Socio-psychological context of teaching/learning English
Davoud Amini; Elnaz Kazemi
Abstract
Teacher's motivation originates from both teacher-internal and teacher-external conditions. This correlation-based study aimed to investigate Iranian EFL teachers’ motivational trend during their first five years of teaching in relationship to their personality type. Drawing on trait theory of ...
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Teacher's motivation originates from both teacher-internal and teacher-external conditions. This correlation-based study aimed to investigate Iranian EFL teachers’ motivational trend during their first five years of teaching in relationship to their personality type. Drawing on trait theory of personality and the big five personality framework, the research explores how novice EFL teachers' motivation during the first five years of career is influenced by personality traits. Participants in this study were 144 English teachers in Iranian high schools. The International Personality Item Pool-Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness Personality Inventory (IPIP-NEO) and the Factors Influencing Teaching Choice Scale (FIT-CS) were used to assess teachers' personality and motivation. Teachers' motivation showed a steady rising trend in the first five years of their career. Results revealed that conscientiousness and openness are significant positive predictors of teacher motivation, while neuroticism negatively impacts motivation. However, teaching experience did not significantly moderate the relationship between personality traits and motivation, indicating that other professional conditions may influence this dynamic over time. This study contributes to the literature by examining teacher motivation in a non-Western context, offering valuable insights into the dynamicity between the internal and external factors contributing to Iranian EFL teachers’ motivation within a complex dynamic systems perspective. The findings have practical implications for teacher recruitment, professional development, and retention strategies, emphasizing the need to consider individual personality traits in fostering long-term motivation and job satisfaction with ramifications at both individual teacher level and organization level.
Language Skills and subskills
Davoud Amini; Mahsa Rahmani Asl; Abolfazl Ghasemzadeh
Abstract
The brain-based learning (BBL) approach refers to a learning method which attends to the structural and functional properties of the brain when involved in learning. The proponents of BBL approach in language teaching have proposed a set of strategies in line with neuroscientific findings regarding the ...
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The brain-based learning (BBL) approach refers to a learning method which attends to the structural and functional properties of the brain when involved in learning. The proponents of BBL approach in language teaching have proposed a set of strategies in line with neuroscientific findings regarding the qualities of optimal language learning. Numerous studies have attested to effectiveness of these neuroeducational techniques. The present study attempted to investigate the effect of brain-based vocabulary teaching activities on EFL learners’ vocabulary retention and recall. The participants were 60 high school students in the Iranian EFL context selected via convenience sampling. The experimental group received 14 sessions of instruction in accordance with the BBL strategies suggested by Caine and Caine (1994). The findings revealed that the brain-compatible approach to teaching L2 vocabulary improved learners’ vocabulary retention. However, the intervention failed to have a significant effect on vocabulary recall. The divergent finding regarding the recall and retention of vocabulary is attributed to the intrinsic nature of productive vocabulary in developing in the long run as a result of deep emotional and cognitive engagement. The data collected with the perception questionnaire revealed that the majority of the participants demonstrated positive attitudes toward BBL strategies. Neuroeducational strategies facilitate vocabulary learning as a result of involving learners in deep emotional and cognitive engagement. Therefore, they should make up an integral aspect of foreign language teacher education programs. It is suggested that the synergic effects of the composure of BBL strategies for L2 teaching be investigated in relation to individual differences.
Seyyed Mohammad Ali Soozandehfar
Abstract
Neoliberal changes in pedagogy focus on marketization of teaching and learning processes through different innovative interdisciplinary strategies to evoke the collective appeal (Ross, 2007). The concurrent emergence of positive psychology as both exploration of interdisciplinary positive emotional experience ...
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Neoliberal changes in pedagogy focus on marketization of teaching and learning processes through different innovative interdisciplinary strategies to evoke the collective appeal (Ross, 2007). The concurrent emergence of positive psychology as both exploration of interdisciplinary positive emotional experience and as diagnostically neoliberalistic query (Freeman, 2020) and the complicated entanglement of neoliberalism and emotions (Pilkington, 2016) can imply that the integration of positive psychology into the educational context might be correspondent with a sort of neoliberalistic framing of pedagogy. This issue entails an exclusive scrutiny on pedagogical contexts, where such boundaries often coalesced into totally optimistic streams. Accordingly, this qualitative study aimed at exploring EFL teachers' different strategies in line with the tenets of positive psychology while, simultaneously, complying with the premises of neoliberalistic streams. To this end, postulating its design on Reflexive Grounded Theory, this research collected the data via the qualitative procedures such as questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, field notes, and content analyses. Totally 116 participants, i.e., 52 males and 64 females, purposively screened for homogeneity concerns via Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQ), were interviewed afterwards. Besides, diverse online/offline materials and sources pertinent to the objective were gathered for the analysis through the respective procedures of codification, memoing, categorization, thematization, and theoretical sampling. The qualitative analyses of categorization and thematization yielded five major themes as the final results: legitimation, collective empowerment, logical positivism, wisdom of negotiation, and identification approach, delineating those eudaimonic strategies which can trigger a sort of positive psycho-pedagogy susceptible to neoliberalistic intents. Finally, this study implied raising the consciousness of teachers in the EFL context with regard to the subtle interrelationships between positive psychology and neoliberalistic tenets in accordance to pedagogy.
