Research Paper
ESP and EAP
Shiva Kaivanpanah; Mohammad Zarrin
Abstract
The present study employed the context, input, process, and product (CIPP) model of program evaluation to assess the effectiveness of Bank Melli Iran (BMI) English for banking purposes (EBP) programs and identify the pedagogical challenges associated with these courses in terms of goals, current status, ...
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The present study employed the context, input, process, and product (CIPP) model of program evaluation to assess the effectiveness of Bank Melli Iran (BMI) English for banking purposes (EBP) programs and identify the pedagogical challenges associated with these courses in terms of goals, current status, teaching methods, and training materials. Data were collected through interviews and questionnaire surveys, involving 244 BMI bank employees working in foreign exchange (FX) branches and international departments. The data were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Employees’ language learning and communicative needs were assessed by identifying their workplace routine tasks performed in English, qualitatively, and measuring the frequency and priority of identified tasks, quantitatively. The strengths and weaknesses of the courses as well as the main barriers to meeting the assessed needs were identified through interviews and questionnaire surveys. Tasks which should be performed in English, by BMI employees, in the workplace, were identified and classified into major groups and their frequency was measured. The participants’ feedback on the priority of language skills in the workplace and barriers to the implementation of the courses indicated that BMI EBP courses should be redesigned to incorporate appropriate pedagogical principles of English for specific purposes (ESP), ensuring alignment with employees’ specific needs. The findings of this study can be utilized by Iranian banks to evaluate the appropriateness and effectiveness of their EBP programs.
Research Paper
Mixed-methods research
Solomon Woldetensay Shifaw; Berhanu Bogale Haile
Abstract
The study investigates EFL teachers’ beliefs and the instructional challenges of teaching mixed-ability classrooms. The study employed a descriptive survey research design along with a mixed-methods approach. Using the availability sampling technique, 44 EFL teachers from three secondary schools ...
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The study investigates EFL teachers’ beliefs and the instructional challenges of teaching mixed-ability classrooms. The study employed a descriptive survey research design along with a mixed-methods approach. Using the availability sampling technique, 44 EFL teachers from three secondary schools were selected and filled out questionnaires. Using convenience sampling technique 4 EFL teachers have been chosen and interviewed. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The qualitative data were open-coded, and categorized into themes. Accordingly, the study revealed that the participants had minimal knowledge of strategies to manage mixed-ability classes. Besides, most participants believe in using a whole-class teaching approach rather than helping weaker students in mixed-ability classes.Regarding material issues, the participants believe in using textbooks as the only resource to teach mixed-ability classrooms. Consequently, EFL teachers did not believe in preparing contingency plans, alternative activities, worksheets, authentic materials, and a menu of work for mixed-ability students. With varying degrees of seriousness, EFL teachers' instructional challenges were teaching and learning, motivation, and interest, followed by material, classroom management, and participation. Moreover, the results exhibited that the participants encountered instructional challenges such as students’ procrastination, inaccessibility of authentic materials, time constraints, and lack of commitment to support weaker students. The study results imply that EFL teachers need to develop a positive attitude toward teaching mixed-ability classes. The study also highlights the necessity of professional development opportunities for English teachers to enhance their pedagogical as well as psychological readiness to teach mixed-ability classrooms efficiently.
Research Paper
Teacher education
Melese Mengesha Beshah; Alemu Hailu Anshu
Abstract
Teachers’ effectiveness is highly dependent on the quality of training they receive, which is, in turn, affected by the teaching skills of teacher educators. This article, therefore, examines the relationship between Ethiopian teacher educators’ teaching skills and their trainees’ teaching ...
