IRANIAN JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING RESEARCH
Year:2020 | Volume:8 | Issue:1|Papers Count:11

The writer capitalizes on the notion of a transdisciplinary approach to SLA. In chapter one, Introduction, the writer elaborates on eight themes on which the entire book rests. The book comes into nine chapters, each chapter corresponding to a theme save chapter one. Where possible, the writer has made an endeavor to embellish different concepts with examples, often real life ones. Furthermore, the book is embroidered with a ‘ pedagogical activities’ section which I think is the linchpin of the book. In chapter two, the writer expands on the first theme which is 'L2 knowledge is complex and dynamic'. She reminds the reader that there is no one to one correspondence between form and meaning. Also discussed in this chapter is the movement from linguistic competence to mulicompetence. While linguistic competence is associated with Chomsky, mulitcompentece is invoked to capture variability among bilinguals and multilinguals. Additionally, referred to in this chapter is the notion of 'repertoire' which captures resources available to bilinguals and multilinguals. Furthermore, the writer refers to the term 'languaging' to capture the ways individuals use their repertoires. The last but not certainly the least, an important concept that is elaborated on is 'translanguaging' which is associated with Garcia (2009) among others. An example of translanguaging is Chinsumer from Chinese Consumer. Examples of languages using the concept are Chinglish, Pinglish, and Spanglish in which constructions from English are fused with those of other languages like Chinese to make new utterances. I think the strength of this chapter lies in its coverage of 'translanguaging' which has given rise to a number of research studies. Chapter three with the theme of 'L2 knowledge is a repertoire of diverse semiotic sources' makes a distinction between linguistic and non-linguistic means of communication. The latter is termed semiotic resources that encompass non-verbal communication. The concept of multimodality is elaborated upon referring to the fact that words alone do not signify anything unless they are analyzed in the context in which they are offered. Furthermore, attempts are made to draw readers’ attention to the fact that meaning potential exists in words. For example, “ m’ am” may be used in a positive way in some parts of the USA and in some parts it might carry a negative connotation. In my opinion, the problem with this chapter and perhaps the entire book is that it goes to great lengths to explain the concepts, whereas what language teachers really need is a demonstration of how the cognizance of SLA concepts can be beneficial for teachers. Furthermore, the writer highlights the importance of nonverbal behavior that has meaning potential. As a case in point, the writer mentions “ raised hand” that might signal one wants to stop an action or in a court case it might signal taking an oath. As mentioned before, the example, though significant, hardly touches on classroom realities. Speaking of nonverbal behavior, the author could have mentioned cross-cultural differences in terms of nonverbal behavior. In chapter four under the theme of 'L2 knowledge is situated, and attentionally and socially gated’ , the writer advocates the idea that language learning takes place at a micro level as the result of interactions with the caregiver. This chapter is more aligned with the title of the book. In the chapter, the author talks about “ salience” which is an SLA specific term and captures the prominence of an item. The writer also talks about two types of frequency: token frequency and type frequency. In chapter five with the title of 'Learning is mediated and embodied’ , the writer deals with how language is inextricably linked to social and cultural knowledge. Indexicality refers to the fact that certain meanings are invoked depending on contexts. For example, “ how are you? ” may invoke informality when produced by expressions such as “ hey, man” . As another example of the indexical use of language, the author mentions “ raise your hands” which is appropriate for asymmetrical relationships between teachers who issue such directives and students. It might be the case that the expression is used within peers to invoke superiority of one over the other. The writer rightfully argues that L2 socialization is different from L1 socialization in that learners and adults bring their own experiences to the learning situation. It is also a truism that L2 learning takes place in a formal setting. Chapter six titled 'Learning is mediated by learners' social identities' capitalizes on how social identity contributes to our understanding of SLA. The writer evokes the term “ transportable identities” to refer to the characteristics we are born with which tend to linger with us for eternity. The writer makes it abundantly clear that these transportable identities are inextricably liaised with our social identities. Boiled down to an Iranian context, a woman is not supposed to be a taxi driver. I surmise the most interesting part of this chapter deals with research studies which have implications for classroom contexts. For example, gender and social class did prove to have a determining role in some studies. As for social