درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The present study was an attempt to investigate to what extent Iranian EFL teachers practice critical discourse analysis in the English language classroom during their teaching. To reach this aim, a 27-item questionnaire was designed and administered among 120 male and female Iranian English teachers in different language schools in Tehran. Following descriptive statistics through which the mean, standard deviation, and reliability of the questionnaire were calculated,a factor analysis was conducted to assess the construct validity of the designed questionnaire.The results of the statistical analysis clearly demonstrated the validity of the designed questionnaire.Once validated, certain within group comparisons (with respect to the demographic factors of gender, age, and educational degree) were conducted to see how the different demographic subsets of the sample responded to the questionnaire. The study also discusses the implications of such measurement for ELT and points out a number of suggestions for further study.

Although the use of verbal protocols is growing in oral assessment, research on the use of raters’ verbal protocols is rather rare. Moreover, those few studies did not use a mixed-methods design. Therefore, this study investigated the possible impacts of rater training on novice and experienced raters’ application of a specified set of standards in rating. To meet this objective, the study made use of verbal protocols produced by 20 raters who scored 300 test takers’ oral performances and analyzed the data both qualitatively and quantitatively. The outcomes demonstrated that through applying the training program, the raters were able to concentrate more on linguistic, discourse, and phonological features; therefore, the extent of their agreement increased specifically among the inexperienced raters. The analysis of verbal protocols also revealed that training how to apply a well-defined rating scale can foster its use for raters both validly and reliably. Various groups of raters approach the task of rating in different ways, which cannot be explored through pure statistical analysis. Thus, think-aloud verbal protocols can shed light on the vague sides of the issue and add to the validity of oral language assessment. Moreover, since the results of this study showed that inexperienced raters can produce protocols of higher quality and quantity in the use of macro and micro strategies to evaluate test takers’ performances, there is no evidence based on which decision makers should exclude inexperienced raters solely because of their lack of adequate experience.

Despite the abundance of research on teachers’ repair practices in language classroom interaction, there are not enough conversation analytic studies on repair organization with the focus on the details of interaction in the context of EFL. Drawing on sociocultural and situated learning theories, this study explores the contingent nature of English language teachers’ organizational patterns of repair practices (repair focus, repair completion, repair trajectory and convergence) by adopting the context-dependency of repair as a point of departure. More specifically, we analyzed two classroom interactional contexts: form-oriented and meaning-oriented contexts as well as their realization in student participation. Data were collected through video- and audio-tape recordings of 14 lessons from eight EFL teachers at four private language institutes in Iran and they were analyzed based on the framework of conversation analysis methodology. The analysis of lesson transcripts indicated that the teachers varied in their repair practices; however, an organizational repair pattern emerged from the data. The analysis of qualitative data revealed that the teachers largely repaired divergently in form-oriented contexts but convergently in meaning-oriented contexts, and deployed other-repair more than self-repair. The pedagogical implications of the study are for language teachers’ awareness of the role of repair organization in facilitating learning opportunities and for teachers’ professional development.

In their attempt to shed light on the factors contributing to the incongruity between L2 reading teachers’ beliefs and practices, most of the researchers have resorted to teachers’ personal perspectives. As a partial replication of the research carried out by Karimi and Dehghani (2016), the current study sought to broaden this restricted scope by examining the role of teacher education in shaping L2 reading teachers’ beliefs/practices. Data were collected from 84 L2 reading teachers through a survey and follow-up classroom observations. Overall, both undergraduate and graduate teachers had an equally heightened tendency toward competence-based theoretical orientation. However, both groups substantially utilized instructional moves conforming to text-based orientation. There were also significant frequency differences between undergraduate and graduate teachers in their recourse to competence-based pedagogical moves. It is concluded that while the inclusion of a finite number of theoretical coursework may sway L2 teachers to sanction competence-based theoretical orientation, a more clinical approach to teacher education should be embraced to promote the symbiotic belief-practice relationship among L2 reading teachers.

