Research Paper
Qualitative research
Ali Hemmati
Abstract
This qualitative study investigates how novice English language teachers perceive and make sense of professional development (PD) during the earliest stages of their careers. Drawing on an integrative framework that brings together teacher cognition, sense-making, and professional identity perspectives, ...
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This qualitative study investigates how novice English language teachers perceive and make sense of professional development (PD) during the earliest stages of their careers. Drawing on an integrative framework that brings together teacher cognition, sense-making, and professional identity perspectives, the study examines how teachers interpret and internalize both formal and informal learning experiences across pedagogical, relational, technological, and ethical dimensions. Twenty-four novice teachers working in public high schools in Kermanshah Province were purposefully selected through criterion-based sampling to ensure analytically rich and contextually grounded accounts. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis supported by MAXQDA 2022 software, which enabled a systematic and iterative identification of salient patterns, interpretive processes, and cross-participant convergences. Findings indicate that novice teachers conceptualize PD as a dynamic, evolving, and context-embedded process shaped more by experiential learning, reflective practice, and professional interactions than by formal workshops alone. The key dimensions of PD included maintaining up-to-date professional knowledge, strengthening instructional competence, fostering learner engagement, exercising ethical responsibility, and participating collaboratively in school and curriculum processes. Feedback from students and colleagues, involvement in professional networks, and navigating structural and technological constraints also played influential roles in shaping teachers’ developmental trajectories. Overall, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of early-career teacher learning by emphasizing the identity-oriented, reflective, and context-sensitive nature of PD, advocating for models that recognize teachers as active agents who co-construct their professional pathways.
Research Paper
Learning and teaching theories
Shirin Faraji; Farzaneh Khodabandeh
Abstract
Static scaffolding often fosters learner over-reliance, prompting interest in fading techniques like fade-in (least-to-most) and fade-out (most-to-least) support. While scaffolding has been widely studied, limited research compares these two fading approaches within project-based flipped learning (PBFL), ...
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Static scaffolding often fosters learner over-reliance, prompting interest in fading techniques like fade-in (least-to-most) and fade-out (most-to-least) support. While scaffolding has been widely studied, limited research compares these two fading approaches within project-based flipped learning (PBFL), particularly in language education. This quantitative experimental study examined the effects of fade-in and fade-out scaffolding on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' acquisition of passive voice structures and their foreign language anxiety (FLA). Over six weeks, ninety homogenized female learners in a project-based flipped learning (PBFL) course were randomly assigned to two experimental groups (fade-in or fade-out scaffolding) and a control group (no systematic scaffolding). A pretest and post-test measured grammar gains, and an FLA scale was administered post-course. ANCOVA results revealed four main findings. First, the fade-in group significantly outperformed the control group. Second, although the fade-out group showed higher gains than the control, this difference was not statistically significant. Third, no significant difference emerged between the two fading approaches. Finally, the type of scaffolding received did not significantly affect learners' FLA levels. These findings offer language teachers practical guidance for implementing fading scaffolding within PBFL environments.
Research Paper
CALL, MALL, and other technology-related issues
Masoud Taghipour; Mohammad Shahin Taghaddomi
Abstract
Owing to the multidimensional nature of additional language acquisition, language learning strategies (LLS) function as crucial determinants in Language Skills Development (LSD) across all macro skills. The significance of these strategies is accentuated, given that advances in technology, specifically ...
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Owing to the multidimensional nature of additional language acquisition, language learning strategies (LLS) function as crucial determinants in Language Skills Development (LSD) across all macro skills. The significance of these strategies is accentuated, given that advances in technology, specifically Artificial Intelligence (AI) over the past few years, have provided learners with more opportunities to facilitate their learning and also more challenges regarding reliable learning. Recognizing this, the present study sought to identify the most frequently used strategies, examine their correlations with end-of-term scores, and assess the role of AI in learning development among 48 Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners. Data triangulation was achieved through a Language Skills Development questionnaire, interviews, and observations within a mixed-methods design. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data were thematically analyzed. The findings revealed that listening and speaking strategies were most frequently used, with a strong correlation between strategy use and language success, as measured by end-of-term scores (R = .875, R² = .765, p < .001). Additionally, the interview revealed strategies used by learners beyond those reported in the questionnaire, as well as the role of AI in their learning. Finally, there was a high degree of correspondence between self-reported data and observed classroom strategies. Such findings are hoped to expedite learners' autonomy and help teachers, material developers, and course designers integrate effective and AI-assisted skill-specific strategies more purposefully.
Research Paper
Learning and teaching theories
Pouya Ramezanlou; Abdorreza Tahriri
Abstract
This study investigated the role of peer-based feedback in relation to EFL learners’ Basic Psychological Needs (BPNs) of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and their Willingness to Communicate (WTC). Grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the benefits and challenges of implementing peer-based ...
