Teaching English Language
Volume:17 Issue: 40, Summer and Autumn 2023

This study aimed at shedding light on issues pertaining to conducting CALL research in Iran. Therefore, a questionnaire was designed and validated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA).  Iranian CALL researchers (n=107) and TEFL teacher educators (n=7) participated in the study. Independent samples t-test was used to examine perceptual differences. Findings established that while there were both commonalities and discrepancies between the CALL researchers’ and teacher educators’ perspectives, positive attitudes towards carrying out CALL research were identified in the study. However, findings revealed that conducting CALL research was influenced by a couple of contextual, pragmatic, and infrastructural constraints. The participants preferred considering cross-sectional, correlational, and experimental research as the research designs for their CALL studies. With regard to the research priorities, the participants believed that carrying out CALL research and teaching methodologies/approaches, language learning skills and sub-skills, assessment and testing, curriculum development, learning theories, and adult EFL learning had a high priority. Furthermore, the findings indicated that Iranian CALL researchers had low to moderate competence in conducting CALL research and that they did not take effective measures to facilitate their professional development for conducting CALL research.

The study is an attempt to evaluate and compare teacher education programs (TEPs) in Farhangian University and private language institutes in Iran. The data were collected from 142 Iranian EFL teachers through a questionnaire and focus group interviews. The results of multiple independent samples t-tests showed that teacher educators in private language institutes performed better in preparing teachers compared to teacher educators in Farhangian University, while no considerable difference was found in the other five subscales of the TEPs (i.e. program structure, program courses, psychology and cognition, professional development, and knowledge base), and the overall teacher education programs in Farhangian University and private language institutes; nonetheless, teachers in private language institutes recorded higher mean scores in all the subscales than their counterparts from Farhangian University, indicating that private language institutes performed slightly better in preparing EFL teachers. Additionally, based on the interview data, various categories of suggestions were developed for improving the TEPs from several aspects including the length of the programs, teacher educators, content knowledge, practice-based education, reflection and professional development, and program courses. The implications for L2 teacher education, policymakers, and teacher educators are discussed, along with some suggestions for additional research.

Trust between students and school authorities has proven to yield significant advantages, including academic achievement, improvement in student behavior, and enhancement of the quality of classroom management. However, there is no reliable and valid instrument for the measurement of interpersonal trust in the educational context; therefore, the present study strived to fill this gap through devising a questionnaire to measure students' trust in English teachers. To that end, a 5-point Likert-scale Student Trust in Teacher Questionnaire was devised within a sample of 255 male and female high school students in several schools of Iran. Then it went through processes of reliability and validity examination of item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, omega coefficient analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. Maximum likelihood factor analysis with a cut-off point of .40 and Kaiser's criterion of eigenvalues greater than 1 suggested a 4-factor solution as the best fit for the data. Analyses suggested the instrument’s acceptable reliability and validity for measuring students’ trust in their English teachers in terms of four teacher traits: pedagogical competence, individual consideration, trustworthiness, and situational professionalism. It bears mentioning that although the questionnaire was applied to English teachers in the current study, it is not confined to the context of language education. Thus, the findings of this study can be useful for all stakeholders in the education system, especially teachers to school principals and administrators.

This study aimed to discover and compare students' and instructors’ present needs in ESP Social Sciences courses in Iranian universities using the applied descriptive survey method. The population of this study consisted of 98 Social Sciences students at B.A level and 30 ESP instructors. Both students and instructors were selected purposefully from some universities of Markazi province, including Islamic Azad University of Ashtiyan Branch, Arak State University, Islamic Azad University of Arak Branch as well as Arak Farhangian University. To collect the data, two questionnaires, which were adapted from Mazdayasna and Tahririan (2008), were employed that included four English language skills. The results indicated a significant difference between the perceptions of the students and their instructors about their preferred skills. For the students, reading (Mean Rank (MR)= 3.77) was the most preferred skill as the present need, and it was followed by writing (MR = 3.07), listening (MR= 1.76), and speaking (MR = 1.41). However, for instructors, reading (MR = 3.63) was the most preferred skill as present need, followed by writing (MR= 3.12), speaking (MR= 2), and listening (MR= 1.25). Based on the results, revision of the current program seems to be necessary to provide the Iranian Social Sciences students with more effective ESP courses. This study may have some implications for ESP instructors, students, ESP curriculum developers, and syllabus designers.

