Ahmad Beigi Rizi; Hossein Barati; Ahmad MoeinZadeh
Abstract
This survey study aimed to examine the efficiency of a mentoring software used for e-mentoring Iranian EFL teachers by investigating (1) if the application of the mentoring software vs. traditional mentoring made any difference in the instructors' methodology of teaching writing and (2) the attitudes ...
Read More
This survey study aimed to examine the efficiency of a mentoring software used for e-mentoring Iranian EFL teachers by investigating (1) if the application of the mentoring software vs. traditional mentoring made any difference in the instructors' methodology of teaching writing and (2) the attitudes of the users towards the application of the mentoring software. In so doing, traditional mentoring and software mentoring were used for mentoring three groups of Iranian EFL teachers (N=30) teaching writing to three groups of learners. The teachers for Group 1 were mentored through traditional mentoring, the teachers for Group 2 were mentored through e-mentoring software and the teachers for Group 3 -the control group- received no mentoring treatment at all. The results of the observation checklists demonstrated that the mentoring style of the teachers in Group 2 had better instructors' methodology of teaching writing on average (G1: 18.16, G2: 57.8, G3: 14.13) and the results of the survey on the opinions of the users towards the application of the mentoring software through a close-ended questionnaire (the total average of mean score: 3.355) showed positive attitudes. The study concluded that the outcome of the application of the mentoring software was effective and helped EFL teachers match the mentoring process of the teachers in Group 2 by better results in comparison to traditional mentoring.
Zhaleh Beheshti; Daryush Nejadansari; Hossein Barati
Abstract
The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to see the effect of literature-based activities on the emotional intelligence, lexical diversity and the syntactic complexity of EFL students’ written productions, based on Goleman’s framework (n=133), (2) to examine the relationship between emotional ...
Read More
The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to see the effect of literature-based activities on the emotional intelligence, lexical diversity and the syntactic complexity of EFL students’ written productions, based on Goleman’s framework (n=133), (2) to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence, lexical diversity and the syntactic complexity of EFL students’ written productions and (3) to investigate whether students in majors more exposed to literary texts depict more improvement in the lexical diversity and syntactic complexity of their written productions. (n=84). In the first phase of the study, the experimental group was given some literary works with highly emotional content. The results indicated that the experimental group scored higher on Emotional Intelligence (EI) test, lexical diversity but not on the syntactic complexity of their written productions compared with the control group. In the second phase of the study, the statistical analysis of the syntactic complexity and lexical diversity of the Literature and Translation students’ written productions revealed no significant difference of complexity but significant difference of lexical diversity of Literature majors’ productions; despite the fact that the mean indices of complexity of their written productions were higher than Translation majors. The results have some implications for teachers and practitioners in EFL context.
