منصور توکلی

The present study seeks to investigate the potentiality of the translation task as a testing method for measuring reading comprehension. To achieve this objective, two types of translation tests, open-ended and multiple-choice tests, and two types of reading comprehension tests, multiple-choice reading comprehension and open-ended cloze tests were developed in this study. The reliability of the tests was computed in order to estimate which translation test was more reliable and valid. Correlation coefficients were run in order to investigate whether translation tests worked as reliable and valid measures of reading comprehension, and to examine the relationship between proficiency in reading comprehension and proficiency in translation. The results indicate that the open-ended translation test is more reliable and valid than the multiple-choice one; translation has a high potentiality to work as a reliable and valid tool to assess reading comprehension; and there exists a high positive correlation between the participants’ proficiency in reading comprehension and their proficiency in translation. The findings of this study might have pedagogical implications for instructors. They may be justified to highlight the role of translation tests and benefit from them in their reading comprehension classes.

تحقیق حاضر تلاشی است در جهت بررسی نقشی که آشنایی با ژانر در عملکرد فراگیران زبان انگلیسی به ایفا می کند. این تحقیق همچنین (C-test) و تک (cloze) عنوان زبان خارجی در دو نوع آزمون کلوز سعی در روشن ساختن این موضوع دارد که آیا آزمون تک همانند آزمون کلوز توانایی زبان را مورد سنجش قرار می دهد؟ شرکت کنندگان در این تحقیق پنجاه و یک دانشجوی کارشناسی رشته زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی دانشگاه اصفهان با سطح زبانی متوسط بودند. داده های این تحقیق طی دو جلسه درسی جمع آوری شد. در اولین جلسه، شرکت کنندگان دردو آزمون نو ساخته کلوز با ژانر آشنا (ادبی) و ناآشنا (سیاسی) شرکت کردند.در جلسه دوم نیز، شرکت کنندگان دو آزمون تک نو ساخته با ژانر آشنا (ادبی) و ناآشنا (سیاسی) را پشت سر گذاشتند. نتایج تحلیل داده ها نشان داد که آشنایی با ژانر بر روی عملکرد فراگیران زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجی در هر دو آزمون کلوز و تک تاثیر معنا داری دارد. نتایج حاصله همچنین حاکی از تعامل معنا دار بین آزمون کلوز به عنوان آزمون سنجش توانایی زبان و آزمون تک با ژانر یکسان بود.

زبان آموزان ایرانی اغلب به حضور خواننده در متن توجه نمی کنند، و این امر نمرات ضعیفی در نگارش آنان به دنبال دارد. مطالعه حاضر در یکی از دانشگاه های بزرگ ایران انجام شد تا به زبان آموزان آموزش دهد چگونه به حضور مخاطب در متن توجه نمایند. تعداد سی و پنج دانشجوی زبان انگلیسی به روش آموزش فرآیندی آموزش داده شدند و از آنان خواسته شد نامه ای به یک مقام عالی رتبه ی دولتی بنویسند. پس از دریافت نسخه اول نامه مذکور، ابعاد توجه به مخاطب به آنان آموزش داده شد تا بر همان اساس نسخه اولیه را از نظر سبک و ملاحظات مربوط به مخاطب اصلاح نموده و جهت نمره گذاری ارسال نمایند. سپس از آنان مصاحبه ای در خصوص نحوه توجه به مخاطب در نگارش، نحوه دخالت دادن مخاطب در متن، و استراتژی های به کاررفته در تکمیل متن نهایی گرفته و ضبط شد. متن نوار ضبط شده بر روی کاغذ پیاده شد و به صورت کیفی مورد ارزیابی قرار گرفت که از دل داده ها، دو درون مایه اصلی حاصل شد: ملاحظات زبانشناختی و ملاحظات غیر زبانشناختی. همچنین، شرکت کنندگان به طور ضمنی به سه مرحله از توجه به مخاطب اشاره نمودند: استراتژی های قبل، بعد و حین انجام تکلیف نگارشی. به طور خلاصه، آموزش زبان آموزان ایرانی به ارتقای استراتژی هایِ توجه به مخاطب در نگارش انجامید .

The efficacy of genre-based approach to teaching writing has been regarded as an influential practice in L2 writing pedagogy (Hyland, 2007). However, there is still gap between actual structures found in reading materials recommended as textbooks and discourse patterns recommended for L2 writing in EFL contexts, the gap which would highlight the problems of genre and rhetorical patterns for teaching. The current study, therefore, is an attempt to explore the level of consistency between the rhetorical patterns found in reading textbooks and discourse pattern recommended for writing. For this purpose, a number of 22 essays selected from textbooks were analyzed to identify (1) the overall rhetorical structures, and (2) the location of main idea and opinion of writers. The results show that while some texts did not follow the three-part structure of introduction-body-conclusion, main idea was presented in the introductory parts of essays, illustrating a deductive rhetorical pattern recommended for English writing. Further research was suggested as well.

