Applied Linguistics
Kobra Marboot; Ali Roohani; Azizullah Mirzaei
Abstract
The digital information age requires skills and strategies that are crucial in comprehending online academic texts. Also, research has emphasized the crucial role of critical thinking (CT) in education. Thus, this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study aimed to (a) identify Iranian EFL students’ ...
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The digital information age requires skills and strategies that are crucial in comprehending online academic texts. Also, research has emphasized the crucial role of critical thinking (CT) in education. Thus, this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study aimed to (a) identify Iranian EFL students’ metacognitive online reading strategies and CT skills, and (b) investigate the possible relationship between Iranian EFL students’ metacognitive online reading strategies in academic texts with their CT skills. To these ends, 80 Iranian EFL university students, selected nonrandomly from Shahrekord University, took part in this study and responded to the Pookcharoen’s (2009) Online Survey of Reading Strategies and Facione, Facione, Blohm, and Giancarlo’s (2002) California Critical Thinking Skills Test. In the follow-up, to probe into metacognitive online reading strategy use, 10 Iranian EFL university students were selected to do think-aloud online reading tasks. The descriptive statistics indicated that the EFL university students greatly preferred to use problem solving strategies more, followed by different global and support reading strategies respectively. Also, evaluation and inductive (sub)skills of CT were used mostly by the university students. Moreover, the results of the think-aloud provided evidence in support of quantitative results, confirming various problem solving, global and support strategy use in online academic reading. Furthermore, Pearson correlations revealed a positive and significant relationship, though it was small, between metacognitive online reading strategy use and CT skills. Integrating the findings from the quantitative and qualitative components call for metacognitive strategy assistance and instruction and CT development to improve online reading comprehension.
Applied Linguistics
Mina Tasouji Azari; Saeideh Ahangari; Zohreh Seifoori
Abstract
It is one of the major areas of interest within the field of educational research to examine the role of teachers, their professional accomplishment and influential factors affecting or inhibiting the practice; of which, the study of teacher identity has taken on fundamental property. Thus, the present ...
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It is one of the major areas of interest within the field of educational research to examine the role of teachers, their professional accomplishment and influential factors affecting or inhibiting the practice; of which, the study of teacher identity has taken on fundamental property. Thus, the present study explored different aspects of a language teacher identity which led to the development of the theoretical framework of Holistic Identity of Language Teachers (HILT) based on the grounded theory. The data were collected in semi-structured individual interviews from 64 teachers in Iran. Employing a version of Strauss and Corbin’s (1998) coding paradigm, emerged a framework of a set of categories in terms of ‘process’ (i.e., becoming a teacher) as well as the grounding categories of ‘Persona Grata’ and ‘Public Persona’, resulted in the core category of ‘Teacherality’, along with three categories of ‘Navigating Strategies’, ‘Conditional Contributors’, and ‘Contextual Patterns’. The final consequence of the framework is ‘Actual Teaching Approach’, referring to the eventual phenomenon of the evolutionary continuum of being a holistic language teacher. The most obvious finding of the study refers to the emergent as well as evolutionary nature of HILT. Following the interplay between self and society in emergence of HILT, the schema was proposed to round up all revealed and unnoticed aspects of language teacher identity which can be implemented operationally to redefine, highlight, and activate its unprecedented role in an Iranian context.
Applied Linguistics
Farzad Alijanian; Fariba Mobini; Parisa Ghasemi
Abstract
AbstractThis study aimed to explore any type and level of association between Iranian EFL learners’ proficiency level and their intercultural sensitivity on the one hand, and the possible relation between vocabulary knowledge and sensitivity to cultural differences on the other. To this end, Oxford ...
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AbstractThis study aimed to explore any type and level of association between Iranian EFL learners’ proficiency level and their intercultural sensitivity on the one hand, and the possible relation between vocabulary knowledge and sensitivity to cultural differences on the other. To this end, Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) was administered to 220 EFL leaners. Based on the results of this test, a homogenized sample of 150 EFL learners (70 male and 80 female) at intermediate and upper-intermediate levels was selected. Afterwards, the participants took Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) developed by Nation, and validated by Webb, Sasao, and Balance. Finally, Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) by Chen & Starosta was administered. The results of Pearson correlation analyses revealed a statistically significant correlation between the participants' proficiency level and their intercultural sensitivity. The results of regression analyses also indicated that language proficiency contributes as much as 55.4 percent to the prediction of level of intercultural sensitivity. Moreover, a significant positive correlation was detected between EFL learners’ L2 vocabulary knowledge and their intercultural sensitivity level. Further, the results revealed that Iranian EFL learners’ L2 vocabulary knowledge can offer contributions up to 17.3 percent to the prediction of intercultural sensitivity level. These findings can offer prominent implications for all practitioners, material developers, and EFL instructors who are primarily preoccupied with linguistic competence. The results can motivate them to consider intercultural sensitivity as a complementary element to EFL learners’ linguistic knowledge, as well as their communicative commands.
