Relationship between Reflective Teaching and Iranian EFL Learners’ Language Achievement
الموضوعات : نشریه زبان و ترجمهFarzaneh Abazari 1 , Behzad Ghonsooly 2 , Shahram Afraz 3
1 - Department of English Language, Qeshm Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qeshm, Iran
2 - Department of English, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
3 - Deptartment of English Language, Qeshm Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qeshm, Iran
الکلمات المفتاحية: language learning, Language achievement, reflective teaching, teachers’ awareness,
ملخص المقالة :
Language learning and achievement are related to the skills teachers practice and the presence of expert capability such as teachers’ reflectivity. The objective of the present study was to search the extent to which EFL teachers are involved in reflective instruction, and test the level of growing teachers’ awareness of reflective teaching which leads to students’ language achievement. Data were collected by the following instruments: a) a TOEFL test administered to 350 Iranian EFL students, b) reflective journals written by 120 Iranian EFL teachers, and c) Reflective Teaching Inventory. For the qualitative stage, 120 male and female EFL teachers from two language institutes in Kerman, the center of Iran, were selected through convenient sampling and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. After completing the treatment, a reflective teaching inventory as a post-test was given to the two groups to test the impact of the treatment. The results of the t-test indicated that the experimental group outdid the control group in taking advantage of reflective teaching components. This finding raises provocative questions regarding reflective teaching and teaching skills.
Ahmad, I., Said, H. B., Zeb, A., Rehman, Sh. U., Ahmad, SH., & Khan, W. (2013). How does reflective practice improve teachers’ classroom teaching skills? Case of community-based schools in District Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Social Sciences and Humanities, 4 (1), 73-81.
Akbari, R., Behzadpoor, F., & Dadvand, B. (2010). Development of English lan-guage teaching reflection inventory. The system, 38(2), 211–227.
Akbari, R., Kiany, G. R., Naeeni, M. I., & Allvar, N. K. (2008). Teachers’ teaching styles, sense of efficacy, and reflectivity as correlates of students’ achievement outcomes. ITALY, 11(1), 1-27.
Ashraf, H., Samir, A., & Yazdi, M. T. (2016). Reflective teaching practice in an EFL context: A qualitative study. Interna-tional Journal of English Linguistics, 6(7), 48.
Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Burhan-Horasanlı, E., & Ortaçtepe, D. (2016). Reflective practice-oriented online dis-cussions: a study on EFL teachers’ re-flection-on, in, and for action. Teaching and Teacher Education, 59, 372–382.
Camacho Rico, Z. D., Albarracin Trujillo, J. C., Martínez Cáceres, M., Durán Becerra, L., Arciniegas Vera, M. V., & Cote Parra, G. E. (2012). How can a process of reflection enhance teacher-trainees’ practicum experience? HOW, 19, 48–60.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hills-dale: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.
Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: a restate-ment of the relation of reflective think-ing to the educative process. Boston: D.C. Heath and Co.
Journal of language and translation, Volume 13, Number 2, 2023 21
ETS. (2009). The Official Guide to the TOEFL Test (2009). McGraw-Hill.
Farrell, T. S. C. (2004). Reflective practice in action: 80 reflection breaks for busy teachers. California: Corwin Press.
Farrell, T. S. C. (2012). Reflective writing for language teachers. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
Ghorbani M. R., Davodi, M., Adel, M. R., Amirian, M r. (2020). Reflective teach-ing through journal writing: A study on EFL teachers’ reflection-for-, in, and on-action. Language Related Research, 6(544), 27-54.
Goldhaber, D. (2002). The mystery of good teaching: Surveying the evidence on student achievement and teachers’ char-acteristics. Education Next, 2(1), 50-55.
Grant, C. A. & Zeichner, K.M. (1984). On becoming a reflective teacher. In C. Grant (Ed.), Preparing for reflective teaching (p. 103-114). Massachusetts, Boston: Allyn & Baco.
Hagevik, R., Aydeniz, M., & Glennon Rowell, C. (2012). Using action research in middle-level teacher education to evalu-ate and deepen the reflective practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28, 675–684.
Ho, B., & Richards, J. C. (1993). Reflective thinking through teacher journal writ-ing: myths and realities. Perspectives, 5(2), 25–40.
Holly, M. L. (1989). Reflective writing and the spirit of inquiry. Cambridge Journal of Education, 19(1), 71-80.
