بر اساس موضوع

1
A key element of meaningful and active English as a foreign language (EFL) learning is engagement, which is influenced by a learner's internal (students’ growth language mindset and academic self-efficacy) as well as external (teacher care) factors. With an emphasis on the mediating function of academic self-efficacy, this study examined the relationship between academic engagement, students’ growth language mindset, and perceived teacher care. Five hundred twenty-six Iranian EFL students participated in the study and answered four questionnaires concerning academic engagement, students’ growth language mindset, teacher care, and academic self-efficacy. The structural equation modeling results showed that both perceived teacher care and students’ growth language mindset had a direct and positive impact on academic engagement. Furthermore, student growth mindset was positively correlated with teacher care. Moreover, academic self-efficacy acted as a mediator in the relationships between academic engagement and perceived teacher care, as well as between students’ growth language mindset and academic engagement. The results showed that EFL students' growth language mindset and self-efficacy may both be positively impacted by their teachers providing them with greater attention. These students can successfully overcome failures and challenges in their learning process by demonstrating greater persistence in overcoming obstacles and maintaining their interest, which could significantly increase their engagement in the learning process.
2
Abstract One of the most significant aspects of English language teaching textbooks isthe representation of cultural issues EFL textbooks are undoubtedly influenced bythe beliefs and ideologies of their authors and publishers Certain cultural aspectsare deliberately included in these textbooks and other dimensions may indirectlyaffect them Teenagers as the influential members of society constitute asignificant part of the audience of the EFL textbooks The present study was aimedto investigate the representation of three cultural issues including globalorientation gender construction and consumer culture in English languagetextbooks of Solutions second edition In this research an adapted form ofFairclaugh s 1992 Critical Discourse Analysis CDA model was used to analyzethe conversations and reading passages of the textbooks The terms conceptuallyassociated with the cultural aspects were selected and the words frequencies werecounted Then the words were semantically categorized and due to time and scopeconstraints those terms with high frequencies and direct conceptual relationshipwith the cultural domains were considered as the main collection of the data to beanalyzed The obtained results demonstrated that concerning global perspective theorientation of the textbooks is more towards the representation of inner circlecountries or in other words the target culture based on Kachru s model of WorldEnglishes Regarding gender representation parts of the textbooks are partiallygendered although gender equality has been taken into considerations in other parts Finally considering consumerism various signs of consumer culture werediscovered in different semantic categories of words adopted in the textbooks Thisstudy could be useful for the educational authorities to make a comparison betweenthe cultural issues represented in localized and international EFL textbooks toidentify the potential cultural gaps concerning three introduced cultural domains inlanguage learning materials Keywords critical discourse analysis global orientation gender construction consumerism EFL textbooks world Englishes VII
3
Abstract Stance bundles serve to express recognition of certainty or the writer interlocutor s attitudes According to Fang Park 2020 even though numerous research studies have been focused on lexical bundles and stance markers in different disciplines Hyland 2008a Wachidah W D N A Fitriati Widhiyanto 2020 a few studies have been done in Engineering Rezoug Vincent 2018 This study expands the research domain of previous studies of lexical bundles by examining the variety and frequency of stance through lexical bundles in three academic genres of engineering vs applied linguistics For the analysis of four word lexical bundles lexical bundles have defined in the textbooks research articles and theses of engineering and applied linguistics and the number of texts within which each bundle uses by Antconc3 5 8 in order to compare similarities and differences in the use of lexical bundles in engineering and applied linguistics as well as find out what are the most frequent lexical bundles in the engineering and applied linguistics which show the stance of the writer As a result engineering writers write more based on the facts and not on their personal ideas and thoughts however applied linguistics writers use more personal bundles so we can say that maybe they write more based on their personal ideas and thoughts and not the facts The findings of such a study would be of great help to language teachers to create language teaching materials that unify awareness of the pragmatic use of stance bundles in particular disciplines Keywords Lexical bundle Stance Academic writing Corpus Genre VI
4
ABSTRACT Textbooks play a crucial role in language learning classrooms The problem ischoosing among a great number of available textbooks on the market to see whichone is more appropriate for a specific classroom with an idiosyncratic group oflearners since each group has different needs Different schools of thought have putforward different ideologies for the nature of language learning and languageteaching the most recent of which is the humanistic approach As the name implies the humanistic approach puts learners at the center of learning with a focus on theiremotions and different needs This school of thought placed us on the task ofdeveloping a Humanistically oriented Book Evaluation Inventory and exploring itsreliability and underlying factor structure For this purpose the text driven approachwhich is the best indicator of the humanistic approach was used in developing thequestionnaire In devising the items elements of text driven approach such as affect localization rich exposure and cognitive engagement were targeted Thequestionnaire has 39 items and uses Likert type scale giving each item a value rangingfrom 1 to 5 respectively 1 for strongly disagree 2 for disagree 3 for neutral 4 for agree and5 for strongly agree In addition Brian Tomlinson s a well known scholar in materialsdevelopment was sought for content validation of the questionnaire After theexploratory factor analysis the modified version of HBEI was administered to 400teachers of Top Notch and Prospect series to see how much they are humanistic Theresults of the study show that although a number of shortcomings and drawbackswere found in both series teachers perceived Top Notch series more in line with thehumanistic approach Keywords Humanistic Approach Material Evaluation Material Development Text Driven Approach VII
5
Abstract The goal of this research was to study the relationship among willingness tocommunicate WTC international posture IP and competitiveness COM and tosee if socio economic status SES as a sociological factor has any effect on thesefactors and their relations As another aim of the present study the relationship amongthese factors and language learners achievement was investigated as well To thisend a quantitative approach was utilized to study university students responses to aquestionnaire The participants of the study were 1084 university students selectedrandomly from different majors studying at Isfahan University of Technology Isfahan University of medical Sciences and University of Isfahan To collect data aquestionnaire was developed measuring SES IP COM and WTC of participants Inorder to analyze the data inferential statistics were reported and utilizing AMOS Structural Equation Modelling was conducted Two models were conducted the firstmodel didn t consider participants test score and Language Achievement LA butthe second one considered the test scores According to the results SES was approvedto have impact on WTC IP and COM and on the relation which exists among them IP had direct impact on COM and WTC but the impact of COM on WTC wasrejected According to the second model of the study LA was affected by learners SES and their level of WTC but learners COM and IP had no direct impact on theirLA Keywords socioeconomic status willingness to communicate internationalposture competitiveness language achievement VI
6
