Behrang Mohammad-Salehi; Mehdi Vaez-Dalili
Abstract
Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) provides a framework of teacher knowledge to integrate technology into education successfully. Applying digital technologies to TPACK in order to understand the range of language teachers’ ability levels is of considerable importance. The present ...
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Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) provides a framework of teacher knowledge to integrate technology into education successfully. Applying digital technologies to TPACK in order to understand the range of language teachers’ ability levels is of considerable importance. The present study sought to examine Iranian EFL teachers’ perceived knowledge of Web 2.0 technologies in light of Mishra and Koehler’s (2006) TPACK framework. To this end, a structural model was put forth on the basis of interactions of the TPACK seven-factor model. The participants of the study consisted of 160 EFL teachers, who were selected through an alternative sampling procedure. The data were collected from the participants through a TPACK-EFL questionnaire. The structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was employed to analyze the pathways of Web 2.0 technology, pedagogy, and content and their interactions in the TPACK model. The results revealed that Web 2.0 technological knowledge (TK), pedagogical knowledge (PK), and content knowledge (CK), as core knowledge components, influenced the second-level knowledge bases, namely technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and technological content knowledge (TCK) positively and directly except for one construct. Conversely, the impacts of TK, PK, and CK on TPACK were not statistically significant, and, as a result, did not work towards developing EFL teachers’ TPACK. Furthermore, TPK, TCK, and PCK were found to serve as contributing factors in the development of TPACK. Finally, the pedagogical and theoretical implications of interrelationships between the constructs and possible interpretations are discussed.
Behnam Ghasemi; Mehdi Vaez-Dalili
Abstract
Morphological awareness is currently receiving an increasing amount of attention in the literature on second language learning. This study investigated the effect of three methods of morphological awareness (i.e. Textual Enhancement (TE), Metalinguistic Explanation (ME), and Morpheme Recognition Task ...
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Morphological awareness is currently receiving an increasing amount of attention in the literature on second language learning. This study investigated the effect of three methods of morphological awareness (i.e. Textual Enhancement (TE), Metalinguistic Explanation (ME), and Morpheme Recognition Task (MRT)) on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge. The participants of the study included 90 intermediate EFL students selected based on their scores on the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). They were divided into three groups (i.e. TE, ME, MRT), each including 30 participants. Each group was taught 60 English derivational affixes including prefixes, suffixes and roots through three different methods of morphological awareness. In order to examine the participants’ depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge, they were asked to respectively take Word Associates Test (WAT) and Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) as both pretests and posttests. In order to examine the difference between the pretest and posttest scores of the participants’ VLT and WAT, a paired-samples t-test was run for each group. In order to explore if there were any significant differences among the posttest scores of the three groups on the VLT and WAT, two separate one-way ANOVAs were conducted. Results indicated that (i) all three methods of morphological awareness have significant effects on improving EFL learners’ depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge, and (ii) that there was no significant difference among the three groups in terms of their depth of vocabulary knowledge, but there were significant differences between the ME group and the other two groups (i.e. TE and MRT) regarding their breadth of vocabulary knowledge. Considering the implications, teachers should raise students’ awareness to utilize affixes. Syllabus designers and lexicographers should also take account of different techniques and tasks for raising EFL/ESL learners’ morphological awareness.
