An Ecological Exploration of the Culture of English as an International Language Among Iranian English Language Teachers in Light of Vygotsky＇s Genotypic Approach

Language ecology is defined as the study of the interactions between any given language and its environment. It is primarily determined by the people who learn it, who use it, and more important than the previous ones by the people who transmit it to the others; that is, language teachers. English language is used as an additional language almost all over the world and an indispensable part of the ecology of this international language is culture. Thus, an ecological perspective demands a particular view of the practice of the culture of English language as situated and localized. Exploring such practice within the diverse contexts of the use of English language should be based on the genesis underpinning English language teachers＇ thoughts and practice. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to explore Iranian English language teachers＇ attitudes, knowledge, and skills of teaching culture in light of Vygotsky＇s genotypic approach. To do so, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 English language teachers in Iran. Their records were analyzed and discussed in terms of four different and interrelated spans, namely phylogenetic, cultural-historic, ontogenetic, and microgenetic. Phylogenetic span focuses on the development of language teachers as natural species and their physical evolution. The cultural historic span concerns the development of language teachers based on social, cultural, and historic bases. Ontogenetic domain investigates the role of language teachers across their human life span. Microgenetic span is related to a set of roles, activities, and interpersonal relations experienced by the developing person in a given setting. The findings of the study have indicated that there is a sharp contrast between Iranian English language teachers＇ attitudes towards teaching culture and their practice in the classroom which is due to the divergence between the their ontogenetic development of culture teaching on one hand and the policies of the English language institutes develop within the cultural historic span on the other hand.

Exploring English Language Learning Policies in Iran Based on Secondary School Course Books for Learning English in Light of Globalization and Culture

With the globalization of English, the macro and micro cultures of the users of English around the world interact intensively. Considering these conditions, the local and global cultural interface seems an important issue which needs to be clarified in the materials and books used for learning English. Thus, the focus of this study was to explore the language learning policy of the new Iranian English course book at high schools, Prospect 1, recently published and taught for a year in Iran, in light of globalization and culture. This qualitative study was conducted through carrying out semi-structured interviews. The participants of this study were 30 teachers of Ministry of Education, who had the experience of teaching Prospect I for a year and they were mostly chosen from Mashhad and the rest from other cities of Khorasan province, Iran. The interview contained four main questions which were posed to the teachers. The findings of the study indicate that the language learning policy of Iran need to pay more attention to the learners＇ intercultural communicative competence because it mainly attempts at teaching English language focusing on the home culture in the Iranian context. The article ends with some pedagogical implications and more recommendations for developing research studies.

Towards an Ecological Understanding of Translation Etemality in the Context of Iran

This study attempted to investigate the similarities and differences regarding the conceptions of translation eternality among a small group of Iranian people of different social positions and different ages. Sixty-two participants were selected based on the maximum variation sampling. To gather data, semi-structured interview was utilized. The participants were asked a list of 11 questions collected from the existing literature on the similar topics. Then, the interviews were transcribed for analyzing the data. Besides, Erikson＇s （1959） theory of development was used to classify participants of different ages in four groups of teenager, young, middle age, and old. The high frequency factors were found and analyzed with the use of Bronfenbrenner＇s （1979） nested ecological model. Moreover, the participants were classified in 11 groups based on their social positions and their conceptions were analyzed with the same method. Broadly speaking, 17 central tendencies in the interviews were obtained： People mainly focused on subjects of the books, translation fluency, author＇s competence in writing, and translator＇s competence, translations which have common grounds with social events of Iran, advertisement, existence of movie or cartoon adaptation of the book, translator＇s awareness of the content of the book, existence of cultural similarities between the source and target culture, popularity of the translator, author, and the original book, conversational language in translation, translation fidelity, being both translator and author, and effect of censorship on translation. Besides, old participants seemed to have more precise view on translation eternality and teenager＇s concerns were mostly about the appearance-related issues.

