درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Teacher questions are claimed to be constitutive of classroom interaction because of their crucial role both in the construction of knowledge and the organization of classroom proceedings (Dalton Puffer, 2007). Most of previous research on teachers’ questions mainly focused on identifying and discovering different question types believed to be helpful in creating the opportunities for learners’ interactions. Drawing on conversation analysis through adopting socio-cultural perspective, this study, however, aims to examine how EFL teachers manage understanding-check questions in their talk-in-interaction. For this purpose, six EFL teachers’ discursive classroom practices were observed, video-recorded, and transcribed line-by-line in its entirety. Through the microanalysis of the transcribed data, our findings suggest that EFL teachers vary in their management of understanding-check questions and the teachers’ understanding-check questions tend to serve different functions in the different micro-contexts identified. Three major sequential environments emerged to feature understanding-check questions in this study: Activity-boundary environment, post-instruction environment and within-activity environment. The findings of the study indicate that understanding-check questions at activity boundary environment are designed to accomplish dual functions, however those launched in post-instruction and within-activity environments maintain a singular focus on ensuring absolute understanding of the just-given explanation or instruction.

اغلب مشاهده می شود که زبان آموزان انگیزه ی کافی برای توجه به و به کار گیری نظرات و پیشنهادات استاد برای بهبود کیفیت نوشته های خود را ندارند. از طرف دیگراساتید اغلب همراه با تصحیح متون نگاشته شده توسط دانشجویان، اقدام به ارزشیابی کمی آنها نیز می نمایند علیرغم اینکه می دانند این نوع ارزشیابی باعث منحرف شدن هر چه بیشتر توجه دانشجویان از نظرات و پیشنهادات استاد می شود. با این وجود عدم ارزشیابی کمی امکان پذیر نمی باشد چرا که هم دانشجویان و هم موسسات آموزشی خواستار چنین ارزشیابی ای هستند. برای فائق آمدن به این مشکلات، تکنیک جدیدی به نام ارزشیابی پلکانی ابداع گردید تا ارزشیابی کمی دیگر نه تنها باعث بی توجهی به نظرات استاد نشود بلکه دانشجویان را به پرداختن به و اعمال آن ها در نوشته های خود مشتاق سازد. در ارزشیابی پلکانی دانشجویان می توانند با اعمال نظرات استاد اقدام به بهبود کیفیت نوشته های اولیه خود نموده و بر اساس کیفیت نسخه ی اصلاح شده، نمره ی دریافتی خود را ارتقا بخشند. این روند می تواند تا ٢ مرتبه ادامه یابد. نمره نهایی دانشجو، میانگین نمراتی خواهد بود که وی در آخرین نسخه ی اصلاح شده ی هر یک از تکالیف خود در طول ترم تحصیلی کسب کرده است. مطالعه ی حاضر ، تلاشی در راستای بررسی تاثیر این شیوه ی جدید بر روی سه شاخص روانی نوشتار، پیچیدگی ساختار و صحت ساختار بود. نتایج به دست آمده حاکی از پیشرفت دانشجویان گروه آزمایش در هر سه مقیاس بود در حالیکه گروه گواه تنها توانست در مقیاس روانی نوشتار پیشرفت کند.

طراحی تکالیف با سطح پیچیدگی شناختی معقول همیشه ازدیدگاه برنامه ریزان درسی, معلمان , و محققین حائز اهمیت بوده است چرا که تغییر تکالیف (از لحاظ پیچیدگی) می تواند منجر به نتایج متفاوتی در زمینه تولیدات شفاهی گردد. این تحقیق تلاشی در جهت بررسی تاثیر تغییر درتکالیف بر اساس 3 مورد (نیاز به برهان, تعداد عناصر, و موقعیت ""اینجا و اکنون"" در مقابل"" آنجا و سپس"" ) از مدل resource-directing , مطرح شده توسط رابینسون, بر روی نقل داستان از روی تصایر است. این تحقیق شامل 30 زبان آموز ایرانی در رنج سنی 20 تا 34 سال بود. همه این افراد موظف به انجام هردو مدل تکلیف (پیچیده و ساده) برای نقل داستان از روی تصایر بودند. داده های صوتی ضبط و سپس تست پارامتریک MANOVA برروی آن انجام گردید. نتایج نشان داد که افزایش پیچیدگی شناختی در تکالیف منجر به افزایش صحت و پیچیدگی زبانی گردید. یافته های این تحقیق می تواند بینش عمیقی برای تدوین کنندگان مطالب درسی در خصوص تدارک تکالیف و زبان آموزان در راستای سنجش پیشرفت فراهم آورد.

