Papers by Mahmood Reza Atai
Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Nov 1, 2022
Research Square (Research Square), Sep 27, 2022
With the global spread of English as the lingua franca for academic publishing, non-native resear... more With the global spread of English as the lingua franca for academic publishing, non-native researchers and university students are constantly facing linguistic barriers including insu cient vocabulary knowledge in writing for publication. This persistent need motivated the development of a good number of corpus-based word lists for frequently used academic and technical words in research articles across disciplines. Nevertheless, despite its importance in corpus-based study of language for word list development, replication research has received far less attention in this line of inquiry. The current study aimed to address this gap and replicated two published studies that investigated the use of academic vocabulary in applied linguistics research articles. To this end, research articles published from 2010 to 2020 in 20 well-known journals in the eld were collected, and a corpus with around 48 million words was compiled and analyzed. The ndings indicated that academic vocabulary accounted for 11.46% of the corpus, which is similar and close to the reported coverage of the AWL in replicated studies. However, regarding the frequently occurring academic and non-academic content words, the ndings showed considerable variation with respect to the results reported earlier. In light of these ndings, the study highlighted the importance of replication research to test the reliability of corpus-based vocabulary studies that developed eld-speci c academic word lists. Finally, the study developed an updated version for applied linguistics academic word list, that might be regarded as a resource and guide for the vocabulary learning component of the relevant EAP programs in the eld.
Teaching English Language, Jun 30, 2012
This study was conducted to examine whether raising the awareness of EFL listeners about the gene... more This study was conducted to examine whether raising the awareness of EFL listeners about the generic structure of news through portfolio approach may significantly enhance the subjects' listening comprehension performance. To this end, around 97 advanced Iranian EFL learners participated in this study. The first experimental group received explicit teaching of generic structures of the genre of news. The participants in the second experimental group (i.e. portfolio assessment group) were helped to develop their awareness of the genre of news through completing their portfolios. The subjects in the control group listened to the news and completed some conventional activities. Instrumentation included a listening comprehension test and an attitude questionnaire. The results showed that explicit teaching of the generic structures of the genre of news as well as the application of portfolio assessment did not have any significant effect on listening comprehension performance of EFL listeners. It is concludes that only skilled listeners
The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching, Jan 18, 2018
The journal of Asia TEFL, Jun 30, 2022
Although university English teachers' professional growth hinges upon active research engagement,... more Although university English teachers' professional growth hinges upon active research engagement, they could not individually follow a one-size-fits-all approach to turn into teacher researchers. In this study, through the lens of activity system, we explored how university English teachers could be empowered to mediate their research engagement by reliance on socially enhanced research tools, research community norms, and research scaffolding trends. Thirty Iranian university English teachers (twenty-seven PhD candidates and three PhD graduates) participated in this study. To collect the data, we used semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and online discussion forums. The findings demonstrated that Iranian university English teachers' research engagement is mediated by research mindset, research interest, and research toolkit. Furthermore, research apprenticeship and academic promotion are the two research norms that university English teachers support. In the research engagement system, research networks and research teams promote the teachers' collective research literacy. The results further showed that to socially mediate the university English teachers' research engagement, research educators are expected to systematically guide the teachers' research practices, research materials developers need to curate and produce teacher-friendly research materials, and academic researchers should authorize the teachers to get socialized into teachers' research communities.
Reading Psychology, Jun 16, 2014
Given the importance associated with multiple-document literacy in the present-day knowledge soci... more Given the importance associated with multiple-document literacy in the present-day knowledge societies and the dearth of research in English Language Teaching in general and English for Specific/Academic Purposes (ESAP) contexts in particular on multiple-document comprehension and the significance of reader beliefs in this type of comprehension, the present study was carried out with the aim of investigating the relationship between ESAP students’ personal epistemological beliefs and their inferential intratextual and intertextual understanding of multiple texts. To this aim, 64 first-semester midwifery students were selected as the participants of the study. They were required to read four passages on multi-fetal pregnancy which discussed different aspects of this phenomenon. Having filled out the Epistemological Beliefs Inventory, they were tested on the inferential intratextual and intertextual comprehension of the texts. Results of the analyses of the data revealed significant associations between epistemological beliefs and the inferential comprehension of multiple texts. The results also indicated the poorer performance of the participants in intertextual inferential understanding of the texts compared with the intratextual understanding of them. The study concludes with tentative implication of the findings for ESAP reading courses.
