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This study aimed to develop and validate a 2 ? 2 Standpoints and Standards measure of EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers’ achievement goals. To this end, 441 teachers were first involved in scale development and validation phase. In the second phase, responses by 194 teachers were used to examine the predictive utility of achievement goals with respect to some correlates such as type of feedback information and emotional exhaustion. Phase 1 results supported validity and reliability of the scale for measuring EFL teachers’ achievement goals. In phase 2, structural equation modeling showed positive patterns for original mastery approach goals, though these goals positively predicted self-validation information. Original mastery
Previous research on identity construction in political and media discourse is mostly limited to the study of strategies employed by politicians in their spoken discourse. However, different political agents, by way of assuming different degrees of power, may employ different strategies for the construction of others' identities. This study is set to investigate how political agents differ in the strategies they employ for the linguistic construction of identities across cultures: English and Persian. A total number of 66 English and Persian texts, produced by three groups of political agents (actors, reporters & researchers) were randomly selected. Then, following Wodak's (2001, 2007, 2009) critical discourse analysis approach, they were a
In an attempt to shed light on how expert teachers of English language are distinguished from non-experts, the present research explored how pedagogical content knowledge, as a characteristic of experts relates to four other dimensions of expertise in ELT. These include teacher’s experience, cognitive skills, professional development and learner-centered teaching. To this aim, a questionnaire was developed based on the related literature, comprising 109 items, 41 of which enquired about pedagogical content knowledge and the rest about the other dimensions of expertise in ELT. The reliability and validity of the test were confirmed. The SEM analysis results showed that pedagogical content knowledge was positively and significantly correlat
Reflective teaching has proved to be one of the most important and influential approaches to teaching in second language teacher education. Although this approach has been the subject of numerous studies, in the majority of cases, such studies have been carried out cross-sectionally rather than longitudinally. To address this major problem, the present study, adopting a qualitative research tradition, investigated the development of the reflective practice among four novice English language teachers. The teachers were instructed in strategies employed for journal writing. Reflective journals were collected from each teacher within the time span of one year and were content analyzed. The results of the content analysis indicated that the par
To launch an evidence source for successive judgment and decision making, program evaluation of any educational institute is an indispensable process, and language institutes are not the exceptions. In an attempt to propose a solution for a fundamental problem as the lack of a standard evaluation program for English language institutes, this study used a new method to be implemented in the context of'English language institutes (ELIs)'of Iran. In this country, evaluation of nongovernmental centers, including ELIs, is carried out by the Ministry of Education (ME) using a performance evaluation framework which mainly collects the required data through a survey form (locally known as' Form 322'). We adopted and applied the survey form 322 into
Evaluating teacher candidates’ competencies, demonstrating that they are prepared to teach at high school level is inconceivable without clearly defined and agreed upon standards. Since EFL teachers’ language proficiency levels in the target language is a significant factor in teaching effectiveness, this study intended to set threshold listening, speaking, reading and writing proficiency levels for the Iranian high school EFL teachers based on ACTFL proficiency guidelines. To this end, a concurrent mixed-method qualitative quantitative approach was conducted. Data were collected through conducting semi-structured interviews with 40 teacher educators and administering a seven-point Likert scale questionnaire to 212 high school EFL tea
1. INTRODUCTION Regrettably, even after much language instruction and devotion to learning a Foreign Language (henceforward, FL), a great number of learners complain that their abilities wane once the context is not favourable to constant use of language any longer. In fact," language loss affects all of us. It occurs in every corner of the world, taking its toll among young and old alike"(Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige, 1999, p. 3). Therefore, understanding language attrition can have great significance for studying language acquisition. This understanding can assist FL learners in not only mastering the language, but also enhancing the durability of their skill. The significance of language attrition studies is also recognised by some scholars.
