This article reports the results of an investigation into Iranian EFL learners' perceived us... more This article reports the results of an investigation into Iranian EFL learners' perceived use of language learning strategies (LLSs) overall, the six strategy categories (memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective, and social) as well as the 50 individual strategies ...
This paper sets off with an argument that as an outcome of modernism, medical sciences excluded h... more This paper sets off with an argument that as an outcome of modernism, medical sciences excluded human soul and spirit and followed a more, if not mere, mechanico-chemical approach in treating patients. It then discusses alternative approaches to medicine and that models of medicine and health care are looking into not only the fundamental spiritual dimension of care, but also the significance of spiritual development of the individual towards healing. The paper presents Avicenna as a forerunner in medical sciences with a (w) holistic view while his contribution to cure and healing will be highlighted. The paper will end with some concluding remarks.
Abstract The purpose of the present study was to check, on the one hand, whether or not Sentence ... more Abstract The purpose of the present study was to check, on the one hand, whether or not Sentence Combining Plus (SC+) can affect L2 learners' writing performance, and on the other hand, in what type of strategies are learners involved when doing SC+ exercises. Two homogenous groups of sophomore students were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The study consisted of two parts. In the first part, the experimental group was exposed to SC+ exercises as treatment and the control group practiced SC (Sentence Combining) only. The results of t-tests revealed that the practice of SC+ caused a significant improvement on the students' writing performance. This improvement was, in particular, evident in the areas of content, organization, and language use. In the second part of the study, ten students--five from the experimental and five from the control group--were randomly selected and studied for the type of strategies they used through introspective interviews. Results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses of the introspective interviews showed that students who had practiced SC+ used more effective strategies. Moreover, they paid more attention to aspects of cohesion and evaluation than did the students from the control group. Based on the findings of the study, we can safely state that the practice of SC+ in intermediate writing courses will improve students' writing skill. An evidence for this, besides students' well performance on a posttest writing task, has been an enhancement of effective strategy use by them. ********** Sentence Combining (SC) and Writing Quality Different techniques have been innovated to help L2 learners to improve their overall writing ability and quality. Sentence combining (SC) is one of these activities. By definition, SC is a technique in which the learner combines basic sentences to produce longer and more complex sentences. Several pieces of research have been done into the effects of SC on L2 learners' writing ability and quality. The results obtained from these bodies of research show that this technique can enhance the quality of learners' writing (see, for example, Miller and Ney, 1967; Combs, 1975; Cooper, 1977, 1981; Klassen, 1977; Daiker et al., 1978; Swan, 1979; Kerek et al., 1980). While these pieces of research show the usefulness of SC technique, other investigations have criticized SC as a legitimate practice in writing classes (see, for example, Zamel, 1980; Crowhurst and Klein, 1983; Holzman, 1983; Enginarlar, 1994). Enginarlar (1994: 217) states the weaknesses of SC as following: Firstly, although they involve some meaning negotiation and composing at sentence level, they are in fact non-rhetorical exercises, removed from the realities of real composing processes. Secondly, in the absence of a context beyond sentence level, as is often the case, the class discussion of various solutions created by students is doomed to be ineffectual. As such, Enginarlar (1994) presents a new form of the older technique. This is Sentence Combining Plus (SC+), which involves not only sentence combining but also ordering jumbled sentences to make meaningful texts. With regard to the type of strategies second language writers use at the time of writing, Johnson (1992) conducted a study on the learning strategies L2 writers used when doing SC tasks. The strategies reported to include: questioning, planning, restating content, constructing meaning, constructing cohesion, and evaluation. The present study intended firstly to investigate whether or not SC+ exercises have any effects on the overall writing ability and quality of L2 learners by testing the following null hypothesis: H0: There is no significant difference between students' quality of writing whether taught by SC+ or SC. The study also attempted to investigate the type of learning strategies the participants used during the completion of SC+ and SC exercises. …
The practice of translation quality assessment is intimately tied to and framed by the theoretica... more The practice of translation quality assessment is intimately tied to and framed by the theoretical assumptions and beliefs about quality translation and translation quality, regardless of whether they are explicitly articulated or tacitly fostered. Thinking through these theoretical quality assessment underpinnings can aid assessment researchers and practitioners to develop deeper understanding of translation quality and hence its assessment. While translation assessment literature abounds with traditional, narrow approach of forcing translation quality into artificially neat dichotomous or polytomous divisions, we tend to argue that this approach is unhelpful as it proved to be unable to engender a common shared platform of discourse among assessment theorists and practitioners, particularly when it comes to translation assessment in education. It also appears that the concept of translation quality has been confused for the construct of translation ability. Maintaining that quality impinges on quality performance which, itself, is underlied by the construct of translation ability, we argue that we need to turn the debate on and the quest for the hardly practically applicable polar divisions to more theoretical and empirical characterization of what quality generates from. As a step forward, we further suggest that translation researchers and testers address the relationship between translation competence and translation performance in the context of translation assessment research and practice.
