Issues in Language Teaching

Because of the importance of instructor success in the adequacy of instruction and learning, this study aimed to explain the impact of two factors, namely language teachers’ professional identity and autonomy, with respect to their success. To this end, 190 Iranian EFL teachers, including university lecturers and language institute teachers, participated in this study. As for data collection, the Teacher Autonomy Questionnaire (TAQ), the Teacher Professional Identity Scale (TPIS), and the Characteristics of Successful Language Teachers Questionnaire (CSLTQ) were distributed among the respondents. Using Cronbach’s alpha estimates and correlational analyses, the reliability of the questionnaires and the associations among the TAQ, TPIS, and CSLTQ were examined, respectively. The results of Pearson correlations revealed that there were significant positive correlations among all three teacher factors. These findings were also confirmed by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) results; teacher success was predicted positively and significantly by both professional identity and autonomy. Outcomes of this research suggest that teachers’ professional identity and autonomy are highly beneficial to their success. This study also outlined the elements of teachers’ professional identity that could be more useful for their success. In the end, relevant pedagogical implications are discussed.

Emotion and cognition are both considered influential factors in language learning. In this study, the role of "emotioncy" (which is a combination of emotion and frequency) in the cognitive load and sentence comprehension of a group of language learners was examined. Emotioncy includes emotions that are evoked by the senses. To this aim, 200 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners were asked to fill out the NASA Task Load Test, a sentence comprehension test, and an emotioncy scale. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was run to measure the construct validity of the emotioncy scale. Subsequently, Pearson Product-Moment correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data. The results showed that emotioncy has a significantly negative and positive relationship with cognitive load and sentence comprehension, respectively (p

Although Persian and English share many common phonemes, there are some phonological features that are present in English but absent in Persian which tend to lead to mispronunciation on the part of Persian learners of English, mostly through negative transfer. The present research assesses the efficacy of a communicative framework in improving Iranian adult EFL learners’ pronunciation of five English phonemes absent in the phonological system of Persian. Thirty EFL learners, divided into experimental and control groups, participated in the training course which lasted 22 sessions (330 minutes). The experimental group was instructed using the communicative framework for teaching pronunciation while the control group received traditional methods of pronunciation teaching. The pronunciation quality of these sounds were then assessed by four native and four non-native English teachers as well as by the PRAAT speech analysis software in the case of the vowels. Although no significant difference was detected between the experimental and control groups with regard to posttest results, a positive trend was observed in favor of the experimental group regarding specific features (e.g., formant frequencies, duration, center of gravity) of the problematic sounds.

Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses is highly demanding for EAP teachers as they are faced with diverse pedagogical and administrative challenges in such courses. This study addressed the level of burnout among EAP teachers and variations in relation to their demographic and organizational characteristics. To this aim, a demographic questionnaire along with the Persian version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was administered to 276 EAP teachers from state universities in Iran. The results revealed that a considerable number of EAP teachers reported mid-levels of personal accomplishment. Moreover, variations in degree of burnout were found among EAP teachers in relation to marital status, age, years of experience in teaching EAP and content/general English courses, educational background, and the field and number of EAP courses taught. Also, EAP teachers with different demographic and organizational characteristics who were more susceptible to burnout were identified. Finally, implications for enhancing the working conditions of EAP teachers are presented.

Computerized Dynamic Assessment (CDA), encouraged by Brown and colleagues’ graduated prompt approach, is grounded in Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory (SCT) of mind and its concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD). It emerged to respond to the challenge of implementing DA in large classes and to meet the psychometric properties of assessment. To this end, the present study attempted to design a unique computerized dynamic assessment tool to diagnose learners’ development of pragmatic competence, specifically their knowledge of the speech acts of apology and request. To conduct the research, a number of 60 BSc students of engineering, aged 18-24, participated in the study. They had different proficiency levels, including pre-intermediate, intermediate and upper-intermediate levels. In the course of CDA, they were provided with 30 multiple choice discourse completion tests of apology and request and they were required to choose what they would say in that specific situation. The participants received pre-established meditational hints for each of the unacceptable responses, which were arranged from the most implicit to the most explicit. Finally, to diagnose learners’ development, their test performance, including their actual score, mediated score and learning potential score (LPS), was instantly displayed. Paired samples t-test showed development in learners’ mediated score. The results of the univariate analysis of variance showed that there is no interaction between mediation and proficiency level. Teachers can use this supplementary dynamic assessment tool to diagnose learners’ development of pragmatic competence.

