درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Since its introduction in 1980, the concept of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) has attracted much attention. Although many studies have been conducted in science and mathematics, there are insufficient studies to capture the PCK of EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers. Accordingly, the present study aimed to unearth EFL teachers' PCK through a grounded theory approach in the Iranian context. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 English teachers at senior high schools in three provinces of Ilam, Lorestan, and Kermanshah. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using coding procedures. The results yielded five main dimensions of EFL teachers' pedagogical content knowledge: English language proficiency knowledge, pedagogy knowledge, student knowledge, curriculum knowledge, and assessment knowledge. Data analysis also revealed the sources of EFL teachers' PCK construction and demonstrated that contextual and intervening conditions influence EFL teachers' PCK enactment. The findings may have theoretical and practical implications for high school EFL teachers, educators, and education programs.

This study explored the competition between semantic and morphosyntactic processing in L1 and L2. In addition, the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and L2 semantic-morphosyntactic processing was scrutinized. To this purpose, 73 Persian learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) participated in an offline grammaticality judgment test (GJT), an L1 as well as an L2 semantically-primed test, and a WMC test. The results showed that L1 morphosyntactic processing was not affected by semantic priming. But, L2 morphosyntactic parsing decisions, irrespective of the participants’ WMC, was significantly influenced by semantic priming, indicating that L2 morphosyntactic knowledge in learners' interlanguage system might be shaky and subject to communicative aspects of input. Additionally, the findings revealed a significant relationship between the participants' WMC and their L2 semantic/morphosyntactic processing. The findings of the study provide some implications for foreign language teachers with regard to teaching morphosyntactic aspects of language and correcting morphosyntactic errors.

The present study aimed at investigating English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ level of reflection and the barriers to their reflection. To do so, based on an experimental research method, 98 EFL teachers were recruited and the English language teacher reflection inventory (ELTRI) was distributed among them. To consolidate the findings of the inventory, 20 volunteers from the same pool were interviewed. As the next phase of the study, to investigate the barriers to the teachers’ reflectivity, the same participants were given an open-ended questionnaire to probe their ideas about barriers to reflective practice. Based on the obtained data and the related literature, a Barriers to Reflective Practice Questionnaire (BRPQ) was developed and distributed among the participants. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics, one sample t-test, and content analysis were employed. The findings revealed that EFL teachers did not practice reflection at high levels. They considered top-down curriculum, disrespect for teachers’ authority, teachers’ inclination to the conventional teaching practice, lack of appropriate context for reflection, teachers’ workload, and lack of appropriate training courses as the most important factors which bar their reflection. Teacher education programs should raise EFL teachers’ awareness regarding the concept and use of reflective practice.

Given that L2 engagement serves a vital role in students’ academic success, studying the predictors of this construct seems critical. Notwithstanding, factors influencing one’s engagement in an L2 context have remained unclear. To respond to this gap, the present research sought to unravel the effects of teacher support and teacher-student rapport on Iranian EFL students’ L2 engagement. To this aim, 216 Iranian students majoring in Applied Linguistics, Linguistics, English Translation, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, or English Literature were invited to cooperate in this investigation. To obtain the required data, three pre-designed scales were virtually distributed among the respondents. Then, through correlation tests, the association between teacher support, teacher-student rapport, and student L2 engagement was measured. Following that, the impact of teacher support and teacher-student rapport on Iranian students’ L2 engagement was assessed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The correlational analysis uncovered a strong, favorable association between constructs. The SEM analysis also indicated that teacher support and teacher-student rapport can strongly influence Iranian students’ engagement in EFL classes. The implications of the results are further discussed.

This study investigated the effects of dialogic tasks on Iranian English as Foreign Language learners' language learning anxiety considering the moderating effects of the learners’ gender and levels of proficiency as well. A total number of 213 male and female Iranian EFL learners within the age range of 15-19 were selected through convenience sampling from three language schools in Fars, Iran. Learners at two levels of proficiency (upper vs. lower intermediate), were chosen and assigned to experimental and control groups. Then, an adapted translated version of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz et al., 1986) was run as a pretest and posttest to measure the learners’ anxiety. The treatment was dialogic tasks operationalized through sequencing picture stories. The results revealed that dialogic tasks exerted a significant effect on reducing Iranian EFL learners' anxiety. Moreover, it was discovered that upper-intermediate learners experienced lower levels of anxiety than their lower-intermediate counterparts. Finally, it was found that female learners in this study suffered from more anxiety levels than male learners. Although integrating dialogic tasks into classroom activities has proved to be beneficial as learners could experience sufficient opportunities for speaking, this task could not assist learners of different levels of proficiency and gender in the same way. These findings will provide practical implications for language teachers and learners.

