The present qusi-experimental study investigated the instructional efficacy of genre-based instruction along with humorous texts on Iranian EFL learners' writing performance.Out of 90 participants, 60 EFL male and female students at university level, with the age range of 19-28, were selected based on a standard profeciency test, Preliminary English Test (PET), and randomly assigned into control and experimental groups. Each group contained 30 students for whom a pre-test and post-test were administered. The teaching materials of narrative texts were prepared in a way to conform to the genere-based approach;but for the experimental group humorous texts were added. The results of the study, based on statistical analysis of one way of ANOVA, indicated that the genre-based+humorous texts methodology had significant effects on Iranian EFL learners' writing performance.It revealed the fact that using genre-based instruction along with humorous texts would be benificial for langauge pedagogy.

The present study attempted to investigate the impact of concept mapping strategy which is based on the theory of meaningful learning on retention of collocations. Moreover, the difference between the male and female learners exposed to the experimental condition was also examined. For this purpose, 90 EFL learners studying general English course at Urmia University were selected out of 115 learners according to their level of proficiency (PET test). Participants were assigned into two classes (class 1 (control group) = 48, class 2 (experimental group) = 42). Both groups received pre-test and post-test; however, they did get different instructions. Concept-mapping teaching strategy was used with experimental group participants while conventional instruction was employed in the control group. The results of this study support the fact that the use of concept mapping as a component of the instructional lesson can be an efficient model for fostering the collocation learning performance of learners with intermediate level of proficiency. However, there was not any statistically significant effect for gender.