Iranian Journal of English for Academic Purposes
Volume:11 Issue: 1, Winter 2022

Upon the emergence of new instructional assessments of writing in foreign language classes, peer assessment (PA) has received special attention by teachers over the past decades. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the impact of PA in face-to-face, blended, and flipped classes on English Foreign Language Learners’ (EFL) essay writing. To this aim, 65 students were homogenized by the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), and 36 students were selected and randomly assigned to three groups of blended, flipped, and face-to-face. Writing an argumentative essay as a pre-test was administrated at the beginning of the study to inspect the participants’ prior writing proficiency. Regarding the treatment, the flipped group was instructed to use PA within the online class, and the blended group received instruction in an online class and applied PA in a face-to-face one, while the face-to-face group was instructed to use PA in the conventional class. After the treatment sessions, all groups attended to write an argumentative essay as a post-test. Paired sample t-test and ANOVA were used to compare the mean scores of the pre-and post-tests of each group. The results of data analysis showed that the experimental groups outperformed the control group in the post-test. Also, the results of ANOVA implied that there was not any significant difference between the effect of PA in the flipped and blended groups in the post-test. The results of this study can be useful for English language students, teachers, and researchers interested in using different technologies in teaching.

Rapid development of information and communication technologies has changed learning a second language. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has removed restriction to traditional face-to-face education. The effect of synchronous/ asynchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) on Iranian EFL learners’ writing accuracy and complexity was examined in this study. To this end, a quasi-experimental design was used. Forty EFL learners were selected from an institution in Zahedan based on an Oxford Placement test. To evaluate learners’ writing, measures of accuracy and complexity were used. The data was analyzed by the help of a series of Multivariate Analysis of Variance. Regarding the writing accuracy, the results of the study showed significant differences among the groups. However, the results didn’t show any significant difference among the groups for writing complexity. The results of the study were discussed and suggestions for further studies have been made. The implications of this work can be strengthening of interaction based on the presence of SCMC and encouraging cognitive effort to improve learners’ language skills.

This study aimed to explore Iranian medical ESP instructors' professional identity formation. It also aimed to design a conceptual model of Iranian medical ESP instructors' professional identity. To this end, a purposive sample of ESP instructors teaching at Iranian medical universities were theoretically sampled based on the principles and procedures of grounded theory. The participants who took part in this study were twenty medical ESP instructors (fourteen females and six males). The sample included ESP instructors from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Iran Medical University, Mashad Medical University, and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The data were transcribed and transferred to MAXQDA 2020 and analyzed using grounded theory procedures in which open, axial, and selective coding were employed to extract the themes (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). The results revealed that the contextual factors of professional identity formation include: individual characteristics, professional expectations, person's point of view towards the ESP profession, and external factors. Professional identity formation processes involve learning to teach, membership in the ESP community, and job tensions. The strategies to encounter the job tensions entail: consultation with others and patterning, finding a solution by the person himself, job development and facing the stressful situation. The consequences of the contextual factors, processes and strategies in forming professional identity are categorized as playing the role of a medical ESP instructor and emotions resulting from tensions. Membership in the ESP community was identified as the core category of medical ESP instructors' professional identity. The findings of this study could be a preliminary stage of designing preparation programs for pre-service EFL teachers who have decided to work as ESP instructors at medical sciences universities in order to have a successful transmission. The findings of this study also allow Iranian medical ESP instructors to understand their professional identity better and be more successful in rebuilding and strengthening it in a positive direction.

This study focuses on the development of speaking skills in young Iranian learners and its contribution to the achievement of adequate oral production. It was conducted in a foreign language institute in Tabriz, Iran. Some 18 language teachers and 272 learners took part in the study.  The learners were selected based on the convenient sampling in which they were placed into 18 intact classes using a placement test. The study employed a mixed-methods design. Digital picture story books were prepared using The Little Red Hen and Three Billy Goats storybooks. The experimental group was given digital picture story books and the control group traditional story books without the special treatment. A pre-test, a post-test, and a semi-structured interview were used to answer the questions. SPSS software was used for data analysis. The outperformance of the experimental group at the post-test revealed that using digital picture storytelling enhances learners’ oral production. Semi-structured interviews outlined the positive motivational effect on the learners and the teachers’ experiences using this method in their classes. The findings could aid language teachers in selecting a method that can facilitate young learners’ oral production.

Upholding the same standards, if not higher, in online courses as those in the face-to-face mode is crucial particularly during the time when online education is the only possibility due to the pandemic. The present study was an attempt to evaluate and compare the quality of an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course over five consecutive academic semesters (one face-to-face and four online semesters) at Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT) to find out if the quality of the online instruction during the Covid-19 pandemic was comparable to that of the face-to-face mode before the pandemic. In so doing, three course components were checked; vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension. 213 students studying English I at AUT were studied. The results of SPANOVAs run indicated that for the vocabulary and grammar components, the only group experiencing a significant disadvantage was the Feb.2020 group undergoing the online instruction right after the outbreak. However, for the reading comprehension component, no online group could reach a level of performance similar to that of the face-to-face group, indicating that the quality of online instruction could not uphold the same standards as those of face-to-face instruction. The possible reasons and implications are further discussed in the rest of the article.

The current study purports to carry out a systematic review of 279 articles published during the last ten-year period in the ESP Journal. It intends to (1) investigate how genre theory is viewed and used, (2) examine the most frequently used research methods, and (3) explore the general trends in the findings based on a bibliometric analysis of reliability coefficients. To this end, all the articles were initially codified based on the genres they established, type of reliability they reported, namely internal consistency (RA), interrater reliability (RB), and intra-rater reliability (RC), and the methods implemented, including Qualitative (MA), Quantitative (MB), and Mixed-Methods (MC). The findings obtained using SPSS software indicated that among the skills and subskills, writing received the highest attention (60.2%), and among various disciplines, business had the highest frequency (13.6%). Besides, Corpus Analysis was used by most of the researchers (43.4%). Furthermore, only 86 articles (30.8%) reported the reliability coefficients, and interrater reliability had the highest, and intra-rater reliability had the lowest frequencies. Among the three methods of research, Mixed Methods had the maximum frequency (52%) and Quantitative Methods had the lowest (11.5%). Besides, 36.6% of the articles used the Qualitative Method for their studies.

In multicultural context of health care, health providers’ ethnocentrism and English language skills play a crucial role in effective and appropriate intercultural communication. This study aims to explore the relationship between ethnocentrism and investment in English language learning in the multi-ethnic context of English language classrooms at Iranian medical universities. Thus, the levels of ethnocentrism and investment in English language learning of 200 Iranian medical students were measured using General Ethnocentrism Scale and Investment in English Language Learning Scale. The findings of the present study showed that despite the participants’ relatively moderate levels of ethnocentrism and investment, the two constructs strongly and negatively correlated with each other. That is, the more ethnocentric the participants were, the less invested in English language learning they were. Further, the relationship between ethnocentrism and investment, and different contextual factors such as linguistic loyalty, intercultural friendship, sense of legitimacy, and social comfort in multi-ethnic English classes were investigated. The results showed that social comfort had the strongest relationship with the degree to which the participants invested in English language learning in multi-ethnic classes. Practical implications, direction, and limitations are discussed.