Images

Although images are abundant and play significant aesthetic and pedagogical roles in today’s EFL course books, they are still one of the less explored areas of research. The present study is an attempt to examine the role and function of images in Iranian high school EFL course books; it also aims to cast a critical eye over their suitability and efficiency. To this end, Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006) model of visual grammar was adopted. The findings revealed that although the informative and/or illustrative functions of the images make them important resources in Iranian high school EFL course books, their full potential for language learning does not seem to be adequately exploited. This relates to flaws at the representational mode of meaning making, such as outdated portrayal of objects, gender stereotyping, and overdramatizing national identity as well as shortcomings at the interactive mode, such as poor modality due to grayscale printing and plain graphics with no contextualization or pictorial detail. These flaws make the images seem out of today’s world and hardly credible for high school students who are already adept at new technology. Since these shortcomings may sacrifice pedagogical objectives, the study calls for changes in both technical quality and underlying messages of images in the course books.

A narrative monologue skill is required in learning English. Delivering a monologue is a challenging skill for most of the EFL students since it is difficult for them to utilize their lexical and grammatical knowledge. This study investigates the effects of narrative sequential images on the Iranian intermediate EFL students’ monologue skill. To this end, the study was conducted in two intact classes (one as the experimental group and the other as the control group) of 32 students within 2 months in a high school in Isfahan. To select homogenous participants, Oxford Placement Test and Oral Proficiency Interview were administered. A monologue pre-test was used at the beginning of the study. And the specific treatment was administered to the experimental group. Then, a parallel post-test was conducted. Based on the results, there was a significant difference in the scores of the experimental group in all aspects of fluency, coherence, lexical resources, grammar and accuracy, and pronunciation in using narrative sequential images before and after treatment. In other words, experimental group performed better on the four subscales of monologue skill than did the control group. Results, also, suggested that teachers use sequential images as a part of their instruction to help students develop their monologue skill.

Environmental psychology is one of the subjects that has currently attracted the attention of many people involved in education. Paying attention in school, work, and generally life environments in addition to other elements, can play a significant role in attracting individuals and improving their lifestyle, education and work. Hence, tending to spatial elements in educational environments, especially in primary school, can provide a suitable setting for attracting students, increasing their level of interest in learning, creating mental and physical peace, and correct education of members of the society. This study was performed to separate legible and illegible spaces in the minds of primary school students. The drawings of the educational environment by the students showed legible concepts and images with regards to the intended factors. The results show that the position of spatial elements in mental imaging of boy and girl students with regards to individual, social, and other aspects are different. Some, such as the activity playground are more important for boys, and green space and a colorful setting is important for girls and attracting them to school. In other factors, such as social factors, the two groups are similar. Hence, the use of adequate lines, vibrant and varying colors, decorating the environment, and granting importance to the basic needs of both groups (considering their age and sex) seems necessary.