درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Since an effective technique to assess the level of thinking ability is to identify the types of questions one generates, the present research by employing a hybrid question framework, intended to investigate the status of thinking ability among Iranian EFL students in two majors of TEFL and English Literature in M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. To this end, through convenience sampling, a group of 51 students was asked to read two simple short texts and make any type of question(s) that would spring to their minds in essay-type format. Then, using purposeful sampling, 15 participants out of 51 were selected for a semi-structured interview. The findings revealed that nearly half of the participants did not generate thought-provoking questions, which might imply that beyond-routine thinking is not well attended to in the related context. Moreover, as the English Literature students were more capable of producing thought-provoking questions than the TEFL students, it can be inferred that an academic major can be considered an essential factor impacting one’s way of thinking. Furthermore, since the students of English Literature/TEFL in Ph.D. degree outperformed those in M.A. degree, it can be concluded that the academic degree can be accounted as an aiding factor influencing the level of thinking ability as well. Furthermore, in searching for the reasons affecting (non-) production of thought-provoking questions, several factors were discovered and categorized into impeding and promoting ones.

This study assessed the effect of using English songs on Iranian pre-school students’ speaking proficiency in Kerman. The study was conducted at Novin pre-school, in total, fifty pre-school students aged 5-6 participated in the study. At the beginning of the study, a pre-test of speaking was administered to the participants of the study. Then, they were assigned into two groups, 25 students were in the control group and 25 students were in the experimental group. English songs were used to expand the students' speaking proficiency in the experimental group and the participants of the control group utilized conventional methods of teaching speaking skills. After the treatment, a speaking post-test was administered to the participants of both groups to assess the effect of treatments on their speaking ability. The results were analyzed using the independent samples t-test and paired samples t-test. The results of the study indicated that English songs had a significant effect on the speaking ability of Iranian pre-school students in Kerman. Finally, the findings of the study assist the pre-school instructors to attract their students to learn a foreign language by using a song-based strategy.

This quantitative study examined the relationship between EFL learners’ choice of vocabulary learning strategies (CVLS), reading strategies (RS), and reading anxiety (RA). To this end, 123 Iranian EFL learners (81 female; 42 male) within the age range of 24 to 39 were selected by employing convenience sampling. The data collection instruments were the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (Saito et al., 1999), the Survey of Reading Strategies (Mokhtari & Sheorey, 2002), and the Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire (Schmitt, 1997). Subsequent to checking and verifying the pertinent assumptions, using Pearson’s correlation coefficient indicated that there was a significant and negative correlation between CVLS and RA and a significant and positive correlation between CVLS and RS; in addition, a significant and negative correlation between RS and RA was observed. Furthermore, the results of multiple regression analysis and comparing the β values revealed that RS makes the strongest statistically significant unique contribution to suppressing reading anxiety, and CVLS turned out to be the second significant preventer of RA. In general, the obtained results confirmed that both RS and CVLS can significantly prevent EFL learners’ RA; therefore, it is fairly reasonable to consider RS and CVLS while planning the pedagogical practice.    

Among four language skills, writing is a complex and demandingcognitive process.Writing is an important tool in evaluationwhere English proficiency needs to be assessed. The present study aimed to explore the impact of feedback provided by Grammarly Software compared to teachers’ feedback on the writing ability of Iranian EFL learners. Through the nonrandom sampling method, 60 intermediate male and female EFL learners were selected, then they were randomly assigned to two main groups: the experimental and control group. The participants were administered the Oxford Placement Test (OQPT), Pretest of Essay Writing, Grammarly software program, Posttest of Essay Writing, and an attitude questionnaire in ten sessions. The data gathered from the comparison of pretest and posttest revealed that the experimental group members outperformed those in the control group, meaning that the Grammarly software program positively affected the EFL learners' writing ability. The results might have implications for language teachers, learners, and materials developers.

This study investigated rhetorical functions and their associated linguistic realizations in English review article abstracts. The analysis was based on a corpus of 100 English review article abstracts from linguistics and applied linguistics disciplines and followed a corpus-driven discourse analytic top-down approach. MAXQDA and WordSmith were used to code the moves and analyze their associated sub-corpora, respectively. The results of calculating range and frequency distributions showed that English conceptual review article abstracts use a rhetorical structure, different from that of research paper abstracts. This rhetorical organization is realized through a different set of moves, namely 1) establishing the territory or area of study, 2) identifying the problem, 3) introducing the present research, 4) organizing the paper, and 5) concluding or reflecting. Moreover, each move was realized through a distinct set of sub-moves. In terms of range, the moves dealing with purpose and structure were the most widely present moves; in terms of frequency distribution, the move dealing with structure was the most frequent. Furthermore, the highly frequent use of plural self-mentions indicates that in review article abstracts the emphasis is on research as a group activity inclusive of the researcher(s) and objects of study. In addition, the presence of ‘establishing the territory’, together with ‘identifying the problem’ can be seen as an attempt to sell the research. Finally, the prevalent use of the five moves showed that most review article abstracts are indicative-informative in function

Unidimensionality is an important assumption of measurement but it is violated very often. Most of the time, tests are deliberately constructed to be multidimensional to cover all aspects of the intended construct. In such situations, the application of unidimensional item response theory (IRT) models is not justified due to poor model fit and misleading results. Multidimensional IRT (MIRT) models can handle several dimensions simultaneously and yield person ability parameters on several dimensions which is helpful for diagnostic purposes too. Furthermore, MIRT models use the correlation between the dimensions to enhance the precision of the measurement. In this study a reading comprehension test is modelled with the multidimensional Rasch model. The findings showed that a correlated 2-dimensional model has the best fit to the data. The bifactor model revealed some interesting information about the structure of reading comprehension and the reading curriculum. Implications of the study for the testing and teaching of reading comprehension are discussed.

This study aims to explore the relationship between Iranian undergraduate translation students’ level of anxiety and emotional intelligence (EI) when performing consecutive interpreting, and the quality of their interpreting performance. To this end, thirty Iranian undergraduate English translation students were invited based on convenience sampling to participate in this study. A researcher-made questionnaire was designed to measure students’ interpreting anxiety. Participants completed Schering's emotional intelligence and interpreting classroom anxiety scale (ICAS) to measure their level of EI and anxiety. The participants were then asked to consecutively interpret a three-minute video clip from English into Persian about anxiety disorder. Students’ interpreting performance was assessed by three experienced raters based on Carroll’s model of translation quality assessment for consecutive interpreting. The results showed that there was no statistically significant relationship between the students’ total score of EI and the quality of their consecutive interpreting performance. However, there was a negative correlation between students’ interpreting anxiety and the quality of their interpreting performance. Additionally, a negative association was found between students interpreting classroom anxiety and emotional intelligence. Consequently, the findings demonstrated that negative emotions and thoughts such as anxiety and stress reduce translation students interpreting ability. Moreover, based on the results, the interpreting theoretical instructions, as well as teaching psychological factors should be included in the translation teaching syllabus to train proficient and skillful interpreters in Iranian universities.