Journal of Studies in Learning and Teaching English: 2 (1)

Open Access Article

1 - Iranian EFL Teachers' Professional Success in High Schools and Private Language Institutes: A Comparative Study
Zeinab Roosta Mohammad Sadegh Bagheri

The present study aimed to investigate professional success among Iranian EFL teachers in two different teaching contexts namely high schools and language institutes concerning their years of teaching experience, gender, level of education and socioeconomic status. Data More

The present study aimed to investigate professional success among Iranian EFL teachers in two different teaching contexts namely high schools and language institutes concerning their years of teaching experience, gender, level of education and socioeconomic status. Data were gathered from among 61 teachers and 600 students chosen from various private English language institutes and high schools in Shiraz, Iran. The instrument used in the study was a questionnaire developed by Moafian and Pishghadam (2009). Results indicated that professional success of male teachers is higher than that of female teachers. Findings further illustrated that there is a significant positive relationship between English teachers’ professional success and their education level and socioeconomic status. Finally, it was found that English teachers’ professional success is higher among institute teachers compared with their counterparts. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

2 - IranianEFLTeachers’ProfessionalSuccessinHighSchoolsandPrivateLanguageInstitutes:AComparativeStudy
Zeinab Roosta MohammadSadeghBagheri Bagheri

ThepresentstudyaimedtoinvestigateprofessionalsuccessamongIranianEFLteachersintwodifferentteachingcontextsnamelyhighschoolsandlaguageinstitutesconcerningtheiryearsofteachingexperience,gender,levelofeducationandsocioeconomicstatus.Dataweregatheredfromamong61teachersand600 More

ThepresentstudyaimedtoinvestigateprofessionalsuccessamongIranianEFLteachersintwodifferentteachingcontextsnamelyhighschoolsandlaguageinstitutesconcerningtheiryearsofteachingexperience,gender,levelofeducationandsocioeconomicstatus.Dataweregatheredfromamong61teachersand600studentschosenfromvariousprivateEnglishlanguageinstitutesandhighschoolsinShiraz,Iran.TheinstrumentusedinthestudywasaquestionnairedevelopedbyMoafianandPishghadam(2009).Resultsindicatedthatprofessionalsuccessofmaleteachersishigherthanthatoffemaleteachers.Find-ingsfurtherillustratedthatthereisasignificantpositiverelationshipbetweenEnglishteachers’professionalsuccessandtheireducationlevlandsocioeconomicstatus.Finally,itwasfoundthatEnglishteachers’professionalsuccessishigheramonginstituteteacherscomparedwiththeircounterparts. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

3 - The Impact of Divergent and Convergent Tasks on Iranian EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension Success
Seyyed Amin Azimi Fatemeh Behjat Ali Asghar Kargar

This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of divergent and convergent tasks on intermediate EFL students' reading comprehension success. The participants of this study involved sixty male and female EFL learners who were enrolled in the intermediate level at K More

This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of divergent and convergent tasks on intermediate EFL students' reading comprehension success. The participants of this study involved sixty male and female EFL learners who were enrolled in the intermediate level at Kish English Institute in Yasuj. To make them homogeneous in terms of their general English knowledge, they were asked to take part in an English proficiency test. Having been homogenized through an OPT test, sixty students were selected and randomly divided into a control and two experimental groups. Then, a pretest was run, and participants' reading comprehension was assessed. For the treatment, during eight sessions, the participants in the experimental groups were instructed on convergent and divergent tasks. The control group, on the other hand, received a traditional reading instruction. Finally, as the last step of data collection, all participants of the experimental and control groups took part in a post-test of reading comprehension. After applying statistical analyses, significant differences were observed among EFL learners’ performances, and those who had divergent tasks could improve their reading comprehension better than the other two groups. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

4 - The Effect of Dynamic Assessment of Language Learning: A Review of Literature
Elahe Rezayat Mohammad Bavali

Researchers have historically noted the importance of Dynamic Assessment and its effect on students’ language learning. DA offers teachers and learners vast opportunities for language teaching and learning. The present article can be considered as part of the rece More

Researchers have historically noted the importance of Dynamic Assessment and its effect on students’ language learning. DA offers teachers and learners vast opportunities for language teaching and learning. The present article can be considered as part of the recent trend in the field of language teaching. It attempts to describe Dynamic Assessment and review the literature on the effect of DA on language learning. It also describes different concepts related to DA and highlights the differences between the two approaches to DA. The article concludes that teachers’ mediation and intervention and students’ active involvement in the process of development can reduce and overcome the obstacles to learning. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

5 - Strengths and Weaknesses of Educational Equity in English Language Teaching at Iranian and Finnish Primary and Secondary Schools
Zobeydeh Borazjani MohammadSadegh Bagheri

Considering educational equity in English education as an important issue at schools in this modern time, this study aimed at comparing English education at schools of Iran and Finland from an educational equity point of view. The researcher used a qualitative research More

Considering educational equity in English education as an important issue at schools in this modern time, this study aimed at comparing English education at schools of Iran and Finland from an educational equity point of view. The researcher used a qualitative research method comprising library method of research to do this study. To this end, a lot of up-to-date and useful articles, theses and dissertations were selected, and studied to compare English education at schools of Iran and Finland from an educational equity perspective. According to these materials, some features of English education in Iran and Finland from an educational equity perspective were extracted. These basic features were about the weaknesses, and strengths of English education at schools in Iran and Finland with respect to the matter of educational equity. Then, all of these features were coded in numbers according to the hierarchy of importance and literature, and put in Tables 1 and 2. The salient result of this study revealed that English education at schools with respect to the matter of educational equity is more powerful in Finland than in Iran, since there is no difference between public and private schools in Finland about the age at which a student starts learning English, the quality of English education, and the quality of educational equipment in English classes. Eventually, the study indicated that educational equity in English education is so weak at Iranian schools. Therefore, Educational system of Iran should try to find innovative methods to improve its educational equity at schools to an optimal level. The results may contribute to English policy making process and English course planning. Then, the study provides some suggestions for improvement of educational equity in English education at public schools in Iran. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

6 - Gender Gap in Aptitude Test of Iranian EFL learners
Nazanin Forghani Nasrin Shokrpour

The present study was carried out with the aim of finding gender gap in a recent aptitude test, the Cognitive Ability for Novelty in Acquisition of Language (CANAL-FT) as applied to foreign language test designed by Grigorenko et al. (2002). For the purposes of this res More

The present study was carried out with the aim of finding gender gap in a recent aptitude test, the Cognitive Ability for Novelty in Acquisition of Language (CANAL-FT) as applied to foreign language test designed by Grigorenko et al. (2002). For the purposes of this research, 126 undergraduate students (95 females and 31 males) all majoring in English at Shiraz Azad University participated in this study. The CANAL-FT was given to the students in order to predict the learners’ foreign language abilities and success. In terms of gender and test performances, it was found that females had a significantly better performance than males. Manuscript profile

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