Teaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-54889120150601Stance in English Research Articles: Two Disciplines of the Same Science1275373010.22132/tel.2015.53730ENEsmat BabaiiKharazmi University of TehranMahmood RezaAtaiKharazmi University of TehranVali MohammadiKharazmi University of TehranJournal Article20140602Research in academic writing has revealed a strong tendency on the part of writers to interactively communicate their stance with their readers. This study targets the stance component of writer-reader interaction by integrating Hyland’s (2005b) and Hyland and Tse’s (2005) frameworks to investigate psychology and sociology English research articles; the former for lexical stance markers and the latter for grammatical <em>evaluative</em> <em>that</em> construction. The corpus included 100 English research articles published during 2012-2014, 50 from each field, yielding a total number of 922,400 words. The data were first analyzed by AntConc (Anthony, 2014) and, to ensure maximum reliability, a crosscheck was carried out by the researchers to discard the anomalies. Moreover, chi-square was run to compare the results. The results suggested remarkable similarities and significant differences between those disciplines. Based on the findings, some implications are drawn with plausible applicability in academic writing and EAP syllabus design. Finally, suggestions are put forward for future research.http://www.teljournal.org/article_53730_474ffba5f2593123b44e288ed849e164.pdfTeaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-54889120150130Differential Effects of Written Corrective Feedback on Iranian High School Students’ Grammatical Accuracy25595373110.22132/tel.2015.53731ENAli RoohaniShahrekord UniversityAliakbar JafarpourShahrekord UniversityHedayatallah TeimooriShahrekord UniversityJournal Article20140518Prompted by the interaction hypothesis and focus on form instruction, corrective feedback has received much attention in recent years within the interactionist framework. This study investigated the effects of three types of written corrective feedback (i.e., recast without saliency, recast with saliency, and metalinguistic feedback) on Iranian high school EFL learners’ grammatical accuracy of two structures in English: conditional sentences and relative clauses. To this end, four intact classes, comprising 104 low-intermediate Iranian high school EFL learners, were selected and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The three experimental groups received recasts without saliency, recast with saliency, and metalinguistic feedback in written picture description tasks/activities. Grammaticality judgment tests were used as the instruments to collect data on the participants’ grammatical accuracy of the two structures in a pretest-posttest control group design. ANCOVA and MANOVA showed that using written corrective feedback significantly improved the participants’ grammatical gains in the experimental groups. Moreover, metalinguistic and recast with saliency feedback (i.e., explicit feedback) was more effective than the recast without saliency feedback (i.e., implicit feedback). Furthermore, there was a significant differential effect of metalinguistic feedback for the type of grammatical structure. The study concludes with several pedagogical implications.http://www.teljournal.org/article_53731_899cc58c5a6b1b78e57695d9434265ff.pdfTeaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-54889120150130Exploring the Role of Mobile Games in a Blended Module of L2 Vocabulary Learning61915373210.22132/tel.2015.53732ENSaeed KhazaieShahid Chamran University of AhvazAlireza JalilifarShahid Chamran University of AhvazJournal Article20140125Mobile-game (m-game)-enhanced learning offers beneficiaries a modern and attractive window of opportunity to practice and learn language skills and subskills. Through grafting m-games onto the blended module of second language (L2) vocabulary teaching, this study endeavored to help educators to see if an m-game-enhanced didactic platform is applicable for L2 teaching and assessment. One-hundred fifty two females and males from four classes at Ahvaz Jundishpur University of Medicine were selected through purposive sampling to participate in this study. To embrace triangulation, data were aggregated via of formative and summative assessments of the participants' performance, attitude questionnaire, as well as a semi-structured interview. After participating in Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), the participants answered the preresearch questionnaire. Afterwards, for a period of an 18-blended-session course, they were taught the materials by their instructors inside the classroom and then practiced them through the m-games individually or collectively in dyads in the extramural setting. At the end of the course, participants took part in summative tests of English Vocabulary Recognition and Recall (EVRR) followed by the interview with the instructors. For data analysis, descriptive statistics as well as Olkin and Finn, Spearman correlation, and paired samples t-test were run. Descriptive and inferential analyses showed the tendency of the participants and instructors towards collective m-game-enhanced practicing and the prediction power of formative assessment ensued from it on the one hand and accordingly the statistically significant effect of the manner of m-gaming on the anticipatory power of the formative assessment on the other. As a consequence, the findings underscored the urgent need for collaboration in the process of m-game-enhanced L2 vocabulary learning and assessment.http://www.teljournal.org/article_53732_b2c6d13c7f1fbbd2a6827aa935b838c7.pdfTeaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-54889120150130Linguistic Politeness and its Relationship with Data Collection Preferences931245373310.22132/tel.2015.53733ENSaeedeh