مطالب

Although Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been widely advocated by a considerable number of applied linguists and English language teachers, its implementation in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts has encountered a number of difficulties.  Reviewing the literature suggests that one of the reasons for unsuccessful implementation of CLT may be neglect of learners' beliefs in the process of learning. Using a Likert-type scale, the current study was undertaken to explore 242 Iranian EFL learners' beliefs towards six core tenets of the CLT approach: namely, the importance of grammar; the use of group work and pair work; the role and contribution of the learners; the role of the teachers in the classroom; the quality and quantity of error correction and assessment; and the role of the learners' native language in EFL classes. Analysis of the data revealed that although in some cases learners had viewpoints that opposed CLT principles, a considerable percentage of the respondents appreciated and had a high perception of CLT principles, indicating a welcoming atmosphere toward the implementation of CLT in Iran.

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.

EFL learners who loved to read newspapers but have difficulty in comprehending. Present paper is a study on the significance of special styles of newspapers’ writing that may contribute in decreasing reading and comprehension skills for EFL learners and also is primarily concerned with the language and style of newspaper reportage. Skilled readers don’t just read, they interact with the text. The present study aims to probe into this important issue by providing formal instruction of the strategies to a group of Iranian EFL learners and comparing their newspapers’ reading comprehension performance with another group not receiving such an instruction.

Although scientific forum has obliged its members to hide their presence particularly while they are discussing research outcomes to avoid personal biases, a recent trend is encouraging writers to demonstrate their identity as the author of the text through the use of first person pronouns in order to take responsibility for the content. Therefore, the present study focuses on intermediate and advanced EFL learners‘ adoption of first person pronouns so as to manifest their identity in argumentative and narrative writings. A total of 30 EFL intermediate and advanced students attending an IELTS preparation course were requested to write essays on narrative and argumentative topics. The comparison between their uses of self-mention pronouns revealed that there was not a significant difference between the use of first person pronouns which are adopted by advanced and intermediate learners in the use of pronouns in both modes of writing (argumentative and narrative essays). Moreover, by tallying first person pronouns, it is shown that advanced learners have exploited first person pronouns less than intermediate learners within narrative writings. In addition, it was found that learners used more first person pronouns in narrative writings than in argumentative ones. Findings imply that since argumentative writing requires logical reasoning, learners prefer to be cautious about the adoption of first person pronouns and revealing their presence to show their credible self. English language teachers are suggested to make language learners aware of the uses of self-mention pronouns while practicing different writing modes. Since the overuse of the personal pronouns as well as the absolute absence of the mentioned pronouns is not recommended in writing, explicit instruction concerning the use of self-mention in witting is recommended.

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.

The purpose of this study was to examine the expected returns of Carhart model compared to the capital asset pricing model and the implicit capital cost model based on cash and capital returns of growth and value stocks. The statistical population consisted of the companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange and the time domain is between 2007 and 2016. By choosing Cochran sampling, 126 companies were selected as the statistical sample. The present research is an applied research and is naturally a descriptive study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to describe the data, and to analyze the data, SPSS software was used. Also, the results showed that there is a significant difference between the mean of total returns and returns from the capital profit of growth and value stock; while there is no significant difference between the average cash flow of growth and value stocks. In addition to growth stocks, the expected returns on the basis of Carhart model are closer to real returns compared to expected returns based on the capital asset pricing model. But about value stock, the expected returns on the basis of Carhart model are not closer to actual returns compared to expected returns based on the capital asset pricing model and the cost of capital, and ultimately for growth stocks, expected returns based on Carhart model compared with expected returns, the implicit capital cost model is closer to actual returns.