Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies
Volume:8 Issue: 2, Spring 2021

From the very outset, postmethod pedagogy has shaken the long-held concept of language teaching and has recognized the importance of contextualized language teaching in the field of TESOL. Furthermore, and to respond to contemporary English language teaching requirements, language teacher education programs have also tried to furnish postmethod language teachers with the much-needed development to have their own contextualized praxis. By the same token, the current study aimed to find out whether involving language teachers in writing diaries of self-practice and peer practice and then discussing their findings with circle members in regular gatherings would nurture the required self-growth and self-development in language teachers and help them with (the underlying components of ) reflective teaching. To do so, the present research employed a mixed method design whose quantitative part enjoyed a pre-experimental design consisting of three phases--a pretest, an educational treatment phase, and a posttest – and for its qualitative part the current researchers asked the participating language teachers to keep diaries of both self-practice and peer practice. The results of the study gained through both quantitative and qualitative analyses bore witness to the significant changes in the reflectiveness of language teachers who took part in these collaborative language teachers' diary circles.

Abstract Dynamic Assessment (DA) has been utilized for language evaluation. This mixed-methods study aimed to examine the potential impact of interactionist and interventionist models, as two significant offshoots of dynamic assessment on IELTS candidates’ performance in academic writing task 2. The study also compared the efficiency of these dynamic models and static assessment in the overall writing development of potential IELTS test-takers’ proficiency in writing task 2 in terms of IELTS writing assessment criteria. An experimental pretest-treatment-posttest design was employed. A qualitative approach was also conducted using field notes as a cross-validation strategy. To this end, 54 (26 males and 28 females) Iranian IELTS candidates aged 19 to 35 were randomly assigned to one control and two experimental groups (n=18). Initially, a pre-test was run to assess all participants’ developing writing skills. Afterward, the experimental groups received treatments based on interactionist and interventionist models, whereas the control group received no dynamic treatment in the form of interactionist and interventionist models and was trained according to the conventional static methods of writing instruction. Finally, a post-test was administered to check the treatments’ efficacy. The quantitative results demonstrated that the interventionist group’s writing performance was significantly better than that of the static group. However, there existed no statistically significant difference between the DA groups’ writing performance. The qualitative findings substantiated the quantitative results indicating the outperformance of dynamic assessment over the static assessment approach in the development of IELTS writing task 2 skills. The research findings have some pedagogical implications for IELTS teachers.

This study endeavored to evaluate the local English textbook named “Prospect 2” taught in junior high schools in Iran based on a group of Iranian EFL teachers and teacher educators’ perspectives. For this purpose, 10 (6 males and 4 females) teacher educators and 117 (54 males and 63 females) junior high school EFL teachers from Golestan Province, Iran took part in this study. To gather the required data, the modified version of Mukundan’s (2011) questionnaire was utilized as a textbook evaluation checklist to investigate the participants’ perspectives toward suitability, strengths, and shortcomings of the book. The outcomes of this research revealed that the participants of the two groups mainly had positive attitudes toward the book. Further findings of this research did not present any significant difference between teachers and teacher educators’ views toward the book. Finally, some concluding remarks regarding the overall findings of the study were presented. Main implications of the study were that teachers should attempt to incorporate suitable and practical methods for the instruction and promotion of the communicative language teaching approach in the class as an approach on which the book is based and try to cater for the shortcomings of the book through providing supplementary materials and alternative activities for the students.

Teacher-others relationship is one of the main features of teacher identity. As an aspect of this relationship, in some educational contexts, teachers experience imposition in their work place. As there is no survey tool to measure imposed identity, the present study developed a questionnaire based on the relevant literature and interviews with 44 EFL teachers, resulting in a 45-item questionnaire which was disseminated among 450 EFL teachers. An exploratory factor analysis of responses of EFL teachers yielded eight factors, namely: (1) Instructional, assessment, and interpersonal expectations imposed by managers and Supervisors, (2) Teacher professional responsibilities expected by stakeholders in the institute and the family, (3) Restrictions imposed on classroom discussion topics, dress code, and new technologies, (4) Suitability of teaching profession as perceived by the family, (5) Teacher responsibilities as expected by learners’ parents, (6) Gender stereotypes imposed by colleagues and the institute, (7) Learners’ and their parents’ instructional expectations, and (8) Observational and gender perceptions imposed by supervisors and managers. This study revealed the multi-dimensional nature of imposition in relation to which elements of identity change and harmonize under the influence of individual, contextual, and socio-cultural forces. The results of the study suggest that this scale is a reliable and valid measure of EFL teacher imposed identity. The findings can help researchers understand in what ways identity may be imposed and how it may change. Supervisors, institute managers, EFL teachers, and stakeholders can find the results of this study beneficial considering the fact that identity shaped and reshaped will certainly lead to a better EFL context for teaching and learning a foreign language.

