IRANIAN JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING RESEARCH
Year:2020 | Volume:8 | Issue:2|Papers Count:11

Since 2005 Anna Mauranen has been professor of English at the University of Helsinki. As Vice-rector of the University, Anna is responsible for both international and societal relations, together with personnel policy. In her capacity as Professor of English, Mauranen is one of the University’ s most internationally cited researchers. Over the last three decades Mauranen has made a strong showing among the elite of English-language researchers. She began work on her doctoral thesis at the age of forty, gaining her doctorate after three years, and then after a further three years took up the Chair of Translation Studies at the University of Eastern Finland. For the past fifteen years Mauranen has been fully engaged in research on English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). What comes below is an interview with her (AM) by the editor of IJLTR (KS) on Anna’ s past and present academic life and responsibilities. . .

English Language Teacher Education: A Sociocultural Perspective on Preservice Teachers’ Learning in the Professional Experience by Minh Hue Nguyen is an account of current issues on English teacher educators, researchers, curriculum developers, and pre-service teachers, demonstrating an application of sociocultural theory in researching pre-service teacher learning. The bonus with this book is in its extended conversations with pre-service teachers, their mentors, and academics, and their thought-provoking stories about the journeys of becoming teachers in Australia as well as the support inherent in institutional and policy contexts of English language teaching in Australia that infl uenced their learning. In addition to a preface and the regular front matter pages, the book is prepared in nine chapters which encompass research studies examining the complex issues of the professional experience in English language teacher education with regard to curriculum design, implementation and professional learning. Furthermore, the sociocultural contexts of the professional experiences, the pre-service teachers as learners of English language teaching, and the process of learning to teach English language in relation to the contextual and personal issues and their interrelationships are discussed in depth. Chapter 1, English Language Teaching and Teacher Education in Neoliberal Contexts, presents an overview of the current status of English language teaching and teacher education in neoliberal contexts. It suggests that it is essential for English language teacher education to take into account challenges (theoretical, practical, and research) so as to prepare the next cohorts of preservice teachers for working in dynamic and diverse contexts and to recognize the personal diversities that they bring to teacher education which shape their professional learning. The chapter highlights the need for empirical research to examine the complexities and diversities of the contextual and personal dimensions of teacher learning to better inform practice in English language teacher education in these contemporary contexts. The aim of chapter 2, Theory, Practice and Research on L2 Teacher Learning and Professional Experience, is to critically review the contemporary literature on L2 teacher cognition and professional experience, and to highlight a shift in the fi eld towards a sociocultural perspective on language teacher learning. The chapter suggests that the practicum is an important part of pre-service TESOL teachers’ professional learning, yet it still remains what Crookes (2003) described some 17 years ago as an “ undertheorised and underresearched” aspect of second language teacher education (SLTE) (p. 2). The literature reveals that pre-service teachers’ emotions and identity are two integral aspects of their professional learning. A Sociocultural Perspective on Second Language Teacher Learning, in chapter 3, engages with the principal tenets of sociocultural theory and discusses the implications that a sociocultural theoretical framework has for practice and research in English language teaching professional experience. The chapter emphasizes that sociocultural theory is a powerful and broad theoretical framework for professional experience research and practice because it highlights the importance of social interactions and historicity in learning and development. The chapter ends with the methodological details of the research in this book in light of a sociocultural theoretical framework. Chapter 4, Curriculum Design and Partnerships in Professional Experience, presents a case study on the design and delivery of the English language teaching professional experience at a major Australian university. It reveals the roles of different parties including (1) university placement offi cers, course leaders, and professional experience tutors; and (2) mentors and organizer of teaching practices (OTPs) from schools in supporting pre-service teachers. This chapter offers insights into how pre-service