attitude

Web-quests are internet-based technology applications in which groups of students follow a specific set of steps toward the completion of a final project on a specific subject or a multi-disciplinary subject. The present study aimed to investigate the impacts of using web-quests on learning vocabulary by Iranian pre-university students. The sample of the study consisted of 72 students assigned into two groups. One of the groups represented the control group, and included 23 students; the other group represented the experimental group and comprised 49 students. The two groups were chosen from a population of pre-university students in Chadegan, Isfahan, Iran. The web-quest strategy was used in teaching the experimental group, while the traditional method was used with the control group in the second term of the school year 2015-2016. An Oxford Placement Test (OPT), a vocabulary pretest, a vocabulary posttest, and an attitude questionnaire were the data elicitation tools employed in this study. The collected data were analyzed using independent-samples t test, which was used to determine the existence of possible significant differences between the groups both before and after the instruction. The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences between both groups in favor of the experimental group. The conclusion, thus, could be that the students in the experimental group, who used the web-quest resources for learning vocabulary, performed significantly better than the students in the control group, who learnt vocabulary through traditional method of learning vocabulary. Finally, questionnaire data analyzed via one-sample t test indicated that the experimental group learners had a positive attitude towards the treatment they experienced in the experiment.

Quality of Classroom Life is considered as a serious issue in academia around the world, and it has recently received global inquiry in EFL and ESL contexts. However, no questionnaire has been developed to assess the Iranian students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards the quality of life in the classroom. After developing a conceptual framework, the final draft of the developed questionnaire with 71 items was administered to the main sample of participants (n=150). An Exploratory Factor Analysis was performed to identify the components of the instrument, followed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis to measure its construct validity. As a result, the final draft of the Quality of Classroom Life Questionnaire comprised 71 Likert-point items. In phase 2, a number of EFL students and teachers (50 teachers and 322 students) participated in the study which was intended to observe the impact of Modular Instruction on the Quality of Classroom Life. Findings of the study suggested that: (a) the Iranian students and teachers had highly positive attitude towards the Quality of Classroom Life, and believed that educational view, teaching quality, classroom environment, classroom management, quality of classroom interactions and puzzle content played a crucial role in exploratory practice; and (b) the modular instruction which was the descendant of Postmethod instruction had a positive impact on the Quality of Classroom Life. The findings promise implications for teachers and teacher educators as well as the materials developers as the knowledge of classroom quality and modular instruction can enhance their understanding of the nature and conditions of learning.

Plagiarism is considered as a serious problem in academia around the world. The issue of plagiarism has recently received global inquiry in different fields of science, especially in foreign language (L2) academic writing. To meticulously assess the Iranian academics for plagiarism at both theory and practice grounds, developing an accountable instrument seemed to be inevitable. To bridge the gap, in phase 1 of the study, a conceptual framework for Iranian academics’ grasp of plagiarism and its components was designed after a thorough review of literature. In phase 2, a number of M.A. graduates and graduate students (n = 224) in six State and Islamic Azad universities in Iran were recruited to partake in piloting the newly-designed plagiarism questionnaire. After a two-step revising the inefficient items (n = 11), the final draft of the developed questionnaire with 36 items was administered with the main sample of participants (n = 288). An Exploratory Factor Analysis was performed to identify the components of the instrument, followed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis to measure its construct validity. As a result, the final draft of the Sociocultural Plagiarism Questionnaire contained 31 Likert-point and 5 multiple choice items in four components of awareness (10 items), attitude (8 items), sociocultural beliefs (8 items), and perception (5 Likert-point and 5 multiple choice items), which were suggested as having fundamental contributions to the Iranian academic writers’ sensitivity to plagiarism. Findings of the study suggested that (a) the Iranian academic writers’ normative sociocultural beliefs can probably reduce their sensitivity to plagiarism, (b) while the Iranian academics might have relatively high awareness and deep perception about plagiarism, their attitude toward plagiarism seems relatively neutral or even insensitive.

