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Research Interests: Sociology and Linguistics
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Drawing on a Symbolic Interactionist perspective and the Grounded Theory methodology, this study aimed to explore self-denigration from the perspective of Iranian applied linguists highlighting the significance of self-denigration as an... more
Drawing on a Symbolic Interactionist perspective and the Grounded Theory methodology, this study aimed to explore self-denigration from the perspective of Iranian applied linguists highlighting the significance of self-denigration as an in-group relational ritual in Iranian doctoral defense sessions. The data were obtained from rigorous coding of the transcripts of two focus groups and a questionnaire built on the findings of the focus group discussions. The findings indicated significant gender differences in terms of the participants’ attitudes toward the functions and meanings of self-denigration. Academic experience was also found to be an important factor in how the participants perceived self-denigration. Through a meticulous analysis of self-denigration in doctoral defense sessions, the present study sheds light on the norms and conventions of the academic discourse of defense sessions, thereby justifying the rights and obligations of the defense session participants.
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Using the methodology of Grounded Theory, this study aims to identify and analyze the perceptions and functions of self-denigration in dissertation defenses. The data comprises transcripts of two focus group discussions and the... more
Using the methodology of Grounded Theory, this study aims to identify and analyze the perceptions and functions of self-denigration in dissertation defenses. The data comprises transcripts of two focus group discussions and the disputation sections of a corpus of 53 applied linguistics doctoral defense sessions gathered from 14 Iranian state universities between 2019 and 2021. The findings suggest that self-denigration depends to a great extent on the role of the participants in a disputation, and it is used before or after a criticism or a response to criticism. The analysis of the data revealed that self-denigration as a sign of respectfulness and modesty in a defense contributes to social decorum, diffidence, coercive self-deprecation, contrived modesty, or flamboyance. This study highlights the importance of self-denigration in the oral academic discourse of EFL defense sessions and has pedagogical implications for oral academic literacy practices.
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This study traces the evolution of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) by investigating published research articles (RAs) in four major CALL journals: ReCALL, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Language Learning & Technology, and... more
This study traces the evolution of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) by investigating published research articles (RAs) in four major CALL journals: ReCALL, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Language Learning & Technology, and CALICO Journal. All 2,397 RAs published over four decades (1983–2019) were included in the pool of data, and the Google Scholar citation metric was adopted to assess the impact of the papers. By selecting the top 15% of widely cited papers from each individual year, we minimized the time bias between years, enabling a balanced narration of the history of CALL through a representative dataset of 426 high-impact RAs. To identify the evolution of research trends, the contexts, methodologies, theoretical underpinnings and research foci of all 426 RAs were investigated using NVivo 12 and AntConc. The analysis of the data yielded encouraging results such as the upward trend in the number of publications and the international reach of CALL in the last two...
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This study attempted to address the issue of how to incorporate formulaic sequences into English forms of Islamic instructions through the medium of high-tech media. To this end, formulaic representation of Islamic culture-based... more
This study attempted to address the issue of how to incorporate formulaic sequences into English forms of Islamic instructions through the medium of high-tech media. To this end, formulaic representation of Islamic culture-based materials, consisting of 90 vocabulary items similar to the words and phrases used in Islamic cultural settings. They were integrated with multimodal cell-phone delivery of cued and non-cued content accessed by 218 Iranian male and female high-school juniors at a pre-intermediary level of English language proficiency. The participants were placed into four different working memory (WM) ability groups, using visual and verbal WM tests, via the short message service (SMS) and multimedia messaging service (MMS) in 18 virtual didactic sessions. Upon treatment, after the end of each virtual session, they were formatively evaluated on their recognition and recall of L2 vocabulary through the mobile-assisted testing module (MATM). The results indicated that except ...
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The present study aimed to find out thematic organization and progression in the argumentative writing of Iranian learners of English, representing two levels of language proficiency, and the introduction section of published Research... more
The present study aimed to find out thematic organization and progression in the argumentative writing of Iranian learners of English, representing two levels of language proficiency, and the introduction section of published Research articles (RAs) of Applied Linguistics. For this aim, 60 articles were downloaded from three journals and also 92 MA and BA students majoring in English Language Teaching and English Literature were selected. Then, three topics were used for gathering data from them. Of the written argumentative compositions, only 67 were chosen for the next phase of the study. These compositions together with the RAs were analyzed based on Halliday’s (1985) model of thematic structure and the revised model of Danes’ (1974) thematic progression patterns. The results of Chi-square suggested that there was a significant difference in the thematic structure of the essays written by MA students and the introduction section of RAs. It was concluded that thematicity can be ef...
