The present study had a globalization perspective on Iranian EFL learners’ motivation to learn the global language, English. It investigated the effects of technological variables such as the Internet and satellite television programs, and social issues like migration and willingness for education at universities abroad on motivation for learning English as a foreign language among Iranian learners. In order to conduct the study, 238 learners of English (107 females and 131 males) were randomly selected from four language teaching institutes in Shiraz, Iran. A questionnaire was first developed based on the operationalization of some aspects of globalization which were either related to instrumental motivation or integrative motivation. The data obtained from the administration of the questionnaire to the participants were later on analyzed and the results revealed that technological, sociological and scientific aspects created or intensified through the process of globalization influenced Iranian EFL learners’ motivation to learn English and that the participants were mainly instrumentally motivated
Abstract-The present study aimed at conducting a comparative genre analysis of English business e-mails at generic and lexico-grammatical levels. To this end, a corpus of 60 English business e-mails written by Iranians was compared with a counterpart corpus comprising the same number of emails written by the native English speakers. All of these e-mails served the same communicative purpose (i.e. providing and/or requesting information and actions). They were investigated following Swales (1990), Bhatia (1993) and Santos's (2002) notion of genre analysis. The results revealed that Iranian and native English business correspondents followed closely similar generic structures to exchange information. Moreover, Iranian correspondents favored the lexico-grammatical expressions that helped them respect their interlocutors' negative face whereas the native English speakers tried to encourage a friendly and intimate atmosphere. Investigating structures and characteristics of English language realized in business settings and for commercial purposes, this study offered a number of implications for business English teaching staff, material developers, and last but not least, business negotiators.
Believing that providing EFL teachers with effective supervisory feedback during the post-observation conference is essential, researchers in the current study report on the views of Iranian EFL teachers and supervisors as to what constitutes effective supervisory feedback. Having conducted a qualitative content analysis of the data obtained from interviews with teachers and supervisors, researchers came up with a framework of the constituent elements of effective supervisory feedback, which includes 1) adopting a more creative approach 2) using above-the-utterance mitigation 3) gauging the teachers’ ZPD 4) being socioculturally sensitive 5) assessing the teachers’ beliefs and attitudes and 6) developing public relations. The results showed the teachers’ overall dissatisfaction with the present supervisory feedback. The paper concludes by suggestions to include supervisory training courses in the existing teacher development programs to better empower supervisors in their dealing with EFL supervisees throughout the country.
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