Journal of Teaching Language Skills最新文献

A Comparative Intercultural Approach to English School Textbooks of Middle-Eastern Countries: The Cases of Iran and Egypt 中东国家英语教科书的跨文化比较研究:以伊朗和埃及为例

Journal of Teaching Language Skills Pub Date : 2021-09-08 DOI: 10.22099/JTLS.2021.40338.2989

L. Jorfi, M. Amerian, Hamidreza Dowlatabadi, H. Yazdani

{"title":"A Comparative Intercultural Approach to English School Textbooks of Middle-Eastern Countries: The Cases of Iran and Egypt","authors":"L. Jorfi, M. Amerian, Hamidreza Dowlatabadi, H. Yazdani","doi":"10.22099/JTLS.2021.40338.2989","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22099/JTLS.2021.40338.2989","url":null,"abstract":"Due to the importance of intercultural communicative competence together with English language, this study investigated four types of cultural content: topics, cultural dimensions, international/intercultural issues, as well as cultural references in Vision I, the Iranian secondary textbook and Hello I its Egyptian counterpart. One of the means by which culture can be manifested, introduced, interacted with, and contemplated upon is through textbooks to which a larger number of EFL students have access. The present analysis is carried out based on content analysis and a modification of three models (Hall, 2002; Sercu, 2000; Risager, 1991). Overall, the results show that Vision I has a more limited scope of cultural content compared to Hello I. The analyses further signify a lack of in-depth cultural information within both textbooks. In Hello I, there were more instances of culture compared to Vision I, however, it is suggested that the incorporation of culture could be vaster and deeper to provide students with a more comprehensive picture about other cultures. In Vision I the scope of cultural content representation was rather limited. It is, thus, suggested that along with taking some measures for including a greater array of cultural content in Vision I, curriculum developers need to decide to include more depth to the cultural content. Thus, more concentration and attention should be exerted for developing students’ intercultural competence through the inclusion of an in-depth cultural content which introduces to students different cultures and turns them into individuals who are able to efficiently communicate with others.","PeriodicalId":150431,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching Language Skills","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126867786","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Correspondence between EFL teachers’ cognitive and behavioral manifestations of pedagogical beliefs: The moderating role of teacher grit 英语教师教学信念认知表现与行为表现的对应关系:教师毅力的调节作用

Journal of Teaching Language Skills Pub Date : 2021-09-08 DOI: 10.22099/JTLS.2021.40121.2966

Parisa Ashkani, M. Shabani, M. Karimi, R. Esfandiari

{"title":"Correspondence between EFL teachers’ cognitive and behavioral manifestations of pedagogical beliefs: The moderating role of teacher grit","authors":"Parisa Ashkani, M. Shabani, M. Karimi, R. Esfandiari","doi":"10.22099/JTLS.2021.40121.2966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22099/JTLS.2021.40121.2966","url":null,"abstract":"Previous evidence suggests that teachers’ practices are invariably inconsistent with their beliefs. Different factors have been cited as responsible for such lack of correspondence. To advance the accumulated scholarship, the current study examined the correspondence/non-correspondence between English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ cognitive and behavioral manifestations of pedagogical beliefs and the extent that teacher grit, as a personal variable, impacts the connection between these two manifestations. An initial group of 70 EFL teachers responded to L2 Teacher Grit Scale and Pedagogical Beliefs Questionnaire. Based on their performance on the Grit Scale, two sub-groups of fifteen teachers (with high and low levels of teacher grit) were selected to examine the alignment/non-alignment of their pedagogical beliefs and practices. Two instructional sessions per teacher were observed by means of an observation checklist designed based on the Pedagogical Beliefs Questionnaire. Comparisons across the teachers showed that whereas the two groups valued pedagogical beliefs roughly equally, only the teachers with high levels of grit showed strong evidence of correspondence between their beliefs and actual instructional practices. Based on the findings, it can be implied that teacher grit can serve a prominent role in the correlation between EFL teachers' self-reported pedagogical beliefs and their actual practices.","PeriodicalId":150431,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching Language Skills","volume":"102 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122455583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 1

Academic writing courses in TEFL master's programs through student-instructor lenses: Avenues for improvement 从学生-教师的角度看TEFL硕士课程的学术写作课程:改进的途径

