درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The aim of this study was to compare the Exceptional Student Learning English (ESLE) web application and traditional application and the evaluation of the ESLE app mainly from the exceptional student parents' perspective. To this end, five exceptional student parents with their exceptional children were selected among 30 parents in Isfahan in Isfahan province. Open-ended questionnaires were sent to five parents to collect the parents' feedback on the ESLE app and their perceptions of mobile apps-assisted language learning experiences. Results indicated that, ESLE game-based app has encouraged exciting opportunities for personalized and learner-centered environments with flexible access to learning materials anytime and anywhere. The novel and enjoyable ways of learning would have a great potential to increase learning motivation and encourage lifelong learning habits. More research will be needed in the young filed of MALL in order to suggest the right direction to effective language learning. Findings have illuminative implications for teachers, exceptional students, parents, and app developers.

The present paper addresses the issues of EFL teachers’ views and implementation of problem solving in third-year classes in the Algerian Secondary Schools. The focal aim is to highlight the importance of problem solving as a means to improve the activities of teaching and learning. The survey involved a random sample of 50 teachers to whom a questionnaire was administered. Marzano’s (2001) New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives was used as the analytical framework. According to the obtained findings, teachers (96%) agreed that problem solving is a crucial component of instruction. The majority of teachers claimed that they implement problem-solving tasks in the classroom. The main benefits of implementing problem solving in the classroom that the respondents mentioned include: the development of students’ cognitive abilities, their autonomy, and the teaching practices. The findings have important implications for pedagogical strategies that might promote the teaching and assessment of problem solving in EFL contexts.

With the latest paradigm shift in SLA from Cognitivism to Sociocultural Theory (SCT), more studies are carried out to investigate the efficacy of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) through a social and cultural lens. A more recent offspring of SCT is Activity Theory which provides an explanatory framework for scrutinizing an activity in a social setting. The present study aimed at investigating the impact of Scaffolded WCF within the framework of Activity Theory on Iranian EFL learners’ writing performance in terms of reduction of the learners’ writing errors with respect to the content, vocabulary, mechanics, organization, and grammar. Finally, different types of Activity Theory-based strategic mediations (i.e. artifact, rule, community, and role mediations) Iranian EFL learners employed in their writing revisions were investigated. Accordingly, 25 Iranian university-level students, through convenient sampling, were chosen to participate in the study. The treatment they received on their writings was a graduated Scaffolding WCF in their Zone of Proximal Development in the form of both peer and teacher feedback. The findings indicated that Scaffolded WCF statistically significantly contributed to the participants’ writing performance in terms of content, vocabulary, mechanics, organization, and grammar. With respect to the mediation strategies used by the learners, it was discovered that the learners benefitted from all the available mediators although with various degrees. It is hoped that the findings of this study will promise implications for promoting a teacher/learner-friendly method of providing WCF based on SCT, which can be utilized in large classes typical of Iranian EFL university courses.

The present mixed-method study sought to investigate the efficacy of using an interventionist dynamic assessment and specifically its formats namely the cake and the sandwich ones on learners’ grammatical English Tenses. In doing so, 45 advanced learners of English language at Iran Language Institute (ILI) in Shiraz, Iran were selected. They were randomly assigned to 3 groups, each including 15 participants. Two experimental groups namely the cake and the sandwich ones received the interventionist dynamic assessment test while the third group received a non-dynamic grammar test which was functioning as a control group. As the study utilized a sequential exploratory design (QUAN → qual) of mixed method approach (MMR), the quantitative part was carried out via a well-established grammar test and in the qualitative component, six informants (3 from the cake group and 3 from the sandwich group) were selected to be interviewed and their quotations were descriptively analyzed through a sociocultural perspective. The quantitative component of the study revealed the outperformance of the two experimental group over the control group. However, the two modes of delivering mediation in experimental groups had no statistically significant difference on the degree of the acquisition of grammatical English tenses by learners. The interview analysis of the negotiations also demonstrated positive viewpoints of learners about the two experimental groups. Merging the quantitative and qualitative analyses, the study found that interventionist dynamic assessment, in both modes, could have positive effects on learners’ ability to improve their acquisition of English tenses.

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, there have been three packages used in the state-controlled schools of the country, namely, Graded, Right Path to English, and Prospect/Vision series. These textbooks all include prefaces to indicate the general philosophy of language teaching and education, and how the agents (learners and teachers) have to play roles in the system. This article aims to have a postcolonial reading of the Islamic post-revolutionary English language textbooks published in Iran. To this aim, the prefaces are critically content-analyzed and explained taking into consideration the key concepts of postcolonialism. After developing the table of themes in relation to postcolonial issues, the findings indicate that the resistance prevalent in the prefaces is particularly hybrid, anxious, and unstable of the Iranian type due to the socio-politico-cultural background of the country. This resistance, thus, is a tragic attempt for developing a firm background for developing language learners'' knowledge.