درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Many factors may be involved in determining why some students are more and some are less proficient in language. This study tried to explore the factors affecting Iranian EFL learners’ proficiency. 221 students at second, third and fourth year of university, including 50 male and 171 female were selected randomly to participate in the study. A researcher-made questionnaire and a proficiency test comprised the data collection instruments. The researchers were able to identify three factors affecting language proficiency. They were classified as social factors, cultural factors and linguistic factors, Then a model was developed to represent the relationship among these factors and language proficiency. In line with Bourdieu’s (1986), the results of data analysis indicated that social factors are among the most dominant factors affecting the learners’ language proficincy.

The present article aims to provide a synchronic study of the inflectional or morpho-syntactic categories of noun in Sistani dialect. These categories comprise person, number, gender or noun class, definiteness, case, and possession. Linguistic data was collected via recording free speech, and interviewing with 30 (15 females, 15 males) illiterate Sistani language consultants of age 40–102 years, living in central (Markazi) district of Zabol city in Sistan and Baluchestan province of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The research results indicate that nouns are inflected in three distinct persons i.e. first, second, and third persons with either singular or plural in number. Grammatical gender of nouns takes no specific morphological marker. As to the category of definiteness, this dialect makes use of syntactic devices (like demonstrative adjectives), and/or morphological devices (such as the use of /=ak/ and /=e/ clitics) to display the definite and indefinite nouns. Its case system is nominative-accusative system. In this regard, only the accusative or objective case marking is morphologically realized by the object marker /=a/. In addition, possession is expressed through the use of the word /mAl=e/ ‘belonging to’ or the preposition /az/ ‘from, of’ along with nouns/noun phrases/personal pronouns and also applying ezɑfe - construction in the form of genitive structure.

L2 written corrective feedback has been investigated from different perspectives in SLA research (e.g. Ahmadian & Tajabadi, 2015; Bitchener & Knoch, 2010; Ferris, 2006). Taking the cognitive and sociocultural paradigms into account, the aims of the current study are twofold: Firstly, it attempts to find if corrective feedback is effective in improving the linguistic accuracy of L2 learners' tense/aspect use in writing. Secondly, it tries to measure which feedback type (direct, indirect, and negotiated) has a more significant effect on the mentioned linguistic structures. Seventy-five pre-intermediate university EFL learners were selected and asked to participate in the study; they were randomly divided into direct, indirect, negotiated feedback groups, and a control group. During six-week sessions of providing feedback on tenses/aspects, the participants were required to write diary journals on their academic life. The direct and indirect groups received feedback on their diaries, having 10 minutes time in the class to observe the feedback. The negotiated feedback group received 10 minutes one-to-one contingent feedback on the errors. After comparing the four groups, the results showed that all the treatment groups did outperform the control group which indicated that feedback was effective. Moreover, the findings showed no significant difference among the feedback types. This implies that teachers can provide any of the feedback types for learners so far as tense/aspect errors are concerned in their writing.

The present study aimed to capture and represent the mediator-learner’s interaction in the development of listening proficiency and statistically compare this interaction between high and low proficient English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. Thirty EFL learners participated in Oxford Quick Placemat Test (OQPT) and the Interactions/Mosaic Listening Placement (IMLP) Test to select those whose proficiency levels and listening skills were based on the placement guide of the tests, at upper-intermediate and advanced levels. Out of 30 learners, 12 learners (upper-intermediate level=6, advanced level=6) volunteered to participate in individualized tutoring sessions. The study adopted an interactionist Dynamic Assessment (DA) approach and implemented a qualitative research methodology to reveal the frequency and quality, the two criteria to interpret the learners’ developments and Zone of Actual/Potential Development (ZAD/ZPD) functioning, of mediator-learner’s interaction. The amount and quality of moves made by learners to complete the task were reported in quantitative data. Statistical analyses were run to examine whether the ability level may affect the responsiveness of learners to mediation. Findings of the study revealed that 17 reciprocity moves were identified that promoted the development of listening abilities of upper-intermediate and advanced level learners. It is also revealed that the upper-intermediate learners showed more responses as compared to the advanced learners.

Though learner-centered paradigm of education has long been introduced to pedagogy in general and language teaching in particular, it seems that scant heed has been given to its implementation as well as the restrictions and challenges on its way. In an attempt to shed more light on the status of learner-centered instruction in Iranian language schools, particularly as regards the impediments hindering its proper application, the current researchers selected a cohort of 240 teachers and 450 students for the questionnaire phase through convenience sampling, as well as 29 male and female language school learners and 30 EFL teachers for interview. Due to its mostly qualitative nature, the study made use of data gathered via questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. As the findings revealed, students referred to resource constraints and teachers’ tendency toward applying traditional practices as the two overriding barriers restricting proper LCE implementation. The other two prominent factors singled out by the findings obtained out of students’ attitudes were lack of clear definition of LCE and lack of familiarity resulting from improper training. As regards teachers’ perspectives of impediments, however, poor motivation on the part of teachers and parents’ lack of receptivity for LCE were identified as the most prominent barriers. Finally, in line with the interview findings, all three categories of teacher-induced, learner-induced, and context-relevant factors were reported to be responsible for limiting LCE implementation with variable degrees of influence. The study findings are thought to have practical implications for English language pedagogy in the Iranian context.

