درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Although decades of research have well elaborated on teacher professional development, we still do not have a thorough picture about what teacher professional development could entail and what components it consists of. The present study aims to develop and validate a teacher professional development scale in an Iranian English foreign language context. An initial tentative model with 130 items was piloted and tested through exploratory and confirmatory data analyses on a sample of 400 EFL teachers. This level resulted in the removal of 28 items in our sample loaded, resulting in a final 102 teacher professional development inventory. The developed inventory measures the extent to which EFL teachers are professionally developed and makes teachers aware of multiple characteristics of professionally developed teachers. These competencies are essential components of teacher professional development, enabling the teachers to utilize them in everyday teaching and learning practices in the classroom settings which, as a result, leads to student achievement. As teachers fulfill important professional roles, they need valid instruments to assess their day-to-day functioning in the class. With the instrument developed and validated in the current research, we, in fact, allow language teachers to assess their extent of professional development in different pedagogical contexts.

Concerns over the phony nature of textbooks and artificiality of their contents in reflecting authentic language have been raised by a number of researchers. It has been argued that many language teaching programs result in the failure of learners of English to successfully communicate in the target language. The problem with these programs is that there is no general agreement about the success of these materials in developing the pragmatic competence necessary for interlocutors’ mutually intelligible communication[D1] . Hence, this study explored communicated requests for nonverbal/verbal goods and services (RNGS/RVGS) in the dialogues of 5 textbooks and 8 English movies. The utterances of the textbooks and movies were evaluated on six criteria deriving from research on speech act theory, politeness, and conversation analysis. These included whether the textbooks discussed second pair parts, the forms of requests, the context of request occurrence, the nature of the devices through which the requests are mitigated, and multi-turn request forms. The results of the analysis revealed that, except for re-requests and dispreferred responses of RNGS,textbooks’ strategies including forms, face, contexts of RVGS, and strategies of RNGSwere not realized through adequate examples compared to their variants in movies.Most importantly,except for bald on record, internal mitigators of RVGS, external mitigators, and direct and indirect forms of RNGS, the other request strategies in the textbooks showed less variety than those of their counterparts in the movies. Internally mitigated RVGS were the onlystrategies variouslyexploited in the textbooks.The findings revealed that textbook designers should improve their instructional materials by incorporatingmore accurate samples of communicated requests in their future textbooks.

The importance of demotivation in language learning has been overshadowed in the commonplace research on language learning motivation and even in mainstream psychology (Dörnyei, 2005). The purpose behind conducting this study was to investigate the relationship between students’ demotives for studying in general and English language in particular. Besides, the importance of educational context was investigated through explaining the changes in students’ responses based on the type of university and gender. In Iran, university education is highly important for youngsters and the type of university with their various contexts is determining for their future. There are popular state universities among which one technical university as well as its satellite campus were selected. Besides, a distance-education and a unisexual university were represented in the present sample, overall comprising 194 bachelor students of different majors. Consequently, the factors considered as demotives are ranked, elaborated on and analyzed in order to shed light on the educational context-specific demotives and the pros and cons of current practices of EFL instruction in the universities.

The present study was aimed at examining concerns about the social effects of EFL learning, a challenging area of research which has not been discussed sufficiently. It tried to investigate the relationship between EFL learning and national identity. In addition, attempt was made to find a relationship between language motivation types and national identity. Furthermore, the role of two demographic variables, gender and age was examined. To this end, a sample consisting of 350 undergraduates studying at Allameh Tabataba'i University in Tehran took part in the study. A questionnaire on national identity and another one on language motivation types followed by an interview were the instruments used. The questionnaires had already been developed. However, there were some major modifications for the former which consisted of 30 items measuring national identity for all participants. The latter contained 42 items measuring language motivation types for only EFL learners. The Regression analysis, independent samples t-tests and a one-way ANOVA were run. The results revealed that claims over the harmful social effects of EFL learning were not arguably significant and it was found that among the eight language motivation types, going abroad and social responsibility were correlated with national identity. Furthermore, gender and age indicated significant differences among the participants' tendencies. The findings indicated that the social concerns about EFL learning are too pessimistic. So, materials developers, syllabus designers and teachers might consider the potentiality of some social elementsand demographic variables for the development of EFL learning.