Hsu, P. Y. (2008). Using videotaping and re-flective journal writing to improve stu-dent-teachers performance in the class-room. Chaoyang Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 6(2), 97–120.
Huang, H. W., & Hsu, P. Y. (2005). Reflective teaching through videotaping in an Eng-lish teaching practicum course. In Pro-ceeding of 2005 International Confer-ence and Workshop on TEFL and Ap-plied Linguistics (pp. 210–216). Tai-wan, Crane.
Lai, G., & Calandra, B. (2010). Examining the effects of computer-based scaffolds on novice teachers’ reflective journal writ-ing. Educational Technology Research and Development, 58(4), 421–437.
Lee, H. (2005). Understanding and assessing pre-service teachers’ reflective thinking. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21, 699–715.
Lee, H.-J. (2000). The nature of the changes in reflective thinking in preservice mathe-matics teachers engaged in student teaching field experience in Korea. New Orleans: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the America Educational Research Association (AERA).
Lee, I. (2007). Preparing pre-service English teachers for reflective practice. ELT Journal, 61(4), 321– 329.
Liou, H. C. (2001). Reflective practice in a pre-service teacher education program for high school English teachers in Taiwan, ROC. System, 29(2), 197–208.
MacKinnon, A. M. (1987). Detecting reflection in action among pre-service elementary science teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 3(2), 135-145.
Moumene, A., Aldalalah, A & Bawaneh, A. (2020). Gauging the level of reflective teaching practices among science teach-ers. International Journal of Instruction. 13(1), 1-19.
Olaya, M. (2018). Reflective Teaching: An Approach to Enrich the English Teach-ing Professional Practice. HOW, 25(10), 149-170.
Poulou, M. (2007). Student teachers are con-cerned about teaching practice. Europe-an Journal of Teacher Education, 30(1), 91–110.
Richards, J. C. (1995). The language teaching matrix. Cambridge Language Teaching Library.
Richards, J. C., & Lockhart, C. (1996). Reflec-tive teaching in second language class-rooms. New York: Cambridge Universi-ty Press.
Rodgers, C. (2020). The Art of Reflective Teaching Practicing Presence. Teachers College Press: Washington, D.C.
Sanders, W. L. (2000). Value-added assess-ment from student achievement data:
22 Relationship between Reflective Teaching and Iranian EFL ...
Opportunities and hurdles. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 14(4), 329- 339.
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practi-tioner: How professionals think in ac-tion. New York: Basic Books.
Tang, E. (2013). The reflective journey of pre-service ESL teachers: an analysis of interactive blog entries. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 22(4), 449–457.
Tsang, W. K. (2003). Journaling from intern-ship to practice teaching. Reflective Practice, 4(2), 221–240.
Valli, L. (1997). Listening to other voices: a description of teacher reflection in the United States. Peabody Journal of Education, 72(1), 67–88.
Van Mannen, M. (1977). Linking ways of knowing with ways of being practical. Curriculum Inquiry, 6, 205–228.
Waltermire, L. (1999). The nature, roles, and interplay of the inner and outer voices of reflective teaching. Un-published MA Thesis, Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma.
Wright, S.P., Horn, S.P., & Sanders, W.L. (1997). Teacher and classroom context effects on student achievement: Impli-cations for teacher evaluation. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 1(1),57-67.
Zhang, D. (2008). The effects of teacher edu-cation level, teaching experience, and teaching behaviors on student science achievement. Graduate Thesis, Utah State University, Logan.
Zulfikar, T., & Mujiburrahman, A. (2018). Understanding own teaching: becom-ing reflective
Ms. Farzaneh Abazari is a Ph.D. student in TEFL at Qeshm University, Qeshm, Iran. She has been involved in teaching English for more than ten years at some universities. Her main interests include methods and techniques of language teaching.
Email: farzanehabazari7@gmail.com
Dr. Behzad Ghonsooly is a full professor of Applied Linguistics at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran. He has published 10 books in the EFL field and more than 60 papers in various national and international journals. His main research interests are lan-guage testing and introspection psychology.
Email: Ghonsooly@yahoo.com
Dr. Shahram Afraz is an assistant professor of English Language Teaching at Islamic Azad University, Qeshm Branch, Iran. He mainly teaches language testing, research methodolo-gy, sociology, linguistics, teaching language methodology, etc. His main areas of interest include teachers' education, cooperative learn-ing, language testing, and research. He has published more than 40 papers in international and national academic journals.
Email: shahram.afraz1352@gmail.com