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Teachers’ effectiveness is highly dependent on the quality of training they receive, which is, in turn, affected by the teaching skills of teacher educators. This article, therefore, examines the relationship between Ethiopian teacher educators’ teaching skills and their trainees’ teaching performance. To achieve this objective, this correlational research targeted 11 teacher educators and 47 English language teacher trainees. The data were collected using questionnaires, observations and interviews. The analysis indicates that there is positive correlation (r = .90, p < .05) between teacher educators’ competence and trainees’ effectiveness in teaching primary school English language. Besides, although the teacher educators perceive themselves as effective trainers, their trainees revealed that the trainers were not effective in the areas of providing feedback and engaging their trainees in reflective practices during peer-teaching and recording their progress. A significant relationship was found between teacher educators’ performance and long-term success in the teaching effectiveness of trainees. Consequently, professional development programs should be organized for teacher educators. Additionally, the curriculum of teacher education should be revised. Besides, the Ministry of Education should devise a way of assessing the competence of teacher educators. Furthermore, teacher educators should encourage reflective practices during training teachers.
Research Paper
CALL, MALL, and other technology-related issues
Fatemeh Gandomkar; Afsaneh Ghanizadeh; Safoura Jahedizadeh; Kiana Hosseinion
Abstract
Today, traditional passive learning and note taking are less effective for students adapting to modern life skills. Mobile portfolios, versatile learning tools with numerous benefits, are finding their way into educational domain in promoting active learning. This study explored the impact of the present ...
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Today, traditional passive learning and note taking are less effective for students adapting to modern life skills. Mobile portfolios, versatile learning tools with numerous benefits, are finding their way into educational domain in promoting active learning. This study explored the impact of the present researchers’ designed mobile portfolio (called Class Mass) on students’ reflective thinking, directed motivational currents (DMCs), and cognitive learning. This study was performed in two ninth-grade English classes of a state-run female junior high school via a quasi-experimental research design. In terms of instruments, the following scales were utilized: reflective thinking inventory (measuring four distinct components), DMC disposition questionnaire, and cognitive learning scale. The results of independent samples t-test and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) demonstrated the effectiveness of using the mobile portfolio application on learners’ three components of reflective thinking, DMCs, and cognitive learning. The study suggests that teachers should recognize the advantages of employing mobile portfolios as effective tools for learning and assessment to foster their students’ goal-oriented inspirational surge, encourage active participation, and provide positive feedback and clues on how to improve their learning
Research Paper
CALL, MALL, and other technology-related issues
Shima Taheri; Hooshang Khoshsima; Ali Beikian; Amir Mohammadian
Abstract
Technology integration into language learning has appeared as a prominent research focus in the past few years. The present study aimed to investigate the comparative effects of using Dropbox Paper as an online collaborative tool versus traditional non-collaborative writing instruction on the academic ...
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Technology integration into language learning has appeared as a prominent research focus in the past few years. The present study aimed to investigate the comparative effects of using Dropbox Paper as an online collaborative tool versus traditional non-collaborative writing instruction on the academic writing skills of Iranian EFL learners across varying proficiency levels. The research utilized a quasi-experimental research design, focusing on the collection and analysis of quantitative data. A total of 90 Iranian EFL learners were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to either the experimental group, which utilized Dropbox Paper for collaborative academic writing, or the control group, which engaged in non-collaborative writing methods. Each group contained 45 learners with three different proficiency groups, i.e., high, mid, and low. The instructional phase included a pretest, followed by targeted instruction on academic essay writing for two months for both groups. Collaborative practices using Dropbox Paper as an online collaborative tool to write comments and notes and to receive teacher and peer feedback on their writings were considered for the experimental group and only direct teacher's feedback for the control group, culminating in a posttest to evaluate the outcomes. The findings highlighted the need to align technology-enhanced writing instruction with learners’ proficiency levels. Collaborative tools like Dropbox Paper are more effective for mid and high-proficiency learners, emphasizing the importance of scaffolding for lower-proficiency learners to ensure equitable benefits. These insights provide practical guidance for integrating collaborative tools into EFL classrooms to optimize writing instruction.
Research Paper
Behzad Nezakatgoo; Fatemeh Mirzapour; Maryam Mohseni
Abstract
Nowadays, technology plays an essential role in people’s life in general and in education in particular. Teachers’ experiences and emotions can affect technology use in classes. The present study investigated teachers’ experiences and emotions regarding integrating technology into their ...