Journal of Teaching Language Skills Pub Date : 2021-08-05 DOI: 10.22099/JTLS.2021.40619.2998

Mahsa Alinasab, Javad Gholami, Z. Mohammadnia

{"title":"Academic writing courses in TEFL master's programs through student-instructor lenses: Avenues for improvement","authors":"Mahsa Alinasab, Javad Gholami, Z. Mohammadnia","doi":"10.22099/JTLS.2021.40619.2998","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22099/JTLS.2021.40619.2998","url":null,"abstract":"The importance of incorporating graduate students' needs into academic writing courses has established a good reputation in EAP/ESP research. In addition, writing and publishing research articles (RA) is a universally established benchmark for students' academic flourish. The present study examines the status quo of academic writing courses in graduate programs to determine the extent to which academic writing needs of TEFL students, mainly RA writing needs, are addressed and practiced in the course. Drawing insights from the literature on academic writing, we developed two similar interview protocols for graduate students and course instructors to capture these key stakeholders' retrospective views on the course. We found that the course mainly focuses on proposal/thesis writing, not regarded as a critical need based on students' perspectives. Moreover, both students and instructors echoed the importance of RA writing as a significant area to be covered while emphasizing the need to integrate RA genre literacy into classroom practices. In this paper, we call for the reconsideration of students' primary needs in designing and running graduate writing programs and suggest that RA writing with a genre-based orientation become an instrumental component of academic writing courses in English as an Additional Language contexts (EAL).","PeriodicalId":150431,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching Language Skills","volume":"65 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132601635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

An Online Portfolio Assessment and Perception Study of Iranian High School Students’ English Writing Performance during the COVID-19 Pandemic 2019冠状病毒病疫情期间伊朗高中生英语写作表现的在线档案评估与感知研究

Journal of Teaching Language Skills Pub Date : 2021-08-01 DOI: 10.22099/JTLS.2021.39788.2946

Siamak Rahimi, B. Ghonsooly, Afsheen Rezai

{"title":"An Online Portfolio Assessment and Perception Study of Iranian High School Students’ English Writing Performance during the COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"Siamak Rahimi, B. Ghonsooly, Afsheen Rezai","doi":"10.22099/JTLS.2021.39788.2946","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22099/JTLS.2021.39788.2946","url":null,"abstract":"With the abrupt emergence and dissemination of the COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional face-to-face classes were replaced by online classes in Iran. This quick shift has put great demands on finding and practicing new methods to teach and learn English in high schools. Owing to this urgent call, the present study follows a two-fold purpose. Firstly, it purports to disclose the effects of online portfolio assessment (PA) on developing Iranian high school students’ English writing skills. Secondly, it aims to excavate the Iranian high school students’ perceptions about the merits of online PA in cultivating their writing skills. To meet the aims, an intact second-grade class, including female students (n = 25), was chosen in Shahed public high school in Borujerd City. The class received online instruction (sixteen sessions lasting 90 minutes) based on the tenets of PA (e.g., collection, selection, and reflection). Then, a focus group interview was conducted with five of the active participants. Findings evidenced a significant improvement in the participants’ writing skills owing to the instruction. Additionally, the results of the focus group interview yielded some themes about the benefits of PA as perceived by Iranian high school students: ‘developing students’ autonomy’; ‘fostering a sense of belonging to classroom community’; ‘providing a comprehensive analysis of students’ writing proficiency’; ‘collecting empirical evidence on students’ gradual improvement in writing’; ‘training self-regulated students’; and ‘making classes student-centered by teachers-as-advisors’. Finally, a range of implications is presented to various stakeholders.","PeriodicalId":150431,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching Language Skills","volume":"88 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134153351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 6

Special Issue Editorial 特刊社论

Journal of Teaching Language Skills Pub Date : 2021-08-01 DOI: 10.22099/JTLS.2021.6282

A. Riazi, R. Rezvani

引用次数: 0

A Corpus-based Analysis of Lexical Richness in EAP Texts Written by Iranian TEFL Students 基于语料库的伊朗TEFL学生EAP语篇词汇丰富度分析

Journal of Teaching Language Skills Pub Date : 2021-07-27 DOI: 10.22099/JTLS.2021.40043.2960