European Journal of Social Sciences Volume 20, Number 3 (2011) ... Beliefs and Autonomy: A Case... more European Journal of Social Sciences Volume 20, Number 3 (2011) ... Beliefs and Autonomy: A Case of Iranian Students ... Sara Kashefian-Naeeini Shiraz University, Eram Square, School of Literature and Humanity Science, Shiraz 71945, Iran E-mails: ...
Abstract This study aimed at investigating the language learning style preferences of Iranian EFL... more Abstract This study aimed at investigating the language learning style preferences of Iranian EFL learners, and the degree of teachers' awareness of them. To this end, 219 language learners (121 males and 98 females) from different levels of instruction and different ages ...
Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal, Mar 31, 2009
This paper sets off with an argument that as an outcome of modernism, medical sciences excluded h... more This paper sets off with an argument that as an outcome of modernism, medical sciences excluded human soul and spirit and followed a more, if not mere, mechanico-chemical approach in treating patients. It then discusses alternative approaches to medicine and that models of medicine and health care are looking into not only the fundamental spiritual dimension of care, but also the significance of spiritual development of the individual towards healing. The paper presents Avicenna as a forerunner in medical sciences with a (w) holistic view while his contribution to cure and healing will be highlighted. The paper will end with some concluding remarks.
This article reports the results of an investigation into Iranian EFL learners' perceived us... more This article reports the results of an investigation into Iranian EFL learners' perceived use of language learning strategies (LLSs) overall, the six strategy categories (memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective, and social) as well as the 50 individual strategies ...
This paper sets off with an argument that as an outcome of modernism, medical sciences excluded h... more This paper sets off with an argument that as an outcome of modernism, medical sciences excluded human soul and spirit and followed a more, if not mere, mechanico-chemical approach in treating patients. It then discusses alternative approaches to medicine and that models of medicine and health care are looking into not only the fundamental spiritual dimension of care, but also the significance of spiritual development of the individual towards healing. The paper presents Avicenna as a forerunner in medical sciences with a (w) holistic view while his contribution to cure and healing will be highlighted. The paper will end with some concluding remarks.
Abstract The purpose of the present study was to check, on the one hand, whether or not Sentence ... more Abstract The purpose of the present study was to check, on the one hand, whether or not Sentence Combining Plus (SC+) can affect L2 learners' writing performance, and on the other hand, in what type of strategies are learners involved when doing SC+ exercises. Two homogenous groups of sophomore students were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The study consisted of two parts. In the first part, the experimental group was exposed to SC+ exercises as treatment and the control group practiced SC (Sentence Combining) only. The results of t-tests revealed that the practice of SC+ caused a significant improvement on the students' writing performance. This improvement was, in particular, evident in the areas of content, organization, and language use. In the second part of the study, ten students--five from the experimental and five from the control group--were randomly selected and studied for the type of strategies they used through introspective interviews. Results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses of the introspective interviews showed that students who had practiced SC+ used more effective strategies. Moreover, they paid more attention to aspects of cohesion and evaluation than did the students from the control group. Based on the findings of the study, we can safely state that the practice of SC+ in intermediate writing courses will improve students' writing skill. An evidence for this, besides students' well performance on a posttest writing task, has been an enhancement of effective strategy use by them. ********** Sentence Combining (SC) and Writing Quality Different techniques have been innovated to help L2 learners to improve their overall writing ability and quality. Sentence combining (SC) is one of these activities. By definition, SC is a technique in which the learner combines basic sentences to produce longer and more complex sentences. Several pieces of research have been done into the effects of SC on L2 learners' writing ability and quality. The results obtained from these bodies of research show that this technique can enhance the quality of learners' writing (see, for