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www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.66.06.1

How to Cite:

Ma, Instructor, English Language Teaching Department, Faculty of Education, Tishk International University, Erbil/Iraq.

skill to master English, and gaining academic

success can be measured in both the short and

long terms, depending on how far along the

learning path the student is because it is

connected to other macro or micro-skills directly

(Yildiz, 2020). For example, learners who

command grammar rules precisely can master

reading, listening, speaking and writing,

pronunciation and vocabulary faster than other

learners. In the same vein, learners whose

asserts that learning rules of the grammar may

have positive effects to meet people’s social,

emotional and physical needs because they can

express their ideas more confidently. On the

other hand, insufficient grammatical competence

can hinder learners from learning well, so they

may lose their motivation and quit learning

process instantly. According to Azar (2007), a

language's grammar is essential to understanding

the language itself. She elaborates that, without

grammar teaching methods are inductive,

deductive and eclectic ones with their advantages

and disadvantages (Ho, 2014). Additionally,

teaching grammar with the integration of mobile

technologies such as smartboards, computers,

mobile phones and tablets has been on the rise

thanks to the availability of online quizzes,

applications, games and other software

applications to teach English in an entertaining

way (Bahari & Gholami, 2022; Kara & Yildiz,

in a comprehensible manner. Otherwise, the

problems regarding unintelligible utterances

cannot be inevitable which disrupts the

communication between the parties.

Pronunciation training starts with phonics and

continues throughout the life for its undeniable

process. There are three primary approaches to

teach pronunciation professionally at educational

settings which are intuitive, analytic and

integrative approach requires the learners to be

involved in communicative tasks, so they can

learn in a practical way rather than doing some

drills monotonously. It can be observed that

pronunciation training has evolved from drills to

meaningful tasks in communicative sessions, so

learners’ general knowledge and inclination to

learn out of curiosity have been receiving

increasing attention in such activities.

critical thinkers, and doers (Yildiz, 2016).

Correspondingly, it is human nature to seek,

discover and expand knowledge in their domains

(Casey, 2014). In this regard, being curious has a

pivotal role in people`s lives because the degree

of earning respect is expected to increase once

people are more knowledgeable after learning

some novel information. To illustrate, cooks can

be promoted to serve as master chefs if they seek

novel information throughout their lives.

www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307

prompts us to consider the function of the

students for the rest of their lives (Sadiq, 2023;

Shareef, 2023). Educators ought to be problem-

solvers who contribute to their students'

achievements. Educators who inquire novel

information incessantly for the betterment of the

education differ greatly from the educators who

are satisfied with the given curriculum. It can be

argued that being curious helps people to develop

their skills gradually.

actively, so they can construct their knowledge

through interaction, exploration and systematic

practice. Exchanging information in a

welcoming atmosphere which fosters learning

has been regarded as the key component of

constructivism. Likewise, inquiry-based learning

strategy urges the learners to ask, seek,

investigate, conceptualize and synthesize the

elements to construct their learning (Tjabaka,

2022). Collaboration, creativity and learning

put into practice by assigning some meaningful

tasks for students and motivating them to learn

and complete the tasks within the given time

(Van Den Branden, 2016). In addition,

Communicative Language Learning (CLL)

approach requires the learners to be involved in

meaningful activities through which they can

communicate with their peers and teachers, so

they are inclined to research more in advance and

express their ideas in classes (Foley, 2022). It is

addition, students’ motivation and overall

with these goals:

grammar and pronunciation skills?

learners’ motivation and overall attitudes

towards learning English?

gradually. He asserted that observation, asking

relevant questions and exploration foster EC.

Subsequently, Litman and Silvia (2006) divided

EC into two categories which are deprivation (D-

type) and interest curiosity (I-type). The former

can be triggered once individuals do not have

adequate information about some topics, whereas

the latter means seeking novel knowledge

continuously. In other words, deprivation

curiosity can be finalized once knowledge gaps

A number of scholars with their pioneering

studies asserted that EC affects learning and

teaching atmosphere positively in terms of

enhanced performance (Eren & Coskun, 2016;

