eng
University of Tabriz
Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning
2251-7995
2676-6876
2016-06-21
8
17
1
24
4958
مقاله پژوهشی
The Influence of Collaboration on Individual Writing Quality: The Case of Iranian vs. Malaysian College Students
Parviz Ajideh
parvizaj@gmail.com
1
Gerhard Leitner
2
Seyed Yasin Yazdi-Amirkhiz
nasser_yazdi@yahoo.com
3
Professor of TEFL, Tabriz University
Professor, Free University, Berlin, Germany
Research Fellow, University of Malaya (UM), Malaysia
This study purported to comparatively investigate the influence of collaborative writing on the quality of individual writing of four female Iranian and four female Malaysian students. The first semester students at a private university in Malaysia, who were comparable in terms of age, gender, study discipline, and language proficiency, were divided into two Iranian and two Malaysian dyads. The dyads performed collaborative writing tasks for 15 sessions; after three consecutive collaborative writing sessions, each participant was asked to individually attempt a writing task. Both collaborative and individual writing tasks comprised isomorphic graphic prompts (IELTS Academic Module task 1). Writing quality of the five individually-produced texts during the study was rated in terms of task achievement (TA), cohesion/coherence (C/C), grammatical range/accuracy (GR/A), and lexical resources (LR). The findings indicated a hierarchy of development in TA and C/C among all the students, while LR showed minor improvement only among three of Malaysian students, and GR/A barely exhibited any progress among everyone. Intermittent progressions and regressions were also discerned in the trajectory of their writing development. The findings are discussed in the light of the socio-cultural and emergentist perspectives, the typology of tasks used as well as the role of the participants’ level of language proficiency.
https://elt.tabrizu.ac.ir/article_4958_2d1abea04fc764847e84f5e86b902382.pdf
Collaborative writing
Writing quality
Individual writing
eng
University of Tabriz
Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning
2251-7995
2676-6876
2016-06-21
8
17
25
48
4959
مقاله پژوهشی
The Influence of Affective Variables on the Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency in L2 Oral Production: The Contribution of Task Repetition
Mohammad Amiryousefi
m.amiryousefi@yahoo.com
1
Assistant Professor of TEFL, University of Isfahan
The main purpose of the study reported in this paper was to examine the interrelationships between L2 risk-taking, English learning motivation, L2 speaking anxiety, linguistic confidence, and low-proficiency English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ speaking complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). A secondary purpose was to test whether task repetition can influence the level of the mentioned affective variables as well as to study its effects on the development of CAF in L2 oral production. To this end, a questionnaire designed to measure the affective variables was given to 142 Iranian female pre-intermediate EFL learners. Then, they were randomly assigned to one of two groups: task repetition or control. The participants in the task repetition group were required to do an interactive story telling task on five occasions, each one week apart. Meanwhile, the participants in the control group were required to perform the task only on occasions one and five at an interval of three weeks. The questionnaire was given to them at the end of the study too. The findings suggest that: (1) learner variables influence the development of L2 proficiency components (CAF) and (2) task repetition can help EFL learners work on their language problems in a familiar setting and hence help them develop their interlanguage.
https://elt.tabrizu.ac.ir/article_4959_1f1e153ea1490e86e5815e8714ee17f5.pdf
affective variables
task repetition
complexity
accuracy
fluency
eng
University of Tabriz
Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning
2251-7995
2676-6876
2016-06-21
8
17
49
73
4960
مقاله پژوهشی
Developing an Analytic Scale for Scoring EFL Descriptive Writing
Mohammad Khatib
mkhatib27@yahoo.com
1
Mostafa Mirzaii
mustafa.mirzaei@yahoo.com
2
Associate Professor of TEFL, Allameh Tabataba'i University
PhD Candidate of TEFL, Allameh Tabataba'i University
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.
https://elt.tabrizu.ac.ir/article_4960_60a34127ab8ce74fd8808599ef7864a3.pdf
EFL descriptive writing
analytic rating scale
empirical development
mixed methods research
Factor analysis
Content Analysis
eng
University of Tabriz
Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning
2251-7995
2676-6876
2016-06-21
8
17
75
92
4961
مقاله پژوهشی
A Shift into Autonomous Education
Shirin Sadaghian
shirin_sadaghian@yahoo.com
1
Susan Marandi
susanmarandi@yahoo.com
2
PhD Candidate of TEFL, Alzahra University
Associate Professor of TEFL, Alzahra University
Fostering autonomous learning has become one of the key concerns of course designers and curriculum planners in the last 20 years which has been validated on both ideological and psychological grounds. However, estimating learners’ readiness to accept autonomous education is an important step prior to moving toward autonomous education. Thus, the current research investigated the patterns of autonomous behavior among Iranian EFL learners before the implementation of principles of autonomous education in language classroom. Students' responses to autonomy questionnaire went through a factor analysis process which revealed the existence of three factors underlying participants' autonomous learning behaviors. The paper discusses each factor in turn and concludes by reiterating the importance of implementing the underlying factors in designing courses that aim at fostering learner autonomy.
