Teaching English Language
Volume:3 Issue: 10, Spring 2009

To observe teachers, different instruments have been developed. The problem with the instruments developed yet is that these instruments are based onparticular assumptions of researchers about the classroom and teachers’ preferences have been neglected. In order to help bring teachers’ attitudes as important criteria to the field of classroom observation, the researchers, in the present study, developed a new observation instrument totally based on teachers’ attitudes.To inquire about teachers’ attitudes, a two-phase study was conducted: a qualitative and a quantitative phase. In the qualitative phase an interview survey was conducted with 20 EFL teachers. A content analysis of the transcribed data yielded 35 most frequent itemsrelated to the features teachers liked to be included in classroom observation instrument. These items formed the statements in a likert-type questionnaire which was administered in the quantitative phase of the study. In order to check teachers’ ideas at large and tocheck the construct validity of the resulting instrument a questionnaire survey was conducted on 161 EFL teachers in the quantitative phase of the study. A factor analysis of the data yielded 10 factors with 33 items meaningfully loading on the specified factors. The results of the analyses indicated that the resulting observation instrument based on teachers'' attitudes could be considered reasonably valid and reliable.

The comprehensible output hypothesis, introduced in a seminal paper by Swain (1985), posits that when learners experience communication difficulties, they will be pushed into making their output more precise, coherent, and accurate. Interaction among learnershelps them to get their meanings across despite their incomplete knowledge of the target language. Assuming the significance of production in the process of language learning, the present study investigated how interaction leads to the productionof modified output in second language learners. Besides, attempts were made to test the effects of output on the English learners’ interlanguage modification as they were engaged in interaction with each other. A picture description task was employedto collect data from 16 participants reading literature at Mazandaran University in Iran. The participants were assigned to eight dyads, each comprising of a high and a low proficiency level learner such that the former had to draw a picture based on the instruction given orally by the latter. The interactions were audio-taped and analyzed for one or more occurrences of modified output production. The results revealed that the lower group learners could recognize gaps in their interlanguage which led them to modify their output during interactions. These modifications involved not only lexical items and grammar but also in cases where the negotiations of meaning were needed. Moreover, the results of this study showed that the number of grammatical modifications generated by the task was conspicuously less frequent.

As a part of a large-scale project, this study investigated good and poor Iranian EFL majors’ vocabulary learning strategies in terms of both overall and specific strategy use. To this end, 204 participants completed a Likert-scale vocabulary learning strategies questionnaire (VLSQ) containing 45 statements. The results of independent samples t-tests indicated that there were no significant differences between good and poor learners in terms of overall strategy use. However, their performances were statistically significantly different on the frequency of use of nineteen (out of the whole forty five) specific strategies. That is, whereas the strategies I use a monolingual English dictionary, I analyze part of speech of the new word, I associate the new word with its coordinates and collocations, I use new words in sentences through speaking, I repeat the new words orally several times, I focus on the phonological form of the new word, I learn the words of an idiom together, I take notes of new words in class, I revise new words several times during a day, I learn new words by listening to live English media, and I learn new words by reading books, newspapers, magazines, etc in English were used statisticallysignificantly more frequently by good learners, seven other strategies, namely, I make use of a bilingual dictionary, I ask my teacher for an L1 translation, I ask classmates for meaning through group work activity, I memorize word lists, I use the key-word method, I skip or pass the new word, I make up (coin) new words if I do not know the right ones in English were used significantly more frequently by poor learners. The possible reasons why a given group (either good or poor learners) used a specific vocabulary learning strategy significantly more frequently than the other, as well as the pedagogical implications of the study are discussed in details.

Whilst, it has been the norm to expect experts in assessment to worry about and offer solutions to issues in testing, the concerns as well as the rights of major stake-holdersthemselves, i.e., testees, have for the most part been neglected. Although test-takers’ views may be regarded as naïve and non-specialist, no doubt obtaining an emicperspective will illuminate the path for testers and researchers and will help them to avoid pertinent biases. With such a focus, the present study takes a qualitative orientation and looks at the ideas, concerns and expectations of 20 undergraduates in EFL interviewed about their experiences in taking a variety of reading comprehension tests. The main finding to emerge from the study is that most reading tests fail the test of judgmental validation. Further findings and implications are discussed in the paper.

The theoretical motivation behind dynamic assessment (DA) emerges from Vygotsky’s theory of the mediated mind. This study represents a web-based qualitative inquiry employing interactionsist DA which follows Vygotsky’s preference for cooperative dialoging by integrating SCMC features of the visual salience, self-paced setting of written discourse and web 2.0 applications of web links, sticky notes and highlighting toshed light on microgenitic development of learners’ L2 grammatical structure in writing. It also addresses the inadequacy of proficiency levels obtained in the psychometricbasedDIALANG in pinpointing learners’ future potentials for development. Microgenisis as a general analytical framework is used for data analysis. The results of the study indicated that through microgentic analysis in DA via web 2.0 based tools of Google Wave and Skype, it is possible to obtain a richer and more accurate understanding of students’ potential level of L2 grammatical development.

In recent years, attempts in testing second language research have mostly been geared towards examining particular learner traits. These have been done to uncover the possible relationships existing between learner traits and their performance in language tests. The present study, aims at investigating the effects of task-based assessment on measuring reading comprehension proficiency of introvert/extrovert language learners. Results from the analysis of the data collected through administering a) PET Test, b) Task-based Reading Assessment, developed and validated by the present researchers, and c) JEPQ personality type questionnaire of introversion/extroversion on 99 high intermediateIranian students indicated that: 1) there is no significant difference between PET generalproficiency test and task-based assessment of introvert/extrovert test-takers, 2) there is no significant difference between cognitive and pedagogical tasks classifications among introverts and extroverts, and 3) there is no significant difference amongst introverts and extroverts in any of the tests and task subcategories.

Comparative literature deals with, among other things, finding delicate differences or similarities of literary works and it requires close reading of the texts and creativity on the side of the researcher for finding new concepts. All for Love orthe World Well Lost of Dryden that is basically an imitation of Antony and Cleopatra of Shakespeare is a good example.This study aims to focus on the main characteristics of the plays and the characters of both plays i.e. Antonies and Cleopatras to show their roles, imageries and mental attitudes by focusing on their reactions and the sentences they utter in identical situations. It’s really worth discussing these matters to see if Dryden has added details, changed the mentality of the characters, and the plot or not. Close reading based on content analysis considers all important features of both plays. Although the name of the characters and the general situations look the same in both plays, there are major differences between plays taking into account characterization, style of writing, imagery, and heroic deeds. Antony of Shakespeare seems more soldierly, heroic, and consistent but Antony of Dryden is less consistent and more romantic or emotional. Cleopatra of Shakespeare is more queenly and determined but Cleopatra of Dryden is more domestic and wife-like.