درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This study was an attempt to examine the intercultural experience of Iranian university students studying abroad and explore variables influencing their success or failure in intercultural interactions. A qualitative method involving semi-structured interviews and retrospective narratives were employed in order to achieve an in-depth understanding of intercultural competence of the international university students which came to light from their reflections and interactions. The findings provided insights into three major components of intercultural communicative competence, i.e. attitude, knowledge and skill featured vigorously on students’ reflections. Most significantly, investigation of the data-set revealed several facilitating and debilitating factors contributing to intercultural encounters. 

The increasing popularity of self-assessment prompted several scholars to investigate its effectiveness and accuracy in relation to teacher assessment. However, most of these studies focused only on the consistency estimate perspective. Thus, the current study investigated the interrater reliability between self- and teacher assessment of students’ oral performance in Filipino. Specifically, this study used two perspectives (i.e., consistency estimate and consensus estimate perspectives) to see the full picture of interrater reliability between self- and teacher assessment. Fifty (50) college students from various specializations participated in this study. They assessed their respective oral performances using an in-class observation self-assessment with self-viewing. Findings reveal that teacher and students’ SA results posted a very strong positive relationship and that their ratings agree with each other. High positive correlations suggest that both the students and the teacher consistently apply the rating scale. These results were attributed to the use of a micro-analytic rating scale, assessment training, and rating procedure used during SA. Implications for classroom assessment and future studies were discussed.

Since the 1990s, an accumulated body of empirical studies have investigated the main and differential effects of various approaches to second language (L2) pragmatic instruction. To contribute to this line of research, the present study aimed at investigating the effect of deductive and inductive instruction on the development of the speech acts of requests by Iranian EFL learners. In so doing, 51 Iranian EFL English-major students were randomly assigned to either the deductive group (DG) group (n = 24) or the inductive group (IG) group (n = 27). (IG).  Both groups were provided with video clips of short conversations including the speech acts of request. The experimental treatment for the DG followed explicitness and deduction accompanied by a variety of drills, whereas the instruction for the IG involved input enhancement techniques. Both deductive and inductive methods of instruction adopted in the present study were operationalized according to the principles underlying the paradigms of Focus on Forms (FonFS) and Focus on Forms (FonF). Speech act development of the two groups was measured through a 10-item Written Discourse Completion Test (WDCT) at the pre-treatment and post-treatment phases of the study. The results obtained from administered WDCT revealed that both deductive and inductive instruction had a significant effect on the learners’ development of requests. Further analysis of the findings revealed that inductive instruction was more effective than deductive instruction. The findings offer theoretical and pedagogical implications.

This study investigated the effects of corrective feedback (CF) and the Flipped Teaching Model (FTM) on English language learners’ overall and categorical grammar accuracy. The study was conducted at Payame-Nour University (PNU) of Mahabad, Iran. A total of 80 Iranian EFL learners participated in the study. The participants were randomly assigned into two flipped and two non-flipped groups of 20: one in each pair of groups receiving explicit and the other implicit CF. Data were collected across two time periods (pre-intervention and post-intervention). Two measures of Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) were conducted. The results revealed no significant differences in the effect of CF type in the flipped classes, and both led to the learners’ higher level of overall grammar accuracy. However, the explicit group outperformed the implicit one in the non-flipped classes. Explicit feedback in flipped and non-flipped classes led to the learners’ outperformance in acquiring specific grammatical structures, such as adjective/reduced adjective clauses, but not in others, like comparative/superlative adjectives, gerund/infinitive, word forms, word order, and apposition. These findings have implications for language educators seeking to enhance learners’ grammatical accuracy in both flipped and non-flipped classrooms, particularly in relation to the use of explicit feedback for certain types of grammatical structures.