Abstract This study has endeavored to unearth the relationship between Iranian students motivation demotivation and their speaking skill Additionally the relationshipbetween their L2 motivational self system and the improvement of their speakingskill And finally the relationship between their motivation demotivation and theirL2 motivational self system Considering the available literature the internalstructure of language motivation has been greatly debated and widely researched Nevertheless regarding the breadth and depth of the issue we inevitably concludethat a lot has remained to be fully dealt with Moreover motivation as an underlyingconstruct can be tangibly manifested in a productive skill like speaking To set outthe study 100 intermediate students who were also IELTS candidates in Namilanguage institute Isfahan Iran were selected through convenience sampling Thestudy was conducted in descriptive and experimental phases Qualitative researchprocedures were applied for data collection by administering certain questionnairesand tasks which are delineated in the body of thesis Then they were completed bysubsequent quantification and interpretation of the coded data The findings revealedthat the relationship between students demotivation and their speaking skill isnegative but significant in other words the more demotivated the students the lowerscores they received Regarding their L2 motivational self system the study showedthat students L2 self system had a significant effect on their speaking skill The studyalso found a reciprocal relationship between students motivation demotivation andtheir L2 motivational self system All the findings will be elaborated in the body ofthe thesis Keywords Speaking skill Motivation Demotivation L2 Motivational Self System vi
7
Abstract Using the valid Coh Metrix tool this study examined whether there weresignificant differences between the reading sections of internationally published anddomestically developed ELT books To investigate the textual differences betweenthese two different types of books as many as 60 English excerpts were randomlyselected and analyzed based on the five principal components of narrativity syntacticsimplicity word concreteness referential cohesion and deep causal cohesion Thesamples of this study included reading texts of six books in different grade levels Theywere divided into Internationally Published Books Facts and Figures Thoughts andNotions Concepts and Comments and Domestically Developed Books Vision 1 Vision 2 Vision 3 The reading texts were selected and entered into Coh Metrix TextEasabality Assessor This tool analyzes the ease or difficulty of texts on five differentdimensions The results of Analysis of Variance ANOVA demonstrated that therewas a significant difference between internationally published books in terms ofNarrativity Syntactic Simplicity and Referential Cohesion The book Concept andComments was less abstract in the structure of lexicon compared with the other twobooks Facts and Figures and Thoughts and Notions The results indicated that Factsand Figures tended to employ more simple syntax than other books and the twoadvanced level books tended to use higher deep cohesion As for the domesticallydeveloped books there was a significant difference between the three books in terms ofsyntactic simplicity The results showed that Vision 1 tended to employ more difficultsyntax The conclusion that can be drawn is that the domestically developed books aredifferent from internationally published books in some linguistics features Keywords Coh Metrix Narrativity Syntactic Simplicity Word Concreteness Referential Cohesion Deep Cohesion vii
8
Abstract In the area of EOP (English for occupational purposes) as a branch of ESP (English for special purposes), the lack of technical vocabulary is one challenging issue for learners. The aim of this study was to construct a technical wordlist representing frequent technical words in history of ancient Iran (HAI) to assist Iranian tourist guides on their career path. Therefore, a corpus of HAI (with 1,394,953 tokens) from the related books to HAI was compiled and to build the desired technical wordlist a mixed- method was used, in which both qualitative and quantitative ways in data analysis were taken into consideration in a step-by-step fashion. Different phases of analyzing the data consisted of 6 criteria or filters; lexical profiling, frequency, range, keyword analysis, expert consolation and vocabulary profiling. To perform the quantitative aspect of the data analysis, we took the advantage of Antwordprofiler (Anthony,2022) and Key-BNC program to perform lexical profiling, keyword analysis and to determine frequency and range of the words, As for the qualitative phase of the research two experts in HAI who were also working in the area of tourist guiding for more than 10 years participated in the research and ranked the obtained words on a 4 point scale point 1 was assigned to words not related to the field and point 4 to words that were significantly related to HAI. Finally, the words with 3 and 4 points were assigned to the final list. Findings revealed that the lexical coverage of the HAI frequent technical word list was 9% of the whole corpus. Regarding the pedagogical implications of the final list of the frequent technical words in HAI, it could be used by language teachers as a supplementary vocabulary learning material in the ESP classes to train tourist guides or by the material developers to help them make sure that they incorporate the more frequent words in HAI, in the related subject too. Also, the more autonomous tourist guides or English learners interested in HAI can use the list on their own through innovative ways or while retelling the historical events related to ancient Iran.
9
Abstract In the constantly changing landscape of language education, the integration of innovative pedagogical approaches is essential to engage English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners effectively. One such approach that has gained traction is gamification, which leverages game-based elements to enhance learning experiences. This scoping review delves into the impact of gamification on EFL reading and writing skills, aiming to provide a holistic overview of the existing literature in this domain. The review adopts a rigorous and structured methodology, including the systematic search of databases, rigorous inclusion and exclusion criteria, and a thorough quality assessment of the selected studies. The synthesis of the selected studies reveals several key findings. Gamification has a positive impact on EFL learners' reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, and writing proficiency. However, this scoping review also identifies gaps and areas for future research. While the majority of studies report positive outcomes, variations in gamification design and learner characteristics necessitate further investigation to ascertain the most effective strategies. Additionally, the review emphasizes the need for long-term assessments of gamification's sustainability and its impact on learners' intrinsic motivation over time. In summary, this scoping review adds to the expanding body of research on the use of gamification in EFL education, offering educators, researchers, and policymakers valuable insights into the potential of gamification to enhance reading and writing skills among EFL learners. It underscores the importance of carefully designed gamified interventions tailored to specific learner profiles and contexts, opening avenues for more impactful and engaging language education practices. Keywords: Foreign Language Learning; Gamification; Reading; Writing
10
Abstract It is quite apparent that vocabulary knowledge plays a prominent part in both comprehension and production of second language and successful communication. However, developing learners’ lexical knowledge has always been a challenge for both language instructors and learners. Incidental word learning via various input modes is one of the approaches that has gained attention in second language research in recent years since different input modes of written, aural, and audiovisual are generally available due to the advance of technology. Nevertheless, the research on the comparison of the effectiveness of these three modes in vocabulary gain is too limited. Additionally, a number of investigations examined the contributory role of output-based tasks to vocabulary development; however, there are not many studies exploring the impact of content retelling on incidental word acquisition. Therefore, the present study aimed to compare how influential various types of input and content retelling are in incidental word learning. Also, it tended to investigate the connection between incidental word learning and a number of potentially influential factors, including word repetition, students’ existing lexical knowledge, and multiple intelligences. There were 148 Iranian high school students participating in this quasi-experimental study, six treatment groups and one control group. Each experimental group was provided with a single form of input, and three of the experimental groups had