Zia Tajeddin; Mahmoud Fereydoonfar
Abstract
Although the language pedagogies of private institutes are sharply different from those of the public curriculum, scant research has been done on the identity formation of English language learners in these institutes. To fill this niche, first, a literature-driven identity scale was developed, which ...
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Although the language pedagogies of private institutes are sharply different from those of the public curriculum, scant research has been done on the identity formation of English language learners in these institutes. To fill this niche, first, a literature-driven identity scale was developed, which consisted of the eight components of learning, belongingness, expectations, motivations, attitudes, agency, learning activities, and relationships. Next, the scale was administered to Iranian English language learners of a leading private institute. The dataset collected from 338 learners was found to be appropriate for running exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and reliability estimation. The EFA results showed that the items loaded on five factors: (a) linguistic investment, (b) belongingness, (c) expectations, (d) attitudes, and (e) agency. It was also found that the scale had a high level of internal consistency. It is concluded that the construct of English language learner identity has its distinctive context-specific conceptualization within the pedagogical frames of private institutes.
Rafat Bagherzadeh; Zia Tajeddin
Volume 9, Issue 1 , March 2021, , Pages 43-57
Abstract
Teacher education programs can pursue the aim of helping teachers acquire the knowledge base for effective teaching. However, the representation of curricular knowledge, one of the important dimensions of the teacher knowledge base, varies across educational and sociocultural contexts. As this knowledge ...
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Teacher education programs can pursue the aim of helping teachers acquire the knowledge base for effective teaching. However, the representation of curricular knowledge, one of the important dimensions of the teacher knowledge base, varies across educational and sociocultural contexts. As this knowledge has rarely been explored in the context of Iran, the current study sought to analyze the contents of teacher education programs to identify the representation of curricular knowledge. For this aim, the programs of 15 English language institutes were analyzed using a checklist developed based on Roberts’ (1998) model. Totally, 12 general categories, including 59 components, were found in pre-service programs; however, only 4 categories and 12 components were related to curricular knowledge, namely Methodology and instruction, Planning lessons, Materials, and Assessment. Regarding in-service programs, it was found that curricular knowledge was embodied only in two programs. The findings can provide insights to teacher educations for designing more effective teacher education programs that enhance teachers’ curricular knowledge.
Zia Tajeddin; Mahmood Reza Atai; Rose Shayeghi
Volume 7, 2 (Special Issue on Iranians Views of Cultural Issues) , September 2019, , Pages 1-14
Abstract
In view of the paucity of evidence on teachers’ conceptions of teaching English an International Language (EIL), the present study used panel discussions to investigate the beliefs of 10 native and 10 non-native English-speaking teachers about their roles in teaching English in the EIL contexts ...
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In view of the paucity of evidence on teachers’ conceptions of teaching English an International Language (EIL), the present study used panel discussions to investigate the beliefs of 10 native and 10 non-native English-speaking teachers about their roles in teaching English in the EIL contexts and the perceptions of EIL. The findings revealed that some aspects of teachers’ beliefs about their roles were reshaped after panel discussions. Non-native teachers showed lower levels of self-confidence in their role in teaching EIL and underlined the superiority of native teachers. However, after panel discussions, they were able to notice their advantages in comparison with native teachers. It was also observed that both non-native and native teachers underwent a slight shift in conceptualizing what EIL is. Non-native teachers’ appraisal of native speakerism also decreased after panel discussions. These findings suggest that both native and non-native teachers hold certain beliefs about EIL and native speakerism which are not in line with EIL theorizing.
Minoo Alemi; Zia Tajeddin; Amin Rajabi Kondlaji
Volume 6, Issue 1 , March 2018, , Pages 1-17
Abstract
The present study compared speeches by Iranian President Rouhani, following a moderate political ideology, and his predecessor Ahmadinejad, a seemingly conservative/ principalist president, at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. The discourse-historical approach was employed to analyze the two ...
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The present study compared speeches by Iranian President Rouhani, following a moderate political ideology, and his predecessor Ahmadinejad, a seemingly conservative/ principalist president, at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. The discourse-historical approach was employed to analyze the two corpora. Other discoursal features such as the representation of self and identity were also incorporated into the analysis. The results showed that the two presidents took two different approaches and styles of speech both in the form of delivery and content of their talks. While Rouhani focused on current issues in Iran’s foreign policy, Ahmadinejad made references to the wrong-doings of world powers. Compared with Ahmadinejad, Rouhani followed a more moderate stance in his talk by employing several strategies like keeping use of the pronoun ‘I’ to a minimum and not identifying himself a radical Muslim and savior of mankind. Moreover, the two presidents differed in their employment of premises or ‘topoi’. Findings reveal the role of topoi in uncovering the ideologies of politicians in their public speeches.
Zia Tajeddin; Ali Rahimi
Volume 5, Issue 1 , March 2017, , Pages 1-14
Abstract
Despite the body of research on textbook evaluation from the discourse analysis perspective, cohesive devices have rarely been analyzed in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) textbooks. The acquisition and use of cohesive devices is inherent to naturalistic communication, including business interactions. ...
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Despite the body of research on textbook evaluation from the discourse analysis perspective, cohesive devices have rarely been analyzed in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) textbooks. The acquisition and use of cohesive devices is inherent to naturalistic communication, including business interactions. Hence, L2 learners of business English should be exposed to these devices through cohesion-rich textbooks. This study examined the realization of ellipsis and substitution as two cohesive devices in 11 volumes of four global business English textbooks: Business Result (5 levels), Business Opportunities (1 level), Business Venture (2 levels), and Powerbase (3 levels). The corpus included 626 conversations with a total of 72,889 words. Corpus analysis of ellipsis and substitution frequency per 1,000 words showed that (a) frequency of ellipsis and substitution in conversational corpus was high, (b) ellipsis and substitution were not equally distributed across different levels, and (c) the textbook series constituting larger corpora did not necessarily represent more realization of ellipsis and substitution. Due to the importance of ellipsis and substitution, L2 learners of English for business communication need to be exposed to them through textbooks.