درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Extensive research exists on the effects of task design features on measuring L2 learners’ implicit and explicit knowledge. However, the role of structure difficulty has received limited attention. Additionally, the use of fine-grained measures of implicit knowledge has remained underexplored. To address these gaps, utilizing objective criteria to select easy (plural -s) and difficult (third-person -s) structures, a total of 256 experimental items, equally divided into grammatical and ungrammatical, as well as easy and difficult structures, were developed and administered to 32 advanced L2 learners. A word monitoring task (WMT) assessed their implicit knowledge through reaction time (RT) and grammaticality sensitivity index (GSI), while a timed grammaticality judgment test (TGJT) measured their automatized explicit knowledge through accuracy scores. The WMT results showed longer RTs for ungrammatical items and larger GSI for the plural -s items, revealing participants’ more implicit knowledge of the easy structure. The results of the TGJT revealed that L2 learners judged grammatical items more accurately than ungrammatical ones and the plural -s items more accurately than third-person -s ones, showing participants’ more automatized explicit knowledge of the easy and grammatical structures. The findings highlight the influence of grammaticality and structure difficulty on knowledge retrieval and suggest that advanced L2 learners exhibit stronger implicit and automatized explicit knowledge of the easy structure. These findings underscore the need for tailored instructional approaches to address difficult structures and emphasize the importance of using real-time psycholinguistic measures to examine L2 learners’ implicit knowledge.

Because of the significance of teachers’ individual and psychological qualities in affecting their performance, an increasing number of studies have been conducted to probe the relationships among teacher constructs in influencing their professional development. In an attempt to clarify the association among teacher constructs, the current study examined a structural model hypothesizing the predictive role of teachers’ resilience and psychological well-being in promoting their professional development using 300 Iranian English language teachers as a sample. In doing so, the validated scales of the three mentioned constructs were administered to gather data and Structural Equation Modeling was utilized to evaluate the hypothesized model of the variables. The findings indicated that both resilience and psychological well-being significantly predicted professional development for the whole sample. However, psychological well-being appeared to be a stronger predictor of professional development in comparison with resilience. The results are discussed, and the pedagogical implications are proposed for teacher education programs.

The question of whether, and to what extent, different measures of pragmatic knowledge mirror students' capabilities as represented in their authentic application of language has been an important consideration in the vicinity of interlanguage pragmatics. To examine the production of politeness markers, as defined by House and Kasper's (1981) seminal work, this study compared and contrasted language learners' performance across four different measures of pragmatic competence: Written Discourse Completion Test, Oral Discourse Completion Test, Role-play, and Natural Methodology in an EFL setting. Furthermore, the requests made by 27 learners in natural situations and by means of WDCT, ODCT, and Role-play with similar characteristics were analyzed. The results revealed that hesitators enjoyed high prevalence in Natural Methodology and consultative devices and scope-stators were more popular in the WDCT, ODCT, and Role-play suggesting, regardless of some minor similarities, significant disparities between the three conventional data-gathering techniques and Natural methodology. The investigation exhibits that Natural Methodology might not necessarily be the ideal pragmatic measure to truly represent all politeness markers. WDCT, ODCT, and Role-Play could be more appropriate to draw on learners' explicit/declarative knowledge, though Natural methodology might be more advantageous to capitalize on learners' automated/procedural knowledge.

Due to the fact that job satisfaction plays a crucial role in teacher attrition, numerous scholars have investigated the predictive variables for occupational well-being in educational contexts. However, this research area has been relatively ignored in higher education contexts. To fill this lacuna, this research employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design to examine the predictive roles of teacher mindfulness and self-efficacy in impacting the job satisfaction of English instructors in various Iranian universities. In the quantitative phase, data from 226 EFL instructors were analyzed following a rigorous screening of an initial pool of 234 participants who completed measures of the focal constructs. Structural equation modeling (SEM) confirmed that teacher mindfulness and self-efficacy significantly predicted job satisfaction, with self-efficacy emerging as the strongest predictor. Furthermore, mindfulness exerted a significant indirect effect on satisfaction through the mediation of self-efficacy. In the subsequent qualitative phase, follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive subsample of 12 instructors to clarify the mechanisms underlying these statistical paths. Thematic analysis revealed that mindfulness facilitates a "psychological pause" through affective detachment, while self-efficacy provides the pedagogical agency necessary to maintain value-action congruence despite institutional stressors. These results suggest that mindfulness acts as a cognitive precursor that enhances pedagogical presence and professional resilience. The implications for developing targeted onboarding strategies and mindfulness-based interventions in higher education are discussed.

Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) is a widely adopted pedagogical approach that emphasizes real-world tasks to enhance second language acquisition. In a bid to empirically assess TBLT effectiveness, this study focused on the extent to which TBLT functions in the development of EAP students' pragmatic competence. To this end, 150 adult undergraduate Iranian students from various majors participated in this study. Also, three authentic role play tasks were designed based on a needs analysis, focusing on scenarios relevant to an EAP setting. Given the data nature, parametric statistical approach in the form of MANOVA of both pre-and post-test data was run to measure the students’ pragmatic competence prior to the intervention and following it. The pretest data-based MANOVA revealed no significant differences among the four groups not only in their overall pragmatic competence but also in the target sub-competences of it including instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, explanation, share knowledge, and imagination competences; thereby indicating groups homogeneity prior to the treatments. However, the post-test data analysis in the light of MANOVA resulted in an exactly opposite direction in that significant differences were reported in all six sub-competences, underscoring the effectiveness of task-based assessment methods in enhancing pragmatic competence in general. Post hoc analysis also confirmed the post-test data-based MANOVA. So, the findings underscore that authentic task-based assessment effectively enhances students' pragmatic competence, fostering their ability to use the language appropriately and confidently in real-life communication situations. This study underscores the significance of methodological rigor in evaluating pragmatic competence in educational contexts.

With the emergence of new online technologies and computer-mediated language teaching, many recent studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of online peer assessment. The present mixed methods study examined the effect of online peer assessment on Iranian intermediate-level EFL students` writing accuracy. In the quantitative phase of the study, 28 EFL learners studying in an English institute were randomly assigned to two groups and were taught for 14 sessions. The experimental group attended online peer assessment on Wiki as a forum for out-of-classroom discussions regarding English writing, and the control group attended face-to-face peer assessment. To analyze the numerical data collected through a pretest and a posttest, an independent sample t-test was used to investigate the difference between the two group scores before and after the assessments. The results showed that the difference between the posttest means of the experimental group and the control group was significant. Moreover, the results of analyzing the qualitative data, gathered through focus-group interviews, also confirmed the quantitative results, revealing the positive opinions of the interviewees about the role of technology in language learning. Therefore, online peer assessment seems to have benefits that make it worthwhile despite all the difficulties and extra effort of introducing and teaching it to students. The findings may have implications for material designers, language teachers, and language learners.

The growing interest in learning English language as an international language through international textbooks has necessitated the need for the evaluation of the cultural content embedded in English coursebooks. With regard to the close interrelation of language and culture, this study investigated the extent to which cultural aspects are represented in two international EFL textbooks. To this end, content analysis was used to analyze two commercial coursebooks (i.e., Summit 1a and Viewpoint 1), which are used in Iranian language institutes. The results of the directed content analysis revealed that two subcategories emerged from the content analysis (i.e., technology and environment), which were coded as an off-list category. Therefore, it was found that the reevaluation and extension of Stern’s (1993) framework for culture is necessary. Moreover, the results of the quantitative content analysis showed that there was not a balanced representation of cultural aspects in the selected coursebooks and the most frequent element was individual values in life. In addition, it was found that there was significant variation between the two coursebooks in the representation of culture. The study concluded that more in-depth investigation of cultural content is needed to develop cultural awareness of language learners. This study has implications for language material developers, language teachers, and language learners.

