درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Three decades ago, the theory of education took a critical turn. From this perspective, classroom is no longer a public sphere of cultural assimilation but a site for identity struggle. The basic argument underlying such an approach is that education cannot be studied in isolation from an analysis of wider social and cultural influences. In such a context, this study investigated Iranian EFL teachers’ perceptions of the basic tenets of critical pedagogy. To this end, a mixed method approach was adopted and the data were gathered through in–depth interviews and questionnaires developed by the researchers. The participants of this study included 21 Iranian EFL teachers at the qualitative phase and 127 teachers at the quantitative phase. Qualitative data analysis included in-depth content analysis of oral data obtained from semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data analysis involved descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests. The results indicated that Iranian EFL teachers were supportive of the basic tenets of critical pedagogy altogether. Also, mixed findings were obtained concerning their views according to their level of education and field of expertise. Based on the findings, several suggestions are made for classroom management, materials development, and teacher training programs.

While teachers’ confidence in their abilities is a crucial asset in teachers’ professionalism and their identity development, their efficacy doubts are also considered useful. Given the diversity of English Language Teaching (ELT) contexts, this paper probes the dynamic nature of efficacy doubts the teachers face and are expected to resolve in English for General Purposes (EGP) and English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) instruction. To this end, based on the existing theoretical frameworks in EGP and ESAP methodology and interviews with 25 university English teachers, two questionnaires were developed and administered to 170 Iranian EGP and ESAP university instructors. The results of factor analysis confirmed five factors underlying ESAP teachers’ teaching efficacy doubts and four factors for EGP teachers’ teaching efficacy doubts. The results may promise implications for ESAP and EGP teacher education programs; teacher educators may address the common efficacy doubts identified in this study and expose the current in-service and future ESAP and EGP teachers to the typical factors which may potentially hamper their efficacy and help them resolve their efficacy doubts as a means towards professional development

این مطالعه موردی به بررسی این موضوع می پردازد که یک معلم تایوانی که در یک دوره ی کارشناسی ارشد آموزش زبان شرکت کرده است چگونه از زبانشناسی ساختارمند- نقش گرا و آموزش سبک محور در طراحی و آموزش زبان به فراگیران زبان انگلیسی در تایوان استفاده کرده است. با استفاده از روش مدت دار قوم شناسی، نتیجه این تحقیق نشان داد که برداشت و تصور این معلم از دستور زبان از دیدی سنتی، محدود به جمله و متمرکز بر ساختار به فهمی کاربردی تر از ارتباطات پیوسته مابین سبک و ویژگی های متن تغییر قابل توجهی کرد. این تغییر زمانی رخ داد که معلم توانست از زبانشناسی ساختارمند- نقش گرا برای فهم عملکرد زبان در ادبیات کودکان استفاده کند. با این وجود، میزان توانایی این معلم برای استفاده از زبانشناسی ساختارمند- نقش گرا و آموزش سبک محور در تمرینات کلاس تا حدی تحت تاثیر چارچوب برنامه ریزی شده ی اجباری تدریس و آزمون های رایج در مکانی بود که وی پس از بازگشت به تایوان در آن مشغول به کار شد. این تحقیق بیشتر در ایجاد فهمی جدید از دستور زبان در آموزش زبان انگلیسی و تربیت معلمان بهتر در آسیا کاربرد دارد.

The pivotal role of listening comprehension in second/foreign language learning requires that researchers conduct studies which investigate factors that affect test takers’ performances. The present study was set out to examine whether item modality (i.e., written vs. oral items) affects listening comprehension test performance. In addition, it investigated whether allowing test takers to take notes while listening would also affect their performances. To this end, two different tests, each containing 20 multiple choice items, were administered to 66 (35 female and 31 male) upper-intermediate EFL learners. The first test was administered to look into the role of item modality, and the second test was employed to investigate the effect of note-taking. The application of independent samples t-tests to analyze the data revealed that that test takers performed better when the items were provided in written rather than oral form, and that test takers’ performances did not differ significantly when they were allowed to take notes. More detailed findings and implications are discussed in the paper.

در ٢٠سال اخیر ترویج آموزش مستقل یکی از دغدغه های طراحان دوره های آموزشی و برنامه ریزان درسی بوده که به لحاظ ایدئولوژیک و روانشناسی نافذ شمرده می شود. با این وجود تخمین آمادگی زبان آموزان برای تغییر به سمت آموزش مستقل قبل از اعمال تغییرات از اهمیت ویژه ای برخوردار می باشد. بنابر این هدف پژوهش کنونی مطالعه ی الگوهای استقلال در میان زبان آموزان ایرانی بوده است. بر اساس تجزیه ی عاملی نتایج پرسشنامه ی میزان استقلال زبان آموزان، مشخص گردید که ٣ عامل زمینه ی رفتار مستقل زبان آموزان را توصیف می کرد. مقاله ی کنونی این ٣ فاکتور را به طور جداگانه تحلیل کرده و در نتیجه تاکید بر استفاده از این ٣ فاکتور در طراحی دروس مبتنی بر آموزش مستقل می نماید.