to summarize and retell the story they have read, listened to, or watched. All the students were given two vocabulary tests immediately after finishing the treatment and two weeks later. The results revealed that although in all treatment groups, the students scored higher on both immediate and delayed posttests, comparing to pretest, there were not any considerable differences among three input modes. However, the students who experienced content retelling, significantly outperformed their counterparts. Moreover, the results showed significant connection between incidental lexicon knowledge and word repetition only in viewing group. Incidental vocabulary acquisition was also significantly correlated with the pupils’ pre-existent lexical knowledge. Finally, some relationships were also found between various types of intelligence and unintentional word learning. The findings of the current study can be applied by language instructors, students, and material developers. Teachers can offer their pupils different modes of input to make them familiar with these modes. This would be useful for students as well since they may find out which mode of input is the most suitable one for their learning style. The results might also assist material designers with designing materials which promote vocabulary learning more effectively. Keywords: Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition, Vocabulary Uptake, Vocabulary Retention, Content Retelling, Multiple Intelligence
11
Abstract Writing has a central role in academic communication, since it allows learners to present ideas, build arguments an‎d engage the readers. One key element of successful academic writing is the use of metadiscourse, which helps writers express their stance, organize arguments, an‎d establish a relationship with the readers. Interactional metadiscourse markers are especially important because they reveal how writers connect with readers an‎d express their attitudes. This study investigated differences in the use of interactional metadiscourse markers in argumentative essays written by upper-intermediate an‎d advanced EFL students an‎d generated by ChatGPT-4. A total of 100 essays (50 human-written, 50 AI-generated) were analyzed for five markers: hedges, boosters, attitude markers, engagement markers, an‎d self-mentions. Quantitative an‎d qualitative analyses revealed significant differences in four of the five markers. Students used hedges an‎d self-mentions more frequently, reflecting cautious reasoning an‎d authorial presence, while ChatGPT employed more boosters an‎d engagement markers, indicating confident, reader-oriented writing. Attitude markers did not differ significantly between the groups. Variability analyses showed that student writing was highly diverse, reflecting individual style an‎d experience, whereas ChatGPT texts were consistent an‎d systematic. The findings demonstrated that human an‎d AI writing exhibit distinct interpersonal strategies: students focus on self-centered, mitigated claims, while AI emphasizes assertive, interactive discourse. These results have implications for EFL teaching, suggesting that AI-generated texts can model confident, reader-focused writing, while human writers should be encouraged to maintain their unique voice.
12
AbstractA number of pragmatics oriented corpus linguistics and discourse analytic studies havebeen conducted on politeness strategies but with insufficient attention paid to MedicalDiscourse MD English for Specific Purposes ESP for doctors and medical pedagogy Thus this study explores language use in Bedside Manner BM in context of USA andUK with the objective of exploring the specific Face Threatening Acts FTAs andPoliteness Strategies PSs employed among doctor doctor doctor patient patient patient doctor visitor patient visitor patient patient doctor lawyer doctor pilot nurse nurse nurse security security paramedics nurse paramedics doctor paramedics nurse patient nurse lawyer and nurse visitor and doctor bartender to enhance diagnosticcommunication in MD The medical corpus Grey s Anatomy Nurses and Oxford Englishfor Careers Medicine1 and 2 are analyzed based on Brown and Levinson s model 1987 by two raters The findings of this study demonstrate there are 1382 FTAs in Grey sAnatomy 352 apologies as the most frequent FTA and 32 FTAs in Oxford medical books 8 gratitudes as the most frequent FTA have been studied and 144 FTAs in Nurses withorder N 33 as the most frequent FTA Moreover there are 432 PSs in Grey s Anatomy 68 questions negative PS the most frequent PS and 134 PSs in Oxford medical books 32indirect negative PS as the most frequent PS and 146 PSs in Nurses with questions as themost frequent negative PS N 43 have been found The results of the present study havesome implications First findings of this study may prevent any communicationbreakdowns in the spoken MD for foreign medical students and nurse practitioners Second future physicians may become more cautious while providing their patients the BMresulting in a more successful medical practices Third material developers may becomemore al‎e‎rt of the above mentioned pragmatic elements while authoring or analyzingEnglish audio visual materials in the field of MD Finally ESP teachers may become morevigilant regarding the use of PSs Keywords Bedside Manner Discourse Face Threatening Acts Medical Discourse Politeness Strategies Pragmatics Speech Act iii
13
AbstractBased on the assumption that B A text books may exert effects on the students writing thisstudy was conducted to investigate whether there was any relationship between the advancedEFL students writing and their B A course books or not To this end a sample of 35 firstyear M A TEFL students as advanced students and a collection of B A course books wereselected To set the criteria for comparison we used a number of automated text easabilityindices that could measure difficulty level of both BA textbooks and argumentative essaysof about 500 words written within a time limit of at most 30 minutes by students at thebeginning middle and the end of an advanced writing course The essays and B A coursebooks were analyzed for syntactic complexity word information lexical diversity referential cohesion and connectives using Coh Metrix Text Easability Assessor Afteranalyzing the essays by Coh Metrix the results were subjected to statistical analysis Generally no meaningful differences were found in the mean scores of the two sets of textsand thus the target question was positively answered That is there was a direct relationshipbetween the advanced students texts and their B A course books although there were somedifferences in some indices which were not statistically significant The results of the studycan be used for effective teaching of foreign language writing helping students to adjusttheir writing strategies to accomplish cohesion and coherence Keywords Writing Coh Metrix Linguistic features Language sophistication Cohesion vi
14
AbstractCorpus driven studies on lexical bundles recurrent formulaic sequences haveprovided us with valuable and useful information about different types and functionsof lexical bundles in spoken as well as written registers Recent research hasexamined patterns of the use of lexical bundles Some of the previous studies havefocused on the patterns of use of novice or student writers versus professional writers Others have been focused on a comparison of L1 versus L2 English students However no study has compared the use of lexical bundles by L1 English versus L1 Farsi academic professionals The present study fills this gap by analyzing thestructural and functional features of lexical bundles applied by L1 English and L1 Farsi professional English writing in applied linguistics journals The softwareAntConc 3 4 4 the instrument used in this study identified four word lexicalbundles with the moderately high frequency of at least 40 and a range of occurrencein at least 20 different articles 129 lexical bundles were found in the L2 EnglishCorpus L2 EC and 86 in L1 English corpus L1 EC In order to analyze thestructure of the identified lexical bundles we classified them according to thetaxonomy proposed by Biber Johansson Leech Conrad and Finegan 1999 Thefunctional framework chosen for this study was organized around three broadfunctional categories based on Hyland s functional taxonomy of bundles in academicwriting 2008a 2008b research oriented text oriented and participant oriented with sub categories grouping more specific roles The results showed that both Native English and Iranian writers of English primarilyused phrasal bundles bundles consisting of noun and prepositional phrases ratherthan clausal ones bundles consisting of verbs and clause fragments with nativewriters relying even more heavily on phrasal bundles The two corpora also displayedsimilar proportions of the three main functional categories Research orientedbundles rank as the largest category in both L1 English and L2 English corpora whereas participant oriented bundles constituted the smallest proportion with ahigher percentage of native writers usage of these bundles L1 F professionals usedsignificantly fewer participant oriented bundles than L1 E professionals did Inaddition the relationship between structural types and functional categories showedthat L1 and L2 professionals employed bundles with different structuralcharacteristics serving similar functions Therefore we can conclude that writers whomajored in applied linguistics prove native like use of four word lexical bundles which could be due to their frequent exposure to English language during theiracademic education Keywords Academic articles Applied Linguistics Corpus Function Lexicalbundles Structure vii
