Applied Linguistics
Parviz Ahmadi; Nouroddin Yousofi
Abstract
Teachers’ emotions lie at the heart of their professional identity, yet how these emotions evolve during the practicum remains underexplored, especially among EFL pre-service teachers who are preparing for a tenure-track teaching career. This qualitative case study followed four Iranian undergraduate ...
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Teachers’ emotions lie at the heart of their professional identity, yet how these emotions evolve during the practicum remains underexplored, especially among EFL pre-service teachers who are preparing for a tenure-track teaching career. This qualitative case study followed four Iranian undergraduate EFL pre-service teachers over two semesters of their practicum to explore the features, sources, and trajectories of their emotional experiences. Drawing on focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, and field observations, the study identified several emerging themes: (1) positive emotions such as excitement, joy, and fulfilment when applying pedagogical knowledge and building rapport with students; (2) negative emotions including anxiety, frustration, and insecurity arising from students’ misbehavior, lack of support from mentors, and perceived low social value of teaching; and (3) ambivalent emotions reflecting the tension between idealism and the realities of the classroom. Over time, participants’ optimism gradually gave way to feelings of uncertainty, disappointment, and weakened vocational resilience. The findings highlight that while pre-service teachers with a strong teaching vocation initially display emotional commitment, their resilience can erode without sufficient mentorship and emotional scaffolding. The study underscores the need to foster socio-emotional competence, integrate positive psychology practices, and recalibrate pre-service teachers’ idealism to help them sustain motivation and professional well-being throughout their practicum and future careers.
Applied Linguistics
Shiva Kaivanpanah; Awat Mohammed
Abstract
Teachers’ beliefs play a determining role in the decisions they make and the strategies they employ to foster learner autonomy. Therefore, their beliefs and the strategies they use to foster autonomy merit additional empirical evidence. This study investigated the beliefs of 85 English as a Foreign ...
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Teachers’ beliefs play a determining role in the decisions they make and the strategies they employ to foster learner autonomy. Therefore, their beliefs and the strategies they use to foster autonomy merit additional empirical evidence. This study investigated the beliefs of 85 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Kurdish teachers towards learner autonomy and examined the influence of their experience in this regard. The data was collected using a newly developed questionnaire addressing learner autonomy from eight dimensions; the questionnaire encouraged teachers to reflect on their beliefs relating to learner autonomy. The findings indicated that teachers generally possess positive attitudes towards learner autonomy. Experienced teachers placed significantly greater emphasis on the psychological and political factors, the contributions of learner autonomy, and learning materials. The qualitative data indicated that both novice and experienced teachers stressed the importance of promoting autonomy through learner-centered teaching methods and student engagement. Experienced teachers employed more varied teaching methods and assessment techniques. While novice teachers preferred direct observation of their students during tasks and activities, experienced teachers adopted a more hands-off approach. The study underscores teachers' commitment to fostering independent learning across different dimensions of teaching practices. The differences in beliefs and strategies between novice and experienced teachers highlight the transformative impact of teaching experience on the promotion of learner autonomy. The findings implied that professional development programs should focus on shaping teachers’ beliefs towards using teaching strategies that foster autonomy.
ESP & EAP
Masoud Azizi
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed all universities to offer all programs online, but not all instructors were prepared for such an abrupt transformation. Online education can be very challenging both to the instructors and the institutions and has several subtleties that make it quite different from the face-to-face ...
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The COVID-19 pandemic pushed all universities to offer all programs online, but not all instructors were prepared for such an abrupt transformation. Online education can be very challenging both to the instructors and the institutions and has several subtleties that make it quite different from the face-to-face programs. There exists an urgent need for studies examining the effectiveness of such programs being offered amid the pandemic in comparison with the same courses held face-to-face. As a result, the present study was an attempt to compare the effectiveness of an online EAP course with that of the same course being offered face-to-face in terms of its three components, namely vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension. Sixty-eight students in two groups of online and face-to-face classes took part in this study with a pretest-posttest design. While the two groups were not significantly difference at the onset of the study, the results of the SPANOVAs run showed a significant difference in the case of the grammar component, but not the other two, with the face-to-face group outperforming the online one. The follow-up interviews revealed that learners in online classes often have little interaction with their instructors and peers, and teachers cannot keep learners engaged and active during the class as it is often conducted in the form of a monologue lecture. All this indicates that an online program is not a translation of a face-to-face curriculum into an online format, but it enjoys numerous intricacies that need to be considered by all those involved.