The purpose of the present study is to determine whether studying or teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) will lead teachers to decrease home cultural values or help them to develop their cultural values in both cultures. This mix-method research was conducted in two different contexts, university and language institute in Gorgan, Iran. To this end, the Home Culture Attachment Scale questionnaire was given to 50 English language professors and 50 institute teachers. Also, a semi-structured interview was conducted with ten participants from each group. The collected data of quantitative phase and qualitative phase were analyzed using multivariate ANOVA and thematic analysis, respectively. The findings of the quantitative phase showed significant differences between professors and institute teachers in terms of religious, western and cultural attachment. Besides, six themes were identified for the qualitative part including the changes, definition of culture, Iranian attachment, religious attachment, western attachment, and artistic attachment. Consequently, the study illustrates that whoever is dealing with English is in danger of losing his/her home culture and teachers must be aware of this. The results urge English language teachers to pay more attention to this issue because they can have a great impact on students in terms of beliefs and values.

The problem of plagiarism has been a hot issue of concern to the academic community in recent years. In this study, we probed the factors which overtly or covertly lead to plagiarism growth among graduate students of agricultural sciences in Iran. To this end, we investigated the perceptions of 187 graduate students in the field of agricultural sciences towards: the nature of plagiarism, different forms of plagiarism, and the underlying motives for plagiarism through a questionnaire. Academic literacies model was adopted as a reference point to uncover those injustices in the educational sector deterring the literacy development. The results revealed that most graduate students of agricultural sciences had a rather good understanding to the nature of plagiarism, and considered it as an unacceptable serious problem which should be avoided. Nonetheless, in marked contrast, their perceptions towards different forms of plagiarism unfolded further doubts on their understanding to who should be known as author and who is deserved to be awarded authorship. The results revealed that recursive practice of a long list of violations, seemingly, made the academics blind towards their faulty nature, pushed back the borders of literacy and made them common academic norm. The findings further indicated that plagiarism grows hand in hand with deviation from scientific values and devaluation of science, marketization of science and violations of academic commitments, and politicization of science and alienation from the universal standards. The findings could provide useful implications for revisiting and reforming the educational policies in general and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs in particular.

This study aimed at finding the impact of the cognitive status of the structures on the acquisition of third language (L3) English at the initial stages. To measure implicit and explicit knowledge, 85 participants were tested regarding placement of adjective phrase (AP) and partitive structure (PS) by using four instruments: a timed and an untimed grammaticality judgment tasks, a metalinguistic knowledge test, and an elicited oral imitation task. The participants included four groups; the first two had Azeri as their L1 and Persian as their L2, but used Azeri and Persian as the language of communication (LOC) respectively, and the third one had Persian as the L1, Azeri as the L2, and Persian as LOC. The control group used Persian as the L1 and English as the L2. While AP in English and Azeri has similar pre-nominal syntax, in Persian, it is post-nominal. Unlike AP, PS which specifies the parts out of a whole (e.g. two of my brothers) patterns similarly in Persian and English, meaning the part-whole pattern, whereas in Azeri the whole precedes the part. The results challenge the previous models (e.g. the L1 Factor, Hermas, 2010; the L2 Status Factor, Bardel & Falk, 2007; the Cumulative Enhancement Model, Flynn et al., 2004; the Typological Proximity Model, Rothman, 2010) and are compatible with the Contact Language of Communication (Fallah, Jabbari, & Fazilatfar, 2016). Considering cross-linguistic influence as an ongoing dynamic phenomenon, this study proposes that at the initial stages of TLA, the cognitive status of structures is the main determining factor in specifying the source of syntactic transfer.

Scaffolding helps students improve their skills and handle complex materials (Cloud, Genesee, & Hayaman, 2009). Although a number of studies have been done on scaffolding in Iran, few studies have identified the types and techniques of scaffolding used in English language classes. Due to the importance of scaffolding in the teaching process, this study aimed to investigate the types of scaffolding used by EFL teachers in Iran. Through availability sampling technique, eight EFL teachers in Isfahan were selected. Accordingly, their classes were all recorded, the discourse of which was transcribed, codified, and analyzed using the framework proposed by Wu (2010). The results of the study revealed that the EFL teachers mostly exploited cognitive, metacognitive, procedural, and context scaffolding. Motivational scaffolding, however, was not used in any of the classes. Moreover, the extent to which scaffolding was used in EFL classes equaled 35.8 %, of which 6.55, 11.71, 17.4, and 0.03 % was devoted to cognitive, metacognitive, procedural, and context scaffolding, respectively. This study puts forward the view that teacher educators and material developers should turn their attention to the development of tasks through which language instructors can take advantage of motivational and contextual scaffolds that actively involve students in learning.