درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This study investigates the pragmastylistic features employed in English and Arabic religious texts, with a specific focus on the concept of rewarding. Drawing on Narmin Abbas Lutfi Baqqal's PhD dissertation, the research examines the pragmatic and stylistic characteristics of rewarding in Biblical and Prophetic Hadith texts. The study addresses two primary research questions: (1) What are the pragmastylistic features used in English and Arabic religious texts to convey rewarding? (2) Which pragmatic and stylistic features are more prevalent in these texts? By analyzing 20 Biblical verses and 20 Prophetic Hadiths, the paper identifies the linguistic and rhetorical devices used to express rewarding, highlighting both similarities and differences between the two languages. The findings reveal that both texts employ declarative and imperative speech acts, deixis, and figurative language, but with distinct stylistic preferences. This study contributes to the fields of pragmatics, stylistics, and religious discourse analysis, offering insights into how language shapes religious messages across different cultural and linguistic contexts.

Dynamic assessment (DA) has been widely researched in different linguistic areas, but there is paucity of research on its incorporation into English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Accordingly, this study investigates the effectiveness of DA on incidental vocabularies emerging in technical reading textbooks with a focus on electronic engineering students. The research method is a quasi-experimental research design focusing on an intact group of 25 Bachelor of Science students of electronics from the University of Zanjan, Iran. The instruments used are Preliminary English Test (PET), a vocabulary knowledge scale, and a mediation test (a 13-item multiple-choice test). The mediation test was delivered through the researcher-developed website, designed for this purpose. As a triangulation, participants’ evaluation of computerized dynamic assessment (CDA), too, was elicited using a survey adopted from Nirmalakhandan (2007). The results of the qualitative and quantitative phases indicated that Electronic students’ incidental vocabulary learning promoted dramatically using target CDA, employing structured prompts for the mediation process. The results of this study can inform both teachers and learners by providing a step by step procedure for both teaching and assessment of ESP learners' vocabulary.

Dynamic assessment offers a holistic approach to evaluation by embedding assessment within instruction. Despite evidence suggesting the effectiveness of DA in language classrooms, there remains a reluctance among teachers to adopt DA practices. This reluctance stems from a lack of understanding of how DA models impact specific learning outcomes, particularly in speaking skills. One main contributing factor is the dominance of quantitative DA studies, which do not contextualize the differences between DA models. With an inductive thematic analysis design, this study explored the perceived effects of interactionist and interventionist DA models on speaking accuracy, fluency, and complexity among Iranian EFL students. Thirty undergraduate intermediate EFL learners from Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch, were recruited through purposive sampling. Each participant had received one hundred hours of speaking lessons with one of the DA models embedded before participating in a semi-structured interview. The analysis of participants' perceptions and reflections revealed that both DA models were well-received for improving speaking skills but had different effects on subskills. Learners perceived the interactionist model as an effective teaching method that improved their speaking accuracy and complexity but reduced fluency, while the interventionist model favored fluency at the expense of grammatical accuracy and complexity.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of mobile-assisted learning-oriented assessment (LOA) on the writing ability of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. A total of 60 intermediate Iranian EFL learners were selected through convenience sampling and divided randomly into two groups: control and experimental. Both groups completed pretests and posttests, and the experimental group received nine 90-minute sessions focused on teaching descriptive essay writing using LOA syllabi and mobile applications related to the tasks. The control group followed a traditional writing syllabus without any LOA-related treatments. Both groups used the Adobe Connect mobile application for their online classes. Two open-ended questions were administered to the experimental group at the beginning and end of the course to measure their attitudes toward mobile-assisted language learning (MALL). The data were analyzed using a repeated-measures two-way ANOVA, revealing that mobile-assisted LOA significantly improved the EFL learners’ writing ability. The results of the two open-ended questions indicated that the learners had a positive attitude toward MALL in general but a somewhat negative attitude toward online classes. The findings have important implications for teachers, materials developers, and teacher educators.

