Academic Word List: Coverage Range in Local/Global Textbooks and Exploring Effective Ways of Teaching and Testing of AW

Coxhead’s (2000) AcademicWord List (AWL), consists of 570 word ‘families’, each including a headword (stem noun or verb forms) and other family members. This paper highlights the pedagogical value of the AWL, specifically applied in setting vocabulary goals for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) or English for Specific Purposes (ESP). What led the researchers to conduct this study was an aim to profile the presence of the AWL items in local (General English for Science and Engineering Students, 2010) and global (Active 4, 2008) EAP textbooks taught in Iran. The textbook corpus of these two books was analyzed using the concordance program which is a vocabulary analysis program. The chi-square value of 200.42 (P = .000 < .05) made it clear that a significant difference exists between the two books. The local textbook has used more words (Residual = 493.9) while the global book covered less AWL (Residual = -493.9). Our next purpose was to consider an aspect of this work that has been little researched: exploring some effective ways of teaching and testing of AWL in EAP textbooks to facilitate the pedagogical purposes. In conclusion, we found that the local book did much better than the global book in EFL context and we could come up with some suggestions on teaching and testing of AWL in textbooks. In addition, the results of this study would have important implications for textbook developers, material designers, EFL teachers and even EFL students to have a more cautious look at local books prepared in the context of their own country

A Comparison of Two Global ELT Course books in Terms of Their Task Types

It is generally observed that the textbooks employed in the classroom play a crucial role in the process of teaching and learning. In the EFL context in Iran, where Iranian EFL learners rarely have access to native speakers, the teacher mediates between the learner and the text. Accordingly, a textbook plays more important roles in this context and textbook evaluation is critical. Nowadays, under the influence of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), most global materials try to involve learners in the process of learning by introducing several types of tasks and activities whose aim is to promote learners’ interaction. However, most teachers and instructors are using the global materials without being aware of the task types used in them and whether these task types really involve learners in the communication process or not. The purposes of this study was to evaluate and compare the two most popular global course books (Top Notch and Interchange) which are taught in Iranian ELT institutes, in terms of their task types according to Nunan’s (1999) classification of the tasks. The results suggested that generally, both course books used mostly linguistic tasks and less cognitive ones. However, in particular, the number of co-operative tasks in Interchange title is more frequent than other types of tasks, while in Top Notch title most of tasks are practice tasks. The results of this study could be helpful for curriculum developers and institute authorities, to assist them to become more aware of different task types used in each of these global materials and to better select the most suitable ones for their purposes. It can also help material developers in order to develop ELT materials with more communicative tasks

Global Business Textbook Evaluation: Task Types in the Spotlight

Textbook evaluation, with the aim of assisting the choice of the most suitable book for a specific context, has become a needed practice in the field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). During recent years, with the rapid spread of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and its concern for tasks and activities that enhance learners’ interaction, more researchers have become interested in exploring the different task types in textbooks in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT). The present study sought to evaluate the two most popular global business English textbook series (English Business Result and Market Leader) that are taught in Iranian institutes, in terms of their task types according to Nunan’s (1999) classification of tasks. The results revealed that linguistic tasks and creative tasks were respectively the most and the least common task types presented in these textbooks. The results also indicated a significant difference among the frequency of task types in the textbooks. It was evident that these ESP textbooks covered all of the macro tasks and most of the micro tasks specified by Nunan (1999), but some of them significantly focused on specific types of tasks

Native and Non-native English Teachers’ Rating Criteria and Variation in the Assessment of L2 Pragmatic Production: The Speech Act of Compliment

Pragmatic assessment and consistency in rating are among the subject matters which are still in need of more profound investigations. The importance of the issue is highlighted when remembering that inconsistency in ratings would surely damage the test fairness issue in assessment and lead to much diversity in ratings. Our principal concern in this study was observing the criteria that American and Iranian EFL/ESL teachers consider when rating Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic productions regarding the speech act of compliment. The instrument utilized in this study was WDCTs and a speech act rating questionnaire administered to sixty American and sixty Iranian EFL/ESL teachers. In order to come up with the criteria, the reasoning and justifications of the raters when rating learners’ pragmatic productions were analyzed carefully through content analysis. The results showed that overall the raters considered nine general criteria when rating. They included: “Strategy use”, “Affective factors”, “Politeness”, “Interlocutors’ relationships”, “Linguistic accuracy”, “Sincerity”, “Authenticity”, “Fluency”, and “Cultural issues”. Also, the most frequent criterion among the native and non-native raters was “Strategy use” and “Politeness” respectively. Finally, it was concluded that due to some inconsistencies and variations in the ratings and criteria of both native and non-native raters, it seems that both groups are in need of pragmatic workshops and training sessions. The results of this study can have important implications for EFL/ESL teacher educators who are considerate of the importance of pragmatic training and instruction

