Applied Linguistics
Fereshteh Abolhasanpour; Hamid Allami; Minoo Alemi
Abstract
Although prior research has discursively examined the inclusion of intercultural pragmatic content in EFL contexts, there has been little focus on how teachers perceive and implement intercultural pragmatic competence within the classroom. To fill this gap, we tried to develop a theoretically informed ...
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Although prior research has discursively examined the inclusion of intercultural pragmatic content in EFL contexts, there has been little focus on how teachers perceive and implement intercultural pragmatic competence within the classroom. To fill this gap, we tried to develop a theoretically informed instrument to assess intercultural pragmatic competence and administer it to a representative sample of 376 EFL teachers. Using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), we investigated the factor structure underlying the scale. The results indicate six distinct factors: sociocultural awareness, empathetic engagement, adaptive communication, inference, pragmatic motivation, and strategic competence. The Cronbach's alpha values demonstrated that each factor reflected conceptual coherence and internal consistency. The findings revealed that intercultural pragmatic ability comprises several dimensions, and correspondingly highlight the significance of these characteristics within the framework of EFL instruction. The validated instrument can provide researchers, teacher educators, and curriculum designers with a significant resource for assessing and improving intercultural pragmatics in language education.
Applied Linguistics
Sima Ziaei; Behzad Ghonsooly; Zargham Ghabanchi; Hesamoddin Shahriari
Abstract
The aim of this paper was to investigate the role of two cognitive factors, namely, personality traits and narrative writing intelligence (NWI) in L2 writing. The total of 416 English learners participated in this study in two different phases. For the purpose of this study, a narrative writing intelligence ...
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The aim of this paper was to investigate the role of two cognitive factors, namely, personality traits and narrative writing intelligence (NWI) in L2 writing. The total of 416 English learners participated in this study in two different phases. For the purpose of this study, a narrative writing intelligence scale (NWIS) was designed and used to score the writings of the first group of participants which included 200 Iranian learners of English in an EFL institute. The first writing task, which was a film recounting, contributed to designing this scale. Randall’s (1999) definition of narrative intelligence was the guideline to design the primary draft of NWIS. All 200 written film recounting were scored by this scale. The scores were transferred to SPSS 18.0. and Exploratory Factor Analysis was run. NWIS’ construct validity and reliability were confirmed. Moreover, the underlying dimensions causing correlation among the observed variables were reduced in three factors which account for 57.47% of the variance of the scale. The factors were named as Unity of the plot, Identification (of characters, objects, and ideas), and Voice and Rhetoric. The second group, who were female university students of EFL, were given two tasks, namely, writing a memory and filling Big-Five Personality test. Their writings were evaluated twice; once by employing the NWIS and once by a tailor-made writing scoring guide taken from Weigle’s (2002) guideline. Transferring all scores to Amos. 20, a SEM model was proposed by the researchers. The result shows the proposed model has good fit indices.
Teacher Education
Masoomeh Estaji; Mohsen Shafaghi
Abstract
Teacher Evaluation (TE) is a critical and controversial process in the teaching profession and formal education system. Effective TE requires both sound policy implementation and efficient processes, affecting the efficiency of the education system. To present a framework for research and highlight the ...
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Teacher Evaluation (TE) is a critical and controversial process in the teaching profession and formal education system. Effective TE requires both sound policy implementation and efficient processes, affecting the efficiency of the education system. To present a framework for research and highlight the constructs of TE, this study developed and validated a teacher evaluation questionnaire. To this end, seven TE components were identified after undertaking a comprehensive review of the literature and conducting interviews with domain experts on TE. Then a draft version of the TE questionnaire, consisting of 105 items, was pilot tested with 330 teacher evaluators, who were working for various English language institutes in Iran. The results, using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), led to a 90-item questionnaire with strong estimates of reliability and validity. The results also demonstrated that the questionnaire consisted of a six-factor structure of perception, method, system, content, purpose, and outcome of TE. The subsequent Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) of the data from another 360 Iranian teacher evaluators, selected through convenience sampling, indicated that the six-factor structure of the questionnaire was statistically supported, meaning that the questionnaire’s detected constructs were not the result of random variance in the participants’ responses. The results of the study have presented a framework for research and highlighted the principles of teacher evaluation.