Self-regulation is the ability to regulate one’s cognition, behavior, actions, and motivation strategically and autonomously in order to achieve self-set goals including the learning of academic skills and knowledge. Accordingly, self-regulated learning involves self-generated and systematic thoughts and behaviors with the aim of attaining learning goals. With that in mind, this study aimed to examine the effect of self-regulation instruction to the intermediate EFL readers on their ability to make within-text inferences while reading. Zimmerman’s model of self-regulation with its three cyclic phases of forethought, performance and self-reflection constituted the theoretical basis of this study. Two intact intermediate classes in an English language institute were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group was trained in self-regulatory processes which were directed at EFL reading comprehension for ten sessions, while the control group received the routine, traditional reading instruction involving pre-, while-, and post-reading tasks and activities. The results of parametric one-way between-group ANCOVA showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the post-test of EFL reading comprehension, particularly in term of within-text inferencing. This finding revealed that self-regulation instruction aimed at EFL reading comprehension significantly contributed to learners’ ability to make correct within-text inferences while reading in English as a foreign language.

The current study aimed at investigating the academic learning needs of Iranian undergraduate students of English Language and Literature from the perspective of 320 stakeholders including undergraduate students (n=252), graduates (n=51), English literature instructors (n=7), and language instructors (n=10). To this aim, atriangulation of the most important data collection instruments of needs analysis (i.e., questionnaires, class observations, and semistructured interviews) was adopted for data collection at eight different Iranian state universities. The results of data analysis revealed that the above-mentioned students are not adequately equipped with learning and communication strategies during their academic and preacademic studies. The results of the current study may promise implications for the provision of some extracurricular EFL courses at the tertiary and senior high school levels in order to enhance students’ sociocultural and strategic competence based on the shared decision-making process among different stakeholders in the course design community

این مطالعه تأثیر انواع مختلف ارائه معنای لغات را به صورت چندرسانه ای (متنی، تصویری و ویدئویی) از طریق بردهای هوشمند بر درک مطلب دانش آموزان ایرانی مورد بررسی قرار می دهد. از بین 102 نفر جمعیت کلی زبان آموزان دختر، 60 نفر بر اساس آزمون استاندارد نلسون انتخاب شدند. سپس آنها به صورت تصادفی به 4 گروه 15 نفره تقسیم شدند که عبارتند از: سه گروه آزمایش که از ارائه معنای لغات بهره می بردند و یک گروه کنترل. بر اساس نتایج مطالعه آزمایشی، بعضی از لغات متون کامپیوتری، به وسیله یک برنامه نرم افزار کامپیوتری، دارای چند لینک شدند که از طریق این لینک ها معنای آن ها به روش های مختلف (متنی، تصویری و ویدئویی) از طریق برد هوشمند ارائه می شد. وقتی معلم در حین تدریس لغت لینک دار روی برد هوشمند را لمس می کرد یک صفحه جدید ظاهر می شد. این صفحه یا لغت را با معنی آن به صورت متنی (برای گروهی که معنای لغات را فقط به صورت متنی دریافت می کردند), یا با تصویر آن (برای گروهی که معنای لغات را فقط به صورت تصویری دریافت می کردند) و یا با ویدئو ( برای گروهی که معنای لغات را از طریق فیلم و انیمیشن دریافت می کردند) نمایش می داد. هر گروه از زبان آموزان، متن های کامپیوتری را از طریق اینترنت برد هوشمند در کلاس درس بر اساس یکی از روش های فوق می خواندند. نتایج آماری داده های به دست آمده نشان داد که 1) هر سه گروه آزمایش که از ارائه معنای لغات با استفاده از برد هوشمند بهره می بردند (متنی، تصویری و ویدئویی) نسبت به گروه کنترل که از ارائه معنای لغات توسط برد هوشمند هیچ بهره ای نمی بردند، متون زبان انگلیسی را به صورت قابل توجهی بهتر درک می کردند.2) گروهی که معنای لغات را به صورت فیلم ویدئویی و انیمیشن توسط برد هوشمند دریافت می کردند در درک مطلب نسبت به گروه هایی که معنای لغات را فقط به صورت متنی یا فقط به صورت تصویری توسط برد هوشمند دریافت می کردند عملکرد بهتری داشتند؛ اما به صورت معنادار نبود. و در آخر هیچ تفاوت معناداری بین سه گروه آزمایش در درک و دریافت زبان آموزان از متون زبان انگلیسی از طریق برد هوشمند وجود نداشت.

