درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The study aimed to investigate the Iranian EFL teachers’ knowledge of educational ethical codes in academic settings through the employment of a newly-designed questionnaire, developed by the researchers. To this end, six university professors as experts were invited to participate in an unstructured interview related to the issue under study. The preliminary themes were extracted from the relevant literature and the experts’ opinions through qualitative analysis. Next, the initial questionnaire items were generated and approved by three experts. The reliability of the constructed questionnaire was calculated using Cronbach's alpha. Afterwards, the 40-item questionnaire was administered to 400 EFL teachers resulting in the elimination of eleven items through exploratory factor analysis. Five factors were drawn from the responses of teachers through EFA representing their knowledge of educational ethical codes. Additionally, the confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the five extracted components of the newly developed questionnaire including educational, affective, socio-cultural, behavioral, and professional ethics factors were all acceptably loaded on their constructs at an acceptable level, and the scale can successfully determine EFL teachers’ knowledge of ethical codes in educational settings. The findings of the study have valuable implications for teachers, students, teacher trainers, educational policymakers and administrators.

This study aims to identify the role of transfer in the L3 acquisition of indefinite frequency adverbs, be it L1, L2 or both; and to find out whether CLI occurs on a feature-by-feature basis or as a wholesale phenomenon. Also, this study intends to investigate the influence of the learners' L2 proficiency on the L3 acquisition of indefinite frequency adverbs; and to examine the effect of different task modalities on the facilitative/detrimental role of background languages in the transfer of indefinite frequency adverbs in the early stages of German learning. To this end, we studied 30 Persian-speaking L3 learners with previous L2 knowledge of English. We collected data from a grammaticality judgement task to account for learners' receptive knowledge and an element rearrangement task to measure learners' production. The data were analyzed using multivariate tests and paired samples t-tests, which allowed us to estimate the effects of background languages, learners' L2 proficiency, and task type on the acquisition of indefinite frequency adverbs in L3. The results contradicted the wholesale CLI and supported the hybrid transfer models of CEM and LPM, which claim that transfer occurs property by property. The results also refuted the role of micro-variables, including learners' L2 proficiency and task type.

As the world evolves into more globalized, ethnically, and linguistically mixed societies, Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) stages itself as a crucial asset. This fact holds particularly true when it comes to increasingly globalized healthcare academic milieux, where cultivating ICC is crucial for healthcare professionals to interact effectively with patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. The present study, employing a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design, explored the development of ICC among nursing, as the control group (27 participants), and medical students (32), as the experimental one through explicit ICC training at Zanjan University of Medical Sciences in Zanjan, Iran. Hence, targeted ICC training effectiveness in enhancing the cultural empathy (CE), flexibility (F), social initiative (SI), open-mindedness (OM), and emotional stability (ES) of medical students was investigated employing the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) as a key tool to gauge learners' ICC before and after the training. The findings showed a significant improvement in the participants' all ICC sub-scales, indicating the positive impact of explicit training on the development of CE, F, SI, and OM.

English language education in Baluchistan, Iran, faces unique challenges due to the region's socio-economic conditions and limited access to resources. This study investigates the specific teaching and learning difficulties within secondary schools in this region. A mixed-methods approach was employed, gathering quantitative data from 80 teachers through a questionnaire and qualitative insights from 57 students via semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that teachers encounter obstacles such as unclear course objectives, inadequate instructional methods, time constraints, and insufficient administrative support. Students, on the other hand, struggle with curriculum disengagement, a lack of authentic language practice opportunities, low motivation, and emotional barriers like anxiety and fear of judgment. Additionally, the limited integration of technological resources hampers effective language learning. These insights challenge the assumption that resource availability alone can improve language teaching, underscoring the importance of proper resource utilization and teacher training. The study advocates for a localized approach to curriculum design that aligns global language learning goals with Baluchistan’s socio-cultural context. Practical recommendations include modernizing teacher training, addressing emotional barriers, and creating a more supportive environment for teachers and students alike.

