درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Learner autonomy has become the area of interest by many researchers of foreign language learning in the recent years. However, few studies have been done concerning the case of Kurdish learners` autonomy in learning languages. For this reason, the current study addresses this gap. It intends to investigate to what extent Kurdish learners are autonomous in learning English language. The study is significant in that it gives a broader understanding of the concept of autonomy to Kurdish learners and their language teachers to maintain how important autonomy is in promoting effective English language learning. The research adapts qualitative method in order to examine the views of Kurdish students who are currently studying at Salahaddin University in Kurdistan and their major field is English language learning. It involves six participants from various stages of undergraduate level to have the opportunity to examine autonomy according to different levels of learners` ability of using English language. The results of the study highlight that fortunately the participants showed a great degree of control over their learning. It was indicated that they were able to self asses their learning and design their own learning plans. Exploring their language learning autonomy experiences provide Kurdish learners and academics with a better understanding of how to challenge traditional methods of learning and what strategies to adopt to make learners more independent in the learning process.

The status of teaching ESP has been studied both internationally and locally. However, it seems that the challenges of teaching ESP in medical universities of Iran have not been studied appropriately. The main objective of the present study was to explore the main challenges of teaching ESP in medical universities of Iran. Due to the nature of the study, a qualitative res earch design (Phenomenological) was used. The data were gathered through interviewing 25 ESP stakeholders from two universities of medical sciences in Tehran. The data were analyzed through content analysis techniques. The results showed that the challenges are classified into three main themes: institution challenges, learner related challenges, and teacher related challenges. Institution related challenges consisted of undetermined aims, structure of the curricula, and content of syllabus, evaluation, time limitation and classroom size. The learner related challenges included lack of motivation, poor GEL background, and learners’ focus on test, and learners’ inappropriate needs’ analysis. ESP teachers’ related challenges included teacher’s language proficiency, teachers’ content knowledge, teachers’ perception of ESP, teachers’ teaching method, teachers’ familiarity with material development, and testing skills. The findings of the study can be used to promote the status of teaching ESP in medical universities.

The present study was an attempt to explore the effect of clinical supervision on EFL teachers’ level of burnout. For this purpose, a total number of 80 male and female EFL teachers within the age range of 26 and 47 who were working at a language school in Tehran participated in this study. Forty teachers in the experimental group underwent a clinical supervision program which comprised the three steps of pre-observation conference, observation, and post-observation feedback conference while the other 40 teachers who were in the control group were subjected to the conventional supervision program of the language school. The program for both groups spanned a total period of 12 weeks. Prior to the program, the Maslach Burnout Inventory questionnaire (MBI) was used to measure the level of all of the teachers’ burnout as the pretest and again at the end of study, both groups took the MBI questionnaire as the posttest. The analysis of the test scores using a test of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that the clinical supervision program had lowered significantly the participants’ burnout. As a result of this study, the researchers suggest that ELT establishments take into consideration the practice of clinical supervision to enhance their teachers’ performance.

This study investigated the effects of corrective feedback (CF) on the acquisition of English prepositions to find out which one would be more effective for third-grade high school learners in their grammar performance. This study also examined declarative and interrogative recasts to see which one the participants preferred to improve their grammar performance. To this end,75 out of 130 female students at the intermediate level in Khorramshar took part in this study. The participants were randomly assigned into one control and two experimental groups. All three groups took the same pre and posttests; however, the treatment was different. The recast group received CF in the form of recast and the other in the form of metalinguistic clues. The control group only received general comments, like good, bad, etc. The results indicated that both experimental groups improved in preposition recognition and production in their grammar performances. The findings also showed that there was no significant difference between the students'' performance in experimental groups, but metalinguistic CF was more helpful. A careful calculation using a questionnaire based on 5-points Likert Scale showed that there was no significant difference between the participants'' preference for two types of recast by the group receiving recasts.

The present study attempted to discover whether there is a significant relationship between EFL teachers' critical thinking ability and their teaching success.To this end, 113 Iranian male and female English teachers were required to fill out Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal. Besides, their students were asked to answer the Characteristics of Successful EFL Teachers questionnaire. The statistical analysis of the data showed that there was a significant correlation between EFL teachers’ critical thinking skill and their teaching success. Besides, findings revealed that there was a significant difference between male and female teachers regarding their critical thinking skills, and that BA teachers differed from AS teachers with regard to critical thinking skills. More specifically, male BA teachers took the most advantages from critical thinking skills than others.  

The present study investigated the possible difference between EFL teachers’ beliefs and their actual classroom practices. To this end, 210 Iranian EFL teachers (103 teachers from high schools and 107 from language institutes) participated in the study. The 45-item Likert-scale Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) developed originally by Horwitz, (1985) and validated by Kasraee Nejad (2014) for the context of Iran and an observation checklist, devised and validated by the researchers, comprised the data collection instruments adopted in the current study. The results of paired t-test revealed statistically significant differences between beliefs of Iranian EFL teachers and their actual classroom practices. Moreover, the results of Independent Samples t-test indicated that the two groups of high school and language institute teachers were significantly different with regard to their beliefs on language learning. In addition, the results of Chi-square analysis demonstrated 43 out of 45 teachers’ specific beliefs were significantly different from their actual classroom practices. In the light of the findings of the present study, educational policy makers and managers in both high schools and language institutes are recommended to introduce ways to raise EFL teachers’ awareness of their beliefs to enhance their efficiency in their actual classroom practices.