Papers by FATEMEH KHONAMRI
Author response for "Cultivating active engagement in pair work through peer modelling
The journal of Asia TEFL, Dec 31, 2023
He is an editorial board member of Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research (IJLTR). His res... more He is an editorial board member of Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research (IJLTR). His research interests include language teacher education, professional development, teacher motivation, and language assessment.
Profile Issues in TeachersProfessional …, 2010
Research on teach er development has been the focus of attention in recent decades. The overall a... more Research on teach er development has been the focus of attention in recent decades. The overall aim of this study was to explore the impact of read ing strategy training on high school teach ers' reading instructional practices. The study was conducted in the EFL context of Iran. To meet this aim, four EFL high school teach ers voluntarily took part in the study. Teach ers' read ing classes were observed and audio-recorded both before and after the teach ers took part in a three-hour workshop on reading strategies. Drawing on data from observations, the results showed some degree of change in teach ers' read ing practices after their having taken part in the workshops. That is, they took a more strategic approach to the teach ing of read ing in their classes.
Journal of Education Culture and Society
Thesis. Today’s students are very much influenced by globalisation and advances in technology. Th... more Thesis. Today’s students are very much influenced by globalisation and advances in technology. This has brought about some changes in the attitudes and perceptions of the new generation of students which are worthy of attention. The present study aimed to shed light on one such shift of focus and explored Iranian literature students' preferences for either reading or watching the movie adaptations of literary works. The second aim of the study was to examine the reasons for their preferences and to analyse them to see where they originated from. Concept. To this end, a mixed methods design was used in which the quantitative data was gathered through a questionnaire from the University of Mazandaran English literature students (N=141). In the questionnaire, their tendencies towards either watching movies or reading literary books was explored. Based on convenient sampling, for the qualitative data, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 5 students from each category to fi...
TESL-EJ, Feb 1, 2023
Intercultural Competence Assessment (ICA) has recently become a central issue in applied linguist... more Intercultural Competence Assessment (ICA) has recently become a central issue in applied linguistics in general, and language testing and assessment in particular. The present paper aims to investigate the difference between native and non-native assessment experts' beliefs about incorporating ICA in the Language Proficiency Assessment (LPA). Basic qualitative research design was employed and questions were emailed to 97 native and non-native language testing and assessment experts of whom 32 participants returned their responses (response rate = 33%). Moreover, 10 of the experts were interviewed to triangulate the data. The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The results demonstrated that there were no significant differences between native experts and non-native experts' attitudes towards whether ICA should be included in the LPA. Despite this finding, some native speaker experts strongly disagreed with the notion while some other non-native scholars supported it. This study may be helpful to Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) assessment experts who argue for the inclusion of ICA in the LPA, believing that such an inclusion would benefit not only second language proficiency assessment but also efforts in designing more effective instructional syllabuses.
IOSR Journal of Engineering, 2014
Research shows that training in Mata-cognition Strategies that are used to Improve Reading Disabi... more Research shows that training in Mata-cognition Strategies that are used to Improve Reading Disabilities have been successful or conclusive. The purpose of the present study was to study of effect of metacognitive strategy training and its effect on Reading performance of the 5 th Standard Boy and Girl's Students of India. We have investigated the effect of Meta-cognitive strategy training through the use of explicit strategy instruction on Improve Reading Disabilities in 5th Standard students. To reach the goal of the study two groups of Reading Disabilities in 5th Standard students were randomly assigned to a control and an experimental group. The experimental groups received instruction on Meta-cognitive strategy training through a 14-week period of instruction. However, only the experimental group received Meta-cognitive strategy training during the course of training. The result of the study showed that explicit Meta-cognitive strategy training has a significant positive effect on Improve Reading Disabilities in 5 th Standard students. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS software.
