This paper reports on a study that investigated the effect of teaching test-taking strategies on Iranian high school students' performance on English section of the National University Entrance Examination (Konkoor). To do so, 273 male and female high school students participated in a workshop that lasted for four sessions. The participants were randomly divided into an experimental and a control group. In the beginning of the workshop, participants received a demographic questionnaire to see if they had taken part in a similar test-taking class which resulted in excluding some students from the groups. The groups were also homogenized regarding their language proficiency level by administering Oxford Placement Test (OPT). Therefore, 260 participants were left for the main study. Then, experimental group participated in the test-taking strategy workshop and control group worked on the previous samples of Konkoor examinations without any reference to test-taking strategies. At the end of the workshop, the attitude questionnaire was run in the experimental group to compile the group's opinions about the treatment. One month later, the students of both groups took Konkoor. The data were analyzed using an independent-samples t-test. The learners' responses to the attitude questionnaire were also analyzed quantitatively. The findings of this study indicated that Iranian high school students in the experimental group outperformed the control group on their Konkoor exam. Moreover, they had positive attitudes towards teaching and learning test-taking strategies. This study suggests that integrating such strategies in the teaching curriculum could be beneficial for the students.

Language learning process is one of the complicated behaviors of human beings which has called many scholars and experts 'attention especially after the middle of last century by the advent of cognitive psychology that later on we see its implication to education. Unlike previous thought of schools, cognitive psychology deals with the way in which the human mind controls learning. Although it was great development on the way of understanding the nature of learning, cognitive psychologists were criticized by other approaches that this caused mush evolution in cognitivism. On the other hand by the rapid growth of technology our understanding of brain has increased, therefore we know its functions and structures even while working. Neuroscience and its implications to educational domain has been increasing time to time, it means neuroscience and education never were so close to each other. Meanwhile, Brain-based researchers can confirm many learning theories that introduced during the educational great efforts of cognitive and non-cognitive approaches. This paper argues in favor of application of those approaches to language classrooms utilizing as guarantee some of the main perception from brain-based learning theories.

There are many problems associated with oral error correction in the EFL classrooms. One of these common problems is the student and teacher disagreement on the amount of error correction, type, and techniques of correcting errors. This study based on the findings of a questionnaire administrated to 90 female EFL students in Pardisan Language Institute investigates: 1) Whether or not learners' (with different proficiency levels) prefer classroom oral error correction; 2) learners' prefer which types of oral error correction; and 3) Which techniques of correcting oral errors do the learners prefer. The findings of this study manifest that the majority of the students in three different levels (elementary, intermediate, and advanced) had strongly preferred that their oral errors should be corrected and they preferred to receive constant error correction. Also the majority of the students preferred vocabulary error correction over the other types of errors. Also the least favored oral error correction technique was the technique in which the teacher ignores the students' errors as for as the most favored techniques by students of three different levels were the ones in which teacher repeats the original question, asks students to repeat the utterance, explain why the response is incorrect, and finally the teacher gives students a hint which might enable them to notice the error and self-correct.

This study attempted to investigate the effect of test-taking strategy training on Iranian students' performance on English section of the National University Entrance Examination (NUEE). To do so, 160 fourth grade high school students were randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups. The experimental group received 8 hours of test-taking strategy training along with samples of the NUEE exams, while control group only practiced the samples of the NUEE exams without being imposed to these strategies. Participant's performance on school exams which were very similar to the NUEE English section was also measured through a multiple-choice test which was used as the pre and post-test. Results revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in both high stake test of NUEE and the post-test. Moreover, there was a positive relationship between the participants' general point average (GPA) in their school final exams and their test taking strategy use. The findings provide empirical support for encouraging language teachers to instruct test-taking strategies in language classes, especially the strategies which help students in stressful exams like NUEE.

The major role of self-directed learning, a sub-division of autonomy, in successful learning at distance education has been informed by various studies. Although learners pass General English courses before studying any ESP courses at distance education in Iran, they sometimes lack the preliminary skills for independent language learning. The current study aimed to explore ESP learners’ self-directed learning readiness (SDLR) and the relationship between SDLR and ESP course accomplishment. Participants were 126 B.A students (33 male and 93 female) studying English for Students of Economy and Management (ESEM) at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University which is based on distance learning. Data gathered by Guglielmino’s (1978) self-directed learning readiness scale (SDLRS) and a test of ESEM. Data analysis revealed that half of the learners’ SDLR is at an average or below average level, which is likely to be insufficient for conducting successful self-directed language learning (SDLL). Furthermore, the correlation coefficient demonstrated that there is a positive relationship between SDLR and ESP course accomplishment. Therefore, the need for appropriate training to improve learners’ SDLR that directly contributes to a successful ESP learning at distance education in Iran becomes apparent.