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Introduction: No longer thought to be value-neutral, textbooks and other materials used in language learning, generally, present a certain way of looking at the world. With technology development, developing materials for delivery through... more
Introduction: No longer thought to be value-neutral, textbooks and other materials used in language learning, generally, present a certain way of looking at the world. With technology development, developing materials for delivery through the medium of new wireless technology seems indispensable.Materials and Methods: Some new English vocabulary items were adapted to be delivered via mobile to 225 Iranian male and female juniors at the age range of 16-17 during 18 virtual sessions, using both visual and verbal cues. Both formative and summative tests were employed to assess the progress of the participants in the study. In addition, a Likert-type attitude questionnaire was prepared and sent to the students through the medium of text messaging (SMS) to be filled. The collected data were analyzed, using descriptive statistics through SPSS software, version 20.Results: The qualitative and quantitative data analysis revealed the significant effect of cued materials on language learning in mobile-enhanced settings.Conclusion: The multifaceted nature of materials design calls for the inclusion of mobile assistance as wireless technology to facilitate materials presentation and enlarge teacher-student scope of contact (mean = 16.69).
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With the growth in sociality and interaction around touching national and international topics, news sites are increasingly becoming places for communities to discuss and address issues spurred by news articles. Proponents of cyberspace... more
With the growth in sociality and interaction around touching national and international topics, news sites are increasingly becoming places for communities to discuss and address issues spurred by news articles. Proponents of cyberspace promise that online discourse will increase political participation and pave the road for a democratic utopia (Papacharissi, 2004). Comment writers, according to Nagar (2011), essentially represent a well informed community that is highly involved in the political process (p.23). On March 9, 2015 Republican Senators (GOP) wrote a letter to the leaders of Iran telling them that they would not honor the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) after Obama leaves office. This study explored the on-line comments put by Americans dealing with the GOP letter to provide space for that sort of public attitude. This attitude was analyzed through two different perspectives; on one side,it focused on the ways in which participants utilized the markers ofAppra...
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The present study aimed at exploring how research article writers from two academic disciplines exploit phrasal complexity features (PCFs) to verbalize the results sections of research articles with the eventual aim of assisting advanced... more
The present study aimed at exploring how research article writers from two academic disciplines exploit phrasal complexity features (PCFs) to verbalize the results sections of research articles with the eventual aim of assisting advanced EFL writers with their composition strategies. To this end, following a manual search, 200 empirical research articles in the fields of Applied Linguistics and Physics were comparatively examined. Due to the low rate of success of tagging programs in identifying the occurrences of PCFs, the datasets were also manually analyzed. The results revealed that the research article writers drew upon three high-frequency phrasal complexity features, namely, pre-modifying adjectives, post-modifying prepositional phrases, and nominalizations. The study also revealed that the results sections of research articles included different amounts of exceedingly complex patterns of pre-modification, a hybrid of novel appositive structures, and great reliance on hyphena...
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In a challenging criticism-generating oral defense of a doctoral program, examiners evaluate the PhD dissertation so as to confirm its scholarly merit. The main purpose of this ethnographic study was identifying the examiners’... more
In a challenging criticism-generating oral defense of a doctoral program, examiners evaluate the PhD dissertation so as to confirm its scholarly merit. The main purpose of this ethnographic study was identifying the examiners’ expectations of the viva which was achieved by using a content analytic approach for analyzing the disputation section of two applied linguistics doctoral defense sessions from two accredited Iranian universities in 2019. Despite the similar shortcomings in terms of innovation, development, sampling and treatment, raised by the examiners, one of the candidates passed with distinction while the other was suggested re-submission. This finding suggests that the outcome of a viva, in an EFL context, not only depends on adherence to the conventions of doctoral research but is also influenced by the strictness of the examiners, the candidates’ language proficiency, and negotiation skills in this confrontational communicative event. Findings provide evidence for fact...
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The aim of this study is to identify patterns of multimodality and determine whether these patterns relate in any way to social and religious statuses of the Persian and English communities. To this end, by sending an announcement to an... more
The aim of this study is to identify patterns of multimodality and determine whether these patterns relate in any way to social and religious statuses of the Persian and English communities. To this end, by sending an announcement to an Iranian social network, network users were requested to forward their spam letters to one of the researchers' emails. Then, 70 Persian and 70 English spam letters were randomly selected for the rhetorical analysis of the language mode and the image mode. The results of the study indicated that for the image mode, similar strategies were utilized in both Persian and English spam letters. However, some general distinctions were found in the images. For the language mode, clear differences were observed in the employment of rhetorical figures between the spams. Distinctions rooted in cultural and religious values account for the differences in applying the strategies for the image and language modes.