The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy
Despite the importance of academic reading in higher education, the current literature lacks a va... more Despite the importance of academic reading in higher education, the current literature lacks a valid instrument comprising different components of academic reading at a gradu- ate level. This article reports on the development of an academic reading instrument for (Iranian) MA students of applied linguistics. To this end, based on a thorough review of the relevant literature and interviews with experts, a preliminary theoretical framework was proposed and an instrument with 50 items was developed. The instrument was validated through conducting exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with 345 participants and a fur- ther confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with 207 participants. The results of the EFA and CFA led to the emergence of an 8-component instrument with 37 items. The components include reading strategies, English language proficiency, content knowledge, statistical lit- eracy, genre awareness, information literacy, interaction with teaches and peers (interactive reading), and critical reading. The implications are discussed.
Ibérica
Academic reading and writing abilities are prerequisites to success in postgraduate programs. The... more Academic reading and writing abilities are prerequisites to success in postgraduate programs. These should be domains of competence in particular for students in applied linguistics, whose studies and future performance as teachers require insight into these skills. A questionnaire was administered to 194 students, who assessed their own academic reading skills. In addition, open-ended questions added to the questionnaire and interviews with 14 students were analyzed, yielding eight domains identified as particular challenges. The results revealed that students assessed their information literacy to be the weakest one. The eight areas of challenge included: shortage of time, information literacy, content knowledge, critical literacy, writers’ language style and generic features of texts, teachers’ high expectations and vague instructions, insufficient statistical literacy and insufficient interaction with peers.
Journal of English for Academic Purposes
Teaching English Language, Jun 30, 2013
This study investigated the relative effects of explicit and implicit form-focused instruction (F... more This study investigated the relative effects of explicit and implicit form-focused instruction (FFI) on the acquisition of four simple and difficult morphosyntactic features as assessed by explicit and implicit outcome measures. Four tests were utilized to assess L2 learners' acquisition: elicited oral imitation, timed and untimed grammaticality judgment, and metalinguistic knowledge tests. A pretest and two posttests were administered to 120 low pre-intermediate learners immediately and three weeks after the instructional treatments. Durable effects of FFI were found for simple and difficult language forms on both measures of explicit and implicit L2 knowledge. More specifically, the present study indicated that explicit FFI was significantly more
Journal of Teaching Language Skills, 2021
Global EFL coursebooks are used in numerous educational contexts throughout the world based on th... more Global EFL coursebooks are used in numerous educational contexts throughout the world based on the assumption that they are the optimal source of English educational input. Their widespread use calls for a systematic analysis of these coursebooks using a framework that can reveal their defining characteristics. One such framework is the knowledge process framework, which is based on the multiliteracies pedagogy. The present study deployed this framework in an attempt to analyze seven widely taught coursebooks in the Iranian context. The findings revealed that knowledge processes of "analyzing functionally" and "applying appropriately" were more frequent in the analyzed coursebooks and the other knowledge processes were present in lower numbers. Based on the findings of the study, EFL teachers in the Iranian context are encouraged to include more activities with the knowledge processes of "analyzing critically" and "applying creatively" to addr...
English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses are currently well-established university programs. T... more English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses are currently well-established university programs. These courses are run independently by English Language Teaching (ELT) instructors and content instructors without any collaboration. However, ELT instructors and content instructors do not receive the same level of collegiality and social support from the organizations and students. This paper probed burnout among Iranian EAP teachers, including content instructors and ELT instructors in 28 state universities and its variations in relation to their demographic and organizational characteristics. To this aim, the Persian version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was administered to content instructors (N=185) and ELT instructors (N=86) in the state universities in Iran. The results of the study indicated that while most of EAP teachers, both content instructors and ELT instructors, had low burnout, a considerable number had mid-levels of emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishme...
Journal of Teaching Language Skills, 2015
Controversy has not been yet resolved among L2 researchers as how to enhance higher-order thinkin... more Controversy has not been yet resolved among L2 researchers as how to enhance higher-order thinking skills (HOTSs) in EFL contexts. Responding to the growing need to foster thinking skills, many L2 educators have recently attempted to investigate the effect of diverse teaching strategies on HOTS. Yet, few studies have focused on the infusion of Gardner’s (1999) theory of multiple intelligences (MI), dialogic teaching, and portfolio assessment in improving HOTSs. Thus, the present study aimed to explore the impact of MI-oriented dialogic-based portfolio assessment on the higher-order thinking skills of 42 Iranian advanced EFL learners studying at Jehad Daneshgahi Institute, Karaj Branch. The participants in 2 intact classes were assigned to a control or dialogic-based portfolio assessment (DBPA) group and an experimental or MI-oriented dialogic-based portfolio assessment (MIDBPA) group. In the experimental group, the participants’ MI was initially measured through Christison’s (1998) ...