Given the significance of teacher care and its impact on student motivation, stroke as a unit of recognition seems to be related to motivation for class attendance and language learning. In this regard, this paper aimed to investigate the role of stroke in students’ willingness to attend classes(WTAC) and their foreign language achievement (FLA) in the foreign language context. To this end, a scale was developed and validated through structural equation modeling (SEM) to measure learners` WTAC. A total number of 260 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners completed the newly developed scale along with the stroke scale. Regression analysis was used to examine the relationships among the variables. The results demonstrated that WTAC, Non-verbal, and Valuing subscales of stroke were the strongest predictors and Teacher Characteristics (TCH) subscale of WTAC was the only predictor for FLA. Finally, the results were discussed, and some implications were provided for educational settings. تاثیر نوازه بر تمایل به شرکت در کلاس درس و یادگیری زبان خارجی با توجه به اهمیت توجه معلم و تاثیر آن بر انگیزه شاگردان، نوازه به عنوان واحد دیده شدن افراد، به نظر می رسد با انگیزه شاگردان برای شرکت در کلاس و یادگیری زبان ارتباط دارد. در همین راستا، در این پژوهش به دنبال بررسی نقش نوازه در تمایل به شرکت در کلاس درس و یادگیری زبان خارجی هستیم. بدین منظور، پرسشنامه ای برای سنجش میزان تمایل برای شرکت در کلاس با مدل معادلات ساختاری تهیه و هنجاریابی گردید. از 260 نفر فراگیر زبان انگلیسی خواسته شد به این پرسشنامه و پرسشنامه نوازه پاسخ دهند. از تحلیل رگرسیون برای بررسی ارتباطات بین زیر سازه ها استفاده شد. نتایج نشان داد پرسشنامه جدید با زیر سازه غیر کلامی و ارزشیابی نوازه و ویژگیهای معلمی با یادگیری زبان ارتباط معنادار دارد. در پایان، نتایج بحث شد و برخی از کاربردهای این پژوهش برای محیطهای آموزشی ارایه شد.   کلیدواژه ها:نوازه، تمایل به شرکت در کلاس، حضور در کلاس، یادگیری زبان خارجی

A large number of studies dealing with phonology have focused their attention on phonological production at the expense of phonological perception which provides the foundation stone for phonological production. This study focuses on phonological perception at phonemic level. The purpose of the study is helping beginning learners improve their perception of the English phonemes which are confusable for them. To this end, we propose transcribing as an aural input enhancement device and examine its effect on learners’ phonemic perception. Thirty one females who were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups participated in this study. The experimental group had transcribing exercise during the experiment while the control group did not. The results of the study show that transcribing improves beginning learners’ phonemic perception significantly. Therefore, EFL teachers are advised to include transcribing exercise as one of the techniques to improve learners’ phonemic perception and, hence, their listening comprehension.

The concept of teacher change is critical in second language teaching and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context due largely to the fact that, almost, whatever we do in teacher education looks for initiating change of one sort or another. A substantial body of research has been dedicated to investigate teacher change (TC) from various perspectives. However, having studied the related literature, we found no robust, valid and reliable measure for TC in EFL context. Accordingly, effort was made to develop and validate a reliable and valid measure that could assess TC in an EFL context. The review of the prior research resulted in the collection of 186 items affecting TC out of which a temporary data driven model of teacher change was developed. 324 Ph.D. and M.A. graduated EFL teachers took part in exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the initial measure. Finally, a 66-item scale consisting of three components and thirteen sub-components was developed.The results showed both factorial validity andinternal consistency reliability for the measure.The TCSsubscales also had strong validity evidence based on the associationsfound. This study has various applications for language teachers and practitioners in the field.

