Masoome Azmoode Sis Abad; Gholam-Reza Kiyani; Gholam-Reza Abbasian
Abstract
The present research responds to the call for implementing diagnostic assessment through learner involvement. This study followed two aims: first, examining the distinctive effects of diagnostic self- and peer - assessments on EFL learners’ reading comprehension; second, exploring students’ ...
Read More
The present research responds to the call for implementing diagnostic assessment through learner involvement. This study followed two aims: first, examining the distinctive effects of diagnostic self- and peer - assessments on EFL learners’ reading comprehension; second, exploring students’ diagnostic rating accuracy in various reading genres. To achieve this, a number of diagnostic reading comprehension tests and a checklist were developed, the construction of which were based on the learners’ challenging reading subskills. The participants include 60 English translation university students. During 12 weeks of instruction, the rating accuracy of the subjects’ diagnostic self- and peer- assessments were investigated while the instructor ratings were taken as the yardstick. Data analysis, using T-test and MANOVA confirmed that the two groups had improvement in reading comprehension but there was no significant difference between the two groups’ gain. In addition, no statistically significant difference was detected among the accuracy of diagnostic self-, peer- and instructor- ratings except for the assessment of main idea and supporting details subskill in descriptive genre and cause and effect subskill in narrative genre. This study can offer evidence for conducting diagnostic assessment through learner engagement to provide students with appropriate feedback and remedial instruction.
Maryam Mahmoudi; Mojgan Rashtchi; Gholam-Reza Abbasian
Abstract
Teachers’ knowledge base refers to what teachers should know and be able to implement in their classes. This study investigated to what extent in-service education and training (INSET) courses were influential in developing teachers’ knowledge base. From different models, the researchers ...
Read More
Teachers’ knowledge base refers to what teachers should know and be able to implement in their classes. This study investigated to what extent in-service education and training (INSET) courses were influential in developing teachers’ knowledge base. From different models, the researchers selected Mishra and Koehler’s (2006) technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) model that assumes an interrelationship between the components of teachers’ knowledge base. Thus, an exploratory sequential mixed methods study was designed in three phases. In the first phase, the questionnaire of English Language Teacher’s Knowledge Base (ELTKB) was developed and validated with 335 randomly selected EFL teachers from Guilan province. In the second phase, the quantitative follow-up phase, twenty-nine 11th grade EFL teachers’ knowledge base improvement was examined after attending online INSET classes. The results of the paired sample t-tests revealed statistically significant differences between the participants’ knowledge base components before and after the courses. In the third phase, semi-structured interviews explored the participants’ viewpoints concerning the content of the INSET courses. The teachers’ perceptions declared in interview sessions were not in complete conformity with the results obtained from the second phase of the study. The teachers had some complaints about the content of the courses and provided some suggestions. The findings of this study can benefit teacher educators, policymakers, INSET programmers, and English teachers. Also, the ELTKB can be employed by researchers as a valid tool for measuring TPACK that is an essential concept for explaining the relationship between teachers’ content, pedagogy, and technology-related knowledge.
Asghar Afshari; Zia Tajeddin; Gholam-Reza Abbasian
Abstract
Motivation is a crucial factor in learning a foreign language. However, some learners may become demotivated during their experience of learning a language. Demotivation among learners has rarely been addressed from the teachers’ perspectives. The purpose of the current study was to investigate ...
Read More
Motivation is a crucial factor in learning a foreign language. However, some learners may become demotivated during their experience of learning a language. Demotivation among learners has rarely been addressed from the teachers’ perspectives. The purpose of the current study was to investigate novice and experienced English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of sources of demotivation among language learners. Initially, through convenience sampling, different institute teachers were contacted. Thirty novice (n = 15) and experienced (n = 15) English language teachers volunteered to participate in face-to-face semi-structured interviews to investigate their beliefs about sources of learners’ demotivation. Content analysis was run to extract relevant demotivation sources, and frequency analysis was used to summarize and report the data. The findings revealed that both novice and experienced teachers had largely similar perceptions of sources of demotivation. Both groups indicated that method of instruction, teacher personality, classmates’ behaviors, anxiety, and physical environment of the language institutes have the potential to negatively affect motivation in learners. However, they differed in the degree of importance they attached to the factors falling within each of these demotivation sources. The findings suggest that teachers need to develop an awareness of the sources of demotivation among learners and the strategies to cope with them.
Samaneh Khodabakhsh; Gholam-Reza Abbasian; Mojgan Rashtchi
Abstract
Dynamic Assessment (DA) has become a growing trend in education in general and language education in particular. The present mixed-methods study aimed at implementing two different models of DA known as the interventionist and the interactionist models regarding developing EFL learners’ level of ...
Read More
Dynamic Assessment (DA) has become a growing trend in education in general and language education in particular. The present mixed-methods study aimed at implementing two different models of DA known as the interventionist and the interactionist models regarding developing EFL learners’ level of language awareness (LA) and metacognitive strategy use (MSU) in the process of writing instruction. The participants of the study included 60 Iranian undergraduate students majoring in English Translation Studies. Quantitative analysis of the data revealed that the participants in the experimental groups were able to gain higher levels of LA than their control group counterparts; however, both interventionist and interactionist models of DA entailed relatively similar effects. In the case of MSU, the results showed that neither the interventionist nor the interactionist models of DA of writing resulted in higher levels of MSU. Nevertheless, during the qualitative phase (i.e., interviews analysis) most of the participants in the experimental groups reported some changes in their LA and MSU as a result of DA. The results of the study can shed light on some aspects of integrating DA in English as a foreign language (EFL) education in terms of not only skill development but also cognitive and personality changes.The findings can bear lucrative insights for various practitioners ranged from classroom teachers and EFL researchers to those who are involved in strategic education.
Rana Najjari; Gholam-Reza Abbasian
Volume 2, Issue 4 , November 2015, , Pages 90-77
Abstract
This study investigated Iranian EFL teachers’ and learners’ perceptions and attitudes towards integrating Internet in EFL instruction; and the congruence of their attitudes and perceptions. As a mixed-method research, the data was collected both through questionnaires and interviews. Chi-square ...
Read More
This study investigated Iranian EFL teachers’ and learners’ perceptions and attitudes towards integrating Internet in EFL instruction; and the congruence of their attitudes and perceptions. As a mixed-method research, the data was collected both through questionnaires and interviews. Chi-square test was run for quantitative data and the qualitative data were transcribed, coded and thematized. The findings gathered from both qualitative and quantitative methods showed that both teachers and learners had positive perceptions and attitudes towards integrating Internet in EFL instruction and indicated that the factors like lack of facilities and hardware equipment limit Internet integration in Iranian setting. Moreover, the groups indicated that using Internet in EFL instruction and teaching process could be facilitative because of more accessibility to authentic sources, possibility of teacher-student interaction out of the educational environment and improvement of acquiring English learning skills in a faster and efficient way.