In this study, the use of speech-like pragmatic markers in Iranian EFL students’ academic writing was investigated. Speech-like pragmatic markers, such as I think, well, I guess, actually, anyway, anyhow, etc. are linguistic components that are more specific to conversation than writing, and writers may wrongly include them in their academic writing. To examine the students’ use of speech-like ...

This study was designed to examine EFL student writers majoring in English as a foreign language at university level in Iran to describe their vocabulary related problems and the strategies they used to overcome these problems. Thirty EFL students were given a writing task for think-aloud composing. The resulting protocols were coded and analysed. The data were examined in relation to vocabular...

This study attempts to elicit the perceptions and attitudes of EFL learners of the Preparatory Year Program at KSU towards dialogue journal writing as an EFL learning strategy. The descriptive research design used incorporated both qualitative and quantitative instruments to accomplish the objectives of the study. A learners’ attitude questionnaire and follow-up interviewswith learners from a r...

Although attribution theory has been applied in many fields of education as a way of understanding individual differences, it has somewhat been neglected by professionals in ELT to date. This study has thus sought to investigate the role of EFL learners’ attributions for success and failure in learning a foreign language and their performance on placement tests. Three instruments, namely, the I...

The relationship between second-language learning and culture has been studied and debated by educators and students alike. In an EFL context, students’ language learning happens mainly in a language classroom where the learning culture predominates. Learning behaviors are normally shaped by pre-existing attitudes, values and beliefs regarding what constitutes good learning and effective teachi...

In recent years, considerable concern has arisen over issues of intercultural competence (IC) in relation to English education in the fields of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or English as a Second Language (ESL), due largely to globalisation. However, relatively little qualitative research has been conducted on EFL teachers’ beliefs and their effects on classroom practices. Through in-dep...

When students in Taiwan enter into higher education, the reading demands placed upon them often lead them to select ineffective and inefficient strategies with little strategic intent. To investigate how reading strategy use affects the development of Taiwanese EFL learners’ reading comprehension, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship and differences of four reading strategy...