Seyyed Bagher Mirshojaee

... The same results were obtained by Abdi (2009), Marandi (2003). These are the examples of attitude markers in PRAs: . ... [elme zæbanshenasi væbekhosoos ara væ æfkare Ferdinand de Saussure dær ebtedaye ghærne bistom tæsire besæzai bar næzæriyeye ædæbiye in ...

To explore Iranian professionally developed English teachers’ passion for the English language teaching profession, an interview with 7 open-ended questions was conducted to 14 Iranian professionally developed teachers to discover what factors were at work in their professional growth. Participants included 8 Ph.D. holders, 3 Ph.D. candidates, and 3 M.A. holders in TEFL who had more than 20 years of service in the Iranian context and were chosen by purposive sampling. After interviewing the participants via a standard interview and delving deeply into the emotional aspects of their professional journey throughout their lives, the following factors emerged from the analysis of the transcriptions of the interviews as reasons to have and sustain passion for language teaching profession: acceptance of change, cooperating with colleagues, being a model, establishing relationships, helping the students, meeting personal needs, contributing to the society, and love of learning/language.

To explore Iranian professionally developed English teachers' passion for the English language teaching profession, an interview with 7 open-ended questions was conducted to 14 Iranian professionally developed teachers to discover what factors were at work in their professional growth. Participants included 8 Ph.D. holders, 3 Ph.D. candidates, and 3 M.A. holders in TEFL who had more than 20 years of service in the Iranian context and were chosen by purposive sampling. After interviewing the participants via a standard interview and delving deeply into the emotional aspects of their professional journey throughout their lives, the following factors emerged from the analysis of the transcriptions of the interviews as reasons to have and sustain passion for language teaching profession: acceptance of change, cooperating with colleagues, being a model, establishing relationships, helping the students, meeting personal needs, contributing to the society, and love of learning/language.

... The same results were obtained by Abdi (2009), Marandi (2003). These are the examples of attitude markers in PRAs: . ... [elme zæbanshenasi væbekhosoos ara væ æfkare Ferdinand de Saussure dær ebtedaye ghærne bistom tæsire besæzai bar næzæriyeye ædæbiye in ...

This study aimed to find the solution for students' lack of engagement in classroom. The researchers used peer-assessment (PA) practice in classroom based on small group collaboration. 21 male high school students took part in this research. They were in Grade 10 th and had been studied physics and mathematics course in 15 th Khordad public high school in Sari, Mazandaran, Iran. To conduct this research, three instruments were used including teacher-made test, students' engagement questionnaire, and peer-evaluation observation checklist. The researchers implemented PA practice in their classroom in which participants were divided into seven groups each had three members with different proficiency levels. These groups' members were supposed to practice PA on their exams. Also, the students were asked to answer students' engagement questionnaire in order to put their idea about PA practice and the teacher observed all the groups' members and filled the peer-evaluat...

This is a corpus study aimed to compare six Iranian general English university textbook's reading comprehension passages and the passages of reading comprehension section of MA exams from 2010 to 2014. The study used three reading related factors to make the comparison: vocabulary coverage, syntactic complexity and discourse features. To meet these needs, three test types were used: measures of vocabulary coverage by the vocabprofiler software, measures of readability by means of readability formulas and measures of text easibility of the Coh-Metrix software. The analyses showed a big gap between what textbooks offered with regard to vocabulary, structures and discourse and what the MA examinations asked from the readers regarding the reading comprehension processes. The findings and results were presented along with the pedagogical implications and some suggestions for future researches.

This is a qualitative study aimed at assessing the assessment literacy (AL) of 20 Iranian
English language teachers, 10 working in public high schools and 10 working in English
language institutes. All the participants had more than 5 years of experience, selected based on
convenient sampling. The instrument used in this study was a semi-structured interview made up
of 14 guiding questions focusing on AL concepts drawn from the literature. The results of the
study showed that the participants’ AL was not satisfactory in issues like assessment bias,
validity evidence, assessment reliability, alternatives in assessment, formative assessment,
assessing students with disabilities, social consequences of assessment results, and students’
involvement.

If we consider one part of language pedagogy as a place of especial vulnerability looking from ELF standpoint, that spot will be language testing. Each variety of World Englishes (WEs) has its own norm. Based on their norms, their proficiency can be defined operationally. But the problem gets worse when it comes to testing English from a global perspective since we do not know whose norms should be used. The problem with TOEFL and IELTS tests is that their criteria for measuring proficiency are candidate’s use of particular features of English which are used and accepted as standards by highly educated native speakers of English. Other nations take shelter in TOEFL and IELTS because they lack such powerfully constructed and globally administered and supported tests. An immediate action should be taken to think about the most appropriate tests which take into account linguistic, ethnic, cultural, ideological, social, and political realities of both the local and global needs of English users. The democratic complementary model (DCM) offered in this paper deems both local norms and global norms as standards and via such standards all varieties have the same chance of appropriateness and degree of being problematic. The model puts forward a democratic norm specification in which all members of English varieties have the same challenge and common concern for the same cause i.e. intelligibility. This paper will firstly deal with the problems of language testing using native speaker (NS) norms; secondly introduce the model and its exigencies and then deal with defining competencies using the tenets of this model.

Metadiscourse refers to those linguistic devices which not only organize a text but also signal the writer’s attitude towards the text and readers. This study compared English and Persian Linguistic and Sociological research articles (RAs) for the use of interactive metadiscourse within the framework of Hyland’s (2004) classification of metadiscourse. The corpus included 40 research articles, 20 in Persian and 20 in English. Words of the introduction and discussion sections of RAs were counted and the frequency of metadiscursive devices was obtained. The Chi Square test of significance showed that RAs were not different in the use of frame markers, evidentials, and code glosses but English RAs contained significantly more transitions, endophoric markers. It is concluded that interactive metadiscourse plays an important part in research article writing and their use is related to culture and norms of research writing. The difference in the use of interactive resources shows the differences of writing culture of the Persian and English writers.

Metadiscourse refers to those linguistic devices which not only organize a text but also signal the writer’s attitude towards the text and readers. In this study, English and Persian Linguistic and Sociological research articles (RAs) were compared for the use of interactional metadiscourse using Hyland’s (2004) model of metadiscourse. The corpus included 40 research articles, 20 in Persian and 20 in English. The frequency of the interactional resources in the introduction and discussion sections of RAs was obtained. The Chi Square test of significance showed that RAs were not different in the use of engagement markers but English RAs contained significantly more hedges, boosters, attitude markers and self mentions. It is concluded that interactional resources play an important part in research article writing and their use is related to the writing cultures and norms. The difference in the use of interactional metadiscourse shows the differences of writing culture of Persian and English writers.

English as a globalized and nativized language should be seen and taught with a democratic approach. Both aspects of English should be manifested in real teaching and testing practices. In the coming decade, one step forward is having curriculum, syllabi, textbooks and materials which focus on both i.e. intra-national and international sides of English language coin without any linguistic bias. Intra-national Englishes express the collective selves of the communities using them; international English expresses the universal selves of the citizens of the global village. The divergent and convergent forces in the spread of English go hand in hand to promote linguistic democracy in English language teaching and testing. In this paper, we will deal with these two complementary aspects of English(es) and some practical suggestions will be put forward regarding the application of this democratic model in both English teaching and testing.