class, a country like Canada has different systems for immigrants two of which are business investment and skilled working. Those who enter the country through business investment send their children to private schools while the children of the second category go to public schools and as a result, children in the two categories experience language learning in markedly different ways. Imagined identity is also significant in that nonnative speakers carve out an imagined community of native speaking community before they arrive in the country. Their expectations might shatter once they set foot in Canada or the USA. Therefore, they may stop communicating with native speakers. In chapter seven, the author talks about ‘ motivation, investment and agency’ . As for motivation, she mentions Dö rnyei and his colleagues’ directed motivational current (DMC). The writer conceives of investment as being complementary to motivation as motivation is not able to capture the complex relations between power, identity and language learning. To further elaborate on the concepts, the writer does refer to some studies conducted in the realm of investment. In one case, Norton is said to have found out that out of five women in her study, two dropped out for reasons of being marginalized and positioned as immigrants. Finally, individual agency is referred to which is defined as “ socioculturally mediated capacity to act” (p. 115). The writer mentions the asymmetrical roles of teachers and learners in that learners are not positioned as agents whose voices can be heard. This is reminiscent of testing situations in which test takers are not in a position to decide. Individual agency is very much palpable in learning situations like in Iran in which learners are not entrusted with decision making. Chapter eight which is titled 'Learning is mediated by literacy and instructional practices’ deals with literacy and how it affects language learning. The writer resorts to some research studies which substantiate the role of literacy. For example, in one study children from rural families and those from urban areas functioned differently in terms of using language in that the way the latter used language more closely aligned with school standards than did the former. Scaffolding is also mentioned in this chapter which builds upon Vygotsky’ s ZPD. I agree with the writer that Vygotsky never intended his ZPD to be interpreted as scaffolding. It looks to be the case that researchers have gone overboard about Vygotsky’ s ZPD. The essence of chapter nine is that language learning is mediated by language ideologies. Language ideologies are sets of beliefs about a language. We might hold the opinion that a language is complicated or difficult. The ideology of standard language is based on the assumption that one variety is superior to the other on the grounds of being codified and having formal use. It is not the case that one variety is inherently superior but that it is associated with prestige. The ideology of monolingualism is based on the belief that one language is sufficient for an entire nation. It is perhaps based on this belief that a naturalization test requires all citizens to take an English test (Kunnan, 2009). The ideology of native speaker states that only native speakers of a language set the benchmark for correct and proper use of a language. Such an ideology has adversely affected language education in the world. As Kumaravadivelu (2006) maintains the fountain pen of job chances for native speakers will never dry up. As a way of conclusion, the book is commendable in its treatment of SLA concepts in exhaustive details embellished with research studies. Teachers holding a masters or PhD degree may immensely benefit from the book. There are a lot of takeaways from this book for these readers. The book, however, may be of little practical importance for teachers who do not have solid backgrounds in applied linguistics or related fields. The book does have implications for course designers especially when it comes to teaching language for immigration purposes. The section “ pedagogical activities” is very useful for language teachers. I think that the book can be used as a teaching material for an SLA course at an MA level in applied linguistics.

Daniel Perrin is Professor of Applied Linguistics, Vice President at Zurich University of Applied Sciences, President of the International Association of Applied Linguistics AILA, Board Member of the Swiss Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities, as well as Editor of the International Journal of Applied Linguistics and the de Gruyter Handbook of Applied Linguistics series. His areas of research are media linguistics, methodology of applied linguistics, text production research, and analysis of language use in professional communication. Before his academic career, Daniel Perrin worked as a journalist and writing coach. This long-term experience in professional practice has fostered his transdisciplinary research. Today, he is still engaged in training and coaching media and communication professionals as well as leaders in education, economy, and politics in the framework of transdisciplinary projects. For more information see: www. danielperrin. net. What comes below is an email-based interview with Daniel Perrin (DP) conducted by the editor of IJLTR (KS)...

