درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This research paper delved into the critical issue of applying English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) assessment principles in local English language tests used for non-native English speakers in Iranian language institutes. A qualitative content analysis was made on 60 local tests, dissecting them into domains, dimensions, and rating rubrics to scrutinize their alignment with ELF assessment principles. The study unveiled that despite some alignment with ELF assessment principles, key aspects like local communicative context, intercultural competence, and linguistic diversity are often overlooked. In particular, writing and reading tests failed to fully reflect these principles, and listening and speaking assessments showed biases towards native English varieties. The study provides crucial insights for test developers to foster a more nuanced and accurate assessment of non-native English speakers' abilities. Moreover, it highlights the need to embed ELF principles into test construction, argues for broader assessment scopes and a focus on locally relevant tasks, and contributes to more equitable and contextually relevant English language proficiency tests by emphasizing linguistic diversity in assessment frameworks.

Many aspects of EFL teaching are negatively influenced by professional identity challenges which are not effectively responded to by EFL teachers. Considering this, few studies, however, have been conducted on EFL teachers’ professional identity challenges, and especially on their gender-specific challenges, and factors which can facilitate their professional identity construction. Therefore, this study, benefitting from a narrative inquiry method and using semi-structured interviews, aimed to examine the professional identity gender-specific challenges of six institute EFL teachers. The findings of this study showed that EFL male and female teachers were different in relation to the professional challenges they faced and a number of factors had caused this. Based on the overall findings, it is recommended that EFL teacher educators become aware of the challenges faced by teachers and factors which can affect their professional identity construction. Additionally, they need to help EFL teachers reduce the destructive effects of professional identity challenges by facing them and turning them into opportunities for learning. 

The present study investigated whether individual or collective reflective journals could lead to teachers’ professional development and professional identity (re)construction. To this end, 30 Iranian EFL teachers were selected through convenience sampling. The participants wrote pre-workshop reflective journals individually and collectively and attended a reflective consciousness-raising workshop for eight sessions. The participants were informed about the major tenets of reflection, professional development, and professional identity (re)construction in the workshop. Afterward, they wrote post-workshop reflective journals again individually and collectively. The participants sat follow-up interviews for the researchers to find out which kinds of journals better helped them develop professionally and (re)construct their professional identity. The findings showed that individual reflective journals and collective reflective journals contributed to teachers’ professional development and professional identity (re)construction respectively. The findings might imply that stakeholders involved that is EFL education policymakers, curriculum developers, and syllabus designers hold interactive workshops for pre-service and in-service teachers on reflective journal writing which might lead to both EFL teachers’ professional development and identity (re)construction. Moreover, it is recommended that the decision-makers and senior managers develop systematic checklists addressing those influential factors found in the present study to contribute to teachers’ professional development and professional identity construction.

This study endeavored to explore the beliefs that Iranian English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teachers held and scrutinize the extent to which their beliefs can correspond to their actual practices in EAP context. To these ends, a mixed mehod study was conducted in which 40 EAP teachers (20 English teachers & 20 subject-area teachers) teaching EAP courses in Universities of Medical Sciences in Iran participated in this nationwide study. The quantitative data gathered through a belief questionnaire was analyzed by SPSS software and the qualitative data collected through interview and observation of EAP courses was analyzed through content analysis. Analyses of the gathered data disclosed that the participants held different beliefs in terms of teaching strategies so that they did differently in their reading-based performances as well as the teaching and learning strategies. Besides, it was revealed that unlike subject-area teachers whose beliefs and performance were derived from their content-related concerns, English teachers’ beliefs and performance were presided by the students’ real needs, interest, and what is substantiated in the current literature. Within the EAP community of teachers and teacher educators, not only novice teachers who aim to enter into the EAP teaching mainstream can benefit from the findings, but also EAP teachers currently teaching such courses can gain the advantage of reflecting upon the beliefs and their actual practices. In addition, the findings may have implications for all EAP teachers to verbalize tacitly held beliefs, think consciously about them, and be aware of existing challenges and critical areas in EAP teaching.

