on the comparative effects of individual vs. collaborative mall-oriented instruction on collocation learning and self-efficacy of iranian upper-intermediate efl learners

As time goes on, the capabilities of mobile phones are becoming greater and they are implemented in the education. this study compared the effect of individual and collaborative mall-oriented collocation instruction on l2 learners’ collocation learning and self-efficacy via whatsapp application. the participants of the study consisted of 60 upper-intermediate learners from an english language institute who were recruited through convenience sampling method. following the administration of an oxford placement test (opt), the subjects were divided into one control (n= 20 students) and two experimental groups, a collaborative experimental group (ceg) (n= 20) and an individual experimental group (ieg) (n= 20). the general self-efficacy scale (gse) questionnaire (schwarzer & jerusalem, 1995) was used to measure the learners' self-efficacy. the learners in the ceg were divided into small groups and were given a text in which a set of collocations were highlighted. they were asked questions about the text for which they needed to use the given collocations. the students' responses and contributions along with the teacher's feedback were shared in the group, which set a context for collaborative learning. the learners in the ieg were given the same task and questions but asked to answer the reading questions individually. the control group received a conventional method of instruction using translation. the results of paired-samples t-tests and one-way anova indicated that collaborative mall-oriented collocation instruction led to the learners’ collocation learning but showed no significant change in their self-efficacy. on implication side, the paper discusses the applications of the findings for l2 teaching and teacher education.