Papers by Hossein Heidari Tabrizi
International Journal of Language and Translation Research,, 2022
Translation quality is a central issue in the translation profession as well as translation educa... more Translation quality is a central issue in the translation profession as well as translation education and training and is one of the utmost controversial topics in translation studies today. The terms and concepts used in discussing the process of judging translation quality in its various practices and contexts are rather confused by scholars and practitioners in the field. Perhaps, the prime example of such confusion is the interchangeable use of the terms, “evaluation” and “assessment.” Acknowledging the complexity and importance of defining these notions, a shared emphasis is found in the literature on defining and assessing quality in the context of specific situations. In fact, the lack of a universal, unified specialized terminology for judging translations is urging the need to standardize assessment terminology in order to reach a common understanding of quality standards demanded in both academic and professional settings. In order to differentiate among various practices, translation terminology is gradually being evolved. To date, efforts have been made to clarify this terminology and to identify and define different types of translation quality assessment procedures. Through a systematic review of the literature at hand, the present paper is an attempt to map out the terminology for judging quality in various translation practices as a key disciplinary desideratum.
This study examined the possible adverse effects of cyberpsychological variables on the productiv... more This study examined the possible adverse effects of cyberpsychological variables on the productive academic behavior of Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners with Xenoglossophobia in E-learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a sequential exploratory mixed-method design, in the qualitative phase, a comprehensive meta-integration was conducted for 573 related studies to determine the possible influencing cyber-psychological variables. In the quantitative phase, to measure the adverse effects of the determined
Journal of University Textbooks Research and Writing, 2021
At the discretion of the approved curriculum by Iran’s Supreme Council of Programming of the then... more At the discretion of the approved curriculum by Iran’s Supreme Council of Programming of the then-Ministry of Culture and Higher Education (now officially known as Ministry of Science, Research, & Technology), students majoring in English translation at the MA level are allowed to translate a whole textbook as their thesis. The present research study aimed at developing a framework for evaluation of theses allocated to book translation in postgraduate English translation programs in Iranian universities. In so doing, through the Delphi procedure, the opinions and attitudes of ten Iranian translation experts were collected, categorized, revised, and finalized by their responses and feedback on a two-round questionnaire-based Delphi procedure. The research findings resulted in the development of a comprehensive instruction for evaluating translation theses in postgraduate English translation programs in the Iranian context. The framework may hopefully do justice in helping the examiners have a fairer evaluation in a systematic unified way.
Journal of Teaching Language Skills, 2021
The upheaval time of COVID-19 highlighted the importance of an effective way of teaching English ... more The upheaval time of COVID-19 highlighted the importance of an effective way of teaching English to the front-line healthcare workers such as medical doctors and researchers with different digital-divide status, particularly in non-English-speaking countries because they were first-hand users of critical pandemic-related information in mostly-English articles published online by scientific journals. This study attempted to investigate the pedagogical effects of utilizing the two main User-Generated Content (UGC) platforms in E-learning, namely LMS vs. LXP, on the results of the Electronic Ministry of Health Language Examinations (E-MHLE) among Iranian English for Medical Purposes (EMP) learners across their digital-divide status (digital natives vs. digital immigrants) during the COVID-19 pandemic. A series of focus-group E-interviews were conducted to determine the reasons behind the lowest scores among the participants and to find out possible suggestions for success in highstake E-tests. To this end, 272 EMP learners who were users of LMS and LXP were conveniently selected from a university of medical science to participate in this sequential explanatory mixed-method research. The results of descriptive and inferential statistics showed
Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2014
This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between the general English courses off... more This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between the general English courses offered at the B.A. program of translation studies at Islamic Azad University and the students' general English performance in M.A. entrance examination of the
master program in TEFL at Islamic Azad university . To find out the relationship, a sample of 30 B.A. students who were studying translation studies participated in the study voluntary. To analysis the data the researcher used multiple regression method of analyses. Results of analyses showed that The general courses explained 67 percent of the variance in the UEE performances. Of these five courses, only one of them made the significant unique contribution to the prediction of the UEE scores.
Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2014
The study was to investigate the content validity of the General English section of the M.A. entr... more The study was to investigate the content validity of the General English section of the M.A. entrance examination of TEFL at Islamic Azad University. To reach this, the questions of the exam were analysed by the item content congruence and applicability questionnaire of Brown (2008). There was also a panel of experts who were to decide
about the representativeness of the exam and the provided reading list. The content validity of the exam showed that the exam enjoys a moderate and very good content validity in different sections. To support this statement, the representativeness results also were used.
