Iranian EFL Teachers’ Productive and Receptive Metalinguistic Knowledge as a Function of Their Academic Major
محورهای موضوعی : Journal of Studies in Learning and Teaching English
Azam Pourmohammadi Kharrati
1
,
Firooz Sadighi
2
,
Mohammad Javad Riasati
3
1 - Ph.D. Department of English Language, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran
2 - Department of English Language, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran
3 - Department of English Language, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran
کلید واژه: Academic major, metalinguistic knowledge, EFL teacher development,
چکیده مقاله :
The rise of attention in language pedagogy towards subject matter knowledge and its impact on teachers’ professionalism accentuates the role of language teachers' metalinguistic knowledge in L2 teaching. The present study focused on identifying the status of Iranian EFL teachers’ metalinguistic knowledge concerning their academic major. For this aim, a metalinguistic knowledge test entailing 2 modules of production and reception was administered to a total of 200 Iranian EFL teachers. To cross-validate the metalinguistic test results, a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 of the target EFL teachers to explore their perspectives about the academic major and metalinguistic knowledge development. Based on the MANOVA results, the academic major was found to be a predictor for the productive and receptive mode of metalinguistic knowledge attained by the teachers. The interview results boring out those of the metalinguistic knowledge test revealed more facts about the teachers’ perspectives of different factors contributing to their metalinguistic knowledge development. The teachers complained about the deficiency that existed in their university curriculum which lacked enough courses referring to metalinguistic knowledge and provided some suggestions in this regard. The findings offer a number of pedagogical implications for language teachers and teacher educators and state some recommendations for further research directions.
The rise of attention in language pedagogy towards subject matter knowledge and its impact on teachers’ professionalism accentuates the role of language teachers' metalinguistic knowledge in L2 teaching. The present study focused on identifying the status of Iranian EFL teachers’ metalinguistic knowledge concerning their academic major. For this aim, a metalinguistic knowledge test entailing 2 modules of production and reception was administered to a total of 200 Iranian EFL teachers. To cross-validate the metalinguistic test results, a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 of the target EFL teachers to explore their perspectives about the academic major and metalinguistic knowledge development. Based on the MANOVA results, the academic major was found to be a predictor for the productive and receptive mode of metalinguistic knowledge attained by the teachers. The interview results boring out those of the metalinguistic knowledge test revealed more facts about the teachers’ perspectives of different factors contributing to their metalinguistic knowledge development. The teachers complained about the deficiency that existed in their university curriculum which lacked enough courses referring to metalinguistic knowledge and provided some suggestions in this regard. The findings offer a number of pedagogical implications for language teachers and teacher educators and state some recommendations for further research directions.
Ahangari, S., & Abdi, M. (2017). The metalinguistic and linguistic knowledge tests and their relationship between non-native in-service and pre-service teachers. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 6(6), 246-251.
Alderson, J. C., & Horák, T. (2010). Metalinguistic knowledge of undergraduate students of English language and linguistics (Final report on a project funded by the subject center for languages, linguistics, and area studies in higher). England: Lancaster University.
Alderson, J. C., & Hudson, R. (2013). The metalinguistic knowledge of undergraduate students of English language or linguistics. Language Awareness, 22(4), 320-337.
Almarshedi, R. M. (2017). Metalinguistic knowledge of female language teachers and student teachers in an English language department in Saudi Arabia: Level, nature and self-perceptions. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Leicester, England.
Andrews, S., & Svalberg, A. M. L. (2017). Teacher language awareness. In J. Cenoz, D. Gorter & S. May (Eds.), Language awareness and multilingualism (pp. 219-231). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Andrews, S. (1999). All these like little name things: A comparative study of language teachers' explicit knowledge of grammar and grammatical terminology. Language Awareness, 8(3), 143-159.
Andrews, S. (2006). The evolution of teachers’ language awareness. Language Awareness, 15(1), 1-19.
Andrews, S. (2007). Teacher language awareness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Andrews, S., & McNeill, A. (2005). Knowledge about language and the ‘good language teacher’. In N. Bartels. (Ed.). Applied linguistics and language teacher education (pp. 159-178). Boston, MA: Springer.
