English language teaching
Zahra Cheraghi; Hengameh Omranpour
Abstract
Giving consideration to the importance and on-going challenge of vocabulary learning, there is an increasing demand for seeking out new approaches that correspond well with the needs of digital natives. With the rapid advance of technology, deploying innovative approaches such as gamified and flipped ...
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Giving consideration to the importance and on-going challenge of vocabulary learning, there is an increasing demand for seeking out new approaches that correspond well with the needs of digital natives. With the rapid advance of technology, deploying innovative approaches such as gamified and flipped mobile- assisted language learning is gaining worldwide popularity. The current study was an attempt to scrutinize the effectiveness of integrating gamification with flipped approach on EFL learners' receptive vocabulary learning. With the aim of carrying out this research, 68 EFL high school students were randomly allocated into an experimental and control group. The required data were gathered by means of pre- and post- tests. Moreover, the obtained data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics including two paired, and one independent samples t-tests. Quantitative findings revealed that the experimental group participants outperformed their non-gamified coequals. Additionally, as post-test scores showed tremendous improvement, it was found that both aforesaid approaches were devastatingly effective in enhancing EFL learners' vocabulary development. The results of this study can be useful for EFL instructors and teachers for giving them insights on how to employ flipped approach for teaching receptive vocabulary.
English language learning
Parviz Ajideh; Lynn Batler-Kisber; Ali Akbar Ansarin; sorayya Mozaffarzadeh
Abstract
Transitioning smoothly from traditional learning of language to independent learning and consequently, moving from teacher-assessment to self-assessment faces teachers with a dilemma of deciding on learners’ final improvement. To assist to eliminate this dilemma and to compare learners’ self-assessment ...
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Transitioning smoothly from traditional learning of language to independent learning and consequently, moving from teacher-assessment to self-assessment faces teachers with a dilemma of deciding on learners’ final improvement. To assist to eliminate this dilemma and to compare learners’ self-assessment of reading comprehension skills with those of teacher assessment, the present study was set out. To this end, 190 B.S. Iranian engineering students were selected based on intact classes. The participants’ proficiency was determined by the Oxford Quick Placement Test. Prior to the instruction, the participants’ ability to use two reading skills, i.e. scanning and skimming was assessed by their instructor and by themselves through using a Likert Scale questionnaire. After instructing each skill, the participants received post-tests, both self-assessment and teacher assessment. Following the post-self-assessment, the participants answered an open-ended questionnaire to reflect on their assessment. To analyze the data and understand the differences and correlations between the two types of assessments, SPSS was performed. Intriguingly, the results from self- and teacher-assessment were pro-self-assessment. Besides, the outcomes of the open-ended questionnaire indicated that it is time to trust learners and allow them to assess their own learning and decide on their learning process.
Nasrin Shams; azizollah Dabaghi
Volume 6, Issue 14 , December 2014, , Pages 37-56
Abstract
This study explores the effect of online annotations via Interactive White Boards (IWBs) on reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. To this aim, 60 students from a language institute were selected as homogeneous based on their performance on Oxford Placement Test (2014).Then, they were randomly ...
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This study explores the effect of online annotations via Interactive White Boards (IWBs) on reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. To this aim, 60 students from a language institute were selected as homogeneous based on their performance on Oxford Placement Test (2014).Then, they were randomly assigned to 3 experimental groups of 20, and subsequently exposed to the research treatment after taking a pre-test of reading comprehension. The experimental groups received the L2 texts on IWB screen for comprehension and, at the same time, received the online annotations (auditory, pictorial, and video) attached to the target words. During the session of instruction, the participants read the texts through IWB for comprehension while consulting the annotations attached to the target words. Then, they were tested on their reading comprehension through an immediate post-test in order to measure the effect of instruction on reading comprehension immediately. The results of one-way ANOVA analysis of the data indicated that pictorial annotation group comprehended the L2 texts significantly better than the auditory annotation group. The results also revealed that video annotation group significantly outperformed the other two groups in L2 reading comprehension, confirming the Dual-coding Theory (Paivio, 1971, 1990). The findings of this study may have important implications for foreign language syllabus designers and instructors as well.