Advancements in theory and practice of Teacher Evaluation maintain that effective teaching is the most important factor in realization of success or failure of an education system. Therefore, any attempt to explore the dynamic and complex nature of teachers' performance is considered critical. In the same vein, this paper is an attempt to introduce a Framework of Reference for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (FRTEFL) at the threshold of IR of Iran; a local model aligned with global perspectives. To this end, adapting a qualitative meta-synthesis approach, all possible dimensions of teachers' performance criteria reflected in 17 High-stake resources were explored; scrutinizing the twofold mapping of both curriculum and evaluation stan
This study sought to investigate the effect of the two input types interactionally modified input (IM) and textual input enhancement (TIE), the impact of a commonly used learning styles taxonomy as the Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic learning styles (VAK) by itself as well as the interactional effect of perceptual learning styles and input types on the causative construction development of EFL learners. To this end, 120 female Iranian EFL learners from three language schools in Tehran participated in this research and were divided into two experimental groups of 60. The study adopted a pretest-posttest design and learner’s grammar knowledge was measured before and after providing them with instructional treatment through IM input and TIE
Testing-based reforms are perceived as the leverage for promoting quality of learning and teaching. However, such reform policies have failed as often as they have succeeded. As reasons for such a failure were mostly studied after implementation or at completion phase of a reform project, there remain theoretical and analytical gaps regarding exploring policy-making phase. Designed within an evaluation framework, the present study adopted a qualitative-quantitative Delphi method to examine the recent reform policies of Iran’s state University Entrance Examinations (UEEs). Panelists were educational policymakers (N?=?15) generating their perspectives in iteration rounds that finally identified ‘a conceptual picture of consequences’, ??
Long’s Interactional Input Hypothesis and Smith’s Input Enhancement Hypothesis hold both foci on Zellig Harris's (1976) formalist approach. Accordingly, the pivotal role of learner’s attention as one of the subcomponents of focus-on-form approach may have confused instruction types. However, whether such learning theories on drawing learners' attention on target language forms suit all types of learners, has not been adequately investigated. Of interest were to explore the significant effect of the two input types as interactionally modified input (IM) and textual input enhancement (TIE) and the interactional effect of learning styles of either visual, auditory, or kinesthetic (VAK) style on knowledge gain of causative constructions.
This study aimed to explore the nature of emotion regulation behavior among EFL teachers. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 EFL teachers teaching general English courses in both private language institutes and public schools in Iran. All interviews, conducted in Farsi, were first transcribed and translated into English. Then, through the use of conceptual content analysis technique, the data were scrutinized for emotion regulation strategies. Overall, five main categories, namely, Teaching Context Preference/Avoidance, Teaching Context Adjustments, Attention Direction, Reappraisal, and Reactive Strategies emerged in the interviews. The emerging categories from the conceptual content analysis corresponded, to a g
Accountability concerns in language education call for the development of more valid and authentic measures of assessment. In light of these concerns, performance assessment has received increasing interest in the context of teacher education programs and teacher licensing over the last decade. In Iran, a recent policy adopted by Farhangian University aims at assessing the professional competencies of its ELT graduates by requiring them to go through a performance assessment as part of the licensing requirements. Mounting concerns regarding the validity of traditional tests used for teacher certification (Mitchell, Robinson, Plake, & Knowles, 2001) have motivated Farhangian University to develop its own performance assessment. Therefore, th
One of the most important issues in the realm of education is assurance regarding the quality and effectiveness of teaching and teachers. In this regard, it is essential that models and instruments be developed in order to describe and assess them. It is one of the subjects creating a lot of interest in learners is English. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a model as well as a measuring instrument for describing quality of teachers and teaching in English. The present study was an attempt to develop such a model and instrument in a qualitative and a quantitative phase. In the qualitative phase, seven factors were identified as the underlying structure of teacher quality on which basis a 48-item questionnaire was developed. Then, in the q
According to Teacher Education Curriculum Development Document (TECDD) of Farhangiyan University, teacher professional competencies include Content Knowledge (CK), Pedagogical Knowledge (PK), Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) and General Knowledge (GK). Of these competencies, CK and PCK are specific to teachers of each major while PK and GK are common among all majors. This study was an attempt to explore the components that constitute high school EFL teachers’ CK and PCK through review of the related literature and investigation of high school EFL teachers (N=40) and teacher educators’ (N=20) perspectives. Based on the content analysis of these two sources which resulted in strong agreement, 20 items of CK and 17 items of PCK were id
Extended Abstract 1. Introduction Testing-based reform has often been used as a lever for introducing desirable changes. This tenet is found in light of the claim that what is targeted to be measured by testing, in particular by tests of higher stakes, would strongly determine and shape what gets taught and learnt at the lower stakes. Clear examples are various University Entrance Examinations (UEEs) which have long appeared to have immense importance for the people and institutions involved. In fact, high-stakes tests such as the UEEs are widely perceived to have the potential to shape curricular teaching and learning. Such a test consequential effect, i.e., ‘test washback’, has encouraged decision makers and educators to manage for a