New approaches and methods to language learning and teaching have drawn the attention of many researchers. This study aimed at investigating the role of Iranian EFL learners’ attitudes towards the value components of the Partnership Approach (PA) on motivating their active engagement in the learning process. A descriptive research method (survey study) was used, and 72 male and female Iranian EFL students whose ages ranged from 18 to 26 were randomly selected to participate in the study. They were asked to respond to a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire addressing the objectives of the study, and then 30 of the participants were randomly interviewed to reveal the possible consonance with the questionnaire outcomes. The study was conducted at Islamic Azad University (IAU), Najafabad Branch. The findings indicated that although both male and female participants showed significantly positive attitudes towards the value components of the PA, except for the inclusivity value, female participants held significantly higher positive attitudes. The highest motivational value from both male and female participants’ point of view was for the challenge value component. However, reciprocity and inclusivity were the value components with the lowest motivational values from the male and female participants’ point of view, respectively. Focusing on the importance of the psychological factors in education, the findings of the study may encourage both education policy-makers and practitioners in the field to think more critically, and make more reasonable decisions for their policy and practice.

Free riding behavior or not contributing equally in group work, is a common obstacle in many cooperative activities in language learning. The present study aimed at comparing male and female EFL learners' attitude and their free riding tendency to use the benefits of lowering free riding behaviors in order to make group work more influential in language learning. To this purpose, 140 intermediate and upper intermediate Iranian EFL learners and 30 teachers participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were used to investigate the topic. The obtained results revealed that the female learners act better in reducing free riding behaviors. The results further revealed a positive perception of interpersonal activities at both level of language proficiency-- intermediate and upper-intermediate. Actually, the obtained results showed that the intermediate group (males and females) acted more positively than the other group in this respect. The findings of the study bear some implications and suggestions for scholar interested in the topic of this.

Using evaluative language has been considered as the significant predictor of academic writing success in second and foreign language research. Such an importance paved the way for the current study to investigate the use of the APPRAISAL tool, namely ATTITUDE resources, in the research articles (RAs) written by native (N) and non-native (NN) writers, focusing on the discussion sections. A qualitative corpus selection resulted in choosing 30 RAs written by American writers and 30 authored by Iranian writers. Two coding schemes were used: one for discussion boundaries based on Kanoksilapatham’s (2005) discussion move structure, and the modified version of APPRAISAL theory (Xu, 2017) for identifying attitudinal resources. The corpus analysis revealed that academic writers preferred to use a great number of inscribed ATTITUDE resources, that is, APPRECIATION tools compared to JUDGMENT. There was also a significant difference between N and NN sub-corpora in using attitudinal resources, highlighting that the language of N RAs contained more authorial stance of ATTITUDE compared to NN sub-corpus. However, the use of idioms as evoked ATTITUDE was found to be frequently applied by NN authors. The findings of the study contributed to the significance of using evaluative language in academic writing through which the writers can make a dialogic interaction with readers and enhance their critical stance by involving them in the argument.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of psychological factors on teachers` attitudes regarding technology use. To this purpose, such factors as ‘perceived usefulness’, ‘perceived ease of use’, ‘trialability’, ‘subjective norms’, and ‘attitude’ were investigated. The participants of the study were high school English language teachers in Shiraz, who were selected through stratified sampling as a representative sample of the available population. In order to assess the extent of the effect of each factor, five questionnaires were administered. Then, the elicited data were analyzed by means of path analysis. The obtained results revealed that ‘perceived ease of use’ was affected by ‘subjective norms’, and ‘trialability’ influenced the attitude of teachers about using technology in their teachings. The results also showed that the most influential factor on attitude was ‘trialability’. Furthermore, the results displayed that ‘perceived usefulness’ had a significant effect and subjective norms had an indirect but meaningful effect on the teachers’ attitude. The findings of the study have implications for school administrators and teachers to use them in their planning and instruction and, as a result, boost the learning environment.