English language learning
Farzaneh Arjmand; Mohammad Bagher Shabani; Reza Khani; Abbas Ali Zarei
Abstract
This study represents the findings of a systematic review (SR) of literature in the teacher professional development (TPD) domain to outline the research patterns through content examination of 199 research articles (RAs) in the area of TPD over the previous 40 years (1982 -2021). RAs were investigated ...
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This study represents the findings of a systematic review (SR) of literature in the teacher professional development (TPD) domain to outline the research patterns through content examination of 199 research articles (RAs) in the area of TPD over the previous 40 years (1982 -2021). RAs were investigated and their research content areas, utilized research methods, data collection procedures, and findings were analyzed and coded. The broad investigation of the RAs showed a wide variety of themes that corresponded to 22 research areas. TPD program effects, TPD & technology, and TPD & Sociolinguistics were the most searched content areas. It was also found that the qualitative method with 52.26% of occurrences appeared to be the dominant research method used in RAs. Exploring data collection procedures, it was uncovered that interview, questionnaire and observation were the main data collection strategies utilized within the TPD RAs. Analyzing the findings, changes in teacher practices, attitudes and knowledge, learner achievements, and determining priorities for TPD programs were the most reported findings in TPD RAs. This corpus-driven SR underpins the notion that TPD makes a difference in altering teachers’ practices and attitudes and improves learner abilities if specific characteristics are taken into account in the planning and administration of TPD programs.
English language learning
Parviz Ajideh; Massoud Yaghoubi-Notash; Hamid Reza Babaee Bormanaki
Abstract
This paper reports on an investigation of native language-based differential item functioning (DIF) across the subtests of Iranian Undergraduate University Entrance Special English Exam (IUUESEE). Fourteen thousand one hundred seventy two foreign-language test takers (including four groups of Azeri, ...
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This paper reports on an investigation of native language-based differential item functioning (DIF) across the subtests of Iranian Undergraduate University Entrance Special English Exam (IUUESEE). Fourteen thousand one hundred seventy two foreign-language test takers (including four groups of Azeri, Persian, Kurdish, and Luri test takers) were chosen for the study. Uniform DIF (UDIF) and Non-uniform DIF (NUDIF) analyses were conducted on data from the four versions of IUUESEE. After establishing the unidimensionality and local independence of the data, DIF findings showed that Luri test takers were more advantaged than other native language groups across the subtests. NUDIF analysis uncovered that almost all subtests functioned in favor of low-ability test takers who haven’t been expected to outperform high-ability test takers. A probable explanation for native language-ability DIF was that Luri and low-ablity test takers were more likely to venture lucky guesses. Thoughtless errors and guessing, test-wiseness, overconfidence, stem length, unappealing distractors, and time were proposed as possible causes of DIF in IUUESEE. It was also found that the reading subtest included the large number of items with significant DIF.
English language teaching
Nafeeseh Aryaeian; Abbas-Ali Rezaee
Abstract
Objective: The present study sought to explore EFL teachers’ cognition of rapport establishment and maintenance, as one of the aspects of classroom management, in the context of Iran’s foreign language institutes’ face-to-face EFL classes.Method: The study involved 12 Iranian teachers ...
