No abstract

It is by now well established that teacher characteristics play a major role in the way high stakes tests impact education (Alderson and Hamp-Lyons 1996). What remains an open question, however, is specifying the type of characteristics that have the potential to moderate the backwash effects of tests. This study was designed to isolate the effects of teachers’ assessment literacy in moderating the washback effects of summative tests in the EFL context of Iran. A test of assessment literacy and a questionnaire on English language teaching practices were administered to 53 EFL secondary school teachers. Results show that teachers are suffering from a poor knowledge base in assessment and no matter how assessment literate they are; they do tailor their English teaching and testing to the demands of external tests. However, more assessment literate EFL teachers seem to be more likely to include non-washback practices in their English teaching. The implications for teacher training and teachers’ professional development programs are then discussed

No abstract

Needs analysis as an integral part of evaluative review of English materials, mainly textbooks, requires giving sufficient attention in all English language learning contexts. This issue seems to be more demanding in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts where the textbooks are the main sources of input for the learners. However, in some cases, this important factor is excluded entirely or at least limited to the ideas of major stakeholders. This article reports on the findings of a study conducted to evaluate an English textbook (the third-grade high school English book), which is being used in all state high schools in Iran by using a needs analysis framework. First, the needs analysis questionnaires were administered among 180 third-grade female high school students for whom the textbook was designed. Having investigated the students' perceived foreign language needs, the researcher then used it as the basis for evaluating the textbook. The results of the textbook evaluation revealed that although all language skills and components were almost important for the majority of the students, the textbook could not fully support all of them together. Finally, it was suggested that the textbook be revised or at least supplemented by other instructional materials, so that it could be more effective for the aforementioned learners.

The present study was undertaken to explore the practicality and the effect of dynamic assessment on L2 writing ability of Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. To this end, 17 EFL learners divided into two groups, participated in this article. Then, dynamic assessment procedure was done in three steps, topic-choice, idea-generation, and macrorevising. All these steps ran with the mediation of the teacher and also the learners together. The results of the study indicated that dynamic assessment significantly influenced participants' scores, enhanced their writing ability, and illustrated that experimental group's dynamic assessment scores were generally higher than the control group's scores. The results of the learners' interview assured that dynamic assessment could improve the learners' EFL process writing and their writing confidence. It also elevated their motivation in their writing ability.Consequently, the present study attempts to find answers to the following questions:Research Question 1 (RQ1): Is dynamic assessment useful for foreign language learners' process writing? Research Question 2 (RQ2): What is the effect of dynamic assessment if it is a useful way for assessing EFL learners' process writing? Research Question 3 (RQ3): How do the participants of the study view dynamic assessment process? Research Question 4 (RQ4): What is the effect of dynamic assessment on the topic-choice stage of writing development? Research Question 5 (RQ5): What is the effect of dynamic assessment on the idea-generation stage of writing development? Research Question 6 (RQ6): What is the effect of dynamic assessment on the macro-revising stage of writing development?

Teachersí cultural identity is among the forepart issues within the realm of teacher education studies. The research about teachersí identity has been done using teacherauthored narratives. That said, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of negotiation in the student-teachersí cultural identity formation. To that end, three studentteachers (two males and one female student-teachers), majoring in English language teaching participated in this study. During four months, the student-teachers participated in a negotiation program on cultural identity. They were sent some academic papers to study, then, they participated in discussions about cultural variations and the ways to address them in classrooms. The student-teachers where asked to write their narratives. Then the narratives where analyzed based on the semantic expressions. The qualitative analysis of the student-teachersí narratives showed that their cultural identity changed during the negotiation period. By analyzing the student teacher-authored narratives, it appeared that they addressed cultural variations in different ways includingusing cultural varieties in teaching, identifying the gaps between cultural contexts, reconceptualization of cultural concepts, cultural transformation, new modes of using culture, internalization of cultural issues, and cultural awareness, each of which is discussed in the current study. It can be concluded from the obtained information that cultural identity is a dynamic one and open to change. The research bears some implications for teacher education policy makers to introduce sustainable teacher education program in general, and sustainable second language teacher education program in particular.

The influence of music on language learning and performance has been the subject of study for many years. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of classical music (Mozart Sonata) on the reading comprehension performance of two groups of Iranian students in an English institute in Iran. To this end, the study compared two groups of Iranian English students (N=60) over a period of three months: one was taught reading comprehension with a music background and the other with no music background whatsoever. The results of the study showed a significant difference between the performance of the group exposed to music and the performance of the other group not exposed to music. The group taught reading comprehension with a music background outperformed the other taught it with no music background

The current study aims at identifying particular ways through which social actors are represented in Summit Series ELT textbooks. It examines cultural load in the textbooks within critical discourse analysis framework, in this case van Leeuwen's framework. Particularly, the study attempts to explore if values, norms, and roles are culture/context-bound. Results of the analyses showed that among discursive features, Inclusion, Genericization, and Indetermination were used more than Exclusion, Specification, and Determination. Activation was more observed than Passivation, and Categorization had an important function in the representation of some of the social actors along with Assimilation and Impersonalization. The analysis also indicated the impartiality toward the representation of social actors. Moral, social, and personal values were the most disseminated values, while social morality and traditions had the highest occurrence. However, a few discriminative cases were found regarding gender roles. The researchers proposed that Summit Series were less grounded in cultural assumptions/ biases. This impartiality eases language learning by keeping learners away from misunderstanding and incomprehensibility.