International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 2021
Video podcasting technology or ‘vodcasting’ has proven to be in the
forefront of distance educati... more Video podcasting technology or ‘vodcasting’ has proven to be in the
forefront of distance education in general and computer assisted language learning in particular. It has flourished by minimising the possible needs of learners’ physical presence in second language classes and removing their affective barriers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the major potentials and challenges of vodcasting technology in improving major language skills from EFL learners’ perspectives. In order to achieve this, 120 EFL students were selected to receive a long term treatment of collaborative online practice of different skills by using Telegram application. The participants received the video podcasting tasks and were assigned to do the tasks collaboratively. At the end of the treatment, they were interviewed about the experience. The results of the semi-structured interview yielded remarkable information about the capabilities of the experience and the
challenges which need to be obviated for future studies.
International Journal of Language Studies, 2021
Translation evaluation is an indispensable part of teaching translation to determine whether the ... more Translation evaluation is an indispensable part of teaching translation to determine whether the instructional objectives are met. The present study aimed at providing a meticulous, critical state of the art of the translation evaluation methods practiced by Iranian university teachers in undergraduate English Translation Program. Using an a priori coding scheme encompassing ten features of summative tests, the researcher conducted a thorough content analysis on a sample of 19 final translation achievement tests on each of the three major general translation courses administered in four different types of Iranian universities. The results revealed that the method commonly and currently used in the BA translation program does not seem to create a sense of satisfaction in either the students or in the teacher assessors themselves. The results of the present study may open new avenues for further research on academic translation evaluation, which is a crucial aspect of translation studies inquiry particularly in Iran.
The Independent Journal of Teaching and Learning, 2021
This paper explored the process of professional identity construction of eight pre-service teache... more This paper explored the process of professional identity construction of eight pre-service teachers through engagement during their practicum in a higher education institute in Tehran, Iran. By means of a longitudinal qualitative design within the social constructivist approach, data were collected by one semi-structured interview, one reflective essay, and five personal narratives embedded as the first phase of a teacher education programme, namely (i) engage, (ii) study, and (iii) activate (ESA). Thematic analysis at two levels (within-case and cross-case) resulted in three themes: (i) the mentor teacher's role as an engagement facilitator, (ii) online and offline activities as effective prompts, and (iii) the engage phase as a motivator. Data analysis revealed that negotiations on classroom activities contributed to student teachers' self-confidence, self-awareness and self-image. The findings suggested that successful engagement requires a variety of systematic activities. Furthermore, the findings support the significant role of engagement at the initial stage of pre-service teacher education that open new directions to design local training programmes. Focus on engagement could produce a deeper understanding of pre-service teachers' professional identity construction. 12
Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies, 2021
The student's success at school greatly depends on the quality teacher and this has led to the go... more The student's success at school greatly depends on the quality teacher and this has led to the governments' growing focus on the quality of teacher education programs and the production of quality teachers. This study explored the contributory role of the newly revised English Teacher Education Curriculum (ETEC) at Farhangian University in pre-service teachers' professional preparation. The participants were 257 BA students in TEFL and 40 teacher educators. The adapted version of the Survey of Teacher Education Programs (STEP) (Williams-Pettway, 2005) and semistructured interviews were used to obtain data from the participants. After analyzing the data by employing descriptive and inferential statistics, the findings indicated that the participants positively evaluated the components in the program and found it effective in the preparation of prospective teachers. However, some participants pointed to some drawbacks as the requirement of more input on language proficiency and knowledge of English language learners, more effective use of technology, more teaching practice and field experience, and sufficient support from supervising teachers and teacher educators during teaching practicum courses for student teachers. The findings from this study may help tomorrow's educational leaders to equip themselves with a visionary perspective and begin to form ideas for future change and direction in line with social influences.
Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE, 2021
Virtual learning, in particular, has been defined as any system of education and instruction that... more Virtual learning, in particular, has been defined as any system of education and instruction that brings together participants who are separated by geographical distances or time. Notably, in virtual learning environment interactive telecommunications systems are utilized to connect learners, resources, and instructors. Accordingly, the present study sought to investigate the significant effect of virtual teaching on improving reading comprehension of undergraduate EFL university students. To this end, from the population of students majoring in English translation, at Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran, one control group, one virtual class, and one blended group were selected, each consisting of thirty participants. Subsequently, the virtual group was exposed to web-based technologies throughout the entire term while the students in the control group were taught through traditional method. Moreover, the instructor in the blended group used both traditional and innovative methods. The results of the t-test revealed that the group which was taught through web-based technologies during the term progressed substantially in comparison with the other two groups. Moreover, there appeared to be a significant difference between the pretest and posttest in the virtual group. Evidently, the results of the present study may have practical implications for EFL teachers, online instructors, distance education programmers, materials developers, and syllable designers.
