Tahereh Movahhedi; Amir Sarkeshikian; Mohammad Golshan
Abstract
Critical English for academic purposes (CEAP) has been an attempt to challenge the status quo in English for academic purposes (EAP) education. However, it has not received due attention in the literature. For the same reason, this study concentrated on how the Iranian EAP teachers and students perceived ...
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Critical English for academic purposes (CEAP) has been an attempt to challenge the status quo in English for academic purposes (EAP) education. However, it has not received due attention in the literature. For the same reason, this study concentrated on how the Iranian EAP teachers and students perceived the three key CEAP modules of needs/right analysis, power, and dialogue/hope. As its secondary aim, this study also focused on how much the instructor practiced what they perceived of CEAP in their classrooms. For gathering the quantitative data, the main components of the CEAP framework formed the basis for the preparation and validation of a Likert-type questionnaire to measure the respondents’ perceptions of CEAP. In order to complement the results of the questionnaire data on the perception of CEAP, a semi-structured interview protocol was developed. The results for the first research question showed that both participating groups' opinions of CEAP were quite similar. The discrepancy between teachers’ questionnaire and interview data demonstrated that a praxis breakdown occurred as a result of an imbalance between the EAP teachers' knowledge and practice of CEAP in their classroom. Additionally, the qualitative data analysis showed that there was little contact between ESP teachers and students while developing the EAP curricula and instructional strategies. Students were also viewed as obedient and passive actors, required to carry out the predetermined institutional requirements established by the departments or curriculum designers. The findings of this study have implications for ESP teachers and material developers.
Mufit Şenel
Abstract
The outbreak of Covid-19 changed many aspects of people all over the world, including the type of education and learning/teaching styles. Transferring from face-to-face education to distance education brought some difficulties and challenges for both teachers and students. Among those observed challenges ...
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The outbreak of Covid-19 changed many aspects of people all over the world, including the type of education and learning/teaching styles. Transferring from face-to-face education to distance education brought some difficulties and challenges for both teachers and students. Among those observed challenges and problems, one of the most important ones was related to distance listening courses at an ELT department of a state university in Turkey. In the literature, no related or similar studies to discover the perceptions of ELT students about the online listening courses. Therefore, this present study aimed at discovering the 2nd grade ELT students’ perceptions about the distance listening courses carried out throughout the Covid-19 period focusing on whether students had encountered any challenges. To collect data, a 30-item Likert-type questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used. Randomly selected students (12) and listening course teachers (4) were interviewed to reinforce the findings of the study. Findings put forward that a great majority of the participants and instructors had negative perceptions and attitudes about online listening courses. The results of this current research will be of benefit to university instructors and syllabus designers in taking future urgent decisions and measures regarding the implementation of distance learning and teaching programs for students from different backgrounds.
Ahmad Khalifeh; Mohammad Bavali; Ehsan Rassaei
Abstract
The integration of technology into education has offered new opportunities for higher education students. Flipped class, as part of this opportunity, has inspired ample research recently. However, there is still controversy over its effectiveness. To shed more light on its potentials, the present study ...
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The integration of technology into education has offered new opportunities for higher education students. Flipped class, as part of this opportunity, has inspired ample research recently. However, there is still controversy over its effectiveness. To shed more light on its potentials, the present study compares a flipped class with a traditional and an online course in terms of their effects on developing the grammar knowledge of Iranian pre-intermediate TEFL students. In addition, the perceptions of the flipped group toward their learning experience in four areas were examined: motivation, effectiveness, interaction, and satisfaction. Finally, the potential of the flipped class to assist the instructor in presenting more topics was evaluated. Fifty-nine freshmen in two different classes were selected. Then, each class was randomly assigned to an experimental (n=31) or a control group (n=28). The former received instruction in a flipped class, whereas the latter attended a traditional class. Afterward, their performance was compared with that of another group attending an online course (n= 25). The data were collected through a timed and an untimed grammaticality judgment test and a perception scale. In order to compare the content coverage in the three classes, the number of units taught in each class was divided by the total number of units assigned for the semester. The results showed that instruction in the flipped class was as effective as instruction in the traditional class and both were more effective than the fully online course. Additionally, the flipped class seemed to be a satisfactory experience for the learners. The results also indicated that drawing on a flipped class can allow the instructor to present more content without compromising the quality of instruction and learning. The results can encourage language teachers, program developers, and educational policymakers to consider the flipped classroom as an acceptable alternative.
Leila Sajedi; Mahnaz Saeidi; Touran Ahour
Abstract
Writing publishable research articles is a great concern of academicians, which requires awareness on all its relevant aspects. However, the obstacles are elusive and postgraduate students' challenges are not fully explored. In this mixed methods research and for the purpose of investigating Iranian ...
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Writing publishable research articles is a great concern of academicians, which requires awareness on all its relevant aspects. However, the obstacles are elusive and postgraduate students' challenges are not fully explored. In this mixed methods research and for the purpose of investigating Iranian graduate and postgraduate EFL students’ performance on their research articles in terms of language and compositional conventions, 30 students participated. Their research articles were analyzed using a researcher-made scale. The same conventions were utilized as a questionnaire to investigate participants' perceptions on the essentials of language conventions in research articles to find the relationship between their performance and perceptions. Besides, a focus group interview was conducted among 12 of the participants to investigate challenges they face in conducting research and writing research articles. The results of the content analysis of the research articles indicated a mediocre performance, while the data analysis of the questionnaire indicated a high perception towards essentials of research article writing. This discrepancy was confirmed by the statistical analysis of correlation. The results of the analysis of the multifaceted challenges students have in both conducting research and writing a research article paved the way for pertinent implications to practitioners in terms of curriculum, syllabus, and methodology.
Amir Rezaei; Siros Izadpanah; Ali Shahnavaz
Abstract
Matching the expectations of teachers and students is vital for successful learning. Few studies have investigated the effects of corrective feedback on Iranian EFL students. The sample of this research were 180 male and female teachers that teach language courses in an English Language Teaching program ...
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Matching the expectations of teachers and students is vital for successful learning. Few studies have investigated the effects of corrective feedback on Iranian EFL students. The sample of this research were 180 male and female teachers that teach language courses in an English Language Teaching program in language institutes in Zanjan and 350 students who were chosen through stratified random sampling. Two standard instruments were used in this study. PET Test, Fukuda (2004). The findings suggest that they believed that corrective feedback had a significant effect on their writing but the teachers did not think so. It is concluded that most of the feedback given by teachers were concentrated on grammatical errors and that the teachers’ view of feedback is based on the context, which might origin from absence of sufficient teacher training. With this in mind, giving feedback, or rather the right kind of feedback should perhaps play a better role in teacher education. Anyway, the fact that feedback is based on each context may be positive, because all students are different, even so teacher trainees might still take advantage from studying the provision of feedback.