Ebrahim ُSamani; Raziyeh Bagheripour; Sara Atarzadeh
Abstract
The concept of demotivation has received the same attention as motivation, especially in the EFL context. However, a review of the literature in Iran’s context indicates a lack of studies exploring the nature of demotivating factors, that is internal or external, and the role of variables of the ...
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The concept of demotivation has received the same attention as motivation, especially in the EFL context. However, a review of the literature in Iran’s context indicates a lack of studies exploring the nature of demotivating factors, that is internal or external, and the role of variables of the structure of schools, fields of study, and proficiency level. The context of the study was the schools of Bam City in Iran. Sampling technique was stratified random sampling, and totally 244 female students of different types of schools that are public, vocational, private schools, and school for the talented responded to a demotivation questionnaire. The analysis of the collected data through the questionnaire using factor analysis indicated that three factors of “learner,” “learning situation,” and “teacher,” were present. According to descriptive statistics, demotivated students considered themselves as the main reason for not progressing in English which emphasized the role of internal factors. In addition, according to one-way analysis of variance, demotivational factors did not differ significantly among different fields of study, however, different school types were significantly different from each other in terms of these factors. Finally, the result of the Pearson correlation test indicated the existence of a significant relationship between demotivational factors and students’ achievement. The findings of this study provide necessary insight to both teachers and their students in their act of teaching and learning languages.
Saman Ebadi; Vahid Yari
Volume 4, Issue 3 , August 2017, , Pages 49-72
Abstract
This study seeks to provide insights into the process of vocabulary learning and promoting vocabulary knowledge by tracking its development in dynamic assessment (DA) procedures through thematic and microgenetic analysis. In order to meet the aim of this study, three male and three female EFL learners ...
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This study seeks to provide insights into the process of vocabulary learning and promoting vocabulary knowledge by tracking its development in dynamic assessment (DA) procedures through thematic and microgenetic analysis. In order to meet the aim of this study, three male and three female EFL learners were chosen non-randomly based on their availability. All the participants were beginners with regard to their vocabulary knowledge. The participants voluntarily attended 15 DA sessions throughout each session a few new vocabulary items were presented using different techniques of teaching vocabulary. The participants received corrective feedback within their zone of proximal development (ZPD). They were provided with appropriate levels of help by moving gradually and using prompts through the regulatory scale from the most implicit to the most explicit assistance which emerged from the individualized mediation between the mediator and the learners. The results of the study indicated that using DA procedure can enhance the development of vocabulary knowledge among EFL learners.
Jalal Kamalizad; Kaveh J. Kalilzadeh
Volume 3, Issue 1 , February 2016, , Pages 47-31
Abstract
Responding to the controversies in the results of past studies concerning the effect of nationality/ethnicity on using language learning strategies, this study adopts Oxford’s (1990) strategy inventory for language learning (SILL) to report Iranian male college level EFL learners’ pattern ...
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Responding to the controversies in the results of past studies concerning the effect of nationality/ethnicity on using language learning strategies, this study adopts Oxford’s (1990) strategy inventory for language learning (SILL) to report Iranian male college level EFL learners’ pattern of strategy use and compare it with other Asian EFL learners’ strategy use pattern. This comparison might hopefully enhance scholars’ understanding about the role of nationality/ethnicity in learners’ choice and use of strategies and would also add to the literature in the field. As such, the results of the study revealed that the Iranian participants are medium strategy users (M = 3.31) and resembled many other Asian background EFL learners. Descriptive statistics, multivariate analysis of the variances (MANOVA) and follow-up post-hoc comparison tests used in this investigation showed that the participants perceived using metacognitive (M = 3.79) and social (M = 3.82) categories of strategies at a high level and significantly (p < .05) higher than other categories of the SILL. Memory (M = 2.89) and affective (M = 2.75) categories of strategies turned out to be least favored by them and were less significantly (p < .05) used than other categories listed in SILL. The results of individual strategy item analysis were in conformity with the above results. Based on the noticeable similarities discovered in the strategy use pattern of Asian EFL learners, the author suggested some guidelines for teachers and policy makers working in Asian EFL context.