teachers are supported by the university and schools. Moreover, it discusses implications for developing professional experience and partnerships that foster professional growth for pre-service English language teachers and teacher educators. Chapter 5 entitled, Mentoring in Professional Experience: A Source of Support, introduces three major types of mentoring support, namely encouragement of risk-taking and agency, provision of constructive advice and feedback, and provision of productive opportunities for professional learning. In line with the relevant literature (e. g., Nguyen & Parr, 2018), this chapter proposes that mentoring by school-based teachers, if implemented strategically and effectively, can be an essential source of learning for pre-service teachers. The chapter discusses implications for teacher educators, institutions, and schools in creating a supportive professional learning environment for both mentors and pre-service teachers. In chapter 6, Mentoring in Professional Experience: A Source of Tensions and Emotions, the focus is on the negative side of mentoring where unresolved tensions and negative emotions can infl uence pre-service teachers’ learning. The fi ndings highlight the importance of effective communication between mentors and pre-service teachers (Heikkinen et al., 2018) and show that inadequate and ineffective communication between them can be a major cause of the tension experienced. With insights into personal and contextual sources of such tensions and emotions, the chapter discusses implications for research and practice with a view to developing productive professional experience in English language teacher education. Chapter 7 entitled, Identity Development in Professional Experience, reports comprehensive case studies on the professional identity development of three pre-service English language teachers in Australian secondary schools. The chapter reveals the support and challenges inherent in the professional experiences and examines how such support and challenges inhibit and/or facilitate identity development among the pre-service teachers. Moreover, it highlights the essential role of mentor teachers as part of the practicum in shaping the pre-service teachers’ professional experiences overall and identity development in particular. The fi nding suggests that mentoring if appropriately structured could enhance pre-service professional learning but otherwise could be a source of challenges that hinder productive professional identity development for pre-service teachers. The chapter puts forward recommendations for research on teacher identity and support for pre-service English language teachers in forming productive professional identities. Chapter 8, Pedagogical Learning in Professional Experience, drawing on a sociocultural perspective, examines the personal and social forces that shape pre-service teachers’ appropriation of pedagogical tools. This chapter suggests that teacher agency plays an essential role in pre-service teachers’ pedagogical learning during the practicum; therefore, pre-service teachers should be equipped with pedagogical tools that can be used in a wide variety of teaching contexts (Yang, 2015). This would allow pre-service teachers to be refl ective, fl exible, and supported in their instructional decision making. Chapter 9, Refl ection on English Language Teacher Learning in Professional Experience, summarizes the key ideas of this book and offers recommendations for theory, practice, and research in English language teaching professional experience. From a sociocultural perspective, it highlights the importance of taking into account the personal and social dimensions of professional experience in research and practice. Implications are discussed in terms of developing an effective knowledge base for English language teaching and reconceptualizing the professional experience for more productive professional learning. The chapter ends with directions for future research on professional experience in English language teacher education. To conclude, this book makes theoretical and practical contributions for English language teaching and the conditions for effective professional experience. In addition, this book reports empirical studies which are among the fi rst to use a sociocultural theoretical framework in exploring the school-based English language teaching professional experience. The sociocultural theoretical framework and its implications for research methodology have enhanced the quality of the data in terms of both depth and breadth. The findings presented here hold practical implications for English language teacher education. The reviewers found the book very well written and well-organized with an outstanding framework that employs an uncomplicated structure and highlights its excellent coverage of the key issues. The writing style is clear and straightforward, making it easy for both practitioners as well as students to follow. All in all, this book could be a valuable resource for prospective and current practitioners in the field of teacher education.

