The study explores Iranian English teachers’ perceptions of the importance of critical thinking
skills and the extent to which they practice their beliefs in real classroom setting. As a secondary
purpose, the study discovered the possible hindrances in the way of implementing critical thinking
in reading classes. Using a sequential mixed-methods design, data were collected through survey
questionnaire, interviews and class observations from 4 universities and several English language
institutes. Fifty participants took part in the study. A questionnaire with 16 closed-ended and two
open-ended questions was utilized to collect data about the teachers’ beliefs. For the next phase
of the study, one teacher from among 10 teachers who showed strong beliefs was conveniently
selected for class observation and interview. The results of one sample T-test and independent
sample T-test indicated that teachers believed critical thinking was important and that there was
not any significant difference between male and female regarding critical thinking. Qualitative
analysis of the data showed that despite the teachers’ strong beliefs about the importance of critical
thinking, they did not implement it much in their classroom practices. The hindrances as well as the
implications of the study are fully explained in the paper.
Author : Fatemeh Khonamri
Instruction on Intercultural Communicative Competence and Its Application by Iranian EFL Male and Female Writers
The influence of globalization on applied linguistics has recently generated considerable debate.
With the advent of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) at the start of the twentyfirst
century, many theoreticians and practitioners have accentuated the ICC perspectives and
its incorporation into teaching language skills. This mixed methods research study tries to verify
whether instruction on ICC encourages Iranian advanced EFL learners to incorporate ICC in their
writings, and whether gender plays any role in the tendency to use that competence. To this end,
33 male and female Iranian advanced EFL learners were chosen via an Oxford Placement Test and
then placed in two experimental classes. All the participants received a five-week instruction on
ICC in a writing class at a private language institute in Rasht, Iran. The data analyzed via T-tests,
content analysis technique, and η revealed that instruction on ICC assisted learners in coping with
intercultural issues differently in their writing; however, gender did not play any role in using the
ICC in writing. This study can shine a light on the writing course and language teaching in general
and teaching how to incorporate ICC in writing in particular.
Exploring Teachers’ and Learners’ Attitude towards Homework: The case of English versus Non-English-Major Teachers’ Homework Practices
Homework assignments provide a channel of communication between students and teachers
especially in an EFL context where there is little exposure to English language out of the classroom
context. Thus, exploring attitudes and homework features may provide teachers with useful
information to know how to plan their homework assignments to improve students’ learning
opportunities. This study aimed to explore both teachers’ and learners’ attitude towards homework;
the difficulties faced by both teachers and learners with regard to homework as well as the assignment
characteristics of English-major versus Non-English-major teachers. The study participants were
120 randomly selected adult male and female EFL learners and 81 EFL teachers. The data were
collected through questionnaires and subsequent semi-structured interviews. SPSS 24 software
was used to analyze the questionnaire data and interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded and
categorized for further analysis. The results indicated that students had positive attitudes towards
homework assignments. There was no significant difference between students’ attitude towards
homework given by English Major (EM) and Non-English Major (NEM) teachers. The data showed
that teachers do feel that homework is essential to students’ language development. Similarly, there
was no significant difference among EM versus NEM teachers in their attitudes toward homework.
The results revealed the following reasons for the difficulties that teachers and learners faced in
assigning/doing homework assignments respectively. Those reasons varied from not learning the
required concept, not knowing the instruction, not enjoying homework, not paying attention
when homework assignments were presented, not understanding homework instruction, copying
homework or cheating, the absence of related and meaningful tasks, parents’ lack of knowledge,
lack of word power and grammar, to anxiety and stress of homework. The findings illustrated that
there were some differences between EM and NEM teachers in terms of amount, skill area used, and
degree of individualization in their homework assignments. The results of this study offer a number
of pedagogical implications for teachers, curriculum developers, and institute managers.