English Reading for EFL Students is a textbook developed for non-native speakers of English.In th... more English Reading for EFL Students is a textbook developed for non-native speakers of English.In this book motivating reading passages serve as springboards for reading skills development ,idiomatic expressions and quotations,vocabulary building, grammatical analysis and practice, and thought-provoking discussions. Key features: Reading skill instruction, Provocative topics, Idiomatic expressions & quotations, Vocabulary logs& vocabulary building skills, and Grammar focus.
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, Jun 22, 2023
Interlanguage pragmatics has been the focus of many studies since its inception in the 1980s, wit... more Interlanguage pragmatics has been the focus of many studies since its inception in the 1980s, with several issues being investigated and a variety of approaches being applied. However, studies on the learning processes and strategies which are specifically responsible for the acquisition of interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) knowledge are rare. Therefore, the current investigation sought to examine the effects of selected individual differences (IDs), including age, gender, language learning experience (LLE), and L2 proficiency, on the use of interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies (IPLS) in a sample of 160 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The data were collected utilizing a six-point IPLS inventory which contained 58 6-point Likert scale items that were divided into six subcategories. Data analysis using independent samples t-tests revealed that young learners used significantly more IPLS compared to their adult counterparts; nonetheless, there were no significant differences in the use of the IPLS between the female and male learners. At the same time, two one-way ANOVAs indicated that LLE and L2 proficiency played a significant role in the use of IPLS, that is, learners with longer LLE and higher proficiency levels used more IPLS. These findings have some pedagogical implications for L2 learners and teachers.
Drawing on the rhetorical/relational goal theory, this study examined the role of instructor clar... more Drawing on the rhetorical/relational goal theory, this study examined the role of instructor clarity and non-verbal immediacy in affective learning through the mediation of instructor understanding. Data were gathered through close-ended questionnaires from 756 Chinese and 715 Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) students, the factor structure and cross-cultural validity of which were supported via confirmatory factor analysis and testing measurement invariance, respectively. Path analysis results indicated that clarity and non-verbal immediacy positively predicted instructor understanding and affective learning; instructor understanding positively predicted affective learning; and understanding was a significant positive mediator in the relationship of non-verbal immediacy and clarity with affective learning. Except for the positive association of non-verbal immediacy with understanding which was significantly higher for the Iranian group, no significant difference was found...
A convergent parallel mixed-methods approach was used to explore teacher care, teacher-student ra... more A convergent parallel mixed-methods approach was used to explore teacher care, teacher-student rapport, and engagement in pursuing academic goals in a foreign language (L2) context, as perceived by 223 Iranian and 208 Polish L2 students. Quantitative data were obtained through three scales, the cross-cultural validity and factor structure of which were ensured through testing measurement invariance and confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. The structural equation modeling results obtained through running Mplus approved that care and rapport predicted Iranian and Polish students' engagement in pursuing academic goals in an L2 context. For checking the equality of the structural path coefficients, the Omnibus Wald test was employed. Group differences in factor means were tested, showing that Iranian and Polish students differed significantly regarding their levels of engagement. Qualitative data, obtained through running interviews with 30 Iranian and 24 Polish students, selected from the initial sample, approved the predictive links of care and rapport with Iranian and Polish students' engagement in pursuing academic goals in an L2 context. However, the students' qualitative reports revealed how their perceived country's cultural and instructional contexts influenced their engagement, empirically supporting the supposition that engagement is the by-product of the dynamic interaction between the individual factors and the instructional context, necessitating the examination of the role of sociocultural values and home culture in accomplishing this educational objective.
Identity processing styles are those psychological, sociocultural, and socio-cognitive mechanisms... more Identity processing styles are those psychological, sociocultural, and socio-cognitive mechanisms that shape, reshape, and establish different individuals’ identities both in their mother tongues and in the second or foreign language they are striving to acquire. The relationship between these identity processing styles and L2 learners’ pragmatic competence is a crucial issue that has not been explored thus far in an EFL context. Therefore, the present study sought to investigate the relationship between the information-oriented, diffuse-avoidant, and normative identity processing styles as measured by Berzonsky’s (2011) Identity Processing Style Inventory (ISI-4) and L2 speech-act knowledge and production among 122 (82 F and 40 M) Iranian upper-intermediate to advanced proficiency level learners. A validated 35-item multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) including five frequent English speech acts (requests, apologies, refusals, complaints, and compliments/compliment resp...