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Objective: The present study sought to explore EFL teachers’ cognition of rapport establishment and maintenance, as one of the aspects of classroom management, in the context of Iran’s foreign language institutes’ face-to-face EFL classes.Method: The study involved 12 Iranian teachers who taught adult learners. The sample size was determined based on reaching saturation, and the participating teachers were selected through purposeful sampling. The main instrument utilized in this qualitative study was a semi-structured one-to-one in-person interview, which aimed to elicit the participants’ cognition of rapport development. These individual interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed thematically.Results: The findings revealed that the participants believed in the importance of rapport creation for efficient classroom management. Besides, they recommended strategies for establishing rapport with learners, such as familiarization, verbal immediacy, non-verbal immediacy, attention to learners’ emotions, judicious L1 use, playing games, and utilizing social media. Moreover, they held that teachers’ personality traits and communication skills could impact their approach to building rapport.Conclusion: Altogether, the participants had a sound cognition of rapport maintenance as one of the aspects of classroom management. The findings of the current study provide implications for teacher educators, teachers, and institutes’ supervisors.
Mansoor Fahim; Fattaneh Abbasi Talabari
Volume 6, Issue 13 , September 2014, , Pages 43-56
Abstract
Sciences exist to demonstrate the fundamental order underlying nature. Chaos/complexity theory is a novel and amazing field of scientific inquiry. Notions of our everyday experiences are somehow in connection to the laws of nature through chaos/complexity theory’s concerns with the relationships ...
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Sciences exist to demonstrate the fundamental order underlying nature. Chaos/complexity theory is a novel and amazing field of scientific inquiry. Notions of our everyday experiences are somehow in connection to the laws of nature through chaos/complexity theory’s concerns with the relationships between simplicity and complexity, between orderliness and randomness (Retrieved from http://www.inclusional-research.org/comparisons4.php). It is interested in how disorder leads to order, of how complexity emerges in nature. There appears to be many striking and eye-catching similarities between the new science of chaos/complexity and education. An understanding of chaos/complexity theory seems almost crucial to our general understanding of education and teachers’ and students’ needs within educational systems. Chaos/complexity theory raises some very significant issues in an educational context, including responsibility, morality and planning; the significance of non-linear learning organizations; setting conditions for change by emergence and self-organization; the role of feedback in learning; changing external and internal environments (Morrison, 2006); it emphasizes on the fact that schools and learners as open, complex adaptive systems; cooperation and competition; pedagogy; and the significance of context (Larsen Freeman, 1997). This paper tries to provide an overview of this science and how it can inform education
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 ...
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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.
Azizollah Dabaghi; Adeleh Heidari; Hossein Barati
Volume 8, Issue 18 , December 2016, , Pages 43-63
Abstract
The present study aimed to examine and compare the impact of teaching economic terms through etymological elaboration with three more conventional methods of vocabulary instruction in ESP courses in Iran, that is, teaching through contextual definitions, L1 translation, and implicit instruction on the ...
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The present study aimed to examine and compare the impact of teaching economic terms through etymological elaboration with three more conventional methods of vocabulary instruction in ESP courses in Iran, that is, teaching through contextual definitions, L1 translation, and implicit instruction on the learners' general comprehension of economic texts and their understanding of author's opinion. As for general comprehension, the performance of students on the reading comprehension test was not affected by vocabulary instruction method in the four groups. In other words, it seemed that there was no causal relationship between the vocabulary instruction method and general reading comprehension. Regarding author's opinion, the results showed a superiority of etymological elaboration over contextual definition, translation, and implicit instruction.
English language learning
Fatemeh Hemmati; Maaryam Rohani Ravari; Afsar Rouhi
Abstract
Research to date has commonly suggested that meaning inferencing through concordance lines can facilitate vocabulary learning. This facilitative role, however, may be subject to mediation by the expanded contexts of the target vocabulary item in concordance and accurate meaning inferencing. Of these ...