The Journal of English Language Pedagogy and Practice, 2020
Languages as living and dynamic structured systems were influenced at the very first moments of t... more Languages as living and dynamic structured systems were influenced at the very first moments of the COVID-19 pandemic as they became medicalized by the use and practice of various jargons and technical terms. Meanwhile, homebound individuals around the world started to create a COVID-19 pandemic-related lexical-overload of neologisms (Coroneologisms or Corona coinages) in different languages which started to spread across the globe by mass media, and some of them even entered the official databases of the well-known dictionaries and Wikipedia corpora. This study was a scrutinized attempt to explore the English vs. Persian (Farsi) Coroneologisms across various Extensible Markup Language (XML) corpora and a huge body of E-resource discourses (websites, social media, and news channels and forums) based on embedded mixed-method design to provide a comprehensive insight into their types, structures, and meanings. To provide a better understanding of how and why particular Coroneologisms were created in terms of social, cultural, or political contributing factors, they were investigated based on the reflections of a series of sociolinguistic focus-group Einterviews with 184 volunteer English and Persian native speakers. This study might provide implications for sociolinguistics, corpus-based language studies, lexicographers, designers of corpora, etymologists, and discourse analysts in English and Persian.
Cogent Education, 2021
Inspired by appraisal theory, the current study looked into the effect of using evaluative langua... more Inspired by appraisal theory, the current study looked into the effect of using evaluative language on high- and low-graded post-graduate students’ academic writing in an EFL context across male and female groups. Participants were 60 MA students of TEFL who were randomly assigned to experimental (n = 30) and control (n = 30) groups. Attitudinal and Graduation resources of evaluative language were taught to raise the students’ critical stance in academic writing. Conventional writing
instruction was provided for the control group. The writing pre- and post-test was the main instrument in order to investigate the difference between the students’ performance in the study groups. Findings revealed that evaluative language could significantly result in increasing the post-graduate students’ academic writing ability, while no significant difference was resulted between the male and female groups. High-graded students were also found to act significantly better than the low-graded ones in writing academically. The results of the study revealed that evaluative language can contribute to the post-graduate students’ possessions of critical stance in writing academically, which helps the writer to make a dialogic interaction with the reader.
Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies, 2021
Enhancing speaking ability is an important component of the acquirement of a language. The presen... more Enhancing speaking ability is an important component of the acquirement of a language. The present study is consistent with developing speaking ability through online strategy-based instruction. The innovative aspect of this study is applying the Moodle course management system as an instructional platform. To this end, a group of 80 Iranian female and male students at the intermediate level took part in the treatment. They were divided into four groups of 20. The participants in experimental groups benefited from social and affective strategies instruction. In order to evaluate the effect of the treatment pre and posttests design were utilized. Consequently, the data was analyzed through One-Way ANOVAs and t-tests. The findings revealed that strategy treatment was successful in improving the participants' speaking ability. However, there was no considerable difference between the performance of male and female treatment groups. Therefore, the findings suggest that online strategy-based instruction can positively influence the speaking ability of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. This study might have educational implications for material practitioners, CALL package designers and distance learning planners to include strategy instruction in English courses.
International Journal of Language and Translation Research, 2021
The test scores on students’ report cards is the only benchmark against which their English achie... more The test scores on students’ report cards is the only benchmark against which their English achievement are assessed for evaluative purposes in Iranian high schools. According to the rules and regulations, the average score of a student is required to be reported by English teachers, based on her/his performance on both oral and written tests. The present study aimed to discover if Iranian high school female students’ English scores on their report cards represent the real sum of their oral and written test scores. To do so, the average scores of 30 female students in Grade 11 at two Iranian girls’ senior high schools in Isfahan were compared with those of a researcher-made validated oral and written test. The results showed that the scores of the students on the newly-developed test were higher than those recorded on their report cards. The results of a paired t test revealed a statistically significant difference between the means of these two sets of scores, rejecting the common false presupposition about students’ low performance in oral skills. Teachers typically skipped the oral test and rated their students’ oral ability, just on the basis of their own intuition or students’ performance on the written test. It seems that the exclusion of the oral test leads to this difference in the scores. Thus, Iranian high school students’ English scores appearing on their report card are not a sound reflection of their performance on the oral and written tests.