Since its inception, pragmatic competence has been studied vastly; the majority of these studies,... more Since its inception, pragmatic competence has been studied vastly; the majority of these studies, however, have examined pragmatic production, and pragmatic comprehension is chiefly under- researched. This lack of adequate research also stands true for the underlying pragmatic comprehension processes and strategies. Therefore, the present investigation aimed to find out L2 pragmatic comprehension strategies used by 40 (F=20, M=20) Iranian EFL learners and to discover whether there would be any differences between interlanguage pragmatic comprehension strategies used by male and female learners. Participants, selected based on stratified random sampling, were chosen on the basis of their performance on a paper-based TOEFL out of the initial sample of 90 students. Three data collection instruments were employed: a validated pragmatic test (Tajeddin & Ahmadi Safa, 2010), concurrent verbal think-aloud protocols, and retrospective verbal think-aloud protocols. Data analysis revealed thre...
Reading is recognized as being the most important skill needed by ESP learners in their field of ... more Reading is recognized as being the most important skill needed by ESP learners in their field of study, and vocabulary knowledge is the most widely discussed component of effective ESP reading per se. However, research on how much the different types of words exert substantial influences over ESP reading comprehension remains scanty. To address this lacuna, the present study aimed to examine the degree of contribution made by general high-frequency, core-academic, and technical-academic words to 127 Iranian learners studying Psychology at three state universities in Tehran, Iran. Three researcher-made and validated tests were used to measure the three aforementioned types of vocabulary knowledge accompanied by an ESP reading test. Data analysis using multiple regression revealed that the core-academic words and technical-academic words significantly contributed to the ESP reading comprehension, explaining about 92% of the variance in reading scores, but knowledge of general high-fre...
English Reading for EFL Students is a textbook developed for non-native speakers of English.In th... more English Reading for EFL Students is a textbook developed for non-native speakers of English.In this book motivating reading passages serve as springboards for reading skills development ,idiomatic expressions and quotations,vocabulary building, grammatical analysis and practice, and thought-provoking discussions. Key features: Reading skill instruction, Provocative topics, Idiomatic expressions & quotations, Vocabulary logs& vocabulary building skills, and Grammar focus.
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, Jun 22, 2023
Interlanguage pragmatics has been the focus of many studies since its inception in the 1980s, wit... more Interlanguage pragmatics has been the focus of many studies since its inception in the 1980s, with several issues being investigated and a variety of approaches being applied. However, studies on the learning processes and strategies which are specifically responsible for the acquisition of interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) knowledge are rare. Therefore, the current investigation sought to examine the effects of selected individual differences (IDs), including age, gender, language learning experience (LLE), and L2 proficiency, on the use of interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies (IPLS) in a sample of 160 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The data were collected utilizing a six-point IPLS inventory which contained 58 6-point Likert scale items that were divided into six subcategories. Data analysis using independent samples t-tests revealed that young learners used significantly more IPLS compared to their adult counterparts; nonetheless, there were no significant differences in the use of the IPLS between the female and male learners. At the same time, two one-way ANOVAs indicated that LLE and L2 proficiency played a significant role in the use of IPLS, that is, learners with longer LLE and higher proficiency levels used more IPLS. These findings have some pedagogical implications for L2 learners and teachers.
Drawing on the rhetorical/relational goal theory, this study examined the role of instructor clar... more Drawing on the rhetorical/relational goal theory, this study examined the role of instructor clarity and non-verbal immediacy in affective learning through the mediation of instructor understanding. Data were gathered through close-ended questionnaires from 756 Chinese and 715 Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) students, the factor structure and cross-cultural validity of which were supported via confirmatory factor analysis and testing measurement invariance, respectively. Path analysis results indicated that clarity and non-verbal immediacy positively predicted instructor understanding and affective learning; instructor understanding positively predicted affective learning; and understanding was a significant positive mediator in the relationship of non-verbal immediacy and clarity with affective learning. Except for the positive association of non-verbal immediacy with understanding which was significantly higher for the Iranian group, no significant difference was found...