Masoud Azadnia

{"title":"A Corpus-based Analysis of Lexical Richness in EAP Texts Written by Iranian TEFL Students","authors":"Masoud Azadnia","doi":"10.22099/JTLS.2021.40043.2960","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22099/JTLS.2021.40043.2960","url":null,"abstract":"The literature on second/foreign language (L2/FL) discourse is replete with corpus-based studies into the use of various features representing lexical proficiency. Nonetheless, the lexical construct of English for academic purposes (EAP) texts developed by postgraduates majoring in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) still sounds like a relatively unexplored domain that merits further multi-dimensional investigation. To narrow the gap, the authors in the current study set out to evaluate the lexical richness of a corpus containing doctoral dissertations written by Iranian TEFL students in terms of lexical density, diversity, and sophistication. Taking advantage of the computational tool Coh-Metrix to analyze the lexical features, the corpus was analyzed in comparison with a first language (L1) baseline containing doctoral dissertations written by English native speakers. The comparative analysis of the L1 and L2 corpora revealed that the texts written by Iranian TEFL learners were lexically less diverse but more sophisticated. Additionally, the lexical density of the L2 corpus exceeded that of the L1 one in terms of nouns and adjectives. Based on the results drawn from a discriminant function analysis (DFA), the features representing lexical sophistication and density were found to be the best predictors of lexical richness since they could significantly discriminate between the two sub-corpora. The findings may provide new insights into the ways of evaluating and enhancing the lexical richness of FL/L2 written discourse.","PeriodicalId":150431,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching Language Skills","volume":"387 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133015163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 1

The Effect of Instructor Feedback on Developing Iranian ELT Graduate Students’ Critical Academic Writing Skills 教师反馈对伊朗英语教学研究生批判性学术写作技能培养的影响

Journal of Teaching Language Skills Pub Date : 2021-07-16 DOI: 10.22099/JTLS.2021.39763.2945

Hani Mansooji, M. Javid

{"title":"The Effect of Instructor Feedback on Developing Iranian ELT Graduate Students’ Critical Academic Writing Skills","authors":"Hani Mansooji, M. Javid","doi":"10.22099/JTLS.2021.39763.2945","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22099/JTLS.2021.39763.2945","url":null,"abstract":"A major part of any doctoral program concerns academic writing, but most students at the graduate level do not have sufficient skills pertaining to it. For non-native Ph.D. students who need to write English language dissertations, this issue is particularly troublesome since it causes time-consuming extracurricular efforts which can, at times, be really frustrating. The present study was carried out in the form of an action research project to explore the impact of a process-based teaching of writing on the attitudes of 8 Iranian Ph.D. candidates of TEFL towards writing academically. The procedure of the course included phases requiring students to send their completed writing assignments by specified dates, and receive and apply teacher guidance on the texts’ logic, content, consistency, tone and grammar. In-person discussions about the progress were also programmed for each student. The findings indicate that the students in the study felt that the teaching process had a constructive effect on the development of their skills in writing academically. Implications of the study include providing space for dialogue between teachers and students to complement written feedback, keeping the sense of accountability active in student minds by assisting them to self-organize, and realizing that graduate students can need assistance in very basic writing skills and knowledge.","PeriodicalId":150431,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching Language Skills","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121309313","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Lived Experience of Adult English Learners of Learning English on the Phone 成人英语学习者在手机上学习英语的亲身体验

Journal of Teaching Language Skills Pub Date : 2021-07-12 DOI: 10.22099/JTLS.2021.40422.2991

Zahra Abdi, M. Mohsenpour

{"title":"Lived Experience of Adult English Learners of Learning English on the Phone","authors":"Zahra Abdi, M. Mohsenpour","doi":"10.22099/JTLS.2021.40422.2991","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22099/JTLS.2021.40422.2991","url":null,"abstract":"In line with technological advancement during the last few decades, virtual learning has been addressed more widely, which affected English language teaching and learning as well. Since Covid 19 pandemic, which has resulted in the long-lasting closure of educational settings worldwide, virtual learning as the alternative of traditional education has been developed unprecedentedly. An option for virtual learning specifically for language teaching is teaching on the phone which has been mostly neglected in educational research. The aim of this study was to analyse the lived experience of 16 adult English language learners who experienced learning English through one-to-one, audio call sessions. Due to the pandemic, semi-structured interviews were conducted on the phone, which were recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed with a phenomenological approach. Many times revisions of the statements driven from the transcriptions resulted in 7 themes namely: a) learning on-the-phone as a new, satisfying experience, b) advantages, and c) disadvantages of one-to-one audio sessions, d) the participants’ preferences, e) the requisites of on-the-phone-learning, f) the expectations of on-the-phone teacher, and g) the positive effects of on-the-phone English learning on four language skills. According to the result of this study, some educational recommendations for improving on-the-phone teaching are: covering four language skills through developing individualised lesson plans based on each learner’s needs and English language proficiency level; holding group video sessions along with one-to-one audio sessions; and using the facilities of messengers like WhatsApp to send audio, video and textual files to learners based on their needs and learning objectives.","PeriodicalId":150431,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching Language Skills","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128095685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 2