15
AbstractCorrective feedback has been mainly studied as a teaching resource in SLA The presentstudy examined the notion of corrective feedback as a learning resource among Iranianlanguage learners To this end Ashford s 1986 model of feedback seeking behavior Dweck s 1999 mindsets and Dornyei s model of L2MSS 2005 were employed inthe context of language learning Questionnaire data from 577 Iranian universitystudents 361 males 216 females indicated that learners made conscious decisionsregarding whether to seek feedback from what source and by what method Thedecisions about feedback seeking strategies had meaningful relationships with thelearners mindsets and motivation types The results indicated that learners with agrowth mindset and ideal L2 self sought feedback through both monitoring and inquirymethods Learners with a fixed mindset and ought to L2 self were more inclined toinquiry methods with the exception that learners with ought to L2 self only soughtfeedback from others Learners with high L2 learning experience tended to receivefeedback from all possible sources Furthermore the probable mediating role of L2MSSin the relationship between mindsets and FSB was investigated exhibiting only partialmediating role in this relationship These results can be used to enhance learners perception of their mindsets and encourage teachers to use more appropriate comments Keywords Corrective feedback Feedback seeking behavior Motivation L2Motivational self system Mindsets vi
16
AbstractEver since Freud 1894 introduced the notion of defense mechanisms a myriadof researchers and scholars have placed paramount importance on this area Freud s 1894 breakthrough paved the way for a surfeit of research on differentrealms such as defense mechanisms in psychology education and psychotherapy The aim of the present study was to investigate whether different kinds of defensemechanisms immature mature and neurotic are used by Iranian EFL teachersteaching in Kashan In addition the purpose of this study was to examine whethergender teaching experience and age affected the maturity of defensemechanisms used by them The data of this research was collected through semi structured interview questions based on the defense style proposed by Andrews Singh and Bond 1993 The participants attended a semi structured interview The questions were designed to explore the kind of defense mechanisms utilizedby the teachers in their classes The participants were 30 Iranian EFL teachers 15males and15 females teaching in public schools and private institutes Purposive and availability sampling techniques were used in this study forselecting individuals based on their gender experience and age Qualitative datawere obtained from the research SPSS 23 was used to analyze the data Theresults of the study indicated that the teachers participated in this study utilizedsome of the defense mechanisms more frequently such as pseudo altruism humor sublimation denial isolation and idealization In contrast some ofdefense mechanisms were used less frequently by EFL teachers such as splitting passive aggression projection displacement and undoing However gender experience and age did not have meaningful effect on the use of defensemechanisms by Iranian EFL teachers VI
17
AbstractEver since Gardner 1987 introduced the notion of multiple intelligences a myriad ofresearchers and scholars have placed paramount importance on this area Gardner s 1987 breakthrough paved the way for a surfeit of research on different realms such asEmotional Quotient and Intelligence Quotient while some other intelligences namelyAdversity Quotient and Spiritual Quotient have been flagrantly overlooked in spite oftheir being irrefutably influential especially in ELT and Iran The aim of the presentstudy was to investigate the amount of three measures of intelligences EQ AQ andSQ among Iranian EFL learners and discern whether they are correlated The data ofthis research was collected through a 54 item questionnaire which was a juxtapositionof three other questionnaires namely Adversity Response Profile ARP designed byStoltz 1997 Brief Emotional Intelligence Scale BEIS 10 developed by Davies et al 2010 and Spiritual Intelligence Self Report Inventory SISRI devised by King 2008 and was translated into Farsi to ensure maximum comprehension of participants Thesample of this study consisted of 847 undergraduate Iranian EFL learners from Tehranand Isfahan in which 610 of them were males and 237 females SPSS 23 and AMOS 23were used to analyze the data and verify the construct validity of tests The results of thestudy indicated that Iranian EFL learners had an amount of AQ equal to below average their SQ was virtually average and their EQ proved to be above average Moreover itwas revealed that EQ AQ and SQ were strongly correlated with one another Keywords multiple Intelligences emotional intelligence adversity quotient spiritual quotient vi
18
AbstractFrequency control is among the most important tasks in modern powersystems due to the increase of their active power imbalances between gen eration and demand uncertainties and complexities Such new energysystems need new control approaches that can handle practical challengessuch as unknown inputs failures in measurement systems high uncer tainties and cyber attacks This dissertation proposes a novel fully de centralized load frequency control which is unknown as secondary con trol approach based on dynamic state estimation DSE The proposedapproach employs an unknown input observer UIO for each power sys tem area for tracking the dynamic states in real time operation Inorder to achieve the fully decentralized control approach for secondaryfrequency control loop preserving the hierarchical concept the demand uctuation and tie line power deviations are modeled as unknown in puts to the UIO of each area An optimal state feedback control methodbased on the observed states is used next to control the frequency of eacharea separately This approach reduces the complexity of the designedobserver achieves fully decentralized control improves the robustnessof the controllers and makes the estimation process highly e cient ac curate and easy to implement Based on the suggested UIO a novelunknown input functional observer based optimal load frequency controlapproach is also proposed for real world complex nonlinear power sys tems In the proposed control approach the control signal applied toeach power plant is directly estimated via the well designed functionalobserver The proposed functional dynamic estimator is designed to han dle parametric and nonparametric uncertainties control loop and sensorfaults unknown inputs and cyber attacks The functional estimator foreach power plant is decoupled from the other plants resulting in a morefeasible implementation reducing the complexity of the estimator andimproving the reliability of the proposed control system Furthermore the proposed UIO is further developed mathematically to have the abil ity of online detection and isolation of practical issues associated withmeasurement and communication parts such as faulty sensors error inmeasurement and cyber attacks This contribution helps power systemoperator to eliminate the impacts of the mentioned practical and techni cal challenges on the performance of the control systems which increasesthe overall reliability and security of frequency control in modern powersystems Moreover the proposed dynamic observer is further developedto online estimate the magnitude and locations of unknown inputs Pro viding such knowledge of unknown inputs e g disturbances to operatorcan highly help in improving the control and protection performance in
19