Applied Linguistics, 2018
The competitive academic atmosphere of the higher education worldwide along with the current tren... more The competitive academic atmosphere of the higher education worldwide along with the current trend in producing research-oriented knowledge by universities has made research publication the first priority for doctoral students. In this study, we addressed the conceptions of purpose, process, and product of publishing research articles among Iranian doctoral students of applied linguistics. To this end, thirty students were interviewed and the data were analyzed using the grounded theory approach. The findings demonstrated that doctoral students publish papers to prepare a competitionwinning resume, significantly contribute to the ELT community, turn into life-long learners and problem-solvers, and fulfill their course requirements. Furthermore, with regard to the research publication process, they highlighted the role of mixed-methods in spotting real problems in context and getting their papers published in prestigious journals. Additionally, the students believed that publishing i...
International Journal of Solids and Structures, 2008
Analytical predictions are presented for the plastic collapse strength of lightweight sandwich be... more Analytical predictions are presented for the plastic collapse strength of lightweight sandwich beams having pin-reinforced foam cores that are loaded in 3-point bending. Both polymer and aluminum foam cores are considered, whilst the facesheet and the pins are made of either composite or metal. Four different failure modes are account for: metal facesheet yield or composite facesheet microbuckling, facesheet wrinkling, plastic shear of the core, and facesheet indentation beneath the loading rollers. A micromechanics-based model is developed and combined with the homogenization approach to calculate the effective properties of pin-reinforced foam cores. To calculate the elastic buckling strength of pin reinforcements, the pin-reinforced foam core is treated as assemblies of simply supported columns resting upon an elastic foundation. Minimum mass design of the sandwich is then obtained as a function of the prescribed structural load index, subjected to the constraint that none of the above failure modes occurs. Collapse mechanism maps are constructed and compared with the failure maps of foam-cored sandwich beams without pin reinforcements. Finite element simulations are carried out to verify the analytical model and to study the performance and failure mechanisms of the sandwich subject to loading types other than 3-point bending. The results demonstrate that the weaker the foam is, the more optimal the pin-reinforced foam core becomes, and that sandwich beams with pin-reinforced polymer foam cores are structurally more efficient than foam-or trusscored sandwich beams.
Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, Jul 1, 2018
The present exploratory study probed Iranian in-service EAP teachers' cognitions on language teac... more 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 providing a typology of teacher role identities that Iranian language teachers identify with, the study might promise some implications for language teacher education and teacher education research.
Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning, Dec 1, 2019
This paper seeks to probe cultural agendas pertaining to the images of celebrities in the widely-... more This paper seeks to probe cultural agendas pertaining to the images of celebrities in the widely-used English language textbooks. In fact, while visual analysis has solidified its position in ELT (e.g. Hurst, 2014; Mitsikopoulou, 2015; Romney, 2012; Taylor-Mendes, 2009) and caused the pendulum to swing away from the grammatical or textual content to the visual presentation (Giaschi, 2000), research into celebrities as the cultural representatives has been a barely touched issue. To address this gap, the researchers, drawing on Kachru's (1985) orthodox model of the usage of English across the globe, examined the images of celebrities in four widely-used English language textbook series. In so doing, the terms depiction and mention (Toprak & Aksoyalp, 2014) were taken as a yardstick to pinpoint the type of intersection between the text and the image. Further, the images were thematically explored, which notably indicated the images relating to the field of media were the far most common theme in the English language textbooks. Lastly, it was revealed that whereas the images of the inner-circle outnumbered all, the images of the expanding circle surprisingly outnumbered those of the outer circle, an outcome which could point to linguistic schizophrenia (Kachru, 1992) as the main reason.
Iranian Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Feb 2, 2018
There is little understanding of the processes and means involved in teacher learning. Further re... more There is little understanding of the processes and means involved in teacher learning. Further research is needed to better understand what happens when teachers learn. Therefore, using sociocultural theory (SCT) as a theoretical framework, English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teacher learning was documented and examined. To achieve this goal, an in-depth description of nine in-service EAP teachers' experience as they professionally learned was provided. The participating teachers' learning was traced from an analysis of their current cognitions on EAP towards reaching a deeper understanding of the issues as mediated during dialogical interactions. Constant comparative analysis was used to analyze the data collected through observation, recordings and field notes. The findings showed that reaching an expert's understanding involved the processes of externalizing current cognitions, verbalizing emerging understanding and full transformation in the individual's thinking. Mediational moves (means of learning) were found to be contingent on teacher-learners' learning needs. 'Narrating', 'judgmental speech' and 'externalization' were shown to provide space for using the potential of 'speech' and 'others'. The findings of this study might promise some implications for teacher education.
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Papers by Mahmood Reza Atai