درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This study explores how professional and student writers manifest their authorial identities and project their gender voices in their academic texts. To this end, 38 male-authored and 38 female-authored articles published in seven leading international journals were selected. Moreover, 38 articles written by male students and 38 articles authored by female students were collected from two universities in Iran. Taking an academic writing course, these students handed in their papers as term projects. These academic writings were analyzed based on Hyland’s metadiscourse framework comprising two major resources: interactional and interactive metadiscourse resources. The findings indicated the male authors mainly attended to discourse organization using more interactive resources while the female authors mostly solicited solidarity by employing more interactional resources. The professional authors engaged in a more critical stance using self-mentions and attitude markers and the students focused on discourse organization. Attitude markers and self-mentions, as markers of stance-taking, were absent in the students’ writing. The professional authors made use of their gender identity to promote their authorial identity instead of suppressing it. These results suggest that EAP programs should inform students how to employ both metadiscourse resources and their gender-based discourse choices to express their authorial identity more effectively.

AbstractA paradigm shift in education has led to implementing learner-centered pedagogy (LCP) which considers learners as the central element of the learning process, and it is progressively being encouraged in higher education. Examining the implementation of learner-centered pedagogy in English language teaching (ELT) context is important. While this paradigm of teaching has long been introduced to education in general and language teaching in particular, it is claimed that scant attention has been given to its implementation in Iranian EFL context. The present study was to compare the implementation of learner-centered pedagogy in assessment procedures at different Iranian universities. Therefore, using convenience sampling technique, 378 TEFL students from both genders and different ages (mostly 20 to 35 years old) were selected. To gather data, a reliable, valid researcher made LCP questionnaire was distributed among the participants. Gathered data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA. The results of the data analysis demonstrated that there was a significant difference between the performance of state university and Islamic Azad and non-state university, while no significant difference was observed between the performance of Islamic Azad and non-state university students. The outcomes can provide insights into considering learner-centered pedagogy in teaching to improve teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) program. Moreover, they can be practical for teachers, material developers, as well as syllabus designers.

This study aimed to explore the perception of translation educators about the need of teaching translation theories to undergraduate students of translation studies. BA Translation courses at Iranian Universities are generally practice–based. So, they lack meaningful teaching of translation theories and concepts. To this end, the researcher selected 62 translation teachers from seven universities of Iran based on their major and the study’s purpose. This study followed a quantitative design. The participants filled out an online questionnaire sent to them by email. The researcher designed the questionnaire based on the related literature review. The reliability of items was checked with Cronbach's Alpha. The result was 0.849, which shows the high consistency of questionnaire items. The face and content validity of the questionnaire was checked by two experts in the field. The questionnaire contained two main parts. One part included ten items on the implications of translation theories. The other part was designed for any general comments the professionals would like to add about each item. The findings indicated that most translator trainers have a generally positive attitude toward teaching translation theories. This study can be of great use for translators, those who work in the field, those who teach it, and those who study it.

Based on the controversial beliefs among L2 teachers about effective corrective feedback (CF) strategies, recast and prompts as 2 kinds of CF have drawn the attention of L2 researchers(e.g., Braidi, 2002; Iwashita, 2003; Loewen & Philp, 2006; Panova & Lyster, 2002; Sheen, 2004). Despite these numbers of studies, debate continues to exist about their usefulness as a CF technique. Whereas recasts provide a correct reformulation of L2 learners’ nontarget utterance, the other alternative type of feedback in L2 classroom settings is referred to as prompts (Lyster, 2004) because they provide signals that prompt L2 learners to self-repair rather than provide them with a correct reformulation of their nontarget utterance. Hence, the focus of this study was to examine the effect of recasts in comparison to prompts on the learning of English third person singular marker “s” by Iranian preintermediate L2 learners. Two CF techniques of recasts and prompts were utilized in 2 experimental groups in response to their errors in using the correct form of the verb for third person singular subject. In the third group as the control group, No-CF was provided by the L2 teacher. The results revealed that the Prompts Group had outperformed the Recast Group and No-CF Group. Thus, it could be concluded that prompts as a CF strategy led to more gains than CF that provided the L2 learners with the correct form (recast) than No-CF.  

The present study is aimed at investigating the relationship among Iranian EFL teachers’ reflective teaching, reflective thinking and classroom management ability. To this purpose, 102 male and female EFL teachers, aged between 25 and 40, with different academic background who were teaching at different levels, were chosen to fill in three questionnaires on reflective thinking, reflective teaching and classroom management. In this connection, the Spearman Rank-Order correlation was used as the analytical method to analyze the data and to come to the conclusion. The obtained result showed that there was a positive correlation between teachers’ reflective teaching and class management. A strong relationship was observed between reflective thinking and class management and there was also a positive correlation between teachers’ reflective thinking and reflective teaching.

