Teaching English Language
Volume:14 Issue: 33, Winter and Spring 2020

Previous research on identity construction in political and media discourse is mostly limited to the study of strategies employed by politicians in their spoken discourse. However, different political agents, by way of assuming different degrees of power, may employ different strategies for the construction of others' identities. This study is set to investigate how political agents differ in the strategies they employ for the linguistic construction of identities across cultures: English and Persian. A total number of 66 English and Persian texts, produced by three groups of political agents (actors, reporters & researchers) were randomly selected. Then, following Wodak's (2001, 2007, 2009) critical discourse analysis approach, they were analyzed in terms of the quality and quantity of the strategies proposed for positive/negative representation of others. The results of the critical discourse analyses as well as Chi-square tests of statistical significance indicated qualitative/quantitative differences in the type and frequency of discourse strategies employed by English and Persian agents. Persian agents tended to be more indirect, covert and anonymous than their English counterparts by using more implicit strategies for other representation. The implications are drawn for material development and designing teaching programs to raise advanced level students' awareness of the relevant discourse strategies for other representation.

Keeping portfolio opens a window on the way teachers try to assess students' writing improvement and learning capacity. Implementing this curricular innovation, the present study was an attempt to grow tutor-student dynamic involvement in giving/receiving written corrective feedback (WCF). To this end, two intact classes of EFL university students participated, each experiencing a distinct portfolio-keeping model (working vs. showcase) while receiving WCF from triadic sources (self, peer, & tutor) and varying tutor feedback types (indirect-unfocused vs. direct-focused).  Students' performance on "TOEFL Test of Written English"andtheir grades in the previous writing course, namely "Advanced Grammar and Sentence Writing"were averaged out for both groups (Working Portfolio Group/WPG and Showcase Portfolio Group/ SPG) to assign them as low-, medium- and high-proficiency L2 writers. Written products kept in their portfolios were examined to see how differently the participants benefited from WCF sources/types. The findings revealed that WPG participants were more responsive to the working portfolio model than those in SPG who received delayed tutor evaluation in showcase portfolio approach. The article concludes with some pedagogical implications on how to use feedback to improve the quality of revised written texts and to support learning through writing.

Utilizing the scores obtained from a teacher entrance test used in an English language institute as a means of selection, the researchers selected 100 out of 121 female teacher candidates to participate in this study. Furthermore, a reading, writing, and listening test was administered to the candidates to exclude those candidates with low and high proficiency. Based on the results obtained from the tests, the number of participants decreased to 30 and they were requested to come in for oral interviews; they were those who were interviewed twice by two different groups of male and female raters. The results analyzed through correlational analysis and descriptive statistics indicated that the interview scores of the teacher candidates, as measured by the first group of female raters () was in high correlation with those in class performance (p). However, there was no correlation both between the interview scores of the female teacher candidates (), assessed by the male raters and their in class performance (P) and the () - () pair. It can be concluded that rater bias might have had an effect on the Iranian female teacher candidate's test scores. The subjects were also divided into attractive and unattractive groups and further assessed by the fourth and fifth group of female and male raters to indicate whether female sex appeal affects the test scores or not. The results showed that the mean differences between the AF-AM (attractive female-attractive male) pairs were significant although the mean differences between the NAF-NAM (nonattractive female-non-attractive male) (P=.05, t=1.131) were not significant.

This study investigated if learning a foreign language like English, French or Arabic was effective on the learners' use of first language (Persian) taboos in their daily written and spoken discourse. More than the possible effect of learning a foreign language, the gender of learners, the language they were learning and the semantic domain to which the employed taboos belonged were scrutinized. To this end, a control group (46 Iranians unfamiliar with foreign languages) and three experimental groups (advanced learners of English, French & Arabic) were selected randomly and recruited for a researcher-made questionnaire and a set of Persian speaking and formal/informal writing tasks. Participants believed that language learning affects L1 taboo words usage; this was attested in their oral and written productions. It was found that control participants and Arabic learners had the highest and the lowest rate of taboo words usage, respectively. Moreover, participants used more taboos in their written than spoken productions. The absolute forbidden words and neutral taboo words were the most common semantic domains for English/French and Arabic learners, respectively. Male participants used more taboos compared with females while English and Arabic learners had the highest and the lowest taboo usage rates, respectively.