Purpose: In today’s world learning a second language, especially English, has become vital for success, both academically and professionally. Yet, learners’ characteristics like affective features and linguistic background may impact either the ultimate level of achievement. Methodology: This study was carried out to determine whether there is a difference in test anxiety, attitude, integrative and instrumental motivation of the monolingual and bilingual university students in English. To this end, 227 questionnaires obtained from freshman university students majoring in various fields from 125 bilingual students at the University of Payame Noor and Islamic Azad University of Meshkin Shahr and 125 monolingual students at the Payame Noor University of Qazvin in Iran. Three Independent t-tests were run to compare these two groups’ attitude, instrumental and integrative motivations and test anxiety. Findings: The findings revealed that the bilingual students had a significantly more positive attitude and showed a significantly higher integrative motivation towards learning English. However, no significant difference was observed among the two groups regarding their instrumental motivation and test anxiety. Discussion: Pedagogical implications of the study will be discussed. The bilingual students possess a higher level of motivation towards learning English language than do the monolingual students.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of students' attitudes toward entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial environment on entrepreneurial intention with respect to the moderating role of gender and family background. Methodology: The present research was applied in terms of purpose and quantitative research in terms of data collection. The statistical population included all business management students of Islamic Azad University, Tehran Branch of Science and Research, who have taken entrepreneurship courses as part of their curriculum. To determine the sample size, stratified random sampling was used and 297 people were selected using Morgan table. The data collection tool was the Jena Standard Questionnaire (2020) based on a 5-item scale. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed in terms of form and content by several experts, the validity was confirmed by calculating the trough and the validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by calculating the square root of the AVE. The reliability of the questionnaire was obtained through Cronbachs alpha for the whole questionnaire of 0.968.for data analysis, Cronbach's alpha tests, orthodontics (AVE), AVE root matrix, Kolmogrofs-Smirnov, confirmatory factor analysis and t-test bootstrap approach were used. Findings: The results showed that each of the components of attitude (emotional, behavioral and cognitive) and entrepreneurial environment has a significant effect on entrepreneurial intention. Discussion: This study also confirmed the effect of control groups (gender and family history of the entrepreneur) on the relationship between entrepreneurial attitude and intention.

The general consensus on the invaluable contributions of audio-visual materials based on cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML) to enhancing the quality of language classes has turned them into indispensable tools which teachers utilize for more effective teaching of different language skills. The primary aim of this study was to explore the effect of audio visual aids on reading skill at university level. The secondary aim was to find out if this change in materials could have any impact on the motivation and attitudes of the students toward English learning. To this end, this quasi-experimental study adopted a pre-test post-test research method. A total of 256 General English university students were divided to experimental (n=184) and control (n=81) groups. The experimental group received audio-visual aids as the treatment while the control group was taught by a conventional text-based method, commonly practiced in General English classes at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (TUMS). The reading section of preliminary English test (PET) and Gardner’s attitude and motivation test battery (AMTB) were used for data collection. The results of independent samples t-test and Mann-Whitney tests revealed that the students provided with audio-visual materials obtained greater reading outcomes and also showed more positive attitudes and higher motivation toward English learning. Thus, our research revealed that the higher productivity and livelihood of reading classes can be tangible even in the in the narrow space of a single university semester.

The popularity of integrating technology in language instruction and its fundamental effect on the language learning dimensions has been widely acknowledged whereas learners’ motivation and attitude are expected to be improved in a web-based Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) environment. Therefore, this paper aimed to investigate the Iranian EFL learners’ motivation to learn English and attitude in a CALL environment. The participants of this study were 120 intermediate EFL learners from two private English language institutes in Isfahan, Iran. They were divided into two equal groups; one experimental group (EG) and one control group (CG). Then, a motivation questionnaire pretest was administered out to check the participants’ motivation at the beginning of the course. As the treatment, the EG learners were taught through CALL-based instruction and the CG learners were taught traditionally. After the treatment, a posttest of motivation and an attitude questionnaire were administered. The outcomes indicated that the CALL-based instruction promoted the participants’ motivation as checked by the Motivation Questionnaire. Moreover, as measured by a 20-item A-CALL attitude questionnaire, it was discovered that the learners in the EG had positive attitudes toward using CALL-based instruction. In light of the findings, a number of conclusions are obtained and several implications are put forward.

This quantitative study intended to investigate Iranian EFL Teachers' attitudes towards the use of instructional technology in their classroom and its impact on their self-efficacy. Eighty teachers were surveyed using Teacher Sense of Self-Efficacy Survey (TSES) and the Media Technology Usage and Attitudes Scale (MTUAS). The first research question was designed to examine teachers' attitudes towards the use of instructional technology within the classroom and its effects on their self-efficacy and concerning the subscales of teacher self-efficacy, the findings significantly predicted the impacts of the use of instructional technology on teachers’ self-efficacy. In addition, after analyzing the data using Multiple Regression Analysis, it was further discovered that teacher self-efficacy had a significant relationship with the ability to integrate all of the sub-groups: smartphones, the internet, social media, texting, and email; The results showed that emails and smartphones, two subscales of media questionnaire, could highly predict the significant impacts of the use of integrated technology on teachers' self-efficacy. The findings suggested that training for technology-related components may not need to focus on how to use the technologies, but focusing more on how the technologies can benefit the classroom and help learners to improve their learning within the classroom.