The present study aimed at discovering the practices and strategies autonomous EFL learners pursue in their endeavor to master English. It thus set out in the Iranian context, with 60 EFL learners, both autonomous and non-autonomous, as participants. The gathered data through a questionnaire and an interview were subjected to content and descriptive analysis. The results showed that both autonomous and non-autonomous learners preferred to apply receptive activities rather than productive ones. However, autonomous learners practiced more productive activities such as composing emails, writing articles, chatting with native speakers and their friends, as compared with non-autonomous learners. Regarding the use of strategies, autonomous learners used more metacognitive strategies, while non-autonomous learners preferred social strategies.

The learners’ ability to write a well-organized argumentative essay has gained prominence within the last decades. The multiple intelligences play a significant role in enhancing the precision of both language and thought during the writing process. The current study aimed at investigating the possible relationship between linguistic and logical intelligences and the frequency of informal fallacies and evidence types in Iranian EFL learners’ argumentative essays. To the end, a total of 110 upper-intermediate EFL learners were asked to respond to the relevant items of Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scale (MIDAS) and to write an argumentative essay. The informal fallacies and four categories of evidence were identified using two models of argumentation. Among several categories of informal fallacies and evidence, only statistical evidence was absent in argumentative essays. The results of Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient revealed a significant relationship between the participants’ linguistic and logical intelligences and the frequency of informal fallacies and evidence types in their argumentation. However, no significant difference was found between male and female EFL learners in terms of the frequency of informal fallacies and evidence types in their argumentative essays. The findings contribute to enhancing the efficiency of writing materials and courses by considering the learners’ individual differences.

Problem-based Learning (PBL) as one of the newest teaching methods in the area of language teaching in second and foreign contexts, has been used by teachers in the last two decades in different institutes. In the current study, attempts were made to find out the effect of the two PBL subcategories, i.e. Hybrid Problem-based Learning (H-PBL) and Pure Problem-based Learning (PPBL) in comparison to a traditional lecture-based method, on Iranian EFL university learners’ speaking skill and their self-confidence, by implementing these two methods in the EFL classroom using eight teacher-made real-world problems. To this purpose, 56 undergraduate participants of Payam Noor university (PNU) in Abadan, Iran, were randomly selected, divided into a control group and two treatment HPBL and PPBL groups. The statistical analysis of the obtained results of the participants’ pretest-posttest scores, through one-way ANCOVA and Man-Whitney U test, revealed that the treatment groups outperformed the control group in speaking skill and self-confidence The findings of the study might bear implications for teachers and university curriculum designers to take more proper approaches towards the instructing university participants.

Academic literacy is a transformative approach to EAP studies that highlight the backgrounds and needs of the EAP learners in order to empower them by participating in the social practices of the international research community. From this perspective, EAP textbook development research aims to find how textbooks could empower EAP learners though considering their real needs. Accordingly , this study aims to find how EAP textbooks match/mismatch with the EAP learners’ needs. The sample of the study included 40 participants who were selected through purposeful homogeneous sampling. All participants who had passed ‘English for the Students of Science (ESS)’ as the main textbook of the EAP course completed a structured interview questionnaire that its findings were gone under content analysis and a nonparametric test of rankings themes, i.e. Friedman test. Then textbook was evaluated in terms of the established frameworks. Finally, identified themes of the interviews were compared with the content of the textbook evaluation. Findings of the study showed that EAP learners prioritized reading, writing, listening, and speaking English language skills respectively as the main language needs in the EAP community of practice. The study also found that although the design of the EAP textbook matched learners’ needs at the macro-level of needs analysis, there was little enough evidence in the content of the book that could support and match these EAP learners’ needs. The findings might have many implications for EAP textbook developers, learners, and teachers. 

The current research was an effort to study the interaction of gender with text enhancement and meta-cognitive grammar instruction on learning and recall of English grammar. To this end, two groups of students consisting of 51 learners from both genders were formed. The participants were 51 male and 51 female learners. The 51 participants of each gender were further divided into two groups. Then, an OPT was administered to ensure homogeneity of the participants in terms of grammatical performance as well. Following that, two of the groups received text enhancement method and the other two groups received metacognitive instruction for learning grammar. Finally, the groups sat for a grammar posttest as well as a delayed posttest. When looking within groups, it was found the in metacognitive groups, males performed better on grammar posttest and delayed posttest in comparison with females. Regarding text enhancement groups, males and females did not significantly differ from each other both on posttest and delayed posttest. Finally, it was concluded that gender has the potentiality to affect the outcome of instruction when the role of input is considered in grammar instruction.

