جواد غلامی

The researchers in the current study were pinpointing the factors contributing to teacher motivation. Among the myriad of variables which were deemed liable to influence teacher motivation, the researchers opted for teacher motivation, namely teacher burnout, self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, and teaching style as the main predictive variables for teacher motivation. To conduct the study, a total of 200 English language teachers were asked to fill the study questionnaires. The target group encompassed teachers from both public school and language school contexts. The teachers were from both genders and came from a variety of age groups, years of experience, and language backgrounds. The participants were recruited from 10 cities across West Azarbaijan. To facilitate the data collection process, the questionnaires were sent to participants via Google forms link. The obtained data were analyzed through SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) to find the exact interrelationships between the four variables considered as predictors and teacher motivation. The findings pointed toward the existence of significant paths from burnout, self-efficacy, emotional intelligence (EI), and teaching styles toward teaching motivation. Additionally, EI, self-efficacy, and teaching styles were depicted to be significant predictors for burnout. The path from EI to self-efficacy was also significant. Furthermore, teaching style was significantly predicted by EI and self-efficacy. Finally, the findings obtained via interview analysis demonstrated that teacher motivation can be influenced by a variety of factors including low income and lack of environmental/social support, which can, in turn, lead to increased levels of burnout and hence diminish teaching efficacy and hence motivation. The implications of the findings are discussed throughout the paper.

Despite widespread coverage of language policy in the literature, there has been scant research probing into English language education policy at tertiary levels in general and the higher education context of Iraqi Kurdistan in particular. The present qualitative study investigated EFL students' perceptions of English language education policy, current educational policies, and the purposes for learning in Kurdish contexts across genders and study fields. To this end, a version of Yang's (2012) questionnaire was adapted and administered to university EFL students majoring in soft and hard sciences (N=300, male 34%, female 67%) at two private and state universities in Iraqi Kurdistan. The statistical analysis of the obtained data revealed students' positive attitudes toward learning English as an international language in both soft and hard sciences. Notably, students stressed that all Iraqi Kurdish students should learn the English language in English- and Kurdish-medium classes. They also considered English competence as a significant academic accomplishment. However, some of them felt dissatisfied with the status quo of English education in their institutions. The findings of this study offer insights and recommendations for English education policymakers, administrators, and instructors at tertiary levels.        

This study strived to specify and particularize Iranian medical field specialists and EFL teachers’ predominant and overriding textual interventions, which fall within the ambit of convenience editing. To this end, we required 20 field specialists and 20 EFL instructors to edit the unedited versions of 80 published medical research articles in a way that rendered them apt for publication in quality medical journals. We categorized the obtained data of the edited articles using an editing strategy framework that distinguished four editing micro-strategies and five macro-strategies. The findings revealed that medical specialists and EFL teachers’ micro-editing strategies outnumbered their macro-editing ones. Furthermore, there were significant differences between the editing micro-strategy uses of the above-mentioned groups of the participants. The results highlighted the need for a synergic collaboration between the medical field specialists and the EFL teachers to ameliorate medical articles’ formal, stylistic, and genre-related features and to expedite their publication process. 

In tandem with communicative approaches to language teaching, there is a growing understanding in SLA that assessment needs to be integrated into language learning. This contention has led to the development of the Learning-Oriented Assessment (LOA) approach for assessing language skills and aspects in language classrooms. To our knowledge, interventionist studies to improve EFL teachers' LOA-based assessment practices are in their infancy. The present study examined Iranian EFL teachers' perspectives on LOA in language teaching. To this end, the researchers selected 44 EFL teachers in four language institutes in Urmia (Iran) and provided them with tailor-made LOA-based training in 12 sessions for one month. The teachers were informed that LOA procedures are to be adopted and used in their classes. During the following semester, the researchers observed the participants' classes periodically and provided them with comments on their LOA procedures. Following the course, interviews were held with the participants to probe into their perspectives on LOA. Drawing upon thematic analysis, the researchers analyzed the recordings to develop a model for the participants' perspectives on LOA procedures. Development of teacher noticing skills in LOA procedure, its beneficial impact on language learning vis-à-vis traditional testing procedures, implementation challenges, widespread use at all proficiency levels, and the need to develop user-friendly LOA-compatible software and applications constituted the major themes based on the interview data. The findings demonstrate that the participants harbored favorable views on LOA and regarded it to be more efficacious than traditional testing procedures.

