There may be successful and less successful learners in every learning context. The latter group may try their best to improve their performance in comparison with their previous failures. To achieve such an objective, they try to adopt goals which are likely to promote their success. Such goals are commonly known as personal best goals. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of personal best goals in behavioural, cognitive, and emotional engagement of learners in an academic context. The participants of the study consisted of 302 B.A. university students majoring in English literature. One questionnaire consisting of items relating to different types of engagement and personal best goals was applied to collect the data of the study. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted for each of the measures related to personal best goals, behavioural, emotional, and cognitive engagement, each showing an acceptable goodness of fit index. Moreover, a model was proposed. In the proposed structural equation model, personal best goals accounted for 55, 51, and 51 percent of variance in cognitive, behavioural, and emotional engagement, respectively.
L2 reading attitude has been the subject of more recent studies in English as a Foreign Language (EFL), and many have attempted to define this construct and find its correlates such as gender and L1 and L2 proficiency level. This study builds on the previous studies and aims at highlighting the connection between L2 and L1 reading attitudes and the degree L2 reading attitude contributes to L2 reading achievement in Iranian EFL context. Participants of the study included 230 male and female Iranian language learners roughly at intermediate level of English reading proficiency. L2 and L1 reading attitudes were measured using reading attitude questionnaires, and data were analyzed by employing descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient, and regression analysis. Results showed that L1 and L2 reading attitudes were highly correlated (r = .71); L1 reading attitude significantly explained 51% of the variance in L2 reading attitude, but between the L1 and L2 reading attitudes, only L2 reading attitude made unique significant contribution to L2 reading achievement. Findings suggest the importance of developing positive attitude among L2 learners generally and L2 readers particularly.
The aim of this study was to investigate the speech act of refusal performed by native Persian and English speakers with respect to linguistic devices. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, refusal utterances were analyzed with respect to semantic formulas -that is words, phrases, or sentences meeting a particular semantic criterion to perform an act of eliciting. In the second phase, gender differences were examined, as well. One hundred movies (50 in Persian, 50 in English) were used as instruments for gathering the data. The movies were watched closely, and the utterances native speakers employed in their refusals were transcribed and analyzed. Persian speakers used excuse more than English speakers; however, they applied strategies such as regret, non-performative statements, and lack of enthusiasm less frequently than English speakers. The Chi-square (χ²) formula was then conducted to find out whether there were any significant differences in performing refusal speech act among the speakers of the two languages. The results showed that there were some differences between the two languages with regard to refusal utterances and gender. Finally, pedagogical implications of study for language learning and teaching have been enumerated.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.