ناصر رشیدی

This study investigated the receptive and productive vocabulary command of learners based on their willingness to communicate (WTC) and critical thinking skill. The study also aimed to compare gifted and non-gifted learners in terms of the above-mentioned variables. To this end, 112 gifted and non-gifted Iranian EFL learners were picked out and given four instruments (WTC questionnaire, critical thinking skill test, receptive, and productive vocabulary tests). Having analyzed data through two-way ANOVA and independent samples t-tests, the study revealed that, first, no significant difference was found between high and low WTC learners and also high and low critical thinkers in their receptive lexical command; and second, high and low WTC learners, high and low critical thinkers, and also gifted and non-gifted learners showed significant differences in their productive lexical command. Thus, while for receptive vocabulary knowledge, giftedness is a more influential factor than WTC and critical thinking, for productive vocabulary knowledge, WTC, critical thinking, and giftedness are all influential. The pertinent theoretical and practical implications of the study will also be explicated.

Recent interest in teaching thinking has lead different researchers to examine different approaches in education to find effective methods and approaches for teaching thinking. Through a qualitative case analysis, this study attempted to identify the effects of the infusion model of teaching thinking implemented through a dialogic approach on a PhD candidate’s critical thinking skills. The study occurred over a semester in a PhD course which aimed at reviewing and discussing language teaching issues critically. A number of interactions and reflective journals produced by the participant during the course was analyzed qualitatively for finding different thinking abilities and elements. A number of thinking abilities and elements proposed by Paul and Nosich (1993) in a higher order thinking assessment model was used for analysis. Analysis of the interactions and reflective journals showed that the number of thinking abilities and elements increased over the course which was indicative of the effectiveness of the infusion model used through a dialogic teaching approach in developing critical thinking skills.

Learner autonomy (henceforth LA) has become a buzz word in education in general and language education, in particular, for more than a decade now. Focusing on investigating Iranian EFL teachers’ conceptions of LA, the current study, taking a mixed method approach, attempted to illustrate how Iranian EFL teachers’ conceptions of leaner autonomy mapped out. To that end, 7 teachers, purposefully cluster sampled, were interviewed. After data saturation, the result of the interviews and the data gleaned from the literature were fed into the development of a questionnaire. The questionnaire, having being validated through a pilot study, was administered to 585 EFL teachers snowball-sampled, 2 of whom were, later on through negative case analysis, interviewed, and were required to provide the researchers with a narrative. Running a number of factor analyses, the researchers modeled the participants’ mindsets toward LA, which can be quite significant as it can have some theoretical and pedagogical implications, including, inter alia, situating LA promotion into the pedagogy of TEFL in Iran by running LA promotion workshops as well as developing a pool of LA promotion activities and software programs available to the stakeholders, especially the teachers.

This study aimed at investigating shades of identity in TEFL textbooks. Most identity studies have focused on authors as knowledge producers. They have neglected authors' roles in constructing identity. Further, few scholars have considered disciplinary specific textbooks in their analyses of identity. Trying to bridge these gaps, we applied Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics to investigate identity through the lens of sociocultural theory. The study corpus consisted of nine commonly used textbooks on language testing, language teaching, and linguistics in Iranian EFL context. The textual analysis revealed various levels of self and other-regulation mediated by interpersonal, textual, and ideational metafunctions. These findings suggested that studying their disciplinary specific texts, students of TEFL may develop not only their academic knowledge but also their ideological positions and academic voices.

این تحقیق سه نوع تفکر کلامی که در روش تدریس ادراکی جامع رایج است را مورد بررسی و مقایسه قرار داد تا تاثیر این سه شیوه به زبان آوری فکر را در فراگیری وجه مجهول در بین فراگیران زبان دوم مشخص کند. بنابراین چهار کلاس پایه دوازدهم از یک دبیرستان انتخاب شدند و به بطور تصادفی به سه گروه آزمایش و یک گروه گواه تقسیم شدند و به تمام دانش آموزان وجه مجهول آموزش داده شد. در واقع به هر کدام از سه گروه آزمایش به یکی از شیو ه های رایج آموزش ادراکی سیستمی: الف) تفکر کلامی درونی، ب) تفکر کلامی بیرونی، ج) تفکرکلامی درونی و بیرونی آموزش داده شد وبه گروه گواه به روش معمول استقرایی آموزش داده شد. نتایج تحقیق نشان داد که هر سه شیوه ادراکی سیستمی در یادگیری وجه مجهول توسط فراگیران موثربود. البته شایان ذکر است که از سه روش فوق دو روش تفکر کلام بیرونی و روش تفکر کلامی بیرونی و درونی از روش تفکر درونی موثرتر بودند. در حقیقت علت این برتری را می توان در ماهیت منحصر به فرد روش تفکربیرونی جست که همزمان به دو شکل باعث توسعه ذهنی می شود. شکل اول توسعه ذهنی از طریق مفاهیم می باشد که از ویژگی بارز آموزش ادراکی سیستمی است و شکل دوم حالت توسعه ذهنی از طریق تعامل می باشد که از ویژگی های بارز ارزیابی پویا است. به عبارتی دیگردر روش تفکر بیرونی بستری فراهم می شود تا دو مدل آموزش ادراکی سیستمی و ارزیابی پویا نمایان شوند.

