درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The nature of heterogeneity issues within the context of Iranian, English language learning contexts in high schools is one of the under-researched lines of inquiry. For this aim, a researcher-made, Likert-type questionnaire whose items were initially validated through a multi-stage, exploratory research design among 30 teachers was distributed among some 67, Iranian EFL teachers with different degrees of experience (less vs. more) to find the teachers’ concerns/challenges and their strategies to tackle them. The findings suggested that the concerns behind heterogeneous classes were not consistent regrading weak and strong students. In the second place, it became evident that the order of tendency towards adopting the four enunciated strategies was not the same in the two less and more experienced teachers. Possible interpretations regarding teacher outlook as mapped on ‘teacher experience’ to target heterogeneity issues were presented in the end.

The study aimed to investigate students’ self-efficacy, self-esteem, and attitude as determinants of their writing performance. The participants for the study were 373 South Gonder Zone Preparatory School students who were chosen using multistage sampling technique. Questionnaire and writing test were employed to gather data. Pearson’s Correlation technique was used to analyze the associations among the variables of this study. A standard multiple regression technique was used to check the combined effect of the students’ self-efficacy, self-esteem and attitude on the writing performance of students; a Stepwise regression technique was used to check the effect that each predictor variable could have on the students’ writing performance. Also, ANCOVA was employed to compute the independent effects of the students’ self-efficacy, self-esteem and attitude on the students’ writing performance after age and gender were adjusted. The study revealed that (1) the variables were significantly and positively correlated to each other; (2) the combined effect of the independent variables on students’ writing performance was R2 = .222 which means that 22.2% of the variation in the students’ writing performance was explained by the composite impact of self-esteem, attitude and self-efficacy of writing; (3) the independent effects of the three predictor variables on writing performance were found to be significant although attitude was identified as the only predictor of writing performance when age and gender were controlled. The study concludes that self-efficacy, self-esteem and attitude have significant roles in predicting performance of writing though attitude takes the lion’s share in determining the latter.

Scaffolding research has been widely investigated involving parent-child within the first language (L1) context without considering the cognitive issues and Intelligence Quotients (IQ) aspects as crucial precursors of the scaffolding process. This case study aims to find emergent themes and theorize potential scaffolding theory from the interaction of two-second language (L2) Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children and normal parents with minimum English exposure, cognitive disorders, and different IQ levels on the mobile story-sharing application. Participant observations and in-depth interviews on scaffolding using story-sharing activities among children, parents, and researchers were conducted every week for six months. Thematic analysis was implemented inductively and interpreted by two experts to find the emerging variation of scaffolding theories. The results showed that ASD learners' scaffolding process involved more complex stages than the previous studies. The complexities of scaffolding involved repetitive recall, translating, imitating, cooperating, target and crises. ASD learners could write a simple phrase and short sentence after exhaustive efforts. Since ASD learners’ previous vocabulary mastery was excluded, it is worth pursuing further researchers to examine learners’ vocabulary and story writing development using the same application.

Teacher Evaluation (TE) is a critical and controversial process in the teaching profession and formal education system. Effective TE requires both sound policy implementation and efficient processes, affecting the efficiency of the education system. To present a framework for research and highlight the constructs of TE, this study developed and validated a teacher evaluation questionnaire. To this end, seven TE components were identified after undertaking a comprehensive review of the literature and conducting interviews with domain experts on TE. Then a draft version of the TE questionnaire, consisting of 105 items, was pilot tested with 330 teacher evaluators, who were working for various English language institutes in Iran. The results, using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), led to a 90-item questionnaire with strong estimates of reliability and validity. The results also demonstrated that the questionnaire consisted of a six-factor structure of perception, method, system, content, purpose, and outcome of TE. The subsequent Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) of the data from another 360 Iranian teacher evaluators, selected through convenience sampling, indicated that the six-factor structure of the questionnaire was statistically supported, meaning that the questionnaire’s detected constructs were not the result of random variance in the participants’ responses. The results of the study have presented a framework for research and highlighted the principles of teacher evaluation.

Issues related to bilingualism and the effects which might have on language learners’ cognitive and meta-cognitive variables have attracted the attention of a couple of researchers in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA).Since a couple of decades ago, there has been a plethora of studies on cognitive and metacognitive differences between bilinguals and monolinguals. However, the impact of bilingualism on EFL learners’ WMC and verbal intelligence has not be explored yet. The present study aimed at comparing the WMC and verbal intelligence of bilingual and monolingual language learners. In so doing, 30 Baluch EFL learners and 30 Persian speaker EFL learners were selected through convenience sampling. The data of the study were collected through running WMC measure and verbal intelligence test. The data of the study were analyzed through running descriptive and inferential statistics tests (independent samples-t-tests). Results showed that bilingual language learners outperformed the monolingual language learners in both WMC measures and verbal intelligence test. Therefore, it could be concluded that bilingualism affects EFL learners’ WMC and verbal intelligence. The findings have theoretical implications for applied linguists and psycholinguists and practical implications for teachers and syllabus designers.    

While metadiscourse has been extensively examined across several genres, contexts of publication, disciplines, and languages over the past two decades, researchers have mainly limited themselves to the qualitative checking of candidate metadiscourse markers for the various functions they serve. In the present study, however, we drew on retrospective methods coupled with semi-structured interviews to gain a deeper understanding of metadiscourse features applied linguistics apprentice and professional authors use in their research articles (RAs) in national and international English-medium journals. To achieve this goal, we built on Hyland’s (2019) interpersonal metadiscourse model to analyse RAs in three subsections including introductions, results, and discussion. We ran chi-square tests to examine the RA variations, following the descriptive analysis of the use of metadiscourse markers. A follow-up stimulated recall through semi-structured e-mail interviews was used. We used MAXQDA to analyse the interview data from authors. The results of qualitative and thematic analyses showed that metadiscourse markers play key roles in conveying the writers’ message and intention to the members of discourse communities. The findings of the study suggest raising apprentice writers’ awareness of the way they frame their message in research writing

While the advantages of cooperative learning activities have been extensively acknowledged in L2 literature, this type of pedagogy has not received due attention in the Iranian EFL context. Indeed, the traditional reading method still dominates in most Iranian EFL university classes even though it fails to meet its main objective which is training competent EFL readers. In an attempt to address this challenge, the current case study incorporated cooperative learning pedagogy into two EFL reading comprehension classes in a medium size university in Iran and sought learners’ behaviors and reflections toward the student-centered activities they engaged in during an academic semester. To serve that end, two volunteer cohorts of learners (less and more experienced) from two EFL reading comprehension classes were recruited. Class observation field notes along with focus group interviews comprised the data collection instruments of the study.  While the learners’ behaviors and activities were recorded in observation field notes throughout the semester, the two focus groups were interviewed right after the course had finished. Data analyses indicated that the learners expressed favorable attitudes toward the new approach they were involved in, even though some issues were raised by the interviewees. Some pedagogical implications and recommendations are proposed for efficient incorporation of cooperative learning activities in EFL reading comprehension classes which have traditionally been dominated by teachers based on the findings of the current study.