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The present investigation sought to explore the relationship between learning styles and writing behaviors of EFL learners in a blended environment. It also aimed to identify the learning style types best predicting writing behaviors.... more
The present investigation sought to explore the relationship between learning styles and writing behaviors of EFL learners in a blended environment. It also aimed to identify the learning style types best predicting writing behaviors. Initially, the participants' preferred learning styles were identified through the Kolb’s learning style inventory (Kolb, 1984). Secondly, data were obtained through analyzing the Stat counter and Input log data to reveal the pausing, revising and switching behaviors of the participants who attended a writing course in which they developed their writing texts using an online module. The results indicated a negative and significant correlation between the accommodator learning style and the revision behavior. A statistically significant and positive relationship was also found between the converger learning style and the pausing behavior, and between the converger learning style and the revision behavior Furthermore, a positive and significant relat...
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<jats:p>This paper is an initial report of the data analysis phase of a larger study that traces the evolution of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). All published Research Articles (RAs) from four major CALL journals –... more
<jats:p>This paper is an initial report of the data analysis phase of a larger study that traces the evolution of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). All published Research Articles (RAs) from four major CALL journals – ReCALL, CALL, Language Learning &amp; Technology (LL&amp;T) and CALICO Journal – from the very first issues to the end of 2019 were downloaded, sorted, and checked to form the final corpus of 426 highly cited RAs. The trends and themes (research contexts, research participants, and theoretical and methodological considerations of the RAs) were all recorded to see how CALL has evolved over time. Primary findings indicate that empirical studies where learners are physically or virtually involved in the process of technology-mediated language instruction dominate the field of CALL research. Authors resort to both quantitative and qualitative methodologies for data collection and analysis, though mixed-methods has gained more weight in the past two decades. Sociocultural theory stands over and above other theories in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) to frame CALL studies. The paper discusses these issues, and problems detected.</jats:p>
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Following Swales' (1981, 1990) pioneering work on the move structure of research article introductions, the Create-a-Research-Space (CARS) model, a host of genre studies were carried out on different parts of the research article.... more
Following Swales' (1981, 1990) pioneering work on the move structure of research article introductions, the Create-a-Research-Space (CARS) model, a host of genre studies were carried out on different parts of the research article. However, research on the literature review sections in the studies organized in the introduction, literature review, method, result and discussion format remains extremely limited. Even lesser has been done to examine whether the literature review and the introduction as separate sections belong to the same genre. Thus, this study aimed at comparatively investigating research article introductions and literature reviews in the field of applied linguistics, adopting Swales' (2004) CARS model as the point of departure, to reveal how these two sections, when stranded, are different or alike in terms of the utilized rhetorical moves. The data comprised 30 articles, drawn from the most recent issues of 5 International Scientific Indexing journal...
Reflective Teaching in the Context of a Video Club: urturing Professional Relationships and Building a Learner Community KEYWORDS: Reflective teaching Video club Reflection-on-action Reflection-in-action Interaction 52 Reflective Teaching in the Context of a Video Club: Nurturing Professional Rel...more
The purpose of this study was to examine how four teachers used the seven processes of videotape analysis to develop an analytic approach and reflective thinking towards their teaching. The study was organized within video clubs and was... more
The purpose of this study was to examine how four teachers used the seven processes of videotape analysis to develop an analytic approach and reflective thinking towards their teaching. The study was organized within video clubs and was used to describe the interactions among four teachers about their experiences at a language institute. Data were gathered through videotaped recordings of lessons, observations, interviews, transcripts, and questionnaires. Results showed that the seven processes helped these participants develop an analytic approach to their teaching as well as develop their reflective thinking strategies about their practice. These processes created a framework that helped teachers investigate their methods as well as improve their skills to engage in reflective thinking skills. In addition, it was found that the role of the researcher as a facilitator enhanced the participants' learning.
Throughout years, the teaching of structure has vacillated between the explicit teaching of grammar and the total disregard of conscious focus on structure. A host of studies have taken an either-or position in light of one particular... more
Throughout years, the teaching of structure has vacillated between the explicit teaching of grammar and the total disregard of conscious focus on structure. A host of studies have taken an either-or position in light of one particular theoretical approach or another. Two popular approaches to grammar teaching have been presentation, practice, production (PPP) following British applied linguists and focus on form (FF) following recent views on second language acquisition. While a number of studies have addressed one approach or another in different contexts, few studies have addressed this issue in the Iranian High-School context. To this aim, two natural groups were selected and instructed through the above approaches. Results of the post-test indicated that the group receiving instruction through PPP excelled in multiple choice tests while the other group performed better in the completion test. This study suggested a combination of both strategies to structure presentation as a mo...