Teacher Education
Hamid Marashi; Narges Yousefi-Moghaddam
Abstract
The theory and practice of critical discourse analysis (CDA) has turned into a major theme of research in English language teaching (ELT) in recent times. At the same time, classroom management (CM) has long been a significant pursuit in ELT. Accordingly, this descriptive study investigated the relationship ...
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The theory and practice of critical discourse analysis (CDA) has turned into a major theme of research in English language teaching (ELT) in recent times. At the same time, classroom management (CM) has long been a significant pursuit in ELT. Accordingly, this descriptive study investigated the relationship between teachers’ CDA practices and classroom management. In doing so, 119 English teachers teaching in several language schools in the Iranian capital Tehran responded to two instruments: Murdoch’s (2000) checklist on effective CM and the Author’s (2017) CDA practices questionnaire (CDAPQ). The results revealed not only a significant correlation between teachers’ CM and CDA practices but also the predictability of the latter by the former. Furthermore, 30 EFL teachers within the original sample sat for a semi-structured interview concerning their views on the impact of CDA practices in CM; they unanimously agreed on the importance of applying CDA in the ELT classroom. The findings of this research demonstrate the importance of teachers’ CDA practices in attempting to enhance CM, thereby providing better opportunities for learners’ internalization of the new input they receive. The above goal of course necessitates an active engagement of not only EFL teachers but also teacher education institutions, syllabus designers, and materials developers.
Psycholinguistics
Zeinab Sazegar; Hamid Ashraf; Khalil Motallebzadeh
Abstract
Much of what educators address is the overt curriculum; however, there is a hidden curriculum that affects education in a very profound manner. In view of that, the purpose of the present study is to determine the relationship of EFL teachers’ perspectives on hidden curriculum components in the ...
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Much of what educators address is the overt curriculum; however, there is a hidden curriculum that affects education in a very profound manner. In view of that, the purpose of the present study is to determine the relationship of EFL teachers’ perspectives on hidden curriculum components in the Iranian institutional context with their students’ self-efficacy and national identity. More specifically, the present study surveyed the probable existence of any significant correlation between EFL teachers’ perspectives on the EFL hidden curriculum components, their students’ attitudes towards their own national identity, and self-efficacy. For this purpose, a model was suggested and tested using partial least squares variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), to examine EFL teachers’ perspectives on the EFL hidden curriculum components contributing to their students’ national identity and self-efficacy. A total of 164 institutional EFL teachers in Iran completed the EFL hidden curriculum questionnaire. Besides, 987 students (about eighty percent of their learners) were asked to fill in national identity and self-efficacy questionnaires. Based on this model, all the correlations between the latent variables were significant except for three latent variables including the relationships among EFL teachers’ perspectives on the EFL hidden curriculum components (social atmosphere, organizational structure, and interaction between teachers and learners) and their learners’ self-efficacy. In addition, the results depicted all the relationships between latent variables was positive relations; while, the relationship between EFL learners’ national identity and self-efficacy was proved to be negative.
Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
Rajab Esfandiari; Hajar Jafari
Abstract
Morphological complexity is one of the dimensions of complexity that has been increasingly analyzed over the last few years. However, results from previous studies drawing on only a single text type are inconclusive. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of text types (descriptive, narrative, ...
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Morphological complexity is one of the dimensions of complexity that has been increasingly analyzed over the last few years. However, results from previous studies drawing on only a single text type are inconclusive. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of text types (descriptive, narrative, and expository) on the morphological complexity of essays written by Iranian English language learners. The participants included 87 lower-intermediate male and female L2 learners at six language institutes in Qazvin, Iran, who were selected from 127 language learners taking an Oxford Quick Placement test. The participants wrote on each text type in three consecutive weeks as a part of their classroom activity. The morphological complexity of verbs and nouns was separately calculated using the morphological complexity index. The data were analyzed using a series of Friedman and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests. The findings did not show any statistically significant differences across text types for nominal inflectional diversity; however, verbal inflectional diversity was statistically significant across text types, with narrative essays morphologically more complex than descriptive and expository essays. The findings may have theoretical and pedagogical implications for researchers and L2 teachers.
Interlanguage Pragmatics (ILP)
Reza Bagheri Nevisi; Rasoul Mohammad Hosseinpur; Elahe Yazdankhah
Abstract
There have been a number of research concentrating on the request production of ESL/EFL, and native speakers. There have been some studies investigating the production of request speech act of EFLs and ESLs. However, no research has yet focused on the production differences of request speech act among ...
