Editorial Welcome
It is a great pleasure to be writing an
editorial welcome for the first inaugural
issue of Applied Research in English.
Research on language, teaching practices,
and communication patterns has been
growing rapidly both nationally and
internationally. Therefore, I believe the
publication of Applied Research in English
is timely. More specifically, research is
growing rapidly in such areas as classroom
discourse, gender issues in education, use of
technology in language teaching, curricula
innovation in language education and
sociolinguistic practices in society, among
others. Obviously, it was the intersection of
these issues and the desire to reflect inter-disciplinary research paradigms that spurred
the creation of this journal. Furthermore, the
journal makes an endeavour to bring
together researchers whose work falls within
areas such as approaches to the teaching and
learning of modern languages in higher
education and cultural expression through
teaching and reading literature. The journal
welcomes potential contributions in any of
these areas for future editions.
The articles comprising the journal’s
inaugural issue reflect the journal’s broad
scope. In the first study, Furtado and Pastell
argue that the Question Answer Relationship
(QAR) strategy equips students with tools to
successfully decode and comprehend what
they read. Their study is based on an action
research project over 18 days.
In “A contrastive study of compliment
responses among Persians and Australians:
The effects of exposure to a new speech
community”, Motaghi-Tabari and
Beuzeville investigate whether Persians who
have been exposed to Australian culture are
still affected by their cultural norms—in
particular by the politeness system taarof—
in responding to compliments in an
intercultural interaction. The results of their
study show that although there are
similarities in the choice of compliment
response types by Australians and Persians
living in Australia, there are still some
differences.
In “The comparative effects of song, picture
and the keyword method on L2 vocabulary
recognition and production”, Zarei and
Salimi investigate the effect of three
methods of vocabulary presentation, i.e.,
picture, song, and the keyword method, on
Iranian EFL learners' vocabulary recognition
and production. The group instructed
through picture had the best performance,
followed closely by the group instructed
through the keyword method. The group
taught through the song method performed
significantly worse than both the picture
group and the Keyword Method group. The
findings of Zarei and Salimi’s study have
theoretical and practical implications for
teachers and practitioners.
In “Crossing the threshold of Iranian TEFL:
State of the art”, Pishghadam and Zabihi
shed light on what it means to teach English
as a foreign language (TEFL) in an Islamic-Iranian context. The authors introduce
Iranian TEFL as the successful assertion of
Iranian local culture against the cultural and
ideological domination of the West, which
can be an antidote to the harshness of all
marginalizations Iranians have suffered for
centuries.
In the fifth study, “Bringing Classroom-Based Assessment into the EFL classroom”,
Andrew Finch describes how English as a
Foreign Language (EFL) teachers can bring
reliable, valid, user-friendly assessment into
their classrooms, and thus improve the
quality of learning that occurs there. While
acknowledging the place of standardized,
summative tests in contemporary society,
Finch suggests that CBA in the EFL
classroom can enhance long-term learning
and consequently enable and empower
students to prepare for their future learning
needs.
Shomossi, Ketabi and Eslami-Rasekh’s
study is an attempt to help Persian learners
develop a sense of audience awareness in
writing. Thirty five Persian students of
English were trained with a focus on
process-oriented instruction. In sum, training
Persian learners resulted in their enhanced
awareness of strategies they can adopt for
audience considerations.
Finally, in “On the modernist elements of
‘Ithaca’ chapter in Joyce’s Ulysses”, Abbasi
and Datli Beigi take us to the amazing world
of literature by showing how the human race
is perceived by Joyce. Also, the authors
reveal how the employed elements depict a
modern picture of the modern man. In this
connection, some modern aspects of the
language used by Joyce and the narrative
structure of the work are discussed.
We all have much to learn from each other.
Interdisciplinary collaboration is now more
expected than ever because of technological
advancements which have facilitated the
dissemination of scholarly communication.
We hope to establish a forum for academic
discussion. We very much welcome your
feedback on our inaugural issue.
Best wishes,
Saeed Ketabi, PhD (Editor-in-Chief)