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کاربرد نوع شرط:
- جایگاه : پژوهشی
- مجله: Teaching English Language
- نوع مقاله: Journal Article
- کلمات کلیدی: Task,Textbook evaluation,task types,Nunan’s (1999) classification of tasks
- چکیده:
- چکیده انگلیسی: It is mostly observed that textbooks are a key component in most language programs especially in the process of teaching and learning a second/foreign language. As a result, a number of studies have been carried out to evaluate English language teaching (ELT) materials. Trying to contribute to this growing body of literature, the present study was conducted to evaluate the eight most popular global textbooks which are taught in Iranian ELT institutes in terms of their task types according to Nunan’s (1999) classification of the tasks. To this end, all the tasks of each textbook were categorized in their major and minor associated groups. The results revealed that linguistic tasks were the most frequent type of tasks in almost all of the textbooks. Moreover, there was a significant difference among the frequency of task types in these course books. Finally Total English, English Result and Interchange proved to be the most balanced textbooks respectively in comparison to others with regard to each task types. It was concluded that unlike the common belief, being recently published does not guarantee the appropriateness of textbooks for language teaching program. The results of this study could be helpful for teachers to realize the types of the tasks and exercises in the available ELT textbooks and consequently help their students develop their English proficiency by adapting and mixing different types of tasks from different textbooks.
- انتشار مقاله: 25-05-1392
- نویسندگان: Minoo Alemi,Zahra Hesami
- مشاهده
- جایگاه : پژوهشی
- مجله: Teaching English Language
- نوع مقاله: Journal Article
- کلمات کلیدی: EFL Learners,Willingness to Communicate,Engineering students,L2 communication
- چکیده:
- چکیده انگلیسی: The ability and willingness to verbalize feelings and thoughts are partly dependent on situational and external variables, and students naturally differ in this aspect. The present study investigated the extent to which willingness to communicate (WTC) model (MacIntyre, 1998) could explain the relationship between social-psychological and communication variables in the EFL context. The participants in this study were 45 Iranian engineering students who took the TOEFL and subsequently filled out a WTC questionnaire (MacIntyre, 1998). For data analysis, in addition to descriptive statistics, point-biserial correlation and ANOVA were run. The results revealed that university students’ WTC functions as a trait, and it is low both in and out of the classroom because the students do not need to communicate in English for their basic needs. The results also indicate that no relationship exists between sources of support and components of orientation. Furthermore, in terms of orientation, the learners displayed more integrative than instrumental motivation. Among social support factors, teachers had the main role. Moreover, among all skills, learners were more interested in reading, and the reason they are not willing to communicate in classes is that they might fear being evaluated. Therefore, we need more authentic L2 communication and foster more friendly relationships between learners and teachers. Besides, Language instructors should cover a wide range of areas, from making teaching materials relevant to learners by setting specific learning goals to increasing learner satisfaction.
- انتشار مقاله: 25-10-1390
- نویسندگان: Minoo Alemi,Minoo Alemi,Minoo Alemi
- مشاهده
- جایگاه : پژوهشی
- مجله: Teaching English Language
- نوع مقاله: Journal Article
- کلمات کلیدی: rating criteria,Speaking,Assessment,English teacher education
- چکیده: ارزشیابی غیرمنسجم
- چکیده انگلیسی: Inconsistent rating seems to emanate largely from the application of different rating criteria. It follows that rater training programs may bring about higher rating consistency. This study aimed to explore non-native EFL teachers’ rating criteria for L2 learners’ speaking performance and to measure the impact of a rater training program on raters’ rating criteria. As many as 28 EFL teachers rated 10 monologs both before and subsequent to a rater training program and specified the criteria they applied in their ratings. The findings show they specified 10 common rating criteria, ranging from fluency to communicative effectiveness. However, they reconsidered the significance of a few criteria after the program. While there was a sharp decline in the significance given to the rate of speech and affective variables, the training program led to the rising importance of fluency, comprehension, and organization. The results reveal that the traditional skills-and-components-based perspective on language proficiency makes teachers lose sight of macro-level, higher-order components like fluency and organization. To conclude, the effective rating of language skills needs to be embedded in teacher education programs.
- انتشار مقاله: 27-05-1390
- نویسندگان: Zia Tajeddin,Minoo Alemi,Roya Pashmforoosh
- مشاهده
- جایگاه : پژوهشی
- مجله: Research in English Language Pedagogy
- نوع مقاله: Journal Article
- کلمات کلیدی: EFL Learners,perception,Code of ethics,Values,Classroom ethics
- چکیده:
- چکیده انگلیسی: The present study investigated EFL learners’ perceptions of classroom ethics, and 60 EFL learners participated in an interview and an ethics questionnaire. The analysis of collected data resulted in 13 categories of classroom ethics, including ‘teacher punctuality’, ‘fairness and discrimination’, ‘respect and politeness’, ‘being humorous and energetic’, ‘discipline’, ‘rapport’, ‘commitment to the profession and colleagues’, ‘appropriate content of discussion’, ‘responsibility’, ‘adaptability’, ‘reliability and trust’, ‘avoidance of misuse’, and ‘dress code’. The findings showed that all the learners recognized ethics as an essential part of the classrooms while their views differed in ranking some ethics. The most and the least valuable ethics for the participants were ‘punctuality’ and “dress code and appearance” in order. The most important ethics perceived by the learners were ‘punctuality’, ‘rapport’, and ‘being humorous and energetic’. The findings illustrated that the learners’ consideration of ethics was focused on the teachers’ manner and morality in the classroom.
