Foreign Languages

This paper explores sub-disciplinary variations and generic structure of research article introductions (RAIs) within three sub-disciplines of applied linguistics (AL); namely, English for Specific Purposes (ESP), Psycholinguistics, and Sociolinguistics, using Swales'(1990) CARS model. The corpus consisted of 90 RAIs drawn from a wide range of refereed journals in the corresponding sub-disciplines. The results indicate sub-disciplinary variation in the structure of this genre in terms of Move 2 / step 1B that can be justified through the concepts of 'established' versus 'emerging' fields. The findings underline the need for further in-depth research into sub-disciplinary variation and generic structure of RAIs. The results also promise pedagogical implications for ESP/EAP practitioners, course administrators as well as material developers.

The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of genre and text authenticity on the performance of EFL students in C-tests. Bachman's model of language ability and test method facets provided the theoretical framework for this research. The focus of the study was on the nature of input and expected response by considering genre and text authenticity in C-tests. The participants were 120 senior students majoring in English language translation who were screened from a larger pool of subjects based on their performances on a retired TOEFL test (Sharpe, 2001). The instrumentation included four tailored C-tests based on two different genres (political vs. literary) and two kinds of texts, i.e. authentic and inauthentic texts. The C-tests were administered to four homogenized groups each comprising 30 subjects. Data were analyzed through two-way analysis of variance and post hoc Scheffe tests. The results showed a significant effect of genre and text authenticity on the C-test performances of the participants. However, the interaction between genre and text authenticity did not prove to be significant .The findings provided data to support two aspects of Bachman's model ; the effect of the nature of input and the nature of the expected response on Ctests. The findings make it clear that genre and text authenticity can be considered as test method facets or 'specific aspects of test method' (Bachman, 1995 : 115) in the C-tests.

In this study, Van Dijk's (1998) model of CDA was utilized in order to examine the representation of Iran's nuclear program in editorials published by British news casting companies. The analysis of the editorials was carried out at two levels of headlines and full text stories with regard to the linguistic features of lexical choices, nominalization, passivization, overcompleteness, and voice. The results support biased representation in media discourse, in this case Iran's nuclear program. Likewise, the findings approve Bloor and Bloor (2007) ideological circles of Self (i.e., the West) and Other (i.e., Iran) or US and THEM in the media. The findings may be utilized to increase Critical Language Awareness (CLA) among EFL teachers / students and can promise implications for ESP materials development and EAP courses for the students of journalism.

In response to the competitive demands for establishing their international academic and financial credentials, the universities globally distribute some online introductory information about themselves. To this end, the university homepages have increasingly turned into the rhetorical space for the development of promotional academic texts in recent years. In this study, we examined university overview genre that provides the visitors with brief presentation of the simple facts while endorsing a specific perspective of the university and strengthening its position in the academic community. The corpus comprised 70 overviews extracted from the academic websites of the first top 500 universities. We analyzed and coded the texts to specify their overall rhetorical framework, functional moves and constituting steps, and optimal order of moves. The findings indicated that overview genre incorporates six obligatory moves including 'source of reputation', 'historical origin', 'current status of development', 'commitments, goals and orientations', 'global state', and 'services and supports'. Also, the results demonstrated that the academic genre did not follow a single, invariant pattern of sequenced moves in a clearly linear order. The findings further suggest that the nature of overview genre could be characterized by its twofold informative and persuasive functions. Finally, implications of the findings of the study are presented.

While teachers" confidence in their abilities is a crucial asset in teachers" professionalism and their identity development, their efficacy doubts are also considered useful. Given the diversity of English Language Teaching (ELT) contexts, this paper probes the dynamic nature of efficacy doubts the teachers face and are expected to resolve in English for General Purposes (EGP) and English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) instruction.

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teachers, among other challenges, are required to deal with content areas which are beyond their realms of expertise. This can lead to special types of critical incidents (CIs) for them (i.e., subject-related CIs). Despite their importance, CIs seem to have received little attention in EAP teaching and teacher education. This study addresses EAP teachers' subject-related CIs. A total of 13 subject-related CIs gathered from interviews with 34 Iranian EAP teachers were analyzed in order to examine their nature as well as the strategies and tactics that teachers used to handle them and the insights they gained from such incidents. The analysis shows that EAP teachers used three types of strategies for dealing with subject-related CIs: admitting ignorance, avoidance, and risk taking. They used various types of tactics for handling their subject-related CIs and described lessons they learned from them. The results indicate that CIs can provide invaluable insights into the nature of the challenges EAP teachers face regarding the specialized content of EAP courses.

With the advent of the global perspective on English, the live issues of the ownership and culture of English (Akbari, 2008; Seidlhofer, 2005) have begun to shake up numerous conventional notions of the field. In the wake of this landmark shift, this study attempts to probe EFL teach-ers' cultural attitude toward prospective English words. To this end, identifying twelve highly Persian culture-specific words, the researchers devised an attitude questionnaire, which was administered to 351 EFL teachers to examine their right of cultural encoding (Kirkpatrick, 2014) as English users. The study concludes with granting a legitimate norm-overriding role to EFL teachers in order to gate-keep their required concepts in English.

