غلامرضا عباسیان

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is both decisive—as it helps to formulate and present subject matters—and glocally relative as it is prone to the specificity of curricula of varying socio-cultural contexts. This study developed and validated a PCK questionnaire by focusing on data obtained from Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher-education programs. PCK questionnaire items were extracted out of an in-depth literature review (globally) and interviews with 80 student-teachers (locally) and 120 student-teachers attending the pilot phase. Then, 180 other student-teachers completed a glocalized Likert-scale PCK questionnaire. Next, the final questionnaire, which was supposed to accommodate glocal aspects and subjected to both expert judgments as well psychometric measures like reliability estimation and factor analyses, enjoyed acceptable reliability index and validity measures including those of content and construct validity. The valid measure characterized as a 39-item is ultimately represented by nine factors including: Teaching Language Skills, Language Teaching Strategies, Classroom Management, Curriculum Designing and Materials Development, Assessment Literacy and Abilities, Course book Evaluation, Language Teachers' Technological Knowledge, Language Teachers' Professional Development, and Internship effect on Practical Teaching. The results underscore the significance of PCK in shaping effective teaching practices and provides the scholars with both instruments and context-sensitive practical model of EFL program evaluation.

The present research responds to the call for implementing diagnostic assessment through learner involvement. This study followed two aims first, examining the distinctive effects of diagnostic self- and peer - assessments on EFL learners’ reading comprehension; second, exploring students’ diagnostic rating accuracy in various reading genres. To achieve this, a number of diagnostic reading comprehension tests and a checklist were developed, the construction of which were based on the learners’ challenging reading subskills. The participants include 60 English translation university students. During 12 weeks of instruction, the rating accuracy of the subjects’ diagnostic self- and peer- assessments were investigated while the instructor ratings were taken as the yardstick. Data analysis, using T-test and MANOVA confirmed that the two groups had improvement in reading comprehension but there was no significant difference between the two groups’ gain. In addition, no statistically significant difference was detected among the accuracy of diagnostic self-, peer- and instructor- ratings except for the assessment of main idea and supporting details subskill in descriptive genre and cause and effect subskill in narrative genre. This study can offer evidence for conducting diagnostic assessment through learner engagement to provide students with appropriate feedback and remedial instruction.

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of TBLT-synthesized collaborative dialogue in teaching writing skills to Iranian EFL learners and also to explore their teachers’ attitudes towards such an approach. Regarding the essence of the questions of the study, an explanatory sequential mixed-methods research design was employed. To this end, 100 conveniently sampled Iranian B.A. TEFL and Translation Studies students were identified as relatively homogeneous in terms of their language proficiency through administering Oxford Placement Test (OPT), and ten Iranian EFL teachers attended as the participants. The experimental group students were exposed to the synthetic approach of teaching writing. In contrast, the control group experienced conventional mainstream in the quantitative phase of the study lasting for 16-session treatments. As to the qualitative phase, a semi-structured individual interview was conducted with the participant teachers. The quantitative phase revealed that the synthetic initiative had comparatively significant impacts on the EFL students’ writing performance, and the qualitative phase showed that the teachers adopted some positive views toward the implementation of the applied synthetic approach to TBLT and CD in writing instruction. The findings offer some pedagogical implications for the stakeholders, including syllabus designers, EFL learners, and teachers, to include task-based collaborative dialogues in EFL instruction.

Interrelationship between man’s personality and his/her life or organizational context has been amongst the topmost issues in one’s personality trait development. In the meantime, military institutions are of crucial significance due to their particular expediencies in terms of their personals’ personality and educating institutionally compatible staff members for which huge investments are made. However, no integrative studies have been made to make sure of the goal achievement. In line with this trend, this study was designed to study the Iranian Army Imam Ali University Cadets’ personality trait development in the course of their BA education. For this purpose, totally 194 cadets composed of 65, 65, and 64 members belonging, respectively, to 2107, 2018, and 2019 academic years, attempted the NEO-RI-P 30-item personality inventory consisting both positive and negative traits. Besides descriptive statistics, MANOVA and post-hoc analysis were run to investigate the nature and process of development of 20 positive traits individually and totality of the personality trait. The results revealed not only an inconsistent and unsystematic trend of the cadets’ holistic personality trait development but also unexpected and though-provoking fluctuations in the development of the positive traits. These findings may have certain educational implications as suggested.

