درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This study aims to explore the attitudes and practices of Iraqi EFL teachers regarding formative assessment (FA). A total of 102 teachers from primary school to university filled in the Arabic version of Teachers' Conceptions and Practices of Formative Assessment Questionnaire. The questionnaire was translated from English into Arabic first and was validated using confirmatory factor analysis (Hazim Jawad, 2020). Findings showed that a 7-factor model had acceptable fit indices (GFI=0.90, CFI=0.91, RMSEA=0.05). Descriptive statistics were used to explain Iraqi EFL teachers’ attitudes and intentions regarding FA. Findings showed that the majority of Iraqi teachers believe that formative assessment is a useful procedure for measuring students’ learning and is helpful in their education. They also indicated that they have a positive attitude towards FA and are willing to use it. Correlational analysis showed that Affective Attitude, Instrumental Attitude, Subjective Norm, Controllability, and Self-Efficacy were strong predictors of intentions to use formative assessment. However, only Instrumental Attitude had a small significant correlation with the Behavior Scale. In other words, those teachers who believe that FA is useful in improving students learning tend to actually employ FA in their teaching. Findings also showed that female teachers have more positive attitudes towards FA and tend to use it more in their teaching. Implications of the findings for improving English language teaching are discussed.

A key component of any educational program is the “textbook”, the efficiency of which greatly contributes to the accomplishment of the pedagogical goals of the program. The grave significance of the textbook necessitates its rigorous evaluation (Tomlinson, 2008). This study aimed to investigate EFL teachers’ and students’ perspectives on a recently developed Iranian EFL junior high school textbook entitled “Prospect 3”. The participants were 218 third-grade junior high school students and 103 EFL teachers conveniently selected from different junior high schools of Khuzestan, Golestan, Hamedan, and Qom provinces. The evaluation of the textbook was carried out quantitatively through a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. The analyses revealed that EFL teachers were partially satisfied with Prospect 3; however, EFL students were rather neutral. For the teachers ,                                                                       “Vocabulary and Grammar” was the most meritorious aspect, while “ Language Type ” was the least acceptable dimension. From the students’ perspective, the most meritorious aspect of the text was “ Vocabulary and Grammar” ,  while “ Layout and Physical Appearance ” was viewed as the least satisfactory dimension. The findings of this work might be of interest to Iranian EFL teachers, syllabus designers, materials developers, and the stakeholders involved in the materials preparation Bureaus of the Iranian Ministry of General Education.  

Working memory is believed to interact with a second language (L2) learning at the cognitive level. The present study sought to explore the impact of L2 readers’ prior knowledge on the contribution of working memory to reading comprehension. Eighty Iranian English learners were divided into two groups of high and low by their scores on L2 knowledge and the topic knowledge tests. Their working memory spans, and reading comprehension abilities were measured via a working memory test and a reading comprehension test respectively. The results indicated that working memory significantly predicted L2 reading comprehension only when the readers had sufficient topic knowledge. The results also show that the learners’ comprehension was mostly determined by their L2 linguistic knowledge, even when they had considerable working memory capacity. The findings imply that readers’ prior knowledge could moderate the contribution of working memory in L2 reading comprehension. A certain level of knowledge in the target language and on the topic is required for L2 readers to help working memory work more efficiently.

In recent years, educational studies have acknowledged that academic motivation is a powerful predictor of students' academic achievement. Goal orientation is one facet of academic motivation that concerns the reasons for which students pursue achievement activities. Using AGQ and R-SPQ-2F instruments, this study seeks to identify dominant achievement goal orientation held by Iranian EFL learners and examine the relationships between students' achievement goals, learning approaches, and academic achievement. The sample consisted of 80 EFL students majoring in English Literature and English Translation. The results of the data analysis indicated that the mastery goal is the dominant goal orientation adopted by learners. Afterward, performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals are respectively the achievement goal orientations adopted by Iranian EFL learners. Significant correlations were found between both mastery and performance-approach goals and deep approaches. Performance-avoidance goals were found to be significantly and positively related to surface approaches to learning. In addition, performance-approach goals were positively related to academic outcome, whereas, performance-avoidance goals were negatively related to academic achievement. There was no relationship between mastery goals and students' outcomes. The study also bears some theoretical and practical pedagogical implications regarding the importance of motivation and goal setting which will be offered and discussed in detail at the end of the study.

For decades, task-based language teaching has become a commodity in ELT profession and has been the subject of many studies. Yet, there seems to be a paucity of research on the impact of TBLT on enhancing learners’ motivation in learning writing. In this regard, this article presents the results of student’s perceptions of the intervention of TBLT in teaching writing in two English classes for one academic term at one institution in Phnom Penh. The study examined the students’ perceptions regarding the impact of TBLT on their writing behaviors and motivation in learning writing before and after the intervention, as well as the constraints that they encountered during the implementation of TBLT. The results indicate positive-but-varying views regarding this intervention. Some challenges are also detected and suggestions are offered for future research in this area accordingly. The study has implications for EFL writing classrooms.

مطالعات میان-رشته ای اخیرنشان داده است که امید نقش مهمی درپیشرفت تحصیلی وعملکرد شغلی دارد. با توجه به کمبود تحقیق درحوزه بینابینی امید وتدریس زبان دوم یا خارجی، برای اولین بار،این مقاله به ارائه مفهوم سازی طبقه ای امید برای تدریس زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجی می پردازد. پس ازتهیه طرح تحقیق اکتشافی به روش ترکیبی، با استفاده ازتکنیکهای مشاهده وانجام مصاحبه عمیق، جمع آوری داده های کیفی بنیاد محورازمدرسان مجرب زبان انگلیسی تا هنگام حصول اشباع نظری داده ها ادامه یافت. 38شاخص مرتبط با هفت طبقه اصلی شناسایی گردید. برای قضاوت درباره اعتبار یافته های کیفی، پرسشنامه 38آیتمی امید طراحی گردید و سپس به صورت پایلوت اجرا شد. درمرحله بعد، به منظورآزمون نمودن تعمیم پذیری یافته های مرحله پایلوت ، پرسشنامه پالایش شده 35 آیتمی امید برنمونه کانونینس ازجمعیت ایران شامل 228مدرس زبان انگلیسی از استانهای تهران،چهارمحال- بختیاری، واصفهان اجرا شد. آنالیزهای آماری داده های مرحله آزمون، 35 شاخص مرتبط با هفت مؤلفه اصلی سازنده ساختار امید را تایید نمود. بنابراین،عوامل اصلی شامل ارتباط بین فردی، مقصد اجتماعی،هدف گذاری،احساس،یقین،منبع، وتلاش موردانتظارتأیید گردیدند. به علاوه ، طراحی ، ساخت، واعتبار سنجی مقیاس سنجش 35 آیتمی امید برای تدریس زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجی در محیط ایران انجام شد. همچنین، قدرت توضیحی تمامی شاخص های دخیل در ایجاد امید برای تدریس زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجی مورد آزمون قرار گرفتندوبرآوردشدند. یافته های این پژوهش، ساخت برنامه های مداخله گر آموزشی را روشن تر می سازد تا مدرسان زبان انگلیسی به سطوح بالاترامید برای تدریس زبان انگلیسی دست یابند.