AbstractHedging has emerged in the literature in academic writing as an important mechanism bywhich academic writers mitigate the force of their claims Hyland 1996 Despite itssignificant status in academic society however interpreting and using hedges appropriatelyhave repeatedly been reported to be difficult for learners especially in academic writingwhere EFL writers tend to unfold a collection of facts in a direct and impersonal manner Bloor Bloor 1991 Dudley Evans 1991 Hyland 2000a Kamimura Oi 2006 Oh 2007 Skelton 1988 The present study was motivated to examine the distribution of formsand functions of hedging in discussion section of academic research articles RAs in twolanguages English and Persian and three disciplines engineering natural sciences andsocial sciences and thus aims to provide suggestions for ways to guide academic writerstoward the skillful use of hedging The data used for research comprised 150 English articlesand 150 Persian articles From each discipline 50 articles were chosen After collecting thediscussion parts of the articles they were loaded into AntConc 3 4 4 the instrument used inthis study to identify lexical verbs in English and Persian After determining the hedges outof the identified verbs they were classified into four verb categories based on Hyland s 1998 classification and were analyzed in terms of both frequency and functions Thefunctional framework chosen for this study was organized around three broad functionalcategories based on Hyland s functional taxonomy of hedges in academic writing 1998 accuracy oriented writer oriented and reader oriented Findings showed that the English RAs were 61 more hedged than Farsi RAs Moreover the distribution of hedging devices was shown to be different across disciplines The resultsalso showed that the English and Farsi RAs contained more writer oriented hedges andfewer reader oriented hedges Accuracy oriented hedges were the second frequent functionacross English and Farsi The findings suggest that hedges are used differently acrosslanguages and disciplines Iranian writers used less hedges than English writers which couldbe due to their unfamiliarity with the concept of hedging and its use Also both English andIranian writers used writer oriented hedges which suggests that they both prefer to distancethemselves from the preposition and protect themselves from unwanted challenges Moreover the analysis of hedging in three disciplines revealed that the use of hedgesdepended much on the nature of data in each discipline Keywords hedges lexical verbs metadiscourse markers epistemic modality discipline discussion sections vi
20
AbstractMotivation is considered as one of the most dynamic factors in L2 learning it fluctuatesacross individuals and contexts Dornyei MacIntyre Henry 2015 To enrich ourunderstanding of the contextual factors and emotional state the present study attempts tocompare L2 motivational models between Iranian and Korean university learners in lightof 2 2 model of L2 self guides 2018 an expanded version of L2 Motivational SelfSystem Dornyei 2005 2009 based on self discrepancy and regulatory focus theories Higgins 1987 1997 To that end 2 2 model of L2 self guides is chosen as atheoretical framework to relate contextual factors and emotional state to currentmotivated behavior The aim of this study is to both validate 2 2 model of L2 self guides in Iranian and Korean contexts and scrutinize the influence of context In addition due to the inconsistent results of previous studies concerning the role of ought to self thisstudy aims to focus on ought to self from others dimension through a non experimentalresearch design A total of 492 university students including 250 Iranians and 242Koreans filled out the questionnaire The data were analyzed by multiple group structuralequation modeling along with correlational methods Confirmatory factor analysis andCronbach alpha were run for the validity and reliability of the questionnaire respectively Besides correlation and regression analyses were applied to provide empirical supportfor the results The findings indicated that the model was acceptable in both countries The impact of contextual factors and emotional state on four types of selves werediscussed and a number of differences were found between the two groups Among thevariables milieu had the strongest impact on selves It indicated to what extent contextand others might influence selves creation identity and motivation The study concludethat if suitable conditions are provided in educational and social contexts both types ofselves ideal and ought to lead to motivational behavior It also revealed that own standpoints seem to be the best indicator of current motivated behavior Finally somepedagogical implications were provided for teachers and material developers Key Words Milieu English Learning Experience Shame Current Motivated behavior 2 2 Model of L2 Self Guides v
21
AbstractOne of the essential elements of pedagogy is assessment The recent studies haveassessed the Iranian participants reading comprehension through diagnosticassessment utilizing the selective and productive tasks observing that providingdiagnostic feedback to the English learners could have a positive effect on theirperformance Since there was almost no previous work considering both assessmentsat the same time the purpose of this research was to examine the effect of diagnosticand formative assessment on the Iranian intermediate EFL learners performance inselective and productive reading comprehension tasks to test the generalizability ofprevious findings on different levels Finally both male and female learners took partin the study in order to verify whether the results of female participants in previousresearch are gender related or not Accordingly thirty intermediate Iranian EFLlearners were selected They were classified into three groups diagnostic formativeand comparison groups For the diagnostic group the instructor used the evidencegathered through the pre test to design the lesson plan For the formative group theinstructor did not make any prior changes in her lesson plan but continuouslyinteracted with the learners providing feedback The comparison group did notreceive any treatment The results indicated that both diagnostic and formativeassessment had a statistically significant effect on the Iranian intermediate EFLlearners performance in selective and productive reading comprehension tasks Although formative assessment was seen to be slightly more effective there was nosignificant difference between these kinds of assessment The findings haveimplications for instruction and research The primary implication is that educatorsshould investigate and utilize diagnostic and formative assessment Additionally material developers can use these two kinds of assessment as guidelines to designactivities KeyWords Diagnostic Assessment Formative Assessment ReadingComprehension Selective Task Productive Task VII
22
AbstractRecent studies have examined patterns of use of lexical bundles and provided beneficialinformation about their different structures and functions in written and spoken registers Some of the previous studies compared the differences of L1 versus L2 English writersin the usage of lexical bundles in English written texts while some other studies focusedon the patterns of lexical bundles utilized by novice or expert writers However therewere not so many studies which analyzed engagement bundles EBs cross culturally inphysics research articles To fill this gap the present study analyzed 163 L1 English L2 English and L1 Persian articles and compared the results in order to perceive thedifferences as well as similarities among native and non native writers The AntConc3 5 0 software was utilized as the main instrument in the present study The structure ofidentified EBs were classified based on the structural taxonomy proposed by Biber Johansson Leech Conrad and Finegan 1999 The functional elements proposed byHyland 2005b were identified to determine engagement markers Using AntConc software there were 23 and 56 four word EBs identified in L1 EC andL2 EC respectively Also there were 52 EBs identified in L1 PC manually to comparethe structures and functions of these bundles utilized by L1 Persian writers when theyproduce English or Persian texts in physics discipline The results of the study indicatedthat there were structural and functional differences in the usage of EBs in terms offrequency between L1 English versus L2 English writers and L1 English versus L1 Presian writers but there were not significant differences between L2 English versusL1 Persian writers However there were not major structural clausal versus phrasal and functional directives reader pronouns or shared knowledge elements differencesbetween the three groups of writers In other words L1 English L2 English and L1 Persian writers favored the usage of clausal and more directive EBs through their physicsresearch articles The relationship between the structural and functional categoriesdemonstrated that most of the structures utilized for EBs serve the same function ofdirecting the readers through the text In addition it was indicated that L2 Englishwriters who have L1 Persian tend to use EBs which have structures and functions moresimilar to those utilized in Persian texts than native like bundles Key words academic writing culture engagement markers function lexical bundles metadiscourse vii