Potential error in human knowledge is the main driving force behind replication research, a relevant corollary of critical approach to scientific knowledge. Accordingly, we come back to a study to verify it and reduce possible chance factors. Replication research starts right after the publication of one particular previous research study that attracted you, rather than a set of studies. Replicating a study sets us on a journey back to the history of our interest area, due probably to a failure in the previous study. Consisting of nine chapters, Doing Replication Research in Applied Linguistics is just intended for this journey. Drawing our attention to the extent of the confidence we have in the scientific research, Porte and McManus in Chapter 1 highlight the status of replication that contributes to conducting good research and increasing knowledge. The first chapter then situates the replication research within the field of applied linguistics. The authors then present a synoptic view of the content of the chapters. As applied linguists should conduct experimental research scientifically, they should therefore verify results “ to construct knowledge rather than merely amass it” (p. 13). Chapter 2 thus urges us to ask the right question and gives four routes to finding the target study: rereading any experimental study, searching in an academic search engine, reading state-of-the-art reviews critically, and reading critical/position replica papers and calls for such studies. Researchers interested in replication should also consider other issues, such as relevance, publication date, unusual outcome, familiar procedure, and publication venue for replication. Chapter 3 recommends us to find an experimental study and brainstorm the features of its basic aspects, posing questions to establish routes for replication, and to raise awareness or criticality perspective. With exemplar papers, the authors critically and explicitly work on features that constitute the research situation and, thus, make it suitable for replication. The features are addressed by some targeted questions related to numerous aspects of the target exemplar studies, such as participant characteristics, sample size, treatment length, setting, control agent, instruments, measurement, statistical significance and effect size, and generalizability that should have been described in detail. To conduct replication, we can look out from the inside (internal perspective) or look in from the outside (external perspective). The former is done on the original data before publication by the author himself. This is considered a quality control and reliability check, leading to the chances of reexamination of the study by the readers. Later reexamination by others normally focuses on some aspects, like appropriate use of statistical analysis, selection procedure, and so on. Chapter 4 suggests the replicator to assume that the original author has not scrutinized his own study. Therefore, he should do some routine checking, i. e., initial critique, “ to see whether results can be reproduced using what is available for examination in the article. ” (p. 50). To exemplify, the chapter sensitizes readers towards testing assumptions of most commonly used statistical procedures, such as Chi square, t-test, and their respective effect sizes. Finally, it urges researchers to use three current approaches to internal replication: a) comparing the outcomes of different subsets of the resampled data (cross-validation), b) going beyond cross-validation by omitting samples one by one and repeating the test (jackknife), c) copying the data sample many times to form a data mega-file (bootstrapping). An extension/follow-up study differs from a replication in the focus and a comparison of what the replication says about the original study. To sort out the confusion, Chapter 5 presents close, approximate, and conceptual replication as a process since exact replication is not possible, due to change in variables. Close replication follows pre-planned series of attempts wherein researchers modify only one variable (e. g., participants, time, or task) at a time to detect its influence on the dependent variable. It allows comparing our outcomes with those of the original study. Approximate replication follows from close replication as a next step wherein we compare our outcomes with those of the target study, focusing on the impact of two variables on the outcomes. Conceptual replication focuses on the outcomes of the target study, without comparison with our replication findings. It aims to “ widen the application, relevance, or generalizability of the underlying theory or hypotheses of the original study” through a different operationalization, methodology, analysis, and so on (p. 84). Chapter 6 and 7 focus on executing and writing up a replication study. In this process, the replicator should specify what, why, and how changes were made in the original study. In these two chapters, Porte and McManus execute and write up a close replication of Bitchener and Knoch (2010) and take as models two published replication studies (Eckerth, 2009; McManus, & Marsden, 2018). To this end, Chapter 6 centers on research questions and methodology, attempting “ to follow as closely as possible the original design” of Bitchener and Knoch (2010) “ except for a difference in L2 proficiency” (p. 98). To do that, it raises important questions on the feasibility of methodology (participants, target structures, treatments, and instruments), hence critiquing and understanding the methodology. Likewise, Chapter 7 extends the replication process to the analysis, results, discussion, and conclusion of the above study, highlighting systematically the similarities and differences that exist between the two studies (i. e., original and replication), along with the justifications for any differences resulting from a variable modification. Similar to Chapter 6, it also illustrates how the write-up of a replication should cover these components, respectively, to show a better picture across the two studies. In every section, the authors emphasize that the write-up should clearly state the change and the similarity between the original and replication studies. Chapter 8 focuses on how to disseminate a replication research, normally in journals, conference presentations, and poster presentations, intended to gain a wider readership. The authors in Chapter 8 offer general