Journal of Education Culture and Society
Aim. The paper aims to investigate the students interactions engaged in mindful tasks in an Engli... more Aim. The paper aims to investigate the students interactions engaged in mindful tasks in an English reading classroom. It attempts to explore whether there is any connection between being mindful and having a good interaction. Methods. For the research a case study approach was utilised, in which eight BA students majoring in English language and literature at the University of Mazandaran participated. They were divided into two groups of non-mindful and less mindful, each having four members based on their scores from Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). The data was collected in three sessions of critical reading practice, in which both groups were engaged in different forms of critical reading tasks. The less mindful group was encouraged to engage in some mindful activities prior to the critical reading tasks. All the sessions were video recorded and then transcribed for analysis. The transcribed data were analysed by the researcher and a second rater. Results. The results o...
The Journal of AsiaTEFL
Globalization, in spite of its merits and demerits, has made diverse cultures come into closer co... more Globalization, in spite of its merits and demerits, has made diverse cultures come into closer contact (Huang, 2012) and the process of globalization has overshadowed the whole world (Mitu et al, 2021). As the use of English spreads, and the language becomes a lingua franca in multiple domains including business, academia and sports, the need for intercultural competence becomes increasingly important in people's everyday lives (Du-Babcocok, 2013; Ehrenreich, 2010). With the emergence of the "Communicative Approach" and "Communicative Language Teaching" in the 1970s, language teaching and learning has undergone a "cultural turn". The "cultural turn" is a preliminary step in intercultural competence (IC) to complete communicative competence (CC) (Byram et al., 2013). Language and culture are intermixed with each other. Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) has cemented relationships between language and culture in the long run (Komorowska, 2006). Liddicoat and Scarino (2013) argued that it is of the utmost importance to integrate culture in language teaching and learning. Intercultural competence (IC) is a concept that has flourished lately. Bennett (2020) and Fantini (2009) characterize IC as the ability to consciously experience different cultures to perform effectively and appropriately when interacting with speakers of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Intercultural competence assessment (ICA) has newly become the crux of the matter in language teaching and it seems to exercise influence on language testing and assessment as well (Borghetti, 2017; Deardoroff, 2011; Sercu, 2004). ICA is defined as "a process that shows on what level a person is at the given moment, what their knowledge level and abilities are" (Mazeikiene & Virgailaite-Meckauskaite, 2007, p. 74).
EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Implementing Critical Thinking in Teaching Reading: Focus on the Possible Hindrances
Education & Self Development, 2021
The study explores Iranian English teachers' perceptions of the importance of critical thinki... more The study explores Iranian English teachers' perceptions of the importance of critical thinking skills and the extent to which they practice their beliefs in real classroom setting. As a secondary purpose, the study discovered the possible hindrances in the way of implementing critical thinking in reading classes. Using a sequential mixed-methods design, data were collected through survey questionnaire, interviews and class observations from 4 universities and several English language institutes. Fifty participants took part in the study. A questionnaire with 16 closed-ended and two open-ended questions was utilized to collect data about the teachers' beliefs. For the next phase of the study, one teacher from among 10 teachers who showed strong beliefs was conveniently selected for class observation and interview. The results of one sample T-test and independent sample T-test indicated that teachers believed critical thinking was important and that there was not any signific...
The common widespread interest in the socio-cultural aspect of language learning among applied li... more The common widespread interest in the socio-cultural aspect of language learning among applied linguists has made ESL researchers draw attention to learners' motivation and autonomy in the European and Asian educational circles. The rationale of this study is to pinpoint the relationship between EFL learners’ motivation and autonomy. To gather relevant data, motivation and autonomy questionnaires were distributed among 100 EFL learners, who were chosen through Quick Placement Test (QPT), and were put them into B2, C1, and C2 levels of linguistic proficiency based on Common European Framework Rubric (CEFR) model. To fulfill the objectives of this study, both descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized in the process of data analysis. Regarding the statistical analysis, learners’ motivation significantly correlated with their autonomy. Additionally, it was found that there was a significant positive correlation between autonomy and intrinsic motivation, while the correlat...
