• فهرس المقالات Activity Theory

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        1 - Perceptual Learning Style Preferences and Computer-Assisted Writing Achievement within the Activity Theory Framework
        آرزو حاجی مقصودی Parviz Maftoon
        Learning styles are considered among the significant factors that aid instructors in deciding how well their students learn a second or foreign language (Oxford, 2003). Although this issue has been accepted broadly in educational psychology,further research is required أکثر
        Learning styles are considered among the significant factors that aid instructors in deciding how well their students learn a second or foreign language (Oxford, 2003). Although this issue has been accepted broadly in educational psychology,further research is required to examine the relationship between learning styles and language learning skills. Thus, the present study was carried out to investigate the relationship between the perceptual learning style preferences and the participants’ writing achievement after receiving instruction based on computer-assisted language learning within the activity theory framework. For this purpose, 67 students majoring in English translation at a university in Iran were selected as the participants of the study based on their performance on a version of The Oxford Placement Test. A correlational research design was employed using a writing pretest and posttest and a style preference questionnaire. The writing instruction was based on an e-learning platform designed according to the activity theory framework. The results indicated lack of significant relationship between the participants’learning style preferences and theirwriting achievement. It was also found that there was no significant difference in the writing achievement of the participants across different learning style preferences. تفاصيل المقالة
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        2 - Recognizing Stalactites and Stalagmites of ELT Vodcasting in Teacher Education Based on Activity Theory and Visual Thinking Strategies
        Pantea Hashtroodi Massood Yazdani Moghaddam Mohammad Khatib
        Teachers need to know new applications for developing online materials and then they should become aware of different ways to present them to online audience. This study tries to help ELT teachers to overcome challenges and difficulties of vodcasting by recognizing thei أکثر
        Teachers need to know new applications for developing online materials and then they should become aware of different ways to present them to online audience. This study tries to help ELT teachers to overcome challenges and difficulties of vodcasting by recognizing their social and biological motives (Activity Theory), and using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). It can alter teachers’ negative attitudes towards online materials development via providing useful tools and techniques to become better producers of their knowledge to survive professionally. This QUAL-quan inquiry initiated with 10 University professors of Islamic Azad University-South Tehran Branch. All these participants answered ‘Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)’ questionnaire, ‘Personality Test and Job Satisfaction’, ‘Three-D Test’, and ‘Spatial Recognition Test’. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with those whose data were grounded and initiated from open coding, down to axial coding, and finalized with selective coding. Participants produced vodcasts as pre-test. Then, they received the treatments on an exclusively launched ‘MArt’ Telegram group in the form of the researcher-designed audios and videos and YouTube samples. As a post-test, each of the participants made another vodcast. Then, two experts who are ELT university lecturers evaluated the two sets of recorded data. Finally, all the interpretations and analyses were presented in different graphs and charts along with researcher’s interpretation based on theoretical frameworks. The results show that whether ELT teachers are capable of producing vodcasts or not. Besides, VTS help teachers to become much more visually literate and produce more successful vodcasts. Both treatments of the present study and the derived codes can be used in teacher education, and they can turn into a task-based digital or paper-based coursebooks benefiting M.A. TEFL students. تفاصيل المقالة
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        3 - The Effect of Scaffolded Written Corrective Feedback on Iranian EFL Learners’ Writing Quality: An Activity Theory Perspective
        Ehsan Abbaspour Mahmood Reza Atai Parviz Maftoon
        With the latest paradigm shift in SLA from Cognitivism to Sociocultural Theory (SCT), more studies are carried out to investigate the efficacy of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) through a social and cultural lens. A more recent offspring of SCT is Activity Theory whic أکثر
        With the latest paradigm shift in SLA from Cognitivism to Sociocultural Theory (SCT), more studies are carried out to investigate the efficacy of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) through a social and cultural lens. A more recent offspring of SCT is Activity Theory which provides an explanatory framework for scrutinizing an activity in a social setting. The present study aimed at investigating the impact of Scaffolded WCF within the framework of Activity Theory on Iranian EFL learners’ writing performance in terms of reduction of the learners’ writing errors with respect to the content, vocabulary, mechanics, organization, and grammar. Finally, different types of Activity Theory-based strategic mediations (i.e. artifact, rule, community, and role mediations) Iranian EFL learners employed in their writing revisions were investigated. Accordingly, 25 Iranian university-level students, through convenient sampling, were chosen to participate in the study. The treatment they received on their writings was a graduated Scaffolding WCF in their Zone of Proximal Development in the form of both peer and teacher feedback. The findings indicated that Scaffolded WCF statistically significantly contributed to the participants’ writing performance in terms of content, vocabulary, mechanics, organization, and grammar. With respect to the mediation strategies used by the learners, it was discovered that the learners benefitted from all the available mediators although with various degrees. It is hoped that the findings of this study will promise implications for promoting a teacher/learner-friendly method of providing WCF based on SCT, which can be utilized in large classes typical of Iranian EFL university courses. تفاصيل المقالة
