Papers by Mohammad Hossein Yousefi

Teacher self-efficacy has been identified as an important characteristic of teachers that can pos... more Teacher self-efficacy has been identified as an important characteristic of teachers that can positively influence both teacher and student outcomes. The relationship between teachers' self-efficacy and their linguistic proficiency, however, is yet to be investigated. The present study was an attempt to examine the rather underresearched issue of teachers' level of linguistic competence in their efficacy perceptions. For this purpose, 50 teachers from different universities in Iran with varying demographic characteristics took part in the study. Respondents were asked to provide answers to the Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES) and the perceived linguistic proficiency self-rating. The results of statistical analysis using Spearman correlation and Regression analysis demonstrated a significant relationship between teachers' self-efficacy and their level of proficiency. The results of regression, too, confirmed the predictability of the level of the proficiency of the self-efficacy beliefs of teachers in their classroom practices. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research and implications are provided for future investigations.

This study explored whether the metaphors written by 504 Iranian learners of English and 140 Engl... more This study explored whether the metaphors written by 504 Iranian learners of English and 140 English teachers behaved like semantic features of the schemata they likened themselves to. The 239 student and 249 teacher metaphors elicited from the participants were submitted to four raters who assigned them to 13 conceptual categories established by Saban, Kocbeker, and Saban (2007). The statistical analysis of data showed that the categories behave as collective knowledge because there is no significant difference in the frequency of student metaphors written by both students and teachers who view students as passive recipients of knowledge, developing organisms and absolute compliants. Students and teachers, however, differ significantly as regards teacher categories. While the highest percentage of students metaphorised their teachers as facilitators/scaffolders, the teachers assigned a counselor's role to themselves, indicating that metaphors are sensitive to social positions. Since the categories are pretty stable over age, proficiency level, years and fields of study as well as experience, they reflect the ever-evolving nature of schema in the variety of metaphors with which the categories are depicted and thus reflect the reality of language learning and teaching in Iran.

The present study investigated the effects of cognitive complexity of pedagogical tasks on the le... more The present study investigated the effects of cognitive complexity of pedagogical tasks on the learners’ uptake of salient features in the input. For the purpose of data collection, three versions of a decision-making task (simple, mid, and complex) were employed. Three intact classes (each 20 language learners) were randomly assigned to three groups. Each group transacted a version of a decision-making task in dyadic condition. The results of the statistical analysis (one-way ANOVA) revealed significant differences among the groups. The participants in complex group tended to produce more uptakes. The results of the present study revealed that manipulating cognitive complexity of pedagogical tasks led to more uptake of the linguistic items made salient by the teacher and triggered much interaction between the participants. The study, also, has a number of theoretical and pedagogical implications for SLA researchers and syllabus designers.

Research Square (Research Square), Feb 7, 2024
Research points to the important role emotion labour strategies play in workplace and academic pe... more Research points to the important role emotion labour strategies play in workplace and academic performance, yet few studies have examined emotion labour strategies and discrete emotions in non-Western contexts in the eld of ELT. The current study extends this research base by examining EFL teachers' emotion labor strategies and the relationship with discrete emotions of two types of EFL teachers. To this end, a sample of 120 EFL teachers teaching in different schools in Tabriz, Iran was selected from both secondary and high schools. The instruments used in this study were two questionnaires and a semi-structured interview. The results of ANOVA and regression analysis demonstrated that there was a signi cant positive correlation between two groups of EFL teachers' discrete emotions and emotional labor strategies scores. Moreover, the ndings indicated that between the two components of the emotional labor strategies, the secondary school teachers' only surface acting and the high school teachers' surface acting and deep acting components. The results of semi-structured interview from ten EFL teachers approved the results obtained from the quantitative data and showed the importance of emotions in teaching contexts. The pedagogical implications are discussed.
colej.org
The present descriptive and observational study is an attempt to investigate teacher-student inte... more The present descriptive and observational study is an attempt to investigate teacher-student interaction under two different situations (simple vs. complex tasks). Data were collected form sixty intermediate level EFL learners' interactions with the teacher/ researcher. The randomly selected participants, in dyadic condition, performed the desired task and in the face of an error were given different types of interactional feedbacks. Afterwards, the efficacy of each feedback was estimated through learner uptake. The findings include the distribution of feedback types and the comparison of the success of each feedback type in terms of learner success.

Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 2020
This study drew on qualitative research and focused on the exercise of agency among the novice En... more This study drew on qualitative research and focused on the exercise of agency among the novice English teachers in the Iranian context. Fifteen novice English teachers who have been teaching English in private language institutes in Baneh, Iran were invited through snowball sampling. The analyses of semi-structured and focus group interviews, from the complexity dynamic/system perspective, revealed that teachers practice agency employing dialogic feedback, positioning, and critical incidents. The results further indicated that teachers made a learning community to make the right decision, predict future incidents, and develop their professional agency. The analyses provide implications for the policymakers, teacher educators, and curriculum designers to construct a better opportunity for beginning teachers to become highly-qualified in their careers.

The present study was an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of mobile-assisted language lea... more The present study was an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) in comparison to lack of it in improving learners’ writing accuracy, fluency, and complexity. To this end, a total of 39 English as a foreign language learners took part in the study. In the experimental group, learners were exposed to technologically enhanced writing practices through the Telegram application, where they were engaged in a collaborative writing task accomplished through interaction by the peers and the teacher as group members. The control group learners, on the contrary, wrote about the same topics on the paper without any collaboration from others. The results of statistical analysis revealed that although the writing fluency and complexity of experimental learners flourished in comparison to their control peers, the accuracy dimension followed a reverse pattern. In other words, control group learners were the ones who could improve their writing accuracy....

Adopting the self-concept framework as a lens and interpretative case study as a methodological t... more Adopting the self-concept framework as a lens and interpretative case study as a methodological tool, the present study set out to examine how the professional identity of an elementary school teacher is socially (re) constructed while his transition from teaching at elementary schools to teach at universities. The design of the study was the intrinsic case study. The focal participant was an assistant professor of TEFL who has been teaching in elementary, middle, and high schools prior to starting his academic work ten years ago. For the purpose of the data collection, in-depth interview was conducted. Another source of the data was the participant's stories, as well as the diaries he had kept over the years. For the data analysis, thematic analysis was employed. Results indicate that the transition was seen to be in parallel with the transition from lower identity perception to higher identity perception. The transition can be best expressed in terms of identity promotion. The...

Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2017
The present qualitative and interpretative study aims to investigate Iranian EFL learners' L2... more The present qualitative and interpretative study aims to investigate Iranian EFL learners' L2 vocabulary strategies. The distribution of strategy types and what factors contribute to the success of the inferencing strategies are the two main purposes of the study. Using think-aloud procedures with 15 Iranian EFL learners, the present study explored L2 learners' inferencing strategies and the relationship with their success. Sixteen types of inferential strategies were revealed to be employed by the participants and two types of inferences were identified: successful and less successful inferences. The results of the study are discussed in the light of the similar studies and the suggestions for future research are made. The study has a number of pedagogical implications for L2 research and practice, L2 teachers, syllabus designers, and educational psychology.

Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2013
Generative Linguists following (Chomsky 1965, 1982, and 1995) have argued that grammar is innate,... more Generative Linguists following (Chomsky 1965, 1982, and 1995) have argued that grammar is innate, exist in brain as domain-specific module, and is transmitted by genetic inheritance. They also argued for rule-governed nature of language and language acquisition. They have resorted to many arguments to justify these claims among which, the complexity of language, the poverty of stimulus and the lack of negative evidence can be mentioned (Cook and Newson, 1996). For some decades these theories have been widely accepted as being not controversial and even undeniable. But within the last two decades these ideas have been strongly disputed by emergentists, construction grammarians, associationists, and connectionists. These approaches differ strikingly from other accounts of language learning. They do not believe that language acquisition is the result of internalizing language rules. Instead, in these approaches, the importance is put on construction of associative patterns (Mitchell & Myles 2004). Among these approaches to language the last one, connectionism, is greatly distinguished by others in its research techniques. The development of neural network computer simulations or what has come to be known as Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) has helped researchers in this approach to make stronger claims about the nature of language and language acquisition. This has helped them to move from making abstract and obscurant theories toward entangling with concrete and physical realities. The present paper is an attempt to compare and contrast the symbolic and connectionist approaches to second language acquisition.
This study focuses on the problems in teaching tenses to Turkish students at university level in ... more This study focuses on the problems in teaching tenses to Turkish students at university level in Turkey. Some of the problematic and confusing tenses such as Past Simple and Present Perfect Tense, Present Continuous and Present Simple, Past Simple and Past Continuous Tense Teaching grammar have been handled throughout this study with the data obtained from the written exams of the learners. Most frequently occurred errors have been listed and they have been analyzed in detail. The findings reveal that the reasons for these errors mostly derive from mother tongue interference and lack of adequate linguistic background. The other component of this article is to offer remedial teaching activities for foreign language learners to compensate the shortcomings.

International Journal of Doctoral Studies
Aim/Purpose: The present qualitative study examined the perceptions of Iranian Ph.D. candidates t... more Aim/Purpose: The present qualitative study examined the perceptions of Iranian Ph.D. candidates toward the responsibilities and activities that supervisors should take during the dissertation writing. Background: Writing the dissertation is the main concern for Ph.D. candidates. In the view of doctorate students, supervisors are the main contributors to establishing a well-prepared dissertation. Methodology: To this end, 15 Ph.D. candidates who either graduated recently or were about to have their viva sessions participated in the study. The data were collected through phone interviews as well as narrative inquiry. The current study adopted the mentorship model as its theoretical framework. The framework is well suited because the supervisors as mentors and persons that are more competent transfer their experience and knowledge to the supervisees as less competent students. The multiple case study has been applied as the design of the current study. Geared toward the objectives of t...

Peer assessment has gained growing popularity in education and teaching. Being a learning tool, e... more Peer assessment has gained growing popularity in education and teaching. Being a learning tool, evaluating their peers can equip learners with skills to develop judgments about what forms high-quality work. There have been however research gaps in the literature showing a lack of adequate work on the investigation of peer assessment in a group-oriented classroom context. The present study intended to compare the effectiveness of group work with peer assessment and scaffolding with lack of it on learners’ oral accuracy. For this purpose, the regular past tense –ed grammatical target structure as a challenging feature was selected. A total of 34 low-intermediate Iranian EFL learners in two intact classes took part in the study. Although one class was exposed to group work enhanced by peer assessment and scaffolding, the control class did not receive any such instruction. Participants provided answers to pre- and post- grammar tests and their performance was subjected to statistical da...
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 2008
A C A Cr rit itic ical D al Di iscourse A scourse An nal alysi ysis of R s of Repr eprese esen nt... more A C A Cr rit itic ical D al Di iscourse A scourse An nal alysi ysis of R s of Repr eprese esen nt ta at tion of A ion of Asi sia an I n Indi ndia an F n Fol olk T k Tales in U ales in US S-A-Ame mer ric ica an C n Chi hildr ldre en n' ' s Lit s Lite er ra atur ture e

Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 2020
The present study was an endeavor to investigate the differences between novice and experienced t... more The present study was an endeavor to investigate the differences between novice and experienced teachers’ achieving resiliency in an explanatory sequential mixed method study. Forty Iranian (i.e., 20 novice and 20 experienced) teachers, male and female, participated in the present study in quantitative study who were selected through convenience sampling method from several private language institutes in Tabriz with teaching experience between 2 and 15 years. The Connor and Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), developed by (Depression and Anxiety 18:76-82, 2003) was used to measure the novice and experienced teachers’ resiliency. The results obtained through the independent samples t-test revealed that there was a significant difference between novice and experienced teachers’ resiliency. That is to say, experienced teachers were more resilient than the novice teachers. The qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews, focus group interviews and teachers’ stories. The...

