Identification of drivers, benefits, and challenges of ISO 50001 through case study content analysis

An expanding body of research is defining drivers, benefits, and challenges of adopting ISO 50001 energy management systems. The Clean Energy Ministerial's Energy Management Leadership Awards program requires ISO 50001-certified organizations to develop case studies of their implementation experience. 72 recent case studies spanning multiple economic sectors provide a unique global look at implementation from certified organizations' perspectives. This dataset was investigated through content analysis of phrases related to motivations and goals, the role of management and the organization, benefits achieved, keys to success, and challenges. This paper presents findings from this quantitative analysis of “codes” assigned to phrases that capture their meaning. While organizations adopted ISO 50001 for different motives and saw myriad benefits beyond energy savings and associated greenhouse gas emissions reductions, commonalities exist. The most frequently identified drivers are existing values and goals, environmental sustainability, and government incentives or regulations. Findings also include: obtaining and sustaining top management support is critical; top benefits mentioned are cost savings, productivity, and operational improvements; and the primary barrier is lacking a culture of energy management. Policymakers and others looking to accelerate ISO 50001 uptake can use these findings to highlight benefits and incentives that will resonate with corporate decisionmakers worldwide

Evaluación de la escritura académica: una experiencia genérica

EFL/ESL researchers and teachers usually find the assessment of writing as a serious challenge, especially when several writing tasks are demanded in a curriculum. Having this in mind, this study aims to see through assessment priorities given to undergraduates’ writing performances. For this aim, seventy Iranian university instructors with different teaching backgrounds were requested to assess two separate writing tasks entailing different rhetorical demands. Research findings disclosed important details of undifferentiated assessment approaches adopted by instructors. Despite a quantitatively significant difference in comments on content richness and leniency toward discourse, several writing constructs were accorded the same level of importance whatever the writing task type. This study casts fresh light on inadequacies in academic writing assessment and offers fruitful information to curriculum developers to consider a serious rethinking of language teachers education to sharpen teachers’ assessment skills.Los investigadores y profesores EFL/ESL ven la evaluación de la escritura como un reto, en particular cuando se exigen varias tareas en un currículum. Teniéndolo en cuenta, ese estudio apunta cómo establecer las prioridades de evaluación de las destrezas de escritura universitarias. Para alcanzar ese objetivo, se pidió a setenta profesores universitarios iraníes, con diferentes experiencias de enseñanza, evaluar dos tareas de escritura diferentes implicando varias preguntas retóricas. El resultado de la investigación reveló detalles importantes por lo que concierne a la aproximación indiferenciada de la evaluación adoptada por los profesores. No obstante se observó una diferencia cualitativa significativa en los comentarios sobre la riqueza del contenido y la indulgencia hacia el discurso, ya que se dio el mismo nivel de importancia a cualquier tipo de tarea escrita. Ese estudio arroja luz sobre la inadecuación de la evaluación de los escritos académicos y da información fructífera a los que redactan un currículum proponiendo una reflexión sobre la educación de los profesores de idiomas extranjeros, al fin de aclarar las habilidades de evaluación de los profesores

La importancia del habla del profesor en la enseñanza de la escritura del inglés como lengua extranjera

The significance of teacher talk should be seriously valued and investigated, especially for the purpose of teaching those skills in which language learners are heavily dependent on the input and instruction received from the teacher. The current study explores English language teacher discourse from a pedagogical perspective in English writing classes. The investigation undertaken based on Analysis of Speech units revealed three distinct pedagogical episodes, namely Focal, Remedial, and Notional talk. By these three modes writing teachers can orally fulfill their pedagogical purposes of teaching, recovering and evaluating the linguistic and ideational structures by either text-directed or non-text directed speech.La importancia del habla del profesor debe de ser valorada e investigada con seriedad, especialmente para el propósito de enseñar las habilidades en las que los estudiantes de lenguas dependen fundamentalmente del input y la instrucción que reciben del profesor. Este estudio exploró el discurso del profesor de inglés desde una perspectiva pedagógica en las clases de escritura en inglés. La investigación sobre la base de las unidades de análisis reveló tres episodios pedagógicos distintos: focal, remediación, y habla nocional. A través de estos tres modos, los profesores de escritura pueden cumplir con sus fines educativos de enseñanza oral, recuperar y la evaluar las estructuras lingüísticas e ideacionales, ya sea dirigido o no dirigido por el texto.This study has been supported by a grant offered by Payam-e- Nour University of Iran as the study sponsor in the decision to submit the paper for publication

THE IMPACT OF DIFFERENT LOADS OF INVOLVEMENT ON EFL STUDENTS’ INCIDENTAL LEARNING OF IDIOMS

Idioms are essential parts of any language learning that indicate second language proficiency of learners in their communication. However, there is no doubt that idioms are more difficult to learn and comprehend than usual words of phrases. The present study investigated the possible effects of providing different task types with involvement loads on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL students' learning of idiom. A total number of 60 EFL students were selected based on their performance on Quick Placement Test and idiom familiarity test. The participants were randomly divided into three groups each containing 20 students. The data gathered through conducting pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest of L2 idioms were analyzed through descriptive statistics and inferential statistics of one way ANOVA and paired samples t test. The findings revealed that tasks with higher involvement load led to better performance of students both in initial learning and the retention of idioms. The findings would hopefully encourage teachers and learners to use tasks and with deeper cognitive processing and higher involvement load to have more effective learning of English idioms

