Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research
Volume:9 Issue: 1, Jan 2021

While the last two decades have witnessed a growing body of research on the quality of student writing, research on the impact of the socio-cognitive approach on young learners’ writing has remained scarce. To fill this gap, this study investigates the effects of the socio-cognitive approach on the writing quality of 98 fourth graders in Singapore. The study addresses the question on whether there are any differences (in terms of macro-organization, complexity, productivity, and accuracy) in the compositions produced under the traditional methods and the socio-cognitive approach to writing program. Data sources include fourth graders’ pre- and post-test written documents over two years. Using the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer, the written documents were analyzed in terms of macro-organization, fluency, lexical diversity, and complexity. Results showed that post-test writings of low-achieving students in the experimental group exhibited more development in story elements, use of different words, lengthier texts, and improvement in accuracy in terms of reduction of errors in capitalization, spelling, and punctuation. This study contributes to the field by suggesting the effectiveness of teaching writing to low proficiency learners through the use of a socio-cognitive approach.

The study is designed to examine the effectiveness of corrective feedback (CF) from Chinese second language (L2) teachers to their students in mainland China. Investigations into how CF works were carried out based on three aspects: teachers’ perceptions of CF effectiveness, factors affecting it, and their interplay. An ecological approach—the nested ecosystem model—was employed to analyze data collected from interviews and stimulated recall interviews. A total of 22 class periods from 11 teachers were observed, and 8 teachers were interviewed. Collected data were then analyzed with Nvivo 11. Findings suggest that teachers’ main criterion for effective CF is raising students’ awareness of the error. Factors affecting teachers’ perceptions of CF effectiveness can be direct or indirect. Direct factors refer to the manner of CF provision, which was determined by reasons including error, teaching focus, audience, learners’ individual difference, teaching experience and class time. Indirect factors include empathy, cultural stereotypes and learners’ emotions. The influence of each individual factor on CF effectiveness, as well as the influence of their interplay, was examined. This study suggests that in the context of mainland China, teachers’ perceptions of effective CF were based on raising students’ awareness on the error; factors affecting CF effectiveness were largely the same as those in previous studies. What is new to the current study is that it highlights the influence of indirect factors from cultural and affective dimensions on teachers’ CF perceptions and the dynamic nature of CF effectiveness.

Grammar has always been considered by language learners as well as by those engaged in language education as an essential component of language, and their expectations from and planning for any language education programs have been conditioned accordingly. The definitions of the term grammar and its categories in all languages go back to traditional Latin and Greek grammarians irrespective of their possibly obvious differences and have persisted even now long after the emergence of the scientific study of language which recognizes the unique system of every single language (cf. Saussure, 1916/ 1956). What is grammar and how much is it effective in ‘learning’ an L2, if at all? This paper will examine the commonsensical understanding of the term grammar, i.e. ‘the code-system’ as opposed to ‘grammar’ as ‘a theory of human experience’: an agency construing human experience into meaning (cf. Halliday & Matthissen,2004), i.e. ‘grammaticality’ as opposed to ‘textuality’, arguing that if any recourse to grammar is advocated, as done in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) literature in the form of ‘focus-on-form’ mediation, this ‘form’, rather than being defined in terms of ‘grammaticality’, should be ‘textuality-oriented’ due to the reality that the knowledge accumulated by the learner about the grammaticality is of declarative nature and as such it will not convert into procedural communicative competence. Expanding upon the work done earlier on the topic (cf. Lotfipoursaedi, 2015, 2016, & 2019), the concept of textuality and how its perception by the recipients of a text enables them to handle it will be further discussed and examples of textuality-oriented L2 education pedagogic moves, as the SLA classroom mediation strategies will be examined.

In an attempt to add to the current body of research on written corrective feedback (CF), the current study reports on a nine-week intervention, which initially focused on the effect of direct written CF on learners’ use of English articles in their writing and then examined the effect of adding metalinguistic explanation to this CF type; and finally, the effect of learners’ Language Analytic Ability as an individual difference factor is investigated on language development through CF. To do so, this study used a pretest-treatment-posttest- delayed posttest research design and involved 57 intermediate female Iranian EFL learners aged 15-18 in three intact language classes, randomly assigned to the following groups: direct-only CF, direct CF with metalinguistic explanation, and control group. Initially, the findings demonstrated positive effects for direct written CF provided to learners’ writing, though the short-term benefit was more evident and statistically significant. The results also revealed a positive gain pattern through time for learners that received metalinguistic explanation, which supports the provision of such information along with written CF in language classrooms. Finally, learners’ language analytic ability was seen to be predictive of short-term and long-term learner gains when received metalinguistic explanation. The findings suggest that metalinguistic explanation provided as part of the feedback to language learners’ writing is conducive to a higher level of cognitive engagement and leads to better learning outcomes.

