جلیل فتحی

As far as teaching English as a foreign language is concerned, the role of literature as a medium to enhance language learning or to promote other cognitive and affective variables has been quite contentious. Over the last three decades, however, some practitioners and second language scholars have resurrected literature as an effective vehicle to teach the second or foreign language. As an attempt to shed more light on the use of literature in English Language Teaching (ELT), the present study investigated the role of literature as a medium to foster critical thinking among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. In so doing, a sample of 39 intermediate Iranian EFL students who were the students of two intact classes were recruited. They were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group (n=18) were required to read unabridged, authentic short stories written by literary figures whereas control group students were provided with abridged and simplified texts and short stories. A validated scale of critical thinking was administered as the pre-test and the post-test before and after the treatment. The results of a one way ANCOVA revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the post-test of critical thinking, suggesting that use of literary texts has been effective in enhancing the level of critical thinking among Iranian EFL students. The findings of the study have pedagogical implications for ELT theorizers and practitioners.

This study investigated the effects of blog-mediated instruction on English-as-a-foreign language (EFL) learners’ writing performance and anxiety. In addition, it aimed to probe into the EFL learners’ attitudes towards blog-mediated writing instruction. The participants of the study included forty-six Iranian EFL learners from two intact university classes, who were randomly assigned to the Control Group (N = 21) and the Experimental Group (N = 25). Over a 16-week university semester, the Control Group was taught using traditional writing instruction while the Experimental Group was taught using a blog-mediated writing course. The data were collected through two timed writing tasks, Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (Cheng, 2004), and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that, although both groups benefited from their writing sessions, there was a significant difference in the positive effects of blog-mediated and traditional writing instruction on L2 writing performance, showing that the Experimental Group had a better performance on the posttest writing performance task than the Control Group. The results also revealed that the blog-mediated course reduced the participants’ L2 writing anxiety in the Experimental Group while traditional instruction did not have positive effects on reducing L2 writing anxiety in the Control Group. The data from semi-structures interviews indicated that the interviewees from the Experimental Group were generally positive about the blog-mediated writing course, with little skepticism and negativism echoed about the course. The findings offer significant implications for theory and practice on L2 writing instruction.

In modern education, teachers are regarded as a central and focal part of educational systems and are responsible in the development of education. It should be mentioned that teachers have an influential role in planning and offering an effective and significant educational program. The significant role of teacher-related variables in affecting teachers’ performance and learning outcomes of students has been widely acknowledged in various educational contexts. Therefore, the investigation of teacher variables has received research attention in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. To contribute to this line of research, the current study was set to investigate the role of teacher reflection and self-efficacy in predicting burnout among Iranian EFL teachers. To this end, three validated scales measuring these variables were administered to a number of 171 male and female teachers. As for the data analysis, Structural Equation Modeling was utilized to test the hypothesized model of the constructs. The results indicated that teacher reflection accounted for 12.1% of the variance, and teacher self-efficacy accounted for 25.2% of the variance in burnout. Although both variables had a unique effect on teaching burnout, teacher self-efficacy turned out to be a stronger predictor of burnout. Concerning the implications, teacher education programs may pay more serious attention to teacher self-efficacy and reflection as they proved to play a significant role in reducing teacher burnout.

The present study sought to investigate the differential effect of using native-accent and non-native accent materials on the Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ listening comprehension. To this purpose, 60 primary EFL Iranian learners participated in the study. The participants were randomly divided into a control group (N=30) and an experimental group (N=30). First, a Quick Placement Test which consisted of vocabulary, grammar, and reading items was administered in order to ensure the homogeneity of participants. As the intervention of the study, the control group was provided with the listening materials accompanied by the use of their native-accent audio files, whereas the experimental group was exposed to the same listening tasks and materials which were pronounced by the non-native teacher. The experimental intervention lasted for six forty-minute sessions. To collect the data, the listening component of Pearson Test of English General (PTE General) was used as the pre-test and the post-test to measure listening comprehension of the participants. The results indicated that using non-native accent listening materials was more effective than using native-accent materials in enhancing listening comprehension of the EFL learners. These findings were discussed in the light of English as an International Language (EIL) debate and the theory of inter-language speech intelligibility benefit.

A significant research base has increasingly substantiated that teachers are among the most significant players affecting student achievement in second language classrooms. As a result, teacher-related variables have enjoyed much research attention over the recent decades in both mainstream education and English Language Teaching (ELT). Likewise, the present study was set to test a structural model of collective teacher efficacy, teacher self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and teaching commitment, and specifically to examine the hypothesis that teaching commitment mediates the effects of collective teacher efficacy and teacher self-efficacy on job satisfaction. Using a sample of 312 Iranian EFL teachers, structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to establish the structural model. The findings of a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the fitness of both the employed scales and the structural model.  The findings and implications of the present study are finally discussed.

The aim of this study was to investigate the Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' willingness to implement postmethod pedagogy in the Iranian context. In so doing, a mixed methods approach was employed in which first a validated postmethod questionnaire was administered to a nationally representative sample of 711 Iranian EFL teachers. Then, a series of focus group discussions and individual interviews with 30 teachers were carried out in the qualitative phase of the study. The findings of quantitative data analyses revealed that the Iranian EFL teachers were not willing to implement postmethod principles in their classrooms. Furthermore, the result of the content analysis for the qualitative phase indicated that Iranian EFL teachers do not implement any particular method in the strict sense of the word. Moreover, the teachers mentioned knowledge and experience of teachers; lack of adequate teacher training program; time and financial constraints of teachers; idealistic nature of postmethod; resistance of language institutes; little support of textbook developers; and cultural tradition as the impediments to the implementation of postmethod pedagogy in Iran. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.