This study aimed to describe the development and validation process of a listening questionnaire designed to assess strategic competence in listening comprehension. The 34-item Cognitive and Metacognitive Listening Strategies Questionnaire (CMLSQ) was administered to a relatively large sample (N=397) of L2 learners. The results of the 370 completed questionnaires were subjected to exploratory factor analysis to identify the underlying structure of the questionnaire, and to a confirmatory factor analysis to examine the validity of the model as a good fit for the data. Based on the results of exploratory factor analysis, a three-factor model underlying metacognitive strategies and a five-factor model underlying cognitive strategies were hypothesized. These models were then evaluated through confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS 18. The results indicated that the current models and their parameters well fit the data gathered from the questionnaires. تفاصيل المقالة

The study examined the impact of high school English teachers’ awareness of pedagogical competence on student learning. A psychometric measurement instrument of English language teachers' pedagogical competence (ELTPC) was first developed through factor analysis with 320 high school teachers in Guilan, Northern Iran. Based on the developed instrument, 36 teachers were divided into two groups of aware and unaware teachers of pedagogical competence (PC) according to Contrasting Groups Method of cut score. Then, 160 high school third graders received instruction from the aware and unaware teachers for 7 weeks. Finally, a survey regarding the teachers’ implementation of pedagogical competence in classrooms was conducted with 30 students. The findings from the experiment and survey supported the teachers in aware group. Although, based on the survey results, the aware teachers were reported to act better, they were not reported as highly practicing the pedagogical competence. The findings can be practically used by schools, education administration, and teacher educators. تفاصيل المقالة

Teacher enthusiasm and its impact on students’ learning and emotions have remained unnoticed in the realm of second language learning and teaching. This study aimed at exploring the possibility of boosting language teacher enthusiasm and its potential relationship with language learners’ effort and attitude for language learning. In order to foster teacher enthusiasm, the highly novel concept of vision was utilized and a vision enhancement program was conducted to improve language teacher enthusiasm. Four EFL teachers and their 46 students participated in the research project. Two of the teachers were assigned to the six-week visionary intervention and the other two received no treatment. A Likert-scale questionnaire measuring perceived teacher enthusiasm, intended effort, and attitude to language learning was administered to all the students before and after the treatment. Results of ANCOVA revealed that those students whose teachers were subjected to vision enhancement were significantly different from the students whose teachers did not receive the treatment. Moreover, linear regression analyses demonstrated that students’ perception of teacher enthusiasm can positively predict their effort and attitude. The efficiency of visionary training for improving teacher enthusiasm gained empirical support. Besides, the findings underscore the link between teacher enthusiasm and students’ effort and attitude. تفاصيل المقالة

Condemning a laissez faire approach to English Language Teaching (ELT), English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher trainers unanimously agree that the building blocks of teachers’ teaching framework are profoundly influenced by conducting research. Focusing on quantitative research, this study endeavored to scrutinize the impact of the Critical Appraisal of Published Research (CAPR) in undergraduate teacher training programs on EFL teachers’ Data Analysis Knowledge (DAK). To this objective, 30 male and female EFL teachers were non-randomly selected and randomly assigned to two groups. In two Research classes, the experimental group received the CAPR whereas the control group received traditional teacher-centered instruction with summative assessment. The DAK section of the Quantitative Research Literacy (QRL) questionnaire was employed as the pretest and posttest. Subsequent to corroborating participants’ pre-treatment homogeneity in terms of DAK, analyzing the post-treatment data through running an independent-samples t-test, eta squared = .338 (representing a large effect size), indicated the existence of a significant difference in the post-treatment DAK scores between the two groups. The obtained results confirmed that the CAPR has a significantly better impact on EFL teachers’ DAK which is a key area of QRL. Therefore, it seems accurate to argue that ELT teacher training programs should endeavor to involve the students in a mentally engaging process, e.g. CAPR, where the content of the course is put into practice by the students, something which is required for balancing the concrete and the abstract. تفاصيل المقالة

The present study was an attempt to investigate the significance of environmental changes on the develo p- ment of writing in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context with respect to the individual. This study also compared the impacts of collaboration and asynchronous computer mediation (ACM) on the writing complexity of EFL learners. To this end, three intact writing classes were designated as Collaborative face - to - face group (N = 21), Asynchronous Computer Mediation group (N = 20) and Control group (N =16). The two experimental groups received scaffolding instructio ns on narrative essays. The collaborative face - to - face group (CFFG) went through the working in pairs, and working asynchronously through a researcher - designed website (ACMG). The data were analyzed employing ANOVA. The results showed that CFFG improved in terms of complexity and positive impact of Collaborative approach and superb performance of CFFG over the ACMG. The findings brought to light the benefits of pair work and showed that learners working in pairs used structures that were more complex in the ir writing than ACM class. تفاصيل المقالة

Language teaching literature has developed plenty of compelling evidence to impress the need of attention to language form but this solid knowledge has not included teachers’ perception of noticing in teaching language form, thus teachers’ cognition in conceptualizing noticing concept was the main aim of this research. It was also tried to find out teachers’ experience tenor in conceptualizing noticing. For this purpose, a noticing concept inventory (NCI) was developed. Therefore, a total population of 689 male and female English teachers was assigned to the study through two phases of factor analysis. Then, 60 teachers from both groups did the questionnaire and a t-test was carried out. The empirical findings from the first phase of the study revealed seven noticing constructs namely as 1) Pedagogical effect, 2) Learners’ characteristics, 3) Type of input, 4) Skill type, 5) Task type, 6) Time and 7) Measurement. In the second phase of the study, the result showed that teaching experience is assigned as a dividing line between experienced and inexperienced teachers in the conceptualization of noticing in teaching. Teaching experience is a dynamic entity and other operational definitions might change the result; however, findings of the research will be of a valuable pedagogical framework. تفاصيل المقالة

Drawing on the insight from metacognition theory, second language researchers conceptualize strategic knowledge and strategic regulation as the two dimensions of strategic competence in language performance. In this regard, the present study aimed at determining whether strategic knowledge and strategic regulation are related to listening performance. The study also attempted to specify how strategic knowledge and strategic regulation are related to each other and to listening performance using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. To this end, the data were gathered from a total of 343 Iranian EFL learners. They were required to answer a cognitive and metacognitive listening strategies questionnaire (CMLSQ) both before and immediately after completing the listening section of a sample TOEFL test. The correlational analysis showed that strategic knowledge and strategic regulation were significantly related to listening performance. Furthermore, the SEM analysis revealed that metacognitive strategies exert a significant, direct impact on cognitive strategies. The actual use of cognitive strategies, in turn, has a direct impact on listening performance. In other words, metacognitive strategy use as a latent trait produces significant, indirect effects on listening performance through cognitive strategies. تفاصيل المقالة

This study was an attempt to scrutinize the impact of the Critical Appraisal of Published Research (CAPR) in undergraduate teacher training programs on EFL teachers’ Quantitative Research Literacy (QRL). To meet this objective, 30 male and female ELT teachers were non-randomly selected and randomly assigned to two groups. In two research classes, the experimental group received the CAPR, whereas the control group received conventional teacher-centered instruction with summative assessment. The QRL questionnaire was employed as the pretest and posttest. After ensuring the pre-treatment homogeneity of the participants in terms of QRL, analyzing the post-treatment data through running an independent-samples t-test indicated that there was a significant difference in post-treatment QRL scores between the participants in the experimental group and the control group. In other words, the CAPR had a significantly better impact on EFL teachers’ QRL. تفاصيل المقالة