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    • List of Articles Marjan Vosoughi

      • Open Access Article

        1 - Mapping Reading Anxiety on Reading Strategy Uses among Iranian Students with Diverse Proficiency Levels
        مجتبی پارسال اصل مرجان وثوقی
        The present study was an attempt to determine a relationship between foreign language reading anxiety and reading strategy use among a group of EFL Iranian readers (no = 100) with low vs. high proficiency levels. To this end, FLRAS (Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scal More
        The present study was an attempt to determine a relationship between foreign language reading anxiety and reading strategy use among a group of EFL Iranian readers (no = 100) with low vs. high proficiency levels. To this end, FLRAS (Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale) developed by Saito, Horwitz, and Garza, (1999) was used in order to measure the participants’ level of anxiety in reading and SORS (The Survey of Reading Strategies) adapted from Mokhtari and Sheorey (2002), was utilized to gauge the participants’ strategy uses. The students’ responses to reading strategies when faced with anxiety-provoking contexts were categorized into three strategy uses including ‘global’, ‘problem solving’ and ‘support’ and mapped on their total scores in reading anxiety. The results from Multinomial Logit Regression (MLR) showed that the students with lower level reading anxiety indices would adopt problem solving strategies more compared with support and global strategies. Regarding the interaction of proficiency level in the process, the results showed that it was less probable for the students with lower reading anxiety levels to adopt problem solving strategies compared with more anxious students who would adopt global strategies. Some possible implications are discussed in the light of improving reading instructions provided for Iranian students. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        2 - Authenticating ‘Cover to Cover’ Reader Series vis-à-vis Cultural Norms for the Iranian community
        مرجان وثوقی
        This research study was an attempt to explore hidden cultural components in an ELT textbook from Oxford University Press (OUP) titled 'Cover to Cover'. Two research methodologies were relied on to unveil the western ideologies in this series: Firstly, a qualitative revi More
        This research study was an attempt to explore hidden cultural components in an ELT textbook from Oxford University Press (OUP) titled 'Cover to Cover'. Two research methodologies were relied on to unveil the western ideologies in this series: Firstly, a qualitative review over its reading textbooks was undertaken for authenticating the hidden western values for Iranian contexts. At this stage, analyses over randomly chosen units of the three-volume CTC book were managed via qualitative content analysis using inductive category formation techniques. In a second stage, a focus group including English language teachers indulged in teaching this series were interviewed to enrich the data with lived experiences. Overall, the findings revealed that the hidden values in the sampled texts might transmit some counter-local perspectives against Iranian leaners' local culture. Pedagogical suggestions as to improving critical cultural awareness practices for non-native students in the light of material development practices for EFL settings were discussed at the end. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        3 - Gendered Language: Men’s vs Women’s Uses of Address Terms within New Interchange Series
        امیر بهروان مرجان وثوقی
        This study set out to check the addressing behavior within men’s and women’s talk in the written conversations in English language textbook series titled ‘New Interchange book’ by Richards, Hull and Proctor, (1998) from Cambridge University Press More
        This study set out to check the addressing behavior within men’s and women’s talk in the written conversations in English language textbook series titled ‘New Interchange book’ by Richards, Hull and Proctor, (1998) from Cambridge University Press. In line with this aim, the present researchers initially prepared descriptive tables for both formal and informal contexts in three theme categories (Social, Cultural & Economic) vis a vis four case appropriations (men*men, men*women, women*men, women*women). The distributions of interlocutors were coded through content analysis techniques. The major findings indicated that the highest percentage of detected address terms belonged to pronouns (67.7%). The proportions for gender appropriations between interlocutors for this address term showed that the case condition with women to men (52.3%) and men to women (36.4%) had the highest rates as compared with other cases. Then, in the final stage, the datasets were scrutinized in terms of theories on gender disparity in the instructional materials. This paper has some pedagogical implications in terms of addressing term inequality as mapped on gender status within ELT books, which might indirectly change the balance against full and rich contexts for effective learning to occur. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        4 - More Proficient vs. Less Proficient EFL Learners’ Perceptions of Teachers ‘Motivation Raising Strategies
        نسرین یوسفی مرجان وثوقی مینو عالمی
        Motivation raising strategies are frequently used in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes; nevertheless, learners’ perceptions of such strategies used by language teachers have not sufficiently been explored. Also, there are not enough studies on difference More
        Motivation raising strategies are frequently used in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes; nevertheless, learners’ perceptions of such strategies used by language teachers have not sufficiently been explored. Also, there are not enough studies on differences and similarities between more and less proficient EFL learners regarding this issue. To scrutinize this topic, a groups of more (No=50) and less proficient EFL learners (No=50) participated in this study by completing to a validated, researcher-made questionnaire with a five-point Likert type format. Non-parametric Mann-Whiteny U test was run in the SPSS ver. 23 to check the differences between the two groups. The results of the study verified that, regardless of each individual scale in the utilized questionnaire, overall, the more proficient ones manifested significantly less perceptions on teachers’ motivation raising strategies based on the total estimated mean ranks compared with the less proficient learners. However, within the surveyed scales, only in the classroom atmosphere scale, the results showed that the less proficient learners were more mindful of teacher strategies for motivation raising. The findings from this study have implications for motivation raising strategy instructions for a language classroom. Manuscript profile