Teacher assessment identity (TAI) is an integral element of quality assessment practice and professionalism, which has been widely overlooked in teacher education research. To bridge this gap, the present study explored the dynamism of TAI through an explicit training course. To do so, 22 novice and experienced Iranian EFL teachers completed a questionnaire on TAI before and after the course. Then both novice and experienced teachers attended a 16-hour treatment in which various assessment dimensions were taught. The participants also completed tasks reflecting TAI components. Moreover, five novice and five experienced EFL teachers were interviewed. The results of the independent samples t-test indicated that novice and experienced Iranian EFL teachers did not significantly differ regarding their assessment identity before and after the treatment despite improvements in their mean scores. However, the results of paired samples t-test revealed that the formal intervention has developed the TAI of both novice and experienced groups. This was substantiated by qualitative findings which demonstrated that, owing to the training, novice teachers manifested TAI in 16 domains while experienced teachers showed their identity as assessors in five domains. The study offers promising implications for EFL teachers and trainers, who can realize the dynamism of TAI and its core dimensions in light of instruction.

"English Language and Literature" courses are essential components of university education. They provide a significant avenue for understanding the politics, economics, and customs of English-speaking countries. These courses facilitate a mastery of English grammar, which in turn enhances students' comprehension of spoken and written English content. However, traditional modes of instruction in English Language and Literature often lack engagement and interactivity, thereby limiting the effectiveness of learning in this field. In order to boost learners' interest and efficiency in studying English, it is imperative to shift away from conventional teaching approaches. With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence in various domains, its integration with English Language and Literature education can yield intelligent learning experiences. This study employs a combination of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Gated Recurrent Units (GRU) to reform the teaching model in English Language and Literature. The results indicate that CNN and GRU methodologies offer substantial support in realizing intelligent approaches to teaching this field. These methods exhibit a high degree of similarity and accuracy in predicting linguistic features in English Language and Literature. They excel in terms of predictive and scatter error distribution, showcasing superior performance.  

 On the Elaboration of Contexts of Situation with Special Reference toRequesting Strategies in BaliI Made Netra  , I Made Suastra  , & I Putu SutamaAbstractOver the last two decades, the study of meaning has been done utilizing context of situation. It has been practiced in determining the speaker’s meanings in languages around the world. However, this research attempts to develop an elaborated form of context of situation in a culture-specific Balinese language and to explicate the speaker’s meaning bound by the elaborated context. To this end, an approach of participatory observation was applied which  was qualitative and  descriptive in nature. The data were collected from respondents and informants of Buleleng and Gianyar regencies,considering that although they share the same language, their understanding on requesting strategies, however, might be different. Requesting strategies in Balinese is contextually bound by a given and elaborated context of situation, which is referred to as Desa Kala Patra functioning both as a context of situation and an adjustment for language effectiveness.  The elaborated context is immensely applicable to different requests. The requests are articulated based on the Balinese cultural scripts. Again, as an elaborated context of situation, Desa Kala Patra can bind the requesting strategies.  As an adjustment for language effectiveness, Desa Kala Patra can mostly shift the direct strategies into indirect ones. Indirect requests can be expressed by asking, tag-questioning, giving information, giving advice, providing alternative points, offering, complaining, greeting, and inviting. The practices of requesting are configured by low-level scripts using exponents of philosophical aspects, Desa Kala Patra itself, “ if/then” condition, mechanism, results, and concluding statement.

This is a systematic review of Translator Translation Styles from 2013 to 2023, based on 16 highly relevant articles, which are included after searching a total of 193 articles in three databases using specific keywords. This review aims to investigate the current trends and development of the four core research elements, namely, the research topics, research approaches/tools, research objects, and research trends of Translator Translation Styles. Corpus-based research and computing technology have become the core research trends in this field. By taking the translated texts as the research objects and using a variety of research approaches to analyze and compile statistics on a large number of texts, researchers can accurately identify and compare the different emphases of their respective studies on Translator Translation Styles. At present, it seems that the research on Translator Translation Styles has established a system framework. However, it still needs to be optimized and improved in some aspects (e.g., the research objects are too limited and lack innovation in types), and future research can further explore those aspects. The present paper ends with some suggestions and recommendations for future researchers in academic contexts.

