Collaborative reading

This study aimed to investigate collaborative reading in reading sessions among young Iranian EFL learners. It actually was an attempt to examine the process and components of collaborative reading which are expected to improve young learners’ reading ability in the English language. To this purpose, a group of second year Iranian EFL young learners at a primary school in Tehran together with their teachers participated in the study. The young learners were around eight years old. The duration of the study was 12 weeks. Since the study was qualitative in nature, teachers’ reflective journals, a number of observations and face-to-face interviews with teachers were used as instruments to collect the needed data. The analysis of the qualitatively-elicited data presented a in so far as reading processes and reading comprehension enhancement through collaborative deeper understanding of the importance of the process and components of collaborative reading. In fact, the findings revealed that collaborative reading promote young EFL learners’ reading performance. Thus, the study has practical implications for both teachers and young EFL learners reading in terms of reading performance enhancement.

This study followed discussion-based techniques using mobile phone technologies in order to compare Iranian EFL teachers' perceptions with their practices in higher education. Applying Convergent Parallel Mixed-Method Design, 73 English for Specific Purposes (ESP) instructors, teaching technical English courses to Law students at Islamic Azad University (IAU), South Tehran, Qods and Eslamshahr branches, completed a questionnaire, assessing teachers’ perceptions versus practices on the use of mobile phone technologies in discussion-based classes. Through typical-case purposive sampling, out of 73 ESP instructors, eight instructors (four traditional and four communicative), extracted through the questionnaire, joined semi-structured interviews, and their classes were observed during the semester by two observers completing the observation scheme. Afterwards, applying the grounded-theory-instigated analytical framework of Onwuegbuzie and Teddlie (2003), the triangulated observation-interview data were thematically analyzed through open, axial, and selective codifications congruent with Mishra and Koehler’s (2008) TPACK model components, i.e., technology, pedagogy and content knowledge. The results demonstrated EFL teachers' interest in interactional mobile phone technologies and in the content constituent, i.e., the second component of the questionnaire as well as the third module of TRACK model. Additionally, the results signified EFL teachers’ use of comparative translation activities for the reading comprehension skills via collaborative/cooperative reading strategies. Finally, this research represents some pedagogical implications for administrative executives in the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology to revise Law students’ curriculum, and positively alters material providers’ and ESP instructors’ attitudes toward using mobile phone technologies in discussion-based classes.