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Organizational Culture as a Basis for Efficient Development of Organization
Get PDFThe article is devoted to the study of non-material assets of an organization development, particularly of organizational culture as a basis of effective development of an organization. The hypothesis lies in the fact that specific features study of organizational culture of a company provides possibility of objective evaluation of a degree of stability of organization, its ability for competition, allows to predict the important directions of management decisions, and a possibility of achievement of planned results. The tendencies concerning the transformations of contemporary management of organizations, which are realized in transferring of management influences from the management of technology of work to technology of management of human potential of a company, are revealed. The change of emphasis is due to objective reasons: due to the processes of globalization, state-of-the-art production technologies, including the latest information technologies, as well as the international labor market, humanization of industrial relations and human resource management technologies are becoming widely available. The article presents the results of an empirical study of certain aspects that determine the organizational culture. Promising directions, that have a significant potential for improving organizational culture, are identified. 
Book Review: Professionalizing Your English Language Teaching Christine Coombe, Neil J Anderson and Lauren Stephenson (Eds.), 2020
Get PDFAt present, ELT moves from globalization to localization (Bayyurt & Dewey, 2020) in TESOL, rendering the field locally and globally more professional. The main impetus for this universal move traces back to the advent of the paradigm shift in the 1990s (Kumaravadivelu, 2001); Kumaravadivelu maintains that two dramatic changes appeared in language education: A paradigm shift in ELT and a paradigm shift in teacher education. The central tenets of both are to professionalize education and language teaching further. Accordingly, being context-sensitive, the paradigm shift has brought the debate concerning professionalism in ELT to an end, professionally, practically, locally and globally, going where the scholars have not gone before
Rater-task interaction effects on testing EFL learners’ written performances
Get PDFThis study examines the interaction effect between rater groups and tasks on evaluating EFL learners’ written performances. Fifty raters took part in this study. The experienced rater group (n=25) and the novice rater group (n=25) judged sixty essays (30 narratives and 30 argumentative writing modes) written by third-year English students. Raters’ decision-making behaviours, in terms of scores assignment and written comments, were diagnosed based on different quantitative and qualitative tools. Scores were analysed based on FACETS to examine the effects of rater-task interaction on raters’ severity and internal consistency and the analytic scale’s functionality. Qualitative data were also analysed to diagnose which aspects of writing were deemed more important than others across rater groups and task types. The analysis revealed that both raters and tasks were substantially influential factors. The majority of expert raters displayed more severity in assessing narrative essays than argumentative essays. Different qualitative judgments are also detected across raters and tasks due to rating experience and task requirements. The findings of this study reflected implications not only for testing learners’ writing proficiency but also for test validation research in the task-based writing performance assessment field
The Influence of Explicit Teaching and Utilization of Concept Mapping on EFL Students’ Listening Comprehension and Perceived Self-efficacy
Get PDFListening is one of the most important communicative skills and at the same time the Achilles heel of many L2 learners as it entails multi-level cognitive processes (Lynch, 2002). Besides, the measures of self-efficacy, as Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons (1990) claim, are closely tied to effective use of learning strategies. Considering the key role that concept mapping, as an indispensable cognitive learning strategy, and self-efficacy play on an individual’s achievement (Bandura, 1997; Chularut & DeBacker, 2004), the present study aimed to examine the influence of explicit teaching and utilization of concept mapping on Iranian EFL students’ listening achievement and perceived self-efficacy. The participants were sixty upper-intermediate university students, studying English as a foreign language. They were randomly assigned into two groups: One control and one experimental group, each containing thirty participants. The students in the experimental group were taught and trained to utilize concept mapping while doing listening tasks, and the instruments were a self-efficacy questionnaire and a test of listening achievement. The findings showed that the experimental group performed better in the listening achievement test after learning to use concept mapping. Likewise, their perceived self-efficacy in accomplishing listening tasks improved after the intervention period
Investigating the Effect of Self-regulatory Strategy Development on Iranian EFL Learners’ Metadiscoursal Writing Skill
Get PDFThe present research investigates the effect of self-regulatory strategy instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ metadiscoursal writing abilities. To this purpose, 50 Iranian EFL intermediate learners were all native speakers of the Persian language learning the English language in an institute were selected via convenience random sampling. Self-regulated Strategies Intervention and Metadiscoursal writing pretest and post-test were the research instruments employed to collect the data. Because of the circumstance of Covid-19, the instructor made a new WhatsApp group apart from the virtual group, namely Adobe Connect, to make contact with the students. The learners were required to take a metadiscoursal writing pretest. After passing six sessions, intervention through self-regulated strategies was taught, and the participants were required to follow the guidelines. The instructor checked every single learner’s progress. Ultimately, they took a post-test. The findings revealed that the self-regulatory strategy significantly impacted Iranian EFL learners’ metadiscoursal writing skills. In conclusion, the results indicated that it could be suitable for teachers to gain more information regarding the self-regulated strategy and utilize it, where necessary, for its positive results
Reporting Verbs in the Humanities and Medical Sciences Research Articles