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Research to date has commonly suggested that meaning inferencing through concordance lines can facilitate vocabulary learning. This facilitative role, however, may be subject to mediation by the expanded contexts of the target vocabulary item in concordance and accurate meaning inferencing. Of these plausible factors, the length of the co-text of vocabulary items in concordance context remains under researched. The present study investigated how inferencing in the context of three varying concordance lengths (i.e., two complete sentences, one complete sentence, and a truncated sentence) affect EFL learners' accurate inferencing and vocabulary gain. To this end, 66 upper intermediate learners were assigned randomly into three groups and were asked to infer the meaning of 63 unknown words over seven sessions (nine words each session). For each unknown word, three examples in three different lengths were selected. Results indicated that two complete sentence co-text led to more accurate inferencing and vocabulary gain. The pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed
English language learning
Rezvan Cheraqi; Rajab Esfandiari
Abstract
Language teachers should be aware of the effect of various task types on L2 writing. The purpose of the present study was twofold: To investigate the effect of various task types, including graphic-writing task, decision-making task, and reasoning task, on L2 writing and to examine the relationship between ...
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Language teachers should be aware of the effect of various task types on L2 writing. The purpose of the present study was twofold: To investigate the effect of various task types, including graphic-writing task, decision-making task, and reasoning task, on L2 writing and to examine the relationship between working memory and L2 writing ability under three task conditions. To that end, 55 upper-intermediate male and female language learners from Dorsa Institute and Zabankadeh Meli in Hashtgerd participated in this study. Oxford Placement Test (OPT) test was used to homogenize the participants and Reading Span Test to test the working memory. Participants wrote an argumentative writing before and after the treatment. SPSS (version 25) was utilized to analyze the data. Results of data analysis showed statistically significant differences between graphic-writing task and the other two tasks while no significant differences were found between decision-making and reasoning tasks. Finding of the study showed the positive relationship between L2 writing and working memory. Implications of the study for the language learners are discussed.
Morteza Nasiri; Mahmood Reza Atai
Volume 9, Issue 20 , November 2017, , Pages 49-74
Abstract
The current study aimed to examine the effects of strategic planning, online planning, strategic planning and online planning combined (joint planning), and no planning on the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of oral productions in two simple and complex narrative tasks. Eighty advanced EFL learners ...
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The current study aimed to examine the effects of strategic planning, online planning, strategic planning and online planning combined (joint planning), and no planning on the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of oral productions in two simple and complex narrative tasks. Eighty advanced EFL learners performed one simple narrative task and a complex narrative task with 20 minutes in between. The order of the two stories was counterbalanced to control for any possible practice effect. The results suggest that no planning in both tasks was the least effective. Strategic planning led the learners to elevate both their complexity and fluency significantly in the narrative simple task and only their fluency in the complex task. Online planning helped the participants improve their accuracy significantly both in the simple and complex tasks. Finally, joint planning resulted in the significant elevation of accuracy and fluency in the simple task on the one hand, and complexity and accuracy in the complex task on the other. With respect to the effect of task complexity, the interaction between task complexity and CAF was significant. The results and comparisons between groups are discussed in the light of Levelt’s model of speaking, Skehan’s Trade-off Hypothesis, and earlier studies.
Reza Khani; Mostafa Saeedi
Volume 9, Issue 19 , June 2017, , Pages 53-72
Abstract
Nagy (1988) states that vocabulary is a prerequisite factor in comprehension. This study aimed at creatingan English Word List for Academic Purposes (EWLAP).The corpus of this study was compiled from a corpus containing 6479 pages of texts, 2,081,678 million tokens ( running words) and 63825 types (individual ...
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Nagy (1988) states that vocabulary is a prerequisite factor in comprehension. This study aimed at creatingan English Word List for Academic Purposes (EWLAP).The corpus of this study was compiled from a corpus containing 6479 pages of texts, 2,081,678 million tokens ( running words) and 63825 types (individual words), and 2615 word familiesfrom online resources. The created EWLAP included636word families, which accounted for 12%of the tokens in the EWLAPunder study.The high word frequency and the wide text coverage of this word list confirm that this word list plays an important role in English for Academic Purpose texts. From these findings, it can beconcluded that the EWLAP created in this study can serve as a guide for material and syllabus designers especially in designing course-books, in addition learning these words by learners can help them in better understanding of their texts, and development in their writing and reading.