Teaching practices are believed to be a determining factor in educational systems. For over two decades, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Iran has been organizing Top Model Teaching Festivals to address the changes required to promote English teachers' professional development. Considering the high amounts of investment in such programs and their impacts on teaching and sustainable learning, this study probed into how the award-winning teachers critically view and evaluate the efficacy of such nationwide festivals. To this end, ten award-winning EFL teachers in the festivals were interviewed using a semi-structured interview protocol to qualitatively elicit their attitudes towards the program. The results obtained from the content analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that such festivals have not adequately fulfilled their main objective, which is to improve the teaching quality and potential of teachers and promote their professional development. Thus, the study calls for a reassessment of the effectiveness of such programs to find alternative ways for empowering teachers.       

The study investigates English language teachers’ beliefs and perceptions in understanding the notion of differentiated instruction strategy in secondary schools in Uzbekistan. To achieve this, the researchers designed a questionnaire consisting of 3 parts, a question list for semi-structured interviews and an unstructured observation sheet. The instruments were used after having verified their validity and reliability. Our teachers participated in the research who took the questionnaires, 20 sub-samples were interviewed and 10 of them volunteered to conduct the classes per 2 observations, that is 20 observations in total. The results indicate that teachers have different points of view on differentiated instruction strategies based on their experience.  There was a big difference among questionnaire and interview responses compared to what was observed in classes in terms of applying elements of Differentiated Instruction such as Content and Process. The analyses of data show that being familiar with DI is statistically significant toward the age, working experience, and grade currently teaching. The study recommends organizing workshops for language teachers to train them to differentiate instructions and increase their awareness of the strategies of differentiation along with organizing lesson observation of those teachers who already implement differentiated instructions in their classes.          

This study sought to investigate the problems and challenges of the current state of teaching translation in post-graduate studies. In so doing, it used a content analysis design within a qualitative method. The participants consisted of 20 (10 males and ten females) translation teachers who were selected through purposive sampling. To collect the required data, a semi-structured interview was used in the form of individual and focus group interviews. To analyze interview data, the content of transcribed interviews was qualitatively analyzed by the researcher to identify the common themes and categories in them, based on an exploratory theme-based approach. The results of the thematic analysis of interview data led to the identification of some problems and challenges including students’ lack of willingness to learn translation, the emphasis on practical elements in teaching translation, lack of an effective teaching translation program, students’ demotivation, and so on. Moreover, a program consisting of five steps was suggested for using technology in teaching translation in post-graduate studies in Iran. The findings have some implications for translation teachers and students, and authorities.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of task-based language teaching on news-story writing in Iranian EFL context. To this end, a quasi-experimental, pre- and post-evaluation research design was employed. First, 78 Iranian BA sophomores majoring in translation at Islamic Azad University, Hamedan Branch, were selected through convenient sampling as the participants of the study. They were then randomly divided into two treatment and control groups--task-based group (TB) and conventional teaching group (TC) respectively. Both groups were initially given a test on news story writing to measure their writing ability at the pre-treatment stage. Then, the control group was taught through explanations abstracted from some deductive plans and reading-oriented method of teaching news story structure. The other group was exposed to a six-weak TB treatment based on Willis’ TBL framework. The post-treatment researcher-made test was then administered to compare the participants’ writing progress. The obtained statistical results showed that the employment of the task-based language learning scenario does not lead to an overall significant improvement of Iranian EFL learners’ performance in news-story writing as compared with the conventional teaching of the same skill. This is perhaps due to learners’ negative attitude towards TBLT, which originates from the inconsistency of TBLT with the educational philosophy in Iran. Therefore, TBLT programs may need to be modified on the basis of the local and traditional specifications of the education in the target community to be able to develop the learners’ news-story writing skill.             