Andrews, S. (1995). The grammatical knowledge/awareness of native-speaker EFL teachers: What the trainers say. In M. Bygate, A. Tonkyn, & E. Williams (Eds.), Grammar and the language teacher (pp. 69-89). Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.
Babbie, E. R., & Benaquisto, L. (2008). Fundamentals of social research. First Canadian edition. Scarborough, Ont: Nelson Thomson Learning.
Berry, R. (2009). EFL majors' knowledge of metalinguistic terminology: A comparative study. Language Awareness, 18(2), 113-128.
Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in grammar teaching: A literature review. Language Awareness, 12(2), 96-108.
Borjian, M. (2010). Policy privatization and empowerment of subnational forces: The case of private English language institutes in Iran. Viewpoints Special Edition: Middle East Institute (MEI) Series on Higher Education and the Middle East, 1, 58-61.
Chandler, P., Robinson, W. P., & Noyes, P. (1988). The level of linguistic knowledge and awareness amongst students training to be primary teachers. Language and Education, 2(3), 161-173.
DeKeyser, R. (2003). Implicit and explicit learning. In C. J. Doughty & M. H. Long (Eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 313-348). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Dornyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Elder, C., & Manwaring, D. (2004). The relationship between metalinguistic knowledge and learning outcomes among undergraduate students of Chinese. Language Awareness, 13(3), 145-162.
Ellis, R. (2004). The definition and measurement of L2 explicit knowledge. Language Learning, 54(2), 227-275.
Gutiérrez, X. (2013). Metalinguistic knowledge, metalingual knowledge, and proficiency in L2 Spanish. Language Awareness, 22(2), 176-191.
Hayati, A., Vahdat, S., & Khoram, A. (2017). Teacher language awareness revisited: An exploratory study of the level and nature of language awareness of prospective Iranian English teachers. Teaching English Language, 11(1), 69-94.
Hu, G. (2002). Psychological constraints on the utility of metalinguistic knowledge in second language production. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, 347-386.
Hu, G. (2011). Metalinguistic knowledge, metalanguage, and their relationship in L2 learners. System, 39(1), 63-77.
Johnston, B., & Goettsch, K. (2000). In search of the knowledge base of language teaching: Explanations by experienced teachers. Canadian Modern Language Review, 56(3), 437-468.
McNamara, D. (1991). Subject knowledge and its application: Problems and possibilities for teacher educators. Journal of Education for Teaching, 17(2), 113-128.
Modirkhamene, S. (2008). Metalinguistic awareness and bilingual vs. monolingual EFL learners: Evidence from a diagonal bilingual context. Journal of English Language Pedagogy and Practice, 1(Inaugural Issue), 66-102.
Mutaf, B. (2019). An investigation of metalinguistic knowledge of preservice teachers of English in a Turkish context. Unpublished master's thesis, Egitim Bilimleri Entitusu, Ankara, Turkey.
Myhill, D. (2011). The ordeal of deliberate choice: Metalinguistic development in secondary writers. In V. W. Berninger (Ed.), Past, present, and future contributions of cognitive writing research to cognitive psychology (pp. 247-274). New York: Psychology Press.
Myhill, D., Jones, S., & Watson, A. (2013). Grammar matters: How teachers' grammatical knowledge impacts on the teaching of writing. Teaching and Teacher Education, 36, 77-91.
Nazarian, S., & Izadpanah, S. (2017). The study of the metalinguistic knowledge of English by students in an intensive and a traditional course. International Journal of English Linguistics, 7(1), 215-221.
Purvis, C. J., McNeill, B. C., & Everatt, J. (2016). Enhancing the metalinguistic abilities of preservice teachers via coursework targeting language structure knowledge. Annals of Dyslexia, 66(1), 55-70.
Roehr, K. (2006). Metalinguistic knowledge in L2 task performance: A verbal protocol analysis. Language Awareness, 15(3), 180-198.
Roehr, K. (2008). Metalinguistic knowledge and language ability in university-level L2 learners. Applied Linguistics, 29(2), 173-199.
Seifoori, Z. Z. (2013). Metalinguistic awareness and the accuracy of postgraduate TEFL students’ writing: Teacher’s focus vs. learners’ focus. Journal of English Language Pedagogy and Practice, 6(13), 146-166.
Shulman, L. S. (2000). Teacher development: Roles of domain expertise and pedagogical knowledge. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 21(1), 129-135.