With the emergence of new online technologies and computer-mediated language teaching, many recent studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of online peer assessment. The present mixed methods study examined the effect of online peer assessment on Iranian intermediate-level EFL students` writing accuracy. In the quantitative phase of the study, 28 EFL learners studying in an English institute were randomly assigned to two groups and were taught for 14 sessions. The experimental group attended online peer assessment on Wiki as a forum for out-of-classroom discussions regarding English writing, and the control group attended face-to-face peer assessment. To analyze the numerical data collected through a pretest and a posttest, an independent sample t-test was used to investigate the difference between the two group scores before and after the assessments. The results showed that the difference between the posttest means of the experimental group and the control group was significant. Moreover, the results of analyzing the qualitative data, gathered through focus-group interviews, also confirmed the quantitative results, revealing the positive opinions of the interviewees about the role of technology in language learning. Therefore, online peer assessment seems to have benefits that make it worthwhile despite all the difficulties and extra effort of introducing and teaching it to students. The findings may have implications for material designers, language teachers, and language learners.

Due to time constraints and large classes, teachers typically prefer to have product-based writing classes. Going through the existing literature, almost no study has examined the interrelationships among four variables of strategy use, self-efficacy, language proficiency, and writing autonomy in product and process writing classes. To this end, 381 Iranian male and female EFL students of English majors were chosen from the Universities of Qom and Kermanshah.  OPT and the questionnaires were distributed in person, via email, and an already-made Google-Doc link of the instruments. The data were analyzed using multiple correlation and SEM. Multiple correlations pointed to two-way correlations among the included variables in the process-oriented group in comparison to the product-oriented groups. In other words, learners in the process-based group appeared to be more autonomous, more self-efficacious, and more proficient language learners and could make more appropriate use of L2 strategies. The findings obtained from SEM also revealed the fact that the model of relationships among self-efficacy, autonomy, language proficiency, and strategy use enjoyed a good fit. Teachers will be able to make more informed and proper decisions regarding the adoption of either process-based or product-based instructional approaches to teaching writing in their own classes in general, and the way students’ levels of self-efficacy, autonomy, language proficiency, and strategy use can be boosted in particular. 

The integration of technology in second language education has made online collaborative writing (OCW) a valuable method for enhancing writing skills. Despite this, its effects on writing skills and technological self-perception in Ethiopia have not been thoroughly explored. This study aims to fill this gap by assessing the impact of OCW, through the use of Wiki and Telegram applications, on writing skills and technological self-perception within Ethiopia's English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting. Forty-five intermediate IELTS candidates from a language school in Utopia were randomly divided into three groups: the Wiki group (n = 15), the Telegram group (n = 15), and a control group (n = 15). They participated in pre-tests, interventions, post-tests, and completed a technology self-perception survey both before and after the intervention. The one-way ANOVA results showed that the Wiki and Telegram groups outperformed the control group in post-test writing skills. However, no significant difference was found between the Wiki and Telegram groups' post-test writing skills. Moreover, both groups reported a more positive view of technology following the intervention. These outcomes hold significant implications for EFL stakeholders in Ethiopia and pave the way for further research.

Objective: The involvement load hypothesis posits that the higher the involvement load of a task, the more effective it will be in improving students’ lexical learning. It does not differentiate between the different components of involvement load (need, search, and evaluation). Nor does it assume that the type of words to be learnt has any role in the effectiveness of tasks with different involvement load indices. This study compared the effect of the components of task involvement load on the comprehension, production, and retention of concrete and abstract words. Methods: Sixty upper-intermediate students were assigned to two groups. One group received a task in which the search component was dominant, the other group received a task (with the same overall involvement index) in which search was not present, and the evaluation component was the determining factor of task difficulty. A pretest, posttest, control group design (quasi-experimental method of research) was used to address the research questions. Results: One-way MANOVA results on the immediate posttest were in line with ILH predictions, showing no significant differences between tasks with equal involvement indices. On the other hand, the delayed posttest results showed that in case of receptive knowledge, there was a meaningful difference between abstract and concrete vocabulary, and the search group outperformed the evaluation group. However, the results of the productive posttest showed that the evaluation group outperformed the search group in abstract words. Conclusions: The findings can have significant implications for language learners, teachers, materials designers, and researchers.