مهدیه نوری

This study investigates the impact of film watching versus traditional narrative listening on the language development of Iranian preschoolers across three age groups. The primary objective is to assess and compare language development in preschoolers exposed to narratives through both traditional listening and animated film watching. The study investigates differences in language skills, such as topic maintenance and descriptive abilities, between these two exposure methods. Conducted in Iran, the study encompasses various settings where children were exposed to both narrative listening and animated film watching, followed by story recounting over five sessions. The collected data were meticulously coded to identify disparities in topic maintenance and the length of story descriptions. Key findings reveal that traditional narrative listening resulted in more consistent topic maintenance and longer descriptions compared to film watching. Older children consistently crafted similar stories, demonstrating a deeper understanding of literacy concepts. Additionally, children with more educated mothers exhibited extended and fluent language skills, while others excelled in the context of film watching. This research underscores the significance of considering different media in preschoolers' language development, highlighting their distinct impacts on language skills. These findings carry implications for literacy practices, parenting, materials development, and policymaking.

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

Based on the learning-centred approach to needs analysis, the current study aimed at investigating the academic target needs of undergraduate students of English Language and Literature in Iran as a non-native context nationwide by employing a triangulation of instrumentations namely, questionnaires, class observations, and semi structured interviews. To this end, 320 stakeholders from eight different Iranian state universities participated in the current study. The results of this study revealed a discrepancy between the target needs of the students and the actual EFL courses they undertake during their academic and pre-academic studies. During pre-academic studies, students are not adequately equipped with critical thinking abilities, study skills, and general English proficiency which are required by their prospective academic needs. Likewise, the prevalent lecture-based teaching methodologies as utilized by Iranian content specialists at the tertiary level, seemed to be ineffective in sufficiently equipping the students with sound literary knowledge as well as professional writing and reading skills. The findings may promise implications for establishing a consistent nationwide pedagogical framework for EFL instruction at the non-native academic and pre-academic levels by a synthesis of different communicative and learning-centered approaches to language teaching based on a systematic cooperation among different stakeholders.