Over the last few years, the realm of foreign language learning has witnessed an abundance of research concerning the effectiveness of corrective feedback on the acquisition of grammatical features, with the study of other target language subsystems, such as pronunciation, being few and far between. In order to bridge this gap, the present study intended to investigate and compare the immediate and delayed effect of explicit (overt) and implicit (covert) corrective feedback (CF) on treating segmental word-level pronunciation errors committed by adult EFL learners of an institute in Tabriz named ALC. To this end, through a quasi-experimental study and random sampling, three groups were formed, an explicit, an implicit and a control group, each consisting of 20 low proficient EFL learners. Besides, considering the levels that learners were assigned to, based on the institute’s criteria, a Preliminary English Test (PET) was administered in order to determine the proficiency level of learners. Having administered the pretest before treatment, to measure the longer-term effect of explicit vs. implicit CF on segmental word-level pronunciation errors, the study included delayed posttests in addition to immediate posttests all of which included reading passages containing 40 problematic words. The collected data were analyzed by ANCOVA and the obtained findings revealed that both explicit and implicit corrective feedback are effective in reducing pronunciation errors showing significant differences between experimental and control groups. Additionally, the outcomes showed that immediate implicit and immediate explicit corrective feedback have similar effects on reduction of pronunciation errors. The same result comes up regarding the delayed effect of explicit feedback in comparison with delayed effect of implicit feedback. However, the delayed effect of explicit and implicit CF lowered comparing to their immediate effect due to time effect. Pedagogically, this study could enhance teachers’ effort, knowledge, and beliefs in teaching pronunciation and providing corrective feedback to pronunciation errors.   Keywords:corrective feedback; explicit CF; implicit CF; segmental word-level pronunciation errors   طی چند سال اخیر، در حوزه ی آموزش زبان انگلیسی شاهد تحقیقات کثیری در زمینه ی ﺗﺄثیر بازخورد اصلاحی بر یادگیری ساختار های دستور زبان انگلیسی بوده ایم.  با این وجود، در رابطه با ﺗﺄثیر آن در یادگیری تلفظ صحیح زبان انگلیسی تحقیقات بسیار اندکی انجام شده است. به منظور پر کردن این ﺧﻸ، مطالعه ی حاضر سعی داشته به بررسی و مقایسه ی ﺗﺄثیرات آنی و مدت دار بازخورد اصلاحی صریح و ضمنی در بهبود خطاهای تلفظی واحد های زنجیری در کلمات انگلیسی بپردازد.بدین منظور، طی یک تحقیق نیمه تجربی، شرکت کنندگان که از زبان آموزان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجی انتخاب شده بودند به سه گروه صریح، ضمنی و کنترل تقسیم شدند. هر کدام از این گروه ها شامل 20 زبان آموز سطح پایین بوده که تواناییشان در تلفظ لغات مورد نظر از طریق پیش آزمون، پس آزمون فوری و پس آزمون تاخیری اندازه گیری شد.اطلاعات به دست آمده از طریق آزمون تحلیل کوواریانس ANCOVA تحلیل و بررسی شد. تفاوت معنادار بین گروههای آزمایشی و کنترل در یافته های به دست آمده نشان می دهد که هر دو بازخورد صریح و ضمنی تاثیر بسزایی در کاهش خطاهای تلفظی زبان آموزان در پس آزمون فوری داشته است. همچنین تاثیر مشابهی در پس آزمون تاخیری دو گروه صریح و ضمنی مشاهده شد. با این وجود، مقایسه ی بین پس آزمون های فوری و تاخیری نشان داد که تاثیر بازخورد در هر دو گروه آزمایشی با گذشت زمان کاهش یافته است. کلیدواژه ها: بازخورد اصلاحی، بازخورد اصلاحی صریح، بازخورد اصلاحی ضمنی، خطاهای تلفظ زنجیره ای