درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The present study was conducted to investigate the comparative impacts of three types of EFL teachers' mindsets on EFL learners' mindsets. The participants of the study were English Translation undergraduate students (both female and male with the age ranging of 18-35) who were selected according to convenience non-random sampling from three classes of English Grammar 1 at both Islamic Azad Universities of Karaj and Shahriyar. The total number of students in each class was 30. The course lasted 16 successive sessions. Participants were assigned into three experimental groups. At the outset, a Mindset Assessment Profile (MAP) adopted from Mindset works, INC (2002-2012) on a scale of disagree a lot to agree a lot was administered among participants in all three experimental groups. The researchers provided interventions in terms of fixed, growth, and mixed mindsets to teach English grammar. At the end of the course, the same Mindset Assessment Profile (MAP) as the one administered in the pretest phase was administered among participants in all three groups and it was demonstrated that the EFL teacher’s type of mindset can significantly influence EFL learners’ mindsets. Consequently, it was determined that helping students adopt growth mindset hinges on raising teachers’ awareness about the importance of their own mindsets as well as helping them to grow their mindsets. This study includes a variety of instructional implications for both EFL teachers and EFL learners.

This quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate the effects of dynamic assessment employed by teachers on promoting Iranian EFL learners’ stances in academic writing. For this purpose, three intact writing classes were selected by convenience sampling from BA students of English translation at Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University. The Quick Oxford Placement Test (QOPT) was administered to them, and those whose scores matched the intermediate band score of QOPT were selected. In general, 35 homogeneous students were selected from each class and randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group. A writing test was administered to all groups as the pre-test at the onset of the semester. The experimental groups were taught by the researcher and passed five different quizzes during the semester. The three groups were post-tested at the end of the semester. The results illustrated that both teacher and peers’ dynamic assessment effectively improved Iranian EFL learners’ stance in academic writing.

Attention has been drawn to recent, expanding studies on Second Language (L2) online programs and problems with people with learning difficulties, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This group of learners suffers from feelings of detachment and low self-confidence due to their lack of Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in an online classroom. Thus, the current quasi-experimental study explored the impact of a supplementary intervention targeted at helping learners create, substantiate, and live up to their ideal L2 self-images on multivariate components of ADHD learners' WTC in online English classes. For this purpose, 29 Iranian ADHD learners selected through convenience sampling were divided into two equivalent groups based on their ADHD levels. The groups were then randomly assigned to an experimental (N = 15) and a control condition (N = 14). In the experimental group, the vision ignition intervention was integrated into a 10-week online English course, whereas the control group's learners received no vision-enhancement intervention throughout the course. The learners' WTC was measured through a standard psychometric survey at the outset and conclusion of the course. Multivariable Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) was conducted to determine whether a linear combination of the subcomponents resulted in significant differences between groups. Along with an overall significant between-group difference in WTC, the results revealed the intervention's significant impact on WTC's two subcomponents: communicative self-confidence and integrative orientation.

As a result of the advent of the COVID-19 outbreak, online assessments are being implemented in universities and schools worldwide. Nevertheless, regardless of the extensive use of online assessments, many researchers have proposed several barriers to the effective application of this form of examination in different language learning contexts. A combined qualitative and quantitative methodological approach was used to investigate 154 Iranian English language learners’ opinions of the relative benefits of online examinations in terms of pedagogy, validity, reliability, affective factors, practicality, and security during the COVID- 19 pandemic. To this end, an electronic questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were employed. This study identified online assessment as having significant benefits over traditional, paper-based examinations, comprising accessibility, using cutting-edge technology, providing immediate feedback, automated grading, creating a question bank, and long-term efficiency in terms of time, effort, and costs. Nevertheless, many challenges have been identified by students while successfully implementing online exams regarding validity and reliability, emotional and security issues.

Over the last decade, Mobile-assisted Language Learning (MALL) has led to an authentic and contextual language learning process across the globe (Kukulska-Hulme, 2009). It has played a pivotal role in language learning in general and vocabulary learning in particular as a building block of academic writing. The current study examined the effect of a mobile application (i.e. AWL builder) on academic vocabulary learning among sophomore university students in applied linguistics. The study also focused on measuring students' perceptions and problems in utilizing mobile-assisted applications in acquiring English academic vocabulary. Accordingly, using convenience sampling procedures the participants were divided into experimental (N =36) and control (N = 36) groups. The experimental group used a mobile application (i.e. AWL builder), while the control group used a traditional approach. Furthermore, to answer research questions academic vocabulary pre-and post-tests and a questionnaire were employed. The findings show that the AWL group showed prominent performance in academic vocabulary tests. The current study concludes that instructors should take into account mobile devices as useful supplementary tools to enhance L2 academic word retention and include them in regular language curriculum.