AbstractClassroom performance assessment has gained prominence parallel to the multiplicity of the purposes ahead of assessment. Of many, the major controversy, which was the motive behind this study, is the incorporation of L1-based elicitation as a valid measure of second language (L2) performance assessment. To shed empirical lights on this issue, this explanatory sequential mixed-methods research employed 87 Iranian intermediate EFL learners, whose L2 classroom performance was assessed through L1-based elicitation techniques. In order to validate this mechanism, multi-method mono-trait model (namely, Pearson correlation, structural equations, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, composite reliability and convergent validity) suggested by Henning and Mesick’s Unitary Concept of validity were applied. The results from these multiple sources of evidence yield support to their common consensus that L1-based elicitation techniques are valid measures of L2 performance assessment. The findings then offer legacy to the educational implications of L1-based mechanisms both in L2 instruction and assessment.

The present study aimed to explore the effect of EFL teachers’ autonomy supportive behaviors on Iranian EFL learners’ readiness for autonomy. To this end, readiness for autonomy questionnaire (RFAQ) was administered to 240 intermediate EFL learners at five language institutes in Kermanshah, Iran. Then, the researchers trained four EFL teachers based on eight autonomy supportive strategies of self-determination theory (SDT) and devided the participants to two groups of 120 EFL learners. Afterwards, trained teachers attended their classes using the SDT autonomy-supportive strategies. RFAQ was administered to both experimental and control groups for the second time six months later after the experimental group experienced autonomy supportive behaviors. The data analyses revealed that EFL teachers’ autonomy supportive behaviors resulted in an improvement in the five domains determined in the learners’ questionnaire: learners’ acceptance of more responsibility, knowledge about themselves as learners, better knowledge of learning context, a better command of learning process, and more self-initiated learning activities. Implications are discussed.The present study aimed to explore the effect of EFL teachers’ autonomy supportive behaviors on Iranian EFL learners’ readiness for autonomy. To this end, readiness for autonomy questionnaire (RFAQ) was administered to 240 intermediate EFL learners at five language institutes in Kermanshah, Iran. Then, the researchers trained four EFL teachers based on eight autonomy supportive strategies of self-

Despite growing interest in the studies on ZPD, its operation in the forms of individualized and group-wide has been controversial. To cast some empirical light on the issue, this study was designed to quantitatively and comparatively study the applicability of the two scenarios of ZPD-based instructions to the writing accuracy of Iranian EFL learners in terms of learners' types (low vs. high scorers). To this end, 118 EFL learners identified as homogeneous based on TOEFL ITP test were randomly assigned into two equal experimental groups (individualized and group-wide ZPD-based) which respectively received compatible instructions utilizing individual and whole-class scaffolding techniques. The treatments were allocated to the groups in a random manner within homogeneous blocks. Prior to and after the treatments, three tests (two writing tests and one ZPD test) were administered to measure both groups’ writing accuracy and their ZPD levels. A ZPD test was also administered in the mid of treatments. Results revealed that I-ZPD-based instruction is constructive to the low scorers, and GW-ZPD-based instruction is not constructive to both low and high scorers. The findings pointed to the use of ZPD-based instructions in TEFL writing in meaningful contexts and thereby showing impacts made on the writing accuracy of learners. The study, indeed, yield support to the feasibility of GW-ZPD measurement along with I-ZPD approach.

