Iranian Journal of English for Academic Purposes
Volume:12 Issue: 2, Spring 2023

Since the 2012 Iranian Education Reform, major changes have been applied to the English assessment system and methods. After a decade, the efficacy and validity of these revisions and modifications are yet unclear. In the Iranian education system, teachers are the main agents of designing and conducting English assessments. It is believed that analyzing their beliefs and attitudes will provide valuable information regarding the current language assessment status. Therefore, the present study was concerned with investigating the Iranian EFL junior high school teachers’ conceptions of English assessment. It also attempted to explore the relationship between teachers’ experiences and their conceptions of assessment. To this end, the data were collected using the abridged version of the Teachers’ Conception of Assessment (TCoA) Inventory. Ninety-six English teachers of junior high schools in Iran were selected through convenience sampling to answer the TCoA inventory. The results of the descriptive statistics indicated that “Improvement” (M=4.19) and “School Accountability” (M=4.05) were endorsed more than other purposes of assessment. Furthermore, the Kruskal-Wallis test showed that the EFL teachers’ conceptions differed by their level of teaching experience only in the case of the “control” construct. The low experience group of English teachers had the least mean score for the controlling aspect of assessment. The results of the study were used to suggest practical implications to educational policymakers to improve the English assessment in the Iranian junior high schools.

  The present study focuses on gesture functions Iranian novice and expert teachers express and utilize in the classroom in order to develop qualitatively-oriented models of gesture functions. The participants were 15 novice and 14 expert teachers teaching English at language institutes. In order to collect the data, the researchers carried out a number of initial interviews, observations and post-observation interviews. In fact, 8 novice and 10 expert teachers were initially interviewed to brain storm their ideas as to which gesture types they used and why. Afterwards, 15 classes of differing proficiency levels were observed through direct non-participant observation. Finally, 37 post-observation interviews were held to help clarify on confusing observations. Applying Corbin and Strauss (2008) systematic steps of open, axial and selection coding, novice teachers, on the one hand, employed gestures for didactic (practice & feedback) and disciplinary (management & punishment) purposes. Expert teachers, on the other, utilized gestures for didactic (practice, instruction & feedback), disciplinary (Management) and rapport (Confidence, encouragement & involvement) functions. Practically, the results of the current research have specific and practical suggestions for novice teachers in order to enable them in managing and teaching learners more efficiently.  It can also be assumed that non-verbal communication, in general, and gesture, in particular, can facilitate learning, and this is the experience of expert teachers that make them flexible users of a combination of verbal and nonverbal strategies.

Writing an academic thesis study has received much attention over the last decades as it is a crucial facet of most post-graduation programs. The current study aimed to explore the perceptions of Iranian writers of theses with a focus on the application of meta-discourse markers. To achieve the goal, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 female and five male Iranian M.A. EFL graduates recruited based on convenience sampling. The interview questions were designed following Hyland’s (2004) protocol comprising 25 questions derived from five basic concepts, namely, general, audience, language support, organization, and attitude. The interviewees’ responses were analyzed following a content analysis approach and later inductively classified based on five themes: general, audience-related, language support, organization, and attitude. The analysis of students’ opinions revealed that they preferred a subject for conducting research which could be attractive and practical. The participants referred to their worries about writing up a thesis in a calm and self-confident manner as well as their difficulty in establishing cohesion and coherence of their writing. The interviewees asserted that using attitude and engagement markers as well as hedges in an efficient way can help them express their own viewpoints in their theses. Meanwhile, they stated that writing a thesis could be an ongoing process and organized in a step-by-step movement, and writers need to pay a careful attention to the words which fulfill various functions in the text. The outcomes of this study may yield practical implications for students in writing classes in TEFL and ESP at M.A. and PhD levels.

The present study set out to gain insights into the status of English for specific purposes (ESP) in Iranian medical schools with five primary aims including deciphering the main challenges of teaching ESP, analyzing medical students' needs and lacks, evaluating ESP practitioners, examining the efficacy of ESP courses, and analyzing the proper time of offering ESP courses. Data were gathered through questionnaires, observations, and interviews with medical students, ESP teachers, and medical professionals. The findings suggested that inappropriate materials, low motivation and self-confidence of the students, and heterogeneous ESP classes were the main challenges of teaching ESP to medical students. In addition, while the participants believed the four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing were imperative for medical professionals, they were not practiced systematically in ESP courses. Moreover, it was found that the ESP teachers did not apply the basic principles of ESP teaching, and the courses were not as efficient as expected. Finally, the participants expressed contradictory views on the proper time for offering ESP courses. The findings contribute to the understanding of ESP principles to be incorporated in ESP classes.

The current survey is scaffolded on post-transmission pedagogy and heutagogy training with a technology-incorporated model. The researchers endeavored to incorporate an integrated version of KARDS (Knowing, Analyzing, Recognizing, Doing, Seeing) modules. The researchers employed convenience sampling to allocate 75 teachers into three classes. The groups were designated as heutagogy-focused, cybergogy-focused, and control groups. The instruments include an Oxford placement test, a knowledge, and technology TI-KARDS test. The application of cybergogy focused group was based on the framework introduced by Kumaravadivelue (2012), and the tenets of TPACK were proposed by Mishra and Koehler (2006). The implementation of a heutagogy focused group was based on the framework introduced by Kumaravadivelue (2012), and the tenets of heutagogy were investigated by Hase and Kanyon (2013). Through the heutagogy-focused phase, micro-learning, and micro-teaching techniques were used. Microlearning tools such as telegrambots and Chat-GPT were used. Through the cybergogy-focused phase, TPACK standards were introduced, and micro-learning tools such as YouTube and weblogs were used. One-way ANOVA indicated the three groups were homogenous. The findings revealed of two ANCOVA and post-hoc comparisons revealed that the heutagogy group significantly performed better than the cybergogy group and the control group on the post-test of pedagogical content knowledge and TI-KARDS test. The cybergogy group significantly performed better than the control group on the post-test of pedagogical content knowledge and TI-KARDS.

This study was conducted with the aim of shedding light on how the gradual increase of cognitive task complexity influences high proficiency undergraduate students’ listening comprehension and the role of proficiency in mediating cognitive task complexity effect. Another aim of this study was investigating the degree of equality between students’ perceived task difficulty and the theoretical expression of task complexity. To that end, high and low proficiency female students studying at a non-profit university in Tehran were selected based on their performance on the Oxford Placement Test. They were asked to perform simple non-intentional reasoning and few-step tasks, complex non-intentional reasoning and many-step tasks, and more complex intentional reasoning and many-step tasks in sequence during 3 sessions based on Robinson’s SSARC (stabilize, simplify, automatize, reconstruct, and complexify) model suggestion and express their perception of task difficulty after performing tasks. Results demonstrated that there was a statistically significant difference between high proficiency participants’ performance on simple, complex and more complex tasks and between high and low proficiency participants’ performances on these three tasks. The equality of participants’ perception of task difficulty and the theoretical expression of task complexity was not confirmed. The findings of this study can be used by language teachers, task designers, and test developers to decide on the appropriate degree of complexity of tasks.