Education & Self Development, 2021
The influence of globalization on applied linguistics has recently generated considerable debate.... more The influence of globalization on applied linguistics has recently generated considerable debate. With the advent of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) at the start of the twentyfirst century, many theoreticians and practitioners have accentuated the ICC perspectives and its incorporation into teaching language skills. This mixed methods research study tries to verify whether instruction on ICC encourages Iranian advanced EFL learners to incorporate ICC in their writings, and whether gender plays any role in the tendency to use that competence. To this end, 33 male and female Iranian advanced EFL learners were chosen via an Oxford Placement Test and then placed in two experimental classes. All the participants received a five-week instruction on ICC in a writing class at a private language institute in Rasht, Iran. The data analyzed via T-tests, content analysis technique, and η revealed that instruction on ICC assisted learners in coping with intercultural issues differen...
European Journal of Contemporary Education, 2020
Recent research in SLA indicates that collocations are an indispensable aspect of language learni... more Recent research in SLA indicates that collocations are an indispensable aspect of language learning. Its importance in learners' writing ability is, therefore, undeniable. Thus, the present study attempted to explore the effect of explicit teaching of collocations on learners' awareness and use of them in their writing. It differed from previous studies in that the main focus was on learning the collocations of the most important nouns. To this end, the present study used a mixed method approach with a pretest-treatment-posttest quasi-experimental design and qualitative analysis of questionnaire to investigate the questions. To collect data, an experimental and a control group were selected on the basis of the results of a proficiency test (PET). The participants were conveniently chosen as samples from a grand total of 58 students. The learners were further randomly assigned to two groups: one experimental group and one control group. The participants in the experimental group (N = 15) received weekly interventions based on explicit teaching of collocations but the control group (N = 15) received no instruction regarding collocations and had their regular procedure. The results of independent and paired sample t-tests (sig < 0.05) indicated that there was a significant difference between the two groups' performances in the achievement collocation test. Thus it can be concluded that teaching English collocations to EFL learners and raising their awareness will enhance their proficiency in writing and improve their collocational competence. The qualitative analysis of the responses to questionnaire also supported a positive impact of the method on students' fluency in writing.
Jurnal Pendidikan Malaysia, 2019
The emergence of dynamic assessment (DA) in applied linguistics has opened new horizons in second... more The emergence of dynamic assessment (DA) in applied linguistics has opened new horizons in second language acquisition (SLA) and language assessment. This quasi-experimental study determined the effect of DA in fostering Iranian EFL learners' depth of vocabulary knowledge through critical reading. A total of 61 upper-intermediate EFL learners were selected as participants and were randomly divided into treatment group (DA, n = 31) and control group (non-DA, n = 30). A vocabulary Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) was administered non-dynamically to both groups as pre-test. Mediation programs which included Enrichment Program and assessment sessions were held within six weeks. Graduate Prompt Approach was used as a mediation procedure in the DA group. After receiving six mediation sessions, the same test was administered dynamically as a post-test to the DA group and non-dynamically to the non-DA group. One month onward, far transfer assessment test was done via DA procedures to the DA group. The results of independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson Correlations indicated that there was a significant difference in scores between the DA and non-DA groups. Findings indicated that the mediation program and DA procedures enriched the students' depth of vocabulary knowledge. This study suggests that DA procedures can help lackadaisical learners to promote their language competency.
El impacto de un programa de desarrollo profesional en lectura estratégica en la práctica instruc... more El impacto de un programa de desarrollo profesional en lectura estratégica en la práctica instruccional de docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera Research on teach er development has been the focus of attention in recent decades. The overall aim of this study was to explore the impact of read ing strategy training on high school teach ers' reading instructional practices. The study was conducted in the EFL context of Iran. To meet this aim, four EFL high school teach ers voluntarily took part in the study. Teach ers' read ing classes were observed and audio-recorded both before and after the teach ers took part in a three-hour workshop on reading strategies. Drawing on data from observations, the results showed some degree of change in teach ers' read ing practices after their having taken part in the workshops. That is, they took a more strategic approach to the teach ing of read ing in their classes. Key words: High schools, read ing strategies, teach er developm...