Teachers’ knowledge base refers to what teachers should know and be able to implement in their classes. This study investigated to what extent in-service education and training (INSET) courses were influential in developing teachers’ knowledge base. From different models, the researchers selected Mishra and Koehler’s (2006) technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) model that assumes an interrelationship between the components of teachers’ knowledge base. Thus, an exploratory sequential mixed methods study was designed in three phases. In the first phase, the questionnaire of English Language Teacher’s Knowledge Base (ELTKB) was developed and validated with 335 randomly selected EFL teachers from Guilan province. In the second phase, the quantitative follow-up phase, twenty-nine 11th grade EFL teachers’ knowledge base improvement was examined after attending online INSET classes. The results of the paired sample t-tests revealed statistically significant differences between the participants’ knowledge base components before and after the courses. In the third phase, semi-structured interviews explored the participants’ viewpoints concerning the content of the INSET courses. The teachers’ perceptions declared in interview sessions were not in complete conformity with the results obtained from the second phase of the study. The teachers had some complaints about the content of the courses and provided some suggestions. The findings of this study can benefit teacher educators, policymakers, INSET programmers, and English teachers. Also, the ELTKB can be employed by researchers as a valid tool for measuring TPACK that is an essential concept for explaining the relationship between teachers’ content, pedagogy, and technology-related knowledge.

Since its introduction to education, Dynamic Assessment (DA) has gained attention from the researchers in different educational fields. However, the two models of DA (interventionist and interactionist) have rarely been incorporated comparatively into skill, style, and strategy developments in an EFL setting. This study synthesized the development of the speaking skill, level of language awareness (LA), and metacognitive strategy use (MSU) in the light of comparative incorporation of DA models to fill this gap. Sixty undergraduate Iranian EFL students majoring in English Translation Studies attended this mixed methods research. Quantitative analysis of the data showed that although the participants in both groups were able to gain significantly higher speaking scores as compared to their counterparts in the control group inter-experimental groups’ differences were not significant. Regarding LA and MSU, neither the interventionist nor the interactionist model led to significant levels in the process of developing the speaking skill. The qualitative analysis of interviews, however, showed specific changes in the experimental groups' LA and MSU in light of the DA-oriented mediation. In addition to theoretical contributions, the results shed light on some aspects of integrating DA in EFL education and bear some implications for multiple EFL stakeholders.

The current study aimed at finding out the relationship between complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) in speaking performance across language proficiency levels with the focus on Skehan’s Trade-off Hypothesis. The selected participants of the present study included 60 language learners who were selected out of 90 learners. Through the results obtained from Oxford Placement Test, 21 participants were placed at elementary, 20 at intermediate, and 19 at advanced levels. The nationality of all participants was Iranian and therefore they shared similar L1 background. The sample participants were asked to perform the designed speaking tasks in different task complexities (low, mid, and high) and their oral CAF were measured and analyzed. To measure CAF, the percentage of error free C-units for accuracy, clauses per C-units for grammatical complexity, type-token ratio (TTR) for lexical complexity, and total number of tokens (words)/ total task time (per minutes) for fluency were used. The results of Pearson product-moment correlation revealed a significant positive relationship among complexity, accuracy, and fluency in oral performance. The results of the study indicate that there is variation in the process of gradual complexification in spoken L2 production across proficiency levels. In fact, the results of this study revealed distinguishing features in all three CAF components. Moreover, the findings of the present study provide pedagogical implications and recommendations for teachers, syllabus designers, and language assessors. Finally, some suggestions for other interested researchers in this field are presented.

Although many researchers have addressed demotivation, few studies have investigated English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ demotivation-reducing strategies. To bridge this gap, the present study sought to explore EFL learners’ perceptions of the sources of demotivation and their strategies to deal with it. Participants were 30 Iranian EFL learners at different levels of proficiency and from different language institutes, selected based on convenience sampling. This research was carried out through a qualitative method using interviews. The data were collected via two semi-structured interviews concerning learners’ perceptions of sources of demotivation and the strategies they used to deal with it. To analyze the data, the researcher used content analysis, the results of which indicated that learners specified five sources of demotivation including method of instruction, teacher’s personality, peer’s characteristics, anxiety, and classroom physical conditions. The learners mentioned studying English at a particular time of day, studying with students with better English knowledge, finding a friendly teacher, asking the teacher to tell jokes in English, and asking for exciting tasks and games in classrooms as demotivation-reducing strategies. Teachers are encouraged to take the sources of demotivation into account in order to help learners become less demotivated, and cooperate with learners in using demotivation-reducing strategies.

