English language learning
Mohammad Khatib; Abdulbaset Saeedian
Abstract
Two of the central concepts in teaching skills are decision making and pedagogical reasoning. Taking benefit from the dearth of studies on teachers’ actual or real-world decisions, this study aimed to respond to this invitation by keeping track of novice Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) ...
Read More
Two of the central concepts in teaching skills are decision making and pedagogical reasoning. Taking benefit from the dearth of studies on teachers’ actual or real-world decisions, this study aimed to respond to this invitation by keeping track of novice Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ decisions in two different times using six research-oriented teaching scenarios reflecting the student and personal features. Furthermore, their pedagogical reasoning was also attended to once through their responses to imaginary teaching scenarios and once through their actual classroom decisions. The participants comprised of ten novice Iranian EFL (six female and four male) teachers with an age range of 19 to 25 and a male experienced teacher, aged 30, who acted as a researcher-as-participant and was only accountable for the novices’ real-world reasoning. The data were collected through utilizing a total of six teaching scenarios, classroom observation, and video stimulated recalls. The findings, obtained through conversation analysis and pertinent vignettes and excerpts, revealed that the participants underwent a change in their decisions in two of the three scenarios reflecting the student features, while an approximate conformity could be observed in all scenarios mirroring personal features. It was revealed that whenever the teachers’ reasoning changed, their decisions underwent some changes as well. In addition, the findings showed that the flow of conversation in the classroom could be strongly influenced by the teachers’ decisions. A number of implications and recommendations for further research are also pinpointed.
Vahid Hassani; Mohammad Khatib; Massood Yazdani Moghaddam
Volume 11, Issue 23 , June 2019, , Pages 127-156
Abstract
This paper deals with the contributions of a language teacher education model by Kumaravadivelu (2012) known as KARDS (knowing, analyzing, recognizing, doing, and seeing) to Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) university teachers’ professional identity reconstruction. The researchers used ...
Read More
This paper deals with the contributions of a language teacher education model by Kumaravadivelu (2012) known as KARDS (knowing, analyzing, recognizing, doing, and seeing) to Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) university teachers’ professional identity reconstruction. The researchers used purposive sampling to select participants. A KARDS questionnaire designed, constructed, and validated by the researchers was used to group twenty teachers into a more KARDS-oriented group and a less-KARDS oriented group. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that the questionnaire was both reliable and valid. Pre-course interview, post-course interview, teacher educator’s and teachers’ reflective journals, and class discussions were used to collect data. After the pre-course interview, there was a treatment during which teachers were familiarized with KARDS. Then, Grounded Theory was used to analyze the data. Findings indicated that there were two big shifts from “uncertainty of practice to certainty of practice” and “the use of fewer macro-strategies to the use of more macro-strategies” in teachers’ professional identities in both groups. The changes were similar and/or the same in nature but not in quantity, and they should be emphasized and included in teacher education programs. The findings may drive teacher education programs, teacher educators, and teachers to welcome and embrace uncertainty and confusion in classrooms. Suggestions to reduce “uncertainty of practice” by teacher education programs and teacher educators are presented in this paper.
Arezoo Ashoori Tootkaboni; Mohammad Khatib
Volume 9, Issue 20 , November 2017, , Pages 109-134
Abstract
Although Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been widely advocated by a considerable number of applied linguists and English language teachers, its implementation in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts has encountered a number of difficulties. Reviewing the literature suggests that one ...
Read More
Although Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been widely advocated by a considerable number of applied linguists and English language teachers, its implementation in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts has encountered a number of difficulties. Reviewing the literature suggests that one of the reasons for unsuccessful implementation of CLT may be neglect of learners' beliefs in the process of learning. Using a Likert-type scale, the current study was undertaken to explore 242 Iranian EFL learners' beliefs towards six core tenets of the CLT approach: namely, the importance of grammar; the use of group work and pair work; the role and contribution of the learners; the role of the teachers in the classroom; the quality and quantity of error correction and assessment; and the role of the learners' native language in EFL classes. Analysis of the data revealed that although in some cases learners had viewpoints that opposed CLT principles, a considerable percentage of the respondents appreciated and had a high perception of CLT principles, indicating a welcoming atmosphere toward the implementation of CLT in Iran.
Mohammad Khatib; Mostafa Mirzaii
Volume 8, Issue 17 , July 2016, , Pages 49-73
Abstract
English language practitioners have long relied on intuition-based scales for rating EFL/ESL writing. As these scales lack an empirical basis, the scores they generate tend to be unreliable, which results in invalid interpretations. Given the significance of the genre of description and the fact that ...
Read More
English language practitioners have long relied on intuition-based scales for rating EFL/ESL writing. As these scales lack an empirical basis, the scores they generate tend to be unreliable, which results in invalid interpretations. Given the significance of the genre of description and the fact that the relevant literature does not introduce any data-based analytic scales for rating EFL descriptive writing, the researcher conducted a three-strand mixed study aimed at the empirical development of an analytic rating scale for scoring descriptions written by EFL learners. Composed of one quantitative and two qualitative strands, this mixed study factor-analyzed 172 ELT experts' analyses of the genre of description, and it content-analyzed 20 authentic and 30 inauthentic descriptive texts. Resulting from two meta-inferences made in the course of this study, the Analytic Rating Scale for EFL Descriptive Writing was constructed. Hopefully, employing this scale will lead to more reliable scores and more valid interpretations and decisions.
Mohammad Khatib; Khadijeh Lotfi
Volume 7, Issue 15 , May 2015, , Pages 43-67
Abstract
Although studies on pragmatics in general and politeness in particular abound in the literature, impoliteness has been largely ignored. In the present study, participants filled out either the Persian or English version of a discourse completion test (DCT). The researchers analyzed collected answers ...
Read More
Although studies on pragmatics in general and politeness in particular abound in the literature, impoliteness has been largely ignored. In the present study, participants filled out either the Persian or English version of a discourse completion test (DCT). The researchers analyzed collected answers to discover the relationship between impoliteness and power. Furthermore, the researchers compared responses to the Persian version with responses to the English version to see if they diverge regarding the relationship between impoliteness and power. According to the number of impoliteness strategies used, the results show that though there is a positive relationship between impoliteness and power in Persian, there is no relationship in English responses. In comparing the mentioned relationship in two languages, there is a significant difference between them. This led to the conclusion that the learners did not realize the relationship between impoliteness and power in English, whereas in answering the Persian DCT their answers showed the recognition of that relationship.