The digital information age requires skills and strategies that are crucial in comprehending online academic texts. Also, research has emphasized the crucial role of critical thinking (CT) in education. Thus, this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study aimed to (a) identify Iranian EFL students’ metacognitive online reading strategies and CT skills, and (b) investigate the possible relationship between Iranian EFL students’ metacognitive online reading strategies in academic texts with their CT skills. To these ends, 80 Iranian EFL university students, selected nonrandomly from Shahrekord University, took part in this study and responded to the Pookcharoen’s (2009) Online Survey of Reading Strategies and Facione, Facione, Blohm, and Giancarlo’s (2002) California Critical Thinking Skills Test. In the follow-up, to probe into metacognitive online reading strategy use, 10 Iranian EFL university students were selected to do think-aloud online reading tasks. The descriptive statistics indicated that the EFL university students greatly preferred to use problem solving strategies more, followed by different global and support reading strategies respectively. Also, evaluation and inductive (sub)skills of CT were used mostly by the university students. Moreover, the results of the think-aloud provided evidence in support of quantitative results, confirming various problem solving, global and support strategy use in online academic reading. Furthermore, Pearson correlations revealed a positive and significant relationship, though it was small, between metacognitive online reading strategy use and CT skills. Integrating the findings from the quantitative and qualitative components call for metacognitive strategy assistance and instruction and CT development to improve online reading comprehension.

Even though many classroom-based studies reported the possible advantages of oral corrective feedback (OCF) for language learning, little information is available about teachers’ beliefs about OCF in classrooms and its relationship with their experience. This study attempted to compare the stated beliefs and classroom practices of three female English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers about OCF. In so doing, data was collected through video-recording three sessions of their teaching procedure and the follow-up stimulated recall interviews. The results of the study showed that irrespective of their teaching experience, the participating teachers unanimously believed that provision of OCF in the class is of prime importance. However, the use of all types of OCF practices was just observable in experienced teachers’ classes and the novice one preferred the duality of explicit correction and metalinguistic feedback and did not provide any recasts and elicitations. It was also found that learner-related issues seemed to be working within the limits of teaching experience in shaping the three teachers’ beliefs about providing OCF practices. Moreover, the novice teacher showed to resort to her own language learning in justifying her OCF practices. Implications of the findings are discussed and some suggestions are provided for further research.

Second language acquisition (SLA) research suggests that learners differ in the extent to which they can direct their attention to the meaning and form of the input. Among various factors responsible for this discrepancy, learning style by itself or along with other factors might influence the process, yet its impact has rarely been addressed in empirical studies. The present study aimed to investigate how learners with different learning styles allocate their attention to form and content when exposed to different input modalities. For this purpose, 73 male and female university students from three intact groups, participated in the research. First, the Ehrman & Leaver (E& L) Construct Questionnaire was implemented to determine the participants' learning styles. Then, the reconstructive Elicited Imitation (REI) Tests comprising a reading and a listening section were administered to specify how learning styles might allocate their attention if exposed to different modalities. Moreover, to obtain further evidence regarding how they would attend to the form and content, a structured interview was employed. The analysis of Chi-square showed that the atomistic learners processed the linguistic features more effectively while the holistic learners focused more on the content. The results further indicated that both types of learners had difficulty processing oral input, although the atomistic learners outperformed the holistic learners in attending to the formal features. Finally it was revealed that learning style is a crucial factor, directing the EFL learners how to divide their attention between form and meaning, but input modalities can only influence the process.

