Reza Ghafar Samar

Ideologies of English Language Teaching in Iranian Academic Research: Mainstream, Alternative, and Beyond

Mainstream trends of English language teaching (ELT) are predominantly constructed within the epistemological boundaries shaped by the traditional conceptions of linguistics, learning, and teaching as well as positivist research methodology. What tends to be overshadowed by such conceptions is the underlying foundational belief structure of ELT theory, research, and practice. Such beliefs may be named in various ways, including under the rubric of ideology. Despite the forbidding stigmas attached to the word ideology, rooted in the Marxist tradition, this study adopts a more tangible conception of the term as the most fundamental assumptions underlying any social practice, to explore ideologies of ELT in Iran. We examine the ideological assumptions detectable in the mainstream research scene of the country reflected in presentations at major national applied linguistics conferences within the past decade, as well as the ideological assumptions of a thread of alternative qualitative-critical ELT research in a few Iranian universities during the same period. The study uncovers a pentagonal dominant ideology as well as a struggling alternative ideological orientation. On this basis, the ideological landscape of the Iranian ELT arena is problematized and discussed along with probable extended messages for other contexts around the world.

Neural correlates of verb and noun processing: An fMRI study of Persian

Abstract The purpose of this fMRI study is to examine the neural substrata of verb and noun processing within a grammatical context in Persian, a language with a complex morphosyntactic structure. The main aim was to assess the possible impact of the morphosyntactic properties of Persian on the neural representations of different grammatical categories. To this end, 14 healthy native speakers of Persian were required to covertly complete sentences by generating verbs or nouns within a grammatical context, in response to each relevant drawing. Common regions were activated by both verbs and nouns in occipital cortex, temporal cortex, and cerebellum. In the direct comparisons, only verb processing revealed larger activation in middle temporal gyrus (bilaterally) and left fusiform gyrus. This study, as the first report on Persian, demonstrates that verbs and nouns are processed and represented to a great extent via common cortical regions with few activation differences, possibly reflecting the verb-specific morphosyntactic properties of the Persian language.

Codeswitching in the Language Classroom: A Study of Four EFL Teachers’ Cognition

Although many language teachers resort to their first language (L1) at various junctures during their practice, not many studies have tried to understand the reasons for this from teachers’ personal perspectives. This study aimed at investigating English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ cognitive processes during their classroom codeswitching. Stimulated recall technique was used to tap into teachers’ cognition. An entire session of four EFL teachers’ classroom practice was video-recorded. This was followed by an interview session in which participants tried to recall their thoughts while watching their own performance. The recollections, which were recorded and transcribed, were then analyzed using a three phase model of theme assignment, categorization, and labelling. The findings showed that eight factors were mentioned by teachers as the reasons for their codeswitching with Students’ Better Comprehension and Efficiency constituting the most and least important ones, respectively. Implications are drawn for classroom practice and suggestions for future research are provided.

Moves and steps to sell a paper: a cross-cultural genre analysis of applied linguistics conference abstracts

Abstract Conference abstracts are under-represented promotional texts in spite of their key role in the academic life of and communication among scholars. This generic study attempts to capture the structures and strategies of 160 applied linguistics conference abstracts from four world areas in terms of semantic units of Introduction, Method, and Findings and their Moves and Steps. Results revealed similarities and differences arising mainly from the idiosyncratic nature of genre, place of presentation, and western versus non-western, center versus periphery, and theory- versus application-oriented cultures. Implications for novice and non-native researchers to communicate and submit conference abstracts effectively follow a detailed report.

Morpho-syntactic complexity modulates brain activation in Persian-English bilinguals: An fMRI study

&NA; The Persian language can be considered to have a relatively more complex and combinatorial morpho‐syntax than languages like Chinese and English. For example, the Persian verbal system is largely constituted of light verb constructions, in which light verbs are combined with specific items coming from other grammatical classes to generate entirely new verbal entities. This study was designed to examine the mediating effect of language‐inherent properties related to morpho‐syntax on activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG), a brain area involved in morpho‐syntactic processing. To this end, 20 late Persian‐English bilinguals were required to covertly generate verbs and nouns from object and action pictures, within a cued grammatical context. Consistent with predictions, the results of an ROI analysis revealed an interaction between task and language in BA 44 of the LIFG and its right homologue, with greater activation of this region during the production of Persian compared to English verbs. In contrast, there was greater activation of the BA 44 during the production of English compared to Persian nouns, consistent with the more effortful processing of their less proficient second language (English). The findings suggest that language‐specific properties such as morpho‐syntactic complexity can modulate the recruitment of Brocas area, over and above the more well‐documented effects of language proficiency. HighlightsAn interaction was observed between task and language in BA44 of the LIFG and RIFG.Persian verbs showed larger activation compared with English verbs in BA44.English nouns showed higher activation in contrast with Persian nouns in BA44.Language‐specific properties can modulate the recruitment of Brocas area.