Teaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-548812120180310Transformation of an EFL Teacher's Cognition Underlying Oral Corrective Feedback: A Case of Reflective Inquiry1305851010.22132/tel.2018.58510ENZahra ShafieeAlzahra UniversityHassan NejadghanbarKharazmi UniversitySeyyedeh Fahimeh ParsaiyanAlzahra UniversityJournal Article20170205This qualitative longitudinal case study investigated the transformative contribution of reflective inquiry to a language teacher's cognition underlying his provision of oral corrective feedback. The data were collected through semistructured interview, classroom observation, and reflective verbal recollection during an educational year. Thematic analysis of the data led to the emergence of four major themes guiding the teacher's oral error treatment, namely Theoretical and Pedagogical Knowledge, Informed Online Decision Making, Critical Reflection, and Expressing Beliefs and Philosophies. Further analysis of the data revealed instances of transformation in the teacher's cognition underlying error correction. Accordingly, the teacher's new approaches revealed an increased awareness towards his pedagogical knowledge and online decision making as informed by his theoretical knowledge regarding corrective feedback whereas his theoretical and pedagogical knowledge did not indicate remarkable changes. Moreover, this teacher’s critical reflection and evaluation of constraints influencing oral error treatment revealed a remarkable transformation, and his latest concerns illustrated his transformed beliefs and enhanced confidence. In addition to the researchers' suggestion for further inquiry and replication, the findings, imply that reflective inquiry has a transformative role in reconstruction of language teachers' cognition on oral corrective feedback.Teaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-548812120180310The Comparative Effects of Mnemonic Keyword Method, Storytelling, and Semantic Organization on L2 Idiom Learning31605854910.22132/tel.2018.58549ENAbbas Ali ZareiImam Khomeini International University, Qazvin0000-0002-6062-6633Zeinalabedin RamezankhaniImam Khomeini International University, QazvinJournal Article20170711Different techniques and methods have been offered to improve the learning of idioms. The goal of the study was to compare the possible effects of <em>Mnemonic keyword method</em>, storytelling, and semantic organization on Second Language (L2) idiom learning. To this end, 90 male students with the age range of 16 to 18 in Shahid Beheshti high school in Avaj, Iran were selected through convenience sampling based on availability. To homogenize the participants, a version of the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was used. Another pretest was used to minimize the effect of the students' prior knowledge of idioms. Then, the students were divided into three equal groups, and each group was randomly assigned to a different treatment condition. At the end of the treatment, which lasted for 10 one–hour sessions, three posttests were used to compare the effects of the three different methods. Three separate one-way ANOVA procedures were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the group taught through the keyword method outperformed the other two groups in L2 idiom comprehension, production, and retention. Also, the participants of the storytelling group had better performance in L2 idiom comprehension, production and retention than those in the semantic organization group.Thesefindings may have implications for learners, teachers and material designersTeaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-548812120180314Core Reflection as a Way Towards Integrating Theoretical Knowledge and Pedagogical Practice in the Iranian Context: The Case of Prospective Language Teachers61875954510.22132/tel.2018.59545ENBahareh KhazaeenezhadUniversity of IsfahanMansoor TavakoliUniversity of IsfahanZahra AmirianUniversity of IsfahanJournal Article20170725This study was an attempt to examine the levels of teacher activity and reflection phases Iranian prospective language teachers go through in a way to put into practice the concepts and theories explored on campus within their workplace. To this end, <em>Core Reflection Model</em> was practiced by drawing on reflective journals, focus group discussions, and field notes collected over a four month period. The findings indicated that reflections on all six levels of the core reflection model took place mostly being on the level of convictions or beliefs, followed by competencies, behavior, environment, identity, and mission. Moreover, through the movement of reflection among the five phases, a shift from the second phase, <em>looking back at action</em>, to the third one<em>, awareness of essential aspects</em>, was observed and held on to the last phase; the reason could be the lack of mentorship and supervisory interventions for promoting guided reflection practice for prospective teachers in English language teacher education in Iran. In general, utilizing core reflection model in language teacher education for prospective teachers seems to be successful, because the model fostered the reflection of language teachers on all levels and phases and could empower them in their practice.Teaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-548812120180316A Framework of Reference for Teaching English as a Foreign Language at the Threshold of I.R. of Iran891095961410.22132/tel.2018.59614ENSajjad Askari MatinTarbiat Modares UniversityGholamreza KianyTarbiat Modares UniversityReza Ghafar SamarTarbiat Modares UniversityJournal Article20170223Advancements in theory and practice of <em>Teacher