درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

A large body of research has investigated the role of motivational strategy use in EFL learners’ language achievement, teachers’ work engagement, and creativity.  However, there have been very few studies on EFL teachers’ status quo of these variables and the correlation among them. This study was an attempt to investigate the Iranian EFL teachers’ status quo regarding these variables and to explore the correlation among them. To this end, 100 Iranian EFL teachers of both genders were selected. To explore the objectives of this study, the Motivational Strategy Use Questionnaire, Creativity Style Questionnaire, and Work Engagement Scale Questionnaire were employed. Data were analyzed through t-tests and multiple regression. Results revealed that EFL teachers have acceptable levels of motivational strategies usage, work engagement, and creativity. The results of Multiple regression analysis proved a statistically significant relationship between motivational strategy use and creativity in the classroom and no significant relationship was found between motivational strategy use and teachers’ work engagement. Teachers’ gender was found to have no contribution to teachers’ work engagement, creativity, and motivational strategies usage. This study has theoretical and practical implications for teachers.

Online discussion forums (ODFs) offer students and teachers the opportunity to harness the endless power of the internet for educational purposes. This study investigates the impact of Edmodo as an asynchronous ODF on six of the most recurring reading comprehension skills in the TOEFL iBT test among Iranian learners. Online and offline treatments were given to 26 students in the experimental group and only offline treatments to 33 students in the control group. The statistical analysis of the data represents a large effect size (Partial η2=.234; r=.826; Partial η2=.397; r=.661) for identifying factual information, making inferences, guessing vocabulary from context, and inserting texts in the passage skills respectively, a moderate effect size (r=.363) for the understanding the rhetorical purpose of the passage, and a weak effect size (r=.156) for the identifying referential relationships between the words in the passage skills. The results tell us that Edmodo is effective in teaching reading comprehension skills by overcoming the usual time constraints and offering students autonomy in going online at the most convenient time and place. Finally, the findings are valuable for educational policymakers, curriculum designers, materials developers, language instructors, and language learners.

While the main focus of the studies in the literature is centered around EFL teachers’ identity construction in face-to-face classes regarding certain cliche factors, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the potential of investigating EFL teachers' professional identity reflection in the developing contexts of distance education. Thus, this study examined the possible association between Iranian EFL instructors' Professional Identity Reflection (PIR) and their use of Achievement Orientation Strategies (AOSs) in the dynamic setting of E-teaching. Besides, this study evaluated the prediction power of the AOSs in determining the PIR of Iranian EFL instructors. One hundred four male and female Iranian EFL instructors were selected based on convenience sampling to participate in this quantitative correlational research. Two instruments, including Measure of Teachers Achievement (MoTA) and Questionnaire of Professional Identity (QPI), were used to collect the required data on the online platform of Type form. The R software's correlation and multiple regression packages were utilized to analyze the gathered data. The results indicated a robust direct association between the PIR of Iranian EFL instructors in E-teaching and their use of AOSs. Moreover, three out of four AOSs significantly predicted the PIR of Iranian EFL instructors in E-Teaching. Furthermore, the mastery-approach strategy had the most predicting power among the other AOSs. This study provides practical interdisciplinary benefits for EFL teachers, EFL teacher trainers, and educational psychologists in training EFL teachers who are aware of how their views toward achieving specific academic goals in E-teaching influence their professional identity in E-teaching.    

The present study aimed at investigating the impact of Multiple Intelligences inspired instruction on Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety (FLTA) of Iranian EFL teachers. To this end, an exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach was employed and twenty males and females in-service EFL teachers were selected from different universities and they were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. In the qualitative phase of the study, the aim was to find the sources of FLTA among the participants. Two participants who showed higher FLTA were selected from each group. In order to homogenize the participants, a retired version of the IELTS test was employed in which no significant difference was reported. The Ryff's (2006) questionnaire was utilized as the pre-test and post-test of FLTA. The instruction phase took place on Skype since the participants were from various universities. The results of the study revealed that the members of the experimental group showed less FLTA than those of the control group. Additionally, extrinsic factors such as negative feedback from principles and supervisors, and losing job were found to be among the most significant sources of FLTA.  Accordingly, some recommendations for teacher training programs are provided to empower teacher trainers to be able to help trainees to decrease their FLTA. 

Linguistic and semantic differences are some of the main problems of translating the Holy Qur’an into English. The present study highlights the problem of lexical gap and examines a number of terms- totally 117 in 110 verses- of the Holy Qur’an, including the referential meaning of ‘sin’ and their English translations. The researcher aimed to find the strategies applied by three translators and three machine translation systems (MSTs) and to compare them.  In this regard, five frequent and common terms – ‘اثم’, ‘جناح’, ‘سیئه’, ‘ذنب’, and ‘وزر’-were selected. The strategies proposed by Mollanazar (2009) were employed to fill the gap.  To do so, the English translations produced by three machine translation systems (MTSs), namely Google Translate, SDL Free Translation and Systranet were compared with three human translation by M.H. Shakir, A.Qaraei and T.B.Irving. The results revealed that in most verses, almost in six English translations, a generic term was used without any additional information to make the sense clearer. There was no noticeable difference between human and machine translations in applying the proposed strategies to fill the gap and make the English version more meaningful in terms of these apparently similar but contextually different terms. Thus, it seems that these differences were not focused on, while rendering these given verses to English. 

This experimental study aimed at discovering the impact of Metacognitive Intervention Program instruction on the reading advancement of Iranian dyslexic primary school learners. The participants consisted of 32 male and female, grade three primary school students, with the age range of 8 to 11 years and 90 to 110 IQ average. They were selected through convenient sampling and divided into two control and experimental groups of equal size. Then, the experimental group was exposed to the Metacognitive Intervention Program instruction for 10 weeks. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and Dyslexia and Reading (NEMA) tests were used as instruments.  To evaluate the participants’ reading progress, a pre-test and a post-test (NEMA) were conducted. The results of covariance analysis showed that the employed program was effective in the reading comprehension development of the participants. The findings of this study suggest that primary school instructors need to think more about using the Metacognitive Intervention Program instruction on different steps of reading comprehension and do more effective activities to assist students in removing their reading difficulties.    

With the improvement of technologies in language learning and teaching, new models and approaches are being proposed to enhance the students’ performance. One of the practical models is Flipped Classroom (FC), which has been attracted by many teachers and researchers, especially in the K-12 education system. This study explored the effect of the online FC approach on the improvement of EFL learners' performance in high schools in Iran with a quasi-experimental design. To run the experimental study, through convenience sampling forty-three high school students were divided into an experimental group and a control group and to evaluate the efficacy of the online FC approach. The comparison of the results of experimental and control groups’ pre-test and post-test scores by an independent samples t-test revealed that incorporating the online FC approach into EFL educational context remarkably improves the EFL students' learning performance. It is significantly applicable for learning a language, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic which majority of the classes have been running online. Additionally, to manage online FC more efficiently, some suggestions are provided for teachers.

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.