KURMANJ, THE JOURNAL OF CULTURE, HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
Year:2021 | Volume:3 | Issue:1|Papers Count:3

Researchers have asserted that the sense of uncertainty of the other person’ s nonverbal cues during a conversation, could become an inhibitor for good communication and accordingly create anxiety. Since not much has been done to empirically prove such assumptions, this study explores the effect of Nonverbal Communication training on Iranian EFL learners’ perception of communication apprehension and communicative competence. In order to conduct this quasi-experimental study, intermediate level Iranian EFL learners from two intact classes studying in a language institute were selected through convenience sampling. These study participants were assigned to the Control Group (n=27) and the Experimental Group (n=32), respectively. Both groups were trained in speaking skills within a span of ten sessions in accordance with the regular method used in the study venue. The only difference was that the Experimental Group was trained in non-verbal communication incorporated into their regular speaking classes as an intervention program. The SPCC and PRCA-24 self-report questionnaires were used to collect learners’ perception of communicative competence and communication apprehension prior and subsequent to the intervention program. These pretest and posttest measures were then analyzed to test the null hypotheses of this study using two sets of the Analysis of Covariance. The results showed an empirically significant increase in the self-perceived communication competence and a simultaneous decrease in the personal report of communication apprehension scores of the Iranian EFL learners in the experimental group who participated in the intervention program. On the other hand, the control group students, who were not provided with the non-verbal communication training, perceived no significant changes in neither their communication competence nor their communication apprehension. This empirical evidence suggests that familiarity with non-verbal cues of the target language could positively affect learners’ perception of their speaking ability and lower speaking anxiety. Thus, this study not only provides evidence as to the effectiveness of incorporating non-verbal communication training in speaking classes in decreasing apprehension and increasing communicative competence but it also provides a sample within which this training can be integrated into a regular language learning class. The findings contribute to EFL research on the importance of nonverbal communication in the teaching and learning of the speaking skill and provide input for further analysis in this context.

The main aim of this study was to see if a significant relationship existed among Iranian EFL learners’ Learning Styles, Writing Strategies and Writing Anxiety. To this effect, 183 EFL learners studying English in three language institutes from the upper intermediate and advanced proficiency levels were selected based on convenient nonrandom sampling procedure. They completed the Kolb Learning Style (KLS), the Inventory of Learning Strategies for writing (ILS) and the Foreign Language Writing Anxiety Scale (FLWAS) self-report questionnaires. However, after the initial screening, 21 cases were discarded as their answers were incomplete, leaving 162 participants in the final sample. The relationship among EFL learners learning styles, writing strategies and writing anxiety were analyzed using the Spearman rank order coefficient of correlation. Since, the results indicated statistically significant relationships among them, multiple regression analyses were run to see if significant predictors of EFL learners’ writing anxiety could be identified. Interestingly, the analyses showed that pragmatist learning style made the strongest statistically significant unique contribution to predict writing anxiety while activist learning style failed to make such a significant contribution. To clarify, the negative relationship suggests that the more pragmatic the preferred learning style is, the lower the writing anxiety. Furthermore, only memory writing strategy made a statistically significant unique contribution to predicting writing anxiety while the other five writing strategies did not. To explain further, their positive relationship implies that learners who apply memory strategies more, face higher levels of writing anxiety. Thus, this study identified learners’ pragmatist learning style and memory writing strategy as significant predictors of writing anxiety in the EFL context. As a result, not only does this study provide statistical evidence of the relationship among these variables but it also stresses the importance of EFL learners’ language learning styles and writing strategies to their writing anxiety.

It is highly conspicuous that learning and reaching high levels of mastery in writing and the psychological factors affecting it has an increasing importance. A common strategy that has attracted more attention in the field is the study of the possible effect of individual differences including willingness to write and personality type on the writing performance of language learners. As in particular no study in Iraq, to our knowledge, has considered such relationships, the present study dissects the links between EFL Iraqi learner’ s willingness to write, writing ability and personality types. To homogenize the learners, 200 English university students from Diwaneyah English language departments were selected through convenience sampling and were required to participated in Oxford Placement Test from which 120 EFL language were considered intermediate. The intermediate participants were also asked to fill out two questionnaires of Willingness to write and five-factor personality type and complete a writing task. The Pearson correlation between the scores showed that willingness to write and writing ability are moderately correlated and that from among five sub-factors of personality traits, conscientiousness has the highest positive correlation and Neuroticism has the lowest negative correlation with writing ability. The findings of this study have important implications for teachers and administrators to know how to consider psychological factors to improve students’ writing ability.