Running for approximately 90 minutes, workshops are learning opportunities with the aim of pedagogical or professional development on a certain topic of interest or relevance to the general theme of the conference.

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Doing Mixed-methods Research in Applied Linguistics and Language Studies

Prof. Mehdi Riazi (Macquarie University, Australia)

Mixed-methods research (MMR), where a range of quantitative and qualitative methods are combined in the collecting, analysing and presenting of research data, is increasingly gaining prominence and utility in social science and educational research. This development acts as a counterpoint to the dominant polarisation, until relatively recently, of adopting an ‘either/or’ perspective (i.e., either quantitative or qualitative) in research methodology. What is clear is that the appeal of MMR is growing and proving valuable for a wide range of researchers in a variety of academic disciplines including applied linguistics. While the development and use of MMR in social and educational research has been growing considerably, it has been subject to a substantial amount of misinterpretation and unsystematic use partly as a result of its own recent process of development and partly because researchers are sometimes not clear as why, when, and how the two methodologies might be mixed. This workshop will first provide an introduction to mixed-methods research. In the second part of the workshop, participants will review and discuss sample MMR studies conducted on language related issues (to be provided by the workshop convenor) to:

• Identify the purpose and research questions
• Specify data collection and analysis procedures, and
• Determine inferences made from the data and analysis

The workshop will end with some recommendations for using MMR more systematically.

Mehdi Riazi is Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University, Australia. After Shiraz University, Associate Professor Mehdi Riazi joined the Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University in Australia in 2009, where he convenes and lectures two postgraduate courses of Research Methods and Language Assessment. He also supervises both masters and doctoral students. He has successfully supervised over 40 postgraduate students and 20 doctoral students (14 at Shiraz University and 6 at Macquarie University), and currently supervises 8 Macquarie PhD candidates. His publications include authored and co-authored books on research, writing, and ESP courses. He has also written journal papers and book chapters and has presented extensively at international conferences. His recent (2014) publication is a co-authored paper on mixed-methods research in Language Teaching. His book on research methods with Routledge will be published in 2016.

Ways of Providing Input in Teaching: Process Options

Prof. Khalil Motallebzadeh (Islamic Azad University)

Language teachers or teacher trainers operate with their own theories of language and learning. Their underlying assumptions and beliefs make their choices of particular modes for presenting the content of the course. One major challenge is how much they are familiar with the relationship between the course objectives and the processes through which they are presented. In other words, it seems that teachers/trainers need to know more about variety in classroom processes. The main purpose of the workshop is twofold: first, it attempts to build a little logical edifice which represents a rationale for notion of process. Second, it tries to raise the participants’ awareness on teaching/training skills through a process-oriented approach. The flow of workshop is based on loop input techniques commonly employed in training workshops. The workshop is being structured to engage the participants in a series of hands-on and minds-on skills.

Khalil Motallebzadeh is Associate Professor of TEFL at Islamic Azad University (IAU) of Torbat-e-Heydarieh and Mashhad Branches, Iran. He is a widely published established researcher in language testing and, e-learning and professional development. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) in 2007-2008. He is also an accredited teacher trainer of the British Council since 2008 and currently represents Iran in Asia TEFL.

Critical Translation Analysis: A Reaction to Functional Approaches to Translation Criticism

Dr. Alireza Khanjan (Iranian University of Applied Science and Technology)

Critical Translation Analysis (CTA) is a reaction to the shortcomings with functional approaches to translation and translation criticism. More specifically, the discourse/register based sub-paradigm of functionalism in translation would be challenged in terms of endogenous and exogenous factors affecting translation. Critical Translation Analysis, as the title may suggest, is a general translation criticism model that is primarily grounded on a systemic-functional basis but, at the same time, makes attempt to introduce new analytical tools to deal with internal and external parameters involved in the process of translation. CTA model, as such, is assumed to go beyond micro levels of textual-linguistic analysis aiming at macro levels of social, cultural and ideological explanations. Drawing on two basic assumptions of “translation as re-contextualization” and “translating as filtering”, it defines the very task of translation criticism as the analysis of how four different filters of language, culture,epistemology and ideology may operate and to analyze how the resulting “target communicative event” can be accounted for against different levels of context, namely, context of language, context of situation, context of culture and context of history. The workshop will consist of both the introduction and some practical application of the model.

Alireza Khanjan is an official English-Persian translator to the Iranian Judiciary and, at the same time, a visiting lecturer of translation and interpreting at the Iran University of Applied Science and Technology, Iran. Dr. Khanjan obtained his PhD in Linguistics in 2012 from the University of Isfahan. He has already published and presented some 40 papers on translation and linguistics in journals and at conferences, both at national and international levels. His more recent works in the area of translation research focus on such issues as translation criticism, translation and power, and translation and ideology. Currently, Dr. Khanjan cooperates with Motarjem, the first Iranian journal of translation, by writing papers on theoretical and practical aspects of translation.

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How to Write and Publish Research Papers in International Journals

Dr. Hesamoddin Shahriari (Ferdowsi University of Mashhad)

One of the most vital skills for any graduate student is being able to write and publish an academic paper. Yet, despite its importance and its direct link to academic success, relatively few hours of any university program are devoted to teaching this skill. During my years of teaching academic writing to graduate students of ELT, I have come to notice a number of misconceptions and recurrent mistakes in my students’ work. In this workshop, which is based on my own personal research and experience, I offer a series of tips and tricks for writing a paper for a peer-review journal. By attending this workshop, participants can take their work from classroom or conference quality to journal quality by following a set of simple, yet essential guidelines. The workshop will cover a wide array of topics ranging from choosing the right journal all the way to organizing your material and maintaining flow. Since publication is an essential prerequisite for finding a job as a researcher or instructor at a university, this workshop can be a strong investment in your future academic career.

Hesamoddin Shahriari is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses on general and academic writing. He has conducted numerous studies into the academic writing register and has compiled and carried out research into the Iranian written sub-corpus of the International Corpus of Learner English(ICLE). His research interests include learner corpora, academic writing and formulaic language.