درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Pinpointing the role of language, emotion, and culture in intercultural interactions as the three basic needs of intercultural interactions is one of the most important problems in the intercultural field. Therefore, this paper probed the role of language, emotion, and culture simultaneously in intercultural communication in Iran. By using convenience sampling, one hundred Iranian language teachers were chosen and their language proficiency and ICC levels were specified by using Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and intercultural communicative competence (ICC) questionnaire. Then, the researchers used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to classify ICC questions under language, emotion, and culture categories.  After classifying the questions, the researchers used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), standard solution coefficient, standard path coefficient, T value, and Sobel formula to analyze the collected data from the ICC questionnaire based on participants' answers. The results revealed that language, culture, and emotion were the main macro-elements of intercultural communication. Also, it was shown that language was the most important need and macro-element in intercultural communication and then the second and third place went to culture and emotion respectively.  It was found that emotion acted as a mediator variable between language and culture and there was a relationship among language, culture, and emotion, too. This study was of high importance for language teachers, curriculum designers, textbook writers, intercultural experts, and cultural psychologists

There is ample research evidence indicating that task implementation options and design features differentially affect the linguistic quality of second language (L2) oral output. The overarching aim of the current research was to add to the available body of research findings by investigating what effects the combination of two task implementation options, namely pre-task planning and post-task transcription, exerts on L2 learners’ focus on form. The study involved sixty Iranian L2 learners who were presented with a picture story to be narrated under one of the following four conditions: pre-task planning (PTP), post-task transcription (PTT), both pre-task planning and post-task transcription (PTP/PTT), and control. Findings showed that while pre-task planning increased fluency and complexity, the anticipation of post-task transcription enhanced focus on form as indicated by more accurate performance. More importantly, pre-task planning along with the foreknowledge of post-task transcription of performance made for an exponential increase in accuracy, a gain which was achieved to the detriment of complexity. The outcomes are of pedagogical significance in that they lend support to the efficacy of using pre-task planning opportunity along with the anticipation of post-task transcription to elicit the highest accuracy level while learners are primarily concerned with conveying meaning.

The objectives of the present ethnography were three-fold: exploring the MA TEFL students' expectations of the Advanced Writing course taken as part of their coursework in the MA program, unearthing the actual classroom practices implemented, and eliciting any possible suggestions for its improvement. To this aim, stimulated recall and ethnographically-oriented qualitative research were used to interview nine MA students at IAU, Isfahan Branch and unravel their perspectives concerning the writing course they had passed. Non-participant observation was also used to triangulate the data and verify the students' responses regarding the expectations/problems of the course and the classroom practices besides cyclical data analysis to find the recurring patterns and themes in the data. Results showed the most serious problems were lack of enough writing practice during the course, limited class hours, and lack of feedback on students' writings. The prevalent classroom practices, on the other hand, were covering the APA writing style, teaching how to write the different sections of a research report, and working on essay writing during the first few sessions of the course. Finally, the top suggestions made by the students were adding practical writing activities to the course, having more writing courses, taking advantage of group work for students to monitor each other's work and provide peer feedback, and offering the course right before students take their thesis rather than in the first semester of the MA program. These findings can heighten the educator's awareness and contribute to a better understanding of students' needs/expectations regarding academic writing. Overall, by addressing the gap in understanding advanced EFL learners' expectations, this study can have practical implications that directly impact the teaching of writing. It can guide curriculum development, inform instructional approaches, enhance learner motivation and engagement, promote learner autonomy, and improve instructional materials, ultimately leading to more effective writing instruction and improved outcomes for advanced EFL learners.

Delivering supervisory feedback to teachers is considered a challenge in teacher education and evaluation. This study analyzed the rhetorical features and effectiveness of the academic commentary that observers write at the end of observation forms. The study aimed to explore the qualitative section of an observation form that is filled out by observers during classroom observation and obtain an understanding of macro and micro features, and how they are perceived by observers and observees through a questionnaire. For this purpose and on account of the Swalesian approach (2004), we gleaned 200 commentaries written by different observers across the country, examined the recurring rhetorical patterns of structure, and subsequently developed a questionnaire to elicit the effectiveness of these features in academic commentaries. The result revealed that as a review genre the extracted framework enjoyed a rhetorical structure generically representative of a common practice in characterizing academic commentary in the Iranian context, and in terms of effectiveness, although there were discrepancies, the majority of observers and observees were found to have shared concepts of how to establish rapport, present evaluation, and finalize the academic commentary.  