BehroozniaInternational Campus of Ferdowsi University of MashhadReza PishghadamFerdowsi University of MashhadMohammad GhazanfariFerdowsi University of MashhadJournal Article20140513The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between conceptions of linguistic politeness and data collection preferences. Respectively, the study tried to design and validate a measure of Conception of Linguistic Politeness (CLP) based on Scollon and Scollon’s (1995) model as well as a measure of Data Collection Preferences (DCP). To this end, a total number of 502 individuals completed the CLP scale, and 199 participants filled out the DCP scale. The construct validity of the scales was checked using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) method. The results of the scales indicated that, the participants of the study tend to use deference politeness system and answer the implicit items more than the explicit ones in research. Furthermore, the relationship between the two scales suggested that the more polite Iranians’ linguistic conceptions get, the more they prefer to answer the implicit items in research. In the end, the results were discussed and the implications were presented.http://www.teljournal.org/article_53733_28c8c423633cb2a8b8e2a6538d63dcca.pdfTeaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-54889120150601Iranian EFL Learners' Favored Strategic Fillers for Noticed Gaps amid Conversations Across Proficiency1251435373410.22132/tel.2015.53734ENTania SamadianDepartment of English, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, IranParviz BirjandiDepartment of English, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, IranJournal Article20171205This study's main purpose was to elicit speaking strategies employed by Iranian Learners of English across proficiency whilst they noticed a gap/hole in their inter language repertoire amid a conversation compensating for their lack of fluent speaking ability. Therefore, initially 30 EFL learners, at different levels of proficiency, participated in the first phase of the study. Based on the EFL learners' elicited viewpoints, both via group and one-on-one interviews, a 25-item speaking strategy questionnaire was developed and subsequently, distributed amongst 156 EFL learners to fill out. In order to decide on a subset of frequent responses and eliminate the redundant ones, factor analysis was applied and 6 components were extracted. The components fell on a continuum of noticing the gap, noticing the hole and noticing the gap/hole strategies. This representation unfolded speaking gap fillers strategies. In addition One-way Kruskal-Wallis was run in order to determine the effect of proficiency levels on speaking strategy use. The outcome revealed a significant difference on language strategy use across proficiency.http://www.teljournal.org/article_53734_04d33628a15aa45fe22ab3747aaa4604.pdfTeaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-54889120150130The Impact of Dynamic Assessment on Iranian EFL Students’ Writing Self-Assessment1451695373510.22132/tel.2015.53735ENMinoo AlemiIslamic Azad University, Tehran-west Branch0000-0001-9703-831XJournal Article20140220The rise of sociocultural theory has pushed up the value of dynamic assessment as one of the alternatives to traditional testing. The purpose of this study was to investigate (a) Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners’ self-assessment and self-rating of their writing ability and the effect of dynamic-assessment-based course on their accuracy, and (b) the interrelationships among teacher rating, self-assessment, and self-rating in the writing performance of twenty two engineering students taking a writing course as part of a general English course. Conducting descriptive statistics, correlational analyses, and <em>t</em>-tests revealed that the participants overrated their writing ability as measured against teacher rating before their exposure to the dynamic-assessment-based course. While they got close to each other after dynamic assessment and high correlations among all participants’ self-rating, self-assessment, and teacher ratings proved the impact of dynamic assessment. The results suggest that dynamic assessment could help Iranian EFL learners to get a better awareness of their criteria for writing evaluation, and subsequently they become more accurate in assessing their own writing ability, and this is a step forward in education.http://www.teljournal.org/article_53735_25f1020cedd186cc04305e701885205e.pdfTeaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-54889120150630An Evaluation of Grammar and Vocabulary Consciousness-Raising Activities in Current ELT Materials1712095373610.22132/tel.2015.53736ENJournal Article20141005The present study evaluated five current international ELT series regarding inclusion of grammar and vocabulary consciousness raising activities. Drawing upon Willis and Willis (1996) and Graves and Taffe (2007), a Likert-scale questionnaire was developed and validated which was completed by 90 Iranian EFL teachers and 170 Iranian EFL students, forty of whom (20 teachers and 20 students) also sat an interview. The results of inferential statistics (i.e. Independent Samples t-test and Chi-square analysis) revealed there was no significant difference between the responses of the teachers and students in this respect. That is, the results of the questionnaire combined with content analysis of the interviews and subjective evaluation of the researchers indicated although the ELT series incorporated different kinds of grammar and vocabulary activities, they did not include some of the major grammar and vocabulary consciousness raising activities (e.g., making generalizations, cross-referencing, reconstructing, discussing word choices, researching about vocabularies, etc.).http://www.teljournal.org/article_53736_b98ff456856d8e06753e999a4f20fa82.pdf