23
AbstractResearch has shown that phrasal verbs are very important in language use andespecially in writing These linguistic structures present serious challenges for L2learners because they are often language specific and enormous in number Due totheir difficulty it will be very helpful for language learning teaching to develop thesechallenging structures in academic writing This study explored the use of phrasalverbs PVs in a Persian EFL academic corpus in comparison with PV use in anEnglish academic criterion corpus by utilizing a written corpus of nationally andinternationally published research articles Two corpora of learner and criterion werebuilt in three main disciplines of engineering social sciences and basic sciences Thecorpora were compared using a quantitative method The current research followedtwo main phases 1 Identifying PVs used by Persian EFL writers versus Englishnative writers in different disciplines 2 Comparing the frequency of PVs used ineach corpus Our finding indicated some points Firstly the results show that thePersian writers use phrasal verbs less than the native writers in academic writing Secondly the result showed that the L1 factor do not play a key role in this respect Thirdly the avoidance of PV usage will diminish as proficiency increases Andfinally it showed that interdisciplinary variations positively affect learners performance regarding writing and using discipline specific words This studydelineates that writing instructors and syllabus designers need to concern with the useof PVs and calls forth the attention of researchers language instructors and materialsdevelopers towards this aspect of the English language Keywords Phrasal verbs Corpus Academic Language Phraseology EFL Learners vii
24
AbstractScaffolding helps students improve their skills and handle complex materials Cloud Genesee Hayaman 2009 Although a number of studies have been doneon scaffolding in Iran few studies have identified the types and techniques ofscaffolding used in English language classes Due to the importance of scaffoldingin the teaching process this study aimed to investigate the extent to which variousscaffolding types were provided in EFL classes in Iran It was also to delineate thetypes and techniques of scaffolding used in the EFL classes Through availabilitysampling technique eight Iranian EFL teachers who teach TOP NOTCH 2 at JahadDaneshgahi academic institutes in Isfahan were surveyed In order to studyscaffolding all of the sections of the classes were transcribed codified andanalyzed using Wu s 2010 framework of scaffolding The results of the studyshowed that the types of scaffolding used by Iranian EFL teachers includedcognitive metacognitive procedural and context scaffolding However Motivational scaffolding was not used in any of the classes The techniques thatteachers used to improve learning included giving instances providing introductionto activate students mind before teaching relating new material to students background knowledge giving hints providing some opportunities to help studentsevaluate their learning i e summarizing and questioning proposing a number ofsteps for teaching dividing vocabularies to its parts relating the concepts topictures and referring students to the resources The extent to which scaffoldingwas used in EFL classes equaled 35 8 of which 6 55 11 71 17 4 and 0 03 were devoted to cognitive metacognitive procedural and context scaffolding respectively The results of the study can help universities and language institutesto instruct and choose the best teachers and material developers to prepare the bestmaterials for teaching Keywords scaffolding cognitive scaffolding metacognitive scaffolding procedural scaffolding context scaffolding motivational scaffolding ZPD vii
25
AbstractStance markers play significant roles in social and academic settings and recentresearches highlight the increasing emphasis on stance markers in various levels ofacademic writings across disciplines In spite of the fact that linguists have beeninterested in analyzing stance markers indicating certainty rather than generality ofclaims the novice and expert academic writers need to have knowledge of stancemarkers to limit or exceed generality of their claims in English This comparativestudy analyzed the use of intensifiers and indefinite pronouns indicating generalityacross the two disciplines of Applied Linguistics AL and Power SystemEngineering PSE rhetorically and pointed out any cross cultural and cross disciplinary differences in terms of the frequency of stance markers in 329 conclusionsections of academic research articles The findings of this study revealed that thefrequency of indefinite pronouns was more than intensifiers in both English NativeSpeakers E1 L1 and Iranian Persian Native Speakers P1 L1 corpus and therecurrence of qualified generalization markers in P1 L1 corpus was more frequentlythan E1 L1 corpus Moreover the AL conclusion sections of research articles werecontained more generalization and qualified generalization stance markers than thosein PSE Implications of this study shed light on how to represent authorial voice inresearch articles in order to improve the persuasive quality of academic writings Keywords Epistemic stance Generality Stance markers Qualified generalizationmarkers Generalization markers vii
26
AbstractThe aim of this research was to study the relationship between teachers efficacy andstudents engagement and the analysis of teachers and students perceptions To this end aquantitative approach was utilized to study university students and teachers responses Theparticipants of the present study were 921students randomly selected from among studentsof different majors in Isfahan University of Technology and 101 teachers randomlyselected from Isfahan University of Technology University of Isfahan and AcademicCenters for Education Culture and Research ACECR in Isfahan In order to collect data two questionnaires were used a modified Engagement questionnaire and Teachers self efficacy scale Tschannen Moran Hoy s TSE 2001 The Modified Engagementquestionnaire was a combination of the Students Engagement Instrument Appleton et al 2006 and The University Student Engagement Inventory Maroco et al 2016 In orderto analyze the data descriptive statistics were used Utilizing the SPSS 22 the multivariateanalysis of variance repeated measure ANOVA Bonferroni s post hoc test the variance ofone dimensional data set analysis and Pearson correlation were conducted and the resultwere as following In students perception behavioral engagement was the most importantand in teachers perception emotional engagement was the least important factor Regarding the efficacy instructional strategies was the most important factor in bothgroups In students perception there was a meaningful relationship between the emotionalengagement and the student engagement in teachers efficacy while in teachers perception there was a meaningful relationship between the emotional engagement and theinstructional strategies Comparing perceptions of teachers and students teachers attachedmore importance to the emotional and cognitive engagement and also to the classroommanagement from among three subscales of self efficacy Keywords cognitive engagement emotional engagement behavioral engagement self efficacy instructional strategies and classroom management VI
27
AbstractThe purpose of this study was to find the relationships among teachers conception of students writing intelligence teacher care and teacher feedback and also teacher care and teacherfeedback with students writing motivation in the realm of English Language Teaching ELT To this aim four scales were developed to measure the aforementioned constructs Theparticipants consisted of 60 English as a Foreign Language EFL teachers and their 200 studentswho were learning English in private language institutes The correlations among these scalesand their subscales were investigated The findings suggested that the Confirmatory FactorAnalysis CFA model of teachers conception of students writing intelligence i e modularity increasability and applied ELT are associated with the nature of teacher writing feedback andcare Moreover the results revealed that teachers conceptions of students writing intelligencesignificantly affect how they evaluate their students p 05 Multiple regression resultsshowed that the incremental theory of writing intelligence the belief that writing intelligence isdynamic and can grow through effort and experience significantly and positively predicted theteachers writing feedback and teacher care Moreover the incremental theory of writingintelligence but not the entity theory of writing intelligence was indirectly a statisticallysignificant predictor of students writing motivation In the end implications were provided inthe context of teaching Key words writing intelligence teacher feedback teacher care writing motivation vii
