درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

PhD examination is a unique type of assessment with examiners playing a key role in it. Despite extensive research on various modes of academic genre, research on the examiners’ language representing oral review genre is yet underrepresented. One important way to identify this genre is to unpack the metadiscursive features that constitute this type of academic discourse. Using a metadiscourse framework, developed by Hyland (2005), this study investigates the metadiscursive markers that constitute Iranian and International examiners’ language of PhD dissertation evaluation. The data include the transcriptions of Iranian and International examiners’ evaluative discourse in eight PhD dissertation defenses, taken place in Iran and the US (MICASE corpus), representing English for Academic Purposes. The results indicate that the examiners use a variety of interactional as well as interactive metadiscourse markers to convey the effective and appropriate evaluation of the PhD dissertations at hand. Further breakdown of the metadiscourse devices and the comparison of the two sets of data are provided. The results unpack an aspect of oral academic review as a specific genre with implications for both EAP-user examiners and PhD candidates to become aware of the discursive features of the examiners language.

To date, with the everyday growth of technology and the increase of online classes, busy modern teachers seek to lighten their burdens and boost their learners’ autonomy. Thus, this multi-method action research aimed to probe the differences between receiving computer-generated and direct corrective feedback (CF) on the syntactic accuracy and complexity of female adolescent Iranian EFL learners’ writing. Two intact classes took part in the study; one group (Group C) received CF from an AWE (Automated Writing Evaluation) tool, called Ginger software, and the other group (Group T) received CF from their teacher. Subject-verb agreement and verb form errors were considered to measure the syntactic accuracy while the average sentence length and verb form variation were regarded as the syntactic complexity. Moreover, via a questionnaire, the students’ perceptions of the kind of CF they had received were taken into account to see which one was more effective. Findings obtained from MANOVA revealed that both groups made significant improvements regarding syntactic accuracy. Group C produced more complex outputs after being exposed to the treatment while Group T didn’t make such progress. The results obtained from the questionnaire also indicated that both groups found the CF satisfactory. However, Group C held more positive attitudes. Not only was the Ginger application effective in decreasing the number of students’ writing errors but also it motivated them to be better writers and write more. The study further points to the likely merits of technology-enhanced feedback in improving EFL learners' writing ability in general, and their written syntactic accuracy/complexity in particular.

Predicting students’ performance in a course is one of the major aims of educational data mining systems. In the present study, two and three-layer artificial neural networks (ANN) and neuro-fuzzy systems (NFS) were used to predict Iranian EFL learners’ final scores and compare them with scores given by their instructor. Sixty-six students’ scores in an English reading comprehension course comprising of five sub-scores of midterm (out of 40), quiz (out of 60), final (out of 50), class participation (out of 5) and bonus (out of 2) were used for training the systems. Two and three-layer ANNs and an NFS were trained to predict students’ final scores using training data. Researchers compared the students’ final scores given by their instructor and those achieved through the ANNs and NFS. The results showed that the NFS could predict and deliver scores that were closer to the linear sum of students’ scores. Moreover, three-layer ANN had a better performance than the two-layer ANN. According to these results, data mining techniques could deliver an accurate estimate of students' abilities in a particular course.

In order to cater for the ever-increasing demand for learning English, private language institutes have mushroomed across Iran. These institutes adopt different policies such as designing their own Teacher Training Course (TTC), following the syllabus of Certificate for Teaching English to Adults (CELTA), or localizing it for the Iranian context to train competent English teachers. Surprisingly, there exists little research evaluating these TTC's or investigating if localizing CELTA is an effective strategy for the Iranian context. This study aimed to fill this gap by delineating the steps taken by a widely-known Iranian language institute in localizing CELTA for the Iranian context, and secondly to determine if the teachers were satisfied with this localized TTC. Data collected through the websites and interviews were subjected to conceptual content analysis; while the data mined through evaluation questionnaires were analysed through quantitative descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that the Iranianized TTC suffered from discrepancies such as unreliable selection of the participants, lack of opportunities for teaching practices, not observing experienced teachers' classes, and focusing on received rather than experiential knowledge. These findings are discussed, and a number of practical suggestions are offered to improve the Iranian TTC.

In keeping with Control-Value Theory (CVT), learners’ achievement emotions and language achievement can affect e ach other. The flexibility of learners in academic settings can be a refugee from academic difficulties, and protect learners from discouragement after a negative emotional experience about achievement. Review of the literature proved the existence of several studies that have been conducted to support this theory. In this study, the possible contributions of eight achievement emotions (pride, hope, enjoyment, shame, anxiety, boredom, anger, and hopelessness) to language achievement in EFL context were examined to see if there was a relationship between them and learners’ language achievement. Accordingly, 279 advanced EFL learners (148 male and 131 female) of Iran Language Institute (ILI) took part. The Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ) was used to collect the data about the learners’ emotions and participants’ Grade Point Average (GPA) as evidence for their language achievement was employed to see how much of their achievement emotions could be contributed to their language achievement. The results of multiple linear regression revealed that enjoyment, hope, and anxiety were the three significant emotion factors predicting EFL learners’ language achievement and among them anxiety was the strongest predictor. In addition, based on the results of the independent-samples t-test, there was a statistically significant difference between the female and male learners’ achievement emotions scores. The learners’ emotions in language classes can be dealt with so that they can experience a better language learning experience. The findings are beneficial for EFL teachers, learners, and course designers.

L’étude de la réussite universitaire est un paradigme presque jeune dans le domaine de la recherche psychopédagogique du monde et les pays anglosaxons en sont les pionniers. En Iran, le concept de la réussite est traité depuis une quinzaine d’années. Pourtant, la plupart des recherches effectuées s’intéressent aux niveaux primaires et secondaires. Il nous semble primordial de faire avancer ces recherches au niveau universitaire parce que l’université est en particulier censée aujourd’hui être le passage principal à la professionnalisation et à la formation des futurs citoyens et cela est surtout le cas dans le domaine des langues étrangères. Dans cet article, nous nous attardons avant tout sur les définitions du concept de la réussite universitaire des étudiants en Iran. Plus précisément, nous cherchons à définir de très nombreuses différences contextuelles aux niveaux socioculturel, économique et universitaire entre ces pays et l’Iran. Ainsi, suivant une approche descriptive-analytique basée sur des ressources en bibliothèque, le présent travail est centré sur l’étude du concept de réussite universitaire d’un point de vue plutôt qualitative que quantitative. Nous pouvons ainsi aider à aborder le concept dans un paradigme autonome afin de favoriser des recherches psychopédagogiques plus systématiques et plus contextualisées dans le domaine du Fle en Iran dans des étapes suivantes (résultat de la recherche).

This paper discusses the use of Persian in comparison with Dari, a dialect of Persian language used in Kerman, one of the cities of Kerman Province located in southeast Iran. It is based on a random selection of 47 subjects from different sex, age, and occupational groups of Zoroastrian people with different levels of education in seven domains, i.e. family, friendship, neighborhood, transaction, education, government, and employment. In this study, the subjects were asked to determine which language they use in different domains on Likert’s 4-point scale. After collecting the data by the use of a questionnaire with 30 situations in the seven domains and analyzing them, the researcher concluded that there is a Persian-Dari diglossia in Zoroastrian speech community in which Dari functions as the Low language whereas Persian is the High one. As a matter of fact, Dari has been restricted to family domain and the young generation has lost it to a large extent.