This study compares the use of heteroglossic engagement resources in the discussions of MA theses rated as good versus excellent written by Iranian EFL students majoring in TEFL. Engagement, a subsystem of the Appraisal model within Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), deals with writers’ authorial voice and how they position their voice with regard to, and engage with, alternative voices and positions in a communicative context. The final corpus of the study consisted of 24 MA theses in TEFL from four universities in Iran divided into two groups of theses rated as good and excellent based on the scores awarded to them and the raters’ reassessment. In addition to a qualitative analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyze the data. The results showed that heteroglossic resources were not equally employed by the authors. Although there was a correlation between the use of heteroglossic resources in the theses and their assigned rates, authors of excellent theses utilized more expand values compared to good theses. The qualitative analysis revealed that writers of excellent theses were more successful in expressing their authorial stance through dialogically contractive and expansive resources. Moreover, the results provide evidence that heteroglossic engagement resources are helpful in writing academically acceptable texts.

This study explores Chinese EFL teachers’ perceptions of what characteristics define a creative pupil, beliefs about the malleability and creative competency of students, viewpoints on creativity’s relationship to academic subject matter, and assumptions of how creativity is facilitated in the EFL classroom. With the primary aim of contributing to the understanding of creativity as a cultural construct, rather than just a cognitive or social concept, this mixed method research design employed an online questionnaire to include teachers working in different regions and diverse educational contexts in China, as well as interviews to better understand and articulate teachers’ viewpoints about creativity in the language classroom. The results of the current study are remarkably inconsistent with the findings of the existing literature that largely support traditional Chinese perceptions and philosophies in relation to creativity, indicating that the concept may be changing in China and/or it may be defined and understood differently in the context of language education. Nonetheless, some traditional perspectives of creativity remain, such as its relationship to academic performance and intellectual aptitude. The study holds important implications for highlighting teachers’ conceptualizations of creativity and thus helping to illuminate and advance a culturally situated understanding of creativity in the Chinese EFL classroom.

This study examined the role of working memory (WM) and word recognition in L2 reading across different proficiency levels. 120 Iranian EFL learners were placed in three proficiency groups based on their IELTS scores. The battery of tests used in this study included a reading span task to measure WM, an eye movement word vs. non-word task to measure word recognition ability, an L1-recall task, and a multiple-choice reading test to measure reading comprehension. Correlations were carried out to examine the connections between WM, word recognition skills, and L2 reading performance. Regression analyses were also conducted to test whether WM and word recognition can predict reading performance at different levels of proficiency. The results showed that there were significant correlations between WM and L2 reading in the beginner group and between WM and word recognition speed in the beginner and intermediate groups. Regression analyses indicated that WM is a strong and direct predictor of reading performance at a beginner level of proficiency and a predictor of how fast less proficient readers recognize words in context. Highlighting the important role of WM in the word recognition ability of less proficient L2 readers, this study also showed that second language reading is not related to the accuracy or speed of word recognition across proficiency levels.

English as an International Language (EIL) refers to a paradigm shift in second language (L2) education as a response to complexities arising from the rapid spread of the English language around the globe in recent decades; therefore, EIL is, now, regarded as a paradigm for thinking, research and practice in L2 teaching. Due to the importance of the teacher’s perceptions and attitudes and the influence they can have on their practicing English Language Teaching (ELT), the present study sought to explore what Iranian L2 teachers’ perceptions were about EIL and to see if awareness and change could be created in this respect through educational workshops. To this end, an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study was designed and 139 Iranian L2 teachers’ perceptions of the EIL paradigm were measured before and after an educational workshop. Also, 22 participants were interviewed to explore their perceptions of the EIL. Results indicated that the participants, by and large, did not possess appropriate perceptions of the EIL paradigm in varying degrees but that the workshop proved to be effective for developing appropriate perceptions in teachers. The interviews bore corroborating evidence for the quantitative data of the study. Awareness and change of attitude of the EIL can help L2 teachers make more informed decisions when practicing ELT.

