English as a Foreign Language

This investigation set out to look into the issue of teachers’ exercise of agency in the Iranian EFL context. More specifically, as part of a larger study, it reports on the ways two Iranian Ministry of Education teachers make sense of and operate in the country’s educational setting under the demands of a centralist system of education. Priestley, Biesta, & Robinson’s (2013) framework of teacher agency formed the conceptual backbone of the present study as well as guiding the data collection/analysis of the study. Qualitative data, from semi-structured interviews as well as follow-up data collection procedures, were gleaned from the participants over the course of an academic year and were subjected to analytical interpretation in the light of the said framework. The researchers came up with findings which, in the main, gave more weight to the well-roundedness of Priestly, Biesta, & Robinson’s model of teacher agency. The results also pointed to the highly situated nature of teacher responsiveness and action, thereby undermining the still prevalent views of the essentialist and idealized character of (teacher) agency. The results of the study are liable to be of use, among others, to case-based teacher education programs.

Following a case study research design, the present paper reports on a cross-cultural project (called Ibunka2019), in which the author monitored his English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing classes. The project is an email-based exchange among learners of English from six countries (Algeria, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, and the Netherlands). For data collection, the Algerian participants’ emic perspective was accessed via their self-reports, gained by a post-project online survey; besides, their messages produced as well as the discussions with them during and after the project made valuable retrospective data for the present study. Particularly, the study discusses the merits of the project relative to the writing module, manifestations of learner autonomy, and the challenges encountered. Moreover, it tackled other relevant issues, namely the integration of interculturality, EFL learner mindset, and lingua franca perspective. This study adds to the scarce literature within the Algerian context on telecollaborative EFL teaching and learning

This study aimed at comparing the impact of teacher-selected vs. student-selected discussion groups on speaking fluency of extrovert vs. introvert Iranian EFL learners. In order to do the study, 80 homogenous students were selected from among 140 intermediate female English language learners through the Oxford Placement Test. Then they were divided into introvert and extrovert learners based on the results of the extrovert and introvert questionnaire, and they were totally divided into four groups, namely extrovert student-selected, introvert student-selected, extrovert teacher-selected, and introvert teacher-selected. The participants in all groups took part in the speaking pretest. To do the discussion activities during the treatment process, the participants in the student-selected groups choose their groupmates themselves, while in the teacher-selected groups, the group members were chosen by the teacher. Finally, the participants took part in the posttest of speaking, and the obtained data were analyzed. The results of the analyses showed that selecting discussion groups by both students and teacher affected speaking fluency of extrovert and introvert learners. The results also confirmed that extrovert learners, in both student-selected groups and teacher-selected groups, outweighed the introvert learners regarding their speaking fluency. Teachers are, therefore, recommended to use both teacher-selected and student-selected discussion groups in their classes. They are also recommended to encourage introvert students to take part more actively in class discussions to obtain better results in improving their speaking.  

In the context of collaborative online foreign language practice, we look at how metacognition and revealing of the self-combine when the full potential of the digital tools are put to use. We present a qualitative study of a corpus of written contributions by English as a foreign language distance French learners and look into a model for teaching and learning in which emotions are integrated. We study how expression of emotion and commenting on learning are combined in the learners’ discourse. Throughout our study, various appropriation regimes appeared, such as redundancy, in which the student publishes the same message on the forum and on the learning diary, or progressive appropriation, in which the student goes from a descriptive post about vocabulary to a post including the use of the first person pronoun “I”, to a socio-affective post using exclamation marks and reference to the family. There were cases where references to cognitive processes, inclusion of the peers, revealing of the self and use of technology form an intricate cognitive-socio-affective weaving. We relate this weaving to maximum engagement of the learner at the heart of a community of trust, and make an attempt at modeling this engagement.

A close look at the education system reveals that too much attention is attached to text while visuals, such as pictures and cartoons, are often deemed as “decoration”, or are not incorporated in the textbooks at all. Visual texts constitute a part of daily communication, which can potentially bear many layers of meaning. Such a complexity involved in visuals turns them into an ideal resource for not only L2 learning but also the improvement of intercultural communicative competence (ICC), along with cultural awareness. The status of cultural elements and representation of culture in English instruction has proved to be a tricky issue. This is mainly because of the diverse range of contexts where English is used on an international scale globally. Given the integral relationship between language and culture, it is essential to teach cultural elements in L2 classes, in particular, the representation of cultural values and elements as an integral part of the L2 curriculum of English language teaching (ELT). Furthermore, from a critical linguistics viewpoint, language textbooks should be viewed as social and cultural vehicles. Therefore, the incorporation of cultural symbols and raising cultural awareness are considered essential issues in ELT textbooks, particularly in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL). Furthermore, multiple approaches to the analysis of textbooks and cultural contents have been adopted by different researchers. Here, the present study is based on the core principles of semiotic analysis which implies that texts, pictures, and other modes of communication can be used as potential semiotic resources. This review study can yield important theoretical and pedagogical implications for researchers, L2 instructors, and the developers of ELT textbooks to take the images into account to represent culture in the textbook.

