درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The present study aims to explore negation patterns in Ardalani, a variety of central Kurdish (Sorani) spoken mainly in Sanandaj, within the typological framework proposed by Miestamo (2005). This framework explains the main negation patterns found in the languages of the world as symmetric, asymmetric, and symmetric-asymmetric. Although Miestamo applied this stypological framework to analyze a wide range of languages, none of the Kurdish dialects are represented in his study. The data used in the present study comprises 263 negative sentences with their affirmative counterparts, which were obtained from the spoken Sorani material broadcast on Kurdistan Radio and Television. The results indicate that Ardalani follows a symmetric-asymmetric pattern. It reveals a symmetric pattern in the past tense with perfective and imperfective habitual aspect but displays an asymmetric pattern in the imperfective continuous aspect and modal structures. For the sentences in the imperfective continuous aspect, the speakers apply either A/Fin/Neg-LV or A/Cat/ATM. In the former, the verb loses finiteness and the features move to the available copula in the structure. In the latter, the aspect changes from continuous to habitual, a more common strategy. Modal structures also follow A/Cat/ATM, in which the modal marker is removed and replaced with the negation marker. However, the modal content remains semantically the same as its affirmative counterpart. 

Although teaching English for Specific and Academic Purposes (ESAP) is equivalent to teaching reading comprehension, it seems that Iranian graduated students having studied ESAP at BSc and MSc levels are not efficient readers and they also have a lot of problems in obtaining information from English materials related to their field of study via translation. Because mental translation is inevitable while reading English texts, the question is how to make the best use of this spontaneous strategy to promote reading comprehension. Sixty-six students majoring in midwifery, nursing and surgical technology at MSc level were selected based on convenience sampling. They were classified as lower-intermediate students by a standard placement test. Their translation practices and reading activities were investigated in an attempt to discover the strategies most frequently used by such learners. Through content analysis of these documented activities and interviews with the learners and observation of ESP classes, the common problems in reading comprehension as well as translation processes were identified. These problems originated from mental translation. These problems were addressed by using strategy-based instruction. The findings implies how to expliot mental translation as an efficient strategy through equipping learners with the prerequisite reading comprehension and translation skills and strategies.

Considering the EFL context, many teachers experience difficulty in incorporating what is learned in their pedagogical practices. This study attempted to discover the perception of in-service EFL teachers with various age groups, teaching experiences, and genders on the efficiency of the program in developing teachers’ content, pedagogical content, and pedagogical knowledge. The participants were selected from two groups of teachers who passed specific courses at Farhangian University and those who graduated from other universities which offered BA programs in TEFL. To this end, a questionnaire was constructed based on an extensive examination of the stated objectives of the current curriculum and was pilot-tested with 40 EFL teachers in both groups. As many as 160 high school teachers in Farhangian groups and 135 teachers in Non-Farhangian completed the revised questionnaire. A semi-structured interview consisting of ten open-ended questions was conducted with 20 of the participants in Farhangian and 20 teachers in Non-Farhangian groups. Based on MANOVA analysis, the effect of gender in Farhangian groups was statistically significant. The result of MANCOVA specified that there was no statistically significant mean difference between the two groups regarding the efficacy of the program in content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and pedagogical knowledge (PK).

Since beliefs and emotions are involved in teachers’ daily professional life, this case study aimed to reveal the beliefs of pre-service teachers (PST) emotional strategies and the reasons underlying their beliefs during teaching practicum. Six PSTs from three Indonesian universities who conducted teaching practicum in three different school areas participated in this study. Fruitful data were gained from classroom observations, in-depth interviews, and journal entries. The findings reveal that Indonesian PSTs believe designing both a lesson plan and a second one is significant in preparing the classroom situation appropriately for students. These strategies can improve their self-confidence and motivation and help them regulate down emotions to respond to spontaneous incidents. They also believe in cognitive strategies that the students' problems and the teacher's weaknesses provoke the students' misbehavior. To up-positive emotion regulation, they believe in fake strategies showing their excitement and enthusiasm in teaching through verbal and nonverbal cues. However, hiding and avoiding emotions are not suitable due to harmful impacts. Hence, teachers have to unveil their emotions in appropriate situations. Teachers' attention to all students is pivotal for learning and growth. Thus, PSTs' emotional competence must be enhanced, for they have the ability to identify, analyze, regulate, and express emotions in the proper context and situation. The teacher education program must give PSTs full support by including emotional competence as one of the subjects or a part of the course contents to promote positive beliefs on emotion regulation

This study examined the effects of virtual English instruction via the Iranian Student Education Network (SHAD) on the speaking accuracy of Iranian high school English learners with varied personality traits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants (n = 54) completed the Quick Oxford Placement Test and the Eysenck Personality Inventory before taking a speaking test based on the Vision English for Schools Series. The participants' voice-recorded responses to the speaking test were then analyzed for accurate verb usage. After completing 18 online sessions with diverse speaking tasks on SHAD, the participants retook the speaking test, and their performances were analyzed. The results indicated significant effects on the speaking accuracy of both extroverts and introverts, with introversion showing the most positive impact. Semi-structured telephonic interviews were conducted to gather participants' perceptions of virtual education. The findings highlighted the challenges and opportunities faced by Iranian high school English learners in online classes, with implications for virtual language education and materials development. 

