درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Although there have been many studies concentrating on writing development and techniques to improve it, there still remains the need to investigate more and give extra insight to the EFL language learners and teachers on these issues. Using a grounded model of research, the researchers performed an investigation to examine the various aspects concerning writing challenges, and requirements to improve it. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with an aim to achieve a thorough understanding of the topic by recruiting 25 male and female experienced EFL teachers along with 25 male and female intermediate EFL learners from language institutes in Tehran as the participants of the study through purposeful sampling technique. Then, 5 distinctive questions were chosen for the teachers and another set of 5 different questions for the learners to elicit their perceptions. After gathering the data and identifying the initial codes, the sub-categories emerged and helped the researcher to form the final model. Among the categories, writing strategies like collaborative and game-based, requirements like background, vocabulary, and grammatical knowledge were found to be essential. Based on the findings, a model was developed which is believed to support EFL learners in improving their writing proficiency.

Self-regulation equips learners with the expertise to continue and improve their studies throughout their life span. The current study investigated the impact of reflective learning using Kolb’s cyclical stages on EFL learners’ self-regulation. The participants were 61 Iranian EFL learners from two intact university classes randomly assigned to the Reflective (n=30) and Non-reflective (n=31) groups. During an eight-week instruction, the Reflective group experienced reflective practices, and the Non-reflective group was exposed to traditional teaching. The data were collected through Seker’s (2016) Self-Regulated Questionnaire, administered before and after the treatment and participants’ think-aloud protocols. The quantitative data analysis using ANCOVA and MANOVA revealed that the Reflective group significantly outperformed the Non-reflective group in all self-regulated learning components except for external and metacognitive self-regulation subscales. The protocol data analysis substantiated the quantitative findings, indicating that reflective learning significantly improved learners’ self-regulated skills. The results offer significant implications for language instructors and language learners.

In today's competitive world, universities and organizations are successful that are able to make the most of information and knowledge. For this reason, many universities have started knowledge orientation through entrepreneurship education. The aim of the present study was to investigate scientific articles and researches in relation to entrepreneurship education model. To identify the elements of the native model of entrepreneurship education, a qualitative approach and content analysis method was used. Therefore, for this purpose, 50 articles developed by local and international authors were reviewed. Findings showed that entrepreneurship education model can be classified in three dimensions of capability-oriented, personality-oriented and lesson-oriented themes, which can be used to design a native model of entrepreneurship education in higher education.

This study examined the differences between the effects of reasoning gap tasks and opinion gap tasks on young EFL learners’ classroom engagement. The participants comprised 63 Iranian young EFL learners within the age range of 9 to 12 years old. These 63 learners were selected out of an initial number of 100 male and female EFL learners at the intermediate level based on their performance on a Flyers test. The 63 selected participants were divided into two intact groups consisting of 31 learners in the opinion-gap task experimental group and 32 learners in the reasoning-gap experimental group. Then, an engagement checklist was used by two raters in the two groups as pretest. After that, for ten sessions each lasting for 90 minutes, in one of the groups, the researcher carried out opinion-gap tasks while reasoning gap tasks were implemented in another experimental group. Upon finishing the treatment, the two raters used exactly the same checklist and obtained the posttest engagement scores. The analysis of the data through the parametric test of paired sample t-test indicated that both task types significantly impacted young EFL learners’ classroom engagement. Besides, the results of Mann-Whitney U Test revealed that there was no significant difference between the effects of reasoning gap tasks and opinion gap tasks on young EFL learners’ classroom engagement. Based on the results, EFL teachers are recommended to use both task types to enhance EFL learners’ classroom engagement.