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The Impact of Self-assessment of EFL Learners' Tolerance of Ambiguity

Received: 9 June 2015     Accepted: 2 July 2015     Published: 15 July 2015
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Abstract

Tolerance of ambiguity has been an important focus of educational practices and research for more than three decades. The present paper investigated the possibility that there might be an impact of self-assessment on Iranian intermediate EFL learners' tolerance of ambiguity and language proficiency. Therefore, two groups each with 20 EFL intermediate learners served as the experimental and control groups. In the experimental group, self-assessment was practiced. While the participants of control group, just received traditional evaluation. Ely (1995) Ambiguity Tolerance Questionnaire (ATQ) was administered as the measure of learners' tolerance of ambiguity. The results of the study indicate that learners' tolerance of ambiguity increases as the effect of self-assessment. Self-assessment can also affect the learners' proficiency in general.

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 3, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijll.20150304.22
Page(s) 271-274
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Tolerance of Ambiguity, Self-assessment, Language Proficiency

References
[1] Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed.). New York: Pearson Education.
[2] Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language Pedagogy. New York: Longman.
[3] Budner J. (1962). Tolerance of ambiguity as a personality variable. Journal of Personality. 30, 29-40.
[4] Campbell, D., DeWall, L., Roth, T., & Stevens, S. (1998). Improving student depth of understanding through the use of alternative assessment. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Cambridge, Cambridge university press.
[5] Chapelle, C., & Roberts, C. (1986). Ambiguity tolerance and field independence as predictors in English as a second language. Language Learning , 36 (1), 27-45.
[6] Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. New York: Oxford University press.
[7] Ely, C. (1989). Tolerance of ambiguity and use of second language strategies. Foreign Language Annals , 22, 437-445.
[8] Ely, C. M. (1995). Tolerance of ambiguity and the teaching of ESL. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
[9] Ehrman, M. E. (1996).understanding second language learning difficulties. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
[10] Ehrman, M. (1999). Ego boundaries and tolerance of ambiguity in second language learning. In Arnold, J. (Ed.).affect in language learning. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
[11] Ehrman, M., & Oxford, R. 1990. “Adult Language Learning Styles and Strategies in an Intensive Training Setting.” Modern Language Journal 74.3: 311-327.
[12] Gardner, D. (2000). Self-assessment for autonomous language learners. Links & Letters, 7.
[13] Harris, M. (1997). Self-assessment on language learning in formal setting. ELT Journal, 51(1), 12-14.
[14] Jonassen, D. H., & Grabowski, B. L. (1993) .Handbook of individual differences, learning and instruction Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.
[15] Kamran, S. K., & Maftoon, P. (2012). An analysis of the associations between ambiguity tolerance and EFL reading strategy awareness. English Language Teaching, 5(3), p188.
[16] Kazamia, V. (1999). “How Tolerant are Greek EFL Learners of Foreign Language Ambiguities.” Foreign Language Annals 22: 437-445.
[17] McLain, D. L. (1993).The MSTAT-I: A new measure of an individual's tolerance for ambiguity. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 53,183 189.
[18] Norton, R.W. (1975). Measurement of ambiguity tolerance. Journal of Personality Assessment, 39, 607-619.
[19] Reiss, M. (1985)."The good language learner:Another look".canadian Modern Language Review 40, 257-266.
[20] Rubin, J. (1975). What the" good language learner" can teach us. TESOL quarterly, 41-51.
[21] Smith, C. (1997). Student self-assessment at St. Bernadette’s primary school. Primary Educator, 3(4), 7-14.
[22] White, C. (1999). Expectations and emergent beliefs of self-instructed language learners. System, 27, 443-457.
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  • APA Style

    Zahra Jafari, Samira Yavari, Moein Shokri. (2015). The Impact of Self-assessment of EFL Learners' Tolerance of Ambiguity. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 3(4), 271-274. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150304.22

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    ACS Style

    Zahra Jafari; Samira Yavari; Moein Shokri. The Impact of Self-assessment of EFL Learners' Tolerance of Ambiguity. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2015, 3(4), 271-274. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150304.22

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    AMA Style

    Zahra Jafari, Samira Yavari, Moein Shokri. The Impact of Self-assessment of EFL Learners' Tolerance of Ambiguity. Int J Lang Linguist. 2015;3(4):271-274. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150304.22

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijll.20150304.22,
      author = {Zahra Jafari and Samira Yavari and Moein Shokri},
      title = {The Impact of Self-assessment of EFL Learners' Tolerance of Ambiguity},
      journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
      volume = {3},
      number = {4},
      pages = {271-274},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20150304.22},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150304.22},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20150304.22},
      abstract = {Tolerance of ambiguity has been an important focus of educational practices and research for more than three decades. The present paper investigated the possibility that there might be an impact of self-assessment on Iranian intermediate EFL learners' tolerance of ambiguity and language proficiency. Therefore, two groups each with 20 EFL intermediate learners served as the experimental and control groups. In the experimental group, self-assessment was practiced. While the participants of control group, just received traditional evaluation. Ely (1995) Ambiguity Tolerance Questionnaire (ATQ) was administered as the measure of learners' tolerance of ambiguity. The results of the study indicate that learners' tolerance of ambiguity increases as the effect of self-assessment. Self-assessment can also affect the learners' proficiency in general.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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    T1  - The Impact of Self-assessment of EFL Learners' Tolerance of Ambiguity
    AU  - Zahra Jafari
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    AB  - Tolerance of ambiguity has been an important focus of educational practices and research for more than three decades. The present paper investigated the possibility that there might be an impact of self-assessment on Iranian intermediate EFL learners' tolerance of ambiguity and language proficiency. Therefore, two groups each with 20 EFL intermediate learners served as the experimental and control groups. In the experimental group, self-assessment was practiced. While the participants of control group, just received traditional evaluation. Ely (1995) Ambiguity Tolerance Questionnaire (ATQ) was administered as the measure of learners' tolerance of ambiguity. The results of the study indicate that learners' tolerance of ambiguity increases as the effect of self-assessment. Self-assessment can also affect the learners' proficiency in general.
    VL  - 3
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    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of English Language, Harsin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran

  • English Department-Kermanshah Jihad Daneshgahi Institute of Higher Education, Kermanshah, Iran

  • Department of English Language, Kermanshah Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kemanshah, Iran

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