Despite research on preservice teacher practicums, few studies have examined these experiences through a complexity theory lens to capture the intricate, dynamic interplay of factors involved. Addressing this gap, this qualitative case study explored the multidimensional influences shaping the practicum experiences of three preservice English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Vietnam. Using an in-depth case study design with semi-structured interviews and classroom observations, the study analyzed the participants' lived experiences across diverse school environments through the lens of complexity theory principles. The findings revealed complex interactions of student factors, curricular demands, resource constraints, and contextual influences shaping the preservice teachers' dynamic, self-organizing learning trajectories as they adapted to emergent needs. Notably, the pivotal role of context profoundly influenced pedagogical decision-making. The study's insights underscore the importance of teacher education programs providing contextualized support and learning opportunities to nurture adaptable, reflective educators responsive to complexity. This research contributes a nuanced complexity theory perspective on the multifaceted nature of preservice EFL teacher learning.

Teachers who possess an achievement value orientation may concentrate on establishing ambitious objectives for themselves, as well as creating opportunities for pupils to showcase their abilities and attain success. This can increase student motivation and ultimately improving job performance. While previous teachers' reflective studies in the field of English as a foreign language (EFL) have examined a wide range of variables, certain variables such as EFL teachers' achievement value orientation and job performance related to reflective teaching have remained under-researched. To this end, this study examined the EFL teachers' achievement value orientation factor identified as having a contributive role in EFL teachers' reflective teaching regarding the mediating role of job performance. The study sample consisted of 237 Iranian EFL teachers aged between 25 and 60. Based on the results of structural equation modeling (SEM), EFL teachers' achievement value orientation directly and significantly influences counterproductive work behavior (CWB) dimension of their job performance as well as metacognitive and affective dimensions of their reflective teaching. It was also shown that task performance (TP) has a direct effect on cognitive, contextual performance (CP) on cognitive and critical, and CWB on the metacognitive dimension of reflective teaching. The results also indicated that the CWB dimension of job performance mediates the impact of EFL Teachers’ achievement value orientation on metacognitive dimension of their reflective teaching. Teacher training programs should emphasize the importance of developing an achievement value orientation in teachers and reflective teaching should be promoted as a key component of teachers' professional development.

In recent decades, many second language acquisition (SLA) researchers have identified the leading role of organizing sequentially cognitive tasks in Task-Based Language Teaching. Presenting types of different task sequence has become increasingly crucial for syllabus designers. This investigation examines the theoretical basis of task sequencing, which claims that pedagogical tasks should be developed and ordered cognitively from easy to complex. The current study aims to compare the performance of English learners in sequenced and isolated familiar tasks. Sixty EFL learners studying at the intermediate level in two private language institutes participated in this research. They were randomly selected as one experimental and one control group, each comprising 30 subjects. Before starting treatment, all the participants took a listening comprehension test as a pretest. The treatment took place over one semester, during which the subjects performed simple-complex familiar sequenced tasks while the control group received familiar randomized tasks. After treatment, the posttest of listening comprehension, which contained two complex task features, i.e., - Here-and-Now and - Planning time, was employed. The independent-samples t-test showed that the experimental group who received simple-complex sequenced tasks outperformed the control group in listening to complex tasks. The findings supported the employment of simple-complex sequencing tasks to foster listening task complexity performance.

In the present essay, the researchers aim at studying two famous novels "The Crossing" and "The Road" in the light of Deleuzian geocritical concepts such as: nomad, rhizome, smooth space, and war machine. Studying space and place in American literature is a new trend. Space and landscape, considered as smooth space and striated space in Deleuze and Guattari's nomadology, are significantly highlighted in American literature. By drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's view of rhizome, which does not follow any plans or structures, the novel can be regarded as a rhizomatic structure in which the characters with nomadic existence move freely in a smooth space- a space without an explicit beginning and a clear destination. Portraying American space and landscape is a dominant theme in Cormac McCarthy's novels, including "The Crossing" and "The Road", in which the characters move from a rooted life to a nomadic life. Through examining these two novels, this paper is going to investigate the movement of nomadic characters in the smooth space of the postmodern world. Moreover, through exploring the relationship between literature, space, and identity, drawing on the philosophical ideas of Deleuz and Guatari, this paper is going to expose in what extent the representation of spaces in literature can reflect and shape cultural and national identities.

