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Task as a pedagogic and research tool has originally been used to elicit unscripted data to be used as evidence for interlanguage processes or as a basis for channelling the learners’ cognitive and linguistic resources to achieve desired learning outcomes. One of the central issues surrounding task-based instruction is the difference between what is planned as task pedagogic goals through manipulation of its design features and what ultimately emerges from the implementation process. The disparity has been attributed to the redefinition of the task by the learners to suit their learning goals (see Hosenfeld, 1976 Breen, 1989). Though this account can explain the gap from the learners’ perspective, it ignores the mediatory role of the teacher and his/her reinterpretation of the task to suit pedagogic goals which may not necessarily coincide with those of the task designer. This paper argues for a redefinition of the teacher’s role in task-based instruction using naturalistic data taken from a larger database of recorded and transcribed lessons. The paper concludes with the discussion of the implications of the suggested role redefinition for task-based syllabus design.

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This paper explored the factorial validity of the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) within a foreign language context and its relationship with educational level and academic achievement.  The BALLI was administered to 418 undergraduate and graduate university students who majored in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, English Language and Literature and English Translation at seven tertiary education centers inMashhad,Iran. The low correlation coefficients among the 34 beliefs addressed by the BALLI necessitated dispensing with Principle Component Analysis. The application of the Principle Axis Factoring to the beliefs and their rotation revealed 14 factors. One way ANOVA analysis of responses revealed that sophomore undergraduate students differ from senior undergraduate and graduate students in 11 beliefs indicating that formal education affects almost one third of learners’ belief.  The same analysis of the GPAs obtained by 86 sophomore undergraduate participants showed their academic achievement is significantly related to five beliefs. The implications of these findings are discussed within the Iranian EFL context.

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This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of fostering cooperative learning on EFL learners’ overall achievement. To fulfill the purpose of this study, 56 female students of Saba Language School in Tehran were selected from a total number of 90 based on their performance on the Preliminary English Test (PET) and randomly put into two experimental and control groups. The same content was taught to both groups throughout the 24-session treatment. The only difference was that the experimental group was taught through communicative language teaching with the use of cooperative learning activities, which consisted of the three-step-interview, think-pair-share, paired annotations, round robin, and learning together, while the students in the control group were taught through the communicative language teaching approach without the cooperative teaching procedure. An achievement posttest within the content taught was given to the students in both groups at the end of the instruction and the mean scores of both groups on the test were compared through an independent samples t-test. The result showed the rejection of the null hypothesis thus concluding that cooperative learning had a significant effect on the overall achievement of Iranian EFL learners.  

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The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of task-based language teaching (TBLT) on EFL learners’ pragmatic production, metapragmatic awareness, and pragmatic self-assessment. To this end, 75 homogeneous intermediate EFL learners were randomly assigned to three groups: two experimental groups and one control group. The 27 participants in the pre-task, post-task pragmatic focus group (experimental group one) received pragmatic focus on five speech acts in pre-task and the post-task phases. The 26 participants in the scaffolded while-task group (experimental group two) only received pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic feedback and scaffolding during task completion. However, the 22 participants in the mainstream task-based group (control group) were not provided with any sort of pragmatic focus. The EFL learners’ pragmatic production, metapragmatic awareness, and pragmatic self-assessment were measured using a written discourse completion task (WDCT), a metapragmatic awareness questionnaire, and a pragmatic self-assessment questionnaire. The findings showed that the three groups enhanced their pragmatic production to almost the same degree at the end of the treatment. Furthermore, the results revealed the development of metapragmatic awareness among the EFL learners in the two experimental groups only. In addition, the two experimental groups managed to develop their pragmatic self-assessment more than the control group. Therefore, it can be concluded that the use of tasks within the framework of TBLT, with or without pragmatic focus in any of the three phases, helps EFL learners develop pragmatic production, while the development of metapragmatic awareness and pragmatic self-assessment can be attributed to pragmatic focus and feedback.

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