International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research, 2021
Enhancing speaking ability is an important component of the acquirement of a language. The innova... more Enhancing speaking ability is an important component of the acquirement of a language. The innovative aspect of this study is improving speaking ability through online strategy-based instruction by applying the Moodle course management system as an instructional platform. To this end, a group of 80 Iranian female and male students at the advanced level participated in the treatment. Participants of the study were divided into four groups of 20. The subjects in experimental groups benefited from two particular instructional focuses of this study include social and affective strategies. In order to assess the effect of the treatment pre and posttests design were utilized. Consequently, the data were analyzed through One-Way ANOVAs and ttests. The findings revealed that strategy treatment was successful in improving the participants' speaking ability. Therefore, the findings suggest that online strategy-based instruction can positively influence the speaking ability of Iranian advanced EFL learners. In addition, a questionnaire from Kitchakarn (2015) was employed to understand students' perceptions and attitudes toward computer-based learning. The statistical analysis of the questionnaire revealed positive attitudes of participants toward computer-based learning.This study may have pedagogical implications for material practitioners, CALL package designers and distance learning planners to include strategy instruction in English courses.
Language Teaching Research Quarterly, 2021
The present study peruses EFL learners in a kind of process-product approach in writing and inves... more The present study peruses EFL learners in a kind of process-product approach in writing and investigates the possible effects of teachers' direct and indirect corrective feedback in four English language institutes in Isfahan, Iran. Four groups of intermediate students participated as a case in this study. The total number of participants was 120 female EFL learners selected based on a convenient non-random sampling method but randomly divided into four experimental groups. In the first group, the product-based approach was used to teach writing, and the learners received direct corrective feedback. In the second group, again product-based approach was used to teach writing, and the learners received indirect corrective feedback. In the third group, the writing was taught using a process-based approach, and the learners received direct corrective feedback, and in the last group, the learners received indirect feedback in process-based writing. The writing performance of the students in all four groups was compared in terms of accuracy. ANOVA and Post-hoc tests revealed that the process-based approach through which direct feedback was provided was more effective than other teaching writing approaches.
Research in English Language Pedagogy, 2021
Flipped teaching is the process of moving lecture content from face-to-face class time to before ... more Flipped teaching is the process of moving lecture content from face-to-face class time to before class. The potential values of flipped teaching in which learners are actively engaged in the learning process have been emphasized during the past years; however, there is still little research evidence about the attitudes of the learners towards flipped teaching and the use of technology. The present investigation aimed to explore Iranian EFL learners' attitudes towards flipped teaching. To this end, 40 female intermediate EFL learners with the age range of 19 to 29 from the training department of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in Khuzestan, Iran, based on the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) were selected through convenience sampling and assigned into two groups with the same instructional strategies since having 40 students in a single class was not possible. An attitude questionnaire was examined in terms of frequencies and percentages. The results of frequency analyses indicated that EFL learners in the study had a positive attitude towards flipped teaching and agreed that it was helpful to them in many ways. The findings can be of significance for EFL learners, instructors, and syllabus designers.
International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 2021
Using evaluative language has been considered as the significant predictor of academic writing su... more Using evaluative language has been considered as the significant predictor of academic writing success in second and foreign language research. Such an importance paved the way for the current study to investigate the use of the APPRAISAL tool, namely ATTITUDE resources, in the research articles (RAs) written by native (N) and non-native (NN) writers, focusing on the discussion sections. A qualitative corpus selection resulted in choosing 30 RAs written by American writers and 30 authored by Iranian writers. Two coding schemes were used: one for discussion boundaries based on Kanoksilapatham's (2005) discussion move structure, and the modified version of APPRAISAL theory (Xu, 2017) for identifying attitudinal resources. The corpus analysis revealed that academic writers preferred to use a great number of inscribed ATTITUDE resources, that is, APPRECIATION tools compared to JUDGMENT. There was also a significant difference between N and NN sub-corpora in using attitudinal resources, highlighting that the language of N RAs contained more authorial stance of ATTITUDE compared to NN subcorpus. However, the use of idioms as evoked ATTITUDE was found to be frequently applied by NN authors. The findings of the study contributed to the significance of using evaluative language in academic writing through which the writers can make a dialogic interaction with readers and enhance their critical stance by involving them in the argument.