Applied Linguistics is one of the most important fields of study in education. To date, many books and research papers have been published which have studied applied linguistics from a variety of perspectives. One of the most recent published books is the third edition of ‘ An Introduction to Applied Linguistics’ Edited by Norbert Schmitt and Michael Rodgers, published in 2020. The book is divided into three main building blocks, namely ‘ description of language and language use’ , ‘ essential areas of enquiry in applied linguistics’ , and ‘ language skills and assessment’ . But, personally speaking, the most noticeable feature of the book, as its very first impression, is its preface: ‘ An overview of applied linguistics’ which has been written by Norbert Schmitt and Marianne Celce-Murcia. The overview gives a comprehensive and crystal clear account of Applied Linguistics. Having read this overview, every reader can have a simple and straightforward definition of ‘ applied linguistics’ . This section presents the story of this field from its early days in the 1700s till the twentieth century. As we read this preface, we learn about the expansion of applied linguistics into new fields and themes, including social, cultural, and psycholinguistic breakthroughs. Schmitt and Celce-Murcia underscore the point that the chapters of the book are not entirely independent, so if a reader aims to have a renewed and updated understanding of applied linguistics, they are encouraged to read the book from A to Z. But, as it is rightly mentioned in the concluding remarks of the overview, there are no clear-cut definite answers to the posed questions in this field, such as the ones in psycholinguistics, due to the complex nature of the language and human communication. The book has gone under substantial revision in its third edition, which makes the book more worth reading. Compared with the previous two editions, we witness an introductory chapter. The book has been classified into three distinctive parts. Two new chapters on multilingualism and forensic linguistics have been added which makes the book’ s scope more comprehensive. Some chapters, including language learners, psycholinguistics, and reading and assessment have been revised by the contributors. More importantly, each chapter offers hands-on tasks and activities and presents sources for further reading. Last but not least, in almost every chapter, the references cited have been updated. The first part, which is devoted to the description of language and language use, includes five chapters, namely grammar, vocabulary, discourse analysis, pragmatics, and corpus linguistics. Diane Larsen-Freeman and Jeanette DeCarrico elaborate on ‘ Grammar and Grammars’ ; they try to describe what it is meant by grammar and which grammatical rules should be described. Furthermore, they explain the related issues in learning and teaching grammar. What is more interesting is the discussion of discourse grammar and the differences between spoken and written grammar. They also shed light on the limitations of grammatical descriptions. Finally, the issues related to teaching grammar are discussed. Chapter 3 is devoted to ‘ Vocabulary’ , written by Paul Nation and Paul Meara. Paul Nation, a distinguished pioneer researcher in this field, and his co-author focus on the essence of vocabulary and its multidimensional aspects. They go on to explain what vocabulary should be learned and how. Some strategies, such as deliberate or intentional vocabulary learning, incidental vocabulary learning, lexical inferencing, and dictionary use have been covered in this chapter. Finally, they explain vocabulary assessment and the difficulties in assessing the vocabulary size of a language learner. In chapter 4, Michael McCarthy, Christian Matthiessen, and Diana Slade have written about ‘ discourse analysis’ . They give a comprehensive definition of discourse analysis. And, then discuss the interwoven issues in analyzing spoken and written discourse, such as the cline between spoken and written discourse and the differences between formal and informal spoken discourse. What I like about this chapter is that the authors summarize the pedagogical implications of discourse analysis. The next chapter is devoted to ‘ Pragmatics’ , written by Helen Spencer-Oatey and Vladimir Ž egarac. They focus on paradigms and methods of pragmatics research. More importantly, they clarify the place of pragmatics in language learning and teaching, which is given scant attention in language learning. Randi Reppen and Rita Simpson-Vlach, in chapter 6, have written about ‘ Corpus Linguistics’ . The authors have given a clear picture and definition of corpus linguistics. Also, different types of corpora have been introduced, and the authors have tried to bridge the perceived gap of (mis)understanding the importance and function of corpus linguistics in language teaching. Also, the pedagogical application of corpus linguistics in the language classroom has been explained. The second part of the book focuses on essential areas of enquiry in applied linguistics. This part of the book has chapters on second language acquisition (Nina Spada and Patsy M. Lightbown), psycholinguistics (Emily N. Mech, Andrea Takahesu Tabori, Judith F. Kroll, and Kees de Bot), sociolinguistics (Carmen Llamas and Peter Stockwell), focus on the language learners’ learning styles, strategies and motivation (Andrew D. Cohen and Alastair Henry), forensic linguistics (Tatiana Tkacukova), and multilingualism (Shelley K. Taylor). Two points are worth mentioning regarding