Metadiscourse is an essential component of academic writing, as it helps authors better communicate their ideas and engage their readers. It is through the analysis of the text's metadiscourse that one can explore academic writing and compare the rhetorical traits and preferences of various discourse communities (Hyland, 2005). To this end, this study examined the differences in the use, type, and frequency of interactional metadiscourse markers in the discussion and conclusion sections of political science and religious studies articles written in English language. The corpus of this study consisted of 45032 words extracted from fifty research articles, twenty-five articles in the field of political science, and twenty-five articles in the field of religious studies published between 2019 and 2023 in the top one high-impact factor and peer-reviewed international journals. To analyze the data, one Eta and two Chi-square tests were run. Considering the interactional resources of Hyland’s (2005) metadiscourse model, the researchers uncovered that despite some subtle differences in the use, frequency, and types of these metadiscourse markers, “hedges” were the most and attitude markers were the least frequently used metadiscourse markers employed in both political science and religious studies disciplines. The findings have some educational implications that shed light on the need to encourage English language teachers, university professors, and publishers in the fields of TEFL and ESP to provide EFL learners with appropriate sources and settings to increase their familiarity with various metadiscourse markers, especially the category of interactional MDMs that aids them write coherently and establish genuine interaction with audiences.

Teachers, as the center of the class, can make positive changes in their students' lives; they should be equipped with skills that will allow them to do their jobs effectively. The inclusion of productive immunity (i.e., the procedures that instructors go through to devise protective mechanisms against the effects of undesirable disruptions that might potentially endanger their desire to instruct) as one of these skills gives educators the capability to analyze and immunize their own performance. In light of this significance, it is of the utmost importance to reveal teacher productive immunity and its correlates, particularly in EFL (English as a foreign language) contexts. Regardless, there is a dearth of studies on the possible interplay among teacher immunity, professional identity, anger, grit tendencies, and psychological well-being in Iranian EFL settings. Therefore, the present study aimed to ascertain whether there was a statistically significant connection between the professional identity, anger, grit tendencies, and psychological well-being of Iranian EFL instructors and their immunity. A total number of 394 EFL teachers teaching at public schools (Khorasan Razavi and Khuzestan, Iran) took part in this analysis. The Language Teacher Immunity Instrument (LTII), The Teacher's Professional Identity Scale (TPIS), the L2-teacher Grit Scale (L2TGS), The Teacher Anger Scale (TAS), and The Psychological Well-Being at Work (PWBW) were administered electronically to respondents. The predictive power of teacher immunity was found in data analysis via Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The findings stress the need of including reflective practices, emotional control strategies, and immune system strengthening in teacher preparation programs.

The use of digital games has increased dramatically in the last two decades due to the augmentation in the number of Personal Computers (PCs) and mobile devices worldwide. Not only can digital games be played for entertainment, but also, they may have both positive and negative effects on their players. Various effects of digital games on individuals’ levels of attention span, concentration, and addiction have already been tested by numerous studies; however, their impact on incidental Second Language (L2) acquisition is still untouched by language researchers. To address this lacuna, this is a longitudinal observational study that lasted for three months to investigate the impact of digital games played by young learners for entertainment at home on their unintentional acquisition of English as an L2. The age of the participants ranged from 8 to 14 years old, and the experiment was conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. Three main games were played by the sample; namely, Free Fire, Minecraft, and Among Us. The findings revealed that digital gaming significantly influenced the vocabulary development of the participants, and gaming was a clear asset for their L2 acquisition. It was also found that the players’ level of vocabulary retention was high; however, two drawbacks were identified in this regard, namely, the prolonged screen time and vocabulary items specifically related to a given area of a particular game. Overall, this study can be an impetus for further research into evaluating the benefits or drawbacks of using digital games for specific aspects of L2 acquisition such as the development of cognitive abilities or enhanced understanding. 

The ability to assess the language learners’ progress has been known as one of the most important parts of EFL/ESL teachers’ literacy. Language assessment literacy (LAL). The notion of LAL has evolved over time, as a large number of researchers showed to be enthusiastic to study this research area. However, the number of studies on teachers’ Writing Assessment Literacy (WAL) is scanty. As writing skill is very necessary for language learners to communicate with native speakers of the English language, it is very important for writing teachers to develop assessment tasks to positively contribute to the rate of learners’ progress in writing skill. Therefore, it is of much significance to review the related studies on assessment literacy, language assessment literacy, and writing assessment literacy. In this review study, the relevant studies were reviewed and further directions for writing assessment literacy of EFL/ESL teachers are suggested to the researchers interested in the field.