Dr Dara Tafazoli

Drawing on qualitative research, this study explores the Iranian EFL teachers¿ technological needs and their suggestions for using computer-assisted language learning (CALL) during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed the narratives produced by 66 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers for their themes through deductive and inductive thematic analysis phases using MAXQDA. The findings indicate that CALL teacher preparation programs should prioritize technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK), then technological content knowledge (TCK), and finally technological knowledge (TK). Moreover, teachers stated that CALL teacher preparation programs should develop their knowledge concerning the intersections of TCK/TPK and TPK/TK. Furthermore, Iranian EFL teachers suggested that CALL can be used during the pandemic if cooperation among teachers, students, and parents will be made, technological-related infrastructures will be developed, and teacher preparation programs will develop EFL teachers¿ collaboration, digital literacy, teacher autonomy, and TPK with special attention to the educational needs made by the pandemic situation. The findings have implications for teacher educators, professional development course designers and providers, and decision-makers by highlighting promising directions to devote their precious time and resources.

Since 2001, Teaching English with Technology (TEwT) has published hundreds of research articles to improve the quality of applying technology in language education and research. This collection of articles has covered many aspects of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL); however, due to the importance of CALL teacher education and professional development, a research synthesis of the two decades of TEwT¿s articles holds the potential to screen the field at large over that time period. By examining the published articles on CALL teacher education and professional development, data analysis revealed that most of them focused on ¿teachers¿ perceptions, attitudes, and experiences,¿ ¿CALL practicum,¿ ¿teachers¿ knowledge, literacies, and skills¿ and ¿CALL affordances and hindrances¿. This study might help as an extant inventory of CALL research interests over the first 20 years of the Journal¿s existence.

Due to the massive integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in higher education, teachers need to be highly digital competent and have positive attitudes to manage their classes effectively. In this regard, the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu) introduces a paradigm known as 21st-century competence that all teachers should acquire. Recently, scholars have explored the dimension of teachers¿ digital competence in the 21st century relating to a digital context. Thus, this explanatory study wants to take a step forward to add to the literature the role of university teachers¿ 21st-century digital competence in their attitudes toward ICT integration. To meet the end, a questionnaire was designed and administered to 350 Iranian university teachers who implemented ICTs in their classes. The result of partial least squares analysis (PLS-SEM) reveals the significant relationship between university teachers¿ information and data literacy, digital content creation, communication and collaboration, and problem-solving skills with three antecedents of behavioral intention and actual behavior for employing ICTs. Related pedagogical implications are addressed, such as running some teacher training programs for teachers to escalate their 21st-century digital competencies and making teachers aware of the role of these factors in managing their classes with ICTs.

This qualitative case study aimed at investigating the extent to which EFL teachers¿ reflective practices can be developed based on a six-week virtual exchange program (VEP) through reflective journals. Also, the potential contribution of this virtual exchange program to teachers¿ professional development and possible affordances to reflective practices were investigated through semi-structured interviews. Data obtained from reflective journals were analyzed based on the reflection scale. Moreover, content analysis was employed to analyze the interview data. The findings revealed that virtual exchange programs developed teachers¿ reflective practices. In particular, VEP was seen to open up opportunities for teachers to develop new professional partnerships, collaborative academic initiatives, and collaboration skills, also to introduce more innovative approaches in their current teaching practice.

The current study aims to investigate Iranian EFL learners' cognitive styles and their explanations of conceptual metaphors, offering a possible range of individual differences in metaphor processing. 71 participants were asked to explain some established conceptual metaphors that are commonly used in English. Then, their cognitive styles were classified into ¿analytic¿ or ¿holistic¿ and ¿imager¿ or ¿verbalizer¿ by means of cognitive styles test. Data analysis revealed that 29 participants (40.85%) explained the three conceptual metaphors by making structural correspondences between source and target domain. Moreover, 20 participants (28.17%) explained at least one of the metaphors by applying elements which were not part of the source domain. The results of the experiment revealed that learners with ¿holistic¿ cognitive styles were more likely to blend their conception of the target domain with the source domain in comparison to participants with ¿analytic¿ styles; also, ¿imagers¿ were more likely than ¿verbalizers¿ to refer to stereotypical images to explain the metaphors.

This quantitative study focuses on online metacognitive reading strategies used by 39 Iranian postgraduate students with internal and external locus of control. The students were selected through locus of control questionnaire and it is followed by OSORS questionnaire to measure online metacognitive strategies used by students. The results of study revealed that online metacognitive reading strategies used mostly by internal locus of control students rather than external locus of control students. There were clear interrelationships among types of metacognitive reading strategies used and internal locus of control characteristics. Among three subcategories of metacognitive strategies, students with internal locus of control are more interested to use global strategies, whereas students with external locus of control tend less to use this strategy. Also, there was no significant difference in using problem-solving and supportive strategies used by the students.

The purpose of this study was to compare the attitude of Iranian and non-Iranian English language students' attitudes towards Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Furthermore, the relations of gender, education level, and age to their attitude are investigated. A convergent mixed methods design was used for analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data. In the data collection procedure, an online 44-item web-based questionnaire was applied in order to collect data from 415 students. In the data analysis phase, both descriptive and non-parametric analyses were performed. The findings of the study revealed that there is no difference between the attitudes of Iranian and non-Iranian towards CALL. Finally, pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research are presented.