Assessment is no longer taken as a means of grading learners’ learning, rather it is a means of enhancing learning provided that an appropriate alternative can conducted. Among various alternative to assessment, formative assessment can be a platform for rendering various types of feedback to facilitate and enhance learning. To verify this acclaimed conjecture, ninety Iranian male EFL learners divided into two experimental and one control groups that the former two groups received two different types of feedback namely assessment-based metalinguistic feedback, and assessment-based explicit correction, while the control group received conventional instruction in a conversation course, respectively. One-way ANOVA and multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA) of the collected data revealed outperformance by the metalinguistic feedback group over the control one, while the control group outperformed those who received explicit correction feedback. Along with the statistical data, monitoring the trend of classroom atmosphere revealed effectiveness of assessment-based intervention, though the room is suggested to be open for further investigation.

The increasing demand for lifelong learners and reflective practitioners has re-‎conceptualized the ‎connection between assessment and learning to the extent ‎that alternative assessment methods (i.e., self-, ‎peer and teacher-assessment, etc.) ‎have emerged. However, their incorporation into various language ‎skills might ‎bring about certain consequences. Among them, the writing skill is often ‎perceived as unique in ‎its nature in terms of both teaching practices and ‎assessment modalities. In a bid to exercise a Learner-‎Oriented Assessment ‎‎(LOA) practice, the present study was designed to comparatively implement ‎self-, ‎peer-, and teacher-assessments in a writing course, and explore the ‎experiences and perceptions of the ‎learners towards the three assessment ‎alternatives. Pertinent statistical analyses revealed significant ‎differences among ‎them such that higher proficiency level learners evaluated their writings more ‎‎realistically, while lower proficiency level over estimated their abilities. ‎Moreover, most of them had ‎positive attitudes towards this novel assessment ‎experience, holding that LOA could scaffold them in ‎gaining a lot and arousing ‎their awareness of their weaknesses and strengths.‎

Dynamic Assessment (DA) has become a growing trend in education in general and language education in particular. The present mixed-methods study aimed at implementing two different models of DA known as the interventionist and the interactionist models regarding developing EFL learners’ level of language awareness (LA) and metacognitive strategy use (MSU) in the process of writing instruction. The participants of the study included 60 Iranian undergraduate students majoring in English Translation Studies. Quantitative analysis of the data revealed that the participants in the experimental groups were able to gain higher levels of LA than their control group counterparts; however, both interventionist and interactionist models of DA entailed relatively similar effects. In the case of MSU, the results showed that neither the interventionist nor the interactionist models of DA of writing resulted in higher levels of MSU. Nevertheless, during the qualitative phase (i.e., interviews analysis) most of the participants in the experimental groups reported some changes in their LA and MSU as a result of DA. The results of the study can shed light on some aspects of integrating DA in English as a foreign language (EFL) education in terms of not only skill development but also cognitive and personality changes.The findings can bear lucrative insights for various practitioners ranged from classroom teachers and EFL researchers to those who are involved in strategic education.

Paradigm shift in language education has caused many countries including Iran to reshuffle their public EFL educational program. However, such a promising trend in Iran has entailed serious challenges, which necessitated this study aimed at collecting data from 70 teachers and 70 students to investigate the CLT challenges in terms of both teachers' pedagogical and assessment areas. A Partial Least Square Model (PLSM) addressed these two variables. The findings showed that the first three sub-traits of both CLT and testing knowledge have varying contributions to the main latent variables, respectively. Second, Friedman test indicated lack of compatibility between the respective dimensions as to the implementation of the program. Third, the post-hoc comparison tests revealed that teachers perceived CLT significantly lower than the three areas of CLT testing, knowledge of CLT tests and knowledge of developing CLT tests. Also, their knowledge of characteristics of CLT was significantly lower than their perceptions of CLT testing, and knowledge of CLT tests. However, their knowledge of the characteristics of CLT was not significantly different from that of developing CLT tests. Finally, their knowledge of techniques in CLT was significantly lower than their perceptions  of CLT testing, knowledge of CLT tests, and knowledge of developing CLT tests. In sum, the Iranian public EFL program still suffers from both implementation and assessment challenges necessitating remedial teacher education program.

