In Iran, many children spend a great deal of their time in home contexts where they often use different digital technologies such as smartphones, tablets, and some other digital devices. However, the ...way that children use these digital technologies largely depends on their mothers whose perceptions can shape their home digital literacy practices. While mothers' perceptions of their children's home digital literacy practices have been investigated in other contexts such as Turkey, Spain, England, and Sweden, there is a scarcity of knowledge about the perceptions of Iranian mothers. To bridge this gap, I conducted a qualitative case study using demographic profiles and semi-structured interviews to uncover Iranian mothers' perceptions of their bilingual children's home digital literacy practices in English. Drawing on thematic analysis, the findings demonstrated that while Iranian mothers urged their children to engage in home digital literacy practices in English, they had different motives such as migration, higher education, decision-making, practical skills, and early formal education. The findings of this study can offer valuable insights to the Iranian English language teaching (ELT) stakeholders to better address the needs of Iranian children and their parents using digital technologies in English.
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This study explored factors that have influenced Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' willingness to communicate (WTC) in an extramural digital (ED) context, an ever-increasing ...second language (L2) communication context. To this end, the researcher interviewed 50 Iranian secondary school language learners. Having used thematic analysis, four broad sources influencing students' L2 WTC were found, such as educational practices (K-12 instruction), interpersonal variables (familiarity with the interlocutors and supportive communities), affective variables (L2 confidence and anxiety in ED context), and social variable (intergroup climate). More importantly, these factors seem to influence each other during communication in the ED contexts. This study can broaden our understanding of how Iranian secondary students use ED contexts to improve their L2 WTC. Understanding these factors can give insight to Iranian policymakers and teachers to promote the L2 WTC of Iranian students in classroom contexts.
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Research has shown that the home digital literacy practices of children are shaped based on their parents' mediation strategies. While there is extensive literature on parental mediation strategies ...for children's digital media use as well as first language learning, this line of inquiry is not extensively explored in the context of second language learning. Driven by these points, in this study, I have used demographic profiles, semi-structured interviews, and video-recordings to discover the mediation strategies used by Iranian mothers based on sociocultural theory. Drawing on thematic analysis and deductive-inductive coding, I found that there were porous boundaries between the types of mediation strategies that were used by Iranian mothers to control or support the home digital literacy practices of their children. These differences and similarities were caused by the social, historical, cultural, economic, and political factors in the context of Iran. The findings of this study have extended the knowledge about how parents control or support their children's second language learning (L2) through digital technologies in the home context. These findings can provide worthwhile insights to English Language Teaching (ELT) stakeholders in the context of Iran, particularly how to establish a nexus between children's second language learning in the home and classroom context.
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This review was conducted to explore the use of digital technologies with young children in early childhood language and literacy education. It centers on peer-reviewed empirical journal articles ...published during the past two decades. An initial sample of refereed journal articles ( N = 631) was compiled from systematically searching the Web of Science Core Collection databases. Following strict inclusion and exclusion criteria, 89 articles were included in the review. Five major dimensions of the selected studies were coded: demographic information, setting, digital technology used, research designs, and research findings. All of the articles selected for inclusion were systematically mapped to provide a valuable resource for researchers in this area. The main findings of the review were categorized and are reported in five subsections: print knowledge, alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, early vocabulary knowledge, and narrative skills. Each subsection is framed with practical implications gleaned from the empirical studies.
While academic writing is considered a core competency in academia, academic writing anxiety is ubiquitous in doctoral student cohorts. Doctoral writing groups provide a space for participants to ...learn from each other's writing through the peer feedback process. In this conceptual review, we explore the dialogic nature of the peer feedback process in doctoral writing groups.
The findings in this study are based on thematic analyses of published peer-reviewed research using standard word processing, annotation, and referencing software.
We focus on how the space of security and trust that is created in doctoral writing groups encourages participants to explore writing as a social practice. Through the relationships built in this type of interactive community, doctoral writing group participants discover and explore the discourses of scholarly communication. Furthermore, doctoral writing groups foster students' ability to navigate the often-times implicit narratives of academia, thereby building student agency.
We argue, therefore, that feedback in doctoral writing groups should be viewed as a space of academic social practice.
This study underscores the importance of embedding opportunities for peer-based learning into doctoral programmes not only in the fields of educational and developmental psychology, but also in other disciplines more broadly.
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The integration of technology in English as a foreign language (EFL) education has catalyzed informal digital learning of English (IDLE). EFL teachers increasingly partake in IDLE for diverse ...reasons: enhancing language skills, broadening pedagogical methods, accessing professional growth, and pursuing personal interests, potentially boosting job engagement. Yet, scant attention has been paid to IDLE's impact on EFL teacher-related aspects like job engagement, technological pedagogical content knowledge, and digital competence. This research probes the link between IDLE and EFL teacher job engagement, exploring the mediating roles of technological pedagogical content knowledge and digital competence. 375 EFL teachers were selected via convenience sampling and invited to complete scales measuring IDLE, technological pedagogical content knowledge, digital competence, and job engagement. The results of structural equation modeling revealed that technological pedagogical content knowledge and digital competence strongly mediated the relationship between IDLE and job engagement among EFL teachers. Additionally, a significant positive correlation was found between IDLE and the EFL teachers' job engagement. Furthermore, the findings disclosed a substantial positive correlation between IDLE and the EFL teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge and digital competence. The findings underscore that IDLE can be incorporated in EFL education to improve EFL teachers' efficiency.
•This study is the first to examine the impact of IDLE on job engagement (JE) among English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers.•Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) and digital competence (DC) fully mediate the relationship between IDLE and JE among EFL teachers.•The study suggests that IDLE can enhance EFL teachers' JE by improving their TPACK and DC, and provides practical implications for EFL education.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This study explores English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' perceptions of the ecological factors influencing students' use of informal digital learning of English (IDLE). 26 EFL teachers ...participated in semi-structured interviews and complete a narrative frame. The results of conventional content analysis yielded four categories: macro-system factors (e.g., technological development, educational systems, and English status), micro-system factors (e.g., school and family), chrono-system factors (e.g., current EFL learners’ digital experiences) and personal factors (e.g., age, personality traits, digital literacy, awareness and attitude, and prior experiences with technology). The implications of the findings are discussed for stakeholders in EFL education.
•The study explored EFL teachers' views on ecological factors affecting students' IDLE.•The data analysis revealed macro-system, micro-system, and personal factors as key influences.•The findings can inform stakeholders on how to implement IDLE in EFL contexts effectively.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
As technology has advanced, so have opportunities for language socialization and practice. This reciprocal relationship has resulted in the emergence of a subfield of Computer Assisted Language ...Learning (CALL): Informal Digital Learning of English (IDLE). IDLE has manifested in various forms, including the more notable extramural and extracurricular varieties. Given the recent attention given to IDLE by Applied Linguists and language educators, this scoping review provides a roadmap for future research and explores the potential of IDLE to support English language teaching and learning in informal digital contexts. A Web of Science core eight database search for relevant research published between 1980 and 2019 using 35 IDLE-related key terms resulted in 38 studies of which 30 aligned with the inclusion criteria. Results showed the studies were conducted mostly under a mixed-method and qualitative paradigm and were published between 2017 and 2019. Only two studies used longitudinal data collection methods. Topics investigated included the linguistic dimension of CALL, the affective and cultural dimension of CALL, and the agency and digital literacies dimension of CALL. The small, yet salient, body of emergent IDLE literature points towards three trends: a growing relevance of langua-technocultural competence, the importance of digital literacies to communicative competence, and the importance of non-professional translation and interpreting to digital language learning.
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