the second part of the book. Firstly, among the contributions of this part, the most elaborated and pedagogically-oriented one is the chapter written by Andrew D. Cohen and Alastair Henry, which narrates a complete and enthusiastic story of learning styles, the classifications of strategies, and motivation. Secondly, the last two chapters, as already mentioned, have been added to the third edition of the book. These two chapters, in particular the chapter on forensic linguistics, which is called as “ a rapidly growing sub-field of applied linguistics” (p. 190), can shed light on the importance of these issues in applied linguistics and may trigger more future research on these areas. Tatiana Tkacukova writes about the definition of forensic linguistics and its scope. She explains the related issues in this sub-field of applied linguistics, namely communication in the legal processes and courtroom discourse. The chapter is closed with the pedagogical implications of forensic linguistics. And, as it is expected in line with almost all the similar published books, the last part of the book is assigned to language skills, i. e., listening (Tony Lynch and David Mendelsohn), speaking (Anne Burns and Barbara Seidlhofer), reading (Xiangying Jiang, William Grabe, and Patricia L. Carrell), and writing and assessment (Paul Kei Matsuda and Tony Silva) in which the authors focus on the issues in assessment of language skills. The most interesting part of the chapter on listening is the one devoted to the models of listening and the theories, including communication theory model, information processing model, social/contextual model, and situated action model. Anne Burns and Barbara Seidlhofer mainly focus on genres of speaking and the issues in pronunciation. The most noticeable feature of the chapter written by Xiangying Jiang, William Grabe, and Patricia Carrell on reading is the discussion on different starting points for reading in first and second language. A point requiring attention in this part of the book is about the last chapter on writing and assessment. As writing is a very complex issue, and there have been numerous arguments for and against different tasks and strategies of writing teaching and testing, we expect a more indepth discussion of the issue under investigation. Undoubtedly, the field does need to pay closer attention to the testing and assessment-related issues in applied linguistics. In sum, it is recommended that this book, which enjoys contributions from distinguished researchers, should be included in the syllabus and reading list of courses related to applied linguistics. The book can be an invaluable resource for students of applied linguistics, teachers, practitioners, and researchers who wish to keep abreast of the developments in applied linguistics. However, the book can go under some more revisions in its future editions. Firstly, heritage language education has recently attracted considerable attention. It is recommended that the editors consider heritage language education and its related variables in a future edition. In addition, technology and its undeniable role in language education has been given scant attention in this book. Educational assessment should be given more attention. What is missing is more focus on different aspects of testing and assessment, such as dynamic and alternative assessment, assessment for learning, and self-assessment. Also, high-stakes testing may be worth considering in the third part. Translation and interpretation, translation quality assessment, syllabus and curriculum of translation programs and making a bridge between the interconnected issues in this scope are expected to be included in the next edition. Finally, some broader issues like language policy, language maintenance, ideology, literacy can have room in this book in its future editions. The readers of the book are recommended to study the paper written by Michael Swan (2018) along with this book, in which Swan elaborates on applied linguistics from a consumers’ view. Maybe, in the future edition, an updated paper by Swan can make the book more comprehensive. Similarly, the findings of the study by Lei and Liu (2019) may give some insights into what more applied linguistics can cover.

Alas, 2020 has so far not been a happy year at all that it promised to be. Not soon after the start of the year, did the world experience the worst-ever pandemic of our age (Covid-19) hitting around 10 million people worldwide and claiming thousands of lives. While this incident has led to a new world order, it is at the same time a gesture that we need to value morality more and consider how weak human beings are in the wake of a new disaster, and that death and the other world are much closer to us than we have imagined. Lets’ pray for God to help overcome the disease and work together for a more peaceful world. It is also very saddening and hard to accept the shocking loss of one of our young and vibrant board members, Professor Farzad Sharifian of Monash University, who was a pioneering international figure in Cultural Linguistics. May his soul rest in peace! Apart from these sad events, 2020 was a fruitful year for IJLTR. A few days ago, Scimago and Scopus announced their most recent journal metrics (for 2019) and I am very pleased to announce that in both metrics, IJLTR has continued shining. As for Scimago, we have achieved a Q1 status, with an improved SJR of 0. 341. In Scopus rankings, our CiteScore has almost doubled jumping from 0. 94 in 2018 to 1. 