پرویز مفتون

این مقاله جنبه های مختلف گفتمان کلاس را در یک کلاس تدریس زبان انگلیسی که در آن از روش ارتباطی استفاده می شود مورد بررسی قرار می دهد. اطلاعات لازم از طریق مشاهده تعاملات کلاسی و ضبط صدا در 5 جلسه و جمعا بالغ بر 4 ساعت جمع آوری شد. برای تحلیل داده ها، چهارچوبی تحلیلی تهیه شد که مشتمل بر ویژگی های مهم کلاس یعنی تبادلات آموزشی، ویژگی های نهاده، روش بازخورد، و نوع سوالات بود. نتایج حاصل از تحلیل داده ها نشان داد که اطلاعات جمع آوری شده حاوی 52 مورد تبادلات آموزشی است که در 73% آنها واکنش معلم به گفته های زبان آموزان بیشتر کارکرد ارزیابی دارد، معلم گفتار خود را با توجه سطح دانش زبانی زبان آموزان تغییر می دهد، و از میان روش های مختلف بازخورد اصلاحی روش بازریزی (51%) و بازخورد صریح (22%) بیشتر از بقیه مورد استفاده قرار گرفته است که به تبع آن فرصت و شانس کمتری برای عکس العمل و خود اصلاحی از سوی زبان آموزان ایجاد می شد. همچنین، بیشتر (57% ) سوالاتی که معلم از زبان آموزان می پرسید با هدف سنجش دانش زبان آموزان بود و تنها در 21% آنها هدف کسب واقعی اطلاعات بود که پاسخشان برای سوال کننده معلوم نبود.

Self-regulation of learning has been extensively investigated in second language (L2) learning. Many studies have focused on the strategies that language learners employ to regulate their own learning processes. However, motivational self-regulation is considerably less explored. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between motivational self-regulatory strategies (MSRSs) and academic achievement. A motivational self-regulation questionnaire was administered to 64 male and female adult Iranian EFL learners to measure their choice of various strategies. The quantitative data was analyzed by applying correlational and multivariate analyses. The results demonstrated that there was a strong relationship between motivational self-regulatory strategy use and academic achievement. However, no difference was found between male and female learners in their use of the strategies. Further examination revealed that higher-achieving students differed from lower-achieving participants in their preference for strategies. The article concludes that while all learners use extrinsic rewards to self-regulate their motivation, more successful learners tend to manipulate learning tasks to make the tasks intrinsically interesting and pleasant. Also, more successful learners set both long-term and short-term goals to motivate themselves. The results underscore the importance of students’ personal interests, needs and goals, and suggest that teachers foster learners’ command of the strategies through instruction and cooperative activities.

According to Teacher Education Curriculum Development Document (TECDD) of Farhangiyan University, teacher professional competencies include Content Knowledge (CK), Pedagogical Knowledge (PK), Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) and General Knowledge (GK). Of these competencies, CK and PCK are specific to teachers of each major while PK and GK are common among all majors. This study was an attempt to explore the components that constitute high school EFL teachers’ CK and PCK through review of the related literature and investigation of high school EFL teachers (N=40) and teacher educators’ (N=20) perspectives. Based on the content analysis of these two sources which resulted in strong agreement, 20 items of CK and 17 items of PCK were identified. To validate the items and explore their underlying factors, data were collected from 445 high school EFL teachers and teacher educators using a questionnaire. Factor analysis with Varimax rotation was carried out on CK and PCK items separately. Regarding CK items, factor analysis gave way to the emergence of three factors, namely knowledge of the principles of language teaching methodology, knowledge of linguistics, and language proficiency. Regarding PCK items, factor analysis also gave way to three factors, namely knowledge of teaching and assessing the components of the curriculum, knowledge of developing, planning and managing language teaching, and knowledge of developing and evaluating instructional materials. The results of this study can be used in the design of high school EFL teacher education program.