The goal of this study was to explore English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ and learners’ beliefs and classroom practices in relation to task rehearsal as an operationalization of repeating a task, which entails learners’ awareness of the repeated performance before they do a task for the first time. Five intact EFL classes with five teachers and 32 learners were recruited. The teachers asked the learners to perform a task that was included in the textbook twice with an interval of one week, while they made the learners aware of the second iteration prior to their first performance. Data were collected through observing the two sessions of each class and interviewing both the teachers and the learners immediately after the second task occasion. Results indicated that the participants (both teachers and learners) believed that task rehearsal was beneficial for facilitating task implementation and task performance. Findings also showed that task rehearsal led the participants to show changes in their classroom behaviors related to this practice from the first to the second session, which clearly reflected their beliefs. Implications of these results for L2 task implementation and teacher education are discussed.

Although dyadic collaborations (DC) are sensitive to individual differences, the role of levels of equality (LoE) and gender disparity as potential mediators are largely unexplored. To address the research gap, this case study investigated whether symmetrical (equal and gender-matched) and asymmetrical (unequal and gender-mixed) peer interactions differ in terms of efficacy for morpho-syntactic development and learners’ retrospective reflections. Forty-three young learners were randomly assigned into symmetrical (equal) and asymmetrical (unequal) pairs and into dyads of various gender dispersal (matched and mixed). The learners’ behaviors and perceptions during and following the paired tasks were recorded via observation, field notes, focused-group discussion, and member-checking meetings. The results of the Mann-Whitney U-test and Friedman Test were as follows: DC was more effective than non-collaborative learning for both short-term and long-term structure and vocabulary learning. It was helpful for expert-expert and gender-matched dyads in both domains alike and for experts and novices in unequal pairs in the structure area only. It was ineffective, however, for novice-novice and cross-gender dyads. Among the recurrent themes in observation and interviews were overall preference to pair up with female partners, consensus on the advantage of DC for grammar judgment (structure) over fill-in-the-blank (vocabulary) tasks, the realization of DC as effective for promoting rapport and responsibility, experts’ willingness to pair with novices or work alone, novices’ tendency to work with experts, and role of personality traits as a substantial mediator. Based on the findings, several implications for research and practice are offered.

Kurmanji uses two morphological forms of pronouns and R-expressions: direct and oblique. The direct form of first and second pronouns (local pronouns) is fully specified for person and number. In contrast, direct third-person pronouns and R-expressions are unmarked; however, these arguments still exhibit person and number agreement with verbs and number and gender agreement with Ezafe heads. There are two approaches to deal with direct unmarked arguments. In the asymmetric approach, these arguments are assumed to be fully specified for relevant φ-features, which are deleted at PF (Phonological Form) after agreement, whereas in the symmetric approach, they are merged as underspecified for relevant features and acquire their interpretation via agreement. Given the prevalence of unmarked arguments in Kurmanji, the symmetric approach is more economical and minimalistic, requiring fewer theoretical tools and computations. The present study shows that the key distinction between local pronouns and unmarked arguments lies in the specification of relevant φ-features. Direct unmarked arguments enter the derivation underspecified for these features, establishing a relation of ‘subset control’ in agreement and acquiring their interpretation by spreading features from the agreeing head at the LF (Logical Form) interface. This study also reveals that agreement in Ezafe constructions and pro-drop sentences also involve subset control and agreement is the only possible way to license φ-features, such as gender in inanimate arguments and person in R-expressions.

The goal of this inquiry was to scrutinize how Iranian university students’ motivation, creativity, emotional intelligence (EI), and intellectual awareness (IA) were affected by artificial intelligence (AI). Sixty Iranian university students in Ahvaz, Iran, were chosen based on a convenience sampling method to reach this objective, and they were separated into two groups: the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG). Both groups were administered four relevant questionnaires to gauge their proficiency in each dependent variable. Next, utilizing AI-ChatGPT, some modified materials (ten reading texts) were trained to the EG. The CG received traditional instruction using the same materials. Four questionnaires were given to each group as research posttests following the ten-week course of treatment. The results of ANCOVA and independent samples t-tests revealed meaningful differences; the EG did better than the CG on all dependent variables. Based on the gained results, the EG outperformed the CG on the posttests of motivation, creativity, EI, and IA. The research’s implications can encourage EFL teachers and learners to acquaint themselves with different AI applications and apply them in their teaching and learning. 

