Mohammad Keshavarz - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

ALLS Future, Current & Past Issues by Mohammad Keshavarz

Textbooks play a very crucial role in the process of language teaching and learning. They affect ... more Textbooks play a very crucial role in the process of language teaching and learning. They affect the whole language learning/teaching process. The purpose of this study was to carry out an evaluation of English textbooks currently in use at high schools in Iran from teachers' and learners' points of view in a comparative way. To this end, the study employed a mixed methods design. The data were collected through questionnaires with 43 close-ended items consisting of nine different sections. The results showed that both the teachers and the learners believed that the high school English textbooks are highly ineffective in terms of actual activities, language functions section, pronunciation practice, physical make-up, reading texts, speaking and writing sections and are effective only in terms of vocabulary section, and grammatical points. It can be concluded that the English textbooks used in Iranian high schools cannot meet the Iranian learners' and teachers' needs and wants since they are grammar-based. The findings of this study can be used by the textbook designers in order to take account of the teachers' and learners' preferences and perceptions while designing new editions of the textbooks.

Papers by Mohammad Keshavarz

Journal of English language Studies, Sep 1, 2009

Reading comprehension plays a central role in nonfiction general English university courses in di... more Reading comprehension plays a central role in nonfiction general English university courses in different EFL situations and one of the important factors affecting it is vocabulary size. Accordingly, the present study aimed at investigating the effect of unknown vocabulary size on EFL learners' reading comprehension. To this end, 40 TEFL freshmen were selected to participate in this study on the basis of their scores on Nation's Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) (2001). They were then given five versions of the same text with different densities of unknown vocabulary, i.e. 80%, 90%, 95%, 98%, and one intact version. A one-way ANOVA and a regression analysis were used to analyze the obtained data. The results showed that different densities of unknown academic vocabulary resulted in significant differences in comprehension of nonfiction general English texts and there was a vocabulary coverage level which acted as a threshold between adequate and inadequate comprehension of these texts. The findings are interpreted to have implications for EFL teachers and university instructors as well as syllabus designers and materials developers. The significance of the present study lies in the fact that unlike many previous studies it is conducted on nonfiction texts, namely nonfiction general English texts.

This study aims at investigating the threshold hypothesis in relation to the transfer of reading ... more This study aims at investigating the threshold hypothesis in relation to the transfer of reading attitude from L1 to L2 among Iranian EFL learners with reference to gender and language proficiency. To this end, 150 EFL students (74 males and 76 females) who had received formal instruction in English for two to four years with the mean age of 19 participated in the study. They took part in the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency and completed two five-point Likert scale questionnaires: (a) L1 reading attitude questionnaire, as well as its translated version, and (b) L2 reading attitude questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Independent T-Test, Multiple Regression Analyses, and Two-Way ANOVA. The results showed that reading attitudes do transfer from L1 to L2; however, the students' L1 and L2 reading attitudes were different. The study also showed that higher L2 proficiency and gender are not statistically significant to play a role in the transfer of reading attitude f...

Applied Linguistics, 2010

The present study aims at the description and analysis of the phonological and lexical developmen... more The present study aims at the description and analysis of the phonological and lexical development of a child who is acquiring Farsi as his first language. The child's language production at the holophrastic stage of language development, mainly single words, is observed and recorded longitudinally for nearly seven months since he was 16 months old until he turned 23 months. An attempt is made to see if the phonological and lexical findings of the same period found in other languages are confirmed in the case of Farsi (an Indo-European language). Issues like noun dominance in the early words, vocabulary spurt of the toddlers, and the dominant CVCV, CVC, CV syllabic structures are the focal points in this study. The significance of the study lies in the fact that the number of the studies done on the language development of monolingual Farsi speaking children is very few.

Journal of Language and Translation, 2011

As a culture-based phenomenon which involves both linguistic and social aspects, translation has ... more As a culture-based phenomenon which involves both linguistic and social aspects, translation has been investigated from various perspectives. The present Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)-based study is an attempt to probe into the manipulation of ideologies in translations of political texts. A CDA approach, based on Fairclough (1989), Van Dijk (2004) and Farahzad (2007), was adopted to conduct this research. Three English political books alongside their corresponding translations in Persian were critically analyzed both at micro and macro levels. At micro-level, lexical features based on Van Dijk's model (2004) and grammatical features based on Fairclough's (1989) framework were analyzed. This was followed by the analysis of macro-features (based on Farahzad, 2007) such as notes, prefaces, and footnotes in the translated books for the purpose of revealing the translation network's diverse world-views and ideologies. The results show that translators make use of certain...

Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, Jul 1, 2017

While there is a plethora of research on pronunciation problems of EFL learners with different L1... more While there is a plethora of research on pronunciation problems of EFL learners with different L1 backgrounds, published empirical studies on syllabification errors of Iraqi Kurdish EFL learners are scarce. Therefore, to contribute to this line of research, the present study set out to investigate difficulties of this group of learners in the pronunciation of consonant clusters (CCs). The data for this study were collected through classroom observation and a pronunciation test. Initially, students' difficulties in pronouncing difficult English clusters were diagnosed in their oral performance in the author's graduate classes at a private university in Northern Cyprus. Subsequently, 18 Iraqi Kurdish students volunteered to read aloud a short paragraph, sentences containing the problematic consonant clusters, and a word list while being audio-recorded. Data analysis showed discrepancies in the participants' pronunciation of consonant clusters, i.e., while they did not exhibit any problem in the pronunciation of initial CCs, most of them employed vocalic epenthesis (insertion of an additional vowel), as a repair strategy, in word final position to facilitate the pronunciation of complex clusters of the TL (Target Language). This can be attributed to the influence of the mother tongue as Kurdish phonotactics does not allow certain CCs in word final position. However, other factors such as the role of modelling, and lack of sufficient exposure to the TL may have contributed to the participants' pronunciation problems. Moreover, since all of the participants were adult EFL learners, it is safe to assume that such errors might have become fossilized in their interlanguage. Therefore, in terms of pedagogy, it is suggested that pronunciation problems of EFL learners should be dealt with during early stages of second language acquisition in order to prevent fossilization.

Journal of Pragmatics Research, 2022

This study investigated impoliteness in relational contexts. Interlocutors analyzed the data fro... more This study investigated impoliteness in relational contexts. Interlocutors analyzed the data from a Persian TV drama from two perspectives: intentionality and perception of impoliteness. Two relational contexts were identified: power-imbalance and power-neutral, each comprising two types of impoliteness: reciprocal and non-reciprocal. Reciprocal impoliteness occurred in hostile and conflictual situations where impoliteness was both intended by the speaker and perceived by the recipient as a direct face-attack. In non-reciprocal impoliteness, however, when power imbalance was due to family hierarchy, the recipient of impoliteness remained silent; in other situations, the intentional face-attack was tolerated, unless the recipient’s social identity face was directly attacked. In power-neutral situations, impoliteness was not reciprocated when intimacy existed between the interactants. It was neither intended nor perceived as face-threatening; however, direct face-attack was reciproca...

International Online Journal of Education and Teaching, 2017

There is no dearth of publication on pronunciation problems of different L1-bacground learners in... more There is no dearth of publication on pronunciation problems of different L1-bacground learners in EFL contexts; however, research in ESL situations (where English is spoken outside the classroom) in general, and in the Nigerian context, in particular, is scarce. Accordingly, to fill this research gap the present study set out to investigate the pronunciation problems of Hausa speakers of English in Nigeria. To achieve the goals of the research, 60 native speakers of Hausa studying at three universities in Northern Cyprus participated in the study. The participants’ pronunciation problems of English were elicited by mean of a pronunciation test that consisted of a word list, a short paragraph, and 15 individual sentences. Moreover, 15 pictures were shown to the participants to name while being audio-recorded. All the test items contained English consonants and vowels with potential pronunciation difficulties for Hausa speakers of English. The collected data were then transcribed and...

Journal of Pragmatics Research, 2020

Research on the speech act of compliment is abundant; however, studies on the characteristics of ... more Research on the speech act of compliment is abundant; however, studies on the characteristics of compliments in Turkish, in general, and in Turkish TV dramas, in particular, are scarce. Therefore, to fill this research gap, the present study set out to investigate the use of compliments in a popular Turkish soap opera. To achieve the purposes of this research, thirty-two episodes of a TV drama called Sahra were selected at random to be viewed and analyzed while focusing on the topics, functions, and characteristics of compliments with reference to the role of gender. Four main topics and functions, and two major characteristics of Turkish compliments emerged from the analysis of the data. Similarities and differences were also found in the use of compliments in Turkish and other languages. The findings may have implications for research on speech acts, in general, and complimenting behavior in TV dramas, in particular.Keywords: Turkish compliments; TV drama; elaboration; exaggeratio...

Budapest International Research and Critics in Linguistics and Education (BirLE) Journal, 2020

Education is one of the main sectors that has been drastically affected by COVID-19 pandemic worl... more Education is one of the main sectors that has been drastically affected by COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. In this paper, after providing a brief background about the global impact of Coronavirus pandemic on different spheres of life, the effect of COVID-19 on education, in general, and higher education, in particular, will be discussed. Then, different types of online educational models will be reviewed. Next, the advantages and disadvantages of face-to-face classroom instruction versus online education will be elaborated on. Finally, a model for post-pandemic higher education will be proposed and delineated.

Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 2019

Blended learning is a revolutionary concept that embraces traditional classroom teaching and onli... more Blended learning is a revolutionary concept that embraces traditional classroom teaching and online/offline learning. Many studies have been conducted on blended learning; however, research on its effect on motivation with reference to personality and learning styles is scarce. Therefore, the present study set out to fill this niche. To this end, 33 university students from a private university in Northern Cyprus were randomly selected to participate in this study by filling out a questionnaire on the use of blended learning. The questionnaire was analyzed and frequencies of participants’ responses were calculated. To supplement the survey with qualitative data, an interview was conducted with ten of the participants on a voluntary basis. The results of both sets of data suggest that students’ personality and learning styles play a significant role in increasing their motivation for using blended-learning. Thus, based on these findings, it is suggested that in order to increase lear...