Kara, 2023), acquiring knowledge (Rotgans &

Schmidt, 2014), retrieving information swiftly

(Kang et al., 2009) and increasing self-

confidence (Hong et al., 2019). In the same vein,

some scholars (Fitzgerald, 1999; Spielberger &

Starr, 2012; Silvia, 2017; Abdulrahman & Kara,

a case study which indicated that there was a

that students’ boredom reduced once EC-based

instruction was implemented. The study also

showed that students’ marks were better after

(2017) found that EC stimulated students’

problem solving and critical thinking skills, so

students participated in debates more actively in

a US university. Furthermore, Ruiz Alfonso and

Leon (2019) conducted a study about the effects

of EC on high school students in Spain. The

in the USA on undergraduate students which

indicated that arousing curiosity with various

activities yielded better marks once combined

with game-based activities. In addition, students’

adaptation problems to the course were reduced

substantially. Subsequently, Al-Nabi and Fahady

(2022) examined EFL learners’ attitudes in Iraq

on curiosity-based instruction which showed that

there was a direct relationship between curiosity-

based instruction and enhanced language

levels.

Some scholars (Litman & Spielberger, 2003;

Lauriola et al., 2015; Peterson & Cohen, 2019;

Celik & Kara, 2022) hinted that EC period cannot

produce expected results if some criteria are not

met. To illustrate, Nakamura et al. (2022)

conducted a study in an oral communication

course at a tertiary level in Thailand which

revealed that organizing the whole program

the efforts can be fruitless if learners are not

increase the success rate of EC-based instruction.

This study utilized a mixed-methods approach to

combine qualitative and quantitative research

techniques. Fetters et al. (2013) attest that a

mixed methods design provides researchers with

This study was conducted at TISHK

International University (hereafter TIU) in Erbil,

Iraq, where, according to records in the 2021-

2022 Academic Year, over 5,000 students were

pursuing degrees in 29 departments. The

selection of this university was based on the fact

that many students of various nationalities

various endeavors. In this regard, the population

of this research consisted of 250 Foundation

English students who participated in a yearlong

intensive English learning program. In addition,

the students attended all of their classes in their

respective departments. The cluster sampling

method was used to select participants. Initially,

250 students were divided into ten sections.

Using a software application called Random

Name Picker, the researcher then selected

www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307

grammar and pronunciation. They could get up

including 25 multiple choice questions as paper-

based format. On the other hand, they took the

pronunciation exam in the instructor’s office.

Once the exam was completed, their grammar

and pronunciation marks were merged in one

point and saved out of 100. When exam results

were available, the results were inserted into

SPSS 26 to receive independent samples t test

analysis. However, qualitative data were

collected through a questionnaire and an

The study lasted 12 weeks to initialize and

finalize the data. All participants received both

types of instruction regardless of being in control

or experimental group in a week. The underlying

reason to introduce both types of instructions was

that they could compare one instruction with

another after joining the study in one group. Once

common lessons were completed, the

units in Scope 1 published by Oxford. They

learned basics of present simple, modal verbs,

present continuous, comparative, superlative and

past simple. Additionally, countries,

nationalities, types of family, holiday activities,

health and diet, expressions about feelings were

introduced with different reading, vocabulary,

listening, writing and listening activities. The

instructor covered the lessons in a traditional

way. S/he only highlighted the points given in the

superlative and past simple. Additionally,

feelings were introduced with different reading,

vocabulary, listening, writing and listening

activities. In the same vein, students were

encouraged to listen to the audio tracks and

watch the videos of the lessons to improve their

pronunciation. When they learned certain

pronunciation rules, they were directed to watch

relevant videos on YouTube to expand their

learning and retain information in their memories

in the long run. They also took some

life examples of present simple, tips to use modal

verbs accurately. Additionally, they prepared

some presentations on present continuous; they

investigated the highest grossing movies, the

largest continents, the least populated countries

and the life in the 1950s. After searching

thoroughly on the internet, they shared their ideas

in the class. Thus, they could exchange their

information as they wanted to uncover the novel

information they learned by EC. The type of

videos, news, images, links, so both the instructor

and participants could upload files to enrich their

learning. As seen clearly, discovery, exploration,

knowledge sharing were primary motivation

sources in experimental group rather than

sticking to all activities in the book traditionally.

This study's findings were categorized under

Questionnaire

Table 1.

www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307

participants had mostly positive views about the

strongly agree, while 3 (12%) of them chose

agree option. However, no student chose neutral,

disagree or strongly disagree options which

revealed that doing thorough research increased

participants’ willingness to contribute to lessons

more actively.

Item 6 analysis, which was related to rating the

performance of the instructor, showed that the

instructor earned the respect and appreciation of

figures display that the instructor cemented a

Item 7 was designed to receive participants’

genuine ideas on the whole study. The responses

were mostly positive with a 4.84 mean score. To

illustrate, 21 (84 %) participants chose strongly

agree option, whereas 4 (16 %) participants

chose agree option. On the other hand, no student

chose other options. These figures revealed that

participants were satisfied with the overall gains

of the study and would rather have joined a study

Table 2.

