The present article was an investigation of mnemonic vocabulary teaching to improve reading comprehension in the EFL classrooms. A major problem with the most of the past researches was that they paid no or little attention to the effects of using mnemonic strategies to improve reading comprehension. The purpose of this paper was to investigate how key word mnemonic vocabulary teaching can improve reading comprehension of the students. To this end, 360 third grade senior high school students from 6 senior high schools of Zanjan were selected through multistage cluster random sampling method and based on Cambridge placement test (2010), 345 students proved to be upper intermediate. A quasi-experimental design was used to determine the effects of a mnemonic vocabulary intervention on reading comprehension. In this article there were one control group (A, n=115), and two experimental groups (B, n=115; C, n=115) all of which were male and there were selected randomly by the researchers. During one month in four weeks, every week in two thirty-minute session, group B received direct vocabulary instruction and group C received key word mnemonic instruction. The quantitative component of this article was comprised of the Unit Cloze test. In order to test the effects of Mnemonic Vocabulary Teaching on reading comprehension, the covariance analysis was employed and the results demonstrated that by eliminating the covariance factor of the pre-test, mnemonic vocabulary instruction improved the reading comprehension of the students. The use of keyword mnemonics as a means to differentiate instruction is an educational implication that can assist teachers seeking better student achievement outcomes.

The present article is an investigation about the effects of mnemonic vocabulary teaching to improve content vocabulary learning in EFL classrooms. A major issue with the most of the past studies was that they paid little or no attention to the effects of using mnemonic strategies to improve content vocabulary learning. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how key word mnemonic vocabulary teaching can improve the comprehension and learning of the content vocabulary for the students. To this end, 256 third year senior high school students from 6 senior high schools in Zanjan (Iran) were selected through a multistage cluster random sampling method and based on the Cambridge placement test (2010), 230 students proved to be upper intermediate. A quasi-experimental design was used to determine the effects of a mnemonic vocabulary intervention on content vocabulary learning. In this article there were one control group (A, n=115), and one experimental group (C, n=115) all of which were male and there were selected randomly. This study was done in May 2017, and over four weeks, in two thirty-minute sessions per week, group C received key word mnemonic instruction. In order to test the effects of mnemonic vocabulary teaching on content vocabulary learning, the covariance analysis was employed and the results demonstrated that by eliminating the covariance factor of the pre-test, mnemonic vocabulary instruction improved content vocabulary learning for students. The use of keyword mnemonics as a means to differentiate instruction is an educational result that can assist teachers.

The present study was an investigation of metacognitive strategy training on improving Iranian EFL learners' listening performance and the differences and similarities at three levels of elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels. Few studies have been conducted to investigate three levels. So, 348 third grade female senior high school students of Zanjan/Iran were selected through multistage cluster random sampling method and based on Cambridge placement test (2010), 116, 132, and 100 students in 3 elementary, advanced, and control groups participated in this experimental study. During two months and over period of nine forty-minute sessions, students in experimental groups received metacognitive and listening instructions. To address the research question, ANOVA test was conducted and the results showed that there were meaningful differences between students' performance and the students of experimental advanced group showed more improvement than students in experimental intermediate and elementary groups, and students of intermediate experimental group showed more improvement than students in experimental elementary group. The implication of the study is that metacognitive strategy training should be incorporated into the regular listening teaching programs to help students become more effective listeners.

The present critical literature review explored the previous research articles to find out the washback effect of task-based assessment (TBA) of vocabulary on EFL learners. While the diversity of teaching and testing methods within today’s EFL classrooms continues to increase, it is better to pay attention to alternative methods of assessment like task-based vocabulary assessments in contrast to traditional assessment. Despite the existence of many research articles in the field of alternative teaching and assessment methods, Iran’s education system has not pay attention to finding an alternative method of assessment that can replace it with its own current unsuccessful traditional method. Therefore, the present paper critically evaluated the previous research articles about the washback effect of TBA of vocabulary on EFL learners. The fundamental motivation for writing the current paper is that Iran’s public EFL program suffers from traditional assessment issues. To address these challenges, Iran’s assessment system must be changed by employing alternative types of assessment and establishing a teacher assistance program. The first focus of the present paper was to review task-based language teaching (TBLT), task-based language assessment (TBLA), and washback effect definitions. Second, the role of vocabulary in TBLT and TBLA was explained. Next, an overview of the empirical studies on TBLT, TBLA, the washback effect, and vocabulary assessment in international and Iranian contexts was presented. Finally, the research question about the washback effects of task-based vocabulary assessment on EFL learners’ vocabulary learning was answered based on the critical review of the previous empirical research.