The present study sought to investigate the effects of face-to-face and web-based group dynamic assessment (GDA) on the speaking skills of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. A total of 100 participants from Ariana Institute in Rasht were involved in the study, with 36 introverted and 36 extroverted learners selected based on their scores on the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and Eysenck’s Personality test. These participants were then divided into experimental and control groups. Each experimental group, comprising 12 participants, underwent either face-to-face or web-based GDA sessions, while the control groups received traditional instruction. The research design included a pretest, 15 treatment sessions, and a posttest to assess the progress of speaking abilities among the learners. The statistical analysis, which included paired samples t-test and one-way ANOVA, indicated significant enhancements in speaking skills among the learners who participated in the experimental GDA sessions compared to those in the control groups. Notably, introverted learners in the web-based GDA group exhibited superior speaking abilities, whereas extroverted learners showed more improvement in face-to-face GDA sessions. These results have important implications for English language educators and researchers in Iran, highlighting the significant influence of GDA delivery mode on the speaking proficiency of EFL learners, particularly in relation to their introverted or extroverted traits. Such findings can offer valuable insights for pedagogical approaches and theoretical frameworks in English language teaching in Iran.

Since teachers’ perceptions of work engagement can strongly shape their engagement level, it is imperative to explore how teachers perceive this construct and its associated dimensions. With this in mind, some researchers have evaluated teachers’ beliefs and attitudes towards this notion.  Notwithstanding this, to the authors’ knowledge, no study has examined language teachers’ viewpoints on this variable and its significance in online EFL classes. To bridge these gaps, this phenomenological study explored Iranian EFL teachers’ perceptions and experiences of work engagement and its value in online English courses. To this aim, using the purposive sampling strategy, a total of 21 EFL teachers were chosen from different state, private, and non-profit universities in Iran. To obtain the required data, all participants were invited to complete an open-ended questionnaire. To reach more comprehensive data, from among the 21 participants, nine willingly took part in a 20-minute interview session. Results obtained from content analysis revealed that Iranian EFL teachers considered work engagement as a complex variable with four related dimensions of emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and social engagement. The results also indicated that Iranian teachers perceived work engagement as an important professional behavior that results in increased academic achievements, professional advancement, improved teaching quality, and strong teacher-student rapport. Hence, education leaders and teacher educators should support Iranian EFL teachers in enhancing work engagement dimensions to improve professional growth and teaching quality.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of scaffolding genre knowledge and metacognitive strategy use on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ academic writing skills. The initial population was 100 EFL students from M.A. English language teaching (ELT) students who took academic writing course at Islamic Azad University, Tehran and Alborz branches. To homogenize the sample, Oxford placement test (OPT) was administered, and based on its results, 75 advanced learners were selected for the purpose of the study. After that, they were divided into 3 groups, namely the experimental group A (scaffolding genre knowledge), the experimental group B (metacognitive strategy use), and the control group. IELTS academic writing task 2 was administered as the pretest and posttest. The treatments lasted for 16 sessions. To explore the learners’ perceptions regarding the instructions qualitatively, the semi-structured individual interviews were administered to 20 students who were chosen from the experimental groups. The results showed that scaffolding genre knowledge and metacognitive strategy use had significant impacts on the Iranian EFL learners’ academic writing skill. In addition, the findings indicated that there was a significant difference between the effects of scaffolding genre knowledge and metacognitive strategy use on the Iranian EFL academic writing skill in which scaffolding genre knowledge had more significant effects on Iranian EFL academic writing skill than metacognitive strategy use. Furthermore, the qualitative findings showed that the learners adopted positive views towards scaffolding genre knowledge and metacognitive strategy use in developing their academic writing skill.

The combination of face-to-face and online teaching, also called Blended learning (BL) has practically become one of the prevalent models of teaching and learning all over the world. Particularly, it has been applied as a new trend of using technology to concurrently combine in-class and out-of-class learning to optimize the educational impacts on students. However, BL is still quite a new learning model and has not been applied widely in teaching English in Vietnam. The current study was conducted to explore students’ perceptions of BL, the difficulties students think they have, and the percentage of face-to-face and online learning they prefer when learning in the BL environment. Sixty civil engineering students participating in the survey filled out a questionnaire after the forms of BL and the Learning Management System (LMS) Moodle had been introduced to them. The findings indicated that more than half of the participants were stimulated by BL and willing to take on the challenges.  Nevertheless, some concerns about the lack of IT skills to fulfill the requirements of the BL course cannot be ignored.