This research intends to explore the efficacious English teachers’ goals and strategies to effectively manage their own as well as their students’ emotions. The data of the study included interviews with 22 English teachers and 92 diary journals kept by 12 teachers who were among the top 20% of ELTEI (ELT teacher efficacy instrument) scorers and identified as efficacious English teachers. The results indicated that teachers’ goals for regulating their positive emotions included maintaining authority in relation to students, presenting unbiased teacher character, and enhancing teaching effectiveness. For regulating negative emotions, the goals included maintaining the teacher and students’ mental health, promoting teacher-student relationships, and reinforcing the image of teachers as moral guides. Teachers also used a variety of antecedent-focused and response-focused strategies hierarchically for effective emotion management including situation selection, situation modification, attention deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation. The findings were discussed with reference to the role of culture in emotion regulation and effectiveness of different sub-strategies. The results may promise some implications for teacher education programs and teacher educators about the inclusion of professional development opportunities for EFL teachers in terms of effective emotion management

Taking the significance of teacher motivation in professional practice and pedagogical achievements of teachers, students and their educational goals, this study aimed to investigate EFL teachers’ motivation affected by the introduction of the Fundamental Reform Document of Education in Iran. For the quantitative phase of the study, a researcher-made questionnaire developed based on the four aspects of motivation by Dornyei and Ushioda (2011) was distributed among 98 Iranian EFL teachers. Afterwards, to capture the salient factors of teachers’ motivation, a set of semi-structured interviews with 7 volunteer teachers were conducted. The results revealed that this reform has had a positive effect on teachers’ motivation yet it has not been that much comprehensive to take into account all the motivation factors except for the contextual ones.

The present study examined the comparative effects of Etherpad-based writing instruction and face-to-face writing instruction on EFL learners' writing quality and writing self-efficacy. It also aimed at finding the learners' attitude towards the influence of Etherpad and their reason for success/ failure in this writing course. To this end, ninety students were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to one of the two instruction groups. In addition to an IELTS writing task, Self-efficacy in Writing Scale (SWS) was administered. During the course, the students received instruction on writing an argumentative essay. After the treatment, the SWS and another IELTS writing task were given. Subsequently, a semi-structured interview was conducted with twenty Etherpad-based learners to find their attitudes towards the reason for their success/ failure and the effectiveness of Etherpad. The results revealed that the Etherpad-based group significantly outperformed the face-to-face group in the writing posttest and demonstrated a higher level of writing self-efficacy. The interview data showed that the students attributed their success to both internal and external factors. Whereas, they ascribed their failure to internal factors rather than external ones. It was also revealed that the students found Etherpad as a predictor of their success in writing performance.

Professional identity has been perpetually an underlying factor in teacher development. The maintenance of a strong professional identity is a key factor in teacher development which is ultimately a fundamental aspect in the prosperity or failure of any educational system. As a dynamic phenomenon, teachers’ professional identity can be influenced by a variety of factors and particularly any type of educational reform. The present study with an explanatory mixed method design was used to investigate transitions in Iranian EFL teachers’ professional identity in the context of Fundamental Reform Document of Education (2012). For the quantitative phase of the study, a researcher-made questionnaire developed based on the four components of professional identity namely, self-image, self-esteem, job motivation and task perception proposed by Kelchtermans (1993) was distributed among 98 Iranian EFL teachers. Considering the ongoing nature of the professional identity, the questionnaire was assigned to the teachers during the pre-reform and post – reform era. In the qualitative phase, in order to capture a comprehensive picture of the salient factors of teachers’ professional identity and their underlying reasons, a set of semi-structured interviews with 7 volunteer teachers were conducted. The findings revealed that the introduction of the curriculum reform made no change in teachers’ professional identity in terms of self-esteem and task perception, but it slightly affected teachers’ self-image and job motivation. The findings also revealed a potential transition path in Iranian EFL teachers’ professional identity development. Finally, some implications for policy-makers and material developers and suggestions for future researchers were discussed.

Task-based language teaching is defined as learning by doing or self-motivated learning. Instances regarding TBLT capabilities include team work,workshops, and constructivism . The current research is an attempt to scrutinize the upshots of EFL teachers and learners' mind-sets for classroom assignments in the form of writing skills in terms of structure and content. Due to this, 60 Iranian EFL learners were decided on from a language institute in Isfahan, Iran via convenience sampling. An Oxford Placement Test, the Oxford Attitude Questionnaire , and the Assignment Questionnaire were employed to amass data and firm up participants' levels. To categorize the assignments, learners were demanded to write a text on the submitted topics. The assignments were divided into three sets as per learners' opinions: The assignments deemed appropriate by the learners, by teachers and by no one special (control group) .Afterward, the topics separately chosen by the learners and the teachers were imparted to the participants in distinct groups. Besides, the control group was given a distinctive group of topics. Then, the completed assignments were corrected via Liao and Wang scoring scale and the results were evaluated through one-way analysis of variance. The results revealed a significant difference between the performance of learners in the three groups in terms of writing proficiency. This means that the group who received their assignments based on the teachers' attitude, outperformed the other two groups. Research applications are postulated at the end of the article.