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Nowadays, technology plays an essential role in people’s life in general and in education in particular. Teachers’ experiences and emotions can affect technology use in classes. The present study investigated teachers’ experiences and emotions regarding integrating technology into their classes. The study also explored teachers’ emotions toward institutional policies about using technology and the coping strategies they adopt for such emotions. Eleven teachers (five males and six females) from high schools of Tabriz, Iran, participated in the study. Five had a B.A., and six had an M.A. degree with teaching experience of six years. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were used. For analyzing the data, MAXQDA version 2022 was employed. The findings indicated that teachers had negative and positive experiences and emotions and employed various coping strategies to deal with their emotions. Their pleasant experiences involved accessibility of many resources, communicative learning, and improving teaching; while their unpleasant experiences included technical problems, learners’ low technological literacy, and teachers’ lack of technological training. Teachers’ debilitative emotions included being nervous, frustrated, and stressed but feeling capable, and enjoying were facilitative emotions. Besides, the teachers’ debilitative emotions toward institutional policies included feeling frustrated, and tired, and the facilitative emotions toward such institutional policies included feeling fulfillment and commitment. Teachers coped with emotions arising from the institutional policies about technology-enhanced EFL classes by asking for the help of colleagues, being patient/tolerating bad situations, and trying to control negative emotions. The present study offers some pedagogical implications for educational reformers, administrators, teacher educators, and teachers.
Research Paper
Strategies-based instructions
Roxana Esmaeilpour; Rajab Esfandiari
Abstract
Learning source-use strategies can affect summarizing and reading comprehension in many ways. This study examined the effect of paraphrasing, patch writing, and discourse synthesis on summary completion in the IELTS academic reading test. Participants were 60 female and male upper-intermediate Iranian ...
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Learning source-use strategies can affect summarizing and reading comprehension in many ways. This study examined the effect of paraphrasing, patch writing, and discourse synthesis on summary completion in the IELTS academic reading test. Participants were 60 female and male upper-intermediate Iranian English language learners at a language institute in Karaj, Iran, all of them having previously taken the IELTS academic test and achieved 5.5 to 6 at the start of the study. Random assignment was used to place them into three groups. Two IELTS academic reading mock tests were given to the participants as the pretest and the posttest, and one-way analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA) was used to compare the outcomes. The findings indicated that the group using paraphrasing techniques demonstrated a notably superior performance compared to the patch writing group, the discourse synthesis group, and the control group. Moreover, paraphrasing, as a source-use skill, assisted students to achieve a higher score in the IELTS academic reading test. Implications for test takers are discussed.
Research Paper
CALL, MALL, and other technology-related issues
Abazar Gholami; Saeed Ahmadi; Hamideh Taheri
Abstract
Recently, the use of chatbots in language learning has attracted considerable attention. However, there is a scarcity of investigations delving into the impact of chatbots on enhancing EFL learners’ speaking in the light of their learning adaptability. Consequently, this research examined the effectiveness ...
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Recently, the use of chatbots in language learning has attracted considerable attention. However, there is a scarcity of investigations delving into the impact of chatbots on enhancing EFL learners’ speaking in the light of their learning adaptability. Consequently, this research examined the effectiveness of integrating chatbots on the speaking performance of EFL learners possessing varying levels of learning adaptability. To this aim, initially, a learning adaptability scale was administered to a group of 108 EFL learners, from whom 36 individuals exhibiting the highest adaptability scores and another 36 with the lowest scores were identified. Subsequently, both groups received a speaking pretest. Following this, the groups engaged in 12 sessions of speaking practice utilizing a chatbot. After the intervention, both groups took a speaking posttest. Furthermore, 15 participants from each group participated in semi-structured interviews. The results of One-way ANCOVA revealed that the group with high learning adaptability surpassed their counterparts with low adaptability in speaking performance. The qualitative analysis results indicated that while the high adaptability group exhibited predominantly positive attitudes towards utilizing chatbots, the low adaptability group primarily expressed negative perceptions. The findings are discussed, and implications for language teaching and learning are provided.