and specific considerations in selecting a suitable journal to submit the replication. The considerations and guidelines concern the scope as well as whether the journal publishes replication research. More specifically, the authors draw attention to journal visibility, foci, editorial board, authors, reviewers, and current trends in research interests. They also discuss issues on how to justify the replication submission. Furthermore, they illustrate how replication authors can clearly present a summarization of the replication in conferences and a visualization in poster sessions, providing clear models with the above articles on the wording and comparison of the original and replication studies. Detailed instructions on how to format the comparative nature of the outcomes are separately provided for each outlet. Yet, the authors emphasize that replications are delicate. Thus, throughout the text, they give careful and thoughtful recommendations to the prospective authors on how to avoid any potential conflict or controversy. Finally, Chapter 9 is an epilogue, restating the reasons for replication in applied linguistics to get rid of skepticism as the research findings should contain reliability and allow for close scrutiny to help construct knowledge rather than accumulate it haphazardly. Doing Replication Research in Applied Linguistics gives interested readers a change in perspective in looking at and conducting any research, and resultantly in replicating the studies conducted by other authors as well as being prepared for one’ s own research to be replicated. This change in perspective might well be strengthened by the growth of the field that has brought about a series of rigorous as well as scientific methodological procedures for researchers to obtain further knowledge and information (Akbarian, 2019). Consequently, all of this leads to a fine-tuning of our findings. In addition to the clear style of writing and principled organization of the content, this volume enjoys some specific features. For instance, boxed activities are a useful tool to make the discussion for different sections highly practical, tangible, enlightening, and thought-provoking as the readers follow the discussion and get aware of the systematic methodological practice. However, another round of editing would eliminate minor spelling mistakes, such as replacing ‘ content’ with ‘ context’ on page 43. In sum, the current volume is a valuable addition to the existing repertoire of the books on research methodology and provides readers with a sharpened insight on conducting any research first and additional cognizance on how to replicate an established study with the aim of contributing to the knowledge of the community. Thus, reading this book, post-graduate students and researchers in general will develop care and rigor on doing any research and reporting the findings for the purpose of disseminating or replicating the research.

Happy 2020! I am very pleased to reach you on the first day of the New Year, extending my heartfelt best wishes for the year ahead and announcing the publication of our new issue. For the last eight years since our inception, we have successfully managed to publish the journal issues on exactly the first day of January, July and October each year; and this timeliness, which we owe to our dedicated journal team, is a great achievement to be proud of. In the words of one of our International Editorial Board members, “ I think the world calendars should be synchronized with the publication of IJLTR, rather than the other way round. ” Similar reflections by our friends are golden evaluative notes to remember and to take pride in, and are of course motivating nudges for us to keep moving forward steadily. Similar success stories and signs of recognition are without doubt attributable to journal board members, reviewers and contributors whom I feel obliged to express my gratitude to for their everlasting support. Thank you all! To follow the pattern we set in our first issue, the current issue comes with seven research papers written by both Iranian and international scholars on various aspects of second language education as well as two book reviews and an interview. In the first paper, Ali Malmir and Ali Derakshan report a research study on the pragmatic comprehension (as opposed to pragmatic production) strategies of Iranian male versus female EFL students. The next paper comes from a Chinese context, where Wang Lan and Ricky Lam investigated an EFL teacher’ s stated beliefs and observed classroom practices in teaching a speaking course called Topical Debates. The effect of teachers’ scaffolding and peers’ collaborative dialogue on speech act production of requests, apologies and refusals in symmetric versus asymmetric groups is taken up in the next paper by Zahra Fakher Ajabshir and Fatemeh Panahifar, followed by a study on how assessment is perceived by EFL students at a Turkish context by Ali Isik in paper 4. In paper 5, Fazilatfar and his colleagues’ study compare the effect of planning time (0-10-20 min) and task conditions (topic, topic + idea, topic + idea + macrostructure) on the production of writing in terms of CAF; and Chen reports a study on the online English information searching strategies of Taiwanese university students in paper 6. The final research paper, by Ghanizadeh and her colleagues, is devoted to discovering the link between error treatment, motivation, language achievement, and cognitive, behavioural and emotional engagement. The first book reviewed by Pirooz and Akbarian is Porte and McManus’ s Doing Replication Research in Applied Linguistics, and the second book, reviewed by Mohammad Salehi is by Joan Kelly Hall, titled, Essentials of SLA for L2 Teachers: A Transdisciplinary Framework. The final item of the issue is an interview with the President of AILA, Daniel Perrin, who reflects on his academic life as well as talking about highlights of AILA and the field. Hoping that you have enjoyed your New Year holidays and started a very prosperous year, I invite you to browse the issue and other journal pages (all available online at ijltr. urmia. ac. ir) and plan a future submission to it. Let me remind you that our 2020 Special Issue is devoted to Classroom Discourse and will be guest-edited by Prof. Zia Tajeddin (Tarbiat Modarres University) and Dr. Minoo Alemi (Islamic Azad University), with the submission deadline being 1 st of March.

