cause-effect paragraphs. However, in their paragraphs of chronology, native speakers more frequently used reference, conjunction, ellipsis and substitution, respectively whereas in their paragraphs of cause-effect, they frequently used reference, conjunction, substitution, and ellipsis, respectively. A comparison of the performance of native speakers and non-native speakers revealed that native speakers used more reference in their paragraphs than non-natives did. As for raters' judgments, the findings indicated that cohesion in the paragraphs was generally ignored by some raters.
Iranian Journal of Applied Linguistics
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2015
The present study investigated the effects of direct and metalinguistic electronic feedback (Efee... more The present study investigated the effects of direct and metalinguistic electronic feedback (Efeedback) on Iranian EFL learners' writing accuracy and attitudes toward computer assisted language learning (CALL). Twenty nine students in two intact English writing classes comprised the participants of the study. A mixed-method design was used for data collection and analysis. In addition to the instruction provided similarly in both classes, based on random assignment, the students in one group received direct electronic corrective feedback (DECF) using Ginger software. In the other class, the students received metalinguistic electronic corrective feedback (MECF) in the form of error codes provided through Markin4 software. Results revealed that the use of E-feedback developed the learners' writing accuracy and attitudes toward CALL. However, there were no significant differences between the final overall writing accuracy scores of the DECF and MECF groups and their gain scores. Regarding writing accuracy components (i.e., structure, vocabulary, and punctuation), although the MECF group obtained higher scores in three components, a statistically significant difference between the two groups was found only in terms of vocabulary gain scores. Finally, in the interviews, the students in both groups referred to some barriers in the implementation of CALL in their context as well as some of its merits.
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Papers by Mahboobeh Saadat