In this unorthodox autoethnographic study, we present a dialog between us - two transnational scholars. Throughout the manuscript, we explore several issues, which instantaneously came out during our unstructured, simultaneous, and casual conversations. We first discuss how our dichotomous relationships based on respect as an advisee and an advisor; a mentee and a mentor; and a student and a teacher have transformed into a sincerity-based friendship over time owing to our shared interest in autoethnography. We then move on to a discussion of our beliefs/thoughts/emotions about “home” in accordance with our lived experiences as transnational scholars. We scrutinize how inhabiting, knowing about, and becoming in academia complicated our understanding of where, or more importantly, what “home” means for us. Afterwards, we talk about the affordances and challenges of autoethnographic discourse agreeing that it requires us to practice vulnerability in order for us and our readers to benefit from the therapeutic effect of autoethnography. Throughout the manuscript, we also discuss how using both singular and plural first-person voice provide us with the opportunity to maintain our individual voices in an interpersonal and collaborative relationship while achieving a multivocal tone. We hope that our discussion extends with our readers’ critique of, negotiation with, participation in, and/or resistance to our beliefs/thoughts/emotions as stated in our conversation.

Due to inconclusive evidence for the differential impacts of portfolio assessment (PA) on genre-based writing improvement and learner engagement, this study cross-examined 46 EFL undergraduates’ descriptive and narrative writing performances in a 12-week PA design. Teacher feedback points were collected from consecutive formative assessments of the students’ descriptive and narrative writing according to the genre-specific indicators in the West Virginia Department of Education descriptive writing rubric and Smarter Balanced narrative writing rubric, respectively. Statistical results reported the significant impact of PA on improving accurate word choice and grammar, development, and organization of ideas in session-wise students’ descriptive writing, with no sign of improvement in their performance on post-test descriptive writing. Further, the positive impact of PA was supported by improving the components of elaboration of narrative, language and vocabulary, organization, and convention in session-wise students’ narrative writing, as well as their performance on post-test narrative writing. Qualitative data on students’ engagement in PA was collected from inductive content analysis of their reflective journals. Students’ self-reports were schematized, and their level of engagement was rendered in terms of their approval of the usefulness and novelty of PA, the frequent mismatch between student self-assessment and teacher feedback both in quality and quantity, the sensitivity of teacher feedback to some writing features over others, the applicability of teacher feedback to the revision process, and overall positive perception of writing improvement.

Teacher cognition, as a chief area within teacher education, is concerned with what teachers think, know, and do (Borg, 2003). One of the knotty strands emerging out of the past 50 or so years of research on teacher cognition is the misalignment between teachers’ cognition and practice. This study adopted a critical interpretative synthesis framework to identify factors generating such incongruence by dissecting 12 studies reporting on teachers’ cognition vis-à-vis their practice. The emerging themes were translated into each other and synthesised to form two lines of argument. The first one describes sources of teachers’ cognition and practice as ontological, epistemological, and contextual. Teachers’ apprenticeship of observation was found to exert the highest influence in fashioning their cognition and practice by sifting professional learning experiences and granting admission to only those commensurate with personal learning experiences. The second line of argument propounds that connate, personal, and contextual factors breed (mis)alignment into teachers’ cognition and practice. Furthermore, Cartesian dualism (Descartes, 1596-1650) and Heideggerianhermeneutic phenomenology (Heidegger, 1889-1976) were utilised to critically de- and re-territorialise the developed lines of argument. This interpretive conceptualisation of teacher cognition is rooted in but patently transcends the original studies in that it invites a fresh demarcation of the territory intensely occupied by contextual factors to allow teachers to practice ‘cogito, ergo I teach’. Finally, some suggestions are offered for the relevance of the results to teacher cognition research and teacher education and policy.

The present study made an effort to determine the impacts of proactive and retroactive meta-cognitive strategy instruction on Iranian ESP learners’ autonomy. Furthermore, it strived to examine the degree to which the interaction between this instruction and proactive/retroactive instruction conditions influenced these learners’ autonomy in their courses. To this end, first, the researchers selected 168 intermediate-level ESP learners from among the ESP learners of Islamic Azad University (Tabriz Branch) as the participants. Second, they non-randomly assigned the participants to four groups including the proactive experimental group, retroactive experimental group, proactive control group, and retroactive control group. Third, the researchers administered the autonomy pretest to all of the groups. Fourth, they used the Adobe Connect Learning Management System to provide the proactive experimental group, and the retroactive experimental group with their relevant treatments in ten sessions. Nonetheless, they used traditional language instruction techniques to provide the control groups with their instruction. Fifth, the researchers administered the autonomy posttest of the study to the participants after the end of the treatment sessions. Finally, they used SPSS 24 to analyze the data. The results showed that meta-cognitive strategy instruction ameliorated the participants’ autonomy. Moreover, the retroactive instruction condition was more efficacious than the proactive condition. In addition, the interaction between meta-cognitive strategy instruction and retroactive condition had a significant positive effect on the learners’ autonomy development. The results may provide ESP teacher educators, syllabus designers, and instructors with guiding principles regarding meta-cognitive strategy instruction.