This study has focused on the washback effect of the First Certificate in English (FCE) exam on textbook and preparation materials from teachers' and learners' perspectives. To this end, 50 FCE teachers and 50 FCE learners were selected from various language institutes in Tehran. To collect the quantitative data, FCE Textbook Materials Evaluation Questionnaire was employed. Subsequently, structured interviews were conducted on a sample of 10 FCE teachers and 10 FCE learners. The obtained results revealed that FCE preparation textbooks and materials reflected the exam requirements in terms of contents, test-tasks, and activities; as the participants relied on the exam requirements and the underlying skills in FCE preparation courses. More significantly, the results of Mann-Whitney U test indicated that there was a significant difference between the total washback perception of the learners and teachers. Considering the axial role of the teachers in preparing the learners for the real FCE exam, they had more in-depth understanding regarding the FCE exam requirements, mechanism, and objectives. Meanwhile, the learners had their own opinions in perceiving the FCE test and its textbook washback effects. Generally, the study indicated the existence of positive FCE textbook washback effect.

Think-pair-share (TPS) is a collaborative teaching activity first proposed by Frank Lyman of the University of Maryland in 1981. It can be used to help learners form individual ideas, discuss, and share with others in small groups. Willingness-to-communicate (WTC) can be defined as "an individual's volitional inclination towards actively engaging in the act ofcommunication in a specific situation, which can vary according to interlocutor(s), topic, and conversational context,among other potential situational variables" (Kang, 2005, p. 291). The adopted design for this study was a mixed-methods one in a small sample size and was conducted in Kish Language Institute. For this purpose, nine upper-intermediate female learners participated in the study. During five sessions, voice recording and a willingness-to-communicate questionnaire were used. It was found out that the number of turn-takings and interruptions fluctuated between groups during sessions, but the main inclination was toward elevation. Furthermore, in terms of the questionnaire, learners' perceptions were more promising in posttest in comparison with the pretest. Finally, the results of the statistical analyses revealed that the willingness-to-communicate of EFL learners in fifth session was significantly higher than their performance in the first session. At the end, some classroom implications are provided.

Because of the important role of multiple intelligences (MIs) in learning a second/foreign langue (L2) as supported by the existing second language acquisition (SLA) literature, some pragmatic scholars have asked for studying their contribution to pragmatic competence (e.g., Taguchi & Roever, 2017). Accordingly, the present investigation has attempted to examine the relationship between L2 learners’ multiple intelligences and their speech-act pragmatic performance. A sample of 124 EFL students who were selected from an initial sample of 206 learners at two Iranian state universities based on their scores on the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP) took part in this study. The data collection procedure was done in two subsequent phases. First, McKenzie's (1999) multiple intelligences (MI) survey including 90 items was filled out by the participants. Then, a validated 50-item multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) including five frequent English speech acts (requests, apologies, refusals, complaints, and compliments/compliment responses) was administered. Data analysis using multiple regression revealed that four of the intelligence including logical, interpersonal, verbal, and intrapersonal intelligences were significant predictors of L2 learners' speech-act pragmatic knowledge. Among these four intelligences, verbal intelligence was the strongest followed by interpersonal, intrapersonal, and logical intelligences. However, five other intelligences (i.e., naturalistic, musical, existential, visual, & kinesthetic intelligences were not significant predictors of L2 pragmatic performance). These findings can have some pedagogical implications for EFL teachers in helping their learners develop their speech-act pragmatic knowledge based on their MIs.

