How Does She Learn English? A Case of a Successful Blind Language Learner

This study reports on a case study of a blind EFL learner. The purpose of the study was to explore a detailed situated data to examine to what extent it is feasible to be a successful language learner despite being visually impaired and lacking some learning resources.  Interview data and the narratives of this EFL learner have revealed that her success was mainly based on her agentic interaction with the environment and learning context, her high motivation and strategic behavior, and her sustained efforts. The findings provide further insight into the role of learner in exerting control over contextual resources that frame learning and on how different factors interact with each other in the language learning process in the construction of learner identity and the strategies used by learners

Beliefs and Practices of EFL Instructors in Teaching Pronunciation

Pronunciation teaching and learning have stimulated a renewed interest among second language acquisition (SLA) researchers in the past few years. To pursue this line of inquiry, this study set out to investigate the beliefs and practices of Iranian EFL teachers on pronunciation teaching. Convenience sampling was employed to recruit 74 participants who completed a pronunciation teaching and learning questionnaire. Interviews were also conducted with volunteered participants. The results revealed that 57% of the respondent teachers mostly worked on suffixes such as the -ed and -s endings always or often in their classrooms. The second most frequently taught feature was word stress (54%), followed by syllable structure, which 53% of the teachers often or always taught. Drama and role-play were the most common strategies often or always used by 49% of the teachers in teaching pronunciation. In addition, interviews with participant teachers revealed that the most common classroom activities were imitation and repetition. Finally, although most participants emphasized the need to teach pronunciation, they did not consider themselves highly qualified. They indicated an insatiable desire for more pronunciation training in teacher education programs to use opportunistic teaching and integrated phases to teach pronunciation. Most of the teachers did not teach pronunciation as a separate lesson since the school curriculum, the pre-specified book, and the time limitation did not let them focus on pronunciation as a separate lesson

Beliefs and Practices of EFL Instructors in Teaching Pronunciation

Pronunciation teaching and learning have stimulated a renewed interest among second language acquisition (SLA) researchers in the past few years. To pursue this line of inquiry, this study set out to investigate the beliefs and practices of Iranian EFL teachers on pronunciation teaching. Convenience sampling was employed to recruit 74 participants who completed a pronunciation teaching and learning questionnaire. Interviews were also conducted with volunteered participants. The results revealed that 57% of the respondent teachers mostly worked on suffixes such as the -ed and -s endings always or often in their classrooms. The second most frequently taught feature was word stress (54%), followed by syllable structure, which 53% of the teachers often or always taught. Drama and role-play were the most common strategies often or always used by 49% of the teachers in teaching pronunciation. In addition, interviews with participant teachers revealed that the most common classroom activities were imitation and repetition. Finally, although most participants emphasized the need to teach pronunciation, they did not consider themselves highly qualified. They indicated an insatiable desire for more pronunciation training in teacher education programs to use opportunistic teaching and integrated phases to teach pronunciation. Most of the teachers did not teach pronunciation as a separate lesson since the school curriculum, the pre-specified book, and the time limitation did not let them focus on pronunciation as a separate lesson

Survey of nurse’s students competencies for delivering spiritual care to their patients

زمینه و هدف: یکی از موارد لازم جهت ارائه مراقبت های معنوی صحیح به بیماران، داشتن صلاحیت لازم در این رابطه می باشد. پژوهش حاضر با هدف بررسی صلاحیت دانشجویان پرستاری در ارائه مراقبت های معنوی به بیماران و مقایسه آن بین دانشجویان سال اول و سال چهارم پرستاری انجام شده است. روش بررسی: این مطالعه توصیفی-تحلیلی بر روی 80 نفر دانشجوی پرستاری (45 نفر سال اول و 35 نفر سال چهارم) دانشگاه علوم پزشکی کرمان انجام شد. ابزار جمع آوری داده ها، پرسشنامه "مقیاس صلاحیت مراقبت معنوی" بود. یافته ها: میانگین سنی دانشجویان شرکت کننده 2/60±20/60 با دامنه 18 تا 28 سال بود. میانگین نمره صلاحیت مراقبت معنوی دانشجویان 13/68±101/26 بدست آمد. میانگین نمره صلاحیت مراقبت معنوی بین دانشجویان سال اول و چهارم به یک اندازه بود و از نظر آماری اختلاف معناداری را نشان نداد (0/0

Development and validation of a new scale for prediction of low back pain occurrence among nurses

There are several scales for prediction of low back pain (LBP) occurrence, but most of them only consider occupational aspect. This study aimed to develop and validate a new biopsychosocial scale for the LBP prediction among nurses. In this mixed-method study, a scale was developed by integrating the findings from the literature review and the semi-structured interviews. The qualitative and quantitative face and content validation were then performed. The construct validation was performed based on the hypothesis testing by independent-samples ttest using the SPSS in a case study with 241 nurses. The reliability of the scale was also tested through 15-day interval test-retest reliability by Intra Class Correlation Coefficient (ICC). Then the Minimum Detectable Changes (MDC) and MDC % was calculated. The results showed that the three dimensions (occupational, psychosocial and individual), consisted of 40 items, predict LBP occurrence. Both the scale and the three sub-scales could differentiate known groups of nurses in terms of LBP. These groups were nurses: with/without LBP during the past 12 years, with a high/low occurrence of LBP, with/without co-morbidity, being female/male, with/without night shift, and with high/low repetition of loads/patients handling. The average measure ICC of the scale was 0.866 (P <0.001). The MDC95 (MDC %) was 14.86 (15.65 %). We concluded that the proposed scale is a simple and trustworthy tool which supports the multidimensional nature of LBP

