درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This quantitative study aimed to investigate the combined effects of two types of strategic planning, namely collaborative and teacher-led planning conditions and task complexity on Iranian intermediate language learners' oral production in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. To achieve this purpose, 90 EFL learners were selected through convenience sampling from a language institute in Shiraz, Iran, and randomly assigned to two control and four experimental groups. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design in the form of pretest, treatment, and posttest. In the first step, all participants took part in a speaking pretest in which they were required to narrate a story based on a series of picture description tasks. While the experimental groups underwent 10 treatment sessions of picture description task performance along with two planning types i.e., teacher-led and collaborative planning conditions, the control groups were not allowed to plan the task performance. In the last session, the language learners took a posttest whose results were compared with those of the pretest. The findings revealed that the language learners in the collaborative planning groups outperformed the other groups in terms of both fluency and complexity. Further, teacher-led groups did better than the other groups in terms of accuracy. This study carries crucial implications for EFL teachers, material developers, syllabus designers, and speaking skill examiners.

In recent years, Instagram has gained considerable attention in scientific research because of its popularity among English language learners. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review of empirical studies that investigated the use of Instagram as a mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) tool in ESL/EFL and attempted to perform a scientific mapping of the literature. To this end, a corpus of studies since 2010 was retrieved in January 2023 from six academic databases and reviewed through the stages of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA). A critical appraisal of 48 experimental studies included in this review was carried out and a meta-analysis of 11 eligible studies was conducted. The results of the meta-analysis confirmed the significant effect size of the use of Instagram in ESL/EFL. The bibliometric analysis revealed that the research productivity is up and found writing and vocabulary skills as the main focus in most of the studies. This study could have implications for teachers and researchers to gain a broad overview of the integration of Instagram in English language teaching and to know the current research trends in the field for future research.

EAP courses for various disciplines are designed as a conduit between academic research and practical applications (Paltridge & Starfield, 2013, p. 175). On the other hand, one of the main missions of ESP practitioners is to prepare learners for realities of English on the job (Paltridge & Starfield, 2013, p. 185). This study aimed to provide a profile of target professional English needs of Iranian BA students of Business and Economics and to explore what real requirements are expected from them at work in future. To this end, perceptions of two groups of stakeholders, namely, human resource managers (N = 30) and employed graduated students (hereafter called “staff”, N = 600) chosen through stratified sampling from various established business sectors were asked through triangulation of instruments using questionnaire, interview, and self and peer-assessment. The results suggested that while all four main English skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) have been considered important in profession, the employers favored ‘productive’ English skills noticeably more. Moreover, the present professional English level of the staff, as evaluated by their managers, was turned out to have a long distance from the voiced expectations by themselves and the managers. The findings suggested the need for serious reconsideration of EAP courses in Business and Economics regarding the teaching methodology, content and practices in light of future occupational demands of the students and tying different dimensions of such courses to the requirements of corresponding workplaces. Implications of the study for improving the aforementioned EAP courses are also presented.

Multiple-choice (MC) item format is commonly used in educational assessments due to its economy and effectiveness across a variety of content domains. However, numerous studies have examined the quality of MC items in high-stakes and higher education assessments and found many flawed items, especially in terms of distractors. These faulty items lead to misleading insights about the performance of students and the final decisions. The analysis of distractors is typically conducted in educational assessments with multiple-choice items to ensure high quality items are used as the basis of inference. Item response theory (IRT) and Rasch models have received little attention for analyzing distractors. For that reason, the purpose of the present study was to apply the Rasch model, to a grammar test to analyze items’ distractors of the test. To achieve this, the current study investigated the quality of 10 instructor-written MC grammar items used in an undergraduate final exam, using the items responses of 310 English as a foreign language (EFL) students who had taken part in an advanced grammar course. The results showed the acceptable fit to the Rasch model and high reliability. Malfunctioning distractors were identified.