El impacto de un programa de desarrollo profesional en lectura estratégica en la práctica instruccional de docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera
Profile Issues in Teachers' Professional Development, 2010
Investigating Iranian Students ’ Attitude toward Using Collaborative Strategic Reading in their Reading Course
Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) has been widely used to strengthen steel members in bendin... more Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) has been widely used to strengthen steel members in bending. Few research studies have been carried out on strengthening steel members under axial load strengthening by CFRP. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the compressive load capacity of Square Hollow Section (SHS) steel short and slender columns strengthened using CFRP. The numerical analyses using Finite Element Method (FEM) obtained from ANSYS Software were utilized. The results have been verified by experimental analyses. The results showed that CFRP wraps are capable of increasing the compressive load capacity of SHS steel short and slender columns appropriately. In addition when coverage percent CFRP layers was less 100%, CFRP more increased the compressive load capacity of SHS steel slender columns. The numbers of CFRP layers were effective in the compressive load bearing capacity of SHS steel short and slender columns.
Dynamic Assessment in developing EFL Learners' depth of Vocabulary Knowledge through Critical Reading
Malaysian Journal of Education, 2019
The emergence of dynamic assessment (DA) in applied linguistics has opened new horizons in second... more The emergence of dynamic assessment (DA) in applied linguistics has opened new horizons in second language acquisition (SLA) and language assessment. This quasi-experimental study determined the effect of DA in fostering Iranian EFL learners' depth of vocabulary knowledge through critical reading. A total of 61 upper-intermediate EFL learners were selected as participants and were randomly divided into treatment group (DA, n = 31) and control group (non-DA, n = 30). A vocabulary Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) was administered non-dynamically to both groups as pre-test. Mediation programs which included Enrichment Program and assessment sessions were held within six weeks. Graduate Prompt Approach was used as a mediation procedure in the DA group. After receiving six mediation sessions, the same test was administered dynamically as a post-test to the DA group and non-dynamically to the non-DA group. One month onward, far transfer assessment test was done via DA procedures to the ...
Investigation of the relation between ESL students beliefs metacognition and strategic reading performance
The significance of learner errors in the learning process has led to a wide array of studies whi... more The significance of learner errors in the learning process has led to a wide array of studies which have attempted to assist learners in their journey. However, research in the written feedback is inclusive, and still there are controversies over the effectiveness of CF in this skill area. The present study is an effort to explore the effect of group dynamic assessment in the recognition and control of some untreatable errors found in students’ writing. It is a case study involving four intermediate EFL writers who receive feedback from their teacher during four sessions of G-DA. The interaction during these four sessions were recorded, transcribed and then analyzed through conversation analysis (CA) in order to investigate the role of G-DA on L1 transfer errors. The CA analysis of the interactions has proved that GDA can be an effective tool for raising students’ awareness of such errors in their writing. In order to explore the most frequent type of untreatable errors, 25 essays w...
English Review: Journal of English Education, 2015
Abstract: This study investigated Laufer and Hustijn’s (2001) Involvement Load Hypothesis in voca... more Abstract: This study investigated Laufer and Hustijn’s (2001) Involvement Load Hypothesis in vocabulary learning. It comprised two experiments. Experiment 1 examined whether two tasks with equal involvement load but different distribution of components would yield the same result in initial learning and retention of target words. Experiment 2 investigated whether two tasks, one input and another output, with equal involvement load and the same distribution of components would result in equivalent initial learning and retention of target words. 126 advanced English learners completed one of three vocabulary learning tasks that equated in the amount of involvement they induced: sentence writing, fill-in, and translation (L2-L1). The result of t-test for Experiment 1 showed that when two tasks had equal involvement load but different distribution of components they resulted in similar amounts of initial learning and retention of new words. The findings of Experiment 2 indicated when two ...
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Papers by FATEMEH KHONAMRI