در این مطالعه، محققان قصد داشتند تا دیدگاه های فراگیران زبان انگلیسی را براساس چهار زمینه ارتباطی از جمله اعضای خانواده، زبان آموزان انگلیسی، همکلاسی ها و بهترین دوستان شان به نمایش بگذارند. برای این منظور گروهی از نوجوانان ایرانی (38 نفر) با دامنه سنی 12 تا 16 سال (مرد 24، زن 24) به صورت تصادفی از سه موسسه آموزش زبان انگلیسی در شهرستان سبزوار، خراسان رضوی انتخاب شدند. محققان با استفاده از پرسشنامه معتبر تیلور (2010)، یک نسخه اصلاح شده از پرسشنامه تیلور رابا تاکید بر مدل های بررسی هویت جهت پی گیری اهداف تحقیق حاضر شامل 1) نواسانات ادراکی فراگیران ایرانی برای یادگیری زبان انگلیسی با توجه به چهار زمینه ارتباطی در فوق و 2) بینش آنها نسبت به دو نوع هویت درک شده ( عمومی و تحمیلی) در دو زیر شاخه ی "در حال حاضر و آینده" و3) جهت گیری ارتباط میان این دو نوع هویت و عملکرد کلی فراگیران در یادگیری زبان انگلیسی بررسی نمودند. یافته های اولیه نشان داد که در تعریف های متنوعی از انواع شخصیت در میان فراگیران، در خصوص ترجیحات مربوط به "اعضای خانواده" در فرایندهای یادگیری و عملکرد آینده، نقش اعضای خانواده در عملکرد یادگیری پررنگ بود. با توجه به ترجیحات پاسخ دهندگان نسبت به دستیابی به اهداف خود در یادگیری زبان انگلیسی بر اساس هویت (عمومی و تحمیلی)، مشخص شد که سطح اعمال "معلمان زبان" و "خانواده ها" بر فراگیری زبان آموزان تقریبا یکسان بود گرچه دسته بندی های مربوط به هویت تحمیلی در حال حاضر و آینده و در جامعه خود، اعضای خانواده دوباره امتیاز بیشتری داشتند. در نهایت، نتایج حاصل از تجزیه و تحلیل بعدی داده ها در مورد رابطه بین دو جنبه هویت (تحمیلی در مقابل عمومی) و شاخص خودگزارشی عملکرد در زبان انگلیسی نشان دهنده ارتباط معنی دار تنها با شاخص های هویت تحمیلی بود. در نهایت، تحلیل و تفسیر نتایج به منظور شناخت کلی افراد مرتبط با فرایند یادگیری زبان مورد بحث قرار گرفت.

Knowing how to think about the language learning process is conducive to effective learning especially in the case of grammar structures. Metacognition, a concept derived from cognitive psychology, can assist learners in this case. With regard to young adolescents at lower proficiency levels, there is a long-standing debate on whether to use L1 for teaching metacognitive strategies since learners might not be efficient enough in terms of understanding the concept of metacognition. Therefore, this small-scale experimental study focused on the effect of grammar instruction through the metacognitive intervention delivered in L1 on the EFL pre-intermediate learners' grammatical performance in English and investigated their attitudes towards grammar instruction delivered in L1. To fulfill these purposes, a homogenous group of 20 language learners was randomly divided into an experimental group ( n =10 ), which received grammar instruction through the metacognitive intervention delivered in L1, and a control group ( n =10 ), which received the instruction only in English without grammar instruction through the metacognitive intervention delivered in L1. The results of the independent samples t -test indicated that the experimental group did not outperform the control group in terms of all four English grammar points, namely present perfect, simple past tense, comparative and superlative adjectives, and past progressive . In addition, the findings obtained from the five-point Likert scale questionnaire which was distributed among the learners suggested that they had positive attitudes towards the use of L1 (Persian) in teaching English grammar. We argue that low working memory capacity, overreliance on translation, and less-cognitively activated L2 processes may account for the low performance of the experimental group learners in the grammar tests. The implication is that the L1 use in an L2 classroom can be helpful in teaching L2 grammar through the metacognitive intervention, but future studies need to examine how and to what extent L1 should be used to yield more effective results in the case of lower-proficiency learners in an EFL context.