Whether negative evidence should be incorporated in or excluded from an SLA or FLA setting has long been a major concern for practitioners and researchers in the SLA and FLA domains. Some (Bowen, Madsen & Hilferty, 1985; Lightbown & Spada, 1990; Fathman & Whalley, 1990; Ferris & Roberts, 2001; Lyster & Ranta, 1997; Askew & Lodge, 2000; and Ashwell, 2000) endorse the use of corrective feedback while others do not (Krashen, 1982; VanPatten, 1988; Dekeyser, 1993; and Truscott, 1996). What these researchers; however, fail to take under advisement in this realm is learners and teachers’ Attitudes towards Error Correction (ATEC). The present experiment wishes to address the issue from this angle, i.e., how teachers and learners’ attitude converge and/or diverge as far as their attitude towards error correction is concerned. Some 410 students and 34 teachers were invited to fill out the questionnaires. Additionally, 45 students and 13 teachers were interviewed to delve into the versatile facets of error treatment qualitatively. The results showed which error treatment techniques the students and the teachers most and/or least favored. Not only does the analysis of the data support Vahdani and Mirsaidi's (2007) claim on students' ATEC, but also data analysis suggests common grounds can be detected between students' attitudes and those of their teachers. It can, therefore, be concluded that corrective feedback has won the favor of learners and teachers and that in their now statistically tenable estimation it should be factored in FLA settings.

INTRODUCTION:Since the 2000s, tourism has become the most widespread activity on a global scale. Tourism, with its features, is always prone to any accident at a micro or a critical level, and this requires the action of the rescuers to reduce the disasters or to save the injured during their journey. The Red Crescent Society, as the largest non-governmental organization, carries out activities in the areas of rescue and relief, medicine and rehabilitation, and in other sectors. The aim of this study was to investigate the attitude of Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) in rescue and relief of tourists from various accidents and disasters. METHODS: In this descriptive-analytical survey, the research community consisted of the members of Red Crescent Society in Kermanshah Province, Iran, including 135 instructors, relief workers, rescuers, rapid responses, and staffs. The sampling was performed using simple random sampling method. The research tool was a researcher-made questionnaire, which validity was evaluated by the experts of the Red Crescent Society, social sciences, and geography, and the reliability was calculated as 0.92 using Cronbach's alpha. Data analysis was done using Spearman correlation and Kruskal-Wallis tests. RESULTS: The attitude of the statistical society towards the subject was evaluated as good (mean: 1.78). Their attitude towards the overall performance of the Red Crescent Society in travel management was very good (mean: 1.95). Respectively, the equipment and facilities of the organization (mean: 2.17), the practical skills and operational capabilities of the forces (mean: 2.13), and the establishment of fixed and mobile relief bases at the provincial level (mean: 2.03) played greater role based on the attitude of study participants (P<0.01 for all).

To gain sustainable development, balanced development with maintaining environmental values, should be think about the evolution of the biological culture of societies so that people adapt to the sustainability. The purpose of this research was to study Geography students' awareness, attitudes, and behaviors toward sustainable development at Urmia University. This study is survey research, and the statistical population is Geography students at Urmia University. Among them, 149 students were selected using random sampling method, and the required information was collected by a questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed based on the evaluation of experts, and its reliability was confirmed by calculating Cronbach's alpha (environmental awareness= 0.71, environmental attitude= 0.78, and environmental behavior= 0.75).The findings indicated that 25.5% of the students had a high level, 41.5% had a medium level, and 33% had a low level of awareness, and 28.2% of students had a strong, 33.5% had a moderate, and 38.3% had a weak attitude toward sustainable development. Also, 42% of students had good behavior, 32.2% had moderate, and 35.8% had poor behavior in sustainable development. The results of the correlation analysis showed that there was a significant and positive relationship between these sets: awareness and attitude, awareness and behavior, and attitude and behavior toward sustainable development. Stepwise regression analysis indicated that attitude and Grade Average predict 19% of the variation inGeography students' behavior toward sustainable development. Therefore, it can be said that environmental education and changing students' attitude toward the environment are prerequisites for achieving sustainable development.

