درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The systematic study of EAP teachers’ pedagogic content knowledge and their actual teaching practices in class is a fresh avenue in applied linguistics, especially in contexts like Iran, where, EAP courses are taught by two groups of teachers with different specializations; i.e., language teachers and content teachers. This study explored the similarities and differences between language teachers’ and content teachers’ PCK, and teaching practices, and students’ beliefs about their EAP teachers’ methodology at Medical Sciences Universities across Iran. In order to answer the research questions, a wide range of instruments including questionnaires, observations, semi-structured interviews, and field notes were utilized. Sources included language teachers, content teachers, students taught by language teachers, and students taught by content teachers. Representative samples of 318 EAP teachers and 1573 students participated in the study. The results indicated substantial inconsistencies across the two groups of teachers with respect to their PCK and teaching practices. The findings also showed that students favored language teachers’ methodologies and teaching practices. The findings promise implications for EAP instruction in Iran and highlight the pressing need for more systematic teacher training programs. 

This study investigated the effects of corrective feedback (CF) on the acquisition of English prepositions to find out which one would be more effective for third-grade high school learners in their grammar performance. This study also examined declarative and interrogative recasts to see which one the participants preferred to improve their grammar performance. To this end,75 out of 130 female students at the intermediate level in Khorramshar took part in this study. The participants were randomly assigned into one control and two experimental groups. All three groups took the same pre and posttests; however, the treatment was different. The recast group received CF in the form of recast and the other in the form of metalinguistic clues. The control group only received general comments, like good, bad, etc. The results indicated that both experimental groups improved in preposition recognition and production in their grammar performances. The findings also showed that there was no significant difference between the students'' performance in experimental groups, but metalinguistic CF was more helpful. A careful calculation using a questionnaire based on 5-points Likert Scale showed that there was no significant difference between the participants'' preference for two types of recast by the group receiving recasts.

Hedging academic claims has been recognized as one of integral pragmatic features of academic writing in which most EFL academic writers seem to face substantial problems. Explicit instruction has been proposed by some scholars as an effective approach to make EFL writers aware of the importance, different forms, and pragmatic functions of hedging devices some of which are polysemous and polypragmatics (e.g., Hyland 1996a). The present study with the aim of shedding more light on the effectiveness of explicit instruction in improving the pragmatic knowledge of Iranian EFL learners in terms of hedging devices, investigates the acquisition and use of English modal auxiliaries as hedging strategies via applying a direct teaching strategy in the classroom. To this end a sample of 37 undergraduate students majoring in different fields of study were recruited and assigned into a control and experimental group. Explicit instruction of the modal auxiliaries as hedging resources was applied for the treatment group while the control group received only the regular academic writing instruction. A pretest and a posttest were administered to the two groups. The descriptive analysis of the scores as well as the results of the t-tests revealed a significant progress in the participants’ linguistic and pragmatic knowledge of modal auxiliaries as hedges in the treatment group. The results also indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group in acquiring and using modal verbs to hedge their claims. The findings of the study provide insightful implications for the administrators of educational programs.

The aim of the current study was twofold: (1) to validate the internal structure of the general English (GE) section of the university entrance examination for Ph.D applicants into the English programs at state universities in Iran (Ph.D. UEE), and (2) to examine the factor structure invariance of the Ph.D. UEE across two proficiency levels. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the responses of a random sample of participants (N=1009) who took the test in 2014 to seek admission to English programs at Iranian state universities. First, four models (unitary, uncorrelated, correlated and higher-ordered) were estimated and compared to find the model that best represented the data. Then, the factor structure invariance of the test across two proficiency levels was explored using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. The higher-order and correlated three-factor model showed the best fit to the data. The result also showed that the structure of the test remained invariant across both proficiency levels. These results supported the multi-componential view of language proficiency. It was found that there is no relationship between levels of language proficiency and the structure of the test. However, the results called into question the score-reporting policy for the PhD UEE and led to the conclusion that a single total score does not reflect the structure of the test.

This study investigated the impact of code-switching on speaking ability of Iranian low proficiency EFL learners. Moreover, it was an attempt to show what functions existed behind code-switching strategies used by the EFL learners. To this end, 60 male and female Iranian EFL learners age-ranged between 20 and 30 participated in the study. Data collection instruments which were used were the Interchange Objective Placement Test, a pretest, a teaching material, and a posttest. The speech of 60 Iranian EFL learners was recorded while they were performing some picture-description tasks. Then, their speech was transcribed and analyzed. The collected data were subjected to independent-samples t-test. The results indicated the two main functions of code-switching were equivalence and floor-holding. Furthermore, the findings of the t-test demonstrated that code-switching was an effective strategy among low proficiency level EFL learners and it could increase their motivation and interaction in the class discussions. Thus, they can speak in a positive environment and speaking is not an inhibitory factor anymore in their English learning.