The Effect of Storytelling and Translation Techniques on Female Iranian EFL Online Learners’ Proverb Learning

The current study explored the effect of storytelling and translation techniques on learning proverbs among female Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in online classes, which came into vogue after corona pandemic, and the attitudes of the learners toward proverb learning. In order to do these, participants who were ۳۰ female high school students studying in Iranshahr whose homogeneity as pre-intermediate learners was checked via the Nelson Proficiency Test were assigned to two groups: a storytelling group, and a translation group; each group containing ۱۵ students. Treatment lasted seven sessions and it included ۵۰ English proverbs chosen based on the frequency of their use in Google search. In each session, the participants of experimental groups were engaged in learning seven English proverbs. The translation group were presented with L۱ equivalents of the proverbs; the storytelling group were presented with a funny story about each proverb. An attitude questionnaire and a test of proverbs were applied prior to and after the treatment. The results of the paired t-test indicated that both storytelling technique and translation were effective in improving learners’ knowledge of L۲ (second Language) proverbs. The results of the t-test depicted that there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in the post-test. These findings have implications for material developers, L۲ instructors, and L۲ learners about the importance of the use of L۲ proverbs.

کلیدواژه ها:

proverb ، storytelling ، Translation ، online courses ، Iranian EFL Learners