This study was an attempt to explore the reading strategy use of Iranian M.A. students across three different fields of study. Eighty-two M.A. students of power engineering, physics, and communicationwere selected by a Nelson test and the reading comprehension section of a TOEFL. The reading comprehension section of the TOEFL served also as a specific task which helped participants report their strategy use. Both qualitative, think-aloud, and quantitative, SORS, procedures were used totap the participants’ use of reading strategies and to complement the findings. The results of these two procedures indicate that the use of overall, global, problem-solving, and support strategies by Iranian M.A. students was slightly different across different fields of study. Problem-solving and support strategies were the most and the least frequently used strategies, respectively. Moreover, reading strategy useof Iranian M.A. students,studying power engineering, physics, and communication was not related to their academic fields of study.

Any language classroom is a distinctive learning context offering numerous affordances that might be perceived effectively, remain unnoticed, or even act as constraints. Therefore, exploring students' perception toward a particular method of instruction is crucial since it may produce a reliable piece of evidence for teachers to confirm or refute the effectiveness of the intended instructional activities. This study was an attempt to survey Iranian EFL learners' perception of the efficacy of activity theory-based reading comprehension. To this end, 60 students studying English translation at Islamic Azad University, Tehran Central Branch participated in the study and received the reading instruction based on the elements of activity theory, i.e., subjects, object, mediating artifacts, rules, community, and division of labor. After receiving the treatment, the students filled in two perception questionnaires and took part in a semi-structured focus group interview. The findings indicated that the students showed favorable perception toward activity theory, for which they perceived different affordances. Moreover, the results demonstrated that there was a significant difference between the students’ perception regarding the mediating elements of activity theory.  The study provides EFL teachers with new insights into the considerable benefits that activity theory might bring to reading classes.

This research is to analyze the effects of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. After providing a useful synopsis, this research is to contextualize CDA in two ranges of learning situations and classifies how CDA can shed new perceptions on learning. Detailed systematic measures are included to clarify the procedure of conducting CDA. The participants were 61 male and female M.A. English students of Boroujerd Islamic Azad University, selected on a non- random basis by applying a TOEFL test among over 91 EFL M.A. students considered to be at the same level. Those whose scores on the test were from 224 to 316 with the mean of 273.736 were considered as the participants of this study. They had received instructions on English language for 16 sessions at Boroujerd Islamic Azad University. The participants were native speakers of Farsi. Any word, phrase, or structure can have different possible meanings, which is known as the meaning range. Focusing on the implied meaning of the text, the learners of the second language reach a better understanding of the text and consequently of the second language. The present research shows how seven elements offered by Fairclough's model in critical discourse analysis can affect reading ability of Iranian EFL learners. Also,besides scrutinizing the effect of CDA in EFL learners, the researcher introduces the seven elements of Fairclough's model as well.

Second language writing instruction has been greatly influenced by the growing importance of technology and the recent shift of paradigm from a cognitive to a social orientation in second language acquisition (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). Therefore, the applications of computer-assisted language learning and activity theory have been suggested as a promising framework for writing studies. The present study aimed to investigate the perception of Iranian EFL learners of the efficacy and affordance of activity theory integrated with computer-assisted language learning in writing improvement. To this end, sixty-seven sophomores majoring in English translation were selected as the participants of this study. The writing instruction was geared to an e-learning platform based on the six elements of activity theory--subject, object, mediating artifacts, rules, community, and division of labor--appropriate for the writing course. The students were assigned to write nine expository paragraphs on six different developmental patterns and share various relevant materials on the platform during the treatment. Their assignments were carefully monitored and evaluated by the instructor. Upon the completion of the treatment, the students completed a closed-ended questionnaire and an open-ended questionnaire and took part in a semi-structured focus group interview to express their perception. The results showed that the students held favorable perception toward the use of computer-assisted language learning within the activity theory framework. The findings of the study also revealed that there was a significant difference among the students' perception concerning the four mediating elements of activity theory.