Understanding how to structure the “Statement-of-the-Problem” (SP) section of a thesis is necessary for EFL students to develop a logical argumentation for a problem statement. This study intended to compare Move structures of SP sections of theses written by native speakers of Persian (NSPs) and English (NSEs). To this end, 100 SP sections (50 SP sections written by NSEs and 50 written by NSPs) of theses in the field of English language teaching (ELT) were selected and analyzed by the researchers based on Swales' (1990, 2004) CARS models. The analysis of the data revealed that Move structures of SP sections of the two corpora were similar. In both corpora, the three Moves of “Establishing a territory”, “Establishing a niche”, and “Presenting the present work” were considered obligatory. There were some differences in the Steps and many Move pattern variations in the two corpora. The results can broaden the understanding of the nature and function of this genre and can have important implications for EFL instructors.

The present study investigated the effect of different types of text simplification (i.e., reducing the lexical and syntactic complexity of texts) on reading comprehension of English as a Foreign Language learners (EFL). Sixty female intermediate EFL learners from three intact classes in Tabarestan Language Institute in Tehran participated in the study. The intact classes were assigned to three experimental groups. Moreover, to homogenize the groups, the researchers administered a general proficiency test (TOEFL, 2003) to the participants. The results revealed no significant difference among the groups in general proficiency and reading ability. Then four reading comprehension texts from TOEFL test (2005) were simplified through lexical simplification, syntactic simplification or lexical-syntactic simplification techniques. The simplified texts, along with their reading comprehension (RC) questions, formed the three versions of the post-test, each version contained either lexically, syntactically or lexical-syntactically simplified texts. Each group took one version of the post-test. The scores were analyzed through one-way ANOVA. The results revealed a significant difference among the groups. The post hoc test indicated that the lexical-syntactic simplification group significantly outperformed the lexical simplification group and performed considerably better than the syntactic simplification group. There was no significant difference between the lexical and syntactic simplification groups, although the latter showed better results.

The aim of the current study was twofold: (1) to validate the internal structure of the general English (GE) section of the university entrance examination for Ph.D applicants into the English programs at state universities in Iran (Ph.D. UEE), and (2) to examine the factor structure invariance of the Ph.D. UEE across two proficiency levels. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the responses of a random sample of participants (N=1009) who took the test in 2014 to seek admission to English programs at Iranian state universities. First, four models (unitary, uncorrelated, correlated and higher-ordered) were estimated and compared to find the model that best represented the data. Then, the factor structure invariance of the test across two proficiency levels was explored using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. The higher-order and correlated three-factor model showed the best fit to the data. The result also showed that the structure of the test remained invariant across both proficiency levels. These results supported the multi-componential view of language proficiency. It was found that there is no relationship between levels of language proficiency and the structure of the test. However, the results called into question the score-reporting policy for the PhD UEE and led to the conclusion that a single total score does not reflect the structure of the test.

Even before modern technological era, there was a close relationship between religious education and technology. Religion has helped many people to understand new technologies and technologies have led to new understandings of religion, and even new forms of religion. Religious education can focus on a variety of sacred concerns including myth, ritual, symbol, scripture, doctrine and experience, and furthermore as Jeff Astley (Astley, 1994) says in a context can and does ecompass indoctrination, personal formation, reasons and emotions. However these concerns tend to fall into two general categories the ethical one (or relational) and transcendental one. Nowadays a variety of video games explicitly aim toward religion. Video games researchers note that within video games, religion tends to suffer from a narrative and procedural incongruity. For example Michael Walthemathe suggests that video games provide a narrative and procedural platform for playful identity formation and ethical reflection, Ian Bogost (Bogost, 2007, p. 288) observes that religious video games are undermining their religious aims by adopting the conventions of mainstream video games genres without regard for their implicit procedural rhetoric. Also Harry J. Brown (Brown, 2008, pp. 104 – 107) notes that along with the promotion of an ethical concern for the weak, video games promote a reactive ethic of vigilantism and violence against all members of a given social class or oppositional alignement. So if video games once struggled for legitimacy as a cultural product, today the business of video games is booming, and increasingly the art of video games is turning to religious themes as not just inspiration but as central plot elements. We find moral decisions, invented religions, the power to create and experience virtual religious spaces and much more outcomes like these. Through a consideration of a list of popular video games this article proposes to show how video games teach their players the new gospel of cyberspace, where they can be what they want without effort and major consequences for the real life.

