Department of Applied Linguistics

_______________ More often than not language teachers working in public high schools in Iran complain about their work conditions. The purpose of this study is to develop a systematic explanatory theory of the macro-structures that steer language teachers' work. This grounded theory is based on a volunteer and theoretical sample of 5 experienced language teachers' contributions. The findings were triangulated against a theoretical sample of official documents. The iterative process of data collection and analysis yielded 'forces steering teachers' work' as the core category. This core category pulled together three other categories representing macro-structures, which are beyond language teachers' control. These categories shape teachers' pedagogic practice. The 'mandated national curriculum' controls input. The 'mandated national testing scheme' controls output. The circle of control is tightened by 'make the grade pressure'. In the face of these macro-structures and as a coping strategy, teachers consciously choose to follow an instrumental approach. Being a pure implementer of externally imposed initiatives and schemes, teachers' practice is deprofessionalised. _____________

Research perspectives on teacher evaluation present evaluators with a set of possible acts. Local evaluation systems, on the other hand, specify a permissible set of acts from the total universe. The acts specified within a given locality act as conditions for teacher action. Using the sampling and analytical procedures of grounded theory, this study aims at exploring how evaluation of teaching performance in universities of Iran conditions practitioners' action (conditions), what teachers do in the face of these conditions (action), and the effect these conditions and actions have on practitioners ' professional life (consequences). The findings will be useful for stakeholders since they show the other side of the teacher evaluation coin: one side being the research perspectives while the other being practitioners' perspectives.

Language classes are usually observed via tradition or theory-driven observation schemes that are designed and implemented in a myriad of approaches. However, there is a dearth of research that explores how practitioners perceive and evaluate these methods. Using grounded theory method, this study aims at theorizing language teachers' perceptions of classroom observation. Instead of starting with a pre-specified statistical sample of subjects, this study sampled theoretically-relevant concepts from interview data collected from 12 experienced language teachers who were willing to share their views with the researcher. Iterative data collection and analysis revealed that language teachers welcome the formative function of observation but express overriding concern over judgmental observation. Not only does this conceptualization add to the knowledge-base of classroom observation, it also provides supervisors with a situated body of knowledge that helps them make more informed use of classroom observation.

This study aimed at exploring the comparative effect of reciprocal teaching on EFL learners' reading proficiency. From the total population of freshmen at Shahrood University of Technology (SUT) who enrolled for the General English course, 120 students were randomly selected. The researcher administered and scored the Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT) and then selected subjects whose raw scores were one standard deviation above and below the arithmetic mean. All in all, 70 students were paired based on their rank score. Subjects of the same rank were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups and were instructed through transmission and reciprocal models respectively. A second test, i.e. TOFL, was used for pre-test and post-test. The results showed: (1) a significant (at the 0.05 level) difference in how the control and experimental groups performed in the post test; (2) a significant (at the 0.05 level) difference in how the experimental group performed in pre-test and post test.

The objectives of this study are twofold: (1) uncovering the local criteria for evaluating language-teaching performance, and (2) unraveling and conceptualizing language teachers' perception of these criteria. To this end, the study used grounded theory to iteratively collect and analyze interview data from twelve experienced language teachers who were willing to share their perception of evaluation criteria with the researcher. Instead of starting with a prespecified statistical sample of subjects, the study started with a general question and sampled theoretically relevant concepts, and stopped data collection when the core category and its related concepts and categories were saturated. Since the concerns of the teachers were a recurrent theme, in reporting the results each criterion was juxtaposed with language teachers' concerns related to that criterion. The results can help supervisors make more informed decisions concerning the evaluation of language-teaching performance, and add a series of data-driven, context-sensitive propositions to the knowledge base of language-teacher evaluation.

Theory-driven wash back studies inculcate the view that tests are the only causal factor determining what teachers and students do and as such ignore other local constraints. This data-driven study aims at filling in the gap in the wash back knowledge-base by conceptualizing teachers' perceptions of the university entrance exam (UEE) in Iran. In line with grounded theory, theoretically relevant concepts were sampled from qualitative interviews with experienced language teachers who were willing to share their views with the researcher. Iterative data collection and analysis revealed: (1) a set of local conditions that that make teachers shift away from language teaching towards preparing students for the UEE; (2) how the UEE deprives the nation from professional workforce by deprofessionalizing language teachers and producing a hose of communicatively incompetent high school graduates; and (3) data-driven suggestions for reform.