example, Miller and Ney, 1967; Combs, 1975; Cooper, 1977, 1981; Klassen, 1977; Daiker et al., 1978; Swan, 1979; Kerek et al., 1980). While these pieces of research show the usefulness of SC technique, other investigations have criticized SC as a legitimate practice in writing classes (see, for example, Zamel, 1980; Crowhurst and Klein, 1983; Holzman, 1983; Enginarlar, 1994). Enginarlar (1994: 217) states the weaknesses of SC as following: Firstly, although they involve some meaning negotiation and composing at sentence level, they are in fact non-rhetorical exercises, removed from the realities of real composing processes. Secondly, in the absence of a context beyond sentence level, as is often the case, the class discussion of various solutions created by students is doomed to be ineffectual. As such, Enginarlar (1994) presents a new form of the older technique. This is Sentence Combining Plus (SC+), which involves not only sentence combining but also ordering jumbled sentences to make meaningful texts. With regard to the type of strategies second language writers use at the time of writing, Johnson (1992) conducted a study on the learning strategies L2 writers used when doing SC tasks. The strategies reported to include: questioning, planning, restating content, constructing meaning, constructing cohesion, and evaluation. The present study intended firstly to investigate whether or not SC+ exercises have any effects on the overall writing ability and quality of L2 learners by testing the following null hypothesis: H0: There is no significant difference between students' quality of writing whether taught by SC+ or SC. The study also attempted to investigate the type of learning strategies the participants used during the completion of SC+ and SC exercises. …
The practice of translation quality assessment is intimately tied to and framed by the theoretica... more The practice of translation quality assessment is intimately tied to and framed by the theoretical assumptions and beliefs about quality translation and translation quality, regardless of whether they are explicitly articulated or tacitly fostered. Thinking through these theoretical quality assessment underpinnings can aid assessment researchers and practitioners to develop deeper understanding of translation quality and hence its assessment. While translation assessment literature abounds with traditional, narrow approach of forcing translation quality into artificially neat dichotomous or polytomous divisions, we tend to argue that this approach is unhelpful as it proved to be unable to engender a common shared platform of discourse among assessment theorists and practitioners, particularly when it comes to translation assessment in education. It also appears that the concept of translation quality has been confused for the construct of translation ability. Maintaining that quality impinges on quality performance which, itself, is underlied by the construct of translation ability, we argue that we need to turn the debate on and the quest for the hardly practically applicable polar divisions to more theoretical and empirical characterization of what quality generates from. As a step forward, we further suggest that translation researchers and testers address the relationship between translation competence and translation performance in the context of translation assessment research and practice.
European Journal of Social Sciences Volume 20, Number 3 (2011) ... Beliefs and Autonomy: A Case... more European Journal of Social Sciences Volume 20, Number 3 (2011) ... Beliefs and Autonomy: A Case of Iranian Students ... Sara Kashefian-Naeeini Shiraz University, Eram Square, School of Literature and Humanity Science, Shiraz 71945, Iran E-mails: ...
Abstract This study aimed at investigating the language learning style preferences of Iranian EFL... more Abstract This study aimed at investigating the language learning style preferences of Iranian EFL learners, and the degree of teachers' awareness of them. To this end, 219 language learners (121 males and 98 females) from different levels of instruction and different ages ...
Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal, Mar 31, 2009
This paper sets off with an argument that as an outcome of modernism, medical sciences excluded h... more This paper sets off with an argument that as an outcome of modernism, medical sciences excluded human soul and spirit and followed a more, if not mere, mechanico-chemical approach in treating patients. It then discusses alternative approaches to medicine and that models of medicine and health care are looking into not only the fundamental spiritual dimension of care, but also the significance of spiritual development of the individual towards healing. The paper presents Avicenna as a forerunner in medical sciences with a (w) holistic view while his contribution to cure and healing will be highlighted. The paper will end with some concluding remarks.