Writing a thesis is crucial in the master's or PhD study process. There is no denying the supervisor's responsibility in this situation. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the Kurdish students` perceptions toward their supervisors at various universities in Iraqi Kurdistan. In this study, two groups of students took part: 13 master students and 11 PhD students. Students, both male and female, who were studying at different universities in Kurdistan were included. They were all in their last year of studies and writing their theses and dissertations. A questionnaire and interviews were conducted to collect the data. The results revealed that students perceived the supervisors as a supporter, a leader, and a knowledgeable person who give them continuing feedback. The major point regarding the characteristics of effective supervisors was their knowledge of students` research topics, requiring supervisors to acquire enough knowledge and information on the topics of students` theses.

Although there is an increasing amount of research examining the efficacy of Witten Corrective Feedback (WCF) in enhancing the grammatical accuracy of EFL learners, only a few studies have explored the perspectives of EFL teachers regarding Formulaic-oriented Witten Corrective Feedback (FWCF) in EFL settings. Using a mixed-method approach, this interpretive exploratory study sought to understand the attitudes of Iranian EFL teachers toward FWCF. The analyses were based on quantitative data from a 13-item anonymous bespoke online survey, qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, and an open-ended question at the end of the survey. EFL teachers (n =137) responded to the online survey, and 7 participants participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated that female teachers' favorable opinions about the effectiveness of WCF for improving EFL learners' writing performance resulted from their belief that the learners' capacity to use more formal and courteous language in their writing assignments was positively impacted by using these formulaic sequences. Moreover, the findings demonstrated that EFL teachers preferred direct WCF methods over indirect tactics. The most essential component that affected teachers' practices in the classroom was training designed to change their perspective of the valuelessness of WCF. The teachers' lack of satisfactory understanding of formulaic sequences stemmed from their lack of information. In addition, teachers' hesitancy to use them in the lower proficiency levels emanated from their misconceptions of their uselessness in the language learners' writing tasks.

Learning-oriented assessment constitutes an approach that integrates language assessment into the learning process to expedite learners’ noticing of their weaknesses and maximize their learning opportunities. The present study scrutinized Iraqi EFL teachers’ perceptions and practices of LOA. In light of this objective, the researchers used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design to conduct the study. Accordingly, they selected 103 male and 114 female teachers in 37 public high schools in Baghdad (Iraq) as the participants. Moreover, they administered Aloswat’s (2022) learning-oriented assessment questionnaire to these participants to obtain quantitative data on their proclivity in adhering to the principles of this assessment approach. Finally, they selected a small number of the above-mentioned teachers based on the data saturation criterion. Using a semi-structured interview protocol, they gathered qualitative data on their perceptions of learning-oriented assessment. The researchers used independent-sample t-test and thematic analysis to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data. The results indicated that female teachers adhered more strictly to the principles of learning-oriented assessment than male teachers. In addition, female teachers had more favorable perceptions of this assessment approach compared to their male counterparts. The results may provide teacher educators and syllabus designers with guidelines on implementing LOA in EFL courses.

Internationalization and globalization have gained popularity during the past 20 years in a variety of educational settings. English-Medium Instruction (EMI) has been one of the primary strategies for addressing these developments. Iraqi secondary schools appear to be falling behind in the face of these worldwide trends. Secondary schools are using Arabic as their practically universal language of teaching. Still, only a few numbers of studies have investigated the possible use of EMI and instructors' perspectives regarding its usage. This study adopted a mixed-methods approach to examine the current state of EMI in the Iraqi setting, providing more insight into the rising application of EMI. To learn more about the attitudes of 150 teachers concerning EMI, pertinent questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to gather the required data. The quantitative results demonstrated that educators' opinions of EMI were overwhelmingly favorable. Most instructors supported both bilingual education and EMI, despite being aware of the detrimental effects of EMI on common official languages and the opposition to its implementation. The participants' views about and preferences for EMI were significantly influenced by their educational background, English ability, and their academic degree. The qualitative analysis's findings showed that although EMI classes provided participants with many benefits, they also faced significant difficulties, the primary reason of which was their poor English ability. The findings also indicated that most of participants blamed administrators for the difficulties in the EMI courses..