Abstract—This study aims at finding out whether there are any significant differences between perceived use
of the metacognitive reading strategies by Iranian Master of Science (MSc) students for hypertext and printed
academic  materials.  To  this  end,  fifty  four  students  in  total  were  randomly  selected  from  MSc  students  of
Gonabad  University  of  Medical  Sciences  in  Iran.  Having  received  the  research  instruments,  the  subjects
completed  the  demographic  information  sheet  and  two  other  questionnaires,  i.e.,  the  survey  of  reading
strategies (SORS) and the online survey of reading strategies (OSORS).  The researchers then used the SPSS
software for data analysis.  The  results  showed  that  research subjects  reported  a  moderate  perceived  use  of
metacognitive reading strategies while reading academic hypertext and printed materials.

In many EFL contexts, including language education milieu in Iran, reading fluency is usually taken for granted since
language education in public high schools mainly focuses on reading comprehension. Taking the detrimental effect of
fluency deficiency into account, some practitioners foreground reading fluency and try to develop it early on. To give
voice to their theories of practice, this qualitative study interviewed teachers who were willing to share their experience
with the researchers. In line with grounded theory, the iterative process of data collection and analysis continued until
the  conceptualization  of  fluency  development  techniques  was  saturated.  The  techniques  emerged  are  conducive  to
fluency development and as such the findings have clear implications for practitioners and policy makers nation-wide.

This qualitative study aims at exploring EFL learners’ perceptions of the integrated skills approach to language
teaching. To this end, the researchers presented the integrated skills approach to a group of 30 participants and
interviewed those who were willing to share their views and experience with the researchers. The researchers
used grounded theory to collect and analyze interview data. Iterative data collection and analysis continued until
theoretical saturation was reached. To establish credibility, transient and final categories were verified through
member-checking. The results clearly show that the participants positively perceive this approach. The findings
have implications for all stakeholders including policy makers, syllabus designers, practitioners and learners.

Abstract—This study aimed at comparing the differential effect of vocabulary strategy training and traditional
mode  of  presenting  vocabulary.    To  this  end,  it  statistically  sampled  sixty  EFL  language  learners  form  an
accessible  population  of  700  students.  The  subjects  were  then  randomly  assigned  to  the  experimental  and
control  group.  Prior  to  treatment,  they  were  given  a  vocabulary  test  to  account  for  the  initial  differences
between the two groups and subsequently after the treatment they were given a parallel test to account for the
differential effect of strategy training and traditional mode of presenting words. Student t-test for independent
and  non-independent  samples  was  used  to  analyze  the  data.  The  results  showed  that  strategy  training
produced significantly higher results (t=4.835, p=0.0001<0.05). The study has useful implications for syllabus
designers, teachers and researchers.

Researchers condemn teachers by saying that tradition, rather than research fi nd ings, derive their practice
while teachers condemn researchers by saying that their research fi nd ings are universal generalizations that fail
in practice. To turn mutual distrust to mutual trust, this data-driven study aims at theorizing practice, rather
than enlighten practice through theory-driven research. Th e the oretical sampling of twenty EFL teachers’
perspectives concerning corrective feedback, together with the rigorous coding schemes of grounded theory
yielded some context-sensitive corrective feedback techniques: direct feedback; indirect feedback such as
recast, providing an alternative, asking other students, pausing before the error, providing the rule, using the
correct structure and showing surprise; feedback through other language skills including writing and
listening; and no correction on cognitive, affe ctive and information processing grounds. Moreover analysis
uncovered a set of specifi ca tions on when, where, and why to use these techniques. Not only do the fi nd ings
help practitioners get in-sights and improve their providing feedback, but also they help researchers modify
their hypotheses before testing them through the quantitative research that aims at generalization.

Although  theoretical  perspectives  and  empirical  findings  support  the  facilitative  role  of  first  language  use  in
teaching a foreign or second language, in some contexts practitioners are reluctant to make use of this resource and
those who use it feel guilty. This shows that language teaching follows social norms and expectations rather than
principles of language teaching and learning. To demystify the role of mother tongue in language education, this
study aimed at: reviewing the theoretical perspectives and empirical finings related to first language use; drawing
implications for practitioners and other interested stakeholders. The review clearly shows that, among other things,
teachers  can  use  the  mother  tongue  judiciously  and  reasonably  to:  arouse  a  sense  of  security  in  learners;  build
background  prior  to  reading,  listening,  speaking,  and  writing  tasks  and  activities;  maximize  intake  by  using  L1
(first language) to make the input comprehensible; avoid giving learners the feeling of identity-threatened by the
total rejection of their mother tongue; and help students with comprehension problems when L2 (second language)
fails or is not effective.

