Hooshang Yazdani
@araku.ac.ir
Department of English
Arak University
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
Azar Tajabadi, Moussa Ahmadian, Hamidreza Dowlatabadi, and Hooshang Yazdani
SAGE Publications
Inspired by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and Storch’s framework of peer interaction, this study investigated the nature and outcome of peer interaction in EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ peer review and revision activities. During two 16-week semesters, 32 lower-intermediate learners participated in an Advanced Writing university course. Each of the learners wrote and revised six one-paragraph writing assignments and exchanged peer negotiated feedback in pairs. The qualitative analysis of their recorded dialogues revealed that although the learners were nearly at the same proficiency level, they adopted a variety of patterns of interaction including collaborative, expert/novice, dominant/dominant, and dominant/passive. Collaborative and dominant/passive patterns were the most and the least frequent patterns, respectively. The analysis of feedback types indicated that the collaborative pairs exchanged the highest number of feedback in total and could extend their focus to content and organization of the texts more than the other pairs. The lowest number of feedback was observed in pairs adopting a dominant/passive pattern of interaction. Further analysis showed that while collaborative learners succeeded in revising the majority of their errors correctly and had the greatest short-term writing development, the passive learners failed at both to a large extent. These findings are discussed drawing on relevant theoretical and practical literature, and implications for second language (L2) writing instructors and researchers are suggested.
There is a tight nexus between visual literacy and textbook picture representations. This is of paramount importance when textbooks in general and ELT textbooks, in particular, are under question. To conduct a visual and verbal discourse analysis based on modes of communication, ELT textbook pictures were analyzed under the assumption that visual and verbal discourse interacts with reflected modes of communication. To this end, 50 ELT textbook pictures were used as the corpus and analyzed according to KvL's (2006) visual images analytical strategies in multimodal texts and Halliday’s (1985) transitivity system for verbal analysis of textbook pictures. The analysis of multimodal resources revealed that the analyzed visual images were used to represent non-human images; close-up images, frontal images, left-right compositions were the most frequent visual modes in the selected pictures. In the case of verbal mode, the relational main-type and verbal minor-type level with 39% and 2% were the most and least frequent verbal strategies, respectively. The findings might have significant theoretical and pedagogical implications for scholars, L2 teachers, and ELT textbook designers to consider the potential of using multimodal resources for non-pedagogical purposes while integrating textbook visual images and verbal strategies to create meanings. Keywords: Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Transitive System’s Processes, Visual Images Interpretive Strategies, Modes of Communication, ELT Textbooks.
Hooshang Yazdani and Parviz Ghasedi
Academy Publication
This study was set out to investigate the effects of EFL teachers’ assessment literacy and professional identity on learners’ autonomy. Meanwhile, the relationship between teachers’ assessment literacy and professional identity was investigated. Moreover, educators’ perspectives on learner autonomy were studied. To this end, 40 EFL teachers participated in the study through completing assessment literacy scale developed by Mertler (2003) and teacher professional identity questionnaire designed by Beijaard et al. (2000). Besides, 20 EFL teachers were interviewed. Likewise, 110 upper-intermediate EFL learners answered Zhang and Li’s (2004) learner autonomy questionnaire. A mixed method design was used to answer the research questions. The findings revealed that teachers’ assessment literacy was linked to their professional identity. Moreover, assessment literacy and professional identity had fruitful effects on learner autonomy. The findings made it certain that teachers believed in learners’ abilities however they didn’t know how to cultivate autonomous learners.
Majid Nowruzi, M. Amerian, H. Yazdani and A. Mohammadi
Grades represent one of the most common sources of evidence of student achievement in classrooms, though their relationship with test scores has remained understudied, particularly in settings such as in Iran, where English is taught as a foreign language. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between graded and tested achievement with respect to gender and proficiency level differences. Teacher-assigned grades and standardized achievement test scores of 693 Iranian learners of English taught by 15 teachers were examined. Primary analyses focused on the validity of teacher grades and the subsequent Pearson correlation coefficients revealed that grades associated positively with externally-validated test scores obtained from reliable tests, an indication of the validity of teacher grading. Additionally, the results of independent-samples t-tests showed that female students outperformed male students on achievement tests, but with fluctuations across proficiency levels. Higher proficiency levels gave male participants an advantage over female participants in achievement tests. Moreover, male teachers were found to grade female participants more accurately than their female counterparts. Implications are discussed for informing teachers about the validation of their grading practices, as well as for teacher education programs and teachers’ professional development.
