THE EFFECT OF EMPOWERING IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS ON THEIR GRAMMAR KNOWLEDGE: THE CASE OF PRESENT CONTINUOUS AND POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE

In 1980s, empowerment emerged through the influence of student-centeredness of educational method. The present study aimed at investigating the effect of empowering Iranian English as foreign language (EFL) learners on their English grammar knowledge. The participants of the study were 34 Iranian EFL learners at elementary level selected from Nosrat Foreign Language Institute in Kermanshah, Iran, 2013. In order to achieve this aim, subjects were divided into two homogeneous groups, including experimental group and control group. The control group followed traditional methods of teaching grammar, while experimental group was taught based on eclectic methods of participatory teaching like Collaborative Learning and Task-Based Instruction. In contrast to control group, experimental group took active and responsible role in the classroom. The design of this study was pretest-treatment-posttest. The result of pretests showed no significant difference between the control and the experimental groups, while the result of posttest and t test, showed significant difference between groups. The findings of the study showed that (a) empowering learners improved grammar competence, and (b) empowering students put them at the center of pedagogical environment.