7 in 2019. Our journal ranking has also improved considerably, earning us a ranking of 129 out of 830 journals indexed in Scopus under Linguistics and Language category (84 th percentile). These achievements are surely the outcome of the continued support of all editorial members, contributors, reviewers, readers and journal staff. Warmest congratulations and thank you all! Like its predecessors, the current issue includes seven national and international research papers on issues of importance to second language education and applied linguistics as well as two book reviews and an interview. In the first paper, Andrew Gill and Daniel Hopper report a study on reflective practice in a Japanese context where they investigate the potential of integrating conversational analysis and dialogic reflection. Sá nchez Ramos in the next paper explores the application of a Corpus Management Tool (CMT) to teach medical English in a Spanish context, followed by a research study on the effect of longitudinal teacher feedback on CAF, content, and organization in writing in an EFL context written by Rastgou, Storch and Knoth in the third paper. Fatemeh Sadeghi and her colleagues in the next paper use a constructivist grounded theory to examine Iranian EFL teachers’ and learners’ perceptions of the principles of critical thinking. In a case study in paper five, Thomas Farrell and his co-author delve into teaching principles of a TESOL teacher in Canada, analyzing the match between her practice and the principles in a reflective practice framework proposed by the first author. The relationship between vocabulary size and depth of Iranian EFL learners at different language proficiency levels is investigated by Enayat and his co-author in paper six; and the last research paper by Seifoori looks at negotiated strategic awareness-rising at postgraduate level in the context of a reading course. The first book reviewed by Soleimani and Sadeghi is titled English Language Teacher Education: A Sociocultural Perspective on Preservice Teachers’ Learning in the Professional Experience; and the second book reviewed by Mohebbi is the third edition of Schmitt and Rodgers’ An Introduction to Applied Linguistics. The interview in this issue of IJLTR is with another leading and highly cited researcher in the field of Applied Linguistics, who is the co-editor of the journal with the same title as the field. In the interview, Anna Mauranen shares with us highlights of her academic and professional life as well as offering advice on writing for publication in top-tire journals. Hoping that you will have a relaxing and healthy summer ahead I invite you to browse the current issue and other journal pages (all available online at ijltr. urmia. ac. ir) and plan a future submission to our mainstream or special issues. Our next issue will be a special issue on Classroom Discourse, to go online in October 2020. Do watch out for news on next year’ s special issue which will be guest-edited by Prof. Jack Richards.

This article describes a collaborative and data-based reflective practice study carried out by two language teachers in a Japanese tertiary education context. This research utilized conversational analysis (CA) of audiorecorded classroom data which was subsequently discussed as part of a critical friendship. Both the inclusion of CA data and collegial discussion were in response to recent calls for increasingly data-led and dialogic reflective practice methods. In this study, the two teacher-researchers identified salient issues that they saw as incongruent with their stated teaching beliefs. They then collaboratively determined interventions to deal with the inconsistencies between their beliefs and their actual behavior and repeated the CA data collection and dialogic analysis phases. The two teachers found that the CA data and the opportunity to collaboratively interpret it provided valuable insights into their classroom practice while also offsetting the tendency for excessive self-criticism. This study provides a concrete example of a reflective practice approach that is both theoretically grounded and tied to bottom-up issues that are of interest to teachers.

Developing the appropriate linguistic and documentation skills in specialised domains is one of the greatest challenges in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses. Among other tools, corpora are intended as efficient resources students can use to improve and develop their thematic, terminological, and phraseological knowledge (Sá nchez Ramos, 2020). Based on a non-experimental mixed-methods study, this paper reports the feasibility of a corpus-based approach to teaching medical translation at a postgraduate level. It analyses how a group of 40 postgraduate students at the University of Alcalá (Madrid, Spain) perceive the compilation of their own corpus and the usefulness of corpus management tools (CMTs) in solving thematic, terminological, and phraseological issues. The software LancsBox (Lancaster University) was used, which is a recently created CMT that incorporates automatic tagging, cutting-edge statistics information, and innovative visualization options. The quantitative and qualitative analyses of this data suggest that the ESP students were highly satisfied with the corpus-based approach. Our findings also reveal that postgraduate students incorporated CMTs during the whole course as documentation resources for their translation tasks, and they are willing to use them in their near future professional career. These results show the potential usefulness of CMTs and offer a way of integrating them into the ESP curriculum.