While the use of apps specifically designed for language learning has witnessed a surge over the past decade, research on the productivity of these apps for language learning purposes along with their essential design and content features from students’ lens remains scant. The present paper illustrates an attempt to explore the way using language learning apps throughout an academic semester develops university level students’ semi-technical English language knowledge and the features and qualities they find essential in these educational apps. Drawing on empirical data obtained from pre- and post-tests and App Feature Interview form, it was observed that students who used language learning apps had a significantly better performance in a semi-technical English language post-test compared to the students who did not use language learning apps of their choice. Following content analysis, participants’ responses to an interview question were explored to determine the qualities they found crucial for language learning apps. Students highlighted 18 qualities, which were categorized under three main themes: smartphone, pedagogical content, and design features, as required for effective language learning apps. The findings of this study provide insights for educational app designers and educators on what works better in these apps from users’ perspective.

Various models of Dynamic Assessment (DA) have been used in L2 pragmatic instruction and have proved their significant contributions to pragmatic production; however, there is a paucity of research regarding their implementation for pragmatic comprehension. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the effects of interactionist and interventionist models of DA on the accuracy and speed of pragmatic comprehension among a convenience sample of 60 advanced EFL learners who were randomly assigned into two DA groups and a control group. A listening pragmatic comprehension test developed and validated by Garcia (2004) was used both as a pretest and as a posttest. During the 14-session treatment, the interactionist DA group received metapragmatic instruction about 28 conversations, and learners interacted with each other and the teacher. Assistance and scaffolding were continuously provided by the teacher as the more knowledgeable other (MKO) within the learners’ Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The interventionist DA class received its treatment based on DA procedures as presented by Lantolf and Poehner (2010). However, the Non-DA group only received metapragmatic instruction about the conversations from the instructor without any DA-based intervention or interaction. Data analysis using one-way ANCOVA revealed that study groups differed in their pragmatic comprehension accuracy and speed: DA groups significantly outperformed the control group. The interventionist DA group did significantly better than the interactionist DA group for pragmatic accuracy but nor for pragmatic comprehension speed. The pedagogical implication of the study is that teachers can utilize interventionist and interactionist DA to foster learners’ pragmatic comprehension accuracy.

It is one of the major areas of interest within the field of educational research to examine the role of teachers, their professional accomplishment and influential factors affecting or inhibiting the practice; of which, the study of teacher identity has taken on fundamental property. Thus, the present study explored different aspects of a language teacher identity which led to the development of the theoretical framework of Holistic Identity of Language Teachers (HILT) based on the grounded theory. The data were collected in semi-structured individual interviews from 64 teachers in Iran. Employing a version of Strauss and Corbin’s (1998) coding paradigm, emerged a framework of a set of categories in terms of ‘process’ (i.e., becoming a teacher) as well as the grounding categories of ‘Persona Grata’ and ‘Public Persona’, resulted in the core category of ‘Teacherality’, along with three categories of ‘Navigating Strategies’, ‘Conditional Contributors’, and ‘Contextual Patterns’. The final consequence of the framework is ‘Actual Teaching Approach’, referring to the eventual phenomenon of the evolutionary continuum of being a holistic language teacher. The most obvious finding of the study refers to the emergent as well as evolutionary nature of HILT. Following the interplay between self and society in emergence of HILT, the schema was proposed to round up all revealed and unnoticed aspects of language teacher identity which can be implemented operationally to redefine, highlight, and activate its unprecedented role in an Iranian context.

Studies on the generic structure of thesis and dissertation acknowledgments have resulted in some influential models such as Hyland’s (2004) and Al-Ali’s (2010) models. Few studies, if any, have investigated the generic structure of acknowledgments in books. Therefore, the present study was an attempt to find out whether the acknowledgments of books follow an organizational pattern. To this end, 200 books (100 written by native and 100 by non-native speakers of English) which included acknowledgements section, from a mass of 1000 books, were considered. The data were analyzed with reference to Hyland’s (2004) scheme. The results obtained from the analysis of the acknowledgments written by both native and non-native writers of English revealed that the overall structure of the acknowledgements section of the books follows an organizational pattern which is a combination of two models: Hyland’s (2004) scheme (all moves and steps), Al-Ali’s (2010) model (Praising and Thanking God Step and Signing off Move) and two new moves: Copyright Move and Commenting Move. The findings suggest that a full appreciation of this organizational pattern can help writers to enjoy this unique space for thanking all those who have contributed to completion of their work and academic identity formation.