Purpose: STEAM is the term given to a growing field of research and practice that integrates arts and social sciences into traditional sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects. The purpose of this study is to develop a STEAM-based educational learning package of social sciences textbooks and investigate its effect on the attitude, problem-solving ability, and creativity of sixth-grade primary school students of Bushehr in Iran. The design thinking model was used to design the training package. Methodology: The present study was quantitative applied research. The research design is quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test with the experimental and control group (unequal control group). The statistical population of this study included all students studying in the sixth grades of public primary schools in Busher in the academic year 2020-2021. Due to the nature of the research which is quasi-experimental and also with respect to the subject drop, 44 participants were considered as the statistical sample (22 students in each group) and they were selected by "accessible" purposeful sampling and randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The STEAM training package was designed in 13 sessions and each training session took a 35-minute duration in the form of 14 projects, and its implementation lasted for 2 months. In order to design each social science lesson project, a focus group meeting was held with the members. Data were collected based on three questionnaires: Hepner and Kruskal's problem-solving skills test, Shaffer's creative attitude survey, and Aiken's scientific attitude test. The face validity of the educational package was confirmed using experts' opinions. In order to check the hypotheses of this research, covariance analysis was used. Findings: The presuppositions of the statistical test of covariance analysis, including the Kolmogorov- Smirnov test for the normality of the research variables and Levin's test for the homogeneity of the variances of the educational variables were confirmed. After that, the effects of the implementation of the steam-based educational package were investigated, and the results of the covariance analysis showed that the implementation of the educational package had an effect of (0.94) on creativity and problem-solving (0.90), and attitude (0.97) on students. The results of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test showed that the creativity, attitude, and problem-solving skills variables of students have a normal distribution (p> 0.05). The results of the Levin test indicate that these assumptions are confirmed (p> 0.05). Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the STEAM-based training package increases problem-solving ability, creativity, and a positive attitude towards the course of social sciences.

This paper aimed to study four translations of the Holly Quran using a comprehensive Appraisal theory approach by Martin and White (2005). In so doing, the Chapter Al-Munafequn (The Hypocrites) was considered as the source text and four English translations of the Holly Quran (Arberry, 1955; Irving, 1985; Shakir, 1999; Yusuf Ali, 1934) were considered as the target texts. The study used a corpus-based qualitative translation assessment design. The data collection was based on purposive sampling, and the data analysis was based on all the three sub-systems of Appraisal theory (Attitude, Engagement, and Gradation) based on a three point assessment scale namely ‘+’ meaning acceptable, ‘-’ meaning unacceptable and ‘≈’ meaning relatively acceptable. The study comprised two research questions: (1) What are the choices made by the four translations of the Al-Munafequn Chapter and how can the translations be evaluated individually? (2) Which of the four translations is most qualified in terms of Appraisal theory sub-systems? To answer the first question, data were collected from each source independently and then evaluated and tabulated based on the appraisal theory. Regarding the second research question the following results were obtained: TT1 (Arberry’s version) suggested acceptable translations in terms of the three aspects of Attitude, Engagement, and Gradation. TT2 (Irving’s version) showed a fairly acceptable translation quality by fulfilling most of the Appraisal features of the original verse with several shortcomings. TT3 (Shakir’s version) represented an acceptable translation as it dealt with many aspects of Appraisal in ST. Finally, TT4 (Yusuf Ali’s version) showed a highly acceptable transfer of Appraisals in its translation. As a result, from among the four translations, TT4 (Yusuf Ali’s translation) could be deemed as the most accurate version in translating the Appraisal sub-systems.

The increasing progress of technology has affected all aspects of human life. One of the new technologies for which various applications have been created today is virtual reality technology. Virtual reality seeks to create a sense of reality in an unreal environment. The aim of this research is the effect of virtual reality technology on the creation of customers' attitudes and understanding of property and service providers in the real estate consultant department in Shiraz. The statistical population includes all real estate clients and those who refer to the real estate sector in Shiraz, and since the population is considered, it is unlimited; The number of statistical sample is 384 people. In this research, the standard questionnair of Players and Ponsin (2020) were used to collect research data. Structural equation modeling approach and PLS3 software were used for data analysis. The results showed that virtual reality technology has a significant effect on creating the attitude and understanding of customers towards the property and the service provider in the real estate consultant sector. The combination of virtual reality technology with augmented reality is one of the measures that can significantly improve the attractiveness and efficiency of using virtual reality in the field of real estate.