The effect of planning time on vocabulary acquisition in a task-based environment: the mediating roles of working memory and field (in)dependence.

This research investigated the impact of planning time, working memory (WM), and cognitive styles on language learning outcomes within the framework of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT). Drawing on a diverse sample of language learners, the study employed a pretest-posttest control group quasi-experiment to examine the effects of providing pre-task planning time on language performance. Participants engaged in communicative tasks, with a focus on vocabulary acquisition and task complexity, while their cognitive processes were assessed through measures of WM and cognitive styles. The findings revealed significant interactions between planning time and cognitive styles, particularly field dependence, influencing language production and proficiency such that learners with planning time outperformed learners without planning time; high-WM learners outperformed their low-WM peers, and field independent learners outstripped their field-dependent counterparts. Moreover, the study contributes to the broader understanding of the nuanced relationship between planning time, WM, and cognitive styles in the context of TBLT. The implications of these findings for language teachers, materials developers, syllabus designers, curriculum developers, and policymakers are discussed, offering insights into the design of effective language learning environments. Despite certain limitations, the study provides a foundation for further research exploring cross-cultural variations, longitudinal effects, and the integration of technology in language education, with the aim of advancing pedagogical practices tailored to diverse learner profiles.

Not a passive learner but an active one: a focus on the efficacy of philosophy-based language instruction and its consequences on EFL learners' critical thinking, engagement, and academic achievement.

This study investigates the impact of Philosophy-Based Language Teaching (PBLT) on the critical thinking skills and learner engagement of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. A concurrent mixed-methods approach, including semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and academic achievement tests, was employed with an experimental group (EG) exposed to PBLT and a control group (CG) receiving traditional instruction. The results reveal a substantial positive effect of PBLT on the critical thinking abilities of EFL learners, as evidenced by thematic analyses of interviews and document content. Themes include heightened critical thinking awareness, collaborative knowledge construction, and increased learner engagement. Academic achievement tests further demonstrate significant improvement in the experimental group's performance. A comparison with existing literature underscores the novelty of our mixed-methods approach. Implications for language teachers, materials developers, syllabus designers, and policy-makers are discussed, highlighting the potential of PBLT in cultivating critical thinking and learner engagement.

Demystifying anxiety and demotivation in on-line assessment: a focus on the impacts on academic buoyancy and autonomy.

Test anxiety is a combination of a confluence of physiological hyperarousal, tension, and bodily manifestations, with apprehension, trepidation, fear of inadequacy, and the tendency to magnify negative outcomes, which manifest before or during evaluative assessments. Online evaluation might potentially exacerbate anxiety and demotivation among learners. When students' psychological and emotional well-being are taken into account, it may be possible to improve their educational and evaluative experiences. This study set out to shed light on the interplay between anxiety, demotivation, academic buoyancy, and autonomy in online assessment. To achieve this objective, printed copies of the related questionnaires were distributed among 392 EFL university students in China. The association between anxiety, demotivation, academic buoyancy, and autonomy in online assessment was assessed by data screening utilizing confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings indicated that students who experienced less anxiety and demotivation were more buoyant and autonomous. Possible improvements in language education and assessment are considered, as are the study's broader implications.

A diachronic study determining syntactic and semantic features of Urdu-English neural machine translation.

Machine translation produces marginal accuracy rates for low-resource languages, but its deep learning model expects to yield improved accuracy with time. This longitudinal study investigates how Google Translate's Urdu-to-English translated output has evolved between 2018 and 2021. Accuracy and acceptability of the translations have been determined by, a) an interlinear gloss that identifies core semantic units and grammatical functions to be translated and, b) a descriptive comparison of the translated text's syntactic and semantic properties with those of the source text. Overall, despite a 50 % error rate that persists over the three-year interval, the research reports significant improvement in the overall intelligibility of the translations, in contrast to initial results from 2018, which exhibited rampant non-localized errors. Working backwards from instances of errors to morphosyntactic and semantic patterns underlying them, the study concludes that the pro-drop feature of Urdu, Urdu's case-marking system, identification of clause boundaries, polysemous terms, and orthographically similar words pose the greatest difficulty in neural machine translation. These results point to the need for incorporating syntactic information in training data.

Social media and psychology of language learning: The role of telegram-based instruction on academic buoyancy, academic emotion regulation, foreign language anxiety, and English achievement.

The great need and tendency to apply online classes ask for using new technologies in language teaching. Social Networking (SN) tools, in particular, Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL), open new perspectives in language learning and teaching. The employment of SN in language learning may affect the learners' mental health and emotional safety. Despite the attributions of the Telegram application in learning and the contributions of academic buoyancy (AB), academic emotion regulation (AER), and management of foreign language anxiety (FLA) to English achievement (EA), this field was left unexplored. To this end, the current study attempted to gauge the impact of the Telegram-based instruction on AB, AER, FLA, as well as EA. 79 EFL learners took part in the research and were randomly divided in to control group (CG) and experimental group (EG). The instruction for the CG was through regular online instruction (webinar platforms). The EG received Telegram-based instruction. The results of MANOVA displayed significant differences between the post-tests of CG and EG. The findings illustrated that the Telegram instruction improved the levels of AB, AER, and FLA management, which accelerated EA. The pedagogical implications of the study were discussed and may assist learners, teachers, teacher educators, policymakers, materials developers, as well as curriculum designers.