How Does She Learn English? A Case of a Successful Blind Language Learner

This study reports on a case study of a blind EFL learner. The purpose of the study was to explore a detailed situated data to examine to what extent it is feasible to be a successful language learner despite being visually impaired and lacking some learning resources.  Interview data and the narratives of this EFL learner have revealed that her success was mainly based on her agentic interaction with the environment and learning context, her high motivation and strategic behavior, and her sustained efforts. The findings provide further insight into the role of learner in exerting control over contextual resources that frame learning and on how different factors interact with each other in the language learning process in the construction of learner identity and the strategies used by learners

Developing a Model of Sustainable Green University for Higher Education

The aim of the present study was to develop a sustainable green university model for higher education which was done with a qualitative approach and case study method. The statistical population consisted of specialists (experts) and professors of public universities in the field of green university in the year 2022 that 10 people were selected according to the principle of theoretical saturation and by purposive sampling. The study instrument included a semi-structured interview and review of existing documents in this field. The obtained data were validated using participant feedback method and data validity was measured and evaluated through quality criteria (reliable). The data were analyzed by thematic analysis method. The result of data analysis led to identification of 174 basic themes and 40 organizing themes in the field of sustainable green university that were organized in the form of 7 global themes as described 1.sustainable green resources management; 2. Sustainable green management of university; 3. Sustainable green educational affairs; 4. Sustainable green research affairs; 5. Environmental management system of university space; 6. Sustainable green human resources management; 7. Sustainable green acculturalization. Finally, a model called sustainable green university was presented for higher education using the research findings. It is hoped that the developed model will help the development of higher education in order to green the universities and the sustainability of the country’s scientific authority

The effects of input enhancement and explicit instruction on developing Iranian lower-intermediate EFL learners’ explicit knowledge of passive voice

Abstract The importance of teaching explicit knowledge of grammar has been one of the most controversial issues in L2 instruction. Despite the existence of considerable number of studies on different methods of grammar instruction, very few studies have investigated the role of explicit instruction and input enhancement on developing EFL learners’ explicit knowledge of grammatical structures. Therefore, this study is an attempt to investigate the effects of input enhancement and explicit instruction on developing Iranian EFL learners’ explicit knowledge of simple present and simple past passive voice. To this end, 48 lower- intermediate EFL students participated in the present research and a pretest-posttest quasi experimental design with two experimental groups and a control group was adopted. While the participants in the explicit instruction group received explicit instruction on selected passive forms, those in the enhanced input received the same passages but the target passive forms were enhanced via bolding and underlining, and the control group received the same texts but in the original form with no enhancement or explicit instruction. To measure participants’ explicit knowledge of the target passive voice, two valid measures including untimmed grammaticality judgement test (UGJT) and metalinguistic knowledge test (MKT) were used. One-way ANOVA results indicated the superiority of the explicit instruction in developing explicit knowledge of passive voice. The findings have some pedagogical implications for EFL teachers and material developers

Structural Relationship of Faculty-Student Interaction and Faculty’s Active Teaching Method with Students’ Competencies development by Mediating the Knowledge Acquisition

The aim of this study, was to investigate the structural relationship of faculty-student interaction and faculty’s active teaching method with students’ competencies development by mediating the knowledge acquisition among the students of Semnan University. The present study was an applied research on the basis of purpose and was a type of descriptive-correlative studies on the basis of data collection method. Statistical population included all the undergraduates and masters of Semnan University (10950 people) in the academic year 1396-97 that 266 students (183 undergraduates and 83 masters) were selected as study sample using stratified sampling method. All of them completed the faculty-student interaction (Hernández-López et al, 2016), faculty’s active teaching method (Hernández-López et al, 2016), knowledge acquisition (Hernández-López et al, 2016) and students’ competencies development (Hernández-López et al, 2016) scales. After calculating the validity and reliability of the instruments, the data was analyzed by correlation and path analysis methods. The findings showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between faculty-student interactions, faculty’s active teaching method, and knowledge acquisition with students’ competencies development. Faculty-student interaction has a direct and significant effect on students’ competencies development. Also, faculty-student interaction with the mediation of knowledge acquisition had an indirect and significant effect on students’ competencies development. Faculty’s active teaching method has a direct and significant effect on students’ competencies development. Faculty’s active teaching method with the mediation of knowledge acquisition has an indirect and significant effect on students’ competencies development. Faculty and student interaction, faculty’s active teaching method and knowledge acquisition explain 33% of variance of students’ competencies development. The results indicated the importance of paying attention to the teaching method, how to interact with the student and knowledge acquisition in increasing the students’ competencies