On the Practice of Pedagogic Corpus Linguistics With Secondary School Iranian English Language Learners

The gap between the theories of second language acquisition and their practice in materials development has been a controversial issue in the field of applied linguistics. Recently, the findings of corpus linguistics have narrowed the gap. However, their practice, especially in the realm of vocabulary acquisition, has encountered pedagogic problems in the classroom because the authentic nature of the words in corpus-based examples was beyond the level of learners＇ comprehension which paves the way for the practice of pedagogic corpus linguistics. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to practice pedagogic corpus linguistics, and mainly data-driven learning, with the first year secondary school English language learners in Iran in terms of their vocabulary acquisition. To do so, 28 students participated in the study. Examples from the British National Corpus for the main words of each unit of their course book, Prospect 1, were presented to them in a course of 16 sessions. Those which were beyond their understanding were eliminated and those comprehensible for them, the pedagogic ones, were selected based on their reports regarding the comprehensibility of each corpus-based example.

On the Ecological Evaluation of Iranian Secondary Schools English Language Course Books in Light Intercultural Communicative Competence： Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude

With the spread of English language around the world and its status as an international language, the need for more communication is felt. One pivoting aspect of this communication is the role of culture which can contribute to the success of communication at the global level and the co-construction of identities as individuals from different parts of the world get into interactions. Thus, the role of materials developed for learning English, especially the local ones, in the improvement of individuals＇ intercultural competence is significant. New course books for learning English at Iranian secondary schools entitled Prospect series have been developed recently. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the first and the second books of this series in light of Byram＇s model of Intercultural Communicative Competence （1CC）. Based on this model, ICC consists of three dimensions of attitude, knowledge, skills, and five saviors of knowledge, attitude, discovery, interaction, and critical thinking. To do the evaluation of the course books, the checklist developed based on these five saviors was used to evaluate the tasks for each unit of the books. The evaluation was done separately by each of the researchers in the study and inter-rater reliability showed a high level of Cronbach alpha. The findings indicated that about 90 percent of the activities of Prospect 1 and Prospect 2 lack the skills required for improving English language learners＇ ICC. They mostly focus on Iranian culture which might have been improved via learners＇ first language as well. This might imply the need for the adaptation of Prospect series activities in light of ICC so that Iranian English language learners can take advantage of their communication with the rest of the world.

Analyzing Culture of Learning and Teaching in the Iranian Secondary Schools English Language Course Books： Prospect

Knowing and analyzing the ＂culture of learning and teaching＂ in a coursebook or series of course books can contribute to teachers＇ and students＇ success in the educational and pedagogical goals and objectives. Cultures of learning and teaching refer to the perspectives of teachers and learners towards learning and teaching. Most of the research studies conducted in this field have referred to values and attitudes related to good learning and teaching as reflected through observations, interviews and questionnaires. However, just few studies have examined this term with regard to language teaching materials, and course books. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to introduce, investigate, and analyze the cultures of learning and teaching in Iranian secondary school course books entitled Prospect series. Based on the model used in this study, the cultures of learning and teaching in Prospect series were investigated as reflected in their external features including aims and objectives cited in the introduction, tables of content, and layout of the students＇ books, and internal features including task instructions and visual images in students＇ book plus the instructions in the teacher＇s book. Each of these features as well as the pedagogical issues of the Prospect series were provided and elaborated.

Assessing and Improving General English University Students＇ Main Sub-skills of Reading Compression： A Case of University of Bojnord

General English course at Iranian universities has always been a controversial issue since the students taking this course are rather weak in English proficiency and need more authentic instructions based on accurate need analysis. The materials applied in this course are mainly focused on reading comprehension. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to improve General English university students＇ main sub-skills of reading comprehension and see the effect of the possible changes in terms of time and the fields of study of the students. To do this, 168 university students taking General English course at university of Bojnord, including humanities, engineering, physical education, and sciences, received instruction on the main sub-skills of reading comprehension after taking a pre-test sample TOELF section of reading comprehension. After 16 sessions of 90 minute instruction, they took the post-test section of TOEFL sample of reading comprehension. Mixed between within subject analysis of variance was used to assess the impact of instruction for the four groups of students from pre-test to post-test. The findings of the study indicated that the effect of instruction in terms of time, from pre-test to post-test, and the interaction of time and fields of study were significant. Besides, changes for 10 sub-skills were the same among the four fields of study.