Interlanguage Pragmatics: Iranian EFL Teachers’ Cognition

In curricula where teachers have agency to make decisions on everyday classroom activities, their cognition exerts strong influences on their pedagogical practices. The present paper reports on a qualitative multiple-case study exploring Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ cognition of interlanguage pragmatics. Through triangulation of multiple methods and data sources, the study details descriptions of five Iranian EFL teachers’ classroom practices, the cognitions behind these practices, and the way their cognition and the teaching context interact in shaping their everyday teaching practices. The findings suggest that underrepresentation of pragmatic competence in the EFL classes can be attributed to contextual factors such as deficiency in the EFL teachers’ content and pedagogic content knowledge of interlanguage pragmatics and curricular decisions. The main findings are then discussed against the backdrop of the literature on interlanguage pragmatics. Keywords: Interlanguage pragmatics, language teacher cognition, belief, EFL teacher, EFL teacher knowledge base Dans les programmes où les enseignants ont le pouvoir décisionnel quant aux activités quotidiennes en salle de classe, les connaissances des enseignants exercent une grande influence sur leurs pratiques pédagogiques. Cet article fait état d’une étude qualitative multi-cas portant sur les connaissances en pragmatique interlangue qu’ont des enseignants iraniens d’anglais langue étrangère (ALE). Par une triangulation de nombreuses méthodes et sources de données, l’article décrit en détail les pratiques en salle de classe de cinq enseignants iraniens d’ALE, les connaissances qui sous-tendent ces pratiques et la façon dont leurs connaissances et le contexte d’enseignement interagissent pour façonner les pratiques pédagogiques quotidiennes. Les résultats indiquent que la sous-représentation d’une compétence pragmatique dans les cours d’ALE serait attribuable à des facteurs contextuels tels des lacunes dans les connaissances, chez les enseignants d’ALE, relatives au contenu et à la pédagogie en matière de pragmatique interlangue et aux décisions concernant le programme. Nous discutons des résultats principaux dans le contexte de la documentation sur la pragmatique interlangue. Mots clés : pragmatique interlangue; connaissances des enseignants de langue; croyance; enseignant d’ALE; connaissances fondamentales des enseignants d’ALE &nbsp

Portfolio Assessment and the Enhancement of Higher Order Thinking through Multiple Intelligence and Dialogic Feedback

The current emphasis on higher order thinking skills (HOTS) has inspired many EFL educators to explore the impact of merging different pedagogical teaching and assessment strategies on the enhancement of thinking skills. Responding to such a growing need to investigate the effect of diverse teaching strategies on HOTS, the present study aimed to explore the impact of the integration of portfolio assessment (PA), multiple intelligences (MI), and dialogic feedback (DF) on development of HOTS. Forty participants in two intact advanced classes were randomly assigned to control and treatment groups, receiving writing-based portfolio assessment (WBPA) and MI-oriented portfolio assessment with dialogic feedback (MIWBPADF), respectively. In the experimental group, the participants’ MI was initially measured and the data were used as a basis for grouping learners with the same dominant intelligence type in the same group.The participants in the MI-oriented portfolio assessment with dialogic feedback group received activities compatible with their dominant intelligence. The results of MANOVA revealed that the experimental group outperformed the other group with regard to their higher order thinking skills. The findings underscore the necessity of taking learners’ intelligences as a criterion for task selection and delivering feedback dialogically as instructional techniques for the enhancement of HOTS. This study has implications for teaching higher order thinking in EFL contexts

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Explicit and Implicit Form-Focused Instruction on Explicit and Implicit Knowledge of EFL Learners