The Effect of Dictogloss vs. Debating on L2 Writing Proficiency: A Mixed-Methods Study 辨析与辩论对二语写作水平的影响:一项混合方法研究

Journal of Teaching Language Skills Pub Date : 2021-07-07 DOI: 10.22099/JTLS.2021.39939.2954

G. Modarresi

{"title":"The Effect of Dictogloss vs. Debating on L2 Writing Proficiency: A Mixed-Methods Study","authors":"G. Modarresi","doi":"10.22099/JTLS.2021.39939.2954","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22099/JTLS.2021.39939.2954","url":null,"abstract":"The use of task-based collaborative output activities in enhancing EFL students’ writing proficiency has been underrated in the Iranian context. To foster students’ writing ability, the present study, which employed a mixed-method design, aimed to evaluate the effect of innovative tools, dictogloss and debating, on the writing development of English-major university students in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF). The study involved two experimental extracurricular classes and consisted of 11 sessions during the regular academic term. Having analyzed the writing tasks produced by the students’ performance on pretest and posttest, the results revealed that students of both groups significantly enhanced their writing performance, representing an increase in a number of indices of CAF measures following the intervention. More specifically, the results of paired-samples t-test confirmed that the students in the dictogloss group showed significant improvement in six indices of CAF measure, and the students in the debate group displayed significant improvement in seven indices of CAF measures. Moreover, the results of ANCOVA confirmed that the debate group improved more than the dictogloss group in terms of CAF measures. The results of the interviews with the students regarding the role of task-based collaborative output activities on their written performance yielded several commonalities which were coded into 11 codes for dictogloss and 16 codes for debating, taking inter-coder reliability and agreement into account. In the end, the study offers practical implications for L2 learners and teachers.","PeriodicalId":150431,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching Language Skills","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116537624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on English Language Teacher Education in Iran: Challenges and Opportunities 新冠肺炎疫情对伊朗英语教师教育的影响:挑战与机遇

Journal of Teaching Language Skills Pub Date : 2021-06-08 DOI: 10.22099/JTLS.2021.39716.2941

Vahid Hassani

{"title":"The Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on English Language Teacher Education in Iran: Challenges and Opportunities","authors":"Vahid Hassani","doi":"10.22099/JTLS.2021.39716.2941","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22099/JTLS.2021.39716.2941","url":null,"abstract":"The global pandemic of COVID-19 has brought about many changes and challenges in our lives, interactions, relationships, and modes of learning and teaching and helped us learn how to adapt ourselves to unanticipated conditions to survive. It stimulated universities, schools, and institutions of higher education to rethink and restructure their policies to find solutions to the problems as well as researchers all around the world to help educational systems get out of the mess. This study aimed to contribute to the body of literature and investigated the impacts of COVID-19 on English language teacher education. Convenience sampling was employed to recruit thirty student teachers as the participants of the study. To do the study, the author used semi-structured interview, focus group interview (n = 20), student teachers' reflective journals (n = 10) and his own reflective journals to collect the data. Grounded theory was used for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that there was a shift from anomaly to congruity, student teachers saw the pandemic as an opportunity, they felt the need for technology inclusion, development, and promotion in their educational contexts, there was an urgent need to train teachers and learners to use technology in their contexts to keep the education running, and teachers had to reconstruct their identities and turn to formative assessment. The findings can contribute to the body of literature and prompt English language teacher education programs, teacher educators, administrators, teachers, and policy makers to consider the findings while they are designing, upgrading, reforming, and running their syllabi, curriculums, and programs.","PeriodicalId":150431,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Teaching Language Skills","volume":"59 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127218325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 1