This study endeavored to discuss certain aspects of Emotional Intelligence (EI) that are related to foreign language (FL) teaching and learning in two different contexts (Iraq and the Czech Republic). It outlined the areas that could be important for FL teachers and may be useful in FL learning. The countries of Iraq and the Czech Republic are culturally different, but in both of them, English is considered as the foreign language. This cross-cultural study attempted to unravel the current status and extent of the presence of EI in English as foreign language university classes of these two countries. Two samples, each including 20 EFL university teachers, were chosen as the participants. The participants responded to a close-ended questionnaire and participated in an interview. Textual data were content analyzed manually, and frequency and percentage were also reported. The findings revealed that there were dissimilarities in how EI was applied in the two geographical contexts. While the majority of Iraqi teachers considered EI an important element of online teaching and class management, the majority of Czech teachers did not regard it as important and necessary for effective learning and teaching. In addition, both samples agreed that teachers and students face more challenges in online EFL classes compared to traditional face-to-face classes. Moreover, many teachers from both groups, notably from the Iraqi sample, reported to be using a variety of EI tactics in their classes, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

This quantitative study aimed to investigate Iranian EFL student teachers’ perceptions on the use of Machine Translation (MT) for foreign language learning in academic context. To this end, 107 EFL student teachers from a women-only state university in Tehran, Iran, completed a recently developed and validated questionnaire in the field. The findings revealed that most participants were familiar with digital technology including MT and its different types such as Google Translate (GT). Satisfied with MT output, the majority of the participants in the study installed MT apps on their smartphones or used its website on their computers to complete assignments or to translate from Persian to English and vice versa. However, they were neutral about whether their instructors confirmed their MT use, or whether they preferred their teachers know they use MT or not. They were also not sure whether consulting MT was against the regulations. The results showed that authorities in the field of foreign language teaching are required to take a positive stand on this emerging technology; in addition, considering the importance of training for both instructors and learners, they should hold workshops for more responsible and effective MT implementation. 

This study investigated the effect of strategy-based methods vs. translation-based methods on General English and ESP reading comprehension of Iranian university students. 120 homogenous General English and ESP students were selected based on a Quick Placement Test. They were assigned into four groups. One experimental and one comparison group for General English and ESP students. A pretest of General English and ESP reading comprehension was administered to assess their General English and ESP reading comprehension ability. In both experimental groups, the strategy-based method, and in comparison groups, the translation-based method was used for teaching General English and ESP reading comprehension. After the post-test, the result of independent t-tests indicated that the comparison group outperformed the experimental group in the ESP course. However no statistically significant difference was observed between the two groups in General reading comprehension, it can be concluded that in ESP reading comprehension, the translation-based strategy is more effective than the strategy-based method however in General English reading comprehension, students can understand the text via both strategies. So, the strategy-based method was preferred in General English reading comprehension. These findings encourage English teachers to choose a proper strategy for teaching different materials in different contexts.

English as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks play a significant role in these cultural exchanges. On the other hand, English is known as an international language and acquiring a good Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) in EFL classes is considered as one of the primary goals. The present research reports a qualitative study on firstly, the representation of the elements of intercultural competence in Iranian EFL high school textbooks (Prospect Series) and secondly, the potentiality of the textbooks to develop students’ ICC. To this end, an in-depth content analysis of Prospect 1, Prospect 2, and Prospect 3 was done based on Byram’s (1997) model. Next, a group of 300 Iranian high school students was provided with the AIC questionnaire (Fantini, 2009a, p. 196) to examine the extent to which EFL lessons in Iranian high-school English textbooks significantly develop learners’ intercultural competence. The results of the statistical analyses revealed that the cultural topics covered in Prospect Series have little emphasis on developing students’ ICC, and also the dimensions of ICC tasks in the textbooks are distributed unequally. Moreover, Iranian EFL textbooks could not significantly develop learners’ ICC to become aware of cultural differences by being a source of ICC experience.

The present study investigates the emotional experiences of ten English as a foreign language (EFL) female students during an English vocabulary-building course, through the lens of Barrett’s Theory of Constructed Emotion (TCE). The data were collected using a background questionnaire, reflection paragraphs, and semi-structured interviews and were analyzed primarily by applying thematic analysis methods. The TCE was used to explain the wide range of emotions experienced and the reasons for fluctuations within a single EFL vocabulary course. The results revealed a diverse spectrum of emotions, including enjoyment, confidence, pride, anxiety, boredom, embarrassment, and blame, underscoring the TCE's premise that emotions are intricately constructed and influenced by personal learning experiences, the appraisal of learning events, contextual factors, and social interactions. Moreover, the study found that emotions are not only influenced by the situational context but also shape the situational context in turn. Thus, the findings highlighted the open and interactive nature of the systems students use to construct their emotions. Importantly, the study uncovered the strategies students employ to manage their emotions, highlighting the active role students play in shaping their emotional experiences. The findings provide valuable insights for EFL teachers, suggesting the need for a supportive and empathetic teaching environment that acknowledges the emotional dimensions of EFL vocabulary learning. By understanding and addressing these emotional aspects, teachers can better assist learners in managing their emotions, thereby optimizing vocabulary acquisition and enhancing overall learning outcomes.