Although explicit and implicit knowledge of language learners are essential to theoretical and pedagogical debates in second language acquisition (SLA), little research has addressed the effects of instructional interventions on the two knowledge types (R. Ellis, 2005).This study examined the relative effectiveness of explicit and implicit types of form-focused instruction (FFI) on the acquisition of four morphosyntactic features by four measures of explicit and implicit language knowledge. The measures included: oral elicited imitation, timed and untimed grammaticality judgment, and metalinguistic knowledge tests. A pretest and two posttests were conducted immediately and three weeks after the instructional interventions. Durable effects of FFI on low intermediate Iranian learners were found for the target language forms.In particular, explicit and implicit FFI positively facilitated the development of explicit and implicit knowledge of the target features, both immediately after the instructional interventions and, marginally decreasing, over time. Also, explicit FFI was more effective than implicit FFI as measured by both explicit and implicit knowledge tests. The findings may contribute to understanding of the efficacy of explicit and implicit FFI on L2 learners’ controlled (explicit) and spontaneous (implicit) use of morphosyntactic forms at relatively early stages of L2 acquisition

Exploring Iranian EAP Teachers’ Pedagogic Content Knowledge and Teaching Practices, and Students’ Beliefs about EAP Teachers’ Methodology

The systematic study of EAP teachers’ pedagogic content knowledge and their actual teaching practices in class is a fresh avenue in applied linguistics, especially in contexts like Iran, where, EAP courses are taught by two groups of teachers with different specializations; i.e., language teachers and content teachers. This study explored the similarities and differences between language teachers’ and content teachers’ PCK, and teaching practices, and students’ beliefs about their EAP teachers’ methodology at Medical Sciences Universities across Iran. In order to answer the research questions, a wide range of instruments including questionnaires, observations, semi-structured interviews, and field notes were utilized. Sources included language teachers, content teachers, students taught by language teachers, and students taught by content teachers. Representative samples of 318 EAP teachers and 1573 students participated in the study. The results indicated substantial inconsistencies across the two groups of teachers with respect to their PCK and teaching practices. The findings also showed that students favored language teachers’ methodologies and teaching practices. The findings promise implications for EAP instruction in Iran and highlight the pressing need for more systematic teacher training programs

Exploring Iranian EAP Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Their Professional Identity

This study was conducted in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) context to explore Iranian teachers' perceptions of their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and their sense of professional identity (PI) as well as to scrutinize how their cognitions were practiced in EAP classes. To this end, two ELT teachers and two content instructors (i.e. subject experts who teach EAP courses in addition to their specialized field of study) from a university in Tehran participated in the study and their classes were observed for a full academic semester. To thoroughly probe the teachers' cognitions, semi-structured interviews were also conducted. The results of content analysis indicated some commonalities but major discrepancies in the cognitions and practices of the two pairs of teachers with regard to their PCK. Teachers of both camps claimed to have interactive EAP classes where group work is highly appreciated and students' questions are welcomed. Attending to their discrepancies, the content instructors seemed to adhere to 'transformative' education by reflecting on their teaching, hearing learners' voice, being responsive to their learning needs, and encouraging teacher-learner collaboration. On the other hand, the ELT teachers reflected a more 'traditional' approach, leaving behind issues of flexibility and innovation in their teaching methods. As far as the EAP teachers' PI is concerned, the study came up with eight factors as the underlying constituents of their PI. It was also found that pedagogical content knowledge and professional identity are interrelated attributes of EAP teachers. The findings provide implications for syllabus designers as well as EAP teacher education

Investigating Burnout among Iranian EAP Teachers: A Comparison of ‎Content instructors and ELT Instructors

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses are currently well-established university programs. These courses are run independently by English Language Teaching (ELT) instructors and content instructors without any collaboration. However, ELT instructors and content instructors do not receive the same level of collegiality and social support from the organizations and students. This paper probed burnout among Iranian EAP teachers, including content instructors and ELT instructors in 28 state universities and its variations in relation to their demographic and organizational characteristics. To this aim, the Persian version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was administered to content instructors (N=185) and ELT instructors (N=86) in the state universities in Iran. The results of the study indicated that while most of EAP teachers, both content instructors and ELT instructors, had low burnout, a considerable number had mid-levels of emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment. The findings of the study also indicated that the ELT instructors had higher emotional exhaustion than the content instructors, and it was also found that the content instructors with more than 13 years of experience and the ELT instructors with more than 20 years of experience in teaching such courses had the lowest burnout. Based on the findings of the study, educational administrators are suggested to take remedial and preventive actions against EAP teachers’ burnout and enhance ELT instructors’ occupational well-being. It also seems necessary to assist EAP teachers in adapting to the requirements of teaching EAP courses through pre/in-service teacher training courses to obviate the need for extensive experience for gaining expertise in it