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2015
This study aims at finding the possible relationship between academic self-efficacy beliefs of te... more This study aims at finding the possible relationship between academic self-efficacy beliefs of tertiary level EFL teachers and their willingness to use communicative activities in speaking classrooms. To do so, the data for the study were collected through two independent questionnaires; the first one was Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale developed by Megan Tschannen-Moran and Anita Woolfolk Hoy (2001). The second one was COLTAS, an attitude scale with 36 statements developed to investigate teachers' attitudes towards some aspects of CLT which was adopted from Eveyik (1999). The samples, 40 voluntary instructors (32 female and 8 male) from Giresun University and University of Turkish Aeronautical Association. The results suggest that there is statistically a positive correlation between self-efficacy beliefs of tertiary level EFL teachers and their willingness to use communicative activities. However there was not a significant relationship between them. The findings revealed that although they did not have an effect on each other, the teachers in this study had high levels of self-efficacy and great willingness to use communicative activities in their speaking classes.
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2012
The purpose of the present paper was to present the rationale for the Task-based Language teachin... more The purpose of the present paper was to present the rationale for the Task-based Language teaching and discuss its significance within the SLA approaches to language teaching. First, different approaches to Task-based language teaching research and practice were discussed, then the notion of 'Task Complexity" has been touched upon and different models for estimating task difficulty or Task Complexity were mentioned. Attempt, then, was made to elaborate on the empirical studies within the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2003, 2005, 2007). Finally, the implications of Task Complexity for SLA research and pedagogy were widely discussed.

The present study was an attempt to shed light on university level teachers’ self-efficacy percep... more The present study was an attempt to shed light on university level teachers’ self-efficacy perceptions in relation to their reflective practice and instructional practice. For this purpose, 70 teachers from both public and private universities in Iran took part in this survey research. Participants were asked to fill out three Likert-type questionnaires: Teacher Efficacy Scale, The Instructional Practices Survey, and Teacher Reflection Questionnaire. The collected data were quantitatively analyzed using SPSS version 21. Results of Pearson correlation coefficients revealed that although teachers’ self-efficacy perceptions were significantly correlated with both their instructional practice and reflective practice, the former established a relationship with a higher effect size than the latter. Implications of the results with respect to teacher development are presented and directions for further research are offered.

There have been some researches on the way teacher identities are (re)constructed; however, the s... more There have been some researches on the way teacher identities are (re)constructed; however, the study which investigatesthe improvement of the identity through the shift in language teaching has not been conducted. Thus the present qualitative study set out to investigate Iranian EFL teachers’ professional development who had been teaching either Arabic or Persian languages for more than six years prior to entering the English language teaching profession. Eleven Iranian in-service teachers took part in the study through purposeful sampling. For the purpose of the data collection, in-depth interviews, teachers’ narratives, and focus group interviews were used. The thematic analysis of the data through the Identity Theory (Burke & Stets, 2009) perspective revealedthree main themes: identity shift,identity development, and productive identity. The results indicate that teachers' professional learning requires rebuilding identity perception, and constructing a new identity will lea...
International Journal of Multicultural Education
The purpose of this study was to explore multiple facets of the professional identities of Irania... more The purpose of this study was to explore multiple facets of the professional identities of Iranian in-service teachers in exceptional schools. The study adopted a qualitative design. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with 14 in-service teachers. The participants were selected through purposeful sampling. Each interview lasted up to 40 minutes. The whole procedure of the data collection was audio-recorded, and verbatim transcriptions were made. Thematic analysis was utilized to analyze the qualitative data. Three themes emerged: relationships, lower identity, and professional identity. The study has some implications for policymakers, curriculum designers, educational psychology, and teacher educators.
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Papers by Mohammad Hossein Yousefi