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There have been a number of research concentrating on the request production of ESL/EFL, and native speakers. There have been some studies investigating the production of request speech act of EFLs and ESLs. However, no research has yet focused on the production differences of request speech act among Iranian EFLs and ESLs in terms of internal and external modification devices. First, the participants were given Oxford Placement Test (OPT) to determine their English proficiency level and 95 learners were chosen out of 123 ESLs and EFLs to respond to the scenarios adopted from Schauer (2009). Second, the scenarios were given to the participants via email or an already-made GoogleDoc link of the scenarios. The results of the independent t-test revealed that Iranian ESLs outperformed their EFL counterparts. The results regarding request head act, internal and external modifiers demonstrated that ESLs mostly applied conventionally indirect request strategies while EFLs mostly tended to apply direct request strategies. It was also revealed that requests produced by ESLs were more native-like with no or few grammatical mistakes and that both EFLs and ESLs utilized external modifiers more than internal modifiers. This study implies that due and sufficient attention is to be paid to EFLs since they lack sufficient exposure to L2 and such impoverished pragmatic input might result in inappropriate applications of speech acts in general and request speech act in particular.
Discourse Analysis
Adel Mohammadi; Hiwa Weisi
Abstract
The present study aims to investigate users’ responses to linguistic diversity on Persian-language social media, particularly Instagram, based on Lippi-Green’s theoretical framework of language subordination. The study employs a mixed-methods design. In the qualitative phase, the data were ...
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The present study aims to investigate users’ responses to linguistic diversity on Persian-language social media, particularly Instagram, based on Lippi-Green’s theoretical framework of language subordination. The study employs a mixed-methods design. In the qualitative phase, the data were analyzed using the language subordination framework, which comprises seven core components: Mystification, authority, misinformation, trivialization, accommodators and non-accommodators, threat, and promise. In the quantitative phase, the frequency and proportional distribution of these components were calculated across more than 400 user comments posted on widely followed Persian-language Instagram pages between 2023 and 2026. The findings indicate that the components of misinformation and trivialization occurred most frequently and that social media platforms, contrary to common assumptions, serve as significant sites for reproducing the ideology of the standard language and marginalizing non-standard varieties. Furthermore, the results show that users’ linguistic judgments are largely influenced by entrenched monolingual standard ideologies that, consciously or unconsciously, construct the so-called Persian standard as superior while other language varieties as inferior.
Applied Linguistics
Forough Hosseinian Ahanghar Nezhad; Touran Ahour; Nasrin Hadidi Tamjid
Abstract
In keeping with Control-Value Theory (CVT), learners’ achievement emotions and language achievement can affect each other. The flexibility of learners in academic settings can be a refugee from academic difficulties, and protect learners from discouragement after a negative emotional experience ...
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In keeping with Control-Value Theory (CVT), learners’ achievement emotions and language achievement can affect each other. The flexibility of learners in academic settings can be a refugee from academic difficulties, and protect learners from discouragement after a negative emotional experience about achievement. Review of the literature proved the existence of several studies that have been conducted to support this theory. In this study, the possible contributions of eight achievement emotions (pride, hope, enjoyment, shame, anxiety, boredom, anger, and hopelessness) to language achievement in EFL context were examined to see if there was a relationship between them and learners’ language achievement. Accordingly, 279 advanced EFL learners (148 male and 131 female) of Iran Language Institute (ILI) took part. The Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ) was used to collect the data about the learners’ emotions and participants’ Grade Point Average (GPA) as evidence for their language achievement was employed to see how much of their achievement emotions could be contributed to their language achievement. The results of multiple linear regression revealed that enjoyment, hope, and anxiety were the three significant emotion factors predicting EFL learners’ language achievement and among them anxiety was the strongest predictor. In addition, based on the results of the independent-samples t-test, there was a statistically significant difference between the female and male learners’ achievement emotions scores. The learners’ emotions in language classes can be dealt with so that they can experience a better language learning experience. The findings are beneficial for EFL teachers, learners, and course designers.
Applied Linguistics
Maryam Moazzeni Limoudehi; Omid Mazandarani; Behzad Ghonsooly; Jila Naeini
Abstract
Much uncertainty still exists about the possible role of myriads external and internal mediating variables such as language backgrounds and ethnicities in the process of corrective feedback (CF). To address the issue, 79 monolingual Persians and 79 bilingual Turkmens aged between 13 and 18 from two language ...