Hacettepe University Journal of Education, 2018

This study investigated the impact of explicit instruction of collocations on EFL learners' Engli... more This study investigated the impact of explicit instruction of collocations on EFL learners' English proficiency. To this end, the performance of two groups of EFL learners in the form of time-series assessment was compared. To ensure the homogeneity of the participants, a pretest namely Preliminary English Test (PET) was administered. The teacher and the textbooks for both groups were the same, however in the experimental group there was an explicit emphasis on collocations in all four language skills. Moreover, these students were required to keep track of collocations by taking careful notes and using them in their productive skills in order to activate and internalize them. They were also instructed to transcribe the listening passages of the textbook after the tests were administered in class. The control group was only implicitly exposed to collocations. Continuous formative assessment was used to keep track of the learners' progress towards reaching the intermediate proficiency level. To conclude the three-month course, FCE (First Certificate in English) past-papers were given to both groups and a comparison was drawn in their performance. The results indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group, suggesting that teaching collocations explicitly may lead to improvement in language proficiency.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of task-based language teaching (TBLT)... more The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of task-based language teaching (TBLT) on EFL learners' pragmatic production, metapragmatic awareness, and pragmatic self-assessment. To this end, 75 homogeneous

International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2007

The notion of expectancy grammar as a key to understanding the nature of psychologically real pro... more The notion of expectancy grammar as a key to understanding the nature of psychologically real processes that underlie language use is introduced by Oller (1979). A central issue in this notion is that expectancy generating systems are constructed and modified in the course of language acquisition. Thus, one of the characteristics of language proficiency is that it consists of such an expectancy generating system. Therefore, it is claimed that for a proposed measure to qualify as a language test, it must invoke the expectancy system or grammar of the examinee. This article aimed at finding the relationship between textuality of a text and its realization in expectancy grammar. To this end, texts with high and low lexical collocational density (LCD) as a means of reaching textuality in a text are given to participants in the form of cloze test. Texts with high and low lexical collocational density were selected to act as cloze tests and administered on EFL learners. An independant t-test was used to analyse the mean of the scores obtained in pairs of low and high LCD texts. The results showd that texts with high lexical collocational density enjoy higher degrees of readibility and are suitable for cloze tests. In other words, the group who took cloze tests with high lexical collocational density outpeformed the group whose cloze tests had been prepared on texts with low lexical collocational density.

Reading in a Foreign …, 2007

This study investigated the effects of linguistic simplification and content schemata on reading ... more This study investigated the effects of linguistic simplification and content schemata on reading comprehension and recall. The participants, 240 Iranian male students of English as a foreign language (EFL), were divided into 4 homogeneous groups, each consisting of 60 ...

This study aimed at investigating the attitude of Muslim students towards the use of certain Engl... more This study aimed at investigating the attitude of Muslim students towards the use of certain English idioms and proverbs. Thirty Muslim students were asked to express their reactions and feelings towards two categories of English idioms and proverbs: the first category included idioms and proverbs containing the names of animals that are prohibited in Islam, and the second category contained culturally inappropriate idioms and proverbs. The results of data analysis revealed that idioms and proverbs belonging to the first group were found by the majority of the participants to be rather offensive, while culturally inappropriate idioms and proverbs were less offensive. This indicates that religion is the main influential factor in the reaction of Muslim students towards English idioms. Non-Muslim English teachers may find the results of this study useful in gaining awareness about the attitudes of Muslim students towards the use of religiously and culturally-loaded idioms and proverbs...

This study investigated metadiscourse and its subcategories in English research articles (RAs) wr... more This study investigated metadiscourse and its subcategories in English research articles (RAs) written by nonnative (Iranian) and native English writers from the two disciplines of applied linguistics and civil engineering. The study aimed at seeing whether language and discipline influenced the frequency of occurrence of metadiscourse elements in research articles. To this end, a sample of 120 research articles was analyzed in terms of the use of metadiscourse and its subcategories based on the model proposed by Hyland & Tse (2004). The AntConc text concordance software program was used to search for the metadiscourse elements in the corpora. The results of the data analysis showed that the writers from the two disciplines were significantly different in using metadiscourse elements collectively; however, no difference was found due to language background of the writers. With regard to different subcategories of metadiscourse, the results revealed that the four groups of writers from the two disciplines and the two languages used different types of metadiscourse differently.

International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 2004

This study aimed at comparing the performance of two bilingual groups of EFL students with that o... more This study aimed at comparing the performance of two bilingual groups of EFL students with that of a monolingual group on a controlled productive ability vocabulary test. Altogether 30 Turkish-Persian bilinguals, 30 Armenian-Persian bilinguals, and 30 Persian monolinguals ...