Researchers’ thorough familiarity with the related literature together with the appropriate implementation of previous studies in academic publications is of crucial importance. Simply put, scientific studies need to address the related literature in a proper manner to get published. The main objective of the current study was to delineate citation patterns in applied linguistics. To come up with a citation framework/typology for applied linguistics, the researchers employed constructivist Grounded Theory. In order to present a comprehensive picture of citation practices, the researchers decided to investigate a corpus of five international and two local journals published between 2015 and 2020. Initial results revealed 20 themes which were then further categorized into five major themes. The results revealed considerable discrepancies between the local and international studies in employing various citation forms which can be attributed to journal polices, target audience and researchers’ expertise level. Furthermore, differences were detected in quantitative and qualitative studies in using various citation techniques which can be associated with the nature of such studies.

This research attempted to examine the underlying construct of writing self-regulation inventory extrapolated to Iranian EFL university context. A total sample of 116 sophomore EFL university learners attending essay writing course participated in this study. They were asked to do an in-class writing task assignment and immediately fill in an inventory. Pearson product-moment correlation and confirmatory factor analysis procedure using principal component analysis were applied to ascertain the relationships among the variables and construct validity of the instrument, respectively. The inventory yielded a strong internal consistency as to make the results of the present study reliable and to prove replication studies justifiable. The highest overall means and internal consistency reliability estimates were recorded both for goal subscale. However, achievement on task was negatively associated with cognitive, meta-cognitive, motivational, and behavioral dimensions of writing self-regulation. The results of factor analysis disclosed that goal, efficacy, meta-cognitive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioral variables are loaded on a single component; that is, they measured the same underlying theoretical construct. On the whole, the findings imply that the construct of writing self-regulation is consistent in EFL university context.

Despite some investigations highlighting the role of English literary texts in learner identity construction, few studies have explored how integrating translated short stories from learners’ native culture impacts L2 learners’ identity reconstruction in EFL contexts. This study addresses how learning English through Persian short stories translated into English can affect reader identity reconstruction of Iranian undergraduate students of English. The researchers selected three translated stories of loyalty, justice, and love themes. After collecting the data through five WhatsApp semi-structured interviews and five open-ended questionnaires, the researchers applied qualitative content analysis to the data related to readers’ self-descriptions of the initial L2 learning experiences, the story-based instructional stage, and their aspirations. The findings revealed significant alterations in the emotional and attitudinal states of the learners throughout the stages. Despite prioritizing different cultural and linguistic resources, the three participants highlighted the contribution of resources in language learning in the story-based stage and in their aspirations. All participants focused on the scaffolding role of their native language and culture in enhancing classroom interactions. The results would enlighten materials developers to integrate translated literary texts from Persian literature into language teaching programs

The present study aimed to examine the differences between Iranian EFL teachers’ burnout in online classes during the Covid-19 pandemic in public schools (PSs) and private language institutes (PLIs). It also investigated the causes of teacher burnout in the two contexts. The participants included 268 Iranian EFL teachers (108 teaching at PSs and 160 teaching at PLIs). The study employed a mixed-method design. In the quantitative phase, 268 EFL teachers were asked to answer Maslach et al.’s (1996) Burnout Inventory and in the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 EFL teachers (10 from PSs and 10 from PLIs). The results of the first phase of the study indicated a significant difference between the two groups in the two dimensions of burnout including “Emotional Exhaustion”, and “Personal Accomplishment”. However, the difference between the “Depersonalization” aspect of burnout was not significant. The results of the second phase of the study indicated that factors such as challenges of online teaching, concerns about teaching effectiveness, lack of collegiality and principal/manager support, financial concerns and low wages, lack of job security, students’ misbehavior and lack of motivation, lack of teacher autonomy, heavy workload, as well as school/institute policies were conducive to teacher burnout.