Mixed methods research (MMR), where quantitative and qualitative methods are combined in the coll... more Mixed methods research (MMR), where quantitative and qualitative methods are combined in the collecting and analyzing of research data, is gaining increasing prominence and utility across a range of academic disciplines, including applied linguistics and language teaching and learning. This is the first volume to examine MMR in language teaching and learning, and how such a methodology works in practice. It brings together the main topics related to MMR to help researchers better understand and use the methodology. In addition to detailed discussion of the theoretical (for example, the world-views underlying MMR) and the practical (purposes, designs, data collection and analysis), the book presents a framework for analyzing MMR studies (FRAMMR). Using FRAMMR, eight published MMR articles addressing different topics in language teaching and learning are analyzed, and eight more are suggested for analysis by readers. This volume presents a coherent and transparent discussion of the sometimes confusing MMR issues and topics. As a new and developing research methodology, MMR poses its own challenges to researchers. These challenges are discussed so that researchers can consider them when planning for and implementing MMR projects. The book also discusses writing MMR proposals, which will be of particular interest to postgraduate and doctoral students as well as early career researchers who will be preparing thesis or research proposals.
The study reported in this chapter investigates the nature of real-life academic writing assignme... more The study reported in this chapter investigates the nature of real-life academic writing assignments. Data were collected from 22 postgraduate students studying at four major universities in New South Wales, Australia, and included unit outlines which describe writing assignments, an online questionnaire which participants completed as soon as they submitted each of their academic writing assignments, and individual interviews with each participant regarding their activities when writing the assignments. Results show that the academic writing assignments could be classified predominantly as expository essays and reports, which required participants to write from sources. Moreover, results of the data analysis of the online questionnaires and qualitative interview data indicated that the participants were actively involved in the sub-processes of planning, composing, and monitoring (reviewing and revising) when completing their academic writing assignments and used specific strategies in each sub-process. Results of the study are discussed and the implications are explored.
Research into second language writing has developed in depth and scope over the past few decades.... more Research into second language writing has developed in depth and scope over the past few decades. Researchers have shown growing interest in new approaches to the teaching and assessing of writing. The provision of diagnostic and/or (automated) corrective feedback (Lee & Coniam, 2013; Liu & Kunnan, 2016), predicting writers’ ability using psycholinguistic features of their essays (Riazi, 2016) and rater performance (Schaefer, 2008) are but a few major research streams in second language writing. Such new approaches have been discussed heatedly in the scholarly literature, but there remains a need to investigate new issues emerging from these fields in different environments. Specifically, the role of assessment in writing, the validity of the uses and interpretations of qualitative feedback and scores, and the effectiveness of genre-based approaches to writing continue to be major causes of concerns for practitioners and researchers alike.
ELT in Asia in the Digital Era: Global Citizenship and Identity, 2018
Needs analysis in school context has not been much researched despite the strategic role of needs... more Needs analysis in school context has not been much researched despite the strategic role of needs analysis in providing essential curriculum development-related information (Brown, 1995; Richards, 1990, 2001). The present study intended to examine Indonesian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ patterns of conceptualizations in analyzing student needs. Such patterns were portrayed within a larger study on teachers’ conceptualizations of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as represented in their instructional curriculum design. A qualitative multiple-case study involving purposive within- and cross-case sampling techniques (Miles, Huberman, & Saldana, 2014; Stake, 2006; Yin, 2014) was employed to select three experienced and three inexperienced EFL teachers of public junior high schools in the Yogyakarta Province, Indonesia. Sources of data included instructional curriculum design assessments and pre-lesson semi-structured interviews were collected. The cross-case comparisons revealed that the teachers’ patterns of con-ceptualizations in analyzing needs were characterized by the form and sources of needs analysis.
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The provision of diagnostic and/or (automated) corrective feedback (Lee & Coniam, 2013; Liu & Kunnan, 2016), predicting writers’ ability using psycholinguistic features of their essays (Riazi, 2016) and rater
performance (Schaefer, 2008) are but a few major research streams in second language writing. Such new approaches have been discussed heatedly in the scholarly literature, but there remains a need to investigate new issues emerging from these fields in different environments. Specifically, the role of assessment in writing, the validity of the uses and interpretations of qualitative feedback and scores,
and the effectiveness of genre-based approaches to writing continue to be major causes of concerns for practitioners and researchers alike.