From a Systemic Functional perspective, Grammatical Metaphor (GM) as is taken to be a chief driving force in the discourse of different genres, an important adult language machinery for ideational meanings to be semantically cross-mapped and realized through a different form in the stratum of the lexico-grammar, in order to convey changed meanings and tinker with the discursive flow and development of text in real time, mainly through nominalization of adjectives and verbs. Using a number of established works of the English novel as data, this study draws upon the author’s previous model for the categories of GM used in modern prose fiction, with the main focus placed on one of the six categories, Prepositional GM (PGM). PGM figures with a very high frequency in fiction and occurs when a GM is preceded by a preposition. This study finds that the language of prose fiction in English deploys some of these PGMsin either of two different meaning sof the adverbial, varying according to context. Again, as seen to be the hallmark of GM by many, GM is found to open up vast ideational meaning potentials in the semantics stratum, from which the lexico-grammar makes choices according to context and intended meaning. As argued elsewhere in the literature and here, and as backed up by the author’s own experience of the advanced teaching of writing and reading, broadened understanding of GM is a critically important component to writing instruction and its effectiveness, as seen in the large-scale horizons and agendas for effective teaching of English as a Foreign Language in Iran and beyond.

Lexical bundles are known as important elements of coherent discourse that have been the subject of much research. While the previous research has been mainly concerned with exploring variations in the use of these word sequences across different registers and disciplines, very few studies have addressed the use of some particular groups of lexical bundles within some types of academic writing. To probe in to the possible generic variations, this research focused on anticipatory it bundles as a particular structural group of these word sequences. More specifically, this study chose to investigate range, frequency, and function of these word clusters in applied linguistics published and unpublished writings. Through the use of two big corpora and text analysis programs, this study found that it bundles were used relatively frequently in both published and unpublished writings. Functional analysis also showed that it bundles served a wide variety of functions in both types of writings. Notwithstanding these findings, this study also revealed that some it bundles commonly used in unpublished writing did not count as bundles in published writing.

The competitive academic atmosphere of the higher education worldwide along with the current trend in producing research-oriented knowledge by universities has made research publication the first priority for doctoral students. In this study, we addressed the conceptions of purpose, process, and product of publishing research articles among Iranian doctoral students of applied linguistics. To this end, thirty students were interviewed and the data were analyzed using the grounded theory approach. The findings demonstrated that doctoral students publish papers to prepare a competition-winning resume, significantly contribute to the ELT community, turn into life-long learners and problem-solvers, and fulfill their course requirements. Furthermore, with regard to the research publication process, they highlighted the role of mixed-methods in spotting real problems in context and getting their papers published in prestigious journals. Additionally, the students believed that publishing in international journals grants them the opportunity to gain international recognition, attract an international audience, receive expert quality feedback from professional reviewers, publish in journals specific in focus and scope, and avoid publishing in cheap predatory journals. Finally, the findings suggest that the doctoral students need more systematic coaching to successfully conduct and publish their research.

Thanks to the significant achievements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Translation (MT), in general, and Google Translate (GT), in particular, have been extensively used in all facets of life, including language learning. However, faced with a plethora of research evidence on GT’s educational contributions, erroneous translations create disparity regarding its use in language learning. To address this lacuna, the present study systematically reviewed 10 databases, namely, Web of Science, Scopus, ERIC, ScienceDirect, Taylor & Francis Online, Wiley Online Library, SAGE Journals, Springer Link, Springer Open, and DOAJ. Additionally, it hand searched the reference lists of 44 studies selected to be included in the synthesis from database search along with references cited in three previous systematic reviews on similar topics to capture a comprehensive view of the literature related to the use of GT in language learning between 2010-2021. It reviewed 50 studies witnessing a rise in the number of studies in this area. Studies reported that although significant improvements in the quality of GT led to pedagogical gains and more tendency to implement it in language learning, instructors still distrust it. Accordingly, this research provides pedagogical implications and suggests avenues for future research on the use of GT in language learning.     

In order to be autonomous, teachers should enjoy teaching and be satisfied with their teaching. Teacher autonomy, therefore, may be related to teacher burnout and job satisfaction. The present study investigated the relationship between job satisfaction, teacher burnout, and teacher autonomy. Two hundred and seven language teachers at language institutes in Karaj and Tehran were given three questionnaires to complete. Convenience sampling was used to select language teachers in this study, and IBM SPSS (version 22) was used to analyze the data. Three non-parametric statistical tests were used to analyze the collected data. According to the findings of this study, job satisfaction had a weak negative relationship with teacher burnout, and teacher autonomy correlated negatively with job satisfaction. Moreover, no relationship between teacher autonomy and teacher burnout was found. Although the findings should be interpreted with care because of sample size, the paper ends with implications for language teachers and policy makers.