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        4 - An Activity Theoretical Investigation into the Dominant Composition and Translation Activities of EFL learners across Persian and English
        Yusef Rajabi
        The present study aimed at investigating the impact of a genre-specific strategy-based instructional inter- vention on translation quality, dominant translation and writing activities in the persuasive essays of a group of EFL learners within the perspective of activity أکثر
        The present study aimed at investigating the impact of a genre-specific strategy-based instructional inter- vention on translation quality, dominant translation and writing activities in the persuasive essays of a group of EFL learners within the perspective of activity theory. The main purpose of the study was to see, taking translation as a sort of writing in its own right, whether the kind of instructional intervention im- plemented influence the writing and translation activities of learners similarly or not. To this end, 22 in- termediate EFL learners received 10 sessions of self-regulatory strategy development (SRSD) instruction accompanied by some translation exercises on persuasive writing. Based on the results, SRSD did not have any significant effect on the translation quality of the students. However, the comparison of pretest and posttest scores on the persuasive probe and translation test revealed that the genre-specific strategy instruction influenced the dominant translation and writing activities of the participants. The findings pointed to the fact that the issues related to the students' new learning histories changed the nature of their activity systems both in persuasive essay writing and translation. تفاصيل المقالة
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        5 - Contradictions in Writing Anxiety: A Qualitative Case Study of Expansive Learning among Iranian EFL Learners
        Mohsen Nazari Maryam Farnia Behzad ghonsooly Manoochehr Jafarigohar
        This qualitative study aimed at exploring the causes of writing anxiety from an expansive learning perspec- tive. Given the centrality of writing for both EFL learners and teachers, writing anxiety was explored through a longitudinal study spanning two years with 25 EFL أکثر
        This qualitative study aimed at exploring the causes of writing anxiety from an expansive learning perspec- tive. Given the centrality of writing for both EFL learners and teachers, writing anxiety was explored through a longitudinal study spanning two years with 25 EFL learners and teachers who participated by providing comments, diaries, and documents. The participants were also observed and interviewed follow- ing Mwanza's model as a guide. The obtained data in the whole process was constantly thematized by means of a qualitative software, NVIVO 10. The main themes on writing anxiety were extracted from teachers and learners by applying contradictions as a principle of expansive learning theory. To help learn- ers become transformative agents of anxiety, an intervention process was carried out in the form of an online collaborative writing task. The findings recommend applying contradictions as an initiative point for problem-solving and a driving impellent of activity which may lead to expansive learning. Besides, the dy- namic and developmental process is hoped to help learners expand and transform their writing anxiety. Con- tradictions may also become an initiation for future studies on language learning. تفاصيل المقالة
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        6 - Contradictions in Writing Anxiety: A Qualitative Case Study of Expansive Learning among Iranian EFL Learners
        Mohsen Nazari Maryam Farnia Behzad Ghonsooly Manoochehr Jafarigohar
        This qualitative study aimed at exploring the causes of writing anxiety from an expansive learning perspective. Given the centrality of writing for both EFL learners and teachers, writing anxiety was explored through a longitudinal study spanning two years with 25 EFL l أکثر
        This qualitative study aimed at exploring the causes of writing anxiety from an expansive learning perspective. Given the centrality of writing for both EFL learners and teachers, writing anxiety was explored through a longitudinal study spanning two years with 25 EFL learners and teachers who participated by providing comments, diaries, and documents. The participants were also observed and interviewed following Mwanza's model as a guide. The obtained data in the whole process was constantly thematized by means of a qualitative software, NVIVO 10. The main themes on writing anxiety were extracted from teachers and learners by applying contradictions as a principle of expansive learning theory. To help learners become transformative agents of anxiety, an intervention process was carried out in the form of an online collaborative writing task. The findings recommend applying contradictions as an initial point for problem-solving and a driving impellent of activity which may lead to expansive learning. Besides, the dynamic and developmental process is expected to help learners expand and transform their writing anxiety. Contradictions may also become an initiation for future studies on language learning. تفاصيل المقالة