A text messaging service, among other functions of mobile phones, allows mobile phone subscribers to send and receive alphanumeric characters and emoticons. The discourse of the text messages characterizes a kind of interaction, mostly on the boundary between verbal and visual communication. Adopting Halliday's Socio-semiotic Model of Language, this study considered three register variables of filed, mode, and tenor in a text message corpus comprising 2440 text messages collected from 122 medical students at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences to investigate how the discourse of text message can be affected by the sociolinguistic dimensions of the context of language use. To that end, text messages were analyzed and categorized in term of the social interaction that constituted the content of the messages. The findings revealed that mobile phone text messaging is an asynchronous mode of communication which is characterized with particular register variables, and there are also pragmatic reasons in addition to the technical restrictions for the creation of this register as its users actively and selectively make use of the resources of spoken and written discourses in constructing the message.

There is not a widespread agreement on the operational definition of the construct of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) autonomy in reading comprehension (RC) because there is not an established tool to quantitatively describe its proportion. Therefore, the current investigation intends to design a learner autonomy questionnaire in reading comprehension and undertake its validation; the proposed items are context-specific. In this study, consultation with the relevant literature and the views of EFL experts provided the researchers with invaluable insights to construct a five-component-model for the definition of autonomy in EFL RC. Both exploratory and confirmatory data analysis procedures were utilized to check the validity and reliability of the contextualized items in the proposed model. The findings put forth new insights for the practitioners, curriculum developers, and EFL teachers to make students autonomous in reading comprehension skills. The results are also promising in motivating the at-risk students to actively develop reading comprehension skills in the reading classes.

This study, prompted by a critical incident within the language classroom, is based on Darvin and Norton's (2015a) model of investment and an analysis of narratives of two Iranian EFL learners with different levels of investment in their language learning. The findings revealed that success in and continuity of language learning in different phases of participants' lives depended not only on their investment in language learning but also on their willingness to learn the language and motivation for it. Furthermore, emotional and temporal kinds of capital were found significant in determining participants' success or failure in language learning. Additionally, the concept of demotivation was proved inadequate for explaining one of the participants' loss of motivation for language learning over a particular period of time. Finally, a model was designed concerning the interactive effects of willingness to learn, motivation, and investment in applied linguistics.

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners may not appreciate writing and even perform poorly in writing tasks partly due to what feelings they harbor toward such tasks. This study explored the relative effects of three degrees of writing task complexity based on resource directing dimensions of complexity on EFL learners' task motivation. Participants were 64 intermediate EFL learners at a language school in Baneh, Kurdistan, Iran, and were randomly assigned to one of the three groups: low complexity group, medium complexity group, and high complexity group. After completing the tasks, they filled in a task motivation questionnaire. The results showed that perceived relevance as a dimension of task motivation was higher in medium complexity group. With respect to emotional state as another dimension of task motivation, medium complexity task motivated participants more than low and high complexity tasks, because the participants showed a positive emotional state after doing it. Based on the findings and regarding intermediate EFL learners, it is recommended that writing tasks with a medium degree of complexity should be incorporated into task-based syllabuses by EFL teachers because of learners' task motivation toward these tasks.

This study set out to examine the main challenges of teaching English for specific purposes (ESP) to medical students regarding their current foreign language needs, lacks, and preferences. Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews with 140 medical students. The findings indicated that in terms of language skills and tasks, the current English for medical purposes (EMP) courses do not meet the needs of medical students and the participants preferred ESP courses that emphasize all the four language skills. Moreover, they were not satisfied with the presented materials and methodology and favored approaches that deploy visual and multimedia modes of presentation. In the case of ESP teachers, it was found that even though the students were mainly satisfied with their ESP teachers, some significant points that are expected to be followed in ESP courses including considering students' needs and difficulties, introducing target discourse communities, practicing relevant genres, providing supplementary materials, and using authentic materials were not taken into account by ESP practitioners. Students also noted other factors, such as limited time, the number of credit hours, the way credits are distributed, and heterogeneous classes, which get in the way of achieving the goals and objectives behind EMP courses. In conclusion, concerning various challenges in ESP classes, more attention should be paid to the course design, technology can be utilized effectively, communicative approaches can be applied, and efficient use of time needs to be considered.