درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This paper examined impoliteness strategies used by characters and their resulting reactions in five American comedy series. Drawing on Culpeper’s models (1996 & 2003), the comedy series were watched several times with one month interval to make sure that the impolite utterances and their reactions were put in the correct categories. The results of the study revealed that sarcasm was the most frequently used strategy among other strategies, and male and female characters were not distinct in using this strategy. However, male characters exploited the bald on record strategy more than their female counterparts. One striking result was the frequent use of offensive reactions by male actors. The reasons behind the variable use of these strategies are twofold. First, impoliteness is used as a tool to show off the power of the male characters. Second, using impoliteness strategies in comedy series reflect the entertaining role of sarcasm used by the actors.

Teachers serving at the front lines of education during difficult times of the pandemic seem to have been forgotten in these bustling days around the world. While delivery of high-quality education is on the shoulders of these people, their life and wellbeing have been affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, there is little documented evidence on how the pandemic has impacted language teachers’ wellbeing. To fill this gap, this qualitative study examines the wellbeing of English as a Foreign Language teachers in Iranian public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten participants who attended in-depth interviews were found to have their wellbeing levels severely affected by the pandemic. Indeed, the newly emerged challenges have been added to the existing obstacles and augmented the already stressful teaching profession. Based on the findings, recommendations are provided for authorities and parents to be employed during the pandemic and afterward to help teachers flourish and subsequently improve quality education.

In recent years, the personal characteristics and attitudes of teachers have attracted the attention of various scholars. The teacher’s immunity level is one of the newly proposed concepts in this area. The present study aimed at exploring the difference between the immunity level of the Iranian EFL teachers at language centers and public schools. In order to achieve this objective, one hundred EFL teachers teaching in public schools (N = 50) and language centers (N = 50), in Isfahan, were selected through convenience sampling to participate in this study. Then, the Teachers’ Immunity Level questionnaire was administered to them, and they were interviewed as well.  The obtained results revealed that teachers working in public schools have higher levels of immunity compared to the ones working in language centers. This finding can have some implications for the decision-makers in the Iranian Ministry of Education to provide adequate amenities to improve teachers’ immunity in language centers.

This study investigated the effects of dialogic tasks on Iranian English as Foreign Language learners' language learning anxiety considering the moderating effects of the learners’ gender and levels of proficiency as well. A total number of 213 male and female Iranian EFL learners within the age range of 15-19 were selected through convenience sampling from three language schools in Fars, Iran. Learners at two levels of proficiency (upper vs. lower intermediate), were chosen and assigned to experimental and control groups. Then, an adapted translated version of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz et al., 1986) was run as a pretest and posttest to measure the learners’ anxiety. The treatment was dialogic tasks operationalized through sequencing picture stories. The results revealed that dialogic tasks exerted a significant effect on reducing Iranian EFL learners' anxiety. Moreover, it was discovered that upper-intermediate learners experienced lower levels of anxiety than their lower-intermediate counterparts. Finally, it was found that female learners in this study suffered from more anxiety levels than male learners. Although integrating dialogic tasks into classroom activities has proved to be beneficial as learners could experience sufficient opportunities for speaking, this task could not assist learners of different levels of proficiency and gender in the same way. These findings will provide practical implications for language teachers and learners.

Paralinguistic features are indispensable and crucial aspects of communication without which any utterance would lose its identity. On the other hand, confusion in cross-cultural communication is most often assigned to paralinguistic features. Despite the significant importance of paralinguistic clues in humans’ communication, only limited studies have tackled this issue. More specifically, despite the fact that paralinguistic features are culturally different, no study has investigated the possible relationship between these features and speaking performance of Persian-speaking learners of English. Hence, with this existing gap in the literature, in this study, we tried to scrutinize the impact of paralinguistic cues upon EFL learners’ speaking fluency in the Persian setting. To this objective, we recruited 40 first-year undergraduate female students of Linguistics at the University of Gonabad, utilizing non-random sampling method. Their English proficiency level was determined as lower-intermediate via the administration of Quick Oxford Placement Test. In our pre-test post-test experimental research, we allocated a five-week span of instruction for the purpose of teaching paralinguistic clues to the experimental group to see whether it could have a significant positive impact upon their speaking performance. The instrument we utilized to evaluate speaking capability of our participants was Researcher-Made Speaking Test. The results of our study demonstrated that utilizing paralinguistic features boosted students’ speaking capability. On the light of our finding, it could be concluded that paralinguistic features could be employed for the first-year undergraduate students to enhance their communicative performance. Future studies in diverse EFL settings, could shed light on this conclusion.