Lots  of  studies  have  tried  to  test  the  effect  of  strategy  training  on  vocabulary  development.
However, instead of trying to uncover the strategies that learners actually use, they have tried
to expose learners to a list of strategies supported by theories. Although these theory-driven
studies have provided the field with significant and generalizable findings, they have deprived
it from a deep understanding of vocabulary learning strategies. To fill in this gap, this data-
driven  study  aims  at  conceptualizing  learners’  vocabulary  learning  strategies.  To  uncover
learners’  knowledge  and  use  of  these  strategies,  the  researchers  iteratively  collected  and
analyzed  data  through  open-ended  interviews.  The  rigorous  coding  schemes  of  grounded
theory yielded a set of categories conceptualizing learners’ awareness and use of vocabulary
learning strategies. Although inspiring, the findings show that learners use a limited number of
strategies and this clearly explains lexical deficiency among a great number of Iranian EFL
learners.  This  conceptualization  of  strategy  use  has  clear  implications  for  policy-makers,
practitioners and language learners.

Abstract
Th e a pplied science model of teacher education implies that the relationship between theory and practice is
unidirectional. In this study, however, the researchers make a case in the opposite direction, i.e., they believe
that professional practice can also shed some light on theories of language teaching. Since narrative inquiry is
best for capturing the detailed stories or life experiences of a single life, the researchers took it as a legitimate
mode of research to uncover and make sense of the professional experience of an experienced and
professionally popular language teacher. Analysis revealed six themes, which refle ct the participant’s
professional beliefs. Among other things, she believes that optimizing teaching practice depends on
maximizing learner involvement, focusing on responsive teaching, leaving room for practice, and
personalizing practice. Th e study has clear implications for practitioners and teacher educators.

The present paper embarks on the study of Persian cleft construction within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG henceforth). RRG intends to investigate the interaction of syntax, semantics and pragmatics via the constituent, logical and focus structure as independent but interrelated domains of the paradigm. To start with, an attempt will be made regarding demonstrating the specification role of the cleft construction, which is a universally semantic property of the construction, in the syntactic, semantic and information structures. In Persian clefts, despite that the clefted constituent is the semantic argument of the predicator of the cleft clause, it bears the role of pragmatic predicate assigned by the matrix predicator and the optional presence of the cleft pronoun as well, originating from the non-isomorphic nature of the cleft construction which expresses a single semantic proposition through a bipartition syntax. Given that the copula does not agree with the clause-initial cleft pronoun, albeit with the clefted constituent, and also that the matrix grammatical elements are considered to be merely focalizers, the so-called demonstrative, i.e. "in" is regarded as emphatic pronoun. The syntax-information structure interface in the cleftlike constructions in Persian, such as extraposition and preposed adverbials forms one of the central analyses of this paper where it will be displayed that RRG is much more equipped than the other theories to reflect the linguistic interfaces within various grammatical constructions. Of the most important findings is the necessity to distinguish the anaphoric "in", 'this' in the extraposition construction and the emphatic "in" 'it' in the cleft construction.

The goal of this chapter is to provide a Role and Reference Grammar (RRG henceforth) analysis of cleft sentences in Persian with respect to the role of interaction over the domains of syntax, semantics and information structure. Clefting is functionally motivated by thematically marked expression of a single proposition via bi-partition syntax in the sense that a sequence of two clauses including a matrix and a cleft clause is employed in order to bring into focus an element that can be otherwise expressed as a non-focal element in the unmarked predicate-focus structure. This deviation from the unmarked predicate-focus structure feeds cleft sentences with a non-isomorphic/non-compositional feature that can be accounted for in terms of a constructional framework that encompasses the morphosyntactic, semantic and informational properties that a cleft construction has. RRG is equipped with a bi-lateral syntax-semantics representation that is enriched with discourse-pragmatic considerations which enables it to facilitate processing of linguistic properties of cleft constructions by means of constructional schemas. Non-compositionality in a cleft construction implies that the semantic composition of the whole cleft construction is not the "computable sum of the meaning of its parts" (Lambrecht 1994: 230). That is why a construction-based scrutiny will be necessary to explain how the mapping between semantics and information structure in clefting can be elucidated with respect to the syntactic juxtaposition of the constituents. It will be also discussed that there should be a necessity to distinguish between emphatic in in clefting and anaphoric in in extraposition in the Persian language with regard to the role of information structure that is distinctively formalized in the syntactic templates of the two constructions on the basis of the RRG constructional framework.

This chapter aims to study the prepositional marking and the postpositional marking of the recipient in the Persian non-canonical ditransitive alignments, which are associated respectively with a particular role that the recipient as topic or exhaustive focus plays in the information-structural representation of the benefactive event. I will argue that overriding of the theme and recipient by each other with respect to topicality, grammatically achieved by utilizing two distinct operations including preposing and left-dislocation, determines the intended grammatical marking of the recipient. Moreover, the pragmatic alternation between the two types of coding portrays a constructional pattern which will be accounted for in terms of a Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) framework.