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This study aims to explore the effect of prompts as themes on developing argumentative essays that represent an important genre of academic writing. Thirty Iranian Master's students of English Language Teaching and Literature took... more
This study aims to explore the effect of prompts as themes on developing argumentative essays that represent an important genre of academic writing. Thirty Iranian Master's students of English Language Teaching and Literature took part in three consecutive test sessions arranged in this research. In each session, the students were divided into two groups: one provided with a writing prompt as a theme and the other without any prompts. The compositions were then rated and examined to find the possible effect of writing prompts on the students' scores and the quality of their argumentative essays. At the same time, the relationship between the students' scores and the organisation of the essays was checked based on a model of argument structure. The results revealed that writing prompts did not have any remarkable effect on the students' scores and the quality of their argumentation. However, regarding the elements of the model, a strong positive relationship was detec...
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Title is the proof of identity of any academic work without which the work would hardly find space in the intended discourse community. Despite studies on their nature, the generic characteristics of titles have not been adequately... more
Title is the proof of identity of any academic work without which the work would hardly find space in the intended discourse community. Despite studies on their nature, the generic characteristics of titles have not been adequately considered. Realizing the need for more empirical investigation, this study focused on the titles of theses and articles in Applied Linguistics. Assuming that titles of theses and articles have little in common as far as their communicative purposes are concerned, the study took into account as many as 1871 thesis and article titles. The titles were categorized according to their varying structural constructions and informativeness. The thesis titles appeared to be more informative while the article titles demonstrated greater variation in their structures. The marked differences in writing titles and the dearth of accepted norms for title writing suggest provision of more comprehensive guidelines would be of benefit to researchers.
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This study aimed to account for metadiscourse variations in the discussion sections of articles written in Persian and English and published in Iranian as well as international scholarly journals in English Language Teaching and... more
This study aimed to account for metadiscourse variations in the discussion sections of articles written in Persian and English and published in Iranian as well as international scholarly journals in English Language Teaching and Psychiatry. For this purpose, 90 research article discussions were selected, and then hedges and boosters were identified based on the taxonomies of metadiscourse markers. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed significant differences in frequency, type, and functions of these devices in the texts. These differences might be attributed to lack of awareness of the conventional rules of English rhetoric, limited and fragile knowledge of academic English by Persian writers, and lack of explicit instruction and exposure to pragmatic and sociolinguistic rules of English by Persian researchers. Further research in other disciplines will help to make more accurate generalizations about the role of metadiscourse markers in research articles.
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This study attempted to capitalize on hedges in English academic abstracts written by three groups of researchers, namely native speakers of English, native speakers of Persian and native speakers of other languages. To this end, a corpus... more
This study attempted to capitalize on hedges in English academic abstracts written by three groups of researchers, namely native speakers of English, native speakers of Persian and native speakers of other languages. To this end, a corpus of 552 thesis and dissertation abstracts from nine disciplines was selected and their hedges were computed. The recorded hedges were then classified according to the established models, and the preferred hedging types in each rhetorical section were determined. Results of the analysis demonstrated that conventional hedges, hedges by passive voice and hedges by putting oneself at a distance from the data were the predominant types of hedges employed in the abstracts. The analysis could hardly show disciplinary and group variations in terms of the incorporation of hedging devices. The study suggests sufficient attention be paid to descriptions of linguistic and rhetorical devices in English if non-native speakers wish to publish their academic writin...
Lectures, as an indispensable channel of knowledge, have drawn the attention of many dis-course analysts. The present study investigates the organization of academic lecture closings, level of formality, and verbal and non-verbal cues for... more
Lectures, as an indispensable channel of knowledge, have drawn the attention of many dis-course analysts. The present study investigates the organization of academic lecture closings, level of formality, and verbal and non-verbal cues for the ending of classes. To this end, 1500 minutes of 100 recorded Persian academic lectures were transcribed and the relating parts analyzed to explore the rhetorical structure of their termination points. Results showed that Persian lecturers used a wide range of strategies in lecture closings. Answering questions, raising questions, and indicating the end of the lecture were the most frequently used strate-gies. Moreover, most strategies tended to cluster at the pre-ending stage. Findings also re-vealed that lecturers in Persian academic settings employ collective you to enhance teacher-student distance and degree of formality. The study can provide lecturers with practical appli-cations regarding the structure of lecture closings.