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Much uncertainty still exists about the possible role of myriads external and internal mediating variables such as language backgrounds and ethnicities in the process of corrective feedback (CF). To address the issue, 79 monolingual Persians and 79 bilingual Turkmens aged between 13 and 18 from two language institutes in Golestan Province, Iran participated in the study comprising three experimental and a control group each. Pretests revealed the learners’ grammatical errors based on which the experimental groups were provided with different strategies of metalinguistic CF, namely mid-focused oral metalinguistic CF (OMCF), written metalinguistic CF (WMCF), and oral/written metalinguistic CF (OWMCF) on their five most recurrent grammatical errors while the control groups received none. Following significant Kruskal-Wallis test results, the Conover’s pairwise comparison test was employed to exhibit differences among CF strategies. In monolingual Persians and bilingual Turkmens, all the experimental groups significantly outperformed the control groups. Mid-focused OMCF and OWMCF had significant effects on the reduction of Persians’ errors, but for Turkmens, all the CF strategies exerted a significant reduction of errors. The effectiveness rank of the CF strategies investigated through Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) selected OMCF as the best strategy for monolingual Persians while for bilingual Turkmens, WMCF ranked first. This ranking was highly stable for 10000 iterations changing the weights up to 50%. The outcomes of the research might be of help to EFL learners, EFL teachers of bilingual learners, syllabus designers, and materials developers, while opening doors to further pertinent studies.
Interlanguage Pragmatics (ILP)
Rasoul Mohammad Hosseinpur; Reza Bagheri Nevisi; Mohammad Bagher Mikhak; Abdolreza Lowni
Abstract
The question of whether, and to what extent, different measures of pragmatic knowledge mirror students' capabilities as represented in their authentic application of language has been an important consideration in the vicinity of interlanguage pragmatics. To examine the production of politeness markers, ...
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The question of whether, and to what extent, different measures of pragmatic knowledge mirror students' capabilities as represented in their authentic application of language has been an important consideration in the vicinity of interlanguage pragmatics. To examine the production of politeness markers, as defined by House and Kasper's (1981) seminal work, this study compared and contrasted language learners' performance across four different measures of pragmatic competence: Written Discourse Completion Test, Oral Discourse Completion Test, Role-play, and Natural Methodology in an EFL setting. Furthermore, the requests made by 27 learners in natural situations and by means of WDCT, ODCT, and Role-play with similar characteristics were analyzed. The results revealed that hesitators enjoyed high prevalence in Natural Methodology and consultative devices and scope-stators were more popular in the WDCT, ODCT, and Role-play suggesting, regardless of some minor similarities, significant disparities between the three conventional data-gathering techniques and Natural methodology. The investigation exhibits that Natural Methodology might not necessarily be the ideal pragmatic measure to truly represent all politeness markers. WDCT, ODCT, and Role-Play could be more appropriate to draw on learners' explicit/declarative knowledge, though Natural methodology might be more advantageous to capitalize on learners' automated/procedural knowledge.
Psycholinguistics
Seyed Mohsen Hosseini; Azizullah Mirzaei; Mahmood Hashemian
Abstract
According to Skill Acquisition Theory (SAT), for declarative knowledge to become automatized, it needs to be clearly understood and practiced. Vygotsky (1978) viewed this process as fundamentally collaborative and mediational. Recent L2 research has employed Schemas for Complete Orienting Basis of an ...
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According to Skill Acquisition Theory (SAT), for declarative knowledge to become automatized, it needs to be clearly understood and practiced. Vygotsky (1978) viewed this process as fundamentally collaborative and mediational. Recent L2 research has employed Schemas for Complete Orienting Basis of an Action (SCOBA) as mediational tools to mediate underlying cognitive processes leading to use of targeted lexico-grammatical features. The present study explored EFL learners’ development of automatized grammatical knowledge of English tense-aspect concepts through SCOBA-based mediation. The adopted SCOBAs were essentially informed by Cognitive Grammar (CG) to mediate L2 learners’ conceptual understanding of the intended English features. The study used convenience sampling to recruit and randomly assign a cohort of 63 pre-intermediate EFL learners to an experimental (online/synchronous) and a comparison (offline/asynchronous) group. The experimental group received real-time intervention via Skype, while the comparison group had offline treatment through WhatsApp. The study employed a mixed-methods approach comprising Elicited Imitation Tests (EIT) and semi-structured interviews for data collection. Results of pretest-posttest comparisons indicated that both groups improved significantly after the instruction; however, subsequent ANCOVA results showed that the online group outperformed the offline group in their attainments of automatized grammatical knowledge regarding English tense-aspect application Finally, participants’ retrospective perceptions in the online setting attributed their better performance to real-time characteristics of online learning environments such as timely feedback and enhanced collaborative learning engagement. In conclusion, a synthesis of SCOBAs and online affordances was demonstrated to be useful tools for mediating L2 grammatical automaticity.