The present study examined the effect of the online reformulation and collaborative feedback on Iranian learners’ writing in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. To this end, three female intact classes (N = 55) at the upper-intermediate level were selected. Two of these classes were thence randomly selected as the experimental groups (1 & 2) and the other one as the control group. Experimental group 1 was provided with online writing feedback in the form of reformulation. Experimental group 2 received online feedback through reformulation followed by general online sessions with the participants for extra individual guidance, i.e., online collaborative feedback in the form of post-writing conferences. The control group experienced the same amount of online writing instruction. They were, however, provided feedback conventionally without reformulation tasks and collaborative feedback. To measure writing proficiency, IELTS task 2 was administered as the pre-treatment and the post-treatment test. One-way ANOVA and Post-hoc Tukey Test were used to compare the mean score of the composition tests between groups. The significant effect of online reformulation and collaborative feedback on writing was confirmed. This study has pedagogical implications for EFL English teachers and stakeholders in providing feedback on EFL learners’ writings.

This study is an investigation of gender equity in the context of the General English Achievement Test developed and used at Islamic Azad University (Isfahan Branch, IRAN), henceforth IAUGEAT, with test takers majoring in different fields of study. A sample of 835 students sitting for IAUGEAT was chosen purposively. The test scores were analyzed by the one-parameter IRT model. A focus group interview (10 test developers and language teachers) was also used to inquire into their perceptions about the impact of test takers’ gender and major on test equity. The findings of the DIF analysis indicated a reciprocal action between item type and gender DIF as some items exhibited DIF across different subgroups. In three subgroups, they favored female students. In one subgroup, they favored males. In the other two subgroups, they favored males and females alike. The qualitative data obtained from the focus group interview further confirmed the results. In general, our findings strongly suggest that checking gender equity via a Rasch-model DIF analysis is both eminent and convergent with a qualitative evaluation of test-takers' performance by test developers and instructors.      

L’objectif de cette recherche est d’analyser les caractéristiques des tâches numériques proposées dans les manuels de FLE et sa mise en place par les enseignants iraniens. Les outils de la collecte des données comprennent donc des manuels de FLE utilisés dans les instituts de langues en Iran et les entretiens avec 18 enseignants iraniens. Deux dispositifs d’analyse de données ont alors été adoptés : une grille d’analyse des tâches numériques et le logiciel MAXQDA. L’analyse des manuels montrent que les tâches numériques ont pris une place croissante dans les méthodes étudiées. Les résultats obtenus de l’analyse des entretiens révèlent que la majorité des enseignantes n’effectuent pas les tâches numériques proposées par les manuels dû à plusieurs facteurs notamment le manque de temps et d’installation numérique dans leurs instituts. Pour certaines interviewées la mise en œuvre des tâches numériques équivaut à l’utilisation des sites Internet pour proposer des exercices aux apprenants ou à l’enseignement à distance. Nous pouvons conclure des résultats que le besoin des stages de formation est ressenti de la part des enseignants pour d’abord les initier au concept de tâche et de tâche numérique et ensuite les former à la mise en place des outils numériques dans le processus d’enseignement, selon un choix raisonné compte tenu de leur contexte, en vue de créer un environnement authentique d’enseignement/apprentissage du FLE en Iran.

This paper aims to study 7 to 12-year-old Persian-speaking children’s comprehension of polysemy through semantics. The research method is descriptive-analytic, and two kinds of methodology in data collection such as documentary resources and fieldwork have been applied. For collecting data, each of the six elementary school grades course books ‘Farsi’ (2018) has been studied and all polysemous words within each of these course books have been extracted. Accordingly, to evaluate polysemy comprehension in children, a multiple-choice test containing two questions was prepared for each grade and asked 25 participants to answer in each grade and each gender from among elementary schools in Tehran. In each grade, 100 answers were received and based on the number of correct answers children’s polysemy comprehension was evaluated. These tests were administered under school authorities’ control and children had to answer in 15 minutes. The results show that most children found the polysemous words without problem only within a context and in relation to the collocated words. Also, children can comprehend the exact meaning of polysemous words based on the encyclopedic viewpoint of meaning which is rooted in human social and physical experience. Moreover, children based on their background knowledge differentiate between multiple meanings of polysemous words.