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This study investigated the role of peer-based feedback in relation to EFL learners’ Basic Psychological Needs (BPNs) of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and their Willingness to Communicate (WTC). Grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the benefits and challenges of implementing peer-based feedback in classroom speaking tasks were explored. Participants included 55 individuals from four EFL classes, comprising 51 learners and four teachers. Data were collected through narrative framing using sentence completion tasks completed by the learners and autobiographical narratives produced by the teachers, and were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis with MAXQDA 24. Findings indicated that peer-based feedback facilitated learners’ transition from reluctance to readiness in communication, enhanced their sense of autonomy and competence, and fostered collaborative relationships, thereby promoting WTC. However, due to the tensions in feedback accuracy and peer interactions, several challenges such as anxiety, peer pressure, and reduced teacher control were also observed. Also, the findings highlight the need for balanced teacher facilitation while providing feedback and supportive classroom environment to optimize both linguistic and psychological outcomes.
Research Paper
Research methodology
Nima Farzaneh; Reza Rezvani
Abstract
Formulating well-defined research questions is widely regarded as fundamental to applied linguistics research. A common strategy for doing so is gap-spotting, whereby researchers justify their studies by identifying and filling gaps in the existing literature. This study examines how this strategy is ...
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Formulating well-defined research questions is widely regarded as fundamental to applied linguistics research. A common strategy for doing so is gap-spotting, whereby researchers justify their studies by identifying and filling gaps in the existing literature. This study examines how this strategy is employed in empirical research articles published in ISC-indexed (and/or Scopus-indexed) Iranian applied linguistics journals. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of a random sample (n = 210) of research articles published between 2016 and 2024, the study investigates the prevalence of gap-spotting, the ways different types of research gaps function in scholarly argumentation, and how researchers orient knowledge production. The analysis reveals that, despite disciplinary and paradigmatic diversity, most articles rely heavily on gap-spotting to establish significance and formulate research questions, with knowledge gaps dominating (81%) and methodological or theoretical concerns relegated to auxiliary roles. This pattern orients knowledge production toward incremental accumulation, pedagogical effectiveness and validation, situating research within a largely confirmatory, accumulation-oriented epistemology that operates within established theoretical and instructional paradigms rather than critically interrogating their underlying assumptions. The findings highlight an urgent need to diversify research question formulation through problematization, rhizomatic reviews, and critical engagement with underlying assumptions to foster a more pluralistic and socially responsive research culture.
Research Paper
Teacher education
Narges Sardabi; Nooshin Azin
Abstract
The increasing adoption of hybrid language instruction in the post-pandemic era has reshaped the ecology of language classrooms; however, little is known about how novice English language teachers negotiate their professional agency within these blended environments. Drawing on an ecological framework, ...
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The increasing adoption of hybrid language instruction in the post-pandemic era has reshaped the ecology of language classrooms; however, little is known about how novice English language teachers negotiate their professional agency within these blended environments. Drawing on an ecological framework, the researchers investigated how these teachers steer pedagogical duality, role ambiguity, and shifting power dynamics as they adapt to the hybrid teaching environment. The experiences of four novice teachers in Iran were examined using in-depth interviews and weekly teaching journals. The findings revealed that novice teachers faced three key challenges in the hybrid setting: (1) negotiating the pedagogical duality of virtual and in-person instruction, (2) experiencing role epistemic uncertainty when adopting multiple teacher identities, and (3) managing contested power dynamics with students in the hybrid space. In response to these challenges, the novice teachers enacted their agency through iterative adaptations that strategically aligned task design with modal affordances, renegotiated their professional identities from knowledge authorities to distributed facilitators, and cultivated learner autonomy to address power asymmetries. The study contributes to the literature on teacher agency by highlighting the situated and temporal nature of agency enactment, especially for novice teachers facing disruptive educational changes.
Research Paper
Language Skills and subskills
Fatemeh Bahrami; Rajab Esfandiari
Abstract
Prior research in foreign language (FL) academic writing in tertiary education has been promising, but the extent to which the lived experiences of English-as-foreign-language (EFL) teachers and students may play a role identifying areas which may contribute to the development of such writing remains ...
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Prior research in foreign language (FL) academic writing in tertiary education has been promising, but the extent to which the lived experiences of English-as-foreign-language (EFL) teachers and students may play a role identifying areas which may contribute to the development of such writing remains limited. This qualitative study was aimed at exploring Iranian EFL teachers’ and students’ lived experiences for better understanding the factors, challenges, and solutions which may possibly result in improving university academic writing. To that end, six language teachers and 18 students (six BA, six MA, and six PhD) participated in semi-structured interviews for data collection purposes. The researchers used transcendental phenomenology as the research design to frame the study, drew on interviews to collect the data, and followed inductive thematic analysis to analyse the interview data. The results showed the following major themes: The challenges, factors, solutions, and nature of academic writing as a distinct genre. The paper ends with the conclusion that effective EFL academic writing may benefit from incorporating a balanced treatment of top-down policies at institutional levels and bottom-up strategies followed by EFL leaners. The implications of the findings for teacher education programs and curriculum development are discussed.
