درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The teacher, his instructional method, and indeed his characteristics are considered to be the decisive factors for the success or failure of education. The current study was carried out to determine the Iranian EFL teachers’ perception of immunity in their occupational contexts, that is in English language institutes and public schools. To achieve this objective, one hundred EFL teachers teaching in public schools (N = 50) and language institutes (N = 50), in Isfahan, were selected through convenience sampling to participate in this study. Then, the Teachers’ Immunity Level questionnaire was administered to them, and they were interviewed as well. The teachers were asked about their perception of immunity in their own occupational setting. All the teachers working in language institutes believed that teachers in these educational centers are suffering from low levels of job immunity. The teachers were also asked about the reasons underlying the high and low levels of job immunity in these two educational contexts. The teachers in language institutes believed that the dearth of monitoring by the government, the large number of unemployed educated people, employers’ greed, and lowering the value of education in the society are among the most important reasons underlying this catastrophe in language institutes. These findings can have some implications for the decision-makers in the Iranian Ministry of Education to provide language institutes with more support and attention with an eye to eliminating the mentioned problems.

Engagement and interaction have recently been considered practical activities essentially in educational settings. Due to the importance of this notion, this research paper reviewed the qualitative study aimed to find out the evaluation of Iranian EFL students’ emotional attitudes and perceptions towards interactive tasks on self-monitoring, self-regulation, and willingness to communicate in learning. Accordingly, the study as personality assessment developed the semi-structured interviews with 40 students in an experimental group and 40 students in a control group to explore students’ motivational beliefs and their attitudes towards interactive tasks influencing their performance in learning and assisting them to communicate successfully. Based on the attitudinal analysis as the results of this study, using the Transcribed Interview Sample with coding (an extract) clearly identified that students with interactive tasks mainly outperformed those with regular instruction. Furthermore, the findings of the research indicated that students’ achievement was improved in terms of their motivation, autonomy, and empowerment as contributed to their learning. However, this study revealed that teachers could increase the academically collaborative talk as well as social-emotional behavior of students in their teaching and learning environments to share feeling safe, taking risks, and enjoy constructive effects.

The interaction between the writers and the experts while using citations is one of the main features of academic texts. For the integration of external experts into the text, writers usually use reporting verbs, which seem to function differently. Furthermore, selecting reporting verbs (RVs) by the researchers of disciplines seems to vary. This paper explored the functions of RVs across sciences. To this end, 200 “Results and Discussion” section of RAs from the four sciences, namely Life Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, Physical Sciences and Engineering, and Health Sciences were gathered and used as the data, and their functions of RVs were analyzed based on Hyland’s framework (2002). Hyland (2002) considered three basic RV types based on their function, including research, cognitive, and discourse acts, subsequently dividing each category into several subcategories. The results showed that the writers in Life Sciences used more research acts in comparison to the other disciplines. In terms of cognition acts, the rates of tentative verbs were high in all sciences since the researchers tried to report the results with caution as they were uncertain about the findings. The results approved this claim, indicating the high frequency of tentative verbs under the category of discourse acts, across disciplines using verbs like hypothesize, indicate, and suggest to show doubt with different rates. The obtained results can guide novice writers of the above-mentioned four disciplines to advance an authorial perspective and adjust to the expert conventions of the relevant research areas.

Among four language skills, writing is a complex and demandingcognitive process.Writing is an important tool in evaluationwhere English proficiency needs to be assessed. The present study aimed to explore the impact of feedback provided by Grammarly Software compared to teachers’ feedback on the writing ability of Iranian EFL learners. Through the nonrandom sampling method, 60 intermediate male and female EFL learners were selected, then they were randomly assigned to two main groups: the experimental and control group. The participants were administered the Oxford Placement Test (OQPT), Pretest of Essay Writing, Grammarly software program, Posttest of Essay Writing, and an attitude questionnaire in ten sessions. The data gathered from the comparison of pretest and posttest revealed that the experimental group members outperformed those in the control group, meaning that the Grammarly software program positively affected the EFL learners' writing ability. The results might have implications for language teachers, learners, and materials developers.

The importance of studying teachers' professional well-being has increased greatly in recent years. However, researchers have not paid enough attention to how teachers' levels of immunity, buoyancy, and emotion regulation (ER) in the classroom all play a role in shaping teachers’ L2 grit and mindfulness. This research seeks to address this gap in the literature by presenting a model of the dynamic interaction of teacher immunity (TI), teacher buoyancy (TB), teacher emotion regulation (TER), L2 grit, and teacher mindfulness (TM). To gather this information, 519 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers were given surveys measuring their levels of mindfulness in the classroom using the language teacher immunity instrument (LTII), teacher buoyancy scale (TBS), Teacher Emotion Regulation Inventory (LTERI), the L2-teacher grit scale (L2TGS), and Mindfulness in Teaching Scale (MTS). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) results indicated that EFL instructors who achieved a healthy state of immunity (TI), TER, L2 grit had higher levels of L2 grit, and TM. The research winds down with implications and future directions for relevant stakeholders to improve their understanding of the relationship between TI, TB, TER, L2 grit, and TM interactions and their potential to provide favorable educational results for EFL learners.