Procedural Rhetoric: An Alternative to Traditional Academic Writing Programs

A host of movements have been performed to broaden English language learners’ writing scholarship. A major rethink of L2 writing materials is what syllabus designers should pursue in some collegiate contexts; all the more so because writing is considered as a scholarly skill for English language learners to do academic assignments and manifest their academic attainments in different academic areas. Having this in mind, the present study explored the implications of new English writing course syllabuses designed based on procedural rhetoric, which made English majors significantly outperform conventional syllabuses users in terms of content, vocabulary, and language use. The achieved results ensured that university writing courses can bring about more accomplishments when a multi-faceted program aligned with contemporary concerns of academic writing is adopted

THE EFFECT OF COLLABORATIVE STRATEGIC READING ON EFL LEARNERS’ READING COMPREHENSION AND VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE

The present study investigated the effect of collaborative strategic reading on the Iranian EFL students’ achievements in English reading comprehension and vocabulary. To this cause, a true experimental design was utilized to examine the differences in students’ achievements in reading comprehension and vocabulary gain under two different treatments of collaborative strategic reading and traditional instruction. A sample of QPT was conducted to check the general language proficiency of students and save their homogeneity. Forty students were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. Two pretests of reading comprehension and vocabulary were also administrated to know their initial levels of the skills. The experimental group received instruction on reading comprehension and vocabulary via collaborative strategic reading. The control group, however, received the usual processes of teaching reading comprehension and vocabulary. Two posttests of reading comprehension and vocabulary were administered to the both groups. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that providing collaborative strategic reading affected the students' reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition in the experimental group. The findings can be beneficial to teachers to favor pair or group work on the grounds that it forces participation and offers more opportunities for language use.   Article visualizations

THE EFFECT OF TASK-INDUCED INVOLVEMENT LOAD ON IRANIAN INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS’ LEARNING OF PHRASAL VERBS

Phrasal verbs have been the source of frustration for learners of English, and many students talk about the difficulties they have using phrasal verbs. They are widely used by native speakers of English but are difficult for second language learners to master. The present research aimed at investigating the effects different task types, based on the involvement load hypothesis, might have on the Iranian intermediate EFL students' learning of phrasal verbs. In an experimental research study conducted with a total number of 45 EFL students majoring English language literature, the students were randomly divided into three groups with three different task types and loads of involvement. The data were collected through pre-test, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test of phrasal verbs analyzed via descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and paired t test. Based on the results gained, the null hypothesis regarding the effects of the higher involvement load on learning and retention of phrasal verbs was rejected. The results would be practically useful for English language learners and teachers while dealing with phrasal verbs in and out of language classrooms.  Article visualizations

Investigating Iranian English Language Teachers’ Practices and Perceptions of Vocabulary Teaching

This study aimed at exploring English language teachers’ practices and perceptions of vocabulary teaching in Iranian private language schools. Using a qualitative research design, four competent language teachers were purposefully selected and their perceptions of vocabulary teaching were investigated from several dimensions. Three qualitative data gathering techniques including interviews, classroom observation, and stimulated recall interviews were utilized to have a thorough understanding of the participants’ practices and perceptions about vocabulary instruction. Findings revealed that although EFL teachers possessed sufficient knowledge and perspectives with respect to vocabulary teaching strategies, such stated declarative knowledge did not serve the full purposes of vocabulary teaching. Participants typically utilized decontextualized strategies more extensively than contextualized ones in their actual practices indicating that their tendencies are somehow towards traditional approaches in teaching vocabulary. In other words, teachers’ instructional practices did not capture all their stated beliefs. Furthermore, it was found that the implemented policies in English language schools which are greatly towards time economization might be a liable reason cheering teachers to deviate from their real beliefs. Finally, contributing to developmental aspects of language teaching, findings of this particular study possess several implications both for teacher education institutions and stakeholders in private language schools in Iran and other similar contexts

The significance of glucosinolates for sulfur storage in Brassicaceae seedlings

Brassica juncea seedlings contained a twofold higher glucosinolate content than B. rapa and these secondary sulfur compounds accounted for up to 30% of the organic sulfur fraction. The glucosinolate content was not affected by H2S and SO2 exposure, demonstrating that these sulfur compounds did not form a sink for excessive atmospheric supplied sulfur. Upon sulfate deprivation, the foliarly absorbed H2S and SO2 replaced sulfate as the sulfur source for growth of B. juncea and B. rapa seedlings. The glucosinolate content was decreased in sulfate-deprived plants, though its proportion of organic sulfur fraction was higher than that of sulfate-sufficient plants, both in absence and presence of H2S and SO2. The significance of myrosinase in the in situ turnover in these secondary sulfur compounds needs to be questioned, since there was no direct co-regulation between the content of glucosinolates and the transcript level and activity of myrosinase. Evidently, glucosinolates cannot be considered as sulfur storage compounds upon exposure to excessive atmospheric sulfur and are unlikely to be involved in the re-distribution of sulfur in B. juncea and B. rapa seedlings upon sulfate deprivation

Seismic Assessment of Arch Dams Using Fragility Curves

In the present paper, the IDA approach is applied to analyzing a thin high arch dam. The parameters of Sa, PGA and PGV are used as intensity measure (IM) and the overstressed area (OSA) is utilized as engineering demand parameter (EDP) and then, three limit states are assigned to the considered structure using the IDA curves. Subsequently, fragility curves are calculated and it is showed that the PGA is a better parameter to be taken as IM. In addition, it is found that the utilizing the proposed methodology, quantifying the qualitative limit states is probable. At last, having the fragility curves and considering their slope in addition to the other routine data which can be extracted from these curves, one may be able to conclude that in what performance level the considered dam body seems to be weak and needs retrofitting works