Husain Abdulhay, , Moussa Ahmadian, Hooshang Yazdani, and Majid Amerian
The Journal of Asia TEFL
The recent trend in foreign language education research is turning toward self-regulated learning and its linkage with goal orientations. Self-regulated learning is the learning propelled by self-induced thoughts, feelings, strategies, and behaviors toward goal attainment (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1998). Goal orientations attempt to identify personal and contextual reasons lying behind an action (Wolters, 2004). This study sought to examine the relationship between goal orientations (mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals) and writing self-regulation of Iranian university EFL learners. Survey instrument, designed by Lichtinger, Kaplan, and Gorodetsky (2006), was administered to a sample of 116 sophomore students, attending essay writing courses. Pearson product-moment correlation and regression technique were used for data analysis. The strongest correlation was found between personal performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. Personal mastery and performance goals and mastery goal structure were associated significantly and positively with self-regulation in writing. Efficacy was significantly related to goal orientation measures. Goal orientations contributed to the prediction of self-regulation in writing. Moreover, performance-approach goal structure was only found to predict positively the writing achievement. Overall, the findings imply that understanding the nature of goal orientations enables writing self-regulation and achievement to be aligned.
Ali Asghar Ghasemi, Mosa Ahmadian, Hooshang Yazdani, and Majid Amerian
Informa UK Limited
ABSTRACT This study aimed to present a model of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) by incorporating international posture, motivational disposition (ideal L2 self), second language (L2) self-confidence, and metacognitive learning strategies. To this end, 150 Iranian L2 learners, selected through convenience sampling procedure, took part in the research. The findings of structural equation modelling revealed that the proposed model showed adequate fit to the data, implying that the model is appropriate in Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Also, the results indicated that learners with a high level of international posture are more likely to bridge the gap between their present and ideal selves. This was, additionally, argued that internationally oriented and ideally motivated learners become confident of their abilities to get engaged in interaction with L2 target communities. Furthermore, metacognitive learning strategies were found to be directly associated with ICC, implicating that the learners who continuously reflect on their learning and evaluate their performances are more prone to have a higher level of ICC. Finally, suggestions were offered for language teachers and policy-makers to inspire their learners to be more competent in communication with people of other cultures and languages.
Moussa Ahmadian, , Hooshang Yazdani, and Ehsan Mehri
The Journal of Asia TEFL
In early written corrective feedback studies, there were a lot of attempts to test if the feedback types are effective. This study was based on the assumption prevailing in the new era of studies of written corrective feedback, that feedback is effective. Firstly, it aims to compare the think-aloud protocols of the preferred and unpreferred feedback types which were chosen by 20 English learners (10 in preferred, and 10 in unpreferred feedback). To this aim, learners were asked to write diaries for six weeks. In each session, concurrent think-aloud protocols were employed and learners’ verbal reports were extracted, and their mental processes were coded through developing a table of mental operations. In the second part of the study, the relative effectiveness of the preferred and unpreferred feedback was measured. Using the Chi-square goodness-of-fit test, the findings of the first part showed a significant difference between the mental operations for each feedback type. The results for the second part suggested that there is a significant difference between the effectiveness of the preferred and unpreferred feedback types. This latter finding indicates that the preferred feedback can facilitate the development of the accuracy in L2 learners’ writing more than the unpreferred feedback.
Behnaz Moein, Robab Khosravi, and Hooshang Yazdani
Academy Publication
The current study aimed to establish whether linguistic background influences Iranian EFL learners' English proverb and idiom comprehension. The specific research question was whether there is a statistically significant difference between the performances of Persian monolinguals and Persian-Turkish bilinguals in idiom-proverb comprehension on the one hand, and among bilinguals themselves on the other. The performance differences between male and female participants, as well as the age factor were also examined. Subjects included English Language Translation students in University of Zanjan (Iran). Monolinguals were Persian speakers, whereas bilinguals were Persian-Turkish speakers. After administering Nelson English Language Test, English Proverb Test, and Yandell’s English Idiom Test, the results were analyzed through ANOVA, Independent-samples t-test, and Pearson product-moment correlation. Findings indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in the between-group and within-group performances of monolinguals and bilinguals. However, the results showed that males outperformed females in the idiom test, but not in the proverb test. The existence of a relationship between age and idiom-proverb comprehension was not supported. The findings lent support to the arguments proposed by Cummins’s (1976) Threshold Hypothesis – which may thus have some implications for encouraging bilingual education in schools; the findings of this study may also be useful for the curriculum developers and policymakers in multilingual societies.
Samad Sajjadi, Majid Ahmadi, Hooshang Yazdani, and Ataollah Maleki
Science Alert
Samad Sajjadi, Hooshang Yazdani, Mohammad-Reza Sohrabi, and Ataollah Maleki
Science Alert
Hajilou Y., Yazdani H., and Shokrpour N.
Canadian Center of Science and Education
This study aimed to determine the relationship between creativity on one hand and lexical reception and production knowledge of Iranian EFL students on the other hand. The data were collected using three tests: a creativity test (Torrance, 1990), the Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001), and the Productive Version of the Vocabulary Levels Test (Laufer & Nation, 1995) which were administered to a group of 141 Iranian undergraduate students majoring in English Translation and Literature at Arak and Qom universities. The results demonstrated that there was not a high correlation between creativity on one hand and lexical reception and production on the other hand. The learners' passive and active vocabulary knowledge in the tests as a whole and at different word-frequency level were highly correlated. Passive vocabulary was always larger than active vocabulary at all levels; however, the gap between the two increased at lower word-frequency levels.