English language teaching
Reza Bagheri Nevisi; Jalal Khademian; Seyed Mohammad Reza Amirian
Abstract
Recently, co-teaching has been employed as an instructional technique to accelerate and facilitate second or foreign language learning process. This study was set up to investigate the effectiveness of co-teaching on EFL students' writing ability and also to probe into their attitudes towards co-teaching. ...
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Recently, co-teaching has been employed as an instructional technique to accelerate and facilitate second or foreign language learning process. This study was set up to investigate the effectiveness of co-teaching on EFL students' writing ability and also to probe into their attitudes towards co-teaching. Two male Iranian EFL teachers with the same language experience and academic degree represented the writing co-teachers. Furthermore, two available classes of 20 students were utilized. Oxford Placement Test was first used to ensure the homogeneity of the participants in terms of language proficiency. Second, a writing pretest was run to assess the participants’ writing ability prior to the implantation of co-teaching. Third, the experimental group went through an eight-week instructional period with the two writing instructors while the control group was taught with a single teacher. Fourth, a writing posttest was administered to see how different the two groups were regarding their written performances. Finally, a semi-structured interview was also conducted to delve into the students’ overall attitudes towards the effectiveness of co-teaching. Regarding the qualitative phase, the researchers conducted the interviews and then transcribed them. Independent samples t-test results indicated that the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in the control group with regard to their written performances and participants in the experimental group held positive attitudes toward co-teaching. It behooves the stakeholders to delve into the potential pluses and minuses of co-instruction and determine how effective it can be for their intended audience under various pedagogic settings.
Farahman Farrokhi; Sepideh Ghandkaran-Shotorban
Volume 6, Issue 13 , September 2014, , Pages 57-70
Abstract
Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) has stood the test of time as a model of text analysis. The present literature contains a plethora of studies that while taking the 'clause' as a unit of analysis have put into investigation the metafunctions in research articles of a single field of study ...
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Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) has stood the test of time as a model of text analysis. The present literature contains a plethora of studies that while taking the 'clause' as a unit of analysis have put into investigation the metafunctions in research articles of a single field of study or those of various fields in comparison. Although 'clause complex' is another unit of SF analysis, by far there has been only one study on research articles where it was the unit of analysis (Sellami Baklouti, 2011). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to put into analysis the 'taxis', 'expansion' and 'projection' deployed in Applied Linguistics research article abstracts (RAAs) by native (N) and non-native (NN) writers. To this end, 20 Applied Linguistics RAAs (10 by N English writers and 10 by NN English writers on the sub-fields of Discourse Analysis and Language Assessment) were analyzed according to Halliday & Matthiessen's (2013) 'clause complex' framework. The results indicated that there is a significant difference in the use of 'projection' by Ns and NNs, while the distribution of 'taxis' and 'expansion' is the same. The findings also showed what types of 'taxis', 'expansion' and 'projection' were deployed by Ns and NNs.
Rozana Shamsabadi; Saeed Ketabi
Volume 6, Issue 14 , December 2014, , Pages 57-74
Abstract
The development of materials for language teaching has been retraced from different perspectives. For example, some have identified influences of a social view on designing course books and compiling materials for language classes. The purpose of this article is to focus on the specific case of ELT material, ...
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The development of materials for language teaching has been retraced from different perspectives. For example, some have identified influences of a social view on designing course books and compiling materials for language classes. The purpose of this article is to focus on the specific case of ELT material, its design and priorities in the context of Iran. This article also offers a detailed analysis of the contemporary condition of Iranian context and the consequences of materials colonization in English language teaching courses.In addressing the question of “How McDonaldization is attributed to language teaching”, it is attempted to broaden the understanding of the condition of English teaching classrooms in different private language institutes and universities of Iran and show how the framework of standardization of materials is regarded as the main concern of the present educators of Iran’s context of English language teaching. Finally, the idea that uniformity of materials is an integral part of our classes is presented. Reviewing some scholars’ ideas about standardization of materials in our EFL context, the way teachers are pictured with their roles as experimenters rather than the mere designers of the detailed instructions is also highlighted. Meanwhile, increasing the amount and quality of teacher development programs and not disregarding the role of teachers would be practically useful recommendations for those involved in the process of EFL teaching in Iran.
