International Journal of Practical and Pedagogical Issues in English Education
Year:2025 | Volume:3 | Issue:2|Papers Count:6

AbstractAmong the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking, writing skill deems more challenging as it demands more audacity to be activated and trigger the passive knowledge into an accurate and cohesive output. No doubt, Corrective Feedback plays a crucial role. This study aimed at depicting the engagement of Artificial Intelligence bots into the process of EFL learners’ writing tasks. The 60 Iranian EFL sophomores were selected via an OPT test of language proficiency, and randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control. The experimental groups were trained to receive corrective feedback, one experimental via AI-Bots and one experimental via teacher-n-peers, to improve their performance in writing tasks. The control group followed the conventional trend and received no corrective feedback. The design of the present study was quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design. The accredited writing anxiety questionnaire along with a validated writing-tasks test, were the instrument of the present study and they were administered before and after the treatment. The data obtained from the pretest and posttest phases went through statistical analysis by computer program SPSS 24. The result confirmed that the artificial-intelligence-assisted group outperformed the teacher-n-peers-assisted group significantly and it was due to the application of AI-assisted bots in conducting the corrective feedback in writing course. The findings would be beneficial for EFL teachers, learners, policy makers in the TEFL field.

Intellectual perseverance is an emerging construct in research related to teacher classroom resilience. Evidence suggests that teachers with intellectual perseverance are likely to persevere and have commitment when facing challenges. Considering the critical role of intellectual perseverance in language teaching, this study aims to develop and validate a reliable instrument that measures EFL teachers’ intellectual perseverance in the face of challenges. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, literature was reviewed for the conceptualization and finding the key dimensions of intellectual perseverance related to EFL teaching. Based on the findings, an initial scale was developed including fifty-one items in a pool to be evaluated for face and content validity. Through using the views of the experts some items were modified and 30 items remained. A pilot study involving a criterion-based sampling of 227 EFL teachers was conducted to assess the scale's validity and reliability. Exploratory Factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha analysis explained a strong internal consistency and construct validity. Based on the analysis, three sub-constructs were found for the 23 remaining items including teaching resilience, goal- orientation, and emotional resilience. The study findings suggest that the developed scale is valid and reliable to be used by language education researchers and policy makers.

Appropriate listening strategies can develop English language learners’ listening comprehension and self-efficacy and decrease listening anxiety in EFL contexts. This study aims to apply the Yeldham and Grubas’(2014) framework to promote listening skills among 120 students from the Islamic Azad University of Ahvaz, Iran. The participants were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group, each comprising 60 students. The experimental group received training on listening strategies based on the Yeldham and Grubas’ (2014) framework, while the control group was taught listening strategy training based on the PPP (presentation, practice, and production) approach. Pretests and posttests of listening skills were used to assess the effect of the intervention of listening strategies. Data analysis showed that instructing students in listening strategies resulted in a notable enhancement in their listening comprehension, as well as a reduction in anxiety levels related to language learning. Nevertheless, the study found that while students' listening skills improved within the experimental group, their self-efficacy did not. Implications of the study suggest listening strategies to boost learners’ self-efficacy in learning listening skills.

The need to build language research on the socio-psychological plane on which attitude and behavior are tessellated is per se much felt. This cross-sectional quantitative study attempted to explore whether there are gender differences in attitudes toward the learning situation for writing self-regulation and task achievements of Iranian EFL learners. Data were quantitatively collected in a dual-phase process in the classroom in which the participants wrote an essay and whereupon promptly filled out the self-report surveys. An independent sample t-test was used for data analysis to ascertain the possible differences in Iranian EFL university learners. The findings showed that there was no mean difference in learners on self-efficacy, cognitive, meta-cognitive, and motivational strategies across genders. No significant mean difference was evidenced between both genders regarding their attitudes toward their teachers, likewise. However, this study denoted significant differences in attitudes toward writing courses, task achievement, and help-seeking of female and male students. Results are accompanied by pedagogical implications and applications for advancing EFL programs in domain-specific tasks of academic writing.

Any educational system requires change to keep abreast of the latest national and international developments. Curriculum evaluation is one way to take this into action. This study aimed to critically examine the principles, students’ needs, coursebooks, teaching methodologies, testing and assessment procedures, and ecological features of the Study Skills course based on the national curriculum developed by the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (MSRT). The participants of this study consisted of four university teachers and 128 BA students majoring in TEFL. The data collection instruments of this descriptive research were three questionnaires, an interview, and document analysis. The results revealed the teachers’ positive perception about the quality and sequence of skills/strategies covered and unfavorable teaching sequence. Also, while teachers and students agreed on factors like students’ interests in study skills and their access to resources, teachers varied regarding the availability of the equipment and having supplementary materials. The teachers also criticized the coursebook for the appropriate use of texts and visuals, lack of audiovisual materials, interesting tasks, and attractive layout. Students had dissatisfaction regarding lack of enough instructions on the use of technology, how to transform short-term to long term memory, and introducing old and impractical methods of study. The findings of this study can have significant implications for policymakers, curriculum developers, syllabus designers, higher education administrators, and teachers to consider the constraints and drawbacks of the Study Skills courses and benefit from the practical suggestions proposed.

The importance of learning lexical bundles for enhancing language proficiency is gaining increasing interest in the field of foreign language learning. Lexical bundles, commonly understood as recurrent word sequences in discourse, are crucial for developing fluency and comprehension across various linguistic domains. This quasi-experimental research was conducted at Danesh Language Institute, University of Zabol, enrolling 53 upper-intermediate-level students divided into experimental and control groups through convenience sampling. The experimental group received focused instruction integrating the identification and use of lexical bundles into their standard curriculum, while the control group received regular instruction. Pre-test and post-test assessments were administered to evaluate changes in vocabulary range and grammatical accuracy in argumentative writing. The results indicated that the learners in experimental group showed marked improvements compared to the control group. Implications include integrating lexical bundle-focused strategies into curricula to support learners’ transition to advanced proficiency, with future research recommended to explore long-term effects and broader applications.