The present study tries to investigate the fairness of an English reading comprehension test employing Kunnan's (2004) test fairness framework (TFF) as the most comprehensive model available for test fairness. The participants of this study comprised 300 freshman students taking general English course chosen based on the availability sampling, three test developers, and seven university officials, administering the test. The main instrument is the teacher-made reading comprehension test to examine its validity, reliability, and differential item functioning (DIF). Furthermore, to examine the other modules of TFF, namely, access, administration, and social consequence, a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with the test developers and test administrators were applied. In order to analyze the data, exploratory factor analysis is used to evaluate test validity employing Minitab software. Moreover, t test and ANOVA were used to examine the disparate impact of the test using SPSS package. Furthermore, the Mantel-Haenszel procedure is applied to determine the DIF, while coding the required formulas in R programming. The frequencies of different aspects of access and test administration are explained and consolidated by qualitative data gleaned from interview sessions. Examining the data with respect to TFF modules, it was concluded the test must be enhanced in terms of validity, while it is totally fair. The statistical procedure and the mixed research design implemented in the present study can be a sound model to be applied by test developers to enhance the test fairness of the exams.
The rapid transition to online teaching because of the global disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic exclaimed all the educators on finding the most efficient ways to teach in the presence of all rampant limitations caused in both social and academic lives. Facebook, as one of the favorite social networks, having hundreds of millions of users, is an enticing way for the teachers and students to form an online community. With this regard, the purpose of the present study is to explore the attitude and viewpoints of language learners toward implementing Facebook as a peripheral medium, besides the formal e-learning platform used in the classroom, to engage learners in language learning and explore its effectiveness in the process of teaching. Moreover, this study aims to explore learners’ attitudes through the lens of the sociocultural theory. To this end, participants were chosen based on availability sampling, and the online versions of two surveys, Facebook Online Survey and Usefulness and Effectiveness Survey were shared with them through Facebook wall posts and Google Drive. The quantitative and qualitative analyses of their responses are examined and the results are analyzed based on the sociocultural perspective. This study implied that Facebook can be employed as a motivating technology to engage learners and an effective tool besides the other online medium used during the global lockdown.
As the second phase of a larger-scale study, the present study attempted to explore the effect of selfreflection through an awareness raising technique on novice and experienced Iranian EFL teachers' pedagogical beliefs enactment. To this end, a personal practical theorizing process was employed both as a method to make teachers' practical beliefs explicit and as a consciousness-raising technique to increase teachers' awareness of their beliefs, thereby stimulating the teachers to convert their beliefs into actual classroom practice. In the first phase of the study, the pedagogical beliefs and practices of the participants were examined and discrepancies were found in novice teachers' pedagogical beliefs and practices. Within the domain of the qualitative research, a multi-case study design was utilized, employing eight novice and experienced teachers who were selected based on purposive sampling. The data were analyzed using a constant comparative method around common themes and categories, which were identified as distinctive features of teachers' personal practical theories; these same categories were then compared with teachers' practices. The results showed that, except for teachers' content knowledge, the pedagogical beliefs of novice and experienced teachers were represented differently in their practices. However, after the theorizing technique, the teachers' practices became more in line with their pedagogical beliefs. With respect to teachers' professional development, the novice teachers who were initially concerned with maintaining order went through self-assessment and reflection, adopted new identities as real teachers, and entered into a state of maturity.
The purpose of this study is to critically analyze the discourse of the de facto inaugural speech presented by president Rouhani while receiving his presidential percept from the leader, to seek the ideology beyond his speech and to detect the point that to which of discourses, reformists' or principalists', Rouhani's discourse belong to. Based on Dijk's socio-cognitive model of critical discourse analysis the selected corpus' ideological and persuasive components are assessed. To this end and based on the model, the historical, political or social background of the election is discussed firstly. Then, the political groups and parties, specifically reformists and principalists, their ideologies and power relations are elaborated. Finally, based on the examination of all formal structure, lexical choice and syntactic structure, the presupposed and the implied notions are made explicit, to determine the ideology beyond the formal text. Comparing the extracted notions from the speech with the polarized viewpoints of two political parties, it was concluded that Rouhani tried to keep the golden middle path while presenting his ideas, trying to introduce himself a moderate person and base all his plans on moderation. His speech revealed the strategies to move in a gyre of ideas trying to avoid condemning any party or person of eminence in line to keep all parties in one line to make his move. Keywordsinaugural speech, socio-cognitive model, critical discourse analysis, reformists, prnicipalists IntroductionPolitics is the arena for contest in order to gain power to execute and for the ideology. The most versatile tool in the hands of politicians to put their political, economical and social ideas into practice is language. Language thus serves as the medium of delivering ideas. To scrutinize the hidden meaning and ideologies beyond texts different approaches have been introduced and taken into account. As Mozaffari (2009) stated, the impact of ideology on policy is generally acknowledged by scholars. That which is disputed concerns the modality and degree of ideological influence on the formulation and www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/selt Studies in English Language Teaching Vol. 3, No. 3, 2015 238 Published by SCHOLINK INC.execution of foreign policy. Worldviews are embedded in the symbolism of a culture and deeply affect modes of thought and discourse. Friedrich and Brzezinski (1965) and Walter (1987) suggest that ideology performs diverse functions.According to them it performs a cognitive function, serving as an analytical prism, and a normative function, providing specific policy prescriptions, a guide to action are distinguished. Mozaffari (2009) maintained that the general functions of ideology are legitimizing the political systems and justifying or rationalizing shifts in policy. More specifically, Barry Farrell draws a connection between the degrees of the impact of ideology on the nature of the political system.One of the areas pertaining to the analysis of texts to elaborate on the ideology beyond the te...
As the second phase of a larger-scale study, the present study attempted to explore the effect of selfreflection through an awareness raising technique on novice and experienced Iranian EFL teachers' pedagogical beliefs enactment. To this end, a personal practical theorizing process was employed both as a method to make teachers' practical beliefs explicit and as a consciousness-raising technique to increase teachers' awareness of their beliefs, thereby stimulating the teachers to convert their beliefs into actual classroom practice. In the first phase of the study, the pedagogical beliefs and practices of the participants were examined and discrepancies were found in novice teachers' pedagogical beliefs and practices. Within the domain of the qualitative research, a multi-case study design was utilized, employing eight novice and experienced teachers who were selected based on purposive sampling. The data were analyzed using a constant comparative method around common themes and categories, which were identified as distinctive features of teachers' personal practical theories; these same categories were then compared with teachers' practices. The results showed that, except for teachers' content knowledge, the pedagogical beliefs of novice and experienced teachers were represented differently in their practices. However, after the theorizing technique, the teachers' practices became more in line with their pedagogical beliefs. With respect to teachers' professional development, the novice teachers who were initially concerned with maintaining order went through self-assessment and reflection, adopted new identities as real teachers, and entered into a state of maturity.
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