Reflectivity

Initiation into contextualizing mindful second language teacher education (SLTE) has challenged teacher educators causing their retreat into mindless submission to ready-made standardized directives. To revive the starting perspective in curriculum development in light of the recent trend towards responsive SLTE, this practitioner research investigated how the context was incorporated into the initial program phase. We reported an intrinsic case self-study narrating the contextualization events unfolded in the first five sessions of an English language teacher education program in Karaj, Iran. Selected factors guided data mining in an interview, classroom interaction transcripts, reflective tasks, institutional documents, and the teacher educator’s journal entries and recollections. The data underwent meaning-oriented, temporally sequenced content analysis. We redrafted the resulting narrative after member checking, and critical reviews. Afterwards, we conducted a layered context-bound thematic analysis on the big story followed by further theme analysis of the existing and emerging facets of adaptive expertise. Engagement in this narrative inquiry developed awareness of her practices and professional agency, constraints and affordances within the context of SLTE program. The findings extend narrative knowledging to the wider professional community of SLTE.

This study examined the relationship between EFL teachers’ emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and reflectivity and their language learning as well as teaching beliefs. It investigated how well each of the variables can predict EFL teachers’ language learning beliefs and its respective levels. Accordingly, four questionnaires were given to 130 EFL teachers, and the elicited data were analyzed via correlational and multiple/multivariate regression analyses. Results revealed that 18% of teachers’ beliefs was significantly explained by the triplex unity. Critical thinking and emotional intelligence had significant contributions of 25% and 19%, respectively. The collective contributions of the three variables were only significant to three of the five dependent levels, i.e. 8% to language nature, 17% to motivation and expectation, and 22% to learning and communication. Accordingly, some pedagogical implications were elucidated.

This study aimed to determine the relationship between L2 learners' autonomy and their cognitive style focusing on reflectivity. It was conducted with 140 Iranian M.A. EFL learners from Department of English at Islamic Azad University of Najafabad. In order to have a homogeneous sample, the second version of Quick Placement Test (QPT) was administered. Then, 85 lower and 50 higher proficiency students were selected based on the scoring level chart of the QPT. In order to estimate participants' autonomy, the Learner Autonomy Questionnaire was administered. Then, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was used to determine the participants' degree of reflectivity. To answer the research questions descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were employed. The results revealed that, 1) There was a weak positive relationship between low proficiency L2 learners' level of autonomy and their degree of reflectivity, 2) There was a strong positive relationship between high proficiency L2 learners' level of autonomy and their degree of reflectivity. Finally, the implications of the study for EFL teachers, learners and syllabus designers were discussed.

The present study is aimed at investigating the relationship among Iranian EFL teachers’ reflective teaching, reflective thinking and classroom management ability. To this purpose, 102 male and female EFL teachers, aged between 25 and 40, with different academic background who were teaching at different levels, were chosen to fill in three questionnaires on reflective thinking, reflective teaching and classroom management. In this connection, the Spearman Rank-Order correlation was used as the analytical method to analyze the data and to come to the conclusion. The obtained result showed that there was a positive correlation between teachers’ reflective teaching and class management. A strong relationship was observed between reflective thinking and class management and there was also a positive correlation between teachers’ reflective thinking and reflective teaching.

This descriptive quantitative study scrutinized the relationship between impulsive and reflective EFL learners’ oral communication strategies (OCS) and willingness to communicate (WTC). To this end, 114 impulsive and reflective graduate-level EFL learners (67% female; 33% male), within the age range of 23 to 40, were selected employing convenience sampling. The data collection instruments were the impulsiveness sub-scale of Eysenck’s impulsivity inventory (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1978), the OCS inventory (Nakatani, 2006), and the WTC scale (McCroskey, 1992). Subsequent to checking and verifying the pertinent assumptions, using Pearson’s correlation coefficient indicated that there existed a positive yet insignificant correlation between impulsive EFL learners’ OCS and their WTC; however, a positive and significant correlation between reflective EFL learners’ OCS and their WTC was observed. In addition, the results of linear regression analyses and comparing the β values revealed that impulsive EFL learners’ OCS cannot significantly predict their WTC whereas reflective EFL learners’ OCS can significantly predict their WTC. In general, the obtained results confirmed that OCS can positively affect EFL learners’ WTC, although attention should be paid to learners’ impulsivity o reflectivity prior to planning the pedagogical practice.          

Purpose: This study endeavored to find out the possible relationship between reflectivity and impulsivity as cognitive learning styles and vocabulary/ grammar development as sub-skills among EFL learners.  Methodology: Two intact classes of the third-grade students were selected by the researchers and Oxford Placement Test was run for homogenizing them. After that, Barrat’s (2005) Impulsive/ Reflective questionnaire was given to the participants and they had to respond the translated items in a limited time. Regarding the score scale provided by the questionnaire, the participants were labeled as reflective and impulsive ones. Next, a standard grammar/vocabulary test, extracted from their book, administered to them and the scores were recorded by the researchers. Then, the scores of the questionnaires and tests sent to SPSS software for analyzing and interpreting the data. In inferential statistics, the researchers used correlation test to examine the possible relationship between the students' learning styles and their sub-skills development.  Findings: Results of the study indicated a positive relationship between the students' sub-skills achievements (vocabulary/ grammar) and their learning styles (reflectivity/ impulsivity). In other words, reflectivity and impulsivity had effect on the students' performance in sub-skills, as the reflective students presented better performance and made fewer errors than the impulsive ones in vocabulary and grammar tests.  Conclusion: According to the results, it can be concluded that the higher the reflectivity of the learners is, the more successful they tend to be in such tests. It is expected that the findings of the research indicate the importance of learning styles in educational environment.