English language learning
Zahra Bavandi-Savadkouhi; Mahnaz Mostafaei-Alaei
Abstract
Pragmatic failure is an issue usually occurring in cross-cultural communication when L2 learners cannot express themselves appropriately. This study aimed to discern the factors leading to cross-cultural pragmatic failure (CCPF) and the challenges EFL learners face in trying to overcome miscommunication ...
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Pragmatic failure is an issue usually occurring in cross-cultural communication when L2 learners cannot express themselves appropriately. This study aimed to discern the factors leading to cross-cultural pragmatic failure (CCPF) and the challenges EFL learners face in trying to overcome miscommunication problems. Following a qualitative research design, in the first study phase, one of the researchers observed 10 EFL teachers’ classes for 90 minutes each, twice a week during the term to take the required field notes for further analysis. To obtain more in-depth information, in the second phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 EFL teachers and learners, and the data were collected. The EFL teachers were from private English language institutes, and the student participants were EFL learners studying either in state-run universities or private language centers. The results of the thematic analysis revealed that EFL classroom context, time and budget, assessing pragmatic knowledge, ELT textbook, and teacher education were perceived as the causes of CCPF by the interviewees. Moreover, the extracted themes associated with learners’ challenges included linguistic incompetency, investing insufficient time and effort, psychological factors, cultural and sociocultural differences, inappropriate teaching methodology, and teachers’ pragmatic competence.
English language learning
Masood Dehghan; Habib Soleimani
Abstract
The present study aims at investigating English lexicon polysemy within the cognitive approach to study the way based on which Persian language learners learn English lexicon with the concepts used in cognitive linguistics such as, prototype, polysemy, categorization, etc. The nature of the methodology ...
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The present study aims at investigating English lexicon polysemy within the cognitive approach to study the way based on which Persian language learners learn English lexicon with the concepts used in cognitive linguistics such as, prototype, polysemy, categorization, etc. The nature of the methodology used in this qualitative research for studying the meanings of English lexicon is a descriptive-analytic method. After the semantic analysis of the English lexicon based on the model of Dirven & Verspoor (2004), it was found that the meanings of the lexicon are classifiable based on theoretical procedures on cognitive semantics. The authors are trying to show the cognitive concepts in cognitive linguistics can be used for teaching English lexicon. The findings, generally, showed that the unconscious knowledge of learners in learning the cognitive structure of the meanings of the lexicon has a meaningful relationship with learning. The results also revealed that the lexicon has a semantic network semantically, in which the notion of core or prototype is located in the center of the semantic network and the rest of the meanings can be examined as the peripheral meanings of a lexicon.
English language learning
Mohadeseh Asghari; Minoo Alemi; Zia Tajeddin
Abstract
Teachers' decision-making and pedagogical reasoning and their improvement are key to the effectiveness of teaching. Although a number of studies have been conducted on these issues, there is still not enough information about teachers' interactive decision-making and pedagogical reasoning, and teachers ...
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Teachers' decision-making and pedagogical reasoning and their improvement are key to the effectiveness of teaching. Although a number of studies have been conducted on these issues, there is still not enough information about teachers' interactive decision-making and pedagogical reasoning, and teachers also do not have the necessary skills in this area. To address this gap, the current multiple case study investigated four novice EFL teachers' decision-making and their underlying pedagogical reasoning in implementing instruction. The result of the constant comparative and categorical content analysis on the ten-session classroom observations and the transcribed stimulated recall interviews indicated common themes, including teachers' overusing of learners' L1, excessively using the deductive approach to teaching, failing to incorporate technology but using available resources in class during instruction, using whole-class or individual instructional techniques, and rarely emphasizing on learners' knowledge of the world. The targeted teachers made such decisions to perform their predetermined responsibilities, transfer the correct information, motivate learners, manage time, and help learners toward their language achievement. This study has implications for teachers to reflect on their instructional decisions and pedagogical reasoning, and for managers to provide them with opportunities for reflection.