The present study aims at discussing whether metaphors in the Qur’an, revealed more than 1400 years ago, are dead, moribund or live and how these three types of metaphors have been translated in three English and three Persian translations of the Qur’an. The results reveal that among 70 metaphors examined, while only about 32.85% are live metaphors, about 67.14% are moribund, but none of the cases are completely dead. Furthermore, based on Newmark’s (1988a) classification of procedures for translation of metaphors, there is no image in 15.21% of the procedures used in the English and Persian translations of live metaphors while there are images in 84.78% of them. On the other hand, 43.26% of the procedures used in translations of moribund metaphors transfer the images whereas 56.73% of them omit the images, although these metaphors are not dead. Yet the point is that when the majority of Qur’anic metaphors, that are moribund, had been considered by translators as dead metaphors and their images had been omitted, the translations fail to represent one of the important aspects of the original text’s literary style that is its metaphorical and literary language.

تحقیقات اخیر در زمینه منظور شناسی بین زبانی به این نتیجه رسیده اند که بعضی از جنبه های منظور شناسی زبان را می توان در محیط های کلاسی آموزش داد. اما اینکه چه روشهایی و چه مفاد آموزشی بهترین تاثیر را دارند قابل بحث است. بنابراین، هدف از تحقیق حاضر بررسی تاثیر مطالب خودآگاهی بخش برگرفته از ویدئو بر درک کنش های گفتاری عذرخواهی، درخواست و امتناع می باشد. بدین منظور، 78 فارسی زبان سطح متوسط به بالا بطور تصادفی در چهار گروه (فرا منظور شناسی، جستجوی ساختار، ایفای نقش، و کنترل) قرار گرفتند. به این چهار گروه 45 برش ویدیو که از فیلم های Flash forward, Stargate TV series & Annie Hall, در 9 جلسه 60 دقیقه ای هفته ای دو بار تدریس شد. نتایج آزمون چند گزینه ای تکمیل کلام نشان داد که تمامی این سه روش آموزش موثر بوده اند و تست Tukey (HSD) نشان داد که عملکرد گروه فرا منظور شناختی از گروههای دیگر بهتر بوده است. یافته ها حاکی از ان است که مدرسین و تالیف کنندگان کتاب های آموزشی می توانند از ویدیوهای آموزشی برای آگاهی بخشی مفاهیم منظورشناسی در کلاس درس استفاده کنند.

پژوهش حاضر به بررسی بیان اختلاف در استدلال میان زبان آموزان پیشرفته ی ایران و ارتباط آن با عوامل محیطی می پردازد. داده ها های تحقیق نتیجه استدلال نمیان ۲۶ گقتگوکننده به زبان انگلیسی در سه حالت مختلف: 1) موسسه زبان، 2) محیط خانه، 3) محیط دانشگاه است. نمونه مطالعه بر اساس دسترس پذیری انتخاب شدند. تجزیه و تحلیل این استدلال ها نشان دهنده ی تاثیر عوامل محیطی مانند روابط طرفین و بافت موقعیتی که در آن شرکت کنندگان بحث می کنند، بر نحوه ی ابراز مخالفت بود. نتایج این مطالعه تایید کرد که عمل گفتارمخالفت پیچیده و چند بعدی است و جنبه های مختلف محیط بر بیان آن به عنوان یک عمل گفتار تهدید کننده وجهه طرفین یا بهبود بخش تاثیرگذار خواهند بود. بنابراین در این پژوهش پیشنهاد شد که نمی توان این عمل گفتار را بدون در نظر گرفتن عوامل محیطی مورد مطالعه قرار داد، و نشانگرهای زبانی به سادگی نمی توانند مخالفت را در دسته بندی مودبانه / بی ادبانه یا ترجیحی/غیرترجیحی قرار دهد. این پژوهش همچنین نشان داد که روابط، صفات شخصی، پس زمینه، سطح مهارت زبانی و بافت موقعیتی که در آن استدلال می کنند از عوامل مهم است که تعیین کننده ی مخالفت به عنوان حفظ کننده یا تهدیدکننده ی وجهه هستند.

In spite of the significant role of teachers in the efficacy of classroom management particularly in teaching English as a Foreign Language, the issue has not been addressed sufficiently especially in relation with other individual variables. Hence, this study made an attempt to investigate the association between Iranian EFL teachers’ classroom management, reflective thinking and transformational leadership style. 247 English Foreign Language teachers took part in the study. To measure the variables of the study, Teachers Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001), Reflective Thinking Scale (Choy & Oo, 2012) and Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire(Avolio, Bass & Jung, 1995) were used. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied to test the hypothesized model of associations. After confirming the hypothesized model (= 1.275; RMSEA=.02; RMR =.03; GFI =.97; AGFI =.93; NFI =.97; CFI =.99; IFI =.99), the results revealed significant internal correlations among the main as well as the sub-scales of the study. Multiple regression analysis further confirmed the direction of the path model proposed for the study. Generally, it was concluded that reflective thinking and transformational leadership improve teachers' efficacy of classroom management which, in turn, facilitates teaching processes. Implications are discussed.