The current mixed-method research aimed to investigate the effects of self-constructs on self-regulation. To this end, a number of 127 Iranian EFL learners were chosen randomly as the sample of the study. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were designed. Also, correlation analysis and regression analysis were run on the data. The results of interview data suggested that motivated learners who reported self-regulation tended to display positive visualization of their ideal L2 self and self-efficacy beliefs. Besides, the result of correlation analysis indicated that ideal L2 self had stronger association with self-efficacy beliefs than with self-regulation, suggesting that it is necessary to hold positive beliefs towards language learning in order to visualize oneself as a proficient and successful language user. Of the two self-constructs, self-regulation turned out to be most strongly associated with self-efficacy followed by ideal L2 self indicating that what characterizes self-regulated learners is that their levels of self-efficacy is higher compared to those who are not. Finally, the result of regression analysis revealed that self-efficacy and, to the lesser extent, ideal L2 self were found as direct predictors of self-regulation. It seems unlikely to be a motivated learner without the actual beliefs in ones’ ability and a strong actualization of one’s image as a successful language user.   

The newly demanded language learning methodologies can exhibit their maximum efficiency if they are monitored meticulously and regularly in their particular contexts of application. The prerequisite would be putting educational programs in the spotlight and identifying the decisive elements of each learning context. Accordingly, based on the solicited responses from 638 students, in this study, a scale was developed and validated to inquire into the participants’ perceptions about the extent to which classroom interaction, learner needs, learner autonomy, pedagogical scaffolding, and learner identity could regulate learning activities in Iranian academic contexts. Importing the survey results to AMOS 22, we tested and validated a hypothetical model of the addressed variables. The validated model supported the interwoven relationships of the study variables and the pivotal role of interaction in regulating, predicting, shaping, and explaining the behaviors of other variables. The results can raise awareness of the sociocultural manifestations of classroom interaction, learner needs, learner autonomy, pedagogical scaffolding, and learner identity in Iranian TEFL programs and encourage highly positive developments and generally accepted practices to improve the status quo. Decision-makers and stakeholders can also gain a detailed insight into how sociocultural variables interrelate and accordingly coordinate their social and educational policies and measures.

This study investigated the relationships between Iranian EFL teachers’ conceptions of assessment and their self-efficacy. For this purpose, 154 Iranian EFL teachers were selected through purposeful sampling and completed the 27-item teachers’ conceptions of assessment scale (TCoA) (Brown, 2006), and the 24-item teachers’ self-efficacy scale (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). Multiple regression analysis and ANOVA were used to analyze the data. The results showed that teachers considered assessment as a tool to determine how much have their students learned from instruction, assessment results can be used to modify teaching practices and assessment processes may be inaccurate. Moreover, they argued that assessment is an indicator of school performance and, at the same time, assessment results should be treated cautiously. In addition, the results showed that Iranian EFL teachers had a high level of self-efficacy, were good at asking appropriate questions and answering students’ difficult questions, can assess students’ learning, and provide alternative explanations and examples when learners are confused. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that school accountability and irrelevance predicted students’ engagement, students’ accountability predicted classroom management and improvement predicted instructional strategies. These results may have some implications for EFL teachers' professional development.

During the twentieth century, the views of sustainability and its vital contribution to the refinement of education systems have become so momentous that many researchers have sought to remove barriers to achieving sustainability in the education system and across disciplines. Yet, such research has been less common in the humanities. Hence, the present study tried to depict a picture of the strengths and shortcomings of EFL and Social Sciences (SS) instructors in terms of sustainability literacy, sustainability implementation, and eventually Sustainability Education (SE). Moreover, it provides the readers with the status of SE in EFL and SS faculties in Iran and offers clear recommendations for how and in which specific areas to adopt interdisciplinary approaches for SE development. This comparative study can pave the way for further practical studies in these areas through a quantitative method using a researcher-developed questionnaire with 300 participants. It proved that SS instructors have the potential to make outstanding contributions to sustainability literacy enhancement and EFL instructors are well aware of the strategies which work for sustainability implementation. It also came down in favor of the specific courses which should be incorporated into all-round teacher education policy. The study can be an important step towards teacher education reform and has implications for different fields of humanities. It has been implied that multidisciplinary approaches can bring about livelier and more effective teacher training programs. 

Authorial identity is a notion refers to the way an author expresses their sense of self, employs their agency, and develops their academic discourse. Following a transformative mixed-method design, and by adopting Fairclough's (1992) Discourse as Text, Interaction, and Context framework, authorial identity option was investigated among university students. To this end, 540 essays written by university students were examined in terms of identity-related factors, i.e. social factors", "agency", "knowledge & discourses", "gender", "group", "education", as well as "disciplinary group" and "presentation or non-presentation of authorial identity". The results of the study showed that authorial identity is a complex process restructured through the process of negotiation with various individual, discoursal, sociocultural, and demographic characteristics. It was concluded that those identity-related factors may develop individuals to consider self-legitimacy in employing authorial identity, though it is also rooted in epistemological preferences of their disciplines.