Despite teachers' mainstream practices in L2 writing classrooms addressing different dimensions of writing over time, much of the research on feedback in recent years has been of relative short duration and has mainly focused on accuracy. The current longitudinal study investigated the influence of sustained teacher written feedback on accuracy, syntactic complexity, fluency, content, and organization in an EFL context. Ninety-two learners were divided into four groups, receiving written corrective feedback, feedback on content and organization, multilateral feedback (i. e., on grammatical accuracy, content, and organization), and no feedback over a 3½-month period. They completed a pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test and wrote and revised eight interim expository compositions on a weekly basis. Results showed that the three treatment groups significantly improved in the dimensions on which they received feedback. However, only the groups who received feedback on content and organization improved in fluency. Importantly, the multilateral group improved in accuracy as well as fluency, content and organization. Theoretically, the findings endorse the language learning potentials of sustained writing as long as it is guided by teacher feedback. The findings provide empirical support for the influence of sustained feedback on expanding and consolidating learners’ explicit knowledge of L2 writing.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perception of EFL teachers and learners on the fundamental principles and constructs of critical thinking, the main characteristics of a critical thinker, and strategies for reinforcing critical thinking ability. Semi-structured interviews with eight EFL teachers and ten learners, who were theoretically sampled from three different contexts of public, private, and seminary schools in Sabzevar and Qom, Iran, were conducted using the constructivist grounded theory methodology (Charmaz, 2008). Using the MAXQDA software version 12, the data were analyzed based on the three levels of the open, axial, and selective coding of grounded theory. A model of critical thinking was proposed with ELT teachers’ and learners’ awareness as the core category and the characteristics of a critical thinker and strategies for reinforcing critical thinking ability as sub-categories. The results of the study revealed several pedagogical implications for EFL teachers to help their learners develop critical thinking skills, for EFL learners to think more deeply, solve problems better, communicate and collaborate more effectively, and for curriculum developers and syllabus designers to put certain critical thinking activities in textbooks and support in-service classes for teachers.

Reflection and reflective practice have now become common terms used in teacher education and development programs worldwide. Reflective practice generally means that teachers subject their own beliefs and practices of teaching and learning English to speakers of other languages to a critical examination. The increase in popularity of reflective practice in the field of TESOL has also brought about an array of different definitions and approaches most of which however originate from the general education literature. Thus, Farrell (2015; 2019b) developed a holistic framework for TESOL teachers to reflect, that includes reflections on five different stages, the TESOL teachers’ philosophy, principles, theory, practice, and beyond practice. This paper outlines a case study of the reflections of a TESOL teacher through the lens of this framework for reflecting on practice. Overall, the results revealed that many of Lisa’ s reflections in all five stages of the framework appear to be connected through two common themes: Teaching to students’ needs and goals and student engagement and rapport building.

The present study investigated the association between vocabulary size and depth of Iranian EFL learners at different language proficiency levels. Additionally, the extent that this relationship could be different for low-and high-word-frequency bands was probed. In so doing, the Word Associates Test (WAT), the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), the monolingual Vocabulary Size Test (VST) and its bilingual Persian version were administered to 122 Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners (F=79, M=43) who had been classified into three language proficiency levels by means of administering the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). The findings indicated the following: (a) vocabulary size and depth had a significant correlation for the lower-intermediate students; (b) size and depth dimensions had a moderate association for the upperintermediate participants; (c) vocabulary size and depth were not significantly correlated for the advanced EFL learners; (d) the relationship between the higher-frequency bands of vocabulary size and vocabulary depth was significant for lower proficiency levels; and (e) the lower-frequency vocabulary size was not correlated with vocabulary depth for any of the proficiency levels. The results have implications for vocabulary depth instruction for higher language proficiency levels and suggest teachers, test developers, and materials designers to incorporate the dimension of word associations into the construct of word knowledge.

A formidable challenge facing many Iranian postgraduate English students is critically negotiating their course content which entails a well-developed strategic competence. This quasi-experimental study examined the effect of negotiated strategic awareness-raising (NSA-raising) on English Language Teaching (ELT) and English Literature (EL) postgraduate students’ general reading comprehension (GRC) and content retention (CR). To serve the purpose, a sample of 39 ELT and 32 EL students was selected through convenience sampling from a pool of 130 postgraduates at Islamic Azad University of Tabriz based on their pre-test scores. The sample was then randomly assigned to two control groups, with no strategic orientation, and two experimental groups receiving content-integrated NSA-raising during a ten-session treatment and based on identical teaching materials for each pair of ELT and EL groups. ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis analyses of the research data obtained from a standardized reading test tapping the participants’ GRC and syllabusbased achievement tests, along with quarterly administered progress tests, measuring their CR showed significantly higher levels of achievement in both experimental groups. The findings underscore the effectiveness of content-integrated NSA-raising for postgraduate English students.