L2 Learners’ Use of Metadiscourse Markers in Online Discussion Forums

This study aimed to investigate the use of interactional metadiscourse markers in 168 comments made by 28 university students of engineering via an educational forum held as part of a general English course. The students wrote their comments on six topics, with a total of 19,671 words. Their comments during educational discussions were analyzed to determine their use of five metadiscourse categories (hedges, boosters, attitude markers, engagement markers, and self-mentions), making up interactional metadiscourse in Hyland’s (2004) model. Following descriptive analysis of the use of metadiscourse categories, chi-square tests were used to investigate the possible differences in the whole sample as well as gender-based differences. The findings showed that although female EFL learners used more metadiscourse markers than males did, the differences were minor and hence gender did not significantly influence the use of interactional metadiscourse markers. However, while male and female participants used all types of interactional metadiscourse, how they used them varied. They used engagement markers and self-mentions more frequently than boosters, hedges, and attitude markers. Since metadiscourse markers play crucial roles in mediating the relationship between what writers intend to argue and their discourse communities, the results of the present study have obvious importance in increasing students’ awareness of the way they organize their writings

The Realization of Impoliteness in Arguments between the Democrats and Republicans over the Government Shutdown Issue in the US

The present research is intended to illustrate how linguistic features of impoliteness are manifested in the debates between two of the main American political parties, Republicans and Democrats, in 2013 government shutdown issue. The research questions sought to analyze the impoliteness strategies each party employed to aggravate or attack the face of the opposing party. The study was conducted by performing qualitative discourse analysis based upon the theoretical framework of Culpeper’s (1996) super strategies and Bousfield’s (2008) off-record impoliteness . The data consisted of the transcripts of the speeches of the two parties’ members all through September, 20, to October, 16, 2013. The study primarily managed to elicit eight major impoliteness strategies in this corpus. The analysis chiefly revealed that both parties used all the strategies in relatively similar frequencies to induce their opponents to act upon their preferences. Challenges , dissociating from the other , sarcasm/mock politeness, and seeking disagreement/avoid agreement were among the most commonly used impoliteness strategies in the debates. In addition, as the Chi-Square test disclosed, the two parties did not differ from one another in a statistically meaningful way in their total use of impoliteness strategies. In conclusion, our study showed that there seems to be a relatively similar pattern of use of impoliteness strategies by these two parties over the aforementioned issue which can be attributed to the demands of political discourse

Instructional Scaffolding in Online Content-based Instruction: Intentions of Teachers’ Scaffolding

The emerging interest in scaffolding as a dynamic, multifaceted, and evolving construct has mounted over the last decades due to its impact on teachers’ professional development and students’ learning. The present paper adopted conversation analysis to analyze scaffolding intentions in content-based instruction (CBI) based on Van de Pol et al.’s (2010) framework of scaffolding intentions, which includes direction maintenance, cognitive structuring, reduction of the degrees of freedom, recruitment, and frustration control. Through convenience sampling, four science teachers in English-medium CBI were selected, and the videotaped recordings of 12 hours of their online classroom instruction were transcribed and analyzed. The findings indicated that scaffolding intentions mostly pertain to enhancing students’ cognitive structuring, controlling their frustration, and promoting their engagement in the learning process. The findings showed that the cognitive load of learning concepts was one of the main determiners of teachers’ scaffolding. Also, various activities to recruit interest were used by the teachers to provide scaffolding. The findings evidenced that teachers’ interactional and instructional techniques were mostly centered on directing students towards the pedagogical aims and engaging them in the various activities at hand to call students’ attention to the applicability of science matters in the real-life or personal experience. In this study, developing self-supporting and self-reflecting strategies was found to be demanding for the teachers. These findings have implications for the teachers and teacher educators to heighten teachers’ awareness of scaffolding in CBI classes to enact more effective teaching

Anxiety Reduction and RALL Implementation in English Grammar Acquisition among EFL Learners

The study is a part of a larger study on the impact of Robot-Assisted Language Learning (RALL) on English grammar acquisition and retention of adolescent English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. More specifically, the primary aim of the paper at hand was to examine the impact of RALL on adolescent EFL learners’ anxiety levels. In this regard, three intact classes (N=45) in a private language institute in Tehran were evenly divided into two experimental groups of RALL and Game-based Language Learning (GBLL) and one control group. The participants were adolescent male EFL learners between 11 to 15 years old with a mean age of 13. While the teacher, the textbook, and the teaching materials were identical in all groups, a kid-sized humanoid social robot was exclusively used in the RALL group. The data were collected through questionnaires in the final session for each group, and the results of descriptive statistics and ANOVA indicated that lower anxiety rates were observed in the RALL group. Our findings could clearly be proof of the efficiency of socially assistive robots in the instruction of language skills in a more favorable teaching context

