Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies
Volume:6 Issue: 1, Winter 2019

This study investigates some problems of PhD applicants in their entrance exams in the case of answering the reading comprehension questions. To this end, the researchers considered the item types and text types as main effects and their interaction effect using generalizability theory for examining the variability; the answer sheets of a mock-test from 321 applicants, from all parts of Iran, enrolled in an institute were randomly selected. Using a partially nested design of G-theory in the GENOVA program, the researchers identified five variance components in the two different passages with distinct items and investigated various sources of error that are involved in the measurement process. The results of the study showed that the main effect for items cannot be separated from the interaction between items and texts, and clarified that the items facet had a noticeable amount of variance, and therefore, they impacted the applicants' performance. However, the results of D-studies showed that the main effect for text types was zero, and both texts were at the same level of difficulty. Also, the persons had effects on the texts in their interaction. This study can motivate the researchers, test developers, and test designers to consider their work more carefully.

In the so-called global village, individuals should learn to adapt themselves to cultural and social changes. One manifestation of the changes in societies is the emergence of pluralistic/multicultural societies which necessitates using intercultural/pluralistic education elements in education systems.

This study aimed at developing and validating a Pluralistic Curriculum (PC) model for English language teaching (ELT) in Iranian high schools.

To this aim, a concurrent design (qualitative + quantitative) within a mixed methods approach was used. Participants of the study were 30 Iranian (17 male and 13 female) curriculum experts from Iranian Curriculum Studies Association (ICSA) who were selected through snowball sampling.

Results of data analysis revealed the following components for PC: pluralistic education, pluralistic evaluation, racial and ethnic equality, social class equality, linguistic diversity and equality, gender equality, cultural diversity and tolerance of difference. Results of data analysis also showed that the proposed model consists of four elements namely, content, teaching/learning Strategies/methods, evaluation and goal. Moreover, it was found that the proposed PC model is valid from the viewpoint of the curriculum experts. Conclusions/implications: This promising finding implies that the proposed model can be implemented by ELT practitioners in the Iranian high schools. Furthermore, it can be used as a valid scale to see whether educational curriculums most particularly EFL/ESL curriculums at different levels (primary, junior high school, high school, and tertiary education) are developed in line with pluralistic curriculum or not.

This study aims at appraising the discourse exchanges of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and learners from a critical standpoint to explore whether the turn-taking structures are dialogical in essence. To this end, the discourse exchanges of 12 classrooms were observed and digitally audiotaped during class interactions. At the same time, notes were taken and checklists were filled out to capture contextual features. The functions of each interaction were transcribed verbatim and then coded to uncover the initiation-response-feedback (IRF) patterns. The functions were identified by counting the number of occurrence of initiation move functions, type of elicitations, and follow-up move functions. The Chi-square tests, followed by a complementary interpretive approach, were run to determine the distribution of the IRF patterns and to analyze the class interactions. The findings indicated that the least frequent initiation move function was nominating and most frequent move function was in the form of display questions by the students. Additionally, teachers exposed a tendency toward closed and managerial questions in the classrooms. The teachers employed their follow-up moves to repeat, accept, and correct among the students in classrooms. This makes no room for the students to voice their ideas, to foster critical reflection, and to encourage transformative mode in a classroom. The findings suggest that dialogic teaching can involve learners in collaborative dialogue and empower them to be reflective learners.

The present study examined the impact of language teachers’ gender, age, and experience on their self-efficacy. Moreover, it aimed to find out the mediating role of in-service teacher training in modifying the effects of foregoing variables. To this end, a stratified sample of 180 English teachers in high schools, private language institutes, and university settings in seven cities in Iran were initially handpicked as the participants of the study. Next, Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschamen-Moran & Woolfolk-HoyHoy, 2001) was administered to the participants to specify their initial self-efficacy. Further, they attended a 20-session in-service teacher training program focused on theoretical and empirical issues related to learner variables and aiming at empowering the participants to tackle relevant problems in the context of the classroom. Finally, The Self-Efficacy Scale was administered to probe viable changes in the participants’ self-efficacy posterior to the treatment in relation to gender, age and experience. Results showed significantly higher levels of self-efficacy for males prior to and for females after the treatment. Additionally, the findings revealed that teacher self-efficacy was positively influenced by increase in teachers’ age and teaching experience and that in-service teacher training could avert disparities among the teachers across the diverse age groups and experience levels. The results underscore the paramount importance of in-service training courses aimed at empowering teachers.

Despite the importance of Iranian teacher education programmes at Teacher Education universities for preparing EFL teachers in terms of effective teaching, no research has surveyed the role of these programmes in preparing effective teachers. This cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate Iranian Teacher Education universities programmes for EFL student-teachers regarding five areas of teaching knowledge which conform to California Standards for the Teaching Profession (CSTP) that are stated in Commission on Teacher Credentialing (2009). This study employed a mixed-method design in which 126 in-service EFL teachers from six cities and 212 EFL student-teachers from six Iranian Teacher Education universities participated in a survey; then interviews were conducted with 12 selected volunteers from participants. The student-teachers’ expectations of TEPs at the beginning, their evaluations of the programmes at the end, and in-service teachers’ evaluations after years of teaching in terms of their preparation for teaching were compared. The results of Mixed Between-within (Repeated Measures) ANOVA as well as interview analyses and interpretations showed that there was a difference between the first-year group’s expectations and the last-year group’s evaluations. The difference was significant between female first- and last-year groups, female in-service and last-year groups as well as male in-service and male first- and last-year groups. Both male and female in-service teachers acknowledged the effectiveness of their four years of education at Teacher Education universities. Implications for providing more effective teacher education programmes are discussed.

Till recently, text difficulty has commonly been determined by employing readability formulas, however, major criticisms have been leveled against readability formulas (Graves & Graves, 2003).This research project aimed at determining text difficulty through readability formulas and Coh-Metrix. In other words, the study investigated the role of text difficulty in EFL learners’ pedagogic task performances. Since both males and females took part in the study, firstly the researchers aimed at finding out whether a different pattern of task performance existed for each. Secondly, all participants were provided with two different reading passages whose difficulty levels were determined by Coh-Metrix and readability formulas. Finally, a self-efficacy questionnaire was administered to delve into learners’ self-perceptions about their own performances on the pedagogic tasks. Descriptive statistics, paired samples t-test and repeated measures ANOVA were utilized to analyze the data. The results indicated that gender of the students had no significant impact on the learners’ performances on the pedagogic tasks. The findings revealed that text difficulty and the learners’ self-efficacy significantly affected EFL learners’ performance on the pedagogic tasks. The findings suggest that determining difficulty level of the texts through Coh-Metrix could be considered a step forward and will certainly assist language teachers and syllabus designers who strive to tailor the appropriate tasks and materials to learners at differing level of language proficiency. The results also imply that self-perceptions of learners might be a true predictor of their own performances on different tasks in general, and on pedagogic tasks in particular