The aim of this study was to investigate the Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' willingness to implement postmethod pedagogy in the Iranian context. In so doing, a mixed methods approach was employed in which first a validated postmethod questionnaire was administered to a nationally representative sample of 711 Iranian EFL teachers. Then, a series of focus group discussions and individual interviews with 30 teachers were carried out in the qualitative phase of the study. The findings of quantitative data analyses revealed that the Iranian EFL teachers were not willing to implement postmethod principles in their classrooms. Furthermore, the result of the content analysis for the qualitative phase indicated that Iranian EFL teachers do not implement any particular method in the strict sense of the word. Moreover, the teachers mentioned knowledge and experience of teachers; lack of adequate teacher training program; time and financial constraints of teachers; idealistic nature of postmethod; resistance of language institutes; little support of textbook developers; and cultural tradition as the impediments to the implementation of postmethod pedagogy in Iran. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.

There is a general consensus that critical thinking can be influential in almost every occupation due to its association with the abilities such as problem solving and decision making. This paper aims at probing the role of critical thinking (CT) skills on EFL learners' reading comprehension performance using Bloom's taxonomy. Therefore, the role of CT strategies training across two language proficiency levels, high & low, was investigated. Then the difference between females and males regarding their CT was studied. In so doing, 240 male and female Iranian EFL students were selected and screened into two proficiency levels based on the Longman preparation course for TOEFL test. Each proficiency group was divided into critical and non-critical group. The results suggested CT skills significantly affected EFL learners’ reading comprehension performance. However, the effect of critical thinking strategy training didn’t vary across different language proficiency levels. Overall, the findings provide empirical support for the facilitative effect of critical thinking strategy training on reading comprehension performance of EFL learners.

Abstract Addressing the limitations and criticisms of cloze tests, Klein-Braley and Raatz suggested a modified version of the cloze test called the C-test where the ‘C’ stands for cloze. They introduced the C-test as a better representation of the reduced-redundancy principle. In C-tests, several shorter texts involving a larger number of items completed within a shorter amount of time while cloze tests usually consist of one or two longer texts with less items. This study reports on the results of a research program carried out to validate the C-test amongst Afghan EFL learners. One hundred advanced English majors were administered two different language tests namely a language proficiency test (composed of listening, reading, and writing) and a C-test composed of four different texts to measure the overall language ability of the participants. Various analyses were to measure the validity and reliability of the C-test. The results of the study confirmed that the C-test is a reliable and valid test which can be used as a general English language proficiency test among Afghan students of English as a foreign language.

در این مطالعه، محققان قصد داشتند تا دیدگاه های فراگیران زبان انگلیسی را براساس چهار زمینه ارتباطی از جمله اعضای خانواده، زبان آموزان انگلیسی، همکلاسی ها و بهترین دوستان شان به نمایش بگذارند. برای این منظور گروهی از نوجوانان ایرانی (38 نفر) با دامنه سنی 12 تا 16 سال (مرد 24، زن 24) به صورت تصادفی از سه موسسه آموزش زبان انگلیسی در شهرستان سبزوار، خراسان رضوی انتخاب شدند. محققان با استفاده از پرسشنامه معتبر تیلور (2010)، یک نسخه اصلاح شده از پرسشنامه تیلور رابا تاکید بر مدل های بررسی هویت جهت پی گیری اهداف تحقیق حاضر شامل 1) نواسانات ادراکی فراگیران ایرانی برای یادگیری زبان انگلیسی با توجه به چهار زمینه ارتباطی در فوق و 2) بینش آنها نسبت به دو نوع هویت درک شده ( عمومی و تحمیلی) در دو زیر شاخه ی "در حال حاضر و آینده" و3) جهت گیری ارتباط میان این دو نوع هویت و عملکرد کلی فراگیران در یادگیری زبان انگلیسی بررسی نمودند. یافته های اولیه نشان داد که در تعریف های متنوعی از انواع شخصیت در میان فراگیران، در خصوص ترجیحات مربوط به "اعضای خانواده" در فرایندهای یادگیری و عملکرد آینده، نقش اعضای خانواده در عملکرد یادگیری پررنگ بود. با توجه به ترجیحات پاسخ دهندگان نسبت به دستیابی به اهداف خود در یادگیری زبان انگلیسی بر اساس هویت (عمومی و تحمیلی)، مشخص شد که سطح اعمال "معلمان زبان" و "خانواده ها" بر فراگیری زبان آموزان تقریبا یکسان بود گرچه دسته بندی های مربوط به هویت تحمیلی در حال حاضر و آینده و در جامعه خود، اعضای خانواده دوباره امتیاز بیشتری داشتند. در نهایت، نتایج حاصل از تجزیه و تحلیل بعدی داده ها در مورد رابطه بین دو جنبه هویت (تحمیلی در مقابل عمومی) و شاخص خودگزارشی عملکرد در زبان انگلیسی نشان دهنده ارتباط معنی دار تنها با شاخص های هویت تحمیلی بود. در نهایت، تحلیل و تفسیر نتایج به منظور شناخت کلی افراد مرتبط با فرایند یادگیری زبان مورد بحث قرار گرفت.

