Mahmood Reza Atai
Department of Applied Linguistics & TEFL,Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
[ 1 ] - Exploring Standards and Developing a Measure for Evaluating Iranian EFL Teachers’ Professional Competence in the Private Sector
The primary foundation of teacher evaluation is establishing standards for assessing the optimal characteristics of qualified teachers. The present study aimed at exploring standards of professional competence of adult-level Iranian EFL teachers in the private sector and developing a questionnaire to assess their professional competence. To this end, initially, the members of the professional...
[ 2 ] - Tracing Metadiscursive Stance over Time and Across Disciplines: A Comparative Study of English Research Articles
Research in academic writing has revealed a strong tendency on the part of writers to interactively communicate their scientific findings with their readers. In doing so, the writers should take a position while arguing their propositions. This interaction as proposed by Hyland (2005b) takes places having two sides of stance and engagement. This study targeted the stance component of writer-rea...
[ 3 ] - A Social Semiotic Analysis of Social Actors in English-Learning Software Applications
This study drew upon Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006, [1996]) visual grammar and Van Leeuwen’s (2008) social semiotic model to interrogate ways through which social actors of different races are visually and textually represented in four award-winning English-learning software packages. The analysis was based on narrative actional/reactional processes at the ideational level; mood, perspective, ...
[ 4 ] - ارزشیابی صلاحیت حرفه ای مدرسین زبان انگلیسی سطح بزرگسال در بخش خصوصی آموزش زبان ایران
چکیده هدف اصلی ارزشیابی استاندارد-محور تضمین کیفت و مسئولیت‌پذیری معلمان در محیطهای آموزشی است. این پژوهش سعی در ارزشیابی صلاحیت حرفه‌ای معلمان سطح بزرگسال شاغل در آموزشگاه‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌های خصوصی ایران دارد. بدین منظور، 385 معلم شاغل به خدمت در اقصی نقاط ایران به پرسشنامه خودارزیابی معلمان زبان (نویسنده و همکاران، 2016) پاسخ دادند. به علاوه، با 25 نفر از آنها در مناطق مختل...
[ 5 ] - محتوای آموزشی دوره های آموزش زبان با اهداف خاص کانون زبان ایران: ارزیابی سطوح کلان، میانی، و خرد
موفقیت یک دورۀ آموزشی مستلزم نیازسنجی، به روزرسانی مستمر و همچنین حصول اطمینان از درک متقابل و همسوی افراد ذینفع در سطوح کلان، میانی و خرد از جنبه‌های مختلف آموزشی آن دوره است. در این پژوهش، برای فراهم سازی بایسته های بازنگری و رفع اشکالات احتمالی دوره‌های نوپای آموزش زبان با اهداف خاص کانون زبان ایران صورت گرفته است. در این پژوهش که بخشی از یک برنامۀ پژوهشی گسترده است، با بهره گیری از پرسشنامه...
[ 6 ] - Evaluation of EAP Programs in Iran: Document Analysis and Expert Perspectives
This study aimed to examine the policies in the Iranian English for Academic Purposes (EAP) education and the extent to which objectives match the policies and are materialized in practice. To this end, course descriptions in the syllabi for the EAP programs were evaluated through document analysis and triangulated with the experts’ perspectives through interviews to examine the current status ...
[ 7 ] - Exploring the Conceptions of Academic Reading Comprehension by Iranian Graduate Students of Applied Linguistics
Although the importance of reading in higher education as an index of success has been highlighted, the metacognitive knowledge or beliefs of graduate students have remained under-researched. This qualitative study reports on a study that, first, examines how graduate students of applied linguistics conceive of academic reading and academic readers in their graduate programs; second, wh...
[ 8 ] - The Effect of Scaffolded Written Corrective Feedback on Iranian EFL Learners’ Writing Quality: An Activity Theory Perspective
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 ...
[ 9 ] - An Investigation into Iranian EAP Teachers’ Burnout and its Variations in Relation to Their Demographic and Organizational Characteristics
Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses is highly demanding for EAP teachers as they are faced with diverse pedagogical and administrative challenges in such courses. This study addressed the level of burnout among EAP teachers and variations in relation to their demographic and organizational characteristics. To this aim, a demographic questionnaire along with the Persian version ...