Günümüzde artık insanların alışveriş, dinlenme, müzik, eğlence vb. günlük birçok aktivitelerini yapabildikleri, bilimsel, sanatsal ve felsefi tüm öğrenme ve öğretim eylemlerini gerçekleştirebildikleri, kendisi aracılığıyla tüm dünya ile iletişim sağlayabildikleri internet; dini, fikri ve ideolojik manada da önemli bir konuma sahiptir. Zira bugün, geçmişte klasik medya araçları ile yapılamayan birçok dini, fikri ve ideolojik toplu ve bireysel ritüel, çalışma ve eylem internet aracılığıyla yapılabilmektedir. Bu makalede internetin henüz bulunmadığı dönemlerde Şii ve Sünni dünyadan bazılarının gerçekleştirdiği veya gerçekleştirmeye çalıştıkları mezhepler arası diyalog ve yakınlaşma çalışmalarına kıyasla internet üzerinden yapılan bu türden çalışmalar incelendi. Konunun seçimi dolayımındaki amaç, sözü edilen kıyas neticesi ile internet üzerinden yapılan Şii ve Sünni diyalog ve yakınlaşma çalışmalarının gerçekte yakınlaşma ve diyaloga ne denli hizmet ettiğini ortaya çıkarmaktır. Makale bir giriş, internet öncesi ve internet üzerinden yapılan Şii-Sünni diyalog ve yakınlaşma çalışmaları ve kıyasın neticelerinin yer aldığı bir sonuç bölümünden meydana gelmektedir.

Il est toujours une tâche ambitieuse et ardue que d'essayer de traiter d’un domaine qui allie religion et technologie. Depuis l'aube de l'Internet, des personnes de différentes cultures et géographies ont utilisé le cyberespace pour communiquer. L'Internet, un "espace sans visage et technologiquement construit", a contribué à désacraliser le monde moderne. Aussi, il est certain aujourd’hui que l’Internet est devenu un outil utilisé pour promouvoir le royaume de Dieu. Le défi n'est pas unique à une religion. Non seulement les communautés laïques ont prospéré sur l’Internet mais aussi les entités religieuses et cela depuis des décennies. En fait, le premier forum en ligne consacré aux discussions de religion date de 1983 (le groupe Usenet net.religion), seulement treize ans après la naissance du courrier électronique. Pour en savoir plus sur l’Islam et soutenir les fidèles dans leurs parcours de la foi, des sites ont vu le jour pour fournir des ressources éducatives pour les visiteurs. Généralement, ils apprennent individuellement le Coran, le corpus des hadiths, les règles de l’Islam, son histoire et bien d’autres questions liées à cette religion. En même temps, il se crée entre les fidèles un espace pour les forums de discussion et de dialogue. Grâce au développement de l'Internet interactif, de nouveaux secteurs ont émergé: les fatwas en ligne, l'enseignement de la religion et de questions-réponses sur la vie quotidienne. On peut donc entendre “de nouveaux ulamas”. L'objectif de la présente contribution est de présenter les tentatives de l’utilisation de l’internet à des fins pédagogiques en France dans un contexte de changement socioculturels induits par les l'arrivée du numérique dans la sphère religieuse. Est-ce juste un moyen de plus par lequel le contenu peut être diffusée ou l'Internet produit-il des transformations profondes - et, dans l'affirmative, dans quelles mesures et comment? Pour ce faire, notre contribution abordera deux questions. Premièrement, comment l’internet à gagné le monde spirituel en général et deuxièmement, ce travail donnera une évaluation théorique des expériences tentées en France parmi la jeune communauté musulmane auprès de qui, nous avons procédé par un sondage.