The present study sought to investigate the effectiveness of teacher versus learner assessment activities on the Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ writing ability. In order to find an answer to the questions of this research, 30 intermediate students from Zaban Iran Language Institute in Rasht, Iran were selected via administering Solutions Placement Test (SPT). Next, they were divided into three groups of 10. Learners were randomly assigned into two experimental groups of peer assessment and self-assessment, and one control group, teacher assessment. A pre-test of writing was then administered before the groups received 8 sessions of treatment through peer, self-, and teacher assessment techniques. After the treatment period, a post-test of writing was administered to all groups. The results of descriptive and inferential analyses revealed that the peer assessment group attained the highest scores on the writing test, and a statistically significant difference among the effects of the teacher assessment, peer assessment, and self-assessment on Iranian Intermediate EFL students’ writing ability was reported. Also, the group using teacher assessment technique attained higher scores than the group that used the self-assessment technique. The implications of this study can be considered for EFL teachers, learners, materials developers, and syllabus designers.

This study compared the effect of four reading models on reading comprehension, foreign language reading anxiety (FLRA), and reading self-efficacy. In order to do so, 184 female Iranian senior high school EFL students at intermediate English reading level were selected through convenience sampling in three high schools and one language institute in Zanjan. The participants were in four intact groups. Each group was randomly assigned to one of the treatment conditions— ‘Direct Activities Related to Texts’ (DARTs), Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), ‘Read, Ask, and Put into your own words’ (RAP), and ‘Title, Headings, Introduction, Each first sentence, Visuals, End of each part, Summary’ (THIEVES) models. These models were taught for eight sessions. Data were collected using the reading comprehension part of the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS), and Reading Self Efficacy Questionnaire (RSEQ). The collected data were analyzed using three one-way ANCOVA procedures. The results showed that the four models did not significantly differ in terms of their effect on foreign language reading anxiety and reading self-efficacy. However, there was a significant difference between the effect of THIEVES and RAP on reading comprehension in favor of RAP. Besides, only RAP and PALS improved reading self-efficacy. Moreover, DARTs, THIEVES, and RAP improved reading comprehension and decreased reading anxiety, whereas PALS increased reading anxiety and negatively affected reading comprehension. The theoretical and pedagogical implications of the findings are also discussed.

Teachers pose different perspectives toward teaching. Some teachers share this attitude that teaching is just a job and a sole source of income, while others believe that teaching is a vocational and moralistic career associated with love, commitment, and devotion. This study, in the form of a qualitative grounded theory approach, aimed to deeply investigate the interrelationship of data emerged from teachers’ perspectives toward teaching as profession to develop a model in this regard. Therefore, twenty-six Iranian English teachers, teaching at schools and Farhang language institute, were requested to share their ideas as to how they view teaching as a profession. A semi-structured interview, in three sessions with 20 participants and focus-group interviews with 6 participants were conducted. Based on Corbin and Strauss's (2014) systematic steps for grounded theory, the data then transcribed and codified. The findings ended with an eight-factor model containing 40 categories. The factors include: a) source of income, b) decreasing motivation, c) poverty and inclination to become a teacher, d) insufficient salary, e) deteriorated quality of teaching, f) experience, g) society negative attitude, h) dissatisfaction. The proposed model opens a new window for teachers and reminds the government educational policymakers, training centers, ministry of education, and those who care about quality education and students’ academic achievements to observe income inequality, and salary differentials, increase teachers’ social status, and motivation, facilitate difficult working conditions, reduce resource wastage, support teachers appropriately, decrease teachers’ financial concerns, terminate the sense of socioeconomic inequality, and speak out the voices of marginalized teachers.