Technology of Education Journal
Year:2011 | Volume:5 | Issue:3|Papers Count:7

This study investigates the relationship between critical thinking and the use of direct and indirect language learning strategies by Iranian learners. To this end, two survey instruments, the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), and a questionnaire of Critical Thinking, were administered among 100 college students majoring in English translation at Karaj University. The findings reveals a statistically significant relationship between specific direct and indirect language learning strategies such as cognitive, metacognitive, and social with critical thinking, while memory, compensation, and affective strategies appeared to have no relationship with critical thinking.

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.

This study investigates the request strategies used by Persian learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), aimed at exploring the pragmatic instruction effects on their noticing constrained by different types of treatment tasks. The subsequent effect of the learners’ noticing on their learning outcomes is taken into account as well. Thirty learners were divided into two instructional (treatment) conditions: a form-comparison condition and a form-search condition. Discourse completion tests were used to generate data related to the request strategies used by each group in pre- and posttests. The treatment data were examined regarding the extent to which the learners had noticed the appropriate manner of request realization in English and were further compared with the posttest. The findings revealed that during the treatment, the amount of learners’ noticing the target request forms in the form comparison condition was greater than the form-search condition. Furthermore, learners’ higher awareness of the target request forms in the form-comparison condition could lead them to have a better performance in their posttest.

Emotional intelligence is defined as a construct involving the ability of an individual to monitor their own and others’ emotions, to discriminate among the positive and negative effects of emotion, and to use emotional information to guide their thinking and actions. This study was carried out to find the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and academic success and the association between emotional intelligence and major of study. The scores obtained on EQ-i and the GPA of 187 students of physical education, chemistry, mathematics, English and medicine were correlated. Results show a coefficient of correlation of 0.161 which is significant at 0.05 level of significance. This indicates no significant relationship between EI and academic success. The result of a correlational analysis between assertiveness and academic success shows an r = 0.318 at 0.03 level of significance that is not a statistically significant association. The F value of 1.461 at the level of significance of 0.205 indicates that there is no significant difference between the different majors regarding their EI. Hence major has no relationship with the EI of students.

In the present paper, lessons are learnt from ant society so that humankind can optimize his engineering issues. As an example of such issues, a reinforced concrete retaining wall for which the application of optimization can reduce the costs involved is considered. Traditional design procedure for reinforced concrete retaining walls is unable to design an optimized wall unless a large trial effort is undertaken. This paper introduces a learning procedure from ants, which is a general search technique for the solution of difficult combinatorial problems with its theoretical roots based on the foraging behavior of ants. This methodology arrives at an optimal design for concrete retaining walls due to its capability to explore and exploit the solution space effectively. The basis of analysis in this paper is to determine the minimum weight and costs in the design of concrete retaining walls following a computation of lateral total thrust on the wall due to backfill pressures, bearing capacity consideration, settlement analysis, stability analysis, and application of design of reinforced concrete principles. The results clearly indicate that ant colony can educate engineers comprehensively to reach a minimum cost justified retaining wall through an optimization approach.

This study investigated the relationship between Iranian EFL teachers' self-regulation and their critical thinking ability in language institutes. Furthermore, the role played by their length of teaching experience in their self-regulation and the relationship between their age and self-regulation were examined. To this end, 92 EFL teachers were selected according to convenience sampling from different language institutes in Mashhad. They were requested to complete the 'Watson-Glaser's Critical Thinking Appraisal' and the 'Teacher Self-Regulation Scale' anonymously. The findings yielded via correlation supported the theoretical expectation of a linkage between self-regulation and critical thinking. Subsequent data analyses indicated that among the components of critical thinking, 'evaluation of arguments’ and ‘interpretation’ has the highest correlations with teachers' self-regulation. In addition, significant correlations were found between teachers' self- regulation, their teaching experience, and their age. The conclusions and implications of the research are further discussed with reference to earlier findings.

Technological developments and their utilities in various areas including education have offered great advantages for man. One of the greatest achievements in this trend has been the innovation in computer software like Lexical Frequency Profiles (LFP) and its pedagogical implications either in teaching or measurement. To take the maximum advantages, this study seeks to validate the LFP as a measure of lexical richness in written discourse of Iranian EFL Learners. 50 students majoring in English Translation participated in this study; each of them was encouraged to develop two compositions on general topics in order to establish VocabProfile indexes. To estimate the reliability of the LFP, the VocabProfile indexes of two writings were correlated, but for the validity purpose, first, a productive version of Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) was administered and second, the students’ compositions were fed into P_Lex software to elicit P_Lex index. After that, VocabProfile indexes were correlated with VLT scores and P_Lex index separately. The findings of the study revealed that students’ VocabProfile indexes written on two different topics correlated significantly with each other. Because of such a significant correlation coefficients, and the LFP indexes are related to VLT active test and P_Lex index, it is conservatively safe to claim that VocabProfile indexes are to some extent reliable and valid measurement instruments but not strong enough to be used as a standalone measure for the assessment of lexical richness. Pedagogically speaking, the LPF is suggested as a relatively reliable and valid measure to be used along with other dependable devices in measuring lexical richness in discourses of various types.