Since its inception, pragmatic competence has been studied vastly; the majority of these studies, however, have examined pragmatic production, and pragmatic comprehension is chiefly under-researched. This lack of adequate research also stands true for the underlying pragmatic comprehension processes and strategies. Therefore, the present investigation aimed to find out L2 pragmatic comprehension strategies used by 40 (F=20, M=20) Iranian EFL learners and to discover whether there would be any differences between interlanguage pragmatic comprehension strategies used by male and female learners. Participants, selected based on stratified random sampling, were chosen on the basis of their performance on a paper-based TOEFL out of the initial sample of 90 students. Three data collection instruments were employed: a validated pragmatic test (Tajeddin & Ahmadi Safa, 2010), concurrent verbal think-aloud protocols, and retrospective verbal think-aloud protocols. Data analysis revealed three classes of pragmatic comprehension strategies. First, socio-pragmatic strategies that included politeness, formality, indirectness, and distance/power influences. Second, lexico-pragmatic strategies which were more frequent than grammatical strategies in the second category. Third, the cognitive strategies that comprised both top-down and bottom-up processing strategies in L2 pragmatic comprehension. Furthermore, it was found that gender did not play any significant role in the use of pragmatic comprehension strategies. Study findings suggest that explicit teaching of pragmatic comprehension strategies helps learners promote their L2 pragmatic comprehension.

Research on EFL teachers’ beliefs and practices is significant for teaching effectiveness. This paper investigated and compared the convergences and discrepancies between an EFL teacher’ s stated beliefs and observed classroom practices related to teaching an L2 speaking-oriented Topical Debates course. In mainland China, Topical Debates is a credit-bearing course that focuses on addressing both sides of an issue, as well as the associated different views. It is a compulsory course for English majors and an optional course for non-English majors. A qualitative case study with interviews and classroom observations was applied over two months. The findings indicate that the teacher generally practiced what she believed in the classrooms. Although some discrepancies existed, the reasons are related to the context of the teaching as well as learner factors, including their lack of preparation and their language proficiency level. The findings also demonstrate that this teacher held many common educational beliefs, which are highly crucial for teaching Topical Debates, such as critical thinking and logical thinking. The results suggest that it is necessary for EFL teachers to regularly and systematically examine the relations between their beliefs and practices through reflective practices for a better monitoring of their daily teaching practicums.

Recently, the field of instructed pragmatics has seen a shift of paradigm from the prevailing cognitive approaches to socially-oriented ones, revolving around the notions like collaborative dialogue and sociocultural theory. Drawing on the notion of collaborative dialogue, this study investigates the extent to which teacher's scaffolding and peers' collaborative dialogue assist EFL learners' to produce requests, apologies, and refusals. It also explores the effect of symmetrical and asymmetrical proficiency pairings during the participants' collaborative dialogue on the production of speech acts. To this end, three intermediate-level intact classes were randomly assigned to the teacher's scaffolding (TS), peers' collaborative dialogue (PCD), and control groups. The PCD group was also divided into symmetrical and asymmetrical pairs based on their pragmatic pretest scores. The treatment lasted for 11 sessions. Each session involved the metapragmatic instruction followed by pragmatic problem-solving tasks, with the TS group getting the teacher's scaffolding and the PCD group collaborating in pairs while doing the tasks. The ANOVA and independent samples t-test results of the post-test scores revealed the superiority of the PCD group over the TS group. Asymmetrical pairs were also found to outperform their symmetrical counterparts. The findings reveal the potentiality of peer mediators in L2 pragmatic acquisition and point to interlanguage pragmatic gains associated with an asymmetrical proficiency pairing.