Materials Development & Textbook Analysis
Seyyedeh Fahimeh Parsaiyan; Kazhal Garshasbi
Abstract
AbstractAlthough global English Language Teaching (ELT) coursebooks have been subject to numerous (critical) analyses, the changes occurring to their contents over different editions have received scarce attention. In this study, the researchers examined the transformations over different editions of ...
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AbstractAlthough global English Language Teaching (ELT) coursebooks have been subject to numerous (critical) analyses, the changes occurring to their contents over different editions have received scarce attention. In this study, the researchers examined the transformations over different editions of Interchange series (level 2) regarding some selected aspects of their textual contents. Seeking experienced English teachers’ views of the global coursebooks’ transformations over the past decade was another aim of the study. The analysis and comparison of the included topics and titles, characters, sites and contexts in Interchange series as well as interviews with 12 English teachers revealed that the content-based changes of different editions of this coursebook are superficial and cosmetic-like and despite the claims for globality, fallacies such as real-life-ness, representation and globality are still evident. We hope the findings of the study would aid curriculum and policy makers, institute managers, and language teachers to reconsider the functioning and value of current global ELT coursebooks.
Teacher Education
Seyed Reza Beh-Afarin; Mohammad Shakerkhoshroudi; Jahanbakhsh Nikoopour
Abstract
Classroom management constraints and how English teachers cope with or remove them effectively have significantly impacted both EFL teachers and teacher educators. However, the coping strategies employed by teachers with high and low levels of expertise have not been thoroughly explored yet. To this ...
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Classroom management constraints and how English teachers cope with or remove them effectively have significantly impacted both EFL teachers and teacher educators. However, the coping strategies employed by teachers with high and low levels of expertise have not been thoroughly explored yet. To this end, first 22 teachers in one language institute in Tehran were interviewed and their main coping strategies were extracted through qualitative analysis of the interviews. Then, the extracted strategies were worded into items carefully. The questionnaire of EFL teachers’ coping strategies was validated for the purpose of the study. The findings revealed that the participants used twenty-three coping strategies under two sub-constructs: problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies, based on exploratory factor analysis. One hundred EFL teachers with high and low levels of expertise (fifty in the high and fifty in the low group) responded to the items in the coping strategy questionnaire. The results revealed that highly expert teachers used the extracted coping strategies more frequently. Furthermore, the researchers confirmed that teachers need in-service training courses on coping strategies to manage their classes effectively. The results have some implications for stakeholders, namely English language teachers, teacher educators, language institutes, education departments, and EFL curriculum developers.
Applied Linguistics
Masoud Azadnia
Abstract
This study compared the Discussion section of theses written by M.A. English L1 and L2 students regarding lexical sophistication. Certain linguistic features were applied to investigate whether texts written in English L2 had any similarities or differences with native speakers’ (NSs) texts. To ...
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This study compared the Discussion section of theses written by M.A. English L1 and L2 students regarding lexical sophistication. Certain linguistic features were applied to investigate whether texts written in English L2 had any similarities or differences with native speakers’ (NSs) texts. To achieve this, 20 English L2 theses authored by Iranian M.A. students of Islamic Azad University of Isfahan (Khorasgan), were sampled. As such, 20 English L1 theses written by M.A. English NSs of the same major in the US and UK were randomly downloaded as a comparison corpus of English L1. The corpora were later uploaded to Coh-Matrix that processes text and discourse at different levels of language. Two main statistical procedures for data analysis were the MANOVA (Multivariate Analysis of Variance) and Discriminant Function Analysis. According to Coh-Metrix analysis, the results revealed certain similarities and differences between the corpora. Specifically, more CELEX content words were used in the NSs theses. However, the differences between the two corpora did not reach a statistical significance in terms of other indices of lexical sophistication (i.e., polysemy, concreteness, hypernymy, age-of-acquisition scores, and lexical diversity). Concerning these similarities and differences, academic writing pedagogy and theses writing abilities of Iranian English L2 learners can be improved by applying both word processing tools like Coh-Metrix, appropriate writing strategies and techniques according to the given results of current contrastive corpus study.
Education
Sara Mousazadeh Allaf; Iraj khoshnevis; Karim Nazari Bagha
Abstract
This article deals with the behavioral intentions of high school English teachers in Iran (hereafter teachers) for the development of computer-mediated courses (hereafter courses). It applies the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to examine the relationship between attitudes, subjective norms, perceived ...