- انتشار مقاله: 25-08-1398
- نویسندگان: Minoo Alemi,Minoo Alemi,Minoo Alemi,Minoo Alemi
- مشاهده
- جایگاه : پژوهشی
- مجله: Journal of Teaching Language Skills
- نوع مقاله: Journal Article
- کلمات کلیدی: Disagreement,speech act,Non-Native English Speaking Raters,Interlanguage pragmatic assessment,ILP rating criteria
- چکیده:
- چکیده انگلیسی: Conveying a strong message within a language stems from not only a linguistically appropriate utterance but also a pragmatically appropriate discourse. Broadly considering various facets of pragmatics, pragmatic assessment has not been potentially brought into perspective. To address this discourse gap, this study, guided by the principles of mixed-method design, pursued three purposes: to inspect the matches and mismatches, to explore rating variations, and to assess the rater consistency between the holistic and analytic rating methods of disagreement speech acts in L2 by non-native English teachers. As a result, 12 different pragmatic situations for disagreement DCTs accompanied by EFL learners' responses to each situation were rated by 50 non-native English teachers. Initially, they were asked to rate it holistically, incorporating both ratings and providing comments. The content analysis of raters' comments indicated sixteen disagreement criteria. The descriptive statistics also revealed variations across different situations. Moreover, the teachers were asked to rate it analytically based on the assessment rubrics adopted from Ishihara and Cohen (2010). The findings of intra-class correlations implied that respondents were more consistent in analytic rating. Moreover, the results indicated that there was a convergence between the two rating methods suggesting that the raters adopted the same level of leniency and severity in rating. Overall, the results accentuated the significance of pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic aspects of language for EFL raters. Finally, the results of the present study place a premium on the importance of pragmatic assessment training as well as cultural awareness.
- انتشار مقاله: 21-06-1398
- نویسندگان: Minoo Alemi,Mohammad Motamedi
- مشاهده
- جایگاه : پژوهشی
- مجله: Journal of Teaching Language Skills
- نوع مقاله: Journal Article
- کلمات کلیدی: Persian,Generic Structure,dissertation acknowledgments
- چکیده:
- چکیده انگلیسی: Acknowledgments are vital since students/researchers can demonstrate their genuine appreciation through them and more importantly shape their (local/global) academic identity. In line with this significance, the present study examined the move patterns of 503 Persian dissertation acknowledgements from two major universities in Iran, from 1981 to 2014 and from sixteen various disciplines including soft and hard science disciplines. Overall, 65,323 words were analyzed. By and large, a careful examination and analysis of the corpus indicated that Iranian university students follow a three-tier moves pattern in writing a dissertation acknowledgments, namely a “Framing move” (including six micro steps), a main “Thanking move” (consisting of nine micro steps), and a “Closing move” (containing four micro steps). Moreover, the results indicated that the longest and shortest acknowledgments were 986 and 4 words respectively. The results also indicated that there was a significant difference in the complexity of acknowledgments in hard and soft science disciplines. The results of this study can hold valuable implications for both university students and professors who aspire an appropriate, coherent, and to the point display of scholarly competence and academic identity.
- انتشار مقاله: 10-08-1394
- نویسندگان: Minoo Alemi,Atefeh Rezanejad
- مشاهده
- جایگاه : پژوهشی
- مجله: Journal of Teaching Language Skills
- نوع مقاله: Journal Article
- کلمات کلیدی: Interlanguage pragmatics,EFL Teachers,speech act,RATING,Compliment
- چکیده:
- چکیده انگلیسی: Among topics in the field of pragmatics, some seem to be in a more rigorous need of investigation. Pragmatic assessment and specifically the issue of pragmatic rating are among issues which deserve more thorough consideration. The purpose of this study was to examine rater criteria and its consistency and variability in the assessment of Iranian EFL learners’ production of compliments based on the teachers’ gender and teaching experience of the Iranian non-native English speaking raters (INNESRs). The data for this study were collected through WDCTs rating questionnaire from sixty Iranian EFL teachers and were later analyzed through descriptive statistics, t-tests and Chi-squares. The results of the study showed that Iranian EFL teachers consider seven macro criteria when rating EFL learners’ pragmatic productions regarding the speech act of compliment. The criteria include “politeness”(26.37%), “interlocutors’ characteristics and relationships” (22.83%), “variety and range” (19.68%), “sociopragmatic appropriateness” (14.17%), “sincerity” (10.23%), “complexity” (9.84%), and “linguistic appropriacy” (8.66%). The results of the t-test and chi-squares further showed that whereas there was no significant difference in the teachers’ ratings based on their gender and teaching experience, the difference was significant in the frequency of rating criteria provided by the raters. To conclude, the results of the study reinforces the need for rater training regarding the assessment of pragmatic productions based on pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic norms.