A convergent parallel mixed-methods approach was used to explore teacher care, teacher-student ra... more A convergent parallel mixed-methods approach was used to explore teacher care, teacher-student rapport, and engagement in pursuing academic goals in a foreign language (L2) context, as perceived by 223 Iranian and 208 Polish L2 students. Quantitative data were obtained through three scales, the cross-cultural validity and factor structure of which were ensured through testing measurement invariance and confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. The structural equation modeling results obtained through running Mplus approved that care and rapport predicted Iranian and Polish students' engagement in pursuing academic goals in an L2 context. For checking the equality of the structural path coefficients, the Omnibus Wald test was employed. Group differences in factor means were tested, showing that Iranian and Polish students differed significantly regarding their levels of engagement. Qualitative data, obtained through running interviews with 30 Iranian and 24 Polish students, selected from the initial sample, approved the predictive links of care and rapport with Iranian and Polish students' engagement in pursuing academic goals in an L2 context. However, the students' qualitative reports revealed how their perceived country's cultural and instructional contexts influenced their engagement, empirically supporting the supposition that engagement is the by-product of the dynamic interaction between the individual factors and the instructional context, necessitating the examination of the role of sociocultural values and home culture in accomplishing this educational objective.
Identity processing styles are those psychological, sociocultural, and socio-cognitive mechanisms... more Identity processing styles are those psychological, sociocultural, and socio-cognitive mechanisms that shape, reshape, and establish different individuals’ identities both in their mother tongues and in the second or foreign language they are striving to acquire. The relationship between these identity processing styles and L2 learners’ pragmatic competence is a crucial issue that has not been explored thus far in an EFL context. Therefore, the present study sought to investigate the relationship between the information-oriented, diffuse-avoidant, and normative identity processing styles as measured by Berzonsky’s (2011) Identity Processing Style Inventory (ISI-4) and L2 speech-act knowledge and production among 122 (82 F and 40 M) Iranian upper-intermediate to advanced proficiency level learners. A validated 35-item multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) including five frequent English speech acts (requests, apologies, refusals, complaints, and compliments/compliment resp...
Since its inception, pragmatic competence has been studied vastly; the majority of these studies,... more Since its inception, pragmatic competence has been studied vastly; the majority of these studies, however, have examined pragmatic production, and pragmatic comprehension is chiefly under- researched. This lack of adequate research also stands true for the underlying pragmatic comprehension processes and strategies. Therefore, the present investigation aimed to find out L2 pragmatic comprehension strategies used by 40 (F=20, M=20) Iranian EFL learners and to discover whether there would be any differences between interlanguage pragmatic comprehension strategies used by male and female learners. Participants, selected based on stratified random sampling, were chosen on the basis of their performance on a paper-based TOEFL out of the initial sample of 90 students. Three data collection instruments were employed: a validated pragmatic test (Tajeddin & Ahmadi Safa, 2010), concurrent verbal think-aloud protocols, and retrospective verbal think-aloud protocols. Data analysis revealed thre...
Reading is recognized as being the most important skill needed by ESP learners in their field of ... more Reading is recognized as being the most important skill needed by ESP learners in their field of study, and vocabulary knowledge is the most widely discussed component of effective ESP reading per se. However, research on how much the different types of words exert substantial influences over ESP reading comprehension remains scanty. To address this lacuna, the present study aimed to examine the degree of contribution made by general high-frequency, core-academic, and technical-academic words to 127 Iranian learners studying Psychology at three state universities in Tehran, Iran. Three researcher-made and validated tests were used to measure the three aforementioned types of vocabulary knowledge accompanied by an ESP reading test. Data analysis using multiple regression revealed that the core-academic words and technical-academic words significantly contributed to the ESP reading comprehension, explaining about 92% of the variance in reading scores, but knowledge of general high-fre...
Due to the significance of teachers’ beliefs and individual variables, a bulk of studies has focu... more Due to the significance of teachers’ beliefs and individual variables, a bulk of studies has focused on teacher characteristics over the past two decades. As an attempt to further clarify the interplay between teacher-related constructs in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, the present study set out to explore the structural model hypothesizing the predictive role of teachers’ self-efficacy and collective teacher efficacy in affecting the psychological well-being of teachers in Iranian EFL context. In so doing, a sample of 179 English teachers was given the three self-report scales measuring the variables under investigation. As for the statistical analysis, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to test the fit of the hypothesized model. The results indicated that teacher self-efficacy accounted for 19.8% of the variance while collective teacher efficacy amounted to 11.3% of the variance in psychological well-being. In addition, it was revealed that although both...