This study examined the correlation between advanced EFL students' syntactic knowledge and their writing and speaking proficiency to determine whether students' syntactic knowledge can influence their productive skills. A total of 50 advanced students aged between 18 and 25 were chosen purposefully to take part in the study. Four tests, including a placement test, a syntax test from Oxford University Press, a writing test, and one test for speaking proficiency were employed to collect the required data. Because the data for this study were quantitative, a correlational/descriptive design was chosen for the data to be analyzed. The researcher then decided to find a correlation between the students' writing and speaking scores and their syntax scores based on the obtained data. Both the t-test and the Pearson correlation demonstrated that there is no real correlation between the syntactic, speaking, and writing proficiency of the students. Further findings showed that there is no difference between the relationship between syntactic knowledge and speaking proficiency and the relationship between syntactic knowledge and writing proficiency. The implication of this study is that grammatical competence is not a valid predictor for the proficiency of students in writing and speaking courses. If a student’s grammatical competence is low, his proficiency in writing and speaking can still be average or even above average depending on the process of assessing these skills. Additionally, learners must understand that possessing a strong grasp of grammatical knowledge does not inevitably ensure their ability to produce language effectively in spoken or written form.

This paper examined impoliteness strategies used by characters and their resulting reactions in five American comedy series. Drawing on Culpeper’s models (1996 & 2003), the comedy series were watched several times with one month interval to make sure that the impolite utterances and their reactions were put in the correct categories. The results of the study revealed that sarcasm was the most frequently used strategy among other strategies, and male and female characters were not distinct in using this strategy. However, male characters exploited the bald on record strategy more than their female counterparts. One striking result was the frequent use of offensive reactions by male actors. The reasons behind the variable use of these strategies are twofold. First, impoliteness is used as a tool to show off the power of the male characters. Second, using impoliteness strategies in comedy series reflect the entertaining role of sarcasm used by the actors.

Various types of focalization are important elements in creating suspense and surprise. This study finds use of narrative discourse analysis in order to discover the narrative affordances and limitations of internal focalization for creating suspense and surprise in Persian detective novels, specifically, Esmail Fassih’s The Falcon and the Owls . Duality (the existence of two temporal sets in the structure of the narrative), raising implicit questions in the first and other scenes of the novel, flashback, flashforward, different types of internal and external conflicts, spatial limitation of the focalizer and the suspense after the surprise are some of the affordances and limitations of the internal focalizer in creating suspense and surprise. In The Falcon and the Owls , the most significant strengths of the internal focalizer are the extensive attention given to narrative affordances such as raising implicit questions in the first and other scenes of the novel as well as going back and forth in time; while its weaknesses include giving insufficient attention to the tactic of multiple internal focalization, paying unnecessary attention to unimportant omissions and omitting important events.

Teachers serving at the front lines of education during difficult times of the pandemic seem to have been forgotten in these bustling days around the world. While delivery of high-quality education is on the shoulders of these people, their life and wellbeing have been affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, there is little documented evidence on how the pandemic has impacted language teachers’ wellbeing. To fill this gap, this qualitative study examines the wellbeing of English as a Foreign Language teachers in Iranian public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten participants who attended in-depth interviews were found to have their wellbeing levels severely affected by the pandemic. Indeed, the newly emerged challenges have been added to the existing obstacles and augmented the already stressful teaching profession. Based on the findings, recommendations are provided for authorities and parents to be employed during the pandemic and afterward to help teachers flourish and subsequently improve quality education.

Given the prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic and consequently the emergence of more online courses throughout the world, exploring teachers’ views about the shift from face-to-face to online environments seems significant. The objective of this study was thus twofold: (a) to investigate the roles EFL teachers take and (b) to determine competencies required to teach online English language courses. Mixed-methods research was conducted, and the participants were 100 MA students of TEFL at Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST). The required data were collected through administering two questionnaires, adapted by the researchers, on online teacher roles and competencies along with two open-ended questions. After carrying out descriptive statistics for the quantitative data and theme-based analysis for the qualitative ones, the results indicated that online teaching roles could be hierarchically ranked as pedagogical, professional, administrative, social, assessment, technological, and researcher. With regard to online teacher competencies, pedagogical, professional, and technological role competencies received the highest mean, while the researcher role competencies gained the lowest one. Pre-service EFL teachers held the view that having knowledge of technology and its use, knowledge of course/content, ability to sustain learners' motivation, online teaching skills, and ability to communicate were other competencies teachers require to fulfill their roles in online English language courses. The findings can provide more insights into how to redesign and map online teacher professional development courses to better prepare potential EFL teachers and boost their quality as online EFL teachers.