The role of teacher's feedback in the teaching and learning process is extremely important as it allows educators to provide an objective assessment of a student's performance and help them improve their academic achievements. In this paper, the findings of a comprehensive literature review, conducted using the PRISMA methodology, encompassing 19…

This study investigates how sensitizing graduate L2 students about source-text use might affect their citation practices. Two summary writing tasks involving two similar published articles, one irrelevant and one pertinent to source-text use, were assigned individually to 16 graduate English language teaching students from Iran. After completing…

According to the IELTS official website, IELTS candidates usually score lower in the IELTS Writing test than in the other language skills. This is disappointing for the many IELTS candidates who fail to get the overall band score they need. Surprisingly enough, few studies have addressed this issue. The present study, then, is aimed at shedding…

Despite the widespread use of Learner-Oriented Assessment (LOA) in (English as a Foreign Language EFL classes, concerns persist regarding its suitability for contexts such as Iran. Drawing on Carless's (SHE, 31:219-233, 2006) criteria for LOA, the present study examined the effectiveness of peer and teacher feedback in an academic writing course.…

The current study investigated the contribution of a mobile application for self-directed and autonomous learning of academic vocabulary among English as a Foreign language (EFL) university students. Furthermore, we examined the long-term impacts of mobile-assisted vocabulary learning, by using a pre-, post-, and delayed post-test design. The…

This study explored the effects of three types of lexical tools (MOOCs, E-dictionaries, and lexical concordancers) and three types of lexical applications (technology-mediated communication-based applications (TMCA), Anki as an e-flashcard application, and WordUp as a dedicated lexical application) on learning academic core words among a sample of…

Purpose: Developing graduate students' academic writing has been a major concern for many scholars over the past few years. Existing literature on the challenges of thesis writing has not focused on master's students in English language teaching (ELT). Data on the challenges have been mainly gathered from the theses and focused on the structure…

This study is intended to explore challenges in writing master theses from postgraduate English as Foreign Language (EFL) students' and supervisors' perspectives. To do so, 40 EFL postgraduate students and 10 supervisors were selected nonrandomly based on availability sampling from five major Iranian universities. Qualitative data were gathered…

This study sought to explore the formality styles of writing among intermediate EFL Iranian learners to scrutinize their competence in the writing skill. A convenience sample of 30 students were chosen through Oxford Quick Placement Test (2001) from among 60 university students. The first group sent their messages (essay tasks) through e-mail and…

The present study aimed at investigating whether academic IELTS candidates perform differently in writing on either a chart topic or a table topic of the IELTS writing task 1 with regard to the four IELTS writing marking criteria i.e. task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammar range and accuracy. The study adopted a…

Admission in English-medium universities or institutions of higher education depends on the results obtained by candidates in large-scale proficiency tests including Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) internet-based test (iBT). The structure and administration procedure of the TOEFL iBT speaking test leaves no room for carrying out…

The impacts of task characteristics on second language (L2) writing require further exploration. This study examined the effects of increasing task complexity on L2 argumentative writing. Upper-intermediate L2 learners performed two writing tasks with varying degrees of complexity in relation to the number of elements and the degree of reasoning.…

Theoretically grounded in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of mind, Dynamic Assessment (DA) provides researchers with the opportunity to investigate different aspects of learners' developmental trajectory, including the ways they overcome their errors. As a qualitative inquiry into the nature of errors reflecting learners' development in academic…

Brainstorming, as a pre-writing activity, facilitates the process of generating ideas and helps organize learners' thoughts to get involved in writing activities. The present convergent mixed methods study investigated whether the integration of technology and brainstorming could affect the argumentative writing of EFL learners. Initially, 68…

Blended learning is a combination of traditional and technology-enhanced learning. Social networks services can be used in blended learning settings as they support collaboration, resource sharing, and socialization. Edmodo is an educational social network which can facilitate the development of second or foreign language skills. This study…