To expand the line of research investigating individual teacher-related variables, the present re... more To expand the line of research investigating individual teacher-related variables, the present research sought to test a structural model of teacher reflection, self-efficacy, burnout, and emotion regulation among Iranian EFL instructors. Moreover, a mediation model was examined, hypothesizing that emotion regulation would mediate the influences of teacher reflection and teacher self-efficacy on teacher burnout. Collecting data from a sample of 238 Iranian EFL teachers, a structural equation modeling (SEM) was embarked on to test the hypothesized relationships. The data of the study were gathered through the participants’ responses to the four questionnaires related to the four variables under investigation (i.e., teacher self-efficacy, reflection, burnout, and emotion regulation variables). The outcomes of a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) verified the fitness of the used questionnaires and the structural model. Considering the centrality of teachers’ affective status in how the...
In addressing the recent special issue in Frontiers in Psychology, namely “Positive Psychology in... more In addressing the recent special issue in Frontiers in Psychology, namely “Positive Psychology in Foreign and Second Language Education: Approaches and Applications,” calling language education researchers around the globe to study positive emotions, positive personality traits, and positive institutional tendencies and their implications for language education systems, stakeholders, and policy practices, the present conceptual review paper aims to acquaint language education researchers, practitioners, instructors, and learners with the main tenets of positive psychology and their application in second/foreign language (L2) education research. Accordingly, by drawing on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, we explain how individuals' positivity can result in their flourishment and development in any aspect of life, including L2 learning and teaching. Then, we introduce and conceptualize seven instances of positive psychology variables, namely academic engagement, ...
Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 2020
Since its inception, pragmatic competence has been studied vastly; the majority of these studies,... more Since its inception, pragmatic competence has been studied vastly; the majority of these studies, however, have examined pragmatic production, and pragmatic comprehension is chiefly under-researched. This lack of adequate research also stands true for the underlying pragmatic comprehension processes and strategies. Therefore, the present investigation aimed to find out L2 pragmatic comprehension strategies used by 40 (F=20, M=20) Iranian EFL learners and to discover whether there would be any differences between interlanguage pragmatic comprehension strategies used by male and female learners. Participants, selected based on stratified random sampling, were chosen on the basis of their performance on a paper-based TOEFL out of the initial sample of 90 students. Three data collection instruments were employed: a validated pragmatic test (Tajeddin & Ahmadi Safa, 2010), concurrent verbal think-aloud protocols, and retrospective verbal think-aloud protocols. Data analysis revealed three classes of pragmatic comprehension strategies. First, socio-pragmatic strategies that included politeness, formality, indirectness, and distance/power influences. Second, lexico-pragmatic strategies which were more frequent than grammatical strategies in the second category. Third, the cognitive strategies that comprised both top-down and bottom-up processing strategies in L2 pragmatic comprehension. Furthermore, it was found that gender did not play any significant role in the use of pragmatic comprehension strategies. Study findings suggest that explicit teaching of pragmatic comprehension strategies helps learners promote their L2 pragmatic comprehension.
Dynamic assessment has attracted a lot of attention. Many authors have suggested that dynamic ass... more Dynamic assessment has attracted a lot of attention. Many authors have suggested that dynamic assessment should be used instead of standardized tests, while others thought that dynamic assessment is a complementary assessment, and it should be used with other kinds of assessments. Therefore, the present paper aims to bring to the fore some important issues in dynamic assessment, different models of dynamic assessment and compares them with non-dynamic assessment. Advantages and disadvantages of dynamic assessment would also be reviewed in this paper. Interactionist and interventionist models of dynamic assessment would be presented. It also considered applying assessment in order to learn and explain the aim of assessment. Considering dynamic assessment, it would nominate zone of proximal development and sociocultural theory, and how these two are used while the teacher is applying dynamic assessment. Finally, the present paper provides some implications to implement dynamic assessment in our classes.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, Sep 1, 2014
The notion of implicature, the crucial role of which in second/foreign language learning has been... more The notion of implicature, the crucial role of which in second/foreign language learning has been repeatedly acknowledged by many scholars, is a key concept in Grice's ground-breaking theory of Cooperative Principle (CP). According to this theory, interlocutors of a conversation follow the four maxims of Quality, Quantity, Relevance and Manner or deliberately violate them in order to convey a message which is beyond what is directly said. This paper is an attempt to further the understanding of implicatures by spelling out the basic tenets of Grice's theory of implicatures and reporting the results of some of the studies conducted on this topic with a special emphasis on the role of videodriven prompts as influential sources of input. It finishes with new strands of research on implicatures.
career. It is strongly posited that students' motivation along with a good relationship between s... more career. It is strongly posited that students' motivation along with a good relationship between students-teacher and students themselves in class can actively support the amount of success for students by taking part in speaking tasks. Moreover, the tools and methods which a teacher chooses to foster students' oral activities are considerable to great extent.
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