The current study explored the attitudes of Iranian Ph.D. candidates of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and their instructors taking and teaching a course on Research Methodology (i.e., Quantitative, Qualitative, and MMR) towards various research approaches. In addition, the researchers intended to explore which research approach (qualitative, quantitative, or MMR) the participants preferred for conducting their dissertations. To this end, 14 Ph.D. candidates of TEFL and ten faculty members from different universities across the country were selected based on convenience and purposive sampling. They sat a semi-structured interview designed by the researchers. The results of Strauss and Corbin's (1996) grounded theory approach to qualitative content analysis, which comprises three levels of coding (i.e., open coding, axial coding, and selective coding), indicated that both groups of participants had positive attitudes towards MMR. The findings also revealed that the participants preferred MMR (mixed-methods research) and qualitative approaches over quantitative research for dissertations. Moreover, the participants noted that depending on the purpose of the study and the nature of the issue being investigated, qualitative research and MMR could be as effective as, if not more effective than, quantitative research. The findings also revealed that MMR was the most preferred research approach for both groups of participants. The findings might be useful for novice foreign language researchers, in general, and EFL researchers in particular, in that they need to take an independent course in the Ph.D. program to deal with and master MMR effectively.

Not only is vocabulary a pivotal constituent of language learning, but also it does constitute an important part of the instructional process of a foreign language. Considering the undeniable role of vocabulary plays in language learning, this study explored the effects of audiovisual input on EFL learners' receptive and productive knowledge of concrete and abstract words. To this end, 24 upper-intermediate English language learners were selected from Iran Language institute in Qom, with an age range of 15 to 25. A 30–item pretest of concrete and abstract words was administered prior to the study. The words were selected from one movie and its corresponding book that included both receptive and productive vocabularies. During the eight-session treatment, the control group was instructed through the written input (the book) and the experimental group was taught via the audiovisual input (the movie). Results of the delayed posttest pointed to significant differences between the two groups in terms of vocabulary gains and the audiovisual group outscored the written input group regarding the vocabulary knowledge. More specifically, the study revealed that the audiovisual input significantly impacted learning concrete words. The study is a confirmation on the importance of audiovisual input in learning all different classifications of vocabulary in general and concrete words in particular. The study further implies that there would be a way for a more detailed scrutiny on the methods of acquiring various categories of vocabulary.

The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching (CLT) has been the dominant method for teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Arabic-speaking countries for over four decades. However, in recent years, there have been criticisms and debates regarding the effectiveness of this approach and its impact on learning outcomes. An exploratory study investigated this further, involving 206 university students from Lebanon and Jordan. An online questionnaire consisting of four sections was administered via Google Forms in the spring of 2023 to gather the students' responses. To ensure the reliability of the questionnaire, the internal consistency reliability was calculated using Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. Descriptive and inferential statistics were then employed to address the research questions, including independent samples t-test and the Mann-Whitney U test. The study's findings revealed that CLT continues to cause tautness amongst instructors and Arab students alike. In conclusion, this study suggests ways in which CLT can be acclimatized to the needs of non-native learners in this poly-lingual and universally interlaced era.

There is abundant evidence in task-based research suggesting that modifying task design, implementation, and complexity brings about variant effects on language learners’ attention division and performance. The present study was aimed at exploring how modifying task implementation and task complexity variables affects learners’ focus of attention and oral discourse. Task implementation was manipulated along the variable of repetition and task complexity was modified in terms of tense and availability of contextual support (i.e., performing in Here/Now vs. There/Then). To accomplish this objective, task performances of 60 English as foreign language learners were elicited under the following conditions: doing a narrative task once in Here/Now; doing a narrative task twice in Here/Now; doing a narrative task once in There/Then; and doing a narrative task twice in There/Then. The findings revealed that whereas repeating the task in Here/Now enhanced fluency and complexity, repeating the same task in There/Then triggered better performance in all dimensions. The findings may bear implications for researchers and language educators which are presented in connection with pertinent theoretical and practical issues.