The Impact of Language Anxiety and Language Proficiency on WTC in EFL Context

Abstract Spontaneous and sustained use of the L2 inside and outside the classroom varies according to a number of linguistic, communicative, social, and psychological factors. Authentic communication in L2 as a result of the complex interrelated system of variables occurs in terms of utilizing L2 for a variety of communicative acts, such as speaking up in class or reading a newspaper, and changes accordingly over time and across situations. By helping the students to decrease language anxiety and increase a willingness to use the L2 inside and outside the classroom, we direct the focus of language teaching away from merely linguistic and structural competence to authentic communication. Willingness to communicate (WTC) model integrates these variables to predict L2 communication, and a few number of studies have tested the model with EFL students. To this end, the current study is an attempt to shed light on the examination of Iranian EFL university students’ WTC and its interaction with their language anxiety and language proficiency. Forty nine university students participated in this study, took TOEFL first and then filled out two questionnaires of WTC, MacIntyre, Baker, Clement, and Conrod (2001) and language anxiety, Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986). For data analysis, Repeated Measures ANOVA and Spearman correlation were run and the results have revealed that Iranian university students’ WTC is directly related to their language proficiency but surprisingly higher proficient learners showed to be less communicative than lower proficient ones outside the classroom and this proves the state-like nature of WTC in the present sample. Moreover, the interaction between WTC and anxiety did not turn out to be significant. This shows that anxiety did not affect the learners’ participation in communication (WTC). Finally, anxiety and language proficiency are negatively correlated, so the association between language learning experience and L2 anxiety has been confirmed in the results of this study. Therefore, linguistic variables appear to be more predictive of WTC for Iranians, and language instructors should work on their students' English proficiency. Key words: Willingness to communicate; Language anxiety; Language proficiency; EFL context; Iranian students Résumé L'utilisation spontanée et continuelle de la L2 à l'intérieur et l'extérieur de la salle de cours varie selon de nombre facteurs linguistique, communicatifs, sociaux et psychologiques. La communication authentique en L2 est un résultat d’un système complexe des variables survenus en termes d’utilisation de L2 pour une variété d'actes de communication, tels que prendre la parole en classe ou lire un journal, changeant en conséquence au fil du temps et selon les situations. En aidant les élèves à diminuer l'anxiété linguistique et à augmenter la volonté d'utiliser la L2 à l'intérieur et l'extérieur de la salle de classe, nous éloignons les actions d'enseignement des langues de la compétence purement linguistique et structurelle de la communication authentique. Le modèle de la Volonté de communiquer (WTC) intègre ces variables pour prédire la communication L2. Un petit nombre d'études ont testé le modèle avec les étudiants en EFL. À cette fin, la présente étude est une tentative pour faire la lumière sur l'examen du WTC sur les étudiants iraniens en EFL et sur son interaction avec leur anxiété linguistique et leur maîtrise de la langue. Quarante-neuf étudiants ont participé à cette étude. Ils ont pris le TOEFL en premier et ont ensuite rempli deux questionnaires du WTC, MacIntyre, Baker, Clément et Conrod (2001) et de l'anxiété languistique, Horwitz, Horwitz et Cope (1986). Pour l'analyse des données, les mesures répétées ANOVA et la corrélation de Spearman ont été effectués. Les résultats ont révélé que le WTC des étudiants iraniens est directement lié à leurs compétences linguistiques Mais les apprendis étonnément compétents se montrent moins communicatifs que ceux qui ont moins de compétence en dehors de la classe, prouvant dans l’exemple actuel la nature étatique du WTC. Par ailleurs, l'interaction entre le WTC et l'anxiété ne s'est pas avéré significatif. Cela montre que l'anxiété n'a pas d'incidence sur la participation des apprenants dans la communication (WTC). Enfin, l'anxiété et la maîtrise de la langue sont corrélés négativement, alors l'association entre l'expérience de l'apprentissage des langues et de l'anxiété L2 a été confirmée dans les résultats de cette étude. Par conséquent, les enseignants de langues devrait augmenter de compétence linguistique des apprenants et de leur fournir la commodité. Mots-clés: Volonté de communiquer; Anxiété languistique; contexte EFL; compétences linguistique

Utilizing social virtual reality robot (V2R) for music education to children with high-functioning autism

Virtual Reality (VR) technology is a growing technology that has been used in various fields of psychology, education, and therapy. One group of potential users of VR are children with autism who need education and have poor social interactions; this technology could help them improve their social skills through real-world simulation. In this study, we evaluated the feasibility of conducting virtual music education programs with automatic assessment system for children with autism at treatment/research centers without the need to purchase a robot, resulting in the possibility of offering schedules on a larger scale and at a lower cost. Intervention sessions were conducted for five children with high-functioning autism ranging in age from 6 to 8 years old during 20 weeks which includes a baseline session, a pre-test, training sessions, a post-test, and a follow-up test. Each music education sessions involved teaching different notes and pieces of music according to the child’s cooperation, accuracy, and skill level utilizing virtual reality robots and virtual musical instruments. Actually, by analysis of psychological tests, and questionnaires conducted by a psychologist, we observe slight improvements in cognitive skills because of the ceiling effect. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of the proposed method was proved by conducting statistical analysis on the child’s performance data during the music education sessions which were obtained by using both video coding and the proposed automatic assessment system. Consequently, a general upward trend in the musical ability of participants was shown to occur in these sessions, which warrants future studies in this field