Once item 1 was analyzed in detail, it was

participants chose neutral. However, 7 (28 %)

participants chose disagree or strongly disagree

respectively. It can be stated that traditional

learning and teaching atmosphere was not

agree options. On the other hand, 11 (44 %)

participants chose neutral; 5 (20 %) participants

chose disagree; 9 (36 %) participants chose

strongly disagree. These figures show that the

thinking skills.

The responses to item 3 which was about the

connection between grammatical competence

and traditional teaching ranged from strongly

agree to strongly disagree with varying

percentages. The mean score was only 2.72

which unearthed that the participants did not

regard traditional instruction as a means of

developing grammatical competence. To

Item 4 was designed to get students’ opinions on

pronunciation enhancement through following a

traditional teaching methods. The collected data

revealed that the mean score was the lowest with

1.44. To illustrate, no student chose strongly

agree, agree or neutral. However, 11 (44 %)

participants chose disagree, and 14 (56 %)

participants chose strongly disagree which can be

contemplated as a sign of dissatisfaction among

participants. These figures showed that

disagree and strongly disagree options with a

1.56 mean score. To illustrate, no student chose

strongly agree, agree or neutral. However, 14 (56

figures unearthed that traditional teaching

methods did not receive any compliments from

the participants.

Once item 6 was analyzed in detail, it was

observed that participants were in favor of

researching online to have further information

rather than learning passively in a traditional

classroom atmosphere. In other words, 13 (52 %)

participants chose disagree, and 12 (48 %)

indicated that it was rather low with a 2.32 mean

score. To illustrate, no student chose strongly

agree or agree options. On the other hand, 13 (52

%) participants chose neutral; 7 (28 %)

participants chose disagree; 5 (20 %) participants

chose strongly disagree options. Considering the

gathered data, it can be argued that students

would rather have taken part in other activities.

Descriptive Data Analysis

Independent samples t test analysis was given in

Table 3.

Table 3.

difference between the two groups' mean scores,

which were 53.80 for the control group and 53.20

for the experimental group. No statistically

significant change was observed in the initial

phase. However, when the p-value was examined

in relation to post-test results, it was determined

to be .001, which was statistically significant.

significant. On the basis of post-test results, it can

be concluded that the experimental group

students' grades increased significantly more

than those of the control group. In other words,

the experimental group significantly

outperformed the control group in terms of

improvement.

www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307

Interview

categorize the participants' genuine opinions.

Common themes emphasized by each group

were described in detail below.

Selected Interviews in Experimental Group

Contributing to the Learning Process Actively

I enjoyed being a member of experimental group

in this study. The overall process was a mind-

point to be considered was that we contributed to

the learning process actively, so we were

encouraged to read further in the previous days.

Once the focus shifted from teacher to student, I

noticed that my introvert friends started speaking

gradually. In the final phase, we took the quiz to

pinpoint whether we learned well or not which

was another plus for me. I researched,

contributed, checked my learning during this

study. I wish I had joined such a great study

Taking grammar lessons used to be so boring for

me. We used to learn by following grammar

drills which were not engaging for me. In

addition, our only source was the teacher and the

textbook. However, we were exposed to different

learning and teaching materials to improve our

grammatical competence in this study. We

watched some videos, joined some free grammar

lessons from different teachers, took online

Positive Effects of Epistemic Curiosity to

I had no idea about EC previously. However, I

had some information about learning by

discovery. This study helped me to express my

ideas confidently because we did thorough

research about the topics to be covered in the

following day. When we researched in advance,

we took notes and revised our sentences earlier.

Thus, this preparation period was a fruitful

period for us. In addition, we expanded our

vocabulary knowledge substantially while

Making prior research and increasing the

duration of pronunciation activities gradually

increased the quality of education and boosted

our performance tremendously. (Student 16)

Strengthening Relationship with Friends

through Collaboration

I had cemented good relationships with my

friends in this study. My instructor assigned

each other fill the gap and eliminate their

weaknesses in English. Subsequently, we

improved our computer literacy skills while

creating presentations. Additionally, our public

speaking skills developed dramatically. All in all,

this study increased our productivity to a large

extent. (Student 16)

Stimulating Critical Thinking Skills via

Thorough Research