https://elt.tabrizu.ac.ir/article_4961_d6d88774bfbc2866cf2b97f58c8e2038.pdf
Learner autonomy
autonomous education
English Language teaching
autonomy questionnaire
eng
University of Tabriz
Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning
2251-7995
2676-6876
2016-06-21
8
17
93
114
4962
مقاله پژوهشی
Investigating the Predominant Levels of Learning Objectives in General English Books
sahar alavi
sahar_alavi87@yahoo.com
1
Rahman Sahragard
rahman.sahragard@gmail.com
2
PhD Candidate of TEFL, Shiraz University
Associate professor of TEFL, Shiraz University
This study investigated nine General English books (five produced by non-native Iranian speakers and four produced by native speakers) in terms of learning objectives in Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy (2001). The aim was to find out which levels of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy are dominant in the books. So, the contents of the books were codified based on a coding scheme designed by Razmjoo and Kazempurfard (2012). The inter-coder and intra-coder reliability of the coding were estimated through SPSS software resulting in 96.5 and 97.3 respectively, which are very high. The data were analyzed and the frequencies and percentages of occurrence of different learning objectives were calculated. The results of the study revealed that in books produced by non-native speakers, A1 (Remembering Factual Knowledge) is the dominant learning objective level used, and in books produced by native speakers, both A1 (Remembering Factual Knowledge) and B1 (Understanding Factual Knowledge) are the dominant levels. Furthermore, lower order thinking skills (the three low levels in Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy) are the most prevalent learning levels in books produced by both non-native Iranian speakers and native speakers. However, the percentages of occurrence of higher order thinking skills in books produced by native speakers are higher than those in books produced by non-native Iranian speakers.
https://elt.tabrizu.ac.ir/article_4962_bc6ef731b0c3f9f8ef619a4381b2b186.pdf
General English books
non-native Iranian speakers
native speakers
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy
eng
University of Tabriz
Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning
2251-7995
2676-6876
2016-06-21
8
17
115
146
4963
مقاله پژوهشی
The Impact of MA TEFL Curriculum on Student Teachers’ Self-Efficacy
Elaheh Sotoudehnama
esotoude@alzahra.ac.ir
1
Maryam Fakhari
maryf_1363@yahoo.com
2
Associate Professor of TEFL, Alzahra University
M.A. Graduate in TEFL, Alzahra University
The importance of professional development programs in enhancing teacher self-efficacy has attracted the attention of researchers in the realm of teacher education for two decades. However, the role of university programs and their curriculum in developing teachers’ self-efficacy has not been given adequate attention, specifically in educating EFL teachers. This study investigated the impact of MA TEFL curriculum on student teachers’ self-efficacy. To control the influence of experience, the self-efficacy of experienced students in teaching and novice ones was examined as well. To this end, 277 MA TEFL students from the seven major state universities of Tehran participated in this project. The results indicated that MA TEFL courses did not significantly affect teacher self-efficacy of MA TEFL students. However, a significant difference was found between novice teachers and experienced ones in terms of their self-efficacy and its subcomponents. Also, the findings of the semi-structured interviews revealed unlike the novice ones who were more interested in practicum, the experienced ones were in favor of both theoretical and practical courses. Despite this difference, some similarities were found, specifically in efficacy for classroom management and instructional strategies.
https://elt.tabrizu.ac.ir/article_4963_cd1d37252554fb8bd9b29101d04d5e87.pdf
teacher self-efficacy
teacher professional development programs
teacher experience
MA TEFL Curriculum
eng
University of Tabriz
Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning
2251-7995
2676-6876
2016-06-21
8
17
147
177
4964
مقاله پژوهشی
The Application of Curriculum Components for Course Evaluation
Mohammad Zohrabi
elt@tabrizu.ac.ir
1
Assistant Professor of TEFL, University of Tabriz
Generally, program evaluation is of prime importance to check the workability of a course. In this way, it can be made sure that the course achieves its intended goals and objectives, and consequently fulfills the learners’ needs, wants, and aspirations. Therefore, an attempt was made to evaluate the instructional functioning of the Simple Prose and Newspaper Articles course which is offered to the undergraduate English majors at the university of Tabriz, Iran and is taught by the researcher/instructor himself. To this end, Brown’s (1995) model of program evaluation was opted for. Based on local needs and objectives, this model was modified and extended to seven curriculum components: objectives, attitudes, needs analysis, time, classroom activities, materials, and assessment. In order to gather quantitative and qualitative data, a mixed methods design was employed. The quantitative data were obtained through a questionnaire which comprised 35 items based on the aforementioned curriculum components, i.e. five items for each component. Also, the qualitative data were collected through a semi-structured interview. The participants consisted of 36 undergraduate English majors, i.e. 12 male, 24 female. The results of the study indicate that this course is quite useful for the students to develop their linguistic, cultural, and social knowledge. However, it needs to be modified in order to be more fruitful. One of the main implications of this study might be that the seven curriculum components proposed by the researcher could be employed for the evaluation of any course of study. Another implication might be that these seven curriculum components could be utilized by syllabus designers or curriculum developers for the development of any syllabus.
https://elt.tabrizu.ac.ir/article_4964_725021051cdd5c6d1d068bb491e55ecd.pdf
course
evaluation
syllabus
curriculum