درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The teacher, his instructional method, and indeed his characteristics are considered to be the decisive factors for the success or failure of education. The current study was carried out to determine the Iranian EFL teachers’ perception of immunity in their occupational contexts, that is in English language institutes and public schools. To achieve this objective, one hundred EFL teachers teaching in public schools (N = 50) and language institutes (N = 50), in Isfahan, were selected through convenience sampling to participate in this study. Then, the Teachers’ Immunity Level questionnaire was administered to them, and they were interviewed as well. The teachers were asked about their perception of immunity in their own occupational setting. All the teachers working in language institutes believed that teachers in these educational centers are suffering from low levels of job immunity. The teachers were also asked about the reasons underlying the high and low levels of job immunity in these two educational contexts. The teachers in language institutes believed that the dearth of monitoring by the government, the large number of unemployed educated people, employers’ greed, and lowering the value of education in the society are among the most important reasons underlying this catastrophe in language institutes. These findings can have some implications for the decision-makers in the Iranian Ministry of Education to provide language institutes with more support and attention with an eye to eliminating the mentioned problems.

Communicative and natural processing of language in the world of translation is substantiated through simultaneous decoding and encoding of information in the source and target languages. The researchers analy zed pragmatic strategies and approaches undertaken by the Persian and Kurdish translators of the Quranic discourse marker thumma. The source text corpus was selected randomly and the target text parallel corpora were selected based on purposive sampling. Theoretical perspectives in pragmatics and translation were employed in the analysis of parallel corpora in this investigation. The results revealed that various types and combinations of the Kurdish and Persian temporal discourse markers were utilized by these translators. Moreover, other Kurdish and Persian elaborative, contrastive, and inferential discourse markers were also used in rendering the discourse marker thumma in the Quran. This dynamic approach to the construction of discourse was substantiated based on the realization of different conventions in the construction of discourse in different languages and cultures. This dynamic system in the construction of a proper discourse for the readers is verified based on the application of different theories in discourse analysis and pragmatics and the application of context and text-sensitive strategies in the process of translation. The characteristics, bases, and resources of these dynamic translation strategies are discussed based on pragmatic awareness rising in various aspects of translation education and some suggestions were offered in the application of the findings in syllabus design, translation evaluation, and rethinking of approaches in lexicography.  

Online learning has recently turned to one of the most well-known channels of education; however, the controversy over the quality and outcome of such online medium is still a concern. This study sought to determine the pros and cons of online courses as perceived by Iranian language teachers and learners. Two tailor-made questionnaires, along with a semi-structured interview, were used to collect the data. The participants were 71 college students who have experienced online educations and 31 language teachers who taught web-based classes in the Department of English Language Education at three universities in Iran, Isfahan, Sheikhbahaee, and Ashrafi. An overall analysis of questionnaires and interviews revealed that students and teachers could not find online education easier than its conventional counterpart. Online education provides teachers with a precise image of applying the appropriate teaching methodology in their online classes as well as enhancing their autonomy. The research recapped that online educators and administrators of faculties ought to lay the foundations for making the benefits of online education bold for learners. The findings may be a contributing factor for teacher educators to create the climate for professional development.

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.

The present study aimed to develop and validate a model of Iranian EFL teacher classroom fairness using a sequential exploratory mixed methods design (QUAL + quan). The participants consisted of two groups. The first group consisted of 250 Iranian EFL teachers who were selected through available sampling through virtual groups in social networks. The second group of participants included 150 Iranian EFL learners at the intermediate level from different private language institutes in Iran were selected through available sampling from different virtual groups in WhatsApp or Telegram. The following instruments used for data collection in the present study: A Demographic information scale and a closed-ended questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted through thematic analysis by MAXQDA software and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis through SPSS and AMOS 24 software. Finally, the reliability of the developed model of Iranian EFL teacher classroom fairness was estimated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. According to the results, a model of Iranian EFL teacher classroom fairness developed in four main components, including teaching fairness, evaluation fairness, classroom management fairness, and classroom communication fairness. Finally, the proposed model of Iranian EFL teacher classroom fairness found to be valid and reliable. The findings have some implications for policymakers, teacher educators, teacher education administrators, and curriculum developers

Quantum teaching method (QTM), a student-centred model of education, which provides the possibility for the integrated use of a combination of learning theories, has not received adequate attention in EFL teaching. This study, adopting an explanatory mixed-methods design, aimed at examining the effect of QTM on EFL learners’ writing motivation. The participants comprised 78 pre-intermediate EFL learners who were placed into two groups based on convenience sampling procedures. The first group was assigned as the experimental group and another group as the control group. A writing motivation questionnaire (WMQ) was administered to both groups as pretest. Next, the experimental group was exposed to QTM for writing instruction while the control group received conventional writing instruction. After treatment, both groups took the WMQ as posttest. Moreover, 15 participants from the experimental group took part in semi-structured interviews. The results of Mann-Whitney U Test indicated the significantly positive impact of QTM on writing motivation. The results of qualitative analysis revealed five themes including satisfaction, enjoyment, engagement, personalization, and lowering anxiety as the factors improving writing motivation. Based on the results, EFL teachers are encouraged to employ QTM to enhance learners’ writing motivation.

Language teachers should be aware of the effect of various task types on L2 writing. The purpose of the present study was twofold: To investigate the effect of various task types, including graphic-writing task, decision-making task, and reasoning task, on L2 writing and to examine the relationship between working memory and L2 writing ability under three task conditions. To that end, 55 upper-intermediate male and female language learners from Dorsa Institute and Zabankadeh Meli in Hashtgerd participated in this study. Oxford Placement Test (OPT) test was used to homogenize the participants and Reading Span Test to test the working memory. Participants wrote an argumentative writing before and after the treatment. SPSS (version 25) was utilized to analyze the data. Results of data analysis showed statistically significant differences between graphic-writing task and the other two tasks while no significant differences were found between decision-making and reasoning tasks. Finding of the study showed the positive relationship between L2 writing and working memory. Implications of the study for the language learners are discussed.

This study investigated the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence of Iranian undergraduate students in the English language and its relationship with their grammar knowledge. For this purpose, 139 male (N=46) and female (N=93) English language students aged 22 -32 years old were randomly selected as the participants. Multiple Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) and a grammar TOEFL test were used to evaluate the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence of the students and measure their grammar knowledge. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence of students and its relationship with grammar knowledge was gauged using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The means of males and females in grammar knowledge and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence were assessed through a one-way sample t-test. The findings revealed a statistically significant relationship between the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence of the participants and their grammar knowledge. The findings also showed no remarkable differences between males and females regarding bodily-kinesthetic intelligence and grammar knowledge. The implication of the findings is that English language teachers should utilize the same effective grammar textbooks and tasks for both male and female students.

The use of educational technology (Ed-Tech) and the Internet in acquiring foreign language skills has led to an increased interest in alternative teaching strategies such as flipped and blended learning. This study investigates the effects of flipped, blended, and traditional face-to-face teaching methods on the utilization of cohesive devices in paragraph writing among EFL learners. From a pool of 110 junior EFL students, 90 participants were selected. Afterwards, they were randomly divided into three groups: flipped, blended, or face-to-face. To evaluate their paragraph writing abilities, a pretest was conducted prior to the treatment. The first comparative group received instruction using the flipped teaching method, while the second group experienced a blended learning environment (combining face-to-face and online classes). The control group received traditional face-to-face instruction. Following the treatment sessions, all groups completed a posttest on paragraph writing. The findings indicated that both the flipped and blended groups demonstrated significantly better performance compared to the control group. These results provide valuable insights for EFL teachers, curriculum designers, and learners.