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This article deals with the behavioral intentions of high school English teachers in Iran (hereafter teachers) for the development of computer-mediated courses (hereafter courses). It applies the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to examine the relationship between attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and intentions to create the courses. A survey was conducted using the social media platforms, namely Shad and Telegram. Four hundred forty teachers participated in the survey filling in a questionnaire consisting of thirty-five 7-point bipolar Likert- scale items. Path analysis was employed to investigate the factors influencing the teachers’ behavioral intentions to develop the courses. Moreover, the analyses revealed that 44 percent of the variance in the teachers’ intentions cumulatively explained by their attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. The poor model fit indicated that some factors such as contextual limitations or cultural differences might be at work, but the provision of significant relationship between the theory’s constructs is worth considering.
Education
Jalil Fathi; Habib Soleimani; Milad Naderi
Abstract
Due to the fact that job satisfaction plays a crucial role in teacher attrition, numerous scholars have investigated the predictive variables for occupational well-being in educational contexts. However, this research area has been relatively ignored in higher education contexts. To fill this lacuna, ...
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Due to the fact that job satisfaction plays a crucial role in teacher attrition, numerous scholars have investigated the predictive variables for occupational well-being in educational contexts. However, this research area has been relatively ignored in higher education contexts. To fill this lacuna, this research employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design to examine the predictive roles of teacher mindfulness and self-efficacy in impacting the job satisfaction of English instructors in various Iranian universities. In the quantitative phase, data from 226 EFL instructors were analyzed following a rigorous screening of an initial pool of 234 participants who completed measures of the focal constructs. Structural equation modeling (SEM) confirmed that teacher mindfulness and self-efficacy significantly predicted job satisfaction, with self-efficacy emerging as the strongest predictor. Furthermore, mindfulness exerted a significant indirect effect on satisfaction through the mediation of self-efficacy. In the subsequent qualitative phase, follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive subsample of 12 instructors to clarify the mechanisms underlying these statistical paths. Thematic analysis revealed that mindfulness facilitates a "psychological pause" through affective detachment, while self-efficacy provides the pedagogical agency necessary to maintain value-action congruence despite institutional stressors. These results suggest that mindfulness acts as a cognitive precursor that enhances pedagogical presence and professional resilience. The implications for developing targeted onboarding strategies and mindfulness-based interventions in higher education are discussed.
Discourse Analysis
Saba Bashiri; Hiwa Weisi
Abstract
Obituaries serve as the most viable means to announce a person's death. Regarding the socio-political changes in Iran due to the Islamic Revolution, this descriptive-analytic study reports on a move-based analysis of obituaries belonging before and after the Islamic Revolution driven by Swales' (1990, ...
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Obituaries serve as the most viable means to announce a person's death. Regarding the socio-political changes in Iran due to the Islamic Revolution, this descriptive-analytic study reports on a move-based analysis of obituaries belonging before and after the Islamic Revolution driven by Swales' (1990, 2004) genre move analysis. We employed a move-based analysis of 100 obituaries from two distinct periods collected via a library-documentary method. Our primary aim was to disclose the influence of a socio-political phenomenon on this specific genre, i.e., an obituary. After identifying the major moves of the two obituary sets, their similarities and differences were inspected. The results indicated that after the Islamic Revolution obituaries contained twice as many moves as their counterparts. There were overlaps between the two data sets in four moves, namely (a) identifying the announcer(s), (b) identifying the deceased, (c) identifying family members, and (d) outlining the time and place of the funeral. Four moves were only present in after the Islamic Revolution corpus, which included (a) opening, (b) including the picture of the deceased, (c) showing sorrow for the event, and (d) characterizing the deceased. The moves discussion will be supplemented with explanations instigated from the socio-economic, religious, and political context of both periods.
Teacher Education
Zia Tajeddin; Mozhgan Soleimani
Abstract
Decision-making and pedagogical reasoning constitute the foundation of teacher professional practice. This qualitative study was conducted to explore novice Iranian EFL teachers’ professional decision-making and pedagogical reasoning in the three domains of (1) planning and preparation, (2) classroom ...
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Decision-making and pedagogical reasoning constitute the foundation of teacher professional practice. This qualitative study was conducted to explore novice Iranian EFL teachers’ professional decision-making and pedagogical reasoning in the three domains of (1) planning and preparation, (2) classroom management, and (3) professional responsibilities during the three phases of pre-active, interactive, and post-active teaching. Data from two sources including scenarios and audio journals revealed five novice teachers’ decisions in each domain and their relevant reasoning. Decisions in the first domain were discovered to embody teachers’ choices about materials, teaching methods, and assessment. In the second domain, teachers’ decisions were focused on management, flexibility, and accountability. In the third domain, their decisions were aimed at professional interaction and professional development. Moreover, a new decision domain, ‘dispositions’, was discovered, which comprised novice teachers’ choice of ethical conduct, care, and accountability. This led to the introduction of a new phase of teaching, beyond-active, which greatly influenced all other decision domains and teaching phases. Additionally, novice teachers’ pedagogical reasoning was uncovered to stem from their knowledge, skills, and personality attributes. These findings suggest that knowledge about teachers’ decisions and underlying reasoning provides insights into the scope of their professional knowledge and practice.