Research Interests: Psychology and Persian
Mobile-game (m-game)-enhanced learning offers beneficiaries a modern and attractive window of opportunity to practice and learn language skills and subskills. Through grafting m-games onto the blended module of second language (L2)... more
Mobile-game (m-game)-enhanced learning offers beneficiaries a modern and attractive window of opportunity to practice and learn language skills and subskills. Through grafting m-games onto the blended module of second language (L2) vocabulary teaching, this study endeavored to help educators to see if an m-game-enhanced didactic platform is applicable for L2 teaching and assessment. One-hundred fifty two females and males from four classes at Ahvaz Jundishpur University of Medicine were selected through purposive sampling to participate in this study. To embrace triangulation, data were aggregated via of formative and summative assessments of the participants' performance, attitude questionnaire, as well as a semi-structured interview. After participating in Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), the participants answered the preresearch questionnaire. Afterwards, for a period of an 18-blended-session course, they were taught the materials by their instructors inside the classroom and th...
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Abstract With an accumulated number of over 190 min of the Persian and English sportscasts of the 2014 FIFA World Cup semifinal between Brazil and Germany analyzed, this study focused on the promotional metadiscursive features used by the... more
Abstract With an accumulated number of over 190 min of the Persian and English sportscasts of the 2014 FIFA World Cup semifinal between Brazil and Germany analyzed, this study focused on the promotional metadiscursive features used by the commentators while reporting this game in their respective languages. The transcribed sportscasts were first examined in order to reveal the different constituents modified by existing promotional elements and to discover the functions they fulfilled in the context. A careful analysis of the data yielded 8 different general categories that were modified by promotional components, namely players, coaches and their staff and referees comprising the first group, accompanied by spectators, competitions, institutions, the media, venues, the weather and miscellaneous features constituting the other seven categories. The functions observed in the reports were illocution markers, attitude markers and commentary. The study provides evidence that promotional metadiscursive features are an integral part of soccer sportscasts, and it can also be considered as a platform on which to further develop similar research prospects in less appreciated areas of inquiry.
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This study made frequency and functional analysis of thematization in English students’ compositions in Shahid Chamran University. Ninety students were selected and divided into three groups, followed by a homogeneity test (Fowler and... more
This study made frequency and functional analysis of thematization in English students’ compositions in Shahid Chamran University. Ninety students were selected and divided into three groups, followed by a homogeneity test (Fowler and Coe, 1976). An educated native speaker was also used as a criterion measure. Then, they were asked to narrate three pictorial stories, given to them, each in a 30-minute session. The data were analyzed based on Halliday (1985) and McCabe (1999) models of thematicity. The results suggested thematically different compositions in terms of interpersonal, unmarked, simple, and multiple themes. The results also showed that students’ level of language proficiency monitor the use of linear and split thematic progression chains. This study may have implications for teaching composition writing at different levels of language proficiency.
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While identifying the generic structure of academic introductions has been the focus of extensive research over the last few decades, investigating some, if not all, of the available linguistic resources that realize the identified... more
While identifying the generic structure of academic introductions has been the focus of extensive research over the last few decades, investigating some, if not all, of the available linguistic resources that realize the identified generic structures seems to have been largely under-focused. In order to shed light on the way that the communicative purposes performed by academic introductions depict themselves in the linguistic choices exploited by language producers, the present study aimed to investigate the thematic organizations that characterize three main variations within the introductory sections of 60 academic textbooks (20 forewords, 20 introductions, 20 prefaces). Two analytical models, namely Halliday's (1994) categorization of theme and McCabe's (1999) specification of thematic progression patterns were incorporated. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of the results indicated that the differences between the three introductory variations in thematic config...
Among the linguistic resources for creating grammatical metaphor, nominalization rewords processes and properties metaphorically as nouns within the experiential metafunction of language. Following Halliday's (1998a) classification of... more
Among the linguistic resources for creating grammatical metaphor, nominalization rewords processes and properties metaphorically as nouns within the experiential metafunction of language. Following Halliday's (1998a) classification of grammatical metaphor, the current study investigated nominalization exploited in an English applied linguistics textbook and its corresponding Persian translation. Selection of these textbooks was motivated by consulting 10 ELT professors. Analysis started by identifying nominalization instances and recurrent patterns of nominalization in the books through adopting a mixed approach. The frequency of nominal expressions was counted, and eventually chi-square was run to find out the probable significance of nominalization use in English and Persian academic text samples. The quantitative differences in using nominalization turned out to be significant, and results revealed variations in the ranking patterns of nominalization in both texts. Qualities ...