28
ABSTRACTThe social reproduction theory Bourdieu 1977 1984 1991 argues that educationalsettings are not institutions of equal opportunity but rather are forces that perpetuatesocial hierarchy From this perspective it is argued that education as a source of culturalcapital gives us power and helps us achieve goals become successful and rise up thesocial ladder without necessarily having wealth or financial capital The purpose of thisstudy was to apply the social reproduction theory to explore how English languageteachers and students perceive English language as a means of reproducing social status To collect the required data the study relied on a qualitative and quantitative mixeddesign First a questionnaire was developed using the indices related to the reproductiontheory Following the questionnaire construction with appropriate statistical indexes ofvalidity and reliability it was administered to 100 English language teachers and 100students supplemented by interviewing 18 of the same participants selected purposefully The findings of this study revealed that English language teachers and students believethat there is a significant correlation between English language learning and social classmobility In their opinions skills to learn and also to teach English language have securedfor them symbolic meaning and marketable value that are in high demand in manysocieties The participants perceptions revealed that English competency andpedagogical skills associated with it are a cultural capital that have symbolic values andare greatly esteemed as the reinforcement of social mobility by both teachers andstudents From among the identifying features of reproduction studied including income occupation social status education level values lifestyle patterns of consumption taste aesthetic values life chances and self perception the indicator patterns ofconsumption was not perceived by both students and teachers as having a significantlink with English language learning The results are discussed with regard to the Englishlanguage status and pedagogy Keywords Social Reproduction Cultural Capital English Language Social Mobility Language Learning vi
29
AbstractThis research was an attempt to investigate the relationship among EFL teachers twoemotion regulation ER strategies i e Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression and their anxiety ER strategies and teachers empathy and also to find the relationshipbetween students perception of teachers emotions and teachers self report of their ERstrategies The participants of this study were 250 university EFL teachers and 500 universitystudents Teachers were chosen purposefully from a number of state and Islamic Azaduniversities including University of Isfahan Isfahan University of Technology IsfahanUniversity of Medical Science Sheikh Bahaei University Shiraz University JahromUniversity Islamic Azad Universities of Najafabad and Khorasgan and Students wereselected according to their availability from the whole population of each teacher s classes To collect data four questionnaires were used including Emotion Regulation StrategyQuestionnaire Gross and John 2003 Teaching Anxiety Scale Parsons 1973 and TorontoEmpathy Questionnaire Spreng 2009 which were administered to teachers also students perception of teacher s emotions Jiang 2016 was used for students and an open endedTeachers Emotion Regulation Strategy by Sutton 2004 was utilized for semi structureinterview In order to analyze the data Pearson Correlation confirmatory factor analysis composite reliability and deductive template approach were used According to the results there was a negative significant relationship between teachers CRand their anxiety level Also there was a positive significant relationship between teachers ES and their anxiety level Furthermore a positive significant relationship was revealedbetween teachers ES and their empathy level Some differences were also found betweenteachers significant emotions and students perception of teachers emotions in that studentsperceived more positive emotions from their teachers The findings of this study can helpEFL teachers to have a good understanding of their emotions in classroom which may effecton students perception of their teachers emotions and students learning This study canhelp teachers to promote regulating their emotions while they are empathetic or anxious intheir classes Keywords Anxiety empathy emotion regulation cognitive reappraisal expressive suppression perception strategy vi
30
AbstractThis research was an attempt to investigate the relationship among teacher studentinteraction TSIn student s socio economic status SES willingness tocommunicate WTC anti ought to self AO and language achievement LA Tofulfill the research objectives a quantitative approach was employed Theparticipants of the current study were 1076 undergraduate students male andfemale randomly selected from among students of different majors in IsfahanUniversity of Technology Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Universityof Isfahan To collect the data the participants were asked to complete aquestionnaire which was a combination of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction QTI WTC questionnaire MacIntyre Baker Clement Conord 2001 andAnti Ought to self questionnaire Liu Thompson 2018 as well as students socio economic status information Also a Language Achievement Test was used toassess the participants success or failure in language achievement For dataanalysis SEM and AMOS statistical techniques were used Utilizing SEM twomultiple group structural equation models once with considering students testscores and once without taking into consideration test scores were conducted Thengoodness of fit indices was checked in six steps by applying Maximum Likelihood ML and Bootstrap methods In general the results of the study are as follows TSIn was directly and indirectly related to WTC the relationship between TSIn andAO was accepted there was a significant relationship between AO and WTC Withregards to the relationships between SES and other variables only the direct andpositive relationship between SES and WTC as well as SES and LA wereconfirmed The findings pertaining to the relations of SES TSIn WTC and AOwith LA indicated that all variables except TSIn were related to the students success in LA However the relationship between AO and LA was negative that is if AO increases LA will decreased which was contrary to the results of theprevious studies At the end the suggestions for the future research studies werepresented and some pedagogical implications were discussed Keywords Teacher student interaction Willingness to communicate Anti ought toself Socio economic status Language achievement vi
31
AbstractThis study explores the use of automated linguistic features in English ForeignLanguage EFL argumentative writings Coh Metrix an advanced computationaltext analysis tool was used to analyze 87 linguistic properties of argumentativeessays written by thirty six advanced EFL students track their development overa semester long writing course and examine the degree to which high and lowquality essays can be predicted by objective linguistic measures of cohesion syntactic complexity and lexical diversity The multidimensional analysesdemonstrated that significant growth in the three macro linguistic features in EFLlearners occurred as a function of time spent in the advanced writing class Such agrowth however did not match human holistic judgments of writing quality andfeatures showed growth were not successful at predicting group membership aslow and high quality essays Using regression analysis this study found that threesets of automated measures e g connectives syntactic pattern density and wordinformation were strong predictors of holistic ratings The predictors used in eachsuccessful model support the idea that essays containing complex syntacticstructures e g adverbial complexity and diverse vocabulary e g less concreteand less meaningful words are generally perceived to be of high quality Furthermore the results of this study lend weight to the idea that coherent textshave more explicit cohesive features e g connective devices at least in EFL vi
32
