Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies
Volume:10 Issue: 3, Summer 2023

Literature in the field of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) recruitment practices suggests that the myth of monolingual speakerism has impacted the employment methods in various countries in the world. The monolingual (native) speaker has a privileged position in English language teaching, representing both the model speaker and the ideal teacher. Bilingual teachers of English are often perceived as less competent than their monolingual counterparts in Oman. The aim of the research was to critically explore and problematize the workplace and recruitment matters that discriminate between bilingual and monolingual English teachers in Oman. This research reports the findings of a small-scale qualitative study conducted at the English Language Centre (ELC) at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences in Oman through obtaining data via face-to-face oral interviews from six participants who were selected based on their personal willingness to get involved in this research. The results demonstrated that the native speakers’ fallacy is “alive and kicking” in Oman. The results of the study indicated that there is also a huge discrimination based on salary range between native and non-native teachers, despite doing same job. Colonial impact is another reason behind monolingual speakers’ preference. The impact of discrimination is that bilingual teachers of English are left feeling inferior. Hence it is essential to adopt policies, which install greater sense of job security to enhance motivation and innovation. The study suggests that recruitment practices in Oman must be reviewed to establish equality and to create a healthy working environment.

Even though interactional competence (IC) has been in the center of attention recently, its constructs/sub-components and influencing factors still require a profound scrutiny. The features associated with IC have indeed been probed in various realms of language learning and teaching. However, the effect of language learners’ gender on their perception of IC remains to be addressed. To bridge this gap, the present research, as one of the stages of development and verification of the Learners’ Interactional Competence Questionnaire (LICQ) investigated how gender may affect IC and its sub-constructs as perceived by males and females. A total number of 407 male and female intermediate-level Iranian EFL learners, selected through convenience sampling from several language institutes, participated in the study and responded to LICQ. Subsequently, a two-group Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to measure the potential effects of students’ gender on perceived interactional competence, including conversational management, speech acts, register, nonverbal semiotics, and requests and complaints. The results showed that gender did have a small significant effect on learners’ perceived interactional competence as a whole; while scrutinizing sub-components, it was also revealed that this effect is not visible in conversational management. The study findings provide learners with a self-assessment scale to identify their present state of IC perception. Besides, language teachers could consider the different perceptions of male and female learners of IC as an influential aspect of IC realization and development in the language classroom setting.

The empirically-validated link between teachers’ professional role identity and explicit manifestations of teacher efficacy has resulted in a burgeoning literature on educational programs/settings influential in teacher identity formation. In an attempt to expand on this strand of research, the present study explored how taking part in an academic multi-faceted teaching practicum may contribute to professional role identity construction/reconstruction among Iranian EFL student teachers. To this end, 45 third-year undergraduates majoring in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) were traced throughout a two-year (four-semester) teaching practicum held by Farhangian University, Iran. Based on a concurrent triangulation mixed methods design, the participants’ identity was gauged at five different time points: At the outset of the practicum and after every practicum semester. The quantitative data were gathered through the repetitive administration of a standard Likert-scale questionnaire developed based on Farrell’s (2011) tripartite model of professional role identity. Coincident with the surveying process, the qualitative data were gathered through a semi-structured interview held at the beginning of the practicum and four integrative reports developed by the participants at the end of every practicum semester. Within-group comparison of the survey data in tandem with content analysis of the qualitative data based on the focus framework revealed that the multi-faceted practicum helped the student teachers strike a balance in their identity as a manager and a professional. Additionally, the results called into question the contribution of the practicum to acculturator identity development. The influential role of a multi-faceted practicum in promoting professional role identity among student teachers calls for an investment of cost and time to exploit the full potential of practicums of the same quality.

The present study made an endeavor to determine the degree to which online and flipped approaches to writing instruction affected the EFL learners’ writing ability. To this end, first, the researchers selected 75 intermediate-level female EFL learners in three intact classrooms of a private language institute in Urmia (Iran) as the participants. These classes were randomly selected from among the online, flipped, and in-person classes of the relevant institute and were assigned to the online, flipped, and control groups. Second, the researchers administered the writing pretest of the study to all of the groups. Third, they used Adobe Connect learning management system to provide the online and flipped groups with the pertinent writing instruction treatment in ten sessions. Nonetheless, they provided the control group with in-person writing instruction. Fourth they administered the immediate and delayed writing posttests of the study to all of the groups immediately after the termination of the treatment sessions and one month subsequent to the end of treatment respectively. Finally, they used SPSS 24 to perform the data analysis. Based on the obtained results, although both of the online and flipped approaches had immediate and delayed positive impacts on the participants’ writing ability, the flipped approach was more beneficial than the online. The results may provide EFL teacher educators, course developers, syllabus designers, and teachers with guiding principles regarding the uses of online and flipped courses in foreign language contexts.

There is currently a growing tendency to a meaning-based approach to the analysis of syntactic complexity in academic writing. While previous studies have offered illuminating insights into linguistic realizations of rhetorical structures in relation to syntactic complexity, they have typically analyzed lexicogrammatical features in a decontextualized manner. Drawing on a corpus-based cross-sectional design, this study takes a function-first approach to investigating the rhetorical functions of syntactically complex structures in research article (RA) abstracts in applied linguistics. To that end, a corpus of 270 texts from leading applied linguistics journals was constructed. Based on the model proposed by Pho (2008), we manually annotated the texts for the moves, and measured their syntactic complexity using phrasal, clausal, and global metrics. SPSS (version 25) was run for the analysis of data. Results of one-way MANOVA (multivariate analysis of variance) and Chi-square tests revealed significant variations among rhetorical moves in terms of clausal and phrasal complexity measures. The findings also showed that academic writers varied the complexity of their written structures according to their rhetorical goals. The results establish form-meaning mappings between syntactically complex structures and rhetorical functions. The findings carry pedagogical implications for student writers to adjust their prose using functionally appropriate complex structures following expert writers through comparing their own writing with that of expert writers to notice the gaps.

The integration of reading and writing has recently been of interest to researchers. This study investigated the effectiveness of instructing integrated writing (IW) strategies to EFL learners. In addition, the changes in writing self-efficacy, anxiety, and motivation were examined. To gain a deep understanding of the issues, a convergent mixed-methods design was employed. A convenient sample of 30 students of English Literature studying in an EFL context participated in an IW course and their performances before and after instruction were compared using a rubric. Interviews and think-aloud protocols were also conducted to find themes regarding the effectiveness of the course. Moreover, the changes in the learners’ self-efficacy, anxiety, and motivation were measured through questionnaires administered at the beginning and the end of the course, and the interviews and think-aloud protocol themes regarding the changes were examined. The results of the analysis of the quantitative data by paired-samples t-tests and Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests indicated an improvement in the learners’ IW ability and strategy use, especially in source use. The qualitative data also revealed that the learners found the instruction and strategies effective. However, while the learners’ self-efficacy improved and their anxiety diminished largely due to learning, their motivation remained statistically stable. The results were interpreted from an activity theory perspective. The implications of the study for the theory, pedagogy, and research methodology of IW were also presented.