فاطمه فضلعلی

The present study aimed at exploring the predictive validity of achievement goals for EFL university students’ attainment emotions, and academic success in the context of Iran. To this end, 440 EFL university students responded to the relevant instruments. The results revealed that learners’ mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, and performance-approach goals were significantly positively correlated with positive attainment emotions, and negatively associated with negative attainment emotions. Furthermore, EFL learners’ performance-avoidance goals were significantly negatively associated with their positive attainment emotions, and positively related to their negative attainment emotions. Additionally, EFL learners’ mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals were significant predictors of all attainment emotions, while EFL learners’ mastery-avoidance goal was a significant predictor of their hope, anger, and hopelessness. Besides, EFL learners’ achievement goals significantly correlated with their academic success. Finally, all achievement goals predicted students’ academic success, and also mastery-approach goal was the strongest predictor of students’ academic success. The results can benefit EFL teachers, and learners to grasp a better picture of the association between achievement goals and attainment emotions, and academic success of EFL students in the context of Iran.

The aim of this research was to examine the studies conducted on Flipped Classroom from different perspectives in Iran. A total of 30 studies were included in this research. These studies were accessed through various databases and analyzed using content analysis technique. The findings of this research indicated that there has been an increase in the number of studies on Flipped learning in recent years. The majority of these studies are in the form of articles, and the most commonly used research methods and designs were mixed methods and experimental designs. The teaching practices mainly targeted university students, and the studies predominantly employed achievement tests, interviews, and surveys as data collection tools. Out-of-class activities involved the use of videos, presentations, and written documents, while practical activities were conducted in the classroom. The results of the study demonstrated that Flipped classroom had a positive impact on students' academic achievement, motivation, and engagement. Additionally, both teachers and students had a positive attitude toward Flipped learning

This study explored the status of professionalism and commitment among Iranian EFL Teachers. In doing so, 136 (86 private-and 50 public-sector) EFL teachers of different ages (25-55) from different schools and institutes in Tehran participated in this study. The participants completed the pertinent instruments (i.e., Teachers’ Professionalism and Organizational Commitment Questionnaires). Moreover, out of 136 participants, 40 EFL teachers were interviewed. The results showed that both professionalism and commitment along with their subcategories were rationally high among EFL teachers. Furthermore, a positive correlation was found between EFL teachers’ professionalism and commitment. Besides, the content analysis of interviews indicated that professional teachers were committed to their teaching and were sensitive to learners’ needs. Likewise, committed teachers were actively looking for professional development opportunities. The results also showed that female EFL instructors had a higher level of professionalism and commitment than their male counterparts. Additionally, the results indicated that EFL instructors in language institutes had a higher level of professionalism and commitment than those in senior secondary schools. The findings can support EFL policymakers, supervisors, managers, and teacher trainers to grasp a better picture of professionalism and commitment in Iranian EFL educational contexts.

Research on high-stakes tests indicates that increasing the stakes of large-scale English language tests will have consequential influence on teaching and learning performance and practices. However, evidence for influence on student ‘motivation for learning English (MLE)’ within such a context is still scarce. Taken this, the present study investigated the motivational level of high school students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in the context of university entrance requirement tests change in Iran (introducing high school national English achievement tests-NEATs- as new requirements for entrance into nation-state universities). For such a purpose, the MLE scale, taken from Gardner’s (2004) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery, was translated into Persian, administered among 451 randomly selected students supposed to take the NEATs for their admission to universities, and subjected to confirmatory factor analyses. The results obtained through within-group ANOVA comparisons of the construct-validated subscales revealed that under increased stakes of the NEATs the participants maintained moderately high level of motivation for the two components of ‘desire to learn English’ and ‘attitudes towards learning’; however, the level for the component of ‘motivational intensity’ was neutral/moderate. Similar result (i.e., moderate level) was found in the participants’ perspective of their overall MLE. The findings, overall, indicate that the NEATs-admission programme has not demotivated the learners yet they are not as highly motivated as intended by the change planners. Such a divergence between the ideal policies (i.e., high level of MLE) and what was observed in practice (i.e., neutral/moderate MLE level) has implications for test change contexts and their driving policies.