Teaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-54883220091101Examining Washback of Language Assessment within an Educational Context: Voices from Teachers and Examinersبررسی اثر12612858210.22132/tel.2008.128582ENZia TajeddinAllameh Tabataba’i UniversityMasoomeh EstajiAllameh Tabataba’i University0000-0002-8014-9491Journal Article20080429Teaching enriches students’ learning contents, while assessment evaluates students’ learning results. In recent decades, assessment has gained increased attention in EFL education. One of the important issues in the practice of assessment is the washback effect of testing on teaching and learning (Alderson and Wall, 1993; Buck, 1988; Hughes, 2003). Washback effect on teaching and learning can be positive (beneficial) or negative (harmful). Much research has been focused on the washback effect of assessment on students’ learning or large-scale, standardized tests (Watanabe, 1996). Assessment has powerful influence on teaching, too. Wall (1998) claimed that high-stakes tests might induce the impact on teaching methodology and content. This study explored the washback effect (Alderson and Wall, 1993) of a high-stakes exam, TOEFL iBT. It focused on the teachers’ perceptions of the test and its washback effect on teaching. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the washback behaviors of teachers and, to a lesser extent, students in the high-stakes testing environment of TOEFL iBT. The study followed a group of five teachers, teaching TOEFL iBT preparation courses. To explore the washback phenomenon, this study employed various methodological techniques, including questionnaire surveys, classroom observations, and indepth interviews.بررسی اثرhttp://www.teljournal.org/article_128582_50044f302242782c8ce39a2aa338acd3.pdfTeaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-54883220091101Writing Assessment Perspective: Too Simplistic or too Sophisticated?ارزشیابی مهارت نوشتاری276312858310.22132/tel.2008.128583ENMajid NematiUniversity of TehranMasoumeh Ahmadi ShiraziUniversity of TehranJournal Article20080201Writing ability is perhaps one of the most challenging constructs to be defined. For writing assessment to be valid indicator of the ability in question, there is a need for a theoretical basis. The uncertainty about the theory underlying the writing construct has led to the development of rating scales, each of which focuses on a number of writing traits. This study is an attempt to provide a taxonomy of writing traits. The question this taxonomy brings into mind is: how can we limit the nature of such an all-encompassing construct? If purpose and practicality are among the justifying reasons for reducing the construct into a few features, then construct validity of writing assessment will remain under question.ارزشیابی مهارت نوشتاریhttp://www.teljournal.org/article_128583_420cb6cf2caeba42e7a91dfd6f320adf.pdfTeaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-54883220091101ELT Educational Context, Teacher Intuition and Learner Hidden Agendaبافت انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجی659712868310.22132/tel.2009.128683ENJournal Article20210402This study, first, attempted to explore the conflict between EFL teacher intuition or concepts and learner's accounts of the distinctive features of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), and second to investigate the latter's " hidden agenda" (Nunan, 1989) of favorable ELT in relation to educational context. The study was carried out in the Iranian educational context conventionally categorized into three settings including; authoritarian, semi-democratic and democratic. Two groups of participants including 150 EFL learners and 45 teachers answered three triangulating and already validated questionnaires (Brindly, 1984 and BALLI of Horwitz, 1987a) addressing both the nature of language learning activities and their beliefs on language learning and teaching. Findings revealed that the learners hold variety of self-efficacy beliefs different from those of their teachers about learning language, many of which supported to be attributed to the educational context type and language planning and policy. While both sides generally agree on the virtues of CLT to language teaching, there are many areas of mismatch in their perceptions as to ELT agenda including lesson purposes, classroom activities, and learning outcomes. The findings are persuasive in that: reflective teaching-learning rests on teacher's awareness of learner's ‘maxims’ (Richard,1996), participatory syllabus design is a necessity, the gap between their opposing maxims should be narrowed, and the teachers are required to be aware of imposition of negative psychological impacts on the learner's side; resulting from any cognitive and intuitive mismatch.بافت انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجیhttp://www.teljournal.org/article_128683_451bb13002ca2ca4a77236549a40b695.pdfTeaching English Language
and Literature Society of Iran
(TELLSI)Teaching English Language2538-54883220091101The Role of Motivation in ESP Reading Comprehension Test Performanceنقش انگیزه9911512868410.22132/tel.2009.128684ENMansoor TavakoliUniversity of IsfahanJournal Article20210402The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of motivation in ESP reading comprehension tests at the university level in Iran. For the study, 245 students from different majors (literature, economics, medicine, electronics and chemical engineering) participated in the project. In addition to the motivation questionnaire, the participants in each major took a battery of reading comprehension tests related to their own content area knowledge, namely, majorspecific technical English (EST) tests. The obtained data were subjected to different statistical analyses. The findings revealed, First, that motivation is significantly related to the test performance of the participants, and second, the English literature major students had a higher motivation in test performance than those in other majors. The results have some implications for TEFL at the university level.نقش انگیزهhttp://www.teljournal.org/article_128684_18b87dc168fe5a77d6adf37c9bb0f69d.pdf