درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Central to the spirit of reflective teaching is the ability to focus critically on one’s own beliefs, cognitions, and concerns. Numerous proposals have been developed for implementing reflective practices in pre-service teacher education contexts with the aim of producing highly competent reflective teachers. However, it is imperative to identify the candidates’ beliefs and knowledge base before any interventions could be introduced to effectively trigger a response. This study utilized a reflection oriented model to explore pre-service language teachers’ concerns about language learning/teaching. Interview techniques facilitated such an in-depth exploration among a conveniently sampled 13 candidates studying at a teacher college in Iran. The content analysis of the interviews revealed that affective factors, classroom management, language-related fears, and tensions between their beliefs and practices were the candidates’ major concerns. On the whole, candidates’ preexisting learning experiences seemed to cast a shadow over their cognitions and concerns. Implications regarding reflective practicums in teacher education programs are discussed.

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.

This study investigated the relationship between classroom environment and teacher behavior, and EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ engagement and state motivation. To do so, 110 intermediate Iranian EFL learners with an average age of 18.37 were asked to complete What is Happening Inside the Classroom scale (WIHIC), Questionnaire for Teacher Interaction (QTI), Student Engagement Instrument (SEI), and Student State Motivation scale (SMS). The results of statistical analysis showed that there was a moderate relationship between all aspects of classroom environment (student cohesiveness, teacher support, equity, involvement, cooperation, and task orientation) and learners’ engagement (emotional and cognitive engagement). Moreover, there was a relationship between some aspects of classroom environment (student cohesiveness, task orientation, cooperation, and involvement) and state motivation. However, there was no relationship between teacher behavior, learners’ engagement, and state motivation. Implications are discussed and avenues for future research are outlined.

PhD thesis introductions help student writers to discuss the significance of their study and establish how their study relates to and draws on previous research. The present study used a genre-based approach to examine one subsection in introductions of applied linguistics PhD theses. To that end, Iranian PhD thesis introductions were textually analysed. A researcher-made questionnaire, grounded on the responses from a semi-structured interview, was administered to Iranian applied linguists and PhD students to seek their opinions regarding how the subsection should be written. Frequency counts and statistical tests were used to analyse the data using SPSS (version 22). Results of genre analysis showed varying lengths, non-alphabetic ordering of the terms, and frequent uses of indirect quotations to organise the subsection. Results of textual analysis also revealed significant overlap between the terms in introductions and keywords in abstracts. The terms primarily derived from research questions. Results of questionnaire response analyses showed no statistically significant differences between the attitudes of applied linguists and PhD students. Implications of the study for PhD introduction thesis writing are discussed.

This research sought to investigate the relationship between simultaneous interpreters’ oral cloze performance, their emotional intelligence, and gender. In other words, the study tried to predict the variability in performance on simultaneous interpreting (SI) oral cloze test based on the variability in gender, emotional quotient (EQ) and its subscales. To this end, a number of seventy participants majoring in English Translation attending the course Oral Interpretation were selected. The Emotional Quotient Inventory (Bar-On, 1997) questionnaire was given to participants to gather the data. The students were also asked to take an oral cloze exam. The results of the study showed that no significant relationship was found between total EQ and oral cloze performance. However, two of the subscales of EQ, i.e. Flexibility and Stress Tolerance were found to be positive predictors of SI oral cloze score together. The results of the study indicated that the mere acquisition of oral cloze skill as one of the skills required for simultaneous interpreting, cannot guarantee students’ achievement in interpreting. Rather the consideration of personality traits can have a facilitative effect. Moreover, with regard to gender no association was found between student interpreters’ performance and their gender.

This study was an analytical account of EFL postgraduate learners’ use of verbs in citing other scholars in their own writing. Particular interest was differing extents of these verbs as categorised by Myer (1997), namely verbs representing a statement of scholarly writing, verbs communicating knowledge of scholarly writing, and verbs denoting cognition of scholarly writing, each of which has subcategories. To achieve this, 40 postgraduate dissertations and theses by the University of Dar es Salaam students were purposively selected. From these citation verbs from the introduction and literature review chapters were posted to the Microsoft Excel sheets and frequencies of occurrences were computed for each verb before assigning them to their relevant categories. The findings indicate the predominance of verbs of cognition of scholarly writing (notably perception and interpretation verbs) followed by those denoting knowledge of scholarly writing (notably procedural verbs). The least used category was verbs belonging to a statement of scholarly, especially inclusive verbs with only 10 instances of occurrence.

The study examined language learning anxiety factors, hindering EFL learners’ process of learning, particularly in speaking settings and recommended useful approaches to cope with it. Using the quantitative approach as well as a qualitative semi-structured interview and focus-group discussion method, this study tried to examine the factors behind language anxiety among Iranian language learners both in the classroom and in the social context. 100 TEFL students participated in this study. The language proficiency was measured by TOEFL IBT test to make sure that the students were homogeneous. The findings suggested a variety of approaches to cope with language anxiety. It also revealed that there was a significant relationship between the participants’ language anxiety and their language proficiency. The results of the interviews showed that the teachers had a key role in increasing and decreasing the students’ language anxiety concerning psychosocial linguistic factors. The findings of the study can be helpful for providing some teacher-training courses, teaching language teachers some effective psychological techniques to decrease language learning anxiety factors, improving language learning process. Keywords: language le

The present study is an attempt to discover the relationships among reflection, role stressors and resilience. To this end, a mixed-method approach was adopted. In the quantitative phase, 122 EFL teachers completed three questionnaires namely English Language Teaching Reflection Inventory, Teacher Role Stressors Scale and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. The results of correlation indicated that there is a significant positive relation between reflection and resilience. However, the correlation between reflection and role stressors was found to be negative. Multiple regression revealed that of the five components of reflection, metacognitive and critical reflection are significant predictors of role ambiguity while only critical reflection can predict role conflict. Metacognitive and practical reflection were also found to be significant predictors of teachers’ resilience. In the qualitative phase, fifteen face-to-face interviews were conducted with the participants who had also taken part in the first phase of the study. Data were transcribed, coded and thematically structured based on a grounded theoretical perspective. The two main themes which emerged out of the interviews confirmed that reflection leads to resilience through strengthening teachers’ professional identity while it also leads to resilience or stress through making teachers prepared and knowledgeable. The possible justifications of the obtained results as well as the implications of this study for teaching English and teacher education in EFL context are discussed.