This study examined the possible effects of orthographic/phonologic priming techniques on the receptive language skills of Iranian EFL learners with different proficiency levels. From an initial pool of 700 EFL learners from a language learning institute, two hundred and seventy learners from both genders were selected based on their performance on an English proficiency test and classified into six experimental and three control groups. After gaining certitude about the participants’ English proficiency levels, the semantic and orthographic/phonologic priming phase was conducted, and consequently, the participants’ contextualized comprehension of the primed words was assessed via a set of reading and listening comprehension tasks. The performances of the participants on the designed tasks indicated that semantic primes were more efficient for improving both comprehension skills compared with the orthographic-phonologic primes. Moreover, based on the results, language proficiency affected the success of the primes on both reading and listening comprehension tasks; advanced learners showed a greater improvement than the beginners and the intermediates under the influence of the priming techniques. Orthographic-phonologic primes were found to be more efficient for beginners, whereas the advanced learners showed an enhanced performance with regard to semantic primes. Overall, semantic primes showed more facilitative effects across various comprehension tasks due to their activation of deeper cognitive processing. Orthographic-phonologic primes were also successful. However, they were more efficient in the early stages of language learning, where visual recognition played a more critical role.

The growing popularity of language-learning apps among language learners has highlighted the need for rigorous evaluation of their efficacy in second language acquisition (SLA). This study combined quantitative measures to comprehensively understand the effectiveness of the Busuu app in improving the productive vocabulary of Iranian intermediate EFL learners with qualitative data from in-depth interviews to explore their perceptions and experiences while using the app. Forty-three learners (17 males and 26 females with a mean age of 27.53) were selected to assess the effectiveness of the Busuu app on learners’ productive vocabulary knowledge. Among them,15 participants (all female with a mean age of 29.40) agreed to be interviewed after the Busuu study to gain insights into learners’ perceptions and experiences with app-based learning. A pretest-posttest design using the LEX30 task, a standardized productive vocabulary assessment tool, was conducted before and after the Busuu study to evaluate participants’ productive vocabulary knowledge. Paired samples t-tests revealed no significant improvement in participants’ productive vocabulary knowledge. Nonetheless, the number of responses produced in the posttest was higher than in the pretest. According to the interview data, users rated vocabulary as the most favored feature of the app, while restricted access to premium content was noted as the least favored. Most participants acknowledged that the app exceeded their initial expectations before installing it. Additionally, improving vocabulary knowledge was the users’ primary expectation from utilizing the app. Furthermore, approximately all participants found the app beneficial for language learning. However, most of them reported low levels of enjoyment during app usage. The results can contribute to understanding what needs to be done to upgrade the quality and potential of the Bussu app, how the app can better support EFL learners in effectively activating their lexical knowledge, and what the users’ experiences and expectations from a language-learning app are.

Second language (L2) researchers often rely on quantitative methods and measurement instruments like questionnaires and scales to explore latent constructs. They usually borrow sophisticated statistical techniques from disciplines like psychology and education to conduct quantitative analyses in L2 research. However, there are growing concerns about the inappropriate use and reporting practices of such statistical procedures like exploratory factor analysis (EFA). This study aimed to describe and evaluate the methodological issues in EFA research practices, examine the relationship between study features and outcomes, and improve future L2 research practices. This study presented the results of a methodological synthesis study on exploratory factor analysis use published in five universally reputable psychology-related journals since 2000. Specifically, the researchers identified 93 EFA studies and developed a coding scheme of key EFA considerations to analyze how EFA was used and reported in these articles. The article discussed the several results and provides essential recommendations for L2 researchers intending to employ EFA in their works.

This study sought to identify the challenges and needs of TOEFL iBT candidates in achieving C1 level scores in the speaking and writing sections of the exam. To this end, the researcher employed a mixed-method approach to collect data from a population of 46 students, both male and female, between the ages of 22 to 30. The participants were enrolled in two TOEFL preparation classes at Universidad Nacional de Educación. The data were collected through a survey, class observations, and TOEFL speaking and writing mock tests, and were subsequently analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings indicated that the participants encountered challenges in discussing unfamiliar topics fluently, struggled with producing language at the C1 level while employing a variety of grammar and vocabulary, and demonstrated reduced accuracy due to influences from their first language (L1). To address these challenges, it is recommended to offer a bridging course prior to exam preparation courses wherein the primary focus is devoted to enhancing candidates’ accuracy and communicative competence in discussing unfamiliar topics through corrective feedback. The findings of this study could offer valuable insights to TOEFL iBT test preparation instructors, enabling them to better understand the challenges students face and plan strategies to address these challenges effectively within preparation courses.