An Investigation into Iranian EAP Teachers’ Burnout and its Variations in Relation to Their Demographic and Organizational Characteristics

Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses is highly demanding for EAP teachers as they are faced with diverse pedagogical and administrative challenges in such courses. This study addressed the level of burnout among EAP teachers and variations in relation to their demographic and organizational characteristics. To this aim, a demographic questionnaire along with the Persian version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was administered to 276 EAP teachers from state universities in Iran. The results revealed that a considerable number of EAP teachers reported mid-levels of personal accomplishment. Moreover, variations in degree of burnout were found among EAP teachers in relation to marital status, age, years of experience in teaching EAP and content/general English courses, educational background, and the field and number of EAP courses taught. Also, EAP teachers with different demographic and organizational characteristics who were more susceptible to burnout were identified. Finally, implications for enhancing the working conditions of EAP teachers are presented

Tracing Metadiscursive Stance over Time and Across Disciplines: A Comparative Study of English Research Articles

Research in academic writing has revealed a strong tendency on the part of writers to interactively communicate their scientific findings with their readers. In doing so, the writers should take a position while arguing their propositions. This interaction as proposed by Hyland (2005b) takes places having two sides of stance and engagement. This study targeted the stance component of writer-reader interaction by integrating Hyland’s (2005b) and Hyland and Tse’s (2005a) frameworks to survey lexical and grammatical stance markers in the major subsections of English research articles in anthropology, education, horticulture, and zoology. The corpus included 240 English research articles published during two periods, namely, 1990 and 2010; 60 from each field, 30 articles from 1990 and 30 from 2010 yielding a total number of 1,270,021words. The findings suggested that stancetaking is a common feature of academic writing in the sampled disciplines regardless of the nature of the discipline. Also, hedges ranked first on the list of frequency count. Furthermore, there was a decreasing pattern in the use of stance markers highlighting a convergence among the scholars of the fields with respect to the totality of the facts established day by day. Then, some implications are drawn with plausible applicability in academic writing and EAP syllabus design

A Narrative Study of In-service EAP Teachers’ Cognition on Language Teacher Role Identities

The present exploratory study probed Iranian in-service EAP teachers’ cognitions on language teacher role identities. Life history narratives and teaching philosophy statements were employed to collect qualitative data from nine Iranian in-service EAP teachers at one of the state universities in Iran. The data included the teachers’ descriptions of their teaching philosophies as well as their evaluations and interpretations of their prior teachers’ ways of being language teachers. Inductive analysis of the data allowed the researchers to identify Eight role identities including ‘teachers as creators and users of learning opportunities’; ‘teachers as selectors and users of teaching/learning materials’; ‘teachers as assessors and evaluators’; ‘teachers as researchers’; ‘teachers as realizers and facilitators of the development of learners' (full) potentials’; ‘teachers as observers of ethicality’; ‘teachers as learners’; and, ‘teachers as teacher educators’. In addition to providing a typology of teacher role identities that Iranian language teachers identify with, the study might promise some implications for language teacher education and teacher education research

EFL teachers’ role in English: Letting the silent majority voice their words

With the advent of the global perspective on English, the live issues of the ownership and culture of English (Akbari, 2008; Seidlhofer, 2005) have begun to shake up numerous conventional notions of the field. In the wake of this landmark shift, this study attempts to probe EFL teachers’ cultural attitude toward prospective English words. To this end, identifying twelve highly Persian culture-specific words, the researchers devised an attitude questionnaire, which was administered to 351 EFL teachers to examine their right of cultural encoding (Kirkpatrick, 2014) as English users. The study concludes with granting a legitimate norm-overriding role to EFL teachers in order to gate-keep their required concepts in English