Iranian Journal of English for Academic Purposes
Volume:10 Issue: 3, Summer 2021

The education norms are influenced by teacher autonomy as well as learner autonomy. In this gender-comparative study, we followed the debate concerning the link between EFL academics autonomy sense and their styles of teaching. The data was gathered through convenience sampling by online distributing two sets of questionnaires namely Pearson and Moomaw’s Teacher Autonomy Scale and Grasha’s Teaching Style Inventory which was completed by 156 Iranian EFL teachers (both male and female) to respond to the two research questions. Then, SPSS (version 26) was used to analyze the data obtained from our three sample groups: males only, females only, and mixed. The analysis showed the female participants’ autonomy sense was significantly lower than the males’. However, females gained stronger correlations between their autonomy and the teaching style sub-constructs. Moreover, the following results could be inferred from our statistical results a) Males naturally feel more sense of autonomy than females do. b) As teacher autonomy increases, its correlation to different teaching styles becomes weaker. c) As a teacher’s sense of autonomy decreases, his/her tendency increases to use the formal authority style which does not need much expertise and qualifications. d) The high tendency to use the facilitator style by our participants in this study can be related to the fact that about 70 % of the participants of each group have got a teaching degree.

Recently, comparative investigations of academic Research Articles (RAs) between native and non-native writers of English have been the scene of considerable debate. This may translate into insider norm knowledge to help non-native academic writers approximate the native speaker’s generic conventions of academic delivery. In this spirit, Halliday’s notion of Grammatical Metaphor (GM) was used in this study to compare the introduction sections of Applied Linguistics RAs by Iranian and native speaker academic writers in Applied Linguistics. A random sampling was conducted to arrive at twenty-five RAs written by Iranian writers, and twenty-five by native speaker ones. The introduction sections of these RAs were analyzed synchronically using Halliday’s types of Ideational Grammatical Metaphor. The article-to-article comparison data pointed to no significant statistical difference between the Iranian and native speaker writers’ deployment of Ideational GM in the introduction sections of the selected RAs, although in the overall number of types of GM used, the difference was significant. The results show that in a 13-cells (100.0%) scheme, expected frequencies lie below 5, where the minimum expected cell frequency is 1.0. As such, based on significant level (1.0<5), the difference was statistically significant (100.0%) scheme, expected frequencies lie below 5, where the minimum expected cell frequency is 1.0. As such, based on significant level (1.0<5), the difference was statistically significant.The findings of this research might be helpful for curriculum developers and syllabus designers, by way of a need for the inclusion of suitable writing instruction practices and norms which could not only familiarize EFL students with academic and scientific writing conventions, but work also to increase their awareness about the real lexicogrammatical and syntactic dimensions of re-mapping that powerful semantic and systemic processes like GM trigger at the level of the clause.

Investigating the rhetorical patterns of research article (RA) sections elucidates the complex nature of academic literacy, especially, for non-native researchers. Although the literature review (LR) has a central role in establishing the foundation of the study, less clarity is available concerning its unique complexities. This paper thus explores the generic structure of the literature review section (LR) of 122 RAs published in Iranian journals (IrRAs) and international journals (IntRAs) using Swales’ (1990) Create A Research Space (CARS) model. The IrRAs (n=61) were selected from seven established Iranian journals and the IntRAs (n=61) were chosen from seven professional journals with an impact factor greater than 1. Two coders identified the moves and steps of several RAs via negotiated coding. The results indicated that both groups had approximately similar patterns regarding the moves and steps. In both groups, ‘establishing a territory’ (M1) and ‘occupying a niche’ (M3) were the most and least used moves, respectively. Likewise, both groups used M1 and M3 to start and finish LR, respectively. A tendency for employing the irregular move patterns in IntRAs and the regular move patterns in IrRAs was also observed. These findings help novice researchers to better tackle the challenges of LR writing.