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.
Applied Linguistics
Saman Jamshidi; Saeed Rezaei; Mohammad Hassanzadeh; Mahmood Dehqan
Abstract
From when the black box of authorial identity has been unpacked, the paucity of authorial identity model on the basis of a comprehensive theoretical framework addressed the need to establish a robust one (Cheung, Stupple, & Elander, 2015). The current study was comprised of three main phases including ...
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From when the black box of authorial identity has been unpacked, the paucity of authorial identity model on the basis of a comprehensive theoretical framework addressed the need to establish a robust one (Cheung, Stupple, & Elander, 2015). The current study was comprised of three main phases including hypothesizing a model of authorial identity, developing and validating a questionnaire based on the model and finally testing the model based on the questionnaire data. The participants, including M.A. and PhD students, were 30 for initial piloting, 60 for reliability estimation, 140 for exploratory factor analysis, and 175 for confirmatory factor analysis. At first, drawing on Ivanič’s (1998) model of writer identity and Prior’s (2001) ways of classifying voice, reviewing the related literature, and consulting with a cadre of experts, a model of authorial identity was proposed. Secondly, a questionnaire was developed and validated based on the hypothesized model. The reliability of the questionnaire, estimated through Cronbach’s alpha, was 0.73. Following that, exploratory factor analysis identified four components, namely authorial voice and identity, authorial persona, authorial background, and authorial style. Ultimately, SEM was run using AMOS in the confirmatory factor analysis phase to test the model. The results of this multi-phase research are presented and discussed for underlining the key role of authorial identity in academic writing for both novice and professional academicians.
Applied Linguistics
Mahnaz Saeidi; Shahla Ostvar; Ali Derakhshan; Branton Shearer
Abstract
This study reports psychometric properties and derivation of norms for a Persian version of the Multiple Intelligence Developmental Assessment Scales (MIDAS) for Adults. After examining and confirming equivalency between English and Persian versions, translated and validated by Saeidi, Ostovar, Shearer, ...
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This study reports psychometric properties and derivation of norms for a Persian version of the Multiple Intelligence Developmental Assessment Scales (MIDAS) for Adults. After examining and confirming equivalency between English and Persian versions, translated and validated by Saeidi, Ostovar, Shearer, and Asghari Jafarabadi (2015), the scale was administered to a sample (N = 2146), including students, undergraduates, graduates, and adults from different provinces in Iran. The participants were at least 19 years old and above (M = 29.40, SD = 2.26). Out of 2146 samples, 1103 females and 1043 were males. To examine the validity and reliability properties of the scale, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, Cronbach Alpha (α) reliability correlation coefficients, and corrected item-total correlations were employed. Exploratory factor analysis using varimax rotation identified eight principal components, which accounted for 67.21% of the variance for 115 items. The internal consistency coefficient (α = .92; ranging from 0.89 to 0.93) was also very high. The confirmatory analysis generally replicated the original conceptualization of the MIDAS. According to the results, the Persian-MIDAS-adults questionnaire has good psychometric properties in the research community and can be safely used as a valid tool to assess MI in Iran.
Applied Linguistics
Hamid Marashi; Mojgan Bani-Ardalani
Abstract
The present study was an attempt to explore the effect of clinical supervision on EFL teachers’ level of burnout. For this purpose, a total number of 80 male and female EFL teachers within the age range of 26 and 47 who were working at a language school in Tehran participated in this study. Forty ...
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The present study was an attempt to explore the effect of clinical supervision on EFL teachers’ level of burnout. For this purpose, a total number of 80 male and female EFL teachers within the age range of 26 and 47 who were working at a language school in Tehran participated in this study. Forty teachers in the experimental group underwent a clinical supervision program which comprised the three steps of pre-observation conference, observation, and post-observation feedback conference while the other 40 teachers who were in the control group were subjected to the conventional supervision program of the language school. The program for both groups spanned a total period of 12 weeks. Prior to the program, the Maslach Burnout Inventory questionnaire (MBI) was used to measure the level of all of the teachers’ burnout as the pretest and again at the end of study, both groups took the MBI questionnaire as the posttest. The analysis of the test scores using a test of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that the clinical supervision program had lowered significantly the participants’ burnout. As a result of this study, the researchers suggest that ELT establishments take into consideration the practice of clinical supervision to enhance their teachers’ performance.