Teacher Education
Yahya Gordani; Arash Saharkhiz Arabani; Masoumeh Arjmandi; Davood Taghipour Bazargani
Abstract
Teachers’ quality of work life (QWL) is an umbrella concept that refers to the degree of satisfaction a teacher experiences with respect to his or her job and the overall work situations which are influenced by three factors of organizational support including participation in decision making, ...
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Teachers’ quality of work life (QWL) is an umbrella concept that refers to the degree of satisfaction a teacher experiences with respect to his or her job and the overall work situations which are influenced by three factors of organizational support including participation in decision making, fairness of rewards, and growth opportunity. The present study examined the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and QWL among secondary school teachers of English as a foreign language. To this end, employing a descriptive correlational method, the researchers selected a number of 173 male and female teachers who were selected via probability multistage cluster sampling from among a population which consisted of EFL teachers at secondary schools in Tehran (N=1826), Iran. Data collection instruments included an attitude survey based on Allen, Armstrong, Reid, and Riemenschneider (2008) model of POS as well as Walton’s (1973) QWL questionnaire. Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data. The relationship between POS and QWL was found to be .71. In other words, the three dimensions of POS could affect the QWL by 71 percent. More specifically, the three dimensions of participation in decision making with 21.4, fairness of rewards with 24.7, and growth opportunity with 64.1 percent could be used to predict the QWL. These findings are important in that they demonstrate that POS is significantly related to the QWL of EFL teachers which can in turn significantly affect the performance of these teachers at schools.
Teacher Education
Abbas Ali Rezaee; Mojtaba Esfandyari
Abstract
Despite the widely recognized significance of values education in a rapidly changing world and teachers’ education-related beliefs, little research has investigated how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers navigate values in their classrooms. The study reported in this paper explored in-service ...
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Despite the widely recognized significance of values education in a rapidly changing world and teachers’ education-related beliefs, little research has investigated how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers navigate values in their classrooms. The study reported in this paper explored in-service EFL teachers’ perceptions of values education and their conceptions of their moral roles, aiming to develop an instrument related to values education. To this end, this exploratory sequential mixed-methods study recruited 10 EFL teachers selected through maximum variation sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teacher participants and the data were analyzed inductively through thematic analysis. Furthermore, the existing literature and the insights gleaned from the initial phase of the study led to the development of a questionnaire, which was administered to 332 EFL teachers in the quantitative phase of the study. Six overarching themes were identified through thematic analysis of the interview data, namely relational values, personal growth, academic excellence, regulatory values, teachers’ personal standards and global values with teachers prioritizing students’ motivation and wellbeing over other value types. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis of the developed questionnaire verified a five-factor structure. Only 23 items out of 53 initial items were retained in the final version of the questionnaire. Overall, the results revealed that master obligation of teachers, associated with nurturing students’ dignity was prioritized over teachers’ prima facie obligation which promotes students’ learning and intellectual growth. After a detailed discussion, implications and suggestions for future research are presented in the end.
Discourse Analysis
Salah Ahmadi; Davud Kuhi; Sorayya Behroozizad
Abstract
The increasing availability of scientific knowledge through digital platforms has transformed how scientific discourse reaches the general public. This study examined the use of interactional metadiscourse markers across four leading popular science subgenres: books, TV documentaries, magazine articles, ...
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The increasing availability of scientific knowledge through digital platforms has transformed how scientific discourse reaches the general public. This study examined the use of interactional metadiscourse markers across four leading popular science subgenres: books, TV documentaries, magazine articles, and newspaper articles. The aim was to investigate the language features of these markers, focusing on how they engage readers and highlight writer presence in different subgenres. A corpus of 987,625 words was analyzed using AntConc software (Anthony, 2019) and 80,260 instances of interactional markers were identified according to Hyland’s (2019) Interpersonal Model of Metadiscourse. The study revealed how hedges, boosters, attitude markers, self-mentions, and engagement markers function to create persuasive and accessible content. Interestingly, interactional markers appeared most frequently in TV documentaries, suggesting a heightened effort to engage audiences through this medium. Chi-square tests revealed significant differences in marker usage across subgenres; however, the small effect sizes (Cramér’s V) indicated that these differences are of only modest practical significance. These results provided insight into how popular science writers adapt their rhetorical strategies to suit different communicative contexts and audience expectations. The findings also have pedagogical implications. Incorporating features of popular science into ESP/EAP materials, such as authentic texts and structured practice with interactional metadiscourse markers, can make scientific content more engaging and accessible for learners. Raising learners’ awareness of interactional metadiscourse markers can improve writing skills, especially for novice writers in non-English academic settings, helping them better engage readers and communicate more effectively.