AbstractThis study was an attempt to explore how education for global citizenship GCE isreflected in EFL courses in private language institutes in Isfahan Iran To this end portrayal of GCE in course books and the way Iranian English teachers perceive theconcept of GC and GCE were investigated The study consisted of a quantitative and aqualitative phase In quantitative phase content of Top Notch series which is widelyused as the main course book in EFL classes in Iran was analyzed based on Oxfam sCurriculum Guideline for GCE In qualitative phase semi structured interviews wereconducted with ten Iranian English teachers in order to investigate their perception ofGCE as well as their viewpoint about implementing GCE in EFL classes Participantswere selected purposefully among those teachers who were more experienced inteaching Top Notch books and agreed to take part in the study A mixed method designwas used to merge and synthesize two strands of data The content analysis resultsshowed that Top Notch books did not improve students knowledge and understandingof issues related to GCE However the books performed better in developing relatedskills and giving students the attitude and values of GCE The interview results showedthat the participants were uncertain about the concept of GCE The participants believedthat it is completely relevant to implement GCE component in EFL classes They alsostated that since issues related to GCE are interesting for the students can increasestudents motivation and help them learn English better The findings of the study mayencourage stakeholders to design courses for English teachers in order to develop theirknowledge and understanding skills and values and attitudes of GCE The results canalso be used in developing materials that have GCE related content Keywords Global citizenship global citizenship education textbook analysis teachers perception vii
33
Academic writing has received significant attention in recent years. Effectively, experts, scholars, and students, whether native speakers of English or non-native speakers of English, need to write academically in any related field of study. Furthermore, researchers have stated that written discourse is more elaborated in contrast to spoken discourse, and spoken grammar contains longer, embedded, and more complex clauses or T-Units than spoken grammar and spoken grammar has shorter clauses. Recently, researchers have found that written discourse includes more complex phrases rather than clauses, and phrasal embedded structures have been a reason for the complexity of academic writing. Additionally, nominal phrases and noun phrases are frequent in English academic writing. This study is an attempt to investigate the noun-verb ratio of Persian EFL learners’ academic writings and compare the ratio of their writings to the ratio of native speakers’ academic writing. Essentially, this study aims to shed light on how Persian EFL learners use noun phrases in their academic discourse and whether they have already acquired using embedded noun phrases more than verb phrases in the academic proses or they need instruction in terms of using noun phrases. This study is a corpus-based cross-sectional study that consists of two corpora named learner corpora and criterion corpora. Two corpora constitute 1064 nationally and internationally published academic research papers. Learner corpora includes 568 nationally published research articles in the four disciplines. Criterion corpus comprises 496 research articles that were published in prestigious international journals within four disciplines. Social sciences, basic sciences, engineering, and medical sciences are four disciplines of the study. The result has revealed that mean of noun-verb ratio of learner corpora (10.1673) is much higher than the mean of the noun-verb ratio of criterion corpora (6.4414). Regarding the result of the study, it can be concluded that Persian EFL learners have acquired the nominal, complex, and embedded structures of the written academic discourse. The result was consistent with the previous studies of noun phrases complexity in academic writing. In effect, Persian EFL learners used much more noun phrases in their academic proses compare to English native speakers’ academic writings. Subsequently, Persian EFL learners’ writings comprised significantly complex and embedded structures. One possible reason for the using significant embedded noun phrases can be attributed to overgeneralization. In other words, the acquisition has occurred, but Persian EFL learners overgeneralized the use of complex and embedded noun phrases. As for the implication of the study, theoretically, this research shed light on the performance of Persian EFL learners in terms of nominal and complex noun phrases and noun-verb ratios within their academic writings. Pedagogically, the instructors and the teachers should take into consideration to help and instruct the learners to balance using the complex and embedded nominal phrases in their academic proses.
34
According to the literature, flipped teaching is a relatively new pedagogical approach in which the typical activities of classroom lectures followed by homework in common teaching practice are reversed in order, and most often integrated or supplemented with some types of instructional materials, such as instructional videos or PowerPoint files. This study tried to investigate the effect of flipped learning approach on EFL learners' writing proficiency, writing accuracy, and fluency. To this end, 60 male and female upper-intermediate EFL students studying in a language institute in Isfahan, Iran, at the age range of 15 and 25, were selected and later screened by the use of an Oxford Placement Test (OPT). Two intact classes were also considered as experimental and control groups. The experimental group received the flipped learning approach, while the control group got a set of traditional strategies. A reliable and valid writing proficiency test was used to determine the effect of treatment on the experimental groups’ writing proficiency prior to and after the intervention phase. In order to assess students' writing accuracy and fluency, the IELTS assessment criteria were used. Then, participants were administered a writing motivation questionnaire developed by Daly and Miller (1975) which consisted of 37 items and stress-coping strategies questionnaire designed by Endler and Parker (1990) that contained 48 items aiming to reveal their perspectives towards writing motivation and stress coping strategies. The results of the study indicated that flipped learning approach had a significant effect on the writing proficiency of participants, as shown by their performance on the writing proficiency test. They also revealed that flipped learning approach had a significant effect on EFL learners’ writing accuracy and fluency. Further, there was a significant positive relationship between flipped classroom approach and EFL learners' writing motivation. Additionally, the results indicated that there was a significant relationship between the flipped classroom approach and EFL learners' stress-coping strategies. Hopefully, this research could offer numerous benefits for EFL learners in the context of online classes. It enhances writing accuracy by allowing learners to focus on the application of language skills during class time. Furthermore, it promotes writing motivation by fostering learner autonomy and creating a supportive learning environment. Lastly, flipped learning helps learners develop effective stress coping strategies by providing opportunities for preparation and fostering a sense of community.
35
As online education continues to expan‎d, understan‎ding learners’ emotional experiences has become essential to enhancing digital learning environments. This systematic review investigates how emotion recognition has been studied in online learning contexts between 2010 an‎d 2024, drawing on 17 peer-reviewed articles sourced from IEEE Xplo‎re an‎d ScienceDirect. The review addresses six key research questions. After a Boolean search string was used to gather most relevant articles from databases, several filters were applied. The selec‎tion of studies was based on strict inclusion an‎d exclusion criteria: only studies written in English an‎d published in Q1 o‎r Q2 journals between 2010 an‎d 2024 were considered, while systematic reviews o‎r studies lacking relevance to emotion recognition in online learning were excluded. As a result, only 17 studies met the final criteria, highlighting the scarcity of research in this area. Qualitative coding of the selec‎ted studies revealed that discrete emotions such as happiness, surprise, anger, fear, an‎d sadness were the most frequently examined, with happiness being the most commonly investigated. The findings also highlight the positive potential of emotion recognition technologies to enhance learner engagement an‎d improve e-learning platfo‎rms, though challenges remain regarding participant diversity, data quality, an‎d differences in educational settings. Notably, the limited number of studies, especially concerning language learning an‎d varied populations, undersco‎res significant knowledge gaps. This review offers valuable insights fo‎r researchers, educato‎rs, an‎d policymakers aiming to develop mo‎re adaptive an‎d inclusive online learning systems while emphasizing the need fo‎r broader, mo‎re diverse research across multiple databases an‎d educational contexts.