These days focus of interest in English learning changes to productive skills, in Turkey. This research study assesses the teachers' point of view about using ice-breakers for adult Turkish EFL learners in upper-intermediate level. It also anticipates finding valuable information with applying ice-breaker activities as a useful teaching policy…

Critical thinking (CT) is purposeful, self-regulatory judgment that results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanations of the considerations on which that judgment is based. This article summarizes the available empirical evidence on the impact of instruction on the development and enhancement of critical…

Pre-writing stage has been considered very significant as it enhances writing performance in that learners can have discussions with the teacher and/or their peers. They can also outline and organize their ideas individually to prepare themselves for writing. This study investigated the effects of using pictures and interactions in the pre-writing…

The current research examines the effect of two methods of vocabulary training on reading fluency and comprehension of adult English as second language (ESL) tertiary-bound students. The methods used were isolated vocabulary training (bottom-up reading) and vocabulary training in context (top-down reading). The current exploratory and…

Objective: This article reports on the acceptability and results from an evaluation of an empirically supported practice, The Incredible Years, tailored to parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods: Two groups of parents (N = 17) participated in a mixed methods test with no comparison group of the 15-week intervention. Data…

Many empirical investigations have demonstrated that explicit Focus on Form (FOF) methods are more effective than implicit Focus on Meaning (FOM) methods (Norris & Ortega, 2000), because in FOF instruction learners' attention is drawn to linguistic form while FOM instruction requires learners' attention to communicate (Ellis, 2001). However,…

Organizational and applied sciences have long struggled with improving causal inference in quasi-experiments. We introduce organizational researchers to propensity scoring, a statistical technique that has become popular in other applied sciences as a means for improving internal validity. Propensity scoring statistically models how individuals in…

Adult Basic Education (ABE) and the General Equivalency Diploma (GED) programs serve those students who, for whatever reason, have left the educational system without attaining a regular high school diploma. Because of the manner in which they may have left the school system, many have negative emotions and personal agency beliefs hindering their…

This study investigated the continuous influence of self-assessment on EFL (English as a foreign language) learners' self-efficacy. The participants, divided into an experimental and a control group, were 57 Iranian EFL learners in an English-language institute. The participants' self-efficacy was measured through a questionnaire that was the same…

While consensus exists about the critical role of learners’ motivation in second language acquisition, controlled investigations of the effects of teachers’ motivational strategies are limited. The research reported here used a quasi-experimental design to assess the effects of motivational strategies used by Saudi English as a foreign language…

Step-by-step teaching is a researcher-designed innovative process that takes the adult learner, step-by-step, from his present level of understanding to the required level. The technique is based on well-researched and accepted pedagogical practices set in their psychological, sociological, and andragogical perspectives. Using a convenience sample…

While previous research has indicated that learners with field-dependence (FD) and field-independence (FI) cognitive styles benefit differentially from different instructional modes, previous corrective feedback studies have ignored the issue of matching error correction strategies to learners' cognitive style. To shed some light on this issue,…

Although e-learning has improved in quality, reach and learning impact over the past decade, it can be argued that it has not yet lived up to its potential to transform workplace learning. In the drive to increase effectiveness, interest has grown in blended learning, an instructional strategy that combines the use of web-technologies with more…

Instruction, even when designed and based on sound instructional principles, oftentimes does not stimulate learners' motivation to learn. The result may be that learners may not be motivated to pursue lifelong learning and use the knowledge and skills learned to deliver patient care. The purpose of this study was to identify an appropriate…

Although the field of distance education is growing, according to research, most online courses only use text-based instructional strategies instead of incorporating various instructional strategies to match differing learning styles. Furthermore, studies of learning styles in online professional development courses are limited. Using a…