Critical pedagogy (CP), as a poststructuralist educational movement, challenges the asymmetrical, power-over nature of classroom discourse and seeks to accommodate multivocality in the classroom and in the society. This study probed the discourse architecture of EFL classrooms in Iran. Specifically, it aimed to explore to what extent Iranian EFL classrooms have stepped away from the teacher-dominant initiation-response-follow-up (IRF) discourse structure and welcomed CP-oriented dialogism and multivocality. To this end, a number of EFL classrooms in Isfahan and Shahrekord (Iran) were observed, and the running classroom discourse was audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. The results showed that discourse-construction opportunities were distributed unevenly in favor of teachers regarded as the sole authority in the classroom. Student-regulated symmetrical talks were seldom evidenced in the classrooms. The findings further demonstrated that the power-over IRF discourse architecture, despite its communicative inadequacies, still seems to be dominant in EFL classrooms in Iran. Finally, it is suggested that L2 practitioners should move towards transforming the status quo, include more elements of CP into L2 classrooms, and invest in dialogism and multivocality as essential mechanisms to de-silence the students.

Although images are abundant and play significant aesthetic and pedagogical roles in today’s EFL course books, they are still one of the less explored areas of research. The present study is an attempt to examine the role and function of images in Iranian high school EFL course books; it also aims to cast a critical eye over their suitability and efficiency. To this end, Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006) model of visual grammar was adopted. The findings revealed that although the informative and/or illustrative functions of the images make them important resources in Iranian high school EFL course books, their full potential for language learning does not seem to be adequately exploited. This relates to flaws at the representational mode of meaning making, such as outdated portrayal of objects, gender stereotyping, and overdramatizing national identity as well as shortcomings at the interactive mode, such as poor modality due to grayscale printing and plain graphics with no contextualization or pictorial detail. These flaws make the images seem out of today’s world and hardly credible for high school students who are already adept at new technology. Since these shortcomings may sacrifice pedagogical objectives, the study calls for changes in both technical quality and underlying messages of images in the course books.

Language and culture are now deemed to be co-constitutive; hence English language teaching (ELT) textbooks should incorporate cultural aspects and promote intercultural competence. However, careful decisions should be made as regards to the cultural content of materials and the ways in which culture is represented. This study was an attempt to deconstruct the patterns of cultural representation and intercultural interactions in Interchange textbooks, an ELT textbook series taught to English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in Iran. Using content analysis of texts and images and with the focus on nationality, gender and race, it examined how different cultures were reflected in Interchange 1, Interchange 2, Interchange 3, and whether cultural bias or inequality was present. The quantitative and qualitative data analysis revealed that the white male group was dominant in all three textbooks. And, to use Kachru’s (1985) terms, inner, outer and expanding circle nationalities were represented in the textbooks, with the expanding circle constituting the major nationality, but American culture of inner circle was predominant. Additionally, the interactions were mainly limited to superficial aspects of the target culture although these textbooks sought to show various intercultural interactions. Dominance of male and white characters and the US culture indicated inequality in race and gender, and the superficial treatment of culture in the textbooks. Less attention to the hybrid culture and deeper level of intercultural aspects, i.e. critical reflections, in the textbooks suggests that the materials be supplemented by EFL teachers’ constructive discussion of the cultures that interact.

One of the major criticisms leveled at task-based language teaching (TBLT), despite its countless merits, is developing fluency at the cost of accuracy. The post-task stage affords a number of options to counteract this downside through task repetition and task recycling. These two options are considered to positively affect learners' oral performance in terms of fluency, accuracy, and complexity (CAF). The purpose of the present study is to compare the relative effect of task repetition and task recycling on Iranian EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ oral performance in terms of CAF. To this end, eight intermediate EFL learners, randomly selected from 30 students in two classes of 15, took part in this study. The participants in both task repetition and task recycling groups were assigned to perform a total of eight tasks. Four of these tasks were identical in both groups. Each session included one task plus its second performance, namely repetition for the first group and recycling for the second. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test was used to statistically analyze the recorded data of learners' performances on all eight occasions in terms of CAF. The results revealed a significant effect of task repetition on all three measures of performance while task recycling did not prove to have a significant effect except for fluency. On the level of between-group differences, task repetition was found to be dominant outweighing task recycling in all three measures of oral performance. Task repetition is hence advised to be incorporated in teaching English, particularly in EFL contexts as a viable tool to hone learners’ oral performance on CAF.