In recent years, some language teachers have made investments in approaches and models such as mobile assisted flipped language learning. Some studies in Iran have examined flipped learning impact on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ language skills as well as language systems. However, no researches have been conducted on the impact mobile assisted flipped learning might have on improvement of intermediate EFL learners’ cohesive devices and their motivation to learn cohesion which is the focus of the current study. To this end, 40 female intermediate EFL learners in an English language institute in Kerman, Iran were recruited. Employing a quasi-experimental design, subjects were assigned to two classes of experimental (EG- N = 20) and control (CG-N = 20). Oxford Placement Test, researcher-made writing achievement tests, and Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) were utilized to collect the required data. The findings indicate that participants in mobile assisted flipped language learning group outperformed those in the control group. Moreover, the results of a chi-square test showed a significant relationship between mobile assisted flipped language learning and intermediate EFL learners’ motivation to learn cohesive devices. The findings might help stakeholders design, introduce, and address mobile assisted flipped language learning to their context-specific needs, thereby facilitating the language learning process.

Reflective practice and noticing can be regarded as two essential concerns for novice teachers’ survival and development in their first practices. Therefore, this study was an attempt to explore how reflective practices activate novice English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ noticing. To that end, we conducted an instrumental case study to explore the role of reflective practice among Iranian novice EFL teachers in activating their noticing. An inductive-deductive thematic analysis of the data collected through teachers’ portfolios and semi-structured interviews indicated that novice teachers’ noticing could be activated and sharpened through teachers’ personal, cognitive, and professional developments addressed by reflective practice. Furthermore, the findings showed that there are relationships among novice teachers’ personal, cognitive, and professional developments and the components of teacher noticing, including framing, perceptual activities and exploration, and interaction, leading to sharpening novice EFL teachers’ noticing. Hence, it can be concluded reflective practice can activate novice EFL teachers' noticing, impacting their professional development through framing, interaction, perceptual activities, and exploration. The study has implications for EFL teacher education programs, where teacher educators can help teachers develop critical reflection skills to address problems in their classrooms.

The provision of scaffolding entails contingent assistance given to learners. Despite the proliferation of research on scaffolding, scant attention has been devoted to studying the modes of classroom interaction in fulfilling various scaffolding intentions in content-based instruction (CBI). To narrow the gaps, the present qualitative study embarked on an investigation of science teachers’ scaffolding in four modes proposed by Walsh (2006), namely managerial, classroom context, skills and systems, and materials modes. Four science teachers participated in this qualitative study, and 12 sessions of science classes were observed and analyzed deductively based on four classroom modes through conversation analysis (CA). The content analysis of the videotaped recordings indicated that managerial and materials modes were frequently used to enhance students’ comprehension and develop classroom interaction. The findings evidenced that pedagogical objectives were mostly related to cognitive structuring, contingency management, and direction maintenance requirements. Furthermore, the findings revealed that students’ engagement and involvement through recruiting interest was the only scaffolding intention employed in all four modes to involve students in the learning process. The findings can provide insights to teachers and teacher educators in the realization of distinct scaffolding intentions in various classroom modes by delineating the interrelationship between language use and teaching purpose.  

This study set out to examine how stereotypes as social psychological phenomena are enacted in everyday discourse. Besides discussing how ingroups and outgroups are formed in mundane talk, it is argued that stereotypes are ideological constructs that are jointly achieved in social contexts. Moreover, it is assumed that the ways in which stereotypes are constructed and discussed in discourse are informed by a number of underlying moral conceptualizations which might justify the potential face-threatening acts and the impoliteness inherent in prejudiced talk targeted to a third party. The study is an ethnographic case study informed by an eclectic approach to the analysis of data so as to shed light on how the expression of thoughts and feelings are constructed as talk in ordinary social interactions unfolds and what these expressions achieve. The analyses revealed that the construction of outgroup stereotypes is a mutual accomplishment and possibly a face-threatening act moderated by mitigating discourse features