Models proposed to enhance learner autonomy facilitate creating autonomy-supportive environments and promote learning achievement. This study intended to provide empirical evidence for the effect of employing Benson’s (2001) and Blin’s (2010) instructional models of learner autonomy on Iranian EFL learners’ reading achievement and strategy use. To this end, three intact classes with 75 sophomores majoring in TEFL were selected based on convenience sampling and received the strategy-based reading instruction in the models’ framework. They were randomly assigned to the experimental groups that practiced Benson’s Instructional Model (BEN-M, n=26), Blin’s Instructional Model (BLN-M, n=24), and the control group that followed Conventional Teaching Methods (CTM, n=25). An explanatory mixed methods research was used. After the treatment, the participants took a reading post-test. They also participated in semi-structured interviews. They took a reading strategy questionnaire (RSQ) before and after the treatment as well. Tests of one-way Analysis of Variance were exploited to scrutinize the changes between the means of groups and specify the effectiveness of intervention programs in improving the reading skills and strategy usage. Post-hoc Scheffe test located where precisely the differences laid. For qualitative data analysis, semi-structured interviews were transcribed and coded and then underwent content analysis. The results indicated that instructional intervention led to a higher level of reading achievement. The experimental groups outperformed the control group regarding the application of reading strategies. The semi-structured interviews also revealed that the participants held favorable perceptions of the instructional models.

This study investigated the writing quality of EFL students through the factors of source text use (source idea, linguistic modification, and content accuracy) in integrated writing assessment. The participants were 30 MA-level EFL students from three different universities in Fras province, Iran. The participants were selected through purposive sampling. The test used in the study was a standardized three-part TOEFL package with reading, listening and writing sections. The study used both qualitative and quantitative data to report the findings. In the qualitative part, some instances of source idea, substantial linguistic modification, and content accuracy were listed in tables to show how the participants generally responded to these factors. In the quantitative part, multiple regression analysis was used and all of the assumptions were verified. The results revealed that the predicators could significantly explain 25.8% variance in the writing quality scores. Furthermore, out of the three factors of source text use, “substantial linguistic modification” was the only significant component, which was seemingly influenced by the participants’ advanced level and the nature of the writing task. The related implications were also elaborated.

Investigating stakeholders' perceptions about course success has been signified as a useful method in program evaluation. This study evaluated English for Specific Purposes (ESP) programs in engineering departments at Iranian state universities by examining stakeholders' views. Engineering students (N=100) and ESP practitioners (N=8) participated in interviews, and non-participant observations were carried out to better understand the learning and teaching contexts. Content analysis of the interviews showed that some obstacles such as 1) low GE proficiency of students and heterogeneous classes, 2) limited time, 3) ministry decision for making the course elective, 4) students' low motivation, 5) teachers' low motivation, 6) inappropriate materials and teaching methods hindered course usefulness and effectiveness from the perspective of the participants. The findings urged the importance of comprehensive needs analysis to resolve the controversies among stakeholders about course objectives and contents and eliminate the mismatches between course objectives and students' expectations.

The present study explored the impact of various techniques of pre-class content delivery in flipped classrooms on Iranian EFL learners’ inferential reading comprehension. In addition, the students’ perceptions toward the flipped learning experience and WhatsApp application as the online platform for the delivery of course contents were rigorously examined. To this end, 72 homogeneous intermediate EFL learners from one language institute in Iran were randomly assigned into four equal groups. The techniques being evaluated in these four flipped classrooms were attending video conferencing meetings, listening to audio podcasts, watching PowerPoint slides, and the combination of all the aforementioned ones, respectively. To elicit the required data, multiple sources of instruments, including Nelson-Denny Reading Test (NDRT), reading comprehension pre-and post-tests and a semi-structured interview were used. The results of descriptive statistics demonstrated that while the participants’ scores of all groups increased in the reading comprehension post-test, blending various techniques of pre-class delivery contributed most in improving the participants’ performance. However, the increase in the final scores of the PowerPoint group was insignificant. The results of one-way ANOVA analysis demonstrated a significant discrepancy among the four groups after the treatment. Post hoc comparisons indicated that the significant difference only occurred between the blended and PowerPoint groups. The results of qualitative data showed that most interviewees favored learning English in a flipped learning environment and they were also satisfied with the quality of pre-class content delivery via WhatsApp. Based on the findings, the study also offers important implications for future research.