English for specific purposes (ESP) practitioners who are content experts experience different types of critical incident (CI). Although CIs can influence the success or failure of ESP courses and ...impact on ESP practitioners’ professional lives significantly, they have received only scanty attention in the ESP literature. This study investigates language-related CIs experienced by ESP instructors who are content experts. Twenty-seven CIs were identified via narrative frames (n = 17) and interviews with Iranian ESP instructors (n = 10). Of them, the ten language-related CIs were analyzed in terms of their nature, the strategies and tactics that the ESP practitioners utilized to tackle them, and the lessons that they learned from them. The language-related CIs centered on pronunciation difficulty, weak grammar, insufficient skills in teaching reading and writing, low competence in language testing, and unfamiliarity with research on academic genres. In their response to the CIs, the ESP instructors deployed three types of coping strategy: admitting ignorance, avoidance, and risk-taking. They utilized different tactics to manage their CIs and reported different lessons learned. These findings have important implications for ESP teachers’ professional development and ESP teacher education.
Academic reading and writing abilities are prerequisites for success inpostgraduate programmes. These are particularly important domains ofcompetence for students in applied linguistics, whose ...studies and futureperformance require insight into these skills. A validated self-assessmentquestionnaire was administered to 194 graduate students of applied linguistics,who assessed their own academic reading skills. In addition, open-endedquestions added to the questionnaire and interviews with 14 students wereanalyzed, yielding eight domains identified as particular challenges. The resultsrevealed that students assessed their information literacy to be the weakestdomain. The eight areas of challenge included: shortage of time, informationliteracy, content knowledge, critical literacy, writers’ language styles and genericfeatures of texts, teachers’ high expectations and vague instructions, insufficientstatistical literacy and insufficient interaction with peers. The implications forEnglish for Academic Purposes (EAP) instruction are discussed.
La posesión de habilidades para la lectura y escritura de textos académicos es un requisito para concluir con éxito un programa de posgrado. Estos son tipos de competencias especialmente importantes para los estudiantes de lingüística aplicada, quienes durante sus estudios y en su futuro académico y profesional requerirán estas destrezas. Se administró un cuestionario de autoevaluación validado a 194 estudiantes de posgrado de lingüística aplicada con el que estos valoraron sus propias destrezas de lectura académica. Además del cuestionario, los participantes respondieron diferentes preguntas de respuesta libre y 14 de ellos participaron en sendas entrevistas. Su análisis evidenció la existencia de ocho aspectos de especial dificultad. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto que los estudiantes consideran que su alfabetización informacional es el aspecto en el que creen tener menores habilidades. Las ocho áreas que suponen un mayor desafío para los estudiantes son las siguientes: la falta de tiempo, la alfabetización informacional, el conocimiento del contenido, la alfabetización crítica, el estilo de cada autor y aspectos relativos al género de cada texto, las altas expectativas de los profesores y la existencia de instrucciones imprecisas, una insuficiente alfabetización estadística y una insuficiente interacción con sus pares. Por último, se discuten las diferentes implicaciones de estos hallazgos para el ámbito del inglés para fines académicos.
This study explored the effects of teachers’ individual reflection (IR) and group reflection (GR) on critical incidents (CIs). A group of preservice teachers (N = 7) were presented with real ...instances of CIs to consider during 12 teacher training sessions. In each session, the trainees read the first part of a CI, describing what happened, when it happened, and who was involved in the incident. Then they described how they would respond to a similar CI in their future classes. Next, they read and discussed the second part of the CI, which contained the reaction of the original teacher to that CI. After that, the trainees shared and discussed their own and the original teacher’s response to the CI through GR. Finally, they were asked to write a second response to the original CI. The trainees’ IR and GR were tabulated and compared to see how GR impacted their reactions. After completing the program, they were asked to write reflection journals describing their evaluation of the activities they had taken part in. Thematic analysis of reflection journals led to the emergence of themes revealing teachers’ positive evaluation of the reflection on CIs.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
This study examined editorial differences between potential predatory and mainstream journals in the discipline of language and linguistics. A keyword search of the relevant journals on Beall's ...updated list of potential predatory journals led to a sample of 66 journals. An equal number of journals were selected from those indexed by Web of Science (WoS) via stratified random sampling. Analyses showed that the two groups of journals did not differ in terms of certain publication frequencies, mean number of annual articles, mention of peer review time, availability of the author guides and aims/scope sections, absence of editorial boards, mean number of editorial board numbers, article processing charge (APC) for open access, claimed indexation by ERIC and DOAJ and availability of ISSNs. However, these two groups of journals differed markedly in terms of contact information, years of editorial activity, certain publication frequencies, specialized focus, mention of acceptance rate, mean peer review time, claimed adoption of peer review, submission mode, listing of editors‐in‐chief, relevance of their expertise, mean number of editors, relevance of the editorial board members' expertise, mean APC, claimed indexation by Google Scholar/Scopus/WoS, reporting of fake impact factors, provision of Index Copernicus Value, claimed COPE membership, availability of ethical guidelines and various policies and existence of DOIs. These differences can be used as warning signs that a journal may not be legitimate.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