English language teaching
Manoochehr Jafarigohar; Fatemeh Zununi Vahed; Abdullah Sarani; Ali Hadavizadeh; Hoda Divsar
Abstract
Scaffolding entails contingency, denoting teachers’ level adaptation in providing transient support. In this study, a symbiosis of the model of contingent teaching (MCT) and the contingent shift framework (CSF) was utilized. Therefore, 360 elementary and advanced EFL learners took a course and ...
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Scaffolding entails contingency, denoting teachers’ level adaptation in providing transient support. In this study, a symbiosis of the model of contingent teaching (MCT) and the contingent shift framework (CSF) was utilized. Therefore, 360 elementary and advanced EFL learners took a course and filled out two sets of related questionnaires twice, administered at the outset and the end of the course. The transcribed data including the class interactions and intervention strategies were organized into contingent or non-contingent fragments based on models’ criteria. According to the results of the Wilcoxon rank test and the Paired Sample t-test, there was a significant difference between the results of the pre and post-tests in the two mentioned levels for the two constructs. Furthermore, the results of the Single Sample t-test showed that the CSF was more utilized than the MCT in both levels. Moreover, the intervention strategies of the MCT significantly differed in the two levels. Questioning was a highly used strategy at both levels. Hints and modeling were the least utilized strategies in elementary and advanced levels, respectively. Therefore, such contingent symbiosis could have prolific results in self-regulation and gaining willingness to communicate
English language teaching
Masoomeh Estaji; Saeedeh Fassihi
Volume 8, Issue 18 , December 2016, , Pages 65-86
Abstract
This study sought to examine the relationship between the use of formative assessment strategies and the Iranian EFL teachers’ sense of self-efficacy. Moreover, this study investigated the relationships and interactions between the EFL teachers’ use of formative assessment strategies, their ...
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This study sought to examine the relationship between the use of formative assessment strategies and the Iranian EFL teachers’ sense of self-efficacy. Moreover, this study investigated the relationships and interactions between the EFL teachers’ use of formative assessment strategies, their gender, level of experience, and sense of self-efficacy. This is a descriptive ex post facto design study which employed a three-part questionnaire, including demographic information, teachers’ formative assessment strategies, and teachers’ sense of self-efficacy. In order to collect data, sixty-one EFL teachers, including thirty-one female and thirty male participants who were selected through convenience sampling, completed the questionnaire. Multiple statistical strategies were employed to analyze the research questions of the study. The findings of Pearson’s and Spearman Rho correlation indicated that the EFL teachers’ use of formative assessment strategies was positively correlated with their sense of self-efficacy. However, the results of eta correlation coefficients revealed that there was no statistically significant relationship between the teachers’ implementation of formative assessment strategies and two other variables of gender and level of experience. Finally, the results of a three way factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) evinced that there was no statistically significant interaction between the teachers’ use of formative assessment strategies, teachers’ sense of self-efficacy, their gender, and level of experience. Therefore, when the teachers become more aware of the ways to implement formative assessment strategies to inform instruction, their sense of self-efficacy can increase. This study has some implications in language testing, English pedagogy, and syllabus design and materials development.
English language teaching
Jalil Fathi; Milad Naderi
Abstract
Since teachers’ creative behavior or innovation-promoting inclination affects the quality of education, some recent studies have aimed to explore teachers’ willingness to practice teaching for creativity (TfC) in various education contexts. As an attempt to identify the correlates of TfC, ...
