List of Articles Shokouh Rashvand Semiyari

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  1 - The Impact of Task Types and Rating Methods on Iranian EFL Learners’ Speaking Scores
  Shokouh Rashvand Semiyari Soghra Ahangari
  10.30486/relp.2019.665887
  Speaking assessment is quite challenging as there are many factors in addition to speakers’ ability contributing to how well someone can speak a language. In this study, 40 male and female upper intermediate EFL learners, with age range of 15-26, selected through More

  Speaking assessment is quite challenging as there are many factors in addition to speakers’ ability contributing to how well someone can speak a language. In this study, 40 male and female upper intermediate EFL learners, with age range of 15-26, selected through ECCE test. They performed four different types of speaking tasks (explaining, problem-solving, story-telling, and picture-describing). These tasks were rated by two raters using two scoring methods: holistic and analytic. The one-way repeated measures ANOVAs, paired-sample t-tests and Pearson Product Moment Correlations illustrated that the task types and rating methods didn’t have any significant effects on learners’ speaking scores as far as problem-solving, explaining, and picture-describing tasks were concerned. Yet, the rating methods represented to have some effects on story-telling task. The findings also indicated a significant correlation between holistic and analytic ratings of the problem-solving, picture-describing and story-telling tasks while the reverse was true for the explaining task. Manuscript profile
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  2 - Effects of Parents’ Education and Academic Involvement on ESP Learners’ Self-Regulation and Language Achievement: A Structural Equation Modelling Analysis
  Mahnaz Azad Shokouh Rashvand Semiyari
  10.30486/relp.2019.669077
  Self-regulated learning is among the factors receiving considerable attention in educational psychology. Moreover, parents’ education and their academic involvement have found to have their own places in learners’ academic success. Considering the importance More

  Self-regulated learning is among the factors receiving considerable attention in educational psychology. Moreover, parents’ education and their academic involvement have found to have their own places in learners’ academic success. Considering the importance of the issue, the present study probed the relationship between parents’ education levels and their academic involvement, with Iranian ESP learners’ self-regulation and language achievement. The participants of this study were 460 Iranian university learners selected out of 575 students. As the instruments of this study, a demographic data sheet, Ryan (2005) Parental Involvement Questionnaire, as well as the modified version of Tseng, Dornyei, and Schmitt’s (2006) self-regulatory scale were used. In order to analyze the data, Structural Equation Modeling was used through the AMOS program. The results of the proposed model demonstrating parents’ education levels, parents’ academic involvement, as well as learners’self-regulation and language achievement fit well with the data. The results of SEM showed that parents’ education levels positively and significantly correlated with the learners’self-regulation. Furthermore, the findings of path analysis showed a positive and significant indirect relationship between parents’ education and learners’language achievement. Therefore, it was concluded that parents’ involvement mediated the relationship between parents’ education levels and learners’self-regulation and language achievement. Manuscript profile
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  3 - Examining Differential Item Functioning (DIF) For Iranian EFL Test Takers with Different Fields of Study
  Shokouh Rashvand Semiyari Saeideh Ahangari
  10.30486/relp.2021.1935588.1295
  Differential Item Functioning (DIF) takes place when different groups of test-takers with the same level of ability perform differently on a single test. It means some other factors might arise due to group membership. The object of this article was to examine DIF in th More

  Differential Item Functioning (DIF) takes place when different groups of test-takers with the same level of ability perform differently on a single test. It means some other factors might arise due to group membership. The object of this article was to examine DIF in the MSRT (MCHE) test items. This is an English proficiency test that comprises a total of 100 questions including listening comprehension (LC), structure and written expressions (SWE), and reading comprehension (RC) sections. To this end, 200 pre-intermediate to intermediate Iranian EFL learners with the age range of 25 to 32 in two different fields of study (100 Humanities and 100 sciences) were randomly selected for the analysis. The Item Response Theory (IRT) Likelihood Ratio (LR) approach was used to identify items displaying DIF. The scored item of 200 test-takers was subjected to the IRT Three-Parameter Model presenting the probability that a randomly selected test taker with an ability of theta (θ) answered an item correctly, using item difficulty (b parameter), item discrimination (a parameter), and pseudo-guessing (c parameter). The results of the independent samples t-test for means comparison of two groups indicated that Science test-takers outperformed the Humanities, especially in SWE and RC sections. It can be inferred that the exam was statistically easier for the Science test-takers at 0.05 level. The findings identified 15 DIF items as well. The implications and suggestions for further studies were also reported. Manuscript profile