Evaluation</em> maintain that effective teaching is the most important factor in realization of success or failure of an education system. Therefore, any attempt to explore the dynamic and complex nature of teachers' performance is considered critical. In the same vein, this paper is an attempt to introduce a Framework of Reference for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (FRTEFL) at the threshold of I.R. of Iran; a local model aligned with global perspectives. To this end, adapting a qualitative meta-synthesis approach, all possible dimensions of teachers' performance criteria reflected in 17 High-stake resources were explored; scrutinizing the twofold mapping of both curriculum and evaluation standards. For the application of meta-synthesis, grounded coding and thematic analysis was carried out by two research assistants also fifteen teacher training experts participated in validation analysis. The output of meta-synthesis resulted in emergence of overall 6293 Grounded Codes, 1655 Themes, and 218 Super-themes. Based on the results, the framework contains 8 Domains, 35 Key Areas, along with their validation measures: Planning and Preparation for General Pedagogy, Planning and Preparation for Language Pedagogy, Planning and Design for Learning, Management of Learning Environment, Effective Instruction, Organizational Responsibilityand Professionalism, Socio-cultural Capital and Social Agency, and Spirituality, Morality and Theism. The proposed framework is believed to represent a localized framework of teachers' practice in the context of an <em>Islamic Education System</em>, provide considerable implications for enhancement of teachers' professional development, and to be a major step in validation of local and large-scale Teacher Evaluation programs.Teaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-548812120180402A Study of the Representation of Social Actors in Touchstone Series: A Critical Discourse Analysis Perspective1111336013210.22132/tel.2018.60132ENAbdullah SaraniUniversity of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan0000-0001-8423-7272Somayeh KordUniversity of Sistan and Baluchestan, ZahedanJournal Article20170329This study is an attempt to interrogate different ways in which social actors are represented through two independent (linguistic & visual) modes of communication in EFL textbooks in light of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approaches. For the purpose of this study, gender related features were identified according to the categories introduced in Van Leeuwen's (2008) and Kress and Van Leeuwen's (2006) frameworks in <em>Touchstone</em> series. The results of this study indicate that male and female participants were represented differently through both visual and linguistic modes of representation. For the case of linguistic gender representations, it was found that a female oriented ideology has been practiced through this series. Visual gender representation results, on the other hand, showed that males were stereotypically represented as more salient and idealized participants than females. The findings of this research can provide teachers, learners, curriculum designers or course book developers with potential implications. Teaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-548812120180403Minimizing Burnout through Reflection: The Rocky Road ahead of EFL Teachers1351546016010.22132/tel.2018.60160ENMohsen ShirazizadehAlzahra UniversityShahab MoradkhaniRazi UniversityJournal Article20170322Teacher reflection has been recently promoted based on the claim that it positively affects various aspects of teaching and provides solutions to some of the challenges teachers encounter in their career. However, these arguments are mainly theory-driven with little empirical evidence indicating the constructive role of teachers' involvement in reflection. Inspired by this scarcity of research, the first objective of this mixed-methods study was to examine how English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' engagement in reflective practice can be associated with their burnout. To this end, 223 Iranian EFL teachers completed reflection and burnout inventories. The results indicated that reflection is negatively correlated with burnout implying that involvement in reflective practice is associated with less burnout. Having found this, we conducted some interviews to explore the factors which impede teachers' reflection. Analysis of interview data revealed that impediments to reflection can be divided into the four categories of teacher related, job related, curriculum related and student related issues. Implications of this study for teacher education research and practice are discussed.Teaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-548812120180301Exploring the Ideological Use of Grammatical Structures in a Written Text: Applications for Students of Literatureبررسی استفاده ایدئولوژیک از ساختارهای گرامری در متون: موارد کاربردی برای دانشجویان ادبیات1551726103010.22132/tel.2018.61030ENSayyed Rahim MoosaviniaDepartment of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Shahid Chamran University of AhvazMehrdad JalaliDepartment of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Shahid Chamran University of AhvazJournal Article20170912By the fall of Colonialism in the mid-20<sup>th</sup> century, a plethora of writers and critics mostly from the excolonies started to write back to the Empire. Being categorized as <em>Postcolonial</em>, this group has used for the most part the language of the colonizers for their writing. Thus the latter has imposed its own criteria on the used language. This research has chosen Chinua Achebe's magnum opus, <em>Things Fall Apart</em>, as its language is English: the language imposed on Nigeria and many other colonized nations. He wrote this novel supposedly as a reaction against European novels that depicted Africans as uncivilized people who needed to be civilized by Europeans. Adopting Fairclough's approach to <em>Critical Discourse Analysis</em> to analyze the text for the ideological use of certain grammatical structures, the present paper argues that Achebe, despite his nationality, is virtually writing as a western literary figure who has set his fictions in Nigeria. This goes contrary to what the novelist has embarked on; it still perpetuates the same African stereotypes.