Several studies have employed the theme-rheme construct to examine the generic profile of research articles (RAs). However, they have mostly focused on the subject matter and nature of disciplines, and other disciplinary characteristics as contextual factors which can impact the genre realization have not been considered in the discourse analysis research. This work, therefore, investigates thematic choices and thematic progression patterns in the RA in relation to the status of disciplines as well-established or emerging fields. To this end, a corpus of 240 RAs of mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, horticulture, and environmental science were analyzed using Halliday's (1994) framework of thematicity and McCabe's (1999) model of thematic progression (TP). The results showed significant differences in the distributions of unmarked and marked themes as well as the patterns of thematic progression between the well-established and emerging disciplines. Based on the findings of this study, we suggest further consideration of the status of disciplines in discourse studies which can serve disciplinary research and contribute to the body of research on science.

With the advent of the global perspective on English, the live issues of the ownership and culture of English (Akbari, 2008; Seidlhofer, 2005) have begun to shake up numerous conventional notions of the field. In the wake of this landmark shift, this study attempts to probe EFL teachers' cultural attitude toward prospective English words. To this end, identifying twelve highly Persian culture-specific words, the researchers devised an attitude questionnaire, which was administered to 351 EFL teachers to examine their right of cultural encoding (Kirkpatrick, 2014) as English users. The study concludes with granting a legitimate norm-overriding role to EFL teachers in order to gate-keep their required concepts in English.

This paper explores sub-disciplinary variations and generic structure of research article introductions (RAIs) within three sub-disciplines of applied linguistics (AL); namely, English for Specific Purposes (ESP), Psycholinguistics, and Sociolinguistics, using Swales’(1990) CARS model. The corpus consisted of 90 RAIs drawn from a wide range of refereed journals in the corresponding sub-disciplines. The results indicate sub-disciplinary variation in the structure of this genre in terms of Move 2 / step 1B that can be justified through the concepts of ‘established’ versus ‘emerging’ fields. The findings underline the need for further in-depth research into sub-disciplinary variation and generic structure of RAIs. The results also promise pedagogical implications for ESP/EAP practitioners, course administrators as well as material developers.

Among the prevailing channels for L2 teachers to develop professionally, in-service teacher education programs (INSTEPs), or "continuing professional development" (Johnson, 2004, p. 652), are echoed in the literature. The present study probed Iranian L2 teachers’ perceptions regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the current INSTEPs held by the Ministry of Education. More specifically, the researchers examined various aspects of English teacher development, including the teachers’ appraisal of the current teacher evaluation scheme and the alternatives adopted by the teachers in order to update their pedagogic content and support knowledge. Data were collected through a questionnaire developed for the purposes of this study and administered to a representative sample of Iranian L2 teachers (n = 1234) who participated in some formal teacher development events in Iran. The results indicated that self-reliance was practiced by the teachers and they highlighted the press...

Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses is highly demanding for EAP teachers as they are faced with diverse pedagogical and administrative challenges in such courses. This study addressed the level of burnout among EAP teachers and variations in relation to their demographic and organizational characteristics. To this aim, a demographic questionnaire along with the Persian version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was administered to 276 EAP teachers from state universities in Iran. The results revealed that a considerable number of EAP teachers reported mid-levels of personal accomplishment. Moreover, variations in degree of burnout were found among EAP teachers in relation to marital status, age, years of experience in teaching EAP and content/general English courses, educational background, and the field and number of EAP courses taught. Also, EAP teachers with different demographic and organizational characteristics who were more susceptible to burnout were ide...

The present exploratory study probed Iranian in-service EAP teachers’ cognitions on language teacher role identities. Life history narratives and teaching philosophy statements were employed to collect qualitative data from nine Iranian in-service EAP teachers at one of the state universities in Iran. The data included the teachers’ descriptions of their teaching philosophies as well as their evaluations and interpretations of their prior teachers’ ways of being language teachers. Inductive analysis of the data allowed the researchers to identify Eight role identities including ‘teachers as creators and users of learning opportunities’; ‘teachers as selectors and users of teaching/learning materials’; ‘teachers as assessors and evaluators’; ‘teachers as researchers’; ‘teachers as realizers and facilitators of the development of learners' (full) potentials’; ‘teachers as observers of ethicality’; ‘teachers as learners’; and, ‘teachers as teacher educators’. In addition to providi...

Recently, interest in research on EFL teaching, CLT-based methodology and materials, and post-method pedagogy has gain momentum in the Iranian mainstream education. This study was conducted; 1) to explore EFL teachers’ attitudes towards the present EFL methodologies and content of high school textbooks; 2) to examine any probable relationship between teachers’ attitudes towards post method pedagogy and their students’ achievement; and 3) to probe any correlation between the teachers’ instructional experience and their attitudes towards the present teaching methods and materials. To this end, a questionnaire was designed to elicit EFL teachers’ beliefs. The subjects were 594 Iranian EFL teachers selected from different cities all over Iran. After the administration of the questionnaire, the data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistical procedures. The results indicated that: a) the Iranian EFL teachers hold different patterns of attitudes towards the dominant tea...