As each and every language learner is subject to assessment, a sound and valid assessment plays a pivotal role in foreign language education. This study focuses on how assessment is perceived by English as a foreign language (EFL) students in the Turkish EFL context with the participation of 481 EFL students from 24 K-12 level schools and 8 universities. A mixed-methods research design was adopted, and the data were collected through a questionnaire, follow-up interview, and observation. The results showed that the students were not satisfied with the assessment practices and they did not feel like they were assessed. It was also observed that the traditional approach focusing on the formal properties of English was commonly practiced while assessing the students. Moreover, it was found that the assessment quality in the schools was low and it was taken as a formal requirement to grade students. The final part of the paper suggests the need for a comprehensive teacher-training in assessment to increase the assessment literacy of English teachers.

The present study was an attempt to investigate the differential effect/s of three different planning time scenarios (i. e. 0 min, 10 min, & 20 min), as well as three task conditions of (1) topic given, (2) topic and ideas given, and (3) topic, ideas and macrostructure given on EFL learners L2 writing complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF). One-hundred-eight male and female participants were randomly assigned to three time-conditions, each with 36 members. Each time-condition group was itself divided into three smaller groups of 12, each with a particular task condition. The results of the comparison of the groups who were engaged in the argumentative writing task revealed that planning time significantly influenced the complexity of the essays, and the writers in the 20-minute planning time group produced more complex texts compared with those in the zero-minute planning time group. However, no significant effect of task conditions, as well as no interaction between planning time and task conditions were found. Moreover, task conditions affected the general accuracy of the writers’ performance in all tasks. The pairwise comparisons showed a marginally better accuracy of texts in the condition of topic, ideas, and macrostructure given as opposed to the topic given condition. The findings of this study provide beneficial implications for language teachers and learners in developing their writing quality particularly with regard to the CAF triad, and stress the significance of planning time before conducting a written output task in the complexity of the output.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the online English information searching strategies (OEISS) used by university students studying English as a foreign language (EFL). Students’ background characteristics were also examined to determine whether they influence the students’ searching strategies. This study revised and used the Online Information Searching Strategy Inventory (OISS) developed by Tsai (2009). A survey questionnaire was administered to 537 university students recruited from 11 universities. The results indicated that the participants used OEISS at an average level. In addition, significant differences were found on how students used OEISS in developing their English reading ability, their purposes for online reading, and their time spent online. Moreover, contrary to previous findings, no significant difference was found between males and females in the use of OEISS. Lastly, the majority of students were found to avoid using disorientation strategies. This research provided information that compliments the present literature on OEISS for EFL university students.

This study elucidated how humanistic teaching as manifested in teachers’ error correction influences EFL learners’ engagement, motivation, and language achievement. the present study was carried out in a language Institute in Mashhad, Iran. The population comprised 42 advanced female learners. To investigate how error treatment will affect EFL learners’ engagement, intrinsic motivation and language achievement, a mixed-methods design incorporating both quantitative (experimental design) and qualitative (interview & observation) methods (QUAN qual) was employed. The participants were divided into control and experimental groups. Speaking errors of the participants of the experimental group were corrected by three methods of corrective feedback including peer-correction, elicitation, and repetition, whereas, speaking errors of the participants of control group were directly corrected by the teacher. To measure the intrinsic motivation, the MSLQ questionnaire (Pintrich, et al., 1991) was employed. Students’ engagement was determined through Tool-school engagement scale, which was assesses behavioral, emotional, and cognitive aspects of academic engagement (Fredericks, Blumenfeld, Friedel, & Paris, 2005). A Babel test was utilized to assess language proficiency. To examine the effect of corrective feedback on intrinsic interest, an independent samples t-test was run. The results substantiated the efficiency of corrective feedback in enhancing intrinsic motivation. A one-way between-groups multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was utilized to investigate the role of corrective feedback in Cognitive, Behavioral, and Emotional Engagement. It was revealed that all three types of engagement were influenced and the highest difference was observed in Emotional engagement and the lowest difference was obtained for Behavioral engagement. Regarding language achievement, the results implied that corrective feedback utilized in the experimental group resulted in higher language achievement. Twenty-five percent of the whole participants were interviewed after the term. The findings analyzed via MAXQDA software were in line with the results of the quantitative phase.