<span style="line-height: 107%; font-family: 'B Nazanin'; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: FA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;" lang="FA" dir="RTL">پس از<br />فروپاشی استعمار در اواسط قرن بیستم، تعداد زیادی از نویسندگان و منتقدان مستعمرات<br />سابق قلم خود را برای نوشتن علیه استعمار به دست گرفتند. این گروه که به عنوان"پسااستعمار"</span><span style="line-height: 107%; font-family: 'B Nazanin'; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: FA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;" lang="FA" dir="RTL">طبقه<br />بندی شدند، به طور عمده از زبان استعمارگران برای نوشتن استفاده کردند.</span><span style="line-height: 107%; font-family: 'B Nazanin'; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: FA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;" lang="FA" dir="RTL">بنابراین،<br />استعمارگران به گونه</span><span style="line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Calibri',sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'B Nazanin'; mso-bidi-language: FA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span><span style="line-height: 107%; font-family: 'B Nazanin'; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: FA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;" lang="FA" dir="RTL">ای<br />معیارهای خود را به این نویسندگان به اصطلاح ضد</span><span style="line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Calibri',sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'B Nazanin'; mso-bidi-language: FA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span><span style="line-height: 107%; font-family: 'B Nazanin'; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: FA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;" lang="FA" dir="RTL">استعمار تحمیل کردند. پژوهش حاضر، «همه چیز فرو می<br />پاشد» اثر چینوا آچبه را به عنوان متن پژوهش مورد بررسی قرار داده است زیرا که<br />زبان این اثر انگلیسی است، زبانی که به مردم نیجریه و بسیاری از کشورهای مستعمره<br />دیگر تحمیل شد. او این رمان را ظاهرا به عنوان واکنشی علیه رمانهای اروپایی نوشت. رمانهایی<br />که آفریقاییها را به عنوان افراد غیر متمدن توصیف می کرد که نیاز به تمدن اروپایی<br />داشتند. در مقاله حاضر، با بکارگیری دیدگاه فرکلاف در مورد تحلیل انتقادی برای<br />تحلیل متن و استفاده ایدئولوژیک از ساختارهای خاص گرامری، تلاش شده است که استدلال<br />شود آچبه، علیرغم ملیت خود، تقریبا به عنوان شخصیت ادبی غربی دست به قلم ببرد و<br />تنها نیجریه را به عنوان زمینهای برای داستانهایش انتخاب کند و این بر خلاف ادعای<br />رماننویس است.</span>Teaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-548812120180715ELT Teachers' Content and Educational Literacy Threshold (CELT): A Synthetic Approachآستانه سواد محتوا و آموزشی معلمان زبان انگلیسی با استفاده ازروش تحقیق ترکیبی تحلیل1731986631710.22132/tel.2018.66317ENReza KhanyIlam UniversityMohammad AliakbariIlam UniversityAnna HajizadehIlam UniversityJournal Article20170122Nearly 60 years after the initial declaration of language teachers' knowledge, evidence still seems unsatisfactory as little is generally agreed upon. This study followed Noblit and Hare's meta-ethnography approach to reconcile various researchers' interpretations of language teacher' knowledge through facilitating the accumulation of their substantive interpretations. A total number of 188 studies were chosen through meticulous search techniques and based on CASP quality criteria. The result of the meta-ethnography analysis yielded a reductionist yet inclusive account of language teachers' literacy named Content and Educational Literacy Threshold (CELT) with a two-tire construct taxonomy: Content Literacy consisting of six subthemes and Educational Literacy with four subthemes. Overarching a framework for demonstrating the key findings of the available literature on ELT literacy, the findings of the study can be used by many people in the field including language teaching policy makers, curriculum designers, material developers, teachers and learners and other practitioners.تقریبا شصت سال پس ازنخستین بیانیه در مورد مفهوم دانش معلمان زبان شواهد موجود نشان می دهد که در زمینه تعریف جامعی از مفهوم ذکر شده اتفاق نظر وجود ندارد. این مطالعه که برگرفته از روش فرا مردم نگاری نوبلیت و هر (۱۹۸۸) می باشد در تلاش است تا بتواند تفسیرهای متعدد مفهوم دانش معلمان زبان را از طریق گردآوری مجموع تفسیرهای متعدد تطبیق دهد. مجموعا ۱۸۸مطالعه از طریق تکنیک های بسیار دقیق و بر اساس معیارهای کیفیت برنامه مهارت های ارزشیابی انتقادی انتخاب و مورد بررسی قرار گرفته اند.نتایج تجزیه و تحلیل تحقیق منجر به ارایه یک تقسیم بندی از مفهوم دانش محتوایی واموزشی معلمان زبان با عنوان آستانه سواد مفهوم و آموزشی شد که شامل یک طبقه بندی دو بعدی متشکل از سواد محتوا با شش زیر مجموعه و سواد آموزشی با چهار زیر ساختار می باشد. هم راستا با توصیف یک چهارچوب کلی برای نشان دادن یافته های کلیدی موجود درادبیات حاضر در ارتباط با سواد اموزش زبان انگلیسی یافته های این مطالعه می تواند توسط بسیاری از افراد این رشته از جمله سیاست گذاران آموزش زبان، برنامه ریزان درسی ، تهییه و تدوین کنندگان مطالب درسی ، معلمان و زبان آموزان و دیگرافراد شاغل در این رشته مورد استفاده قرار گیرد.