Mixed-methods research
Leila Dobakhti; Pedram Judi
Abstract
Teacher resilience is an important topic in the world of education, especially given the numerous obstacles and the amounts of stress that teachers face daily. The term “resilience” has been used to explain why certain individuals seem to cope well with difficult circumstances. This mixed-methods ...
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Teacher resilience is an important topic in the world of education, especially given the numerous obstacles and the amounts of stress that teachers face daily. The term “resilience” has been used to explain why certain individuals seem to cope well with difficult circumstances. This mixed-methods study aimed to investigate the relationship between Iranian EFL teachers' resilience and overqualification, and their work alienation and positive organizational behavior. The participants included 199 (96 male and 103 female) Iranian EFL teachers, most of whom had bachelor's and master's degrees and worked for private institutes. To determine the relationship between the variables, a 40-item survey was administered while interviews were conducted to determine the participants' perceptions. The results showed no significant relationship between overqualification and teacher resilience. However, there were significant negative and positive correlations between work alienation and positive organizational behavior with teacher resilience. The findings can improve our understanding of the factors that can enhance teacher resilience and consequently promote positive teaching practices.
Leila Dobakhti; Mohammad - Zohrabi; Sevda Masoudi
Abstract
The present study made an endeavor to determine the degree to which online and flipped approaches to writing instruction affected the EFL learners’ writing ability. To this end, first, the researchers selected 75 intermediate-level female EFL learners in three intact classrooms of a private language ...
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The present study made an endeavor to determine the degree to which online and flipped approaches to writing instruction affected the EFL learners’ writing ability. To this end, first, the researchers selected 75 intermediate-level female EFL learners in three intact classrooms of a private language institute in Urmia (Iran) as the participants. These classes were randomly selected from among the online, flipped, and in-person classes of the relevant institute and were assigned to the online, flipped, and control groups. Second, the researchers administered the writing pretest of the study to all of the groups. Third, they used Adobe Connect learning management system to provide the online and flipped groups with the pertinent writing instruction treatment in ten sessions. Nonetheless, they provided the control group with in-person writing instruction. Fourth they administered the immediate and delayed writing posttests of the study to all of the groups immediately after the termination of the treatment sessions and one month subsequent to the end of treatment respectively. Finally, they used SPSS 24 to perform the data analysis. Based on the obtained results, although both of the online and flipped approaches had immediate and delayed positive impacts on the participants’ writing ability, the flipped approach was more beneficial than the online. The results may provide EFL teacher educators, course developers, syllabus designers, and teachers with guiding principles regarding the uses of online and flipped courses in foreign language contexts.
Lida Habibpour; Leila Dobakhti
Abstract
Research on cognitive styles in the area of listening comprehension is very important and needs to be explored. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ cognitive styles and their listening comprehension. This study sought to explore the extent to which ...
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Research on cognitive styles in the area of listening comprehension is very important and needs to be explored. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ cognitive styles and their listening comprehension. This study sought to explore the extent to which these styles can predict the L2 learners’ performances on tests concerning listening comprehension. To this end, a mixed methods design was utilized to investigate the possible relationship between the aforementioned factors. Some seventy upper-intermediate EFL learners from three language institutes in Iran were asked to complete a questionnaire and then take part in a listening comprehension test in IELTS format after a two-week interval. The questionnaire was drawn from Learning Styles Survey designed by Cohen, Oxford, and Chi (2002). It included ten sections which were used to determine learners’ cognitive styles and their demographic information. The obtained data were analyzed using Spearman Rho’s correlation. The findings indicated that there was a statistically significant correlation between Analytic cognitive style and listening comprehension performance of the participants. It was also found that there was a statistically negative correlation between Global cognitive style of the learners and their listening comprehension. Other cognitive styles including Particular, Synthesizer, Field Dependent, Deductive, Inductive, Impulsive, Field Independent, and Reflective had no statistically significant relationship with listening comprehension. Finally, pedagogical implications for EFL teachers and learners, limitations and suggestions for further study are presented.
Leila Dobakhti; Samin Shams Khorrami
Abstract
Upholding the integration of form and meaning, focus on form approach can increase both accuracy and fluency of EFL learners. This paper evaluates the role of focus on form approach, i.e. input enhancement, on the acquisition of passive voice in English. The degree of implicitness or explicitness of ...
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Upholding the integration of form and meaning, focus on form approach can increase both accuracy and fluency of EFL learners. This paper evaluates the role of focus on form approach, i.e. input enhancement, on the acquisition of passive voice in English. The degree of implicitness or explicitness of instruction is explored whether it affects learning of a specific form of the language. The pretest-treatment-posttest design was used in this quasi-experimental research with two groups: experimental (n=20) and control (n= 17). First, a proficiency test was administered to guarantee the learners’ homogeneity. Then, a pretest was administered to examine the learners’ passive voice knowledge. The experimental group received the instruction through input enhancement technique. However, it was taught to the control group through the traditional method (i.e. focus on formS). The superiority of focus on form technique over the focus on formS was revealed through the one-way ANOVA and post hoc test. It can be claimed that the findings of this study are important for second and foreign language learning and teaching in that it indicated the advantage of input enhancement technique of focus on form approach over the traditional one – i.e. focus on formS – in strengthening of grammatical competence in intermediate EFL learners.
