جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "language teachers" در نشریات گروه "ادبیات و زبان ها"

The success of language teachers and learners is definitively pertinent to the emotions they experience in academic environments. Accordingly, the factors impacting language teachers’ and learners’ emotions must be recognized. Many scholars have scrutinized emotional variables in response to this necessity through various methodological approaches. The present study aims to evaluate some of the innovative approaches to assessing emotional factors to see how innovative they are and review their positive points and shortcomings. To do so, Q Methodology (Q), idiodynamic method, Latent Growth Curve Modeling (LGCM), Process Tracing Approach (PTA), Social Network Analysis (SNA), Nested Ecosystem Model (Ecological approach), and Retrodictive Qualitative Modeling (RQM) methods have been selected to be reviewed in this research. The findings highlight several strengths and weaknesses of each of the methodological approaches. It has also been reported that these approaches need to be context-specific and person-sensitive to generate more accurate data. Among the approaches, PTA and SNA have received scant attention in the investigation of emotional factors since the data in these two approaches cannot be reported precisely in narrative form. Our study would be conducive for all researchers, notably those working in the field of language teachers’ and learners’ psychology.

To prepare language teachers for technology-enhanced language instruction, relevant courses and programs should be designed. In practice, however, many of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) teacher education attempts fail to effectively prepare language teachers to integrate technology in the reality of their classrooms due to their purely theory-oriented lecture-based designs. Without an opportunity to put what is learned into practice prior to actual classroom instruction, teachers cannot be expected to acquire the knowledge for technology-assisted language instruction. Teaching practice projects have not received due attention in CALL teacher education research. To address this gap, a case study was conducted on a group of in-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers (N= 7) who were attending an online CALL course, to explore the extent to which practice can enhance their pedagogical knowledge of CALL. Each participant was required to take charge of an online session as the course instructor and practice defining the session, developing presentation materials, uploading the files, and directing and managing classroom discussions. Drawing on the data obtained from participants’ post-teaching-practice journals and CALL Pedagogical Knowledge Questionnaire responses, it was observed that teaching projects in an online classroom combined with peer observation helped participants enhance their knowledge of learning management systems, digital materials development, technology-related potentials and drawbacks, and strategies for managing online sessions. The findings of this study provide implications for online CALL teacher education research.

The significance of emotions and the cultivation of empathy in development within the realm of education has garnered increasing attention from educators in recent years. Likewise, the emotional intelligence (EI) of educators has emerged as a central factor influencing their effectiveness in educational contexts. Individuals possessing elevated levels of EI demonstrate a heightened awareness of their own emotions as well as those of others, enabling them to regulate their emotions in a manner that elicits desirable behavior from others. This study aimed to present a comprehensive model elucidating the interrelationships among teachers' effectiveness, empathy, and emotional intelligence, employing structural equation modeling (SEM) as the analytical approach. Accordingly, a sample of 201 English teachers at the institutional level from different cities in Iran participated in a quantitative correlational study. The results of Pearson correlation analysis revealed a statistically significant yet weak positive association between Emotional Intelligence and empathy. Moreover, empathy exhibited a positive and significant correlation with teachers' effectiveness. The findings further indicated a moderate positive correlation between Emotional Intelligence and effectiveness. Additionally, a positive path was observed connecting Emotional Intelligence and Empathy. Furthermore, both empathy and EI were found to be predictive of teachers' effectiveness. Hence, it can be concluded that the proposed model had an acceptable fit with the empirical data.

Early-career language teachers, who are struggling with transitory stages of identity development from students to teachers, can experience an array of negative emotions known as identity tensions. Coping strategies are used by resilient teachers to overcome these tensions. However, the nature and dynamics of such coping strategies employed by EFL teachers are still under-researched in the Iranian context. In order to address this gap, the present exploratory mixed-methods study probed the coping strategies Iranian EFL teachers most frequently use by first interviewing 16 teachers and, subsequently, administrating a developed questionnaire to a cohort of 150 participants. Thematic analysis and between-groups analyses of t-tests and ANOVAs were used for the qualitative and quantitative phases of the study respectively. The results of both phases revealed that Iranian EFL teachers tend to use active coping strategies significantly more often than passive ones. Also, it was shown that female teachers as well as more experienced teachers above the average age of 28 use more active strategies than their younger colleagues. However, type of training did not seem to play a significant role in their choices, which implies a need for a more systematic integration of coping strategy instruction in training programs. The findings of this study can help English teacher trainers, supervisors, and novice teachers form a deeper insight of coping strategies to deal with identity tensions.

This study aimed at investigating learners’ and teachers’ perception of language learning demotivation and their suggested strategies for preventing it. Participants of the study included 36 female and 24 male EFL learners in the 15-18 age range and 19 female and 11 male EFL teachers in the 25-50 age range. Their anti-demotivation strategies were sought by using a 40- item Likert type questionnaire in learners’ and teacher’ versions, with Cronbach’s alphas of .949 and .913, respectively. The results were analyzed and inferences were made. They indicated that both teachers and learners believed that “creating relaxing and stress free environment” and “setting goals” are the most effective ways to prevent demotivation. “Showing enthusiasm for teaching” was also regarded as effective as the above mentioned strategies. Although teachers and students had similar suggestions regarding the most effective strategies to fight demotivation, statistical analysis indicated that they were significantly different from each other when all their preferred strategies were juxtaposed and compared in one bulk. Taking the results of this study into account can help teachers be as closely aligned with learners as their practical wisdom guides them or favors their own preferences as their discretion and tact allow.

The current research was run through a non-observational research scheme tapping two groups of experts- Iranian versus non-Iranian expert university instructors who were indulged in EAP courses. The focus groups including seven Iranian and eighteen non-Iranian instructors/researchers (from both ELT and non-ELT domains) at tertiary levels were recruited and their views were collected through researcher-made questionnaires and an online sequential conference talk passing through the Research Gate social networking platform. Various online interviews with the target participants were managed to 1) peek into what had been lacking in previous EAP teaching models thus far regarding collaborative models of EAP both in Iran and outside the country, 2) gain English professors’ innovations as highlighted in their practices for upgrading collaborative EAP teaching, and 3) survey the co-presence of language and content teachers along with language learners in EAP classes. Findings after content analysis of the gained data demonstrate that Iranian ELT practitioners inside the country believed in collaborative practices, but they found it so hard to create such a situation due to some reasons related to mismatching psychological characteristics of content and language instructors as well as some other flawed educational arrangements in the country. Non-ELT teachers inside the country also constantly talked about two separate expertise which did not include language teachers as legitimate colleagues of their own in such courses. Across outside borders, the situation was far more satisfactory and showing a more optimum cooperation of language and content teachers.