This study aimed to identify editorial features that can distinguish predatory and legitimate open access journals in the discipline of language and linguistics. Fifty-six journals from the Directory ...of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and an equal number of journals from Beall’s updated list of potential predatory journals (PPJs) were selected for a close examination. Analyses showed that these two groups of journals differed markedly in a large number of editorial features: certain publication frequencies, contact address and contact information, mean number of articles published per year, specialized focus, mean peer review time, claimed adoption of peer review, submission mode, listing of editor(s)-in-chief, relevance of their expertise, mean number of editorial board members, availability of the guide for authors and aims/scope sections, an APC for open access, mean APC, claimed indexation by DOAJ, provision of ethical guidelines and publishing policies, and presence of DOIs. Nevertheless, they did not differ significantly with regard to mean years of editorial activity, mention of average peer review time, mention of acceptance rate, mean number of editorial board members, mean number of editors, listing of editorial boards, claimed indexation by Google Scholar/ERIC/Scopus/Web of Science, COPE membership, and availability of ISSNs. These findings point to distinguishing editorial features that language and linguistics scholars need to consider when they look for legitimate open access journals to disseminate their research.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
ABSTRACT This study aimed to explore English language teachers' vulnerability and identity negotiation in relation to self‐branding on social media. It focused on 15 Iranian teachers' experiences in ...teaching and self‐promotion on Instagram through narrative frames and follow‐up interviews. The analysis of the teacher narratives demonstrated that the new online context that valorizes visibility by demanding audience appealing content and personalities generated a great amount of vulnerability among the language teachers. The results evidenced the teachers' constant struggles in competing against those who seemingly possess superior skills and resources for self‐promotion and their resistance to the “rules of the game” in gaining quick visibility. They shed light on language teachers' vulnerability and identity negotiation in their efforts to present themselves as authentic and legitimate teachers on Instagram against popular, self‐branded individuals. Highlighting the intersection of language teaching, emotion, and identity, this study provides theoretical and pedagogical implications for language teacher identity in a shifting teaching context.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Recent discussions on TESOL teacher education have underlined the importance of further research on teacher educators' emotional experiences. In response to this emerging line of research, the ...present study explored emotion labor (i.e., the clash between internal feelings and external discourses/expectations) and professional identity construction of Iranian language teacher educators (LTEs). Grounded in a narrative inquiry methodology, the study investigated how contextualities of practice in Iran contributed to LTEs' emotion labor and professional identity construction by collecting data from an open-ended questionnaire, narrative frames, and semi-structured interviews. Our data analysis revealed three themes in relation to the Iranian LTEs’ emotion labor and professional identity construction: (1) emotional clashes regarding the marketization of teacher education, (2) ethical challenges as a site of emotional tensions in institutional work, and (3) disciplinary credentials and institutional affiliations imposing vulnerability on LTEs. Our findings demonstrate that while LTEs face various educational-sociocultural challenges that impose emotion labor on them, they can develop emotionality by exercising agency and promoting praxis in their institutional settings. Based on the findings, we provide implications for such agency-praxis promotion that can benefit various educational stakeholders.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
In this study, we investigated the ability of Iranian students of applied linguistics to discern plagiarism in writing, their perceptions of its ethical aspects, their characterizations of ...plagiarists, and their perspectives on why they may commit plagiarism. In so doing, a slightly revised version of Deckert's 1993 questionnaire, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, was electronically distributed among 156 graduate students of applied linguistics. The results of the quantitative data analysis revealed some understanding of the concept but an inconsistent performance in recognizing plagiarism. Regarding issues of ethics and fairness, they were concerned with their own needs along with the original writer's rights more than with rights of their classmates, colleagues, or teachers. They regarded unfamiliarity with the concept and nature of plagiarism as the main reason for committing it. The analysis of the qualitative data yielded the following reasons for students' plagiarism: students' unfamiliarity with plagiarism, students' low academic writing skills, teachers' carelessness and leniency, students' lack of time, students' laziness and deceitfulness, educational system and its policies, students' low language proficiency, students' unfamiliarity with the subject of writing, and teachers' high expectations. In conclusion, some suggestions are offered as to how to decrease the rate of plagiarism.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
•Language teacher educators face agency tensions due to top-down policies.•Economic preferences of schools constrain teacher educators' agency.•Teachers develop interpersonal relationships with other ...teachers as a way to experience facilitated agency.•Constrained and facilitated agencies are key to teacher educators' personal and interpersonal identities.
Despite the recent growth of research on language teacher educators’ (LTEs) professionalism, little research is available on their agency. In response to this gap of knowledge, this study drew on an ecological theoretical framework and explored the agency and identity construction of Iranian LTEs. Grounded in a narrative inquiry methodology, data were collected from narrative frames and semi-structured interviews. Analyses of the data revealed that power and interpersonal relationships were key to the LTEs’ constrained and facilitated agency, respectively. Collectively, the findings show that although power ecologies perform negatively in sanctioning LTEs’ agency and identity, such ecologies motivate LTEs to strive toward becoming more caring through enacting agency strategies that build on discursive meaning-making processes among LTEs and teachers. Based on the findings, we provide implications for policymakers and teacher educators in regard to how partnership initiatives could be established so that a more professional environment is provided for teachers and LTEs, especially in relation to the role of language in such partnerships.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