Applied Linguistics
Leila Ghasemi; Ehsan Rezvani; Ehsan Namaziandost
Abstract
Regardless of the appreciation of language learners’ achievement in task-based language teaching, not much has been hinged upon learners’ perception and reception of various elements. This study examined task complexity and modality effects on Iranian EFL learners’ comprehension of ...
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Regardless of the appreciation of language learners’ achievement in task-based language teaching, not much has been hinged upon learners’ perception and reception of various elements. This study examined task complexity and modality effects on Iranian EFL learners’ comprehension of task difficulty, competencies, and difficulty-skill balance as well as the learners’ task experience. The Flow Outlook features were also applied to investigate how difficulty-skill balance anticipated flow experience. Via a repeated-measures design, and with a focus on task complexity (simple vs. complex) and task modality (written vs. spoken), 49 EFL learners carried out four argumentative tasks (two simple written and spoken vs. two complex written and spoken tasks); then, they ticked the flow questionnaire to gauge their perception of task difficulty, competence, and task experience. Repeated-measures MANOVA revealed although task complexity influenced task difficulty and difficulty-skill balance significantly, the skill was not affected significantly; task modality influenced task difficulty and skill significantly while difficulty-skill balance received no significant effect. The follow-up post hoc test indicated that complexity and modality significantly influenced flow, attention, and control, but not interest. Linear regression revealed difficulty-skill balance was a predictor for learners’ flow experience for both writing tasks and simple speaking task but not for complex speaking tasks. Pedagogically, the findings of this research may have some implications for English language teachers, learners, and materials developers.
Discourse Analysis
Seyed Foad Ebrahimi; Samaneh Imandar
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the grammatical complexity based on Biber, Gray, Staples, and Egbert’s (2020) linguistic description in research articles published in Iranian local journals and international journals. The corpus of the study included 40 Applied Linguistics research articles, 20 ...
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This study aimed to investigate the grammatical complexity based on Biber, Gray, Staples, and Egbert’s (2020) linguistic description in research articles published in Iranian local journals and international journals. The corpus of the study included 40 Applied Linguistics research articles, 20 published in Iranian local journals and 20 in international journals in 2019-2020. The research articles were selected through purposive sampling from two Iranian journals, namely Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics and Journal of Teaching Language Skills, and two international journals, including Journal of English for Specific Purposes and System Journal. The research articles were analyzed in terms of three dimensions of grammatical complexity, including the structural types, syntactic functions, and specific structural/syntactic features. Moreover, for intra-rater consistency, the researcher re-analyzed the corpus after one month to see whether the same results were found. According to the results, in terms of the first dimension, i.e., the structural types, the frequencies of structures indicating higher grammatical complexity (non-finite dependent clauses and dependent phrases) outnumbered the frequency of structures showing lower grammatical complexity (finite dependent clauses) in both local and international journals. Concerning the second dimension, i.e., syntactic function within the structural type, the frequencies of more complex syntactic functions were higher than those of simple functions in both sets of research articles. Concerning the third dimension, i.e., specific structural/syntactic features, both groups of writers preferred to use more complex specific structural/syntactic features than simple ones.
CALL & MALL
Milad Naderi; Jalil Fathi; Habib Soleimani
Abstract
With the widespread use of technology in today's society, the effective integration of technology in education has become a vital area of research, particularly in teacher education. Teacher variables play a crucial role in the successful incorporation of technology in the classroom. Consequently, several ...
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With the widespread use of technology in today's society, the effective integration of technology in education has become a vital area of research, particularly in teacher education. Teacher variables play a crucial role in the successful incorporation of technology in the classroom. Consequently, several empirical studies have explored the factors influencing teachers' intentions to use technology. This study aims to contribute to this research by examining the roles of teacher self-efficacy and technology self-efficacy in predicting technology use among Iranian EFL instructors. A sample of 353 Iranian EFL instructors participated in an online survey, completing three self-report scales measuring the mentioned constructs. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the collected data and test the relationships between the variables. The findings indicated that teacher technology self-efficacy had a more significant impact on intentions to use technology compared to teacher self-efficacy. Both predictor variables, however, showed unique effects on intentions to use technology. The paper concludes with practical implications and recommendations for further research.