The power imbalance inherent in supervision can seriously challenge language teachers’ autonomy leading to resistance, anxiety, frustration and even anger. This study explored the possible uses or abuses of power when teacher supervisors exercise their authority to fulfill their responsibilities. The study drew on Foucault’s (1991) conception of power, and Vygotsky’s (1978) social constructivism. Using mixed-methods design, the researchers interviewed both EFL teachers, and supervisors, and examined some post-observation feedback conferences. A questionnaire was also administered to survey teachers’ and supervisors’ conception of power dynamics in the language teacher supervision profession. Factor analysis of the data resulted in the extraction of two factors including “directiveness” and “uniformity promotion”. Independent samples t-test did not indicate a significant difference between the teachers’ and supervisors’ perceptions of power. Analysis of the interviews and post-observation feedback conferences confirmed the findings indicating that supervisors mostly used classic prescriptive approaches to supervision in which teachers have little power. Supervisors mostly resorted to their position power and reward power seldom using their expert power which seems to have led to resistance on the part of the teachers. Finally, the paper provides a framework emerging from the qualitative data that presents some strategies to effectively manage the power imbalance in language teacher supervision profession.

The capability of choosing appropriate coping strategies while attempting to manage classroom context seems to determine learning satisfaction ratings and, therefore, achievement by university learners. However, it is still not clear whether coping style (CP) is a strong mediator of classroom management (CM). Additionally, the degree of relationship among the three variables (CP and CM and learners’ achievement), and the path of relationship is not known yet. The present study was, thus, an attempt to identify the classroom management practices and coping styles (CS) of 152 Iranian EFL instructors and the causal relationship between the two regarding 375 EFL learners’ ultimate achievement. To this end, Classroom Management Techniques Scale and Coping Styles Scale (Lewis, 2001) were administered to teacher- participants. Results indicated that teachers reported use of positive strategies of involvement and recognition; and social problem solving and relaxation compared to the rather negative categories of classroom management and coping styles. In addition, the results of structural equation modeling highlighted the positive effect upon the learners’ end of year (2016-2017) language achievement of classroom management and coping styles. However, coping styles did not mediate the relationship between teachers’ classroom management and the learners’ ultimate achievement. Findings are discussed in relation to effective teacher classroom management leading to learners’ better academic performance and their prospective consequences for future research.

Workplace stress among employees has been known to impede work efficacy, a phenomenon usually referred to as burnout. Recently, there has been a growing research on this issue in educational contexts, particularly at pre-tertiary levels, giving rise to a need to do this kind of investigation at higher education level as well. As a response to this need, the present paper is a report of a case study aimed at examining the causes of burnout experienced by two Iranian EFL academics. The results of the thematic analysis of the interviews with the participants indicated five main conceptual categories associated with the subjects’ burnout experiences: Institutional demands, interpersonal problems, discordant outlooks, lack of student motivation, and lack of institutional supports. The discussion on each of these categories shed light on how these categories may contribute, in varying degrees of course, to the burnout among academics.

Numerous studies have examined the significance of motivation in learning English as a Foreign Language. However, only a few studies have focused on English for Specific Purposes settings. The current study examined the students’ perception of motivating teaching strategies in ESP classrooms. One hundred and sixty-three ESP students from a public university in Indonesia participated in the study. They completed a questionnaire which reflected their perceptions on the most and the least motivational teaching strategies. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 was used to analyze the data. The results show that ESP students preferred teaching practices that provided them with a comfortable and enjoyable environment as the most motivating ones. On the other hand, they perceived teaching strategies that were related to activities and assignments as the least motivational ones. The results of the study provide guidelines that may help the teachers to employ appropriate strategies that can motivate students in ESP classes.

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