مقاله حاضر به بررسی ترجمه افعال روسی با پیشوند от- و معادل آن ها در زبان تاجیکی می پردازد. پیشوند от- در زبان روسی معاصر از جمله پیشوندهایی است که معانی متعددی دارد. مثال های مورد استفاده در این مقاله، مستخرج از فرهنگ روسی-تاجیکی و همچنین دو اثر لف تالستوی: آنّا کارنینا (ترجمه Рањим Њошим) و جنگ و صلح (ترجمه Њабиб Ањрорї)، می باشد. معادل های افعال روسی با پیشوند от- در زبان تاجیکی بیش از همه ساختارهای ساده و مرکب هستند. در ترجمه های بررسی شده، ساختارهای زیر مشاهده گردید: قید + فعل، قید فعلی مرکب گذشته + فعل، عدد+ فعل، عدد+ قید فعلی مرکب، عدد+ قید + فعل، عدد + اسم + فعل، قید فعلی گذشته + فعل، قید нагз+ فعل. پژوهش حاضر ثابت می کند بررسی افعال پیشونددار روسی یکی از مسائل روز و مهم زبان شناسی معاصر و بیان روش های ترجمه و انتقال آن ها به زبان تاجیکی به هنگام فراگیری زبان روسی در کلاس های تاجیک زبانان لازم و ضروری است.

The current study investigated the effect of collaborative prewriting activities on learners’ identity construction and L2 writing development. To this end, 43 sophomore upper-intermediate university students majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at an Iranian university who had enrolled in a course called Advanced Writing were randomly divided into two experimental groups (groups A and B) and one control group (group C). While the students in group A were involved in group activities, the students in group B were engaged in pair activities. The students in control group (group C) worked individually. As a pre-test, a pen-and-paper writing task was given to all the students at the beginning of the semester. During the semester, all the participants were exposed to the same materials and were taught by the same teacher for one semester. The only difference was the type of activities in which the participants were engaged. At the end of one semester, a pen-and-paper writing task was given to all the three groups. The findings of the post-test revealed that all the students could significantly improve their writing skills. Nevertheless, the students in group B significantly outperformed their counterparts. Most importantly, the results of identity analysis showed that the students in group A used authorial plural pronouns along with adjectives more frequently. The findings of this study confirmed two issues: first, the significant efficacy of prewriting activities were confirmed at the end of the semester. Second, each type of prewriting activity could affect the learners’ identity construction

Literature has already confirmed that student engagement as an external or multidimensional construct may contribute to the academic success of college students. However, very few studies have tried to examine the contributions the more ""internal forms of engagement"" (cognitive and affective) might make in this regard, and how the engagement patterns may change over the academic years. To fill the gap, this study was carried out to answer two research questions: (1) what is the relationship between the internal forms of engagement (cognitive-affective) and students’ academic success (represented by Grade Point Average--GPA)? ; (2) How does the pattern of the relationship change across years of study? To do so, a 40-item Cognitive-Affective Engagement Questionnaire (CAEQ) was developed, validated (α=.91), and administered to a sample of 312 undergraduate English major students (222 females and 90 males). The results indicated while cognitive engagement and academic success are positively correlated throughout years of study, the relationship reaches its peak for the affective engagement in the second year and then gradually diminishes. The findings have implications for curriculum and materials developers, as well as the English language teachers who seek programs which can consistently challenge and satisfy students throughout their studies.

Many textbooks include semantically related words and sometimes teachers add synonyms, antonyms, etc. to the words in order to present new vocabulary items without questioning the possible effects. This study sought to investigate the effect of teaching vocabulary through synonym, semantically unrelated, and hyponym sets based on Higa’s (1963) proposed continuum. A total of 120 Iranian intermediate EFL adults were selected and classified into two high and low language proficient learners based on their PET (2003) scores. They learned the vocabulary items based on the three above-mentioned methods. Learners’ vocabulary achievement was measured using Paribakht and Wesche’s (1993) Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) in order to assess both the quantitative (number of learnt vocabulary [NLV]) and the qualitative knowledge of vocabulary (depth of learnt vocabulary [DLV]) by administering the same test twice with a two-week interval for obtaining ST and LT results. To address research questions, two independent two-way ANOVAs and two mixed design two-way ANOVAs were conducted. The results revealed that the learners from synonym sets group gained better ST vocabulary achievement quantitatively and language proficiency level proved not to play any significant role in the learners’ vocabulary accomplishment based on belonging to any given group. It was also revealed that quantitatively hyponym, semantically unrelated, and synonym set groups were respectively the most effective methods of clustering that lead to less forgetting in LT which supports Higa’s proposition.