فهرست مطالب امیرحسین سرکشیکیان

Second language (L2) learners from different cultures and with different first languages seem to be different in developing writing texts because of the interference of the students' first language (L1) and first culture (C1). One of the most popular contrastive writing studies in recent decades is the comparison of the employment of metadiscourse markers in the written texts of students with different L1s and C1s. The present study compared the rhetorical patterns of EFL university students' argumentative essays in Iranian and Chinese composition classrooms. This research aimed to investigate the interference of L1 on the use of rhetorical patterns in two different cultural settings. For doing so, Hyland’s model for interactive discourse markers was used. The required data were collected from 80 EFL learners in Iran and China, who were selected through convenience sampling technique. After collecting the data, Mann-Whitney U test was run to clarify the differences in using metadiscourse markers. The results indicated that there were significant differences between Iranian and Chinese EFL students in the use of four interactive metadiscourse markers; however, both groups were similar in the use of code glosses because no statistically significant difference was found between them. The findings of this research can deepen the insight about culture-specific variations in writing skill and choosing more effective pedagogical ways.

Considering the importance of the textbooks within the field of ELT, EFL textbooks should be subjected to for their suitability. Therefore, this article compared three dimensions of meaning (i.e., contents, subject positions, and social relations) in the conversations of the three volumes of the Vision textbook series developed by Iranian educational system. To this end, the theory and procedures of critical discourse analysis, as expounded by Fairclough (1989), were applied to the corpus of the study. The analysis into the dimension of contents revealed that the focus of material developers was more on the topics of everyday and school issues. The analysis into subject positions demonstrated that the material developers had focused more on the student character, with a tinge of gender inequality. The analysis into social relations disclosed their focus on the family and school life relationships for older students, tending to depict male supremacy. Besides, it was revealed that the ideology of Iran centrism had been underscored in the three textbooks thereby focusing on the issue of localization. Finally, two semi-structured interviews were conducted with two material developers of Vision series, which corroborated the CDA results. The findings of this study may have implications for language teachers and material developers.

There is a bulk of studies supporting the positive effect of strategy instruction on reading comprehension. This study examined the effect of two reading strategies (i.e., false correction and inference strategy) on English reading comprehension of Iranian paramedical students, using a pretest, posttest, control group design. It also surveyed their attitudes toward the effect and usefulness of these strategies. The participants were sixty paramedical students, selected through availability sampling from the Medical University of Kashan. They were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group (CG). The first experimental group was instructed to use inference strategy (henceforth IS), whereas the second was instructed to use a strategy based on elaborative interrogation theory (i.e., false correction strategy, henceforth FCS). The experimental data were collected through a researcher-made pretest and posttest, and survey data through a researcher-made questionnaire. The results of statistical analyses indicated that IS group significantly outperformed FCS and CG on the posttest. The results of questionnaire data also showed that IS led to more positive attitudes. Moreover, IS was perceived as more useful in meeting participants’ academic needs. The findings of the study imply a needs-based approach to ESP pedagogy.

This study aimed to develop a self-regulatory listening strategies questionnaire (SRLSQ) in order to measure degree of EFL listeners ' self-regulation listening strategies. To that end, 94 items were initially designed based on Pintrich’s (2004) model of self-regulation. Then, this instrument was piloted to 30 Iranian EFL learners, showing acceptable internal consistency reliability. Afterward, the questionnaire was administered to 200 Iranian EFL learners. After the questionnaires were returned, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted in order to determine the underlying structure of this multi-dimensional instrument. Based on the EFA results, the self-regulatory listening strategies questionnaire was found to be composed of one factor with four underlying subcomponents, as represented by Pintrich’s model. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the questionnaire data best fitted the hypothetical model of this questionnaire since five goodness-of-fit indexes were all above the recommended values. Finally, theoretical and practical issues concerning self-regulation in EFL listening research are briefly discussed, and implications are offered.