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This study examines intergenerational transmission of Chinese Foochow in Sarawak, Malaysia by exploring a connection between family language policy and language-ethnicity dimensions. The specific aspects examined were: (a) family language practices; (b) family language ideology in defining characteristics of being a Foochow; and (c) family language attitudes towards heritage language management. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with nine Foochow ethnic families (29 participants) from urban Sarawak, Malaysia. The findings showed the Foochow dialect was mainly spoken at the highest level of the family hierarchy with the lowest level shifting to use standard languages (Mandarin and/or English). The nine families held strong beliefs regarding their ethnic identity being passed down by birth, blood, and descent and thus, not being able to speak Foochow did not subtract from their Foochow ethnicity. Some participants defined themselves as Foochow because they practised Foochow customs and ate Foochow food, indicative of the phenomenological dimension of the language-ethnicity link. As the dialect is predicted to lose its role and status in urban settings, various strategies for managing Foochow which attributed agency to others were provided by the participants. The findings suggested that attributing ethnic identity to paternity and not patrimony will lead to potential loss of Foochow from the linguistic repertoire of the youngest generation in urban localities in Malaysia.

پژوهش حاضر به بررسی تاثیر داده محور بر تشخیص و تولید هم آیی ها ی زبان آموزان با سطح توانش انگلیسی بالا و پایین متوسط پرداخت. همچنین تاثیر ثانویه داده محور بر هم آیی های ثانویه (هم آیی هایی که در واژه یاب گنجانده نشده بودند ولی به صورت مستتر در تکالیف استفاده شده بودند) نیز مورد بررسی قرار گرفت. نگرش زبان آموزان نسبت به نقش واژه یاب در یادگیری هم آیی ها و تغییر نگرش آنها در طی فرایند پژوهش نیز از طریق مصاحبه مورد ارزیابی قرار گرفت. حدود 40 زبان آموز ایرانی به دو گروه آزمایشی و گواه تقسیم شدند. هر گروه به دو زیرگروه سطح توانش بالا و پایین نیز تقسیم شدند. گروه آزمایشی به مدت 10 جلسه به واژه یاب دسترسی داشتند تا تکلیف دوباره نویسی را انجام دهند. نتایج حاکی از آن است که زبان آموزان با سطح توانش بالا بیشتر از زبان آموزان با سطح توانش پایین از تاثیر اولیه و ثانویه واژه یاب بهره مند شدند. هر دو زیرگروه، نگرش مثبتی به تاثیر واژه یاب در یادگیری هم آیی ها داشتند و این نگرش با گذر زمان پررنگتر شد.

The literature on second/foreign language (L2/FL) discourse is replete with corpus-based studies into the use of various features representing lexical proficiency. Nonetheless, the lexical construct of English for academic purposes (EAP) texts developed by postgraduates majoring in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) still sounds like a relatively unexplored domain that merits further multi-dimensional investigation. To narrow the gap, the authors in the current study set out to evaluate the lexical richness of a corpus containing doctoral dissertations written by Iranian TEFL students in terms of lexical density, diversity, and sophistication. Taking advantage of the computational tool Coh-Metrix to analyze the lexical features, the corpus was analyzed in comparison with a first language (L1) baseline containing doctoral dissertations written by English native speakers. The comparative analysis of the L1 and L2 corpora revealed that the texts written by Iranian TEFL learners were lexically less diverse but more sophisticated. Additionally, the lexical density of the L2 corpus exceeded that of the L1 one in terms of nouns and adjectives. Based on the results drawn from a discriminant function analysis (DFA), the features representing lexical sophistication and density were found to be the best predictors of lexical richness since they could significantly discriminate between the two sub-corpora. The findings may provide new insights into the ways of evaluating and enhancing the lexical richness of FL/L2 written discourse.

With day-increasing emphasis on communication as the chief objective of second language learning, willingness to communicate (hereafter WTC) has come into focus by many researchers, teachers, and foreign language institutes. Previous studies show that WTC is highly correlated with the two variables of perceived competence and communication apprehension. This study aimed to investigate the difference in WTC between male and female English major students at Khorasgan University, Iran. Firstly, 55 English major students were asked to respond to three questionnaires on WTC, perceived competence and communication apprehension. The data was analyzed using independent sample t-test. The results showed no significant difference between male and female students in WTC, perceived competence and communication apprehension. The results related to the effect of language proficiency on WTC, perceived competence, and communication apprehensions were also analyzed using one way ANOVA. The results showed no significant differences between the three different groups of students with different levels of language proficiency in their WTC, perceived competence, and communication apprehension

The aim of this study was to describe and find out motivational English language learning strategies through computers among Iranian EFL learners and find out how learners’ motivations change towards English language learning through computers.The mixed method approach (quantitative and qualitative) was employed in this study. A total of 84 (out of 130) female freshman university learners from a university in Isfahan were randomly selected to fill out the questionnaire reflecting their motivational English language learning strategies through computers.They were aged between 18 and 20 years old and were native speakers of Persian. They were all in intermediate level based on their English proficiency levels. Also, a group of 6 out of these 84 learners were purposefully selected for the semi-structured interview in order to get more in-depth information. The descriptive analysis revealed that the learners all used high level of motivational strategies while learning English as a foreign language. It also demonstrated that the learners' motivational strategies related to the use of learners' general feelings towards computers were more frequently identified. The findings of the interviews also revealed that the use of computers motivate and stimulate learners to learn their courses as well as to communicate with one another more effectively. The implication of this study is to use computers as a teaching tool in classes and the learning motivational strategies through computers should be utilized in learning environments