this study investigated the assessment literacy status of Iranian EFL and field specialist ESP teachers to see the extent to which their levels of assessment literacy are compatible. To this purpose, a mix-method, exploratory design approach consisting of two phases (i.e, quantitative and qualitative) aimed at collecting data from 80 Iranian university teachers who sit for both a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. Analyses of the data showed that first Iranian EFL university teachers and field specialist ESP university teachers do not have acceptable level of assessment literacy and second there are significant differences among them on the nine sub-scales of assessment literacy. Though the EFL university teachers showed higher assessment literacy level than the field specialist ESP university teachers, both groups suffer from significant deficiencies which not only indicate weaknesses in EFL teacher education programs as far as language testing and assessment are concerned, but also are persuasive enough to render specific assessment education for each group involved in foreign language teaching programs.

This study investigated Iranian EFL teachers‟ and learners‟ perceptions and attitudes towards integrating Internet in EFL instruction; and the congruence of their attitudes and perceptions. As a mixed-method research, the data was collected both through questionnaires and interviews. Chi-square test was run for quantitative data and the qualitative data were transcribed, coded and thematized. The findings gathered from both qualitative and quantitative methods showed that both teachers and learners had positive perceptions and attitudes towards integrating Internet in EFL instruction and indicated that the factors like lack of facilities and hardware equipment limit Internet integration in Iranian setting. Moreover, the groups indicated that using Internet in EFL instruction and teaching process could be facilitative because of more accessibility to authentic sources, possibility of teacher-student interaction out of the educational environment and improvement of acquiring English learning skills in a faster and efficient way.

This study was planned to investigate the effect of explicit teaching of some Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) techniques on Iranian EFL learners' Reading Comprehension. It was attempted to explore any change in the students’ abilities in revealing the implied meaning of the texts. Any change in the students’ views toward learning English was also explored in this study after critical reading instruction through CDA techniques. To this end, two news articles were selected from online sources. The participants were 60 undergraduate students of Law at Bandar Anzali Azad University. They were assigned to two groups of 30 students. The experimental group were required to hand in a reflective essay on each reading article. They also responded to a questionnaire to reveal any change in their attitudes toward English language learning or any increase in their motivation to learn it. The results revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group after being instructed to read between lines through CDA. Their motivation also increased in learning English after becoming familiar with the field of CDA.

The present study investigated comparatively the impact of two types of input enhancement (i. e. textual vs. compound enhancement) on developing grammar ability in Iranian EFL setting. Sixty-five female secondary high school students were selected as a homogenous sample out of about a 100-member population based on Nelson language proficiency test. Then، their grammar ability was measured based on a researcher-made diagnostic test prior to the experiment. The sample was randomly divided into two equal groups; one group received text-enhancement-based instruction of grammar، while the other received compound-based enhancement. Finally، they received an achievement test of grammar as a posttest to measure their progress in light of two different types of input enhancement mechanisms. The pertinent statistical analyses of the results indicated that a) the effect of textual enhancement-based instruction of grammar is not significantly meaningful، while b) the compound enhancement-based instruction has significant effect on learning grammatical structures. Comparatively speaking، therefore، c) compound enhancement-based instruction of grammar is more significantly effective than that of textual in developing grammar ability. It can be safely concluded that grammar instruction and its resultant development are subject to intervention type، which، pedagogically، bears promising messages for both teachers and syllabus designers to incorporate parameters of input enhancement in both teaching and materials development، respectively.

Maintaining that language and culture are interwoven to the extent that learning the former is largely dependent on the latter, this study aimed to investigate the attitude of Iranian English as Foreign Language (EFL) Learners of Tehran South Branch of Islamic Azad University (both undergraduates and postgraduates) towards the learning of the cultural aspects of language, both the target and source cultures, in their EFL classrooms. To this end, a quantitative approach was employed and a Likert scale questionnaire was designed. Fifty EFL learners were randomly invited to answer the questionnaire in relation to their attitude being exposed to the culture of target language. The findings of the chi-square test indicated that the Iranian undergraduate and postgraduate EFL learners consider culture as an important element in learning the target language. Both the culture of the source language and the culture of the target language were deemed important while learning a second language. The findings of this study also showed that postgraduate EFL learners have more intension to learn more about the culture of both source and target language than undergraduate EFL learners in Iran.