Quantum teaching method (QTM), a student-centred model of education, which provides the possibility for the integrated use of a combination of learning theories, has not received adequate attention in EFL teaching. This study, adopting an explanatory mixed-methods design, aimed at examining the effect of QTM on EFL learners’ writing motivation. The participants comprised 78 pre-intermediate EFL learners who were placed into two groups based on convenience sampling procedures. The first group was assigned as the experimental group and another group as the control group. A writing motivation questionnaire (WMQ) was administered to both groups as pretest. Next, the experimental group was exposed to QTM for writing instruction while the control group received conventional writing instruction. After treatment, both groups took the WMQ as posttest. Moreover, 15 participants from the experimental group took part in semi-structured interviews. The results of Mann-Whitney U Test indicated the significantly positive impact of QTM on writing motivation. The results of qualitative analysis revealed five themes including satisfaction, enjoyment, engagement, personalization, and lowering anxiety as the factors improving writing motivation. Based on the results, EFL teachers are encouraged to employ QTM to enhance learners’ writing motivation.

The present study compares the motivation of Burundi junior high school students from urban and rural settings to learn L2 French and L3 English, mainly focusing on Dörnyei’s (2005, 2009) L2 Motivational Self System. A total of 348 (grade 7 through 9) pupils participated in the present study which used a 40-item questionnaire to collect the data. The results indicated that the students from both learning contexts have distinct motivational dispositions for learning both French and English. French is more popular among rural school learners while English enjoys more popularity among urban school students. Moreover, region-specific differences were found in the participants with learners from rural schools exhibiting more positive motivation to learn both languages than their urban counterparts. The results also revealed that, independent of the region, L2 learning experience and ideal L2 self were the two variables that respectively predicted most the students’ intended effort to learn each target language. One region and language-related difference was that the variable of international posture emerged as a significant contributor to the students’ intended language learning effort only among urban school learners uniquely in relation to their English learning. In the light of the results of this study, pedagogical implications are provided.

The CTML served as the primary source of motivation for this investigation, which explored the effects of Immersive Learning (IL) and Communicative Language Teaching on the Oral Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency (CAF) of Iranian EFL learners with Expressive Language Disorder (ELD). Using a quasi-Solomon four-group design, the participants, who were all Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners with mild to moderate levels of ELD, were separated into experimental and control groups. There were a total of 36 participants in this study. The intervention consisted of virtual reality (VR) authoring eighty speech exercises in the form of learning chunks for twenty sessions lasting seventy minutes each. In the groups that served as controls, the content was presented using a method known as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Both the pre-test and the post-test were conducted orally using the CAF test. In terms of oral complexity (syntactic complexity and diversity), oral accuracy (error-free sentences and accurate verb forms), and oral fluency (number of vocally generated syllables), the findings revealed that individuals who received IL fared better than their counterparts in the CLT group. The findings may have important implications for teaching English as a foreign language and for rehabilitative education.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created the most significant disruption of education systems in human history worldwide. In the present condition, E-learning platforms have gained more importance and become a permanent part of teachers’ and students’ lives. Consequently, studying E-learning platforms from a systemic approach gained the most prominence. One of the available and most used online platforms in Iran is “Adobe Connect”. Therefore, this study has investigated the challenges and benefits of using “Adobe Connect” in the Iranian E-learning system from the point of view of EFL students and teachers. This is a case study in which an in-depth understanding of language learning through the mentioned online platform was sought. The participants consisted of 10 EFL teachers and 158 students studying English at Islamic Azad University and Ilia Language Institute in Sirjan, who were selected based on purposive sampling. The data were collected using a researcher-made five-Likert scale questionnaire, including 27 items and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated a moderately positive attitude of language learners’ toward “Adobe Connect”. In addition, the EFL teachers presented a series of advantages and disadvantages of this platform. The obtained outcomes could serve the online platform creators and developers, teachers and learners as users of this platform and as a model for countries with similar technology infrastructure and cultural features wishing to improve their e-learning systems.

This study investigated the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence of Iranian undergraduate students in the English language and its relationship with their grammar knowledge. For this purpose, 139 male (N=46) and female (N=93) English language students aged 22 -32 years old were randomly selected as the participants. Multiple Intelligence Questionnaire (MIQ) and a grammar TOEFL test were used to evaluate the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence of the students and measure their grammar knowledge. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence of students and its relationship with grammar knowledge was gauged using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The means of males and females in grammar knowledge and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence were assessed through a one-way sample t-test. The findings revealed a statistically significant relationship between the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence of the participants and their grammar knowledge. The findings also showed no remarkable differences between males and females regarding bodily-kinesthetic intelligence and grammar knowledge. The implication of the findings is that English language teachers should utilize the same effective grammar textbooks and tasks for both male and female students.