International Journal of Language , Literature , Culture and History Studies, 2020
Color terms are usually used to depict the colors of objects in the real world and represent some... more Color terms are usually used to depict the colors of objects in the real world and represent some metaphorical conceptualizations. English, as a language with a long history, is abundant in color terms which are used metaphorically. This paper aimed to scrutinize the metaphorical competence of 39 BA students of English Literature at University of Isfahan from both genders. To test their knowledge with a direct focus on their knowledge of color metaphors, the researcher-made test, contrived especially to evaluate both their recognition and production of metaphorical knowledge, was used. The collected answer sheets were checked and rated objectively item by item by one rater, and points of every participant were counted. Results showed that surprisingly the metaphors with the term 'color' is the easiest, and in spite of their being infrequent in English and Persian the metaphors with the words 'silver' and 'rose' are the second and third easiest groups of metaphors. In contrast, the terms 'black' and 'white' although being frequent in the two languages, the metaphorical use of them was more difficult for Iranian learners. Additionally, the metaphorical use of the terms 'blue' and 'red' is unbelievably more difficult despite they are highly frequent colors in the immediate environment. Findings also showed that recognition questions were easier than the production ones.
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Papers by Hossein Heidari Tabrizi
master program in TEFL at Islamic Azad university . To find out the relationship, a sample of 30 B.A. students who were studying translation studies participated in the study voluntary. To analysis the data the researcher used multiple regression method of analyses. Results of analyses showed that The general courses explained 67 percent of the variance in the UEE performances. Of these five courses, only one of them made the significant unique contribution to the prediction of the UEE scores.
about the representativeness of the exam and the provided reading list. The content validity of the exam showed that the exam enjoys a moderate and very good content validity in different sections. To support this statement, the representativeness results also were used.
forefront of distance education in general and computer assisted language learning in particular. It has flourished by minimising the possible needs of learners’ physical presence in second language classes and removing their affective barriers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the major potentials and challenges of vodcasting technology in improving major language skills from EFL learners’ perspectives. In order to achieve this, 120 EFL students were selected to receive a long term treatment of collaborative online practice of different skills by using Telegram application. The participants received the video podcasting tasks and were assigned to do the tasks collaboratively. At the end of the treatment, they were interviewed about the experience. The results of the semi-structured interview yielded remarkable information about the capabilities of the experience and the
challenges which need to be obviated for future studies.
instruction was provided for the control group. The writing pre- and post-test was the main instrument in order to investigate the difference between the students’ performance in the study groups. Findings revealed that evaluative language could significantly result in increasing the post-graduate students’ academic writing ability, while no significant difference was resulted between the male and female groups. High-graded students were also found to act significantly better than the low-graded ones in writing academically. The results of the study revealed that evaluative language can contribute to the post-graduate students’ possessions of critical stance in writing academically, which helps the writer to make a dialogic interaction with the reader.
master program in TEFL at Islamic Azad university . To find out the relationship, a sample of 30 B.A. students who were studying translation studies participated in the study voluntary. To analysis the data the researcher used multiple regression method of analyses. Results of analyses showed that The general courses explained 67 percent of the variance in the UEE performances. Of these five courses, only one of them made the significant unique contribution to the prediction of the UEE scores.
about the representativeness of the exam and the provided reading list. The content validity of the exam showed that the exam enjoys a moderate and very good content validity in different sections. To support this statement, the representativeness results also were used.
forefront of distance education in general and computer assisted language learning in particular. It has flourished by minimising the possible needs of learners’ physical presence in second language classes and removing their affective barriers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the major potentials and challenges of vodcasting technology in improving major language skills from EFL learners’ perspectives. In order to achieve this, 120 EFL students were selected to receive a long term treatment of collaborative online practice of different skills by using Telegram application. The participants received the video podcasting tasks and were assigned to do the tasks collaboratively. At the end of the treatment, they were interviewed about the experience. The results of the semi-structured interview yielded remarkable information about the capabilities of the experience and the
challenges which need to be obviated for future studies.
instruction was provided for the control group. The writing pre- and post-test was the main instrument in order to investigate the difference between the students’ performance in the study groups. Findings revealed that evaluative language could significantly result in increasing the post-graduate students’ academic writing ability, while no significant difference was resulted between the male and female groups. High-graded students were also found to act significantly better than the low-graded ones in writing academically. The results of the study revealed that evaluative language can contribute to the post-graduate students’ possessions of critical stance in writing academically, which helps the writer to make a dialogic interaction with the reader.