Developing English as a foreign language among the members of IR of Iran Army is necessary because in the world of communications and information, the people who use the existed sources and have interaction with the others could be successful. This study aims to investigate the effects of syntactic and semantic consciousness-raisings on improving discourse competence among participants attending an in-service-training course at Imam Ali Military University (IAMU). This study was conducted with 60 participants attending an in-service-training course at IAMU. In order to address the research questions, the control group received their own conventional treatment while experimental groups practiced discourse competence based on syntactic and semantic consciousness-raisings. All groups attended classes which lasted 15 30-minutes sessions. Three instruments were used to collect data: KET, interview, and discourse Completion Test. The results of data analysis revealed that the syntactic and semantic consciousness-raisings have significant effects on learner's discourse competence. The results of this study then suggest that participants attending an in-service-training course at IAMU would benefit from applying syntactic and semantic consciousness-raisings.

Education is a process and phenomenon to which major parts of material and intellectual resources of most societies are allocated to, since most of them consider such an expense as a long-term investment. So, continuous and academic evaluation of both process and product a country's educational program in general, and their educational and academic institution in particular, is of paramount significance alike the educational program itself. To this end, this study is an attempt to evaluate the educational program of Imam Ali University from the perspectives of its academic staff members (i.e., professors) and students, who expressed their perceptions and beliefs through a 100-item valid and reliable questionnaire accommodating nine main variables of an educational program. As a complementary effort to the study done on the primary parameters (Abbasian, et al. 2013), this paper addresses the program from the five secondary variables (including evaluation system, educational technology and aids, inter-organizational interactions, admission system, and status of the academicians) in terms of compatibility with the common standards. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data confirmed relative satisfaction of the participants with the program evaluation system, but there exist lack of consensus between the two groups as to the quality and nature of the educational technology and aids, lack of coordination in inter-organizational interactions, lack of consensus and expression of negative look towards the student admission system and ultimately dissatisfaction with the status and the nature of interactions with the academic staff members. Therefore, the educational program requires reconsiderations so that it can meet the common scientific, academic criteria and standards.

Teaching and assessment, not just in the sense of measuring academic achievement but in the sense of evaluation of its both process and product, are not only complementary but each is one the two sides of one coin, and they are identified two complementary parameters of a curriculum. Training is a process to which major parts of material and intellectual resources of majority of nations are allocated and such an immense expense is identified as a long-term investment. This rationale justifies an accurate, a comprehensive and continuous evaluation of the performance of educational organization. As an attempt in this trend, this study tried to evaluate the academic (non-military trainings) program of Imam Ali (military) University from the professors and student's perspectives. To do so, they were encouraged to fill out a 100- item valid and reliable questionnaire addressing the four primary parameters of the respective program including: planning; objectives, content, and implementation out of nine parameters in terms of the extent of compatibility of the them with those of a conventional academic curriculum. Quantitative analyses of the data in terms of frequency analysis revealed that the curriculum planning requires urgent revision so that it can meet the criteria of a conventional academic program. However, the educational objectives were evaluated positive, though the student's perspectives cannot be evaluated as reliable as those of the professors due to the farmer's lesser degree of awareness. Moreover, coordination between the content and planning as well as the objectives of the program is not much satisfactory, which similarly requires reconsiderations aimed at enhancing the content of the program.

Following the introduction of the concept of multiple intelligences by Howard Gardner (1983), traditional concept of intelligence as a fixed and unitary construct was challenged. Instead multiple intelligences were identified as a series of abilities each with a specific mental location and potential for further changes and developments. Intelligence has ever been a hot topic among the stake holders of teaching and learning such that they have wondered on the possible relationship between multiple intelligences and learning, especially that of language. To delve into this issue in this study, general and ESP proficiency level of a group of Iranian EFL learners was measured along with their visual intelligence. The findings revealed that 76 percent of them enjoyed higher visual intelligence quotient and 45 percent of them enjoyed relatively higher general English proficiency, while only 22 percent of them were good at ESP. Meanwhile, the correlational analysis revealed 0.054 and 0.049 correlation rate, respectively, which is an indication of non-significant level among the variables.