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Since teachers’ creative behavior or innovation-promoting inclination affects the quality of education, some recent studies have aimed to explore teachers’ willingness to practice teaching for creativity (TfC) in various education contexts. As an attempt to identify the correlates of TfC, the aim of this research was to test a model of model of TfC in EFL contexts based on teachers’ creative self-efficacy and their growth mindset. A number of 472 Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers partook in this survey as the participants. The electronic versions of the questionnaires for the three latent variables were administered to the participants. Structural equation modelling was utilized to test the suggested model of TfC in the EFL context. The results indicated that both teachers’ creative self-efficacy and their growth mindset substantially influenced EFL teachers’ TfC although the contribution of creative self-efficacy was greater than. Additionally, teachers’ growth mindset had a slight effect on their creative self-efficacy. These findings can offer remarkable implications for EFL teacher educators
Sima Modirkhamene
Volume 7, Issue 15 , May 2015, , Pages 69-91
Abstract
Teachers are the most important players of every educational system in different societies; accordingly, understanding their personal reflections may help us gain valuable insights into what it means to be a teacher in a specific cultural and social context. The purpose of this case study was to investigate ...
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Teachers are the most important players of every educational system in different societies; accordingly, understanding their personal reflections may help us gain valuable insights into what it means to be a teacher in a specific cultural and social context. The purpose of this case study was to investigate the life and career of 6 non-native English speaking teachers in state educational systems and private institutes in Iran so that a clear image of EFL teacher’s perceptions on their own language learning, teaching experiences, current conditions and expectations, and their possible attempts to innovate in their classrooms would be obtained. By conducting a series of repeated interviews and observations within the period of one year, the researcher collected the required data and examined them through the process of meaning categorization. The outcomes suggested that most teachers either in state or private schools were not satisfied with their current living status or working conditions. Moreover, they were struggling with lots of de-motivating factors in their career and life due to some external and internal policies imposed by authorities. It is discussed that by giving voice to EFL teachers in Iran, their real status would be revealed and, consequently, some improvements would be made towards their essential needs and expectations.
Manoochehr Jafarigohar; Amir Valadi
Volume 6, Issue 13 , September 2014, , Pages 71-88
Abstract
Teachers’ sense of efficacy belief has been introduced as a context-specific construct, but the related literature is not clear on this specificity. This study was an attempt to show how contextual factors influence efficacy beliefs among English language teachers. To this end, thirty Iranian EFL ...
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Teachers’ sense of efficacy belief has been introduced as a context-specific construct, but the related literature is not clear on this specificity. This study was an attempt to show how contextual factors influence efficacy beliefs among English language teachers. To this end, thirty Iranian EFL teachers working in both school and private institute contexts were chosen as the participants to respond to Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Beliefs questionnaire (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001) twice: once based on school context and once based on private institute context. Afterwards, the participants were invited to a brief interview designed to investigate further the reasons for which they had scored higher in either context. The interview findings and the results of a t-test revealed that context really made a difference. It is argued that the proper or improper functioning of efficacy building sources is the cause of the difference.
Mostafa Younesi; Ebrahim Khodadady
Volume 9, Issue 19 , June 2017, , Pages 73-90
Abstract
This study tries to find what factors underline the characteristics of acqusition of English language in EFL classrooms. The questionnaire addressing the Characteristics of English Language Acqusition Scale ( ELAS) and consisting of 41 closed questions was designed by the researchers of this study and ...
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This study tries to find what factors underline the characteristics of acqusition of English language in EFL classrooms. The questionnaire addressing the Characteristics of English Language Acqusition Scale ( ELAS) and consisting of 41 closed questions was designed by the researchers of this study and was administered to 388 pre University Iranian EFL students at various private and public schools in Neyshabour ,Zebarkhan, to test the number of extracted factors and their cross loading . The 41 characteristics loaded on twelve rotated factors when the Principle Axis Factoring was applied to the participants' responses i.e., Learning boosters, facilitation, determination, voluntary, teaching methodology, affective factors, attitudes toward foreign speakers and their culture, learner engagement, adjustment, enhancement, teachers'output and individual differences.