Effective vocabulary acquisition is crucial for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) students to grasp technical terminology and excel in their fields. This study investigates the potential of Mobile Learning Applications (MLAs) to address this need by examining their impact on vocabulary learning, motivation, and engagement. To this end, Sixty Iranian physical training students were randomly assigned to either an experimental group utilizing the Quizlet mobile application or a control group employing traditional methods for vocabulary learning. The participants completed a vocabulary test, a motivation questionnaire, and an engagement questionnaire before and after an eight-week intervention. The experimental group used Quizlet for 30 minutes daily to review the physical training vocabulary. The participants in the control group did not use Quizlet, but instead continued with their regular study routine. The experimental group exhibited significantly higher scores on the vocabulary posttest compared to the control group, demonstrating the efficacy of MLAs in enhancing vocabulary acquisition. Additionally, the experimental group displayed a notable increase in both motivation and engagement compared to the control group, suggesting that MLAs can foster positive learning dispositions and active participation in vocabulary learning activities. This study contributes to the body of knowledge concerning the potential of MLAs to improve vocabulary learning, motivation, and engagement among Iranian physical training students. The findings imply that MLAs can be used as valuable pedagogical tools for educators in specific contexts.

The present mixed-method study aimed at investigating the presence of Differential Item Functioning (DIF) and Differential Skill Functioning (DSF) in a high-stakes language proficiency test in Iran, the English Proficiency Test (EPT) with different academic backgrounds (i.e., Humanities vs. Sciences & Engineering) using Item Response Theory (IRT) and Mantel-Haenszel (MH) approaches. It also aimed at detecting if there is any correlation between IRT and MH methods and also detecting which DIF items are biased. The English subtest consisted of a total of 100 items. The participants (N = 642) were selected by convenience sampling from universities in Tehran. The results displayed DIF between Sciences and Humanities students, but they did not show DSF in favor of a particular academic discipline group. Hence, on the basis of the findings, it was concluded that the EPT scores are not free of construct-irrelevant variance but because 14 DIF detected items out of 100 items were too small, the overall fairness of the test was confirmed. In addition, it was found that some of DIF detected items were bias and some of them functioned differently, simply because the two groups differed in their abilities. The positive correlation between IRT and MH methods was also proved.

Grammatical accuracy has always been a concern for most Iranian EFL learners. This grammatical variability is more visible in the writing of Iranian IELTS candidates. In this study, the impacts of (distributed, peer and reciprocal scaffolding on IELTS learners' horizontal grammatical variability were investigated. An explanatory mixed design was employed to measure the differences among scaffolding types and to develop a better understanding of teachers' and learners' perception toward them. 120 IELTS candidates were randomly selected from a pool of 367 candidates, and they were put in three experimental groups and a control group. Each scaffolding type was used in one of the experimental groups as the treatment. Five different essay topics were given to each student before the course and after the course. Two official IELTS mock examiners rated the writing performances according to the details of IELTS criteria about grammar accuracy and variability. Next, using an ANCOVA procedure, the data were analyzed. Moreover, the data collected in the qualitative phase were content analyzed. The findings showed that in distributed and reciprocal scaffolding classes, the differences were significant. The qualitative findings showed that although there was a discrepancy between the teachers' and the learners' attitude toward the possible success of the treatments, at the end, both parties confirmed that they can be beneficial. Due to the fact that 'time' has always been a precious parameter in IELTS preparatory classes, these findings can be of help to IELTS teachers and candidates.

Cet article examine l'utilisation de ChatGPT-4, un outil d'IA développé par Open AI, dans l'enseignement du français. Il se concentre sur l'amélioration des quatre compétences linguistiques essentielles (compréhension orale, compréhension écrite, expression écrite et expression orale) et la préparation aux examens de niveau ou aux quiz. En utilisant une méthode descriptive, l'article démontre comment ChatGPT-4 peut être utilisé pour créer des dialogues pour la compréhension orale, générer des exercices de lecture pour la compréhension écrite, fournir des exemples de textes bien rédigés pour l’expression écrite et générer des scénarios de conversation pour l’expression orale. ChatGPT-4 peut être un outil précieux pour l'enseignement du français, offrant des avantages tels que la personnalisation de l'enseignement et l'amélioration des compétences linguistiques des élèves. De plus, ChatGPT-4 peut aider à la préparation des examens de niveau en générant des questions d'examen. Cependant, l'article souligne également la nécessité de recherches supplémentaires pour explorer comment ces technologies peuvent être utilisées de manière efficace et éthique. Malgré le fait que l'application de ChatGPT-4 et d'autres technologies d'IA dans l'enseignement des langues en est encore à un stade initial, ces outils présentent des opportunités prometteuses pour surmonter les obstacles dans le domaine de l'enseignement des langues