Since its introduction in 1980, the concept of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) has attracted much attention. Although many studies have been conducted in science and mathematics, there are insufficient studies to capture the PCK of EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers. Accordingly, the present study aimed to unearth EFL teachers' PCK through a grounded theory approach in the Iranian context. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 English teachers at senior high schools in three provinces of Ilam, Lorestan, and Kermanshah. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using coding procedures. The results yielded five main dimensions of EFL teachers' pedagogical content knowledge: English language proficiency knowledge, pedagogy knowledge, student knowledge, curriculum knowledge, and assessment knowledge. Data analysis also revealed the sources of EFL teachers' PCK construction and demonstrated that contextual and intervening conditions influence EFL teachers' PCK enactment. The findings may have theoretical and practical implications for high school EFL teachers, educators, and education programs.

This study aimed to investigate the immediate and long-term effects of the flipped classroom approach and language proficiency on the autonomy and anxiety of Iranian EFL learners. A total of 94 learners at the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels were selected through convenience (availability) sampling procedure from Payam-e-Nour University and split into the experimental and control groups. The research method employed was based on a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. Data were analyzed using a factorial ANCOVA and a sample paired t-test. The results of this study reveal that the flipped classrooms had a statistically significant impact on the participants' learner autonomy and language anxiety. However, different language proficiency levels had no statistically significant effect on learner autonomy and language anxiety. Findings also suggest that the flipped classrooms had a long-lasting impact on language anxiety and learner autonomy. It is concluded that, in many English language settings, the flipped classroom may be a suitable option with potentially positive outcomes. The findings of this study have some important implications for syllabus designers, curriculum planners, and language instructors of foreign languages.         

The present study aimed at investigating English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ level of reflection and the barriers to their reflection. To do so, based on an experimental research method, 98 EFL teachers were recruited and the English language teacher reflection inventory (ELTRI) was distributed among them. To consolidate the findings of the inventory, 20 volunteers from the same pool were interviewed. As the next phase of the study, to investigate the barriers to the teachers’ reflectivity, the same participants were given an open-ended questionnaire to probe their ideas about barriers to reflective practice. Based on the obtained data and the related literature, a Barriers to Reflective Practice Questionnaire (BRPQ) was developed and distributed among the participants. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics, one sample t-test, and content analysis were employed. The findings revealed that EFL teachers did not practice reflection at high levels. They considered top-down curriculum, disrespect for teachers’ authority, teachers’ inclination to the conventional teaching practice, lack of appropriate context for reflection, teachers’ workload, and lack of appropriate training courses as the most important factors which bar their reflection. Teacher education programs should raise EFL teachers’ awareness regarding the concept and use of reflective practice.

This paper reports on an investigation of native language-based differential item functioning (DIF) across the subtests of Iranian Undergraduate University Entrance Special English Exam (IUUESEE). Fourteen thousand one hundred seventy two foreign-language test takers (including four groups of Azeri, Persian, Kurdish, and Luri test takers) were chosen for the study. Uniform DIF (UDIF) and Non-uniform DIF (NUDIF) analyses were conducted on data from the four versions of IUUESEE. After establishing the unidimensionality and local independence of the data, DIF findings showed that Luri test takers were more advantaged than other native language groups across the subtests. NUDIF analysis uncovered that almost all subtests functioned in favor of low-ability test takers who haven’t been expected to outperform high-ability test takers. A probable explanation for native language-ability DIF was that Luri and low-ablity test takers were more likely to venture lucky guesses. Thoughtless errors and guessing, test-wiseness, overconfidence, stem length, unappealing distractors, and time were proposed as possible causes of DIF in IUUESEE. It was also found that the reading subtest included the large number of items with significant DIF.