Teaching English Language
Volume:15 Issue: 36, Summer and Autumn 2021

Identity conflict resolution is an essential stage in teachers' identity construction.  As there seems to be no tool to measure resolution strategies for overcoming the imposed identity, we developed an 18-item questionnaire based on a previously validated imposed identity questionnaire. It included four options of resolution strategies for coping with imposed identity adopted by four identity configurations of teachers, namely Rebellious, Submissive, Harmonious, and Duplicitous. he analysis of the data which were collected from 42 EFL teachers through the resolution strategies questionnaire indicated the dominant types of configuration the teachers projected in coping with mandates by managers, supervisors, and learners as three sources of imposition. Faced with institute managers' imposition, most teachers manifested a Harmonious identity except when managers treated teachers based on their personal attitudes rather than teachers' professional abilities. To deal with supervisors' imposition, the teachers tended to be mostly Submissive or Harmonious. As to learner-driven imposition, the teachers opted for Rebellious and Harmonious strategies to resolve most of the impositions. The findings indicate how identity may be imposed, changed, and managed. Supervisors, managers, and EFL teachers need to consider how identity conflict resolution can lead to a desirable EFL environment for teaching.

Grounded in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of mind, dynamic assessment (DA) procedures integrate assessment and instruction into one unified activity. Mediation as the core concept of DA is defined as the assistance and the feedback offered by the mediator to the learners while engaging in the process of assessment. This study aimed at addressing the effect of DA training on the meditational moves of student mediators regarding a writing accuracy task in small groups in an EFL classroom. A multiple case study design was used in this study. Five students underwent DA training during which they were exposed to a large classroom DA by a teacher mediator followed by basic theoretical underpinnings of DA as well as mock DA practice and discussion. Data were collected though video records of DA training workshops and Group Dynamic Assessment sessions. Additionally, stimulated recall was used to help student mediators reflect on the interactions. Language-related episodes were used for data analysis. The findings showed that DA training resulted in qualitative and quantitative changes in the meditational moves of student mediators, which calls for incorporating of small group DA as an essential complementary to large classroom DA and learner-centered approaches to teaching and assessment in the EFL classrooms.

This research was conducted to investigate whether audio-visual feedback affects the medical students' procrastination in writing. This is a quantitative experimental study investigating 50 medical students studying at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in the 2019-2020 fall semester who had taken an English compulsory writing course. They were assigned into two academic writing classes. Each group consisted of 25 male and female students. To collect data, the researchers applied the Procrastination Assessment Scale for Students. The items were scored on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never procrastinate) to 5 (always procrastinate). Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyze the data. Results revealed that procrastination was decreased in both groups receiving audio-visual and traditional feedback, but providing audio-visual feedback was more effective in decreasing procrastination levels in writing of these students. This finding can help writing instructors develop innovative modes of instruction to improve the learners' performance and their active engagement in the writing process.

Teachers need to keep up to date with a set of clear and common expectations and formidable challenges that arise in classroom assessment practices. Defining and conceptualizing of language assessment literacy have been the subject of much debate, especially with regard to detecting and defining the main components of language assessment literacy for language teachers (Levi & Inbar-Lourie, 2019). The main aim of the study was to pinpoint and define the main comments of LAL in the EFL context of Iran. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews with high school EFL teachers, and reviewed existing literature, documents on language assessment literacy as well as utilized the grounded theory approach to explore EFL teachers’ perception and insights into language assessment literacy and define the main components of language assessment literacy based on the EFL teachers' perceptions. The proposed model consists of three elements, namely awareness of language pedagogy, assessment principles and interpretation, assessment policy and local practices. In the second stage of the present study, to ensure reliability and validity of the scale, 203 Iranian EFL teachers with the age range between 22 to 55 were asked to complete the newly-developed instrument. Finally, to measure the EFL teachers’ language assessment literacy, 41 five-point Likert-scale items were developed. Based on all validation and statistical procedures, the newly-developed scale can be considered a valuable tool for measuring high school EFL teachers’ language assessment literacy.