Research on high-stakes tests indicates that increasing the stakes of large-scale English language tests will have consequential influence on teaching and learning performance and practices. However, evidence for influence on student ‘motivation for learning English (MLE)’ within such a context is still scarce. Taken this, the present study investigated the motivational level of high school students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in the context of university entrance requirement tests change in Iran (introducing high school national English achievement tests-NEATs- as new requirements for entrance into nation-state universities). For such a purpose, the MLE scale, taken from Gardner’s (2004) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery, was translated into Persian, administered among 451 randomly selected students supposed to take the NEATs for their admission to universities, and subjected to confirmatory factor analyses. The results obtained through within-group ANOVA comparisons of the construct-validated subscales revealed that under increased stakes of the NEATs the participants maintained moderately high level of motivation for the two components of ‘desire to learn English’ and ‘attitudes towards learning’; however, the level for the component of ‘motivational intensity’ was neutral/moderate. Similar result (i.e., moderate level) was found in the participants’ perspective of their overall MLE. The findings, overall, indicate that the NEATs-admission programme has not demotivated the learners yet they are not as highly motivated as intended by the change planners. Such a divergence between the ideal policies (i.e., high level of MLE) and what was observed in practice (i.e., neutral/moderate MLE level) has implications for test change contexts and their driving policies.

Visual literacy (VL), despite its significance, has not received deserved attention in EFL classes in Iran. Addressing this pedagogic and research lacuna, the researchers integrated VL practices into a General English course attended by female university learners, and examined the vision competencies developed by them. The analysis of the data collected through class observation, learner documents, and semi-structured interviews revealed that the learners developed the vision competencies regarding compositional, affective, and critical dimensions of visuals. It is hoped that the findings of this small-scale study encourage language planners, materials developers, and English teachers to pay heightened attention to the visuals’ potential and open more spaces for VL development in their curricula, materials, and language teaching practices. 

The present study investigates the central concerns of the use of visuals within the four EFL textbooks taught at Iranian high schools which have been prescribed by the Ministry of Education. To do this, the four EFL textbooks were evaluated and analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data quantitatively. The analysis indicated that over the four textbooks, 95.71 percent of all visuals were drawings and 4.29 percent were photos. The analysis revealed, then, among three fundamental categories of pictures function (i.e. Illustrative, Stimulus-Response, and Student-Generated), stimulus-response pictures constituted the largest percentage (70.50%) which tend to focus on low-level language skills; illustrative pictures constituted 29.49%, while none of them were used for the student-generated purposes. The visuals, furthermore, were largely being used for fairly grammatical part of language practice (87.45%). Moreover, all the pictures within each of the four textbooks under consideration were used for the purpose of 'talking about a picture'; no exercises were found to meet the 'talking with the picture' criterion. Findings of the study pedagogically call for using appropriate pictures of real people and real environment which provide sufficient input for language learners

This study explores how professional and student writers manifest their authorial identities and project their gender voices in their academic texts. To this end, 38 male-authored and 38 female-authored articles published in seven leading international journals were selected. Moreover, 38 articles written by male students and 38 articles authored by female students were collected from two universities in Iran. Taking an academic writing course, these students handed in their papers as term projects. These academic writings were analyzed based on Hyland’s metadiscourse framework comprising two major resources: interactional and interactive metadiscourse resources. The findings indicated the male authors mainly attended to discourse organization using more interactive resources while the female authors mostly solicited solidarity by employing more interactional resources. The professional authors engaged in a more critical stance using self-mentions and attitude markers and the students focused on discourse organization. Attitude markers and self-mentions, as markers of stance-taking, were absent in the students’ writing. The professional authors made use of their gender identity to promote their authorial identity instead of suppressing it. These results suggest that EAP programs should inform students how to employ both metadiscourse resources and their gender-based discourse choices to express their authorial identity more effectively.

This experimental research centered on considering the effect of cognitive intervention instruction on the phonological awareness of Iranian dyslexic students at primary schools. For this purpose, 32 male and female students between 8 to 11 years of age with 90 to 110 IQs average, were purposefully selected from primary schools and randomly assigned to a control group and an experimental group. Wechsler Intelligence test (WIT), Karami and Noori (KNT) test, and a cognitive intervention package were used as tools in this research. Then, to check the participants’ phonological awareness, (KNT) measurement was applied to the students. The covariance analysis of the resultant data showed that this package was effective on the phonological awareness of the experimental group after receiving the cognitive intervention package in contrast to the control group. The independent sample t-test also showed that there was no statistically meaningful difference between dyslexic male and female students in the experimental group regarding phonological awareness. The findings recommend that instructors at primary schools should teach the students to use cognitive intervention programs in phonological awareness to accelerate and do their more effective homework and develop productive insights into their phonological awareness.

Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) assume different roles amongst which is leadership. To lead effectively, they need to possess some significant awareness of the language in order to adequately respond to learners’ needs. One domain of awareness is the ability to distinguish between structurally similar, yet semantically different structures. This study set out to assess ESL teachers’ level of semantic awareness in view of establishing their readiness to meet learners’ needs within their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The Follow-up Explanatory Research Design was used. Data on the cognitions of ESL teachers were elicited from a questionnaire survey while a test was used to quantify ESL teachers’ language awareness levels in the domain of semantics. The quantitative data from the test were analyzed using frequencies and simple percentages while the qualitative data were analyzed using the framework of Content Analyses. The findings reveal that though ESL teachers overestimate the level of their knowledge base in components that have a bearing on semantics awareness, a majority of them do not wield beyond a fundamental level of awareness as concerns applying that knowledge to differentiate the meanings of structurally similar pairs of sentences. It is therefore crucial for English language pre-service and in-service teacher training to seek ways of enhancing the professional knowledge base of ESL teachers especially in domains that are critical to establishing differences between pairs of sentences that tend to be similar.