Communicative and natural processing of language in the world of translation is substantiated through simultaneous decoding and encoding of information in the source and target languages. The researchers analy zed pragmatic strategies and approaches undertaken by the Persian and Kurdish translators of the Quranic discourse marker thumma. The source text corpus was selected randomly and the target text parallel corpora were selected based on purposive sampling. Theoretical perspectives in pragmatics and translation were employed in the analysis of parallel corpora in this investigation. The results revealed that various types and combinations of the Kurdish and Persian temporal discourse markers were utilized by these translators. Moreover, other Kurdish and Persian elaborative, contrastive, and inferential discourse markers were also used in rendering the discourse marker thumma in the Quran. This dynamic approach to the construction of discourse was substantiated based on the realization of different conventions in the construction of discourse in different languages and cultures. This dynamic system in the construction of a proper discourse for the readers is verified based on the application of different theories in discourse analysis and pragmatics and the application of context and text-sensitive strategies in the process of translation. The characteristics, bases, and resources of these dynamic translation strategies are discussed based on pragmatic awareness rising in various aspects of translation education and some suggestions were offered in the application of the findings in syllabus design, translation evaluation, and rethinking of approaches in lexicography.  

This paper presents a critical evaluation of the English Test for International Communication (ETIC), a large-scale, computer-based, and criterion-referenced English language proficiency test developed by the China Language Assessment in 2016. The ETIC test battery comprises five categories: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Superior, and Translation, with the goal of assessing test-takers’ oral and written communicative language abilities in workplace contexts. Given that a revised version of ETIC with many structural changes has been in use since 2021, and the recent growth of interest in assessing communicative language abilities, a critical review of ETIC is warranted. Drawing on Kunnan’s (2018) recent model of test fairness and justice, this review primarily evaluates the usefulness and fairness of ETIC Basic, ETIC Intermediate, and ETIC Advanced. Appraisals reveal that ETIC encompasses the philosophy of fairness, justice, and usefulness in the development, administration, and scoring procedures. There is, however, room for improvement in various areas, such as establishing a test inquiry and appeal service and keeping the channels of communication open. As reviewers, we hope this article will assist language testing researchers and practitioners, teachers and students, or even potential test-takers in better understanding the unique ETIC assessment scene in China and spark more discussions about communicative language testing worldwide.

As an integral dimension of instruction, assessment determines whether or not the educational goals are being fulfilled. The present study was an attempt to investigate Iranian ESP instructors’ common classroom assessment practices. To this end, based on convenience sampling, eight different ESP teachers teaching BA students from a variety of departments at Rasht Islamic Azad University, Iran were selected. An observation checklist containing 31 items was used as the only data-gathering instrument of this study. The results of the descriptive statistics revealed that some assessment practices including using portfolio to assess student progress, assessing group class participation, conducting item analysis for teacher-made tests, and writing matching questions were applied less frequently in the ESP classes. However, some assessment practices such as incorporating attendance in the calculation of grades and recognizing unethical, illegal, or inappropriate uses of assessment information were more likely to be used in the observed ESP classes. The instructors were also more likely to incorporate classroom behavior in the calculation of grades, incorporate extra credit activities in the calculation of grades, recognize unethical, illegal, or inappropriate assessment methods, and inform students how grades are to be assigned. It is concluded that ESP teachers utilize both traditional testing and alternative assessment for achieving a complementary process of assessment, and they call for an integration of them due to their importance in assessing both the process and product of learning. The results of this study may hopefully be beneficial for curriculum developers, materials developers, course and syllabus designers, teachers and teacher trainers, and the other stakeholders in the fields of language teaching and learning as well.

This study aimed at examining the effects of the feedback types designed based on the regulatory focus theory (i.e., prevention vs. promotion) and reference of comparison (i.e., normative vs. self-referential) on achievement emotions and achievement goals. One hundred intermediate English language learners were assigned to four experimental groups, promotion, prevention, self-referential, normative, and one control group (N= 20 for each). The participants in the experimental groups received feedback based on their assignment for 16 sessions, and their achievement emotions and achievement goals were assessed before and after the intervention. ANCOVA analyses revealed that significant differences existed between the four experimental groups and the control group regarding achievement emotions and achievement goals. Self-referential feedback and promotion feedback increased positive emotions and led students to mastery-approach and mastery-avoidance goal adoption, while normative feedback and prevention feedback increased negative emotions. Furthermore, normative feedback positively affected performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. Prevention-focused feedback had a positive effect on mastery-avoidance goals. The researchers recommended that teachers use feedback emphasizing learners’ growth and improvement as a means for progress check.