Writing in a second or foreign language seems to be the most difficult language skill for language learners to acquire in academic contexts. While explicit instruction of strategies is not a usual practice in foreign language classrooms, it could be beneficial for language learners. The present study aims at investigating the effect of concept mapping strategy on EFL learners' writing performance. To this end, sixty Iranian students at the intermediate level of language proficiency participated in the study. Their language proficiency was determined by Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency. The results of the Analysis of Covariance revealed that the instruction of concept mapping strategy had a positive effect on EFL learners' writing achievements. The findings have some pedagogical implications for teaching language skills and designing strategy-based syllabus leading to successful language performance. Keywords: Concept mapping, Explicit instruction, Learning strategy, Writing achievement 1. Introduction Writing is a complicated process which involves a number of cognitive and metacognitive activities, for instance; brainstorming, planning, outlining, organizing, drafting, and revising. Cognitive aspects of writing have received a particular attention, as investigators have attempted to understand the thought processes underlying the compositions of students (Flower & Hayes, 1981). According to Omaggio Hadley (1993), writing requires composing, which implies the ability either to tell or retell pieces of information in the form of narratives or description, or to transform information into new texts, as in expository or argumentative writing. Therefore, it is best viewed as a continuum of activities that range from the more mechanical or formal aspects of writing down on the one end to the more complex act of composing on the other end. A substantial body of research suggests that training students to use language learning strategies can help them become better language learners. Early research on "good language learners" (Naiman, Fröhlich, Stern, & Todesco, 1996) suggested a number of learning strategies that successful students employ when they learn a second or a foreign language. A study of O'Malley and Chamot (1990) suggested that effective L2/FL learners are aware of the learning strategies they use and why they use them. Meaningful learning according to Ausubel's (2000) theory occurs when students intentionally attempt to integrate new knowledge with existing knowledge. A learner who attempts to integrate knowledge has a more extensive network of knowledge and therefore more retrieval paths. Richards, Platt, and Platt (1992) presented a specific definition of strategy training and outlined three different approaches: "[It is] training in the use of learning strategies in order to improve a learner's effectiveness. A number of approaches to strategy training are used including: 1) Explicit or direct training: learners are given information about the value and purpose of particular strate...

Abstract-The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the students' anxiety in essay writing and their writing performance in EFL context. The subjects were chosen from among 75 Iranian EFL students who took part in TOFEL proficiency test. 27 students majoring in English have been selected. They studied either English translation or English literature. The instruments to collect data were: a) Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) (Cheng, 2004) b) Open -ended questionnaire and c) Writing performance tests. The results suggested that the students felt less nervous in writing when the teacher assured them that their papers will not be scored in contrast to the time when their papers were to be scored by the teacher. In addition, the correlation between final writing test and anxiety were significantly high. The participants' responses to the open-ended questionnaire revealed that during their first stage of writing experience (when the teacher assured them that their papers will not be scored), the students had less physiological and psychological changes than their final test. The results suggested that by taking advantage of the facilitative aspect of anxiety, the students' writing performance will be improved. The study has some pedagogical implications that will be discussed in this paper.

The present paper aims at investigating the relationship among Iranian EFL learners' attitudes to autonomous learning, thinking styles, and their language learning strategy use. The instruments were Cotterall's (1995) Attitudes to Autonomous Language Learning Inventory (AALLI), Sternberg's (1997) Thinking Styles Inventory (TSI) and Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). The participants were 92 Iranian EFL upper-intermediate and advanced learners of Hormozgan province. The results of the Pearson Product Moment Correlation indicated that a) there is a significant relationship between self-attitude to autonomy and all the subcategories of strategy use, but there is no significant relationship between beliefs about teacher's role and strategy use except the social strategy b) a significant relationship exists between self-attitude to autonomy and most of the subcategories of thinking styles i.e. legislative, judicial, hierarchic, global, local, internal, external and liberal thinking styles and c) there is no significant difference between males and females in the preferences for strategy use and autonomy, however significant

The present study tried to find out the relationship between Iranian EFL teachers' emotional intelligence and their teaching styles. Moreover, it tried to explore the components of emotional intelligence that could act as predictors for Iranian EFL teachers' teaching styles. The participants of this study were 90 Iranian EFL teachers from Sistan and Baluchestan high schools and language institutes. Bar-On Emotional Quotient questionnaire and Grasha's Teaching Styles Inventory (TSI) questionnaire were employed as instruments of this study.The findings of the study revealed that there was a positive strong significant correlation between Iranian EFL teachers' emotional intelligence and their teaching styles. The components of emotional intelligence that can act as predictors for teachers' teaching styles were explored. Out of five components of emotional intelligence, four components (interpersonal, intrapersonal, adaptability, and stress management) could act as predictors for teachers' teaching style.

Based on Involvement Load Hypothesis (LAUFER; HULSTIJN, 2001), current study examined the effect of involvement load and task type on vocabulary acquisition. Six classes of EFL learners were assigned to one of six experimental groups with different involvement loads, thus leaving three groups with receptive tasks and three with productive tasks. Learners read a text and completed 10 vocabulary tasks focused on the target words while time on task was controlled across groups. The knowledge of target words was tested in two post-tests. Predictably, the findings indicated that tasks with higher involvement loads were more effective for vocabulary learning than tasks with lower involvement loads. Receptive tasks were also compared with productive ones of the same load condition. Contrary to the Involvement Load Hypothesis, productive tasks were more effective than receptive ones. Results show that the time on task does not have any effect on task efficacy.