- انتشار مقاله: 25-11-1392
- نویسندگان: Minoo Alemi,Zohreh Eslami Rasekh,Atefeh Rezanejad
- مشاهده
- جایگاه : پژوهشی
- مجله: Iranian Journal of Applied Language Studies
- نوع مقاله: Journal Article
- کلمات کلیدی: speech act,Agreement,Holistic and Analytic Rating,Pragmatic Rating Criteria,Non-Native English Speaking Raters
- چکیده:
- چکیده انگلیسی: Pragmatic rating is considered one of the novel and crucial aspects of second language education which has not been maneuvered upon in the literature. To address this gap, the current study aimed to inspect the matches and mismatches, to explore rating variations, and to assess the rater consistency between the holistic and analytic rating methods of the speech act of agreement in L2 by non-native English teachers. In this regard, 12 discourse completion tests (DCTs) for agreement accompanied by EFL learners’ responses to each situation were rated by 50 non-native English teachers. Initially, they were asked to rate it holistically, and the content analysis of raters’ comments revealed twelve agreement criteria. Grammatical structure was the prominent criterion which suggested that the raters were predominantly concerned with pragmalinguistics. In particular, the results of descriptive statistics demonstrated that there was a degree of divergence in the frequency of the criteria applied. Additionally, the teachers were asked to rate the pragmatic outputs analytically which showed that the raters were more consistent in the analytic phase. Finally, the findings indicated that there was a convergence between the two rating methods. The results of the present study implicated the necessity of rater training with regard to the rubric-based pragmatic rating. This study offers crucial pedagogical implications for syllabus designers, materials developers, language testers, and some suggestions for further research studies.
- انتشار مقاله: 17-03-1399
- نویسندگان: Minoo Alemi,Mohammad Motamedi
- مشاهده
- جایگاه : پژوهشی
- مجله: Iranian Journal of Applied Language Studies
- نوع مقاله: Journal Article
- کلمات کلیدی: Complaint,DCT,ILP rating,native English raters
- چکیده:
- چکیده انگلیسی: Despite the importance of interlanguage pragmatic rating (ILP) in the second language teaching and learning context, scant attention has been devoted to it. This study aims to investigate native EFL teachers’ major criteria in assessing the speech act of complaint produced by Iranian EFL learners. To fulfill this end, two groups of experienced native raters, including American (n=47) and British (n=30) EFL/ESL teachers, were elected for evaluating the complaint discourse completion tests (DCTs) made from video-prompts which were answered by EFL learners before. The content analysis of raters’ comments on the EFL learners’ productions revealed eleven different criteria including logical reasoning and comments, politeness, linguistic appropriacy, semantic formula, interlocutors’ relationship, register choice, formality, degree of intensity, cultural accommodations, degree of directness, and finally fluency and naturalness respectively from the most to the least frequent ones. The result of the t-test and chi-square analysis proved that British and American raters differed significantly in their degree of variations and preferences of these criteria. The results further showed that EFL learners’ responses seemed unreasonable and impolite to native raters which might be due to the different cultural norms between L1 and L2 societies and consequently encourage us to be aware of the importance of teaching sociopragmatic knowledge to the EFL learners.
- انتشار مقاله: 18-07-1395
- نویسندگان: Minoo Alemi,Neda Khanlarzadeh
- مشاهده
- جایگاه : پژوهشی
- مجله: International Journal of Robotics, Theory and Applications
- نوع مقاله: Journal Article
- کلمات کلیدی: Vocabulary Learning,Social Humanoid robot,High-functioning autism,Foreign language education,RALL
- چکیده:
- چکیده انگلیسی: This case study investigates the effects of Robot Assisted Language Learning (RALL) on English vocabulary learning and retention of Iranian children with high-functioning autism. Two groups of three male students (6-10 years old) with high-functioning autism participated in the current study. The humanoid robot NAO was used as a teacher assistant to teach English to the RALL group. Both RALL and non-RALL programs consisted of 12 sessions held within a 2-month period. Using a pre-test, mid-test, immediate post-test, delayed post-test design, this study measured the learning gains of the participants. The RALL group outperformed the non-RALL group in the designed tests which showed the effectiveness of RALL. This was further supported by comparing and contrasting the RALL and non-RALL groups’ parents’ feedbacks as well as the results obtained from the qualitative analysis of the video records. The findings of this study could be a starting point for a new line of research in second/foreign language education specific to children with autism.
- انتشار مقاله: 23-02-1395
- نویسندگان: Minoo Alemi,Nasim Mahboub Basirib
- مشاهده