A model of academic buoyancy, L2 grit, academic emotion regulation, and personal best: An evidence from EFL context.

Students are the products of educational system and every strategy taken in education may foster or hinder their learning progress. Efficient instruction is achieved when emotional and cognitive heath of the learners is warranted. Despite the critical roles of Academic Buoyancy (AB), L2 grit, Academic Emotion Regulation (AER), and Personal Best (PB), studies on their reciprocal relationships are still under shadow. Thus, this investigation suggested a model to depict the interplay among AB, L2 grit, AER, and PB. In so doing, The Academic Buoyancy Scale (ABS), The Language-domain-specific Grit Scale (L2-Grit S), The Academic Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (AERQ), and The Personal Best Scale (PBS) were distributed to 435 Iranian EFL university learners at BA level. The data screening based on Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) reflected that buoyant as well as gritter EFL learners are more aware of evaluating their academic emotional experiences as well as perusing their goals. More precisely, the mediator roles of AB and L2 grit on AER and PB were uncovered. The implications of this study, which advance psychology of language learning and teaching are thoroughly discussed.

Effects of Group-Dynamic Assessment and Process-Based Instruction on EFL Learners' Metacognitive Awareness and Listening Comprehension: A Mixed-Methods Inquiry.

Although a range of studies has explored the effectiveness of group-dynamic assessment (G-DA) and process-based instruction (PBI) in second language (L2) learning, no study has compared the effects of G-DA and PBI on EFL learners' metacognitive awareness (MA) and listening comprehension (LC). Thus, this study aimed to explore the effects of G-DA and PBI on fostering EFL learners' metacognitive awareness (MA) and listening comprehension (LC) in Iran. For this purpose, a total of one hundred and sixty intermediate EFL learners were selected through a convenience sampling method at Iran Language Institute (ILI) and were homogenized using the Key English Test (KET). The EFL learners whose scores fell around the mean score were chosen and randomly allocated as G-DA group (n = 30), PBI group (n = 30), and control group (n = 30). Afterward, they went through a pre-test, interventions (lasting 16 one-hour sessions held twice a week) and a post-test. The interactions in the classes were also meticulously recorded. The collected data were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA and a microgenetic development approach. Findings evidenced that the G-DA group and PBI group outperformed the control group concerning the gains in MA and LC. However, the findings evidenced that G-DA was more effective than PBI to foster the EFL learners' MA and LC. Additionally, the complementary qualitative results documented that the proper feedback offered in line with the principles and procedures of G-DA and PBI contributed to developing the participants' MA and LC. The study ends by offering some implications for the relevant stakeholders.

Khaled Hosseini's women as modern archetypes: A study of obedient, resistant and empowered Afghan women.

This article focuses on Khaled Hosseini's use of the analogy of women as obedient, resistant, and empowered as modern archetypes who learn of the gendered oppression that works through their bodies. Khaled Hosseini, through his writings, lends voice and offers moral encouragement to women by crafting resistant, rebellious, empowered, and strong female characters. With theoretical support from Johnson's Patriarchal Terrorism and Spivak's Can the subaltern speak, this article traces how Hosseini interrogates the patriarchal hierarchies that encompass women's identity in Afghanistan. Women's sufferings correlate with the country's overall circumstances, particularly during and after the war, on the terror regime. Therefore, women's endurance and Afghanistan's endurance amid hostile and oppressive circumstances become equally imperative for Hosseini's works. This article finds that Hosseini correlates Afghan women's issues like tradition and modernity, women and Islam, mother and daughter relationship, resistance and rebellion, and their quest for change and empowerment with the war on terror, foreign invasions, and the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Social media and academic success: Impacts of using telegram on foreign language motivation, foreign language anxiety, and attitude toward learning among EFL learners.

Concerning the ubiquity of social media, this research tried to examine the impacts of using Telegram on Iranian EFL learners' foreign language motivation, foreign language anxiety, and attitude toward learning. To achieve these purposes, 60 Iranian EFL learners at the intermediate level were selected and randomly divided into two groups: experimental and control. After that, both groups were pretested on motivation and anxiety variables. After pretesting, the participants in the experimental class received treatment via using the Telegram application, and the control students were trained traditionally without using any social media. After an 18-session instruction, a post-test of motivation and a post-test of anxiety were given to both groups, and also an attitude questionnaire was distributed among the experimental group to inspect their attitudes toward the Telegram application in language learning. The results of using two one-way ANCOVA tests showed significant differences between the post-tests of the control and experimental groups in favor of the experimental group. The findings demonstrated that using the Telegram application increased the motivation of the experimental group and decreased their level of foreign language anxiety. Also, the results of one sample t-test showed that the participants of the experimental group held positive attitudes toward using the Telegram application in English language learning. The implications of this research can encourage both teachers and learners to use social media-based instruments in English teaching and learning.