Get PDFCitation is an essential part of academic writing and allows writers to make strong arguments, review previous research, and express their opinions. This study investigates reporting verbs as a part of citation practice in the research articles published in Iranian and international journals (with different linguacultural backgrounds) in humanities and medical sciences from 2015-2019. In this cross-disciplinary study, 60 research articles (RAs) from Applied Linguistic (AL) and Nursing and Midwifery (NM) as part of humanities and medical sciences respectively were selected and classified based on Hyland’s (2002) frameworks. The results demonstrated that the Iranian journal articles utilised more reporting verbs (RVs) than the international journal articles whereas, the international articles used RVs with a wide variety. Although the types of verbs were different, the research verbs had a clear preference in the corpus. The finding suggests some pedagogical implications for novice scholars and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students to become familiar with differences in using RVs and select the correct choice of reporting verbs in the field of humanities and medical sciences
Formative Assessment and Motivation in ESP: A Case Study
Get PDFThe paper presents a case study of an ESP course illustrating the implementation of formative assessment to increase students’ participation and motivation. Formative assessment is an ongoing process teachers and students engage in while focusing on the learning goals and taking action to achieve them. It refers to monitoring students’ learning and the in-process evaluation of student performance by the teacher and by peers providing ongoing feedback to both the teacher and the students. The Business English for Engineers course, designed for graduate students of mechanical engineering, focuses on developing the presentation skills of future mechanical engineers. The students enrolled on the course prepare presentations on engineering topics planned by the syllabus, thus taking direct responsibility for learning. The presentations are followed by questions and group discussions on the presented topics and are subsequently assessed by the rest of the students, the presenters themselves and the teacher. Apart from presentations, students are also assigned smaller tasks to do in class in pairs or groups. A grade in the form of points is attached to the delivered presentations and completed tasks, contributing to the student’s final grade. The results of the questionnaire completed by the students at the end of the course show that such formative activities and assessment increased the students’ motivation and participation in class
Investigating the Use of Singular ‘they’ across Two Social Contexts: A Comparative Study of Iranian and Polish EFL Students
Get PDFWith the increasing attempts to use gender-fair language, different studies have investigated this issue from different viewpoints. To find an epicene pronoun used as a third-person singular, some research has been conducted investigating them in various contexts, yet few studies have focused on cultural differences. Since how to use language differs among cultures, this study aims to investigate and compare the use of epicene pronouns (he, she, he/she, and singular they) among Iranian and Polish Non-Native Speakers (NNSs) of English with different cultures, social backgrounds, and L1s (in terms of gender markedness; Iran with a genderless-grammar language, and Poland with a grammatical-gender language). A survey containing sentences and questions was given to 64 university learners in 4 contexts (indefinite noun, feminine, masculine, and neutral connotations) to choose the most suitable pronouns while exploring the reasons for choices followed by the source of learning. The results revealed that singular they was the highest deployed pronoun in all four contexts, with no significant difference between Iranian and Polish learners. Furthermore, gender neutrality was mentioned most as the main reason for their selection of choices. Finally, roughly half the Polish students and about a third of Iranian participants had already heard about singular they, with private institutions and schools were respectively mentioned as their main sources of this knowledge
Predictors of Satisfaction of Family Medicine Academy Trainers in Family Medicine Residency Training in Saudi Arabia
Get PDFThis study aims to identify the predictors of job satisfaction and perceived barriers of high-quality training among Faculty Members in the Family Medicine Postgraduate Program. This study is a cross-sectional quantitative study with a sample size of 50 trainers in the Family Medicine Postgraduate training program in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A validated survey was used, and the items' response categories were on the 5 Likert Scale. The data was collected through a web-based survey link, and focus group interviews were conducted to stress needs and recommendations. From 50 trainers, 32 have responded to the job satisfaction survey. Among them, 69.7% reported they were satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs (9.1% and 60.6% reported being very satisfied and satisfied, respectively). Of all the statistically significant Job satisfaction predictors, six were Trainers’ rating of their Administrative Department, one was a health status variable, and two were among burnout rating. Job satisfaction is a Multi-Dimensional construct that includes stress and burnout variables and depends on the trainers’ perception of their work-life experience and environment. Although the job satisfaction among Family Medicine training was high, further efforts should be implemented to improve the job life and satisfaction by addressing multiple constructs
Studying the Efficacy of Job Rotation on Organizational Justice and Organizational Trust (case study: employees of Sepah Bank, Ardabil Province)
Get PDFThe aim of this study was to study the efficacy of job rotation on organizational justice and organizational trust among employees of Sepah Bank in Ardabil province, Iran. This research was applied by goal, and descriptive-correlational by method. The population under study were employees of Sepah bank in Ardebil province (n=320), among whom 175 people were selected randomly. We conducted the present research in two theoretical and practical sections. In the theoretical part, the necessary information was obtained through library and documentary methods and in the practical part the required information was obtained through fieldwork and standard questionnaires. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were proven by the experts in this field. Data analysis was done through SPSS software and with both simple and multiple regression tests. The obtained results indicated that the dimensions of job rotation (human capital development and transformation of human capital) have a significant positive effect on organizational justice and organizational trust. It can be concluded that job rotation is useful in organization and it can increase the sense of justice and paves the way for building trust in organization