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Although Sociocultural Theory (SCT) was introduced to English Language Teaching (ELT) almost three decades ago, it has not yet started to find its way into the epistemological and practical aspects of English Language Teacher Education (LTE) programs in Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) language institutions context. Not having met the needs of English teachers, teacher educators, and academic and non-academic teaching programs and feeling a pressing need for innovative approaches in language teacher education, the time is ripe for LTE programs to present a curriculum that is globally driven and locally appropriate. To this end, this paper aimed to develop a sociocultural language teacher education (SLTE) curriculum model as an alternative to the LTE programs in the Iranian EFL context. The researchers applied Vygotskian principles and extensions of SCT pedagogy to construct a curriculum model that draws on Graves’ framework of LTE curriculum design and Richards’ model of teacher education that collectively incorporate different aspects, namely context analysis, needs analysis, approach, content, process, teacher educator’s roles, student teachers’ roles, and program evaluation. To present an  innovative LTE program, the researchers extracted and put together the tenets, extensions, and categories of SCT comprehensively and presented them through a complementary curriculum model that is a combination of Graves’ framework and Richards’ model of teacher education. This tentative but dynamic curriculum model might help teachers, teacher educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders to reconceptualize and restructure their mentalities and use the findings when designing small-scale and large-scale LTE programs.

As a national high-stakes test of English proficiency, MSRT needs further scrutiny of reliability. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate different sources of variation that may impact the MSRT test-takers’ reading comprehension. Accordingly, some factors including the reading topics, item types, and participants’ general proficiency were delved into based on the scores obtained from 60 MSRT prospective candidates. Upon administering a sample of the reading subtest taken from a recent version of MSRT, the collected data was dichotomously scored and then analyzed in terms of internal consistency, inter-correlations, and causal patterns. The yielded results showed an overall reliability of 0.86 for the reading module, while a moderate interrelationship was obtained amongst the passages (r = 0.47) as well as the item types (r = 0.44). Furthermore, the Mixed ANOVA results demonstrated that topic and item type significantly affected the reading performance, whereas the proficiency factor did not play a conspicuous role in distinguishing the participants’ reading accomplishment. Both theoretically and operationally, the results reported through this study may stress the need for reconsidering the influence of such test-method facets as topic and item type in the MSRT reading subtest to upgrade the test’s unidimensionality and fairness. 

Speech act theory is a significant issue in comprehending the intricate dynamics of human communication, acting as a guiding light in understanding how language is used to perform actions beyond the literal meanings of words. While traditional frameworks have presented valuable perceptions in classifying speech acts, the evolving nature of communication requires reconsidering and expanding these conventional approaches. The researchers of the current study proposed an innovative framework for speech act classifications, one that exceeds traditional boundaries and embraces the nuanced complexities of modern discourse. Based on seminal works by Austin (1962) and Searle (1969), and also by considering important research by Grice (1975), Levinson (1983), and emerging perspectives represented by Verschueren (1999) and Sbisa (2002), the researchers of this study critically assess current classifications, identifying essential challenges and opportunities in speech act analysis. The proposed framework introduces other categories such as Metaplocutionary Acts, Interlocutionary Acts, and Negotiation Acts, offering a more comprehensive and context-sensitive approach to understanding speech acts. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and empirical validation, the researchers of this study aim to refine and apply this framework across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts, thereby paving the way for a more nuanced and dynamic comprehension of human communication.

The current paper intends to exploit the Many Facet Rasch Model to investigate and compare the impact of situations (items) and raters on test takers' performance on the Written Discourse Completion Test (WDCT) and Discourse Self-Assessment Tests (DSAT). In this study, the participants were 110 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students at Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan in Iran. The students were asked to complete the WDCT and rate themselves on that test. Four raters scored the WDCT tests. According to the FACETS results, there were significant differences in students' performance between the two methods. The stable fit statistics and differing levels of difficulty measures for each test method indicated that each test had a unique way of differentiating the test taker's pragmatic ability. Based on the results, both DSAT and WDCT are acceptable measures for pragmatic ability; however, there are some fitness problems in DSAT. This shows the unpredictable pattern of ratings in the DSAT. It is recommended to have rater training to obtain more accurate results from the DSAT. Finally, the implications were discussed.

The primary objective of this research was to explore how the mindsets and perseverance of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Iran impact their well-being. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), data from 375 EFL teachers, selected through convenience sampling, were analyzed. The results revealed a direct and positive correlation between a teacher's growth mindset and their well-being. Additionally, the study found that the relationship between a teacher's growth mindset and well-being was influenced by their level of grit. These findings suggest that educators can significantly contribute to fostering growth mindsets and perseverance among EFL teachers, thus improving their well-being. Ultimately, this research underscores the importance of these teacher characteristics in enhancing the well-being of EFL instructors and offers practical guidance for educators aiming to support them.  

The representation of future pre-configuration through policy-making processes has been an in-vogue area of study in the field of discourse analysis. Equally important is the reconstruction of future pre-configuration in the institutional translations of political text and talk. The objective of this study is to investigate the conceptualization of futurity in the preemptive policy-making in the speeches of the Iranian Supreme Leader and their English institutional translations. The data for the present study comes from 20 speeches of the Iranian Supreme Leader and their translations, spanning from 2015-2020, issued by the Office of the Supreme Leader. We employed semantic-syntactic analytical tools such as mood, modality, and aspect to study the conceptualization of futurity in the policy discourse. In conclusion, the findings of the study indicate that these reconstruction of futurity in the preemptive policy-making process in the English institutional translations are to a greater extent similar to the semantic-syntactic properties of the original texts. However, modalization and mood transformation are instances of differences between original and translated versions of texts. Besides, we argued that any instance of the occurrence of similarity or differences stems from on-line dialectic relationships between micro-pragmatic and macro-pragmatic factors

Foreign language (FL) teacher agency, as a significant part of teachers’ professional development, encompasses self-organized efforts to augment professional growth. This study aimed to develop an ecological FL teacher agency model through a sequential exploratory mixed methods design based on which an assessment scale measuring FL teachers' agency value was developed. In the qualitative phase, developing and validating the FL teacher agency model, firstly, an interview guide was developed and piloted in a group of 10 TEFL teacher educators from Farhangian Teacher Education University in Tehran. Then, 30 in-service EFL teachers were interviewed. The data were analyzed through MAXQDA to find the components of the tentative conceptual model of teacher agency.  Based on the interview analysis, the preliminary draft of the EFL teacher agency scale was developed.  The refined EFL teacher agency questionnaire encompassing the three components of Autonomy, Freedom, and Choice was administered to 354 randomly selected EFL teachers. The scale's reliability was gained through Cronbach's alpha, and its construct validity through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The study findings could be used by foreign language teachers, teacher educators, and TEFL teacher agency researchers. 

In light of ongoing challenges in writing education and the needs of digital-native learners, this study explored the effectiveness of using the free version of Grammarly in the writing development of EFL learners. Thirty-three TEFL students at Shahid Rajaee University were randomly selected and participated in the study. Using a quantitative one-group design, their writing performance was assessed through six tasks and analyzed via one-way Repeated Measures MANOVA. The results indicated a consistent improvement in overall writing performance through the regular use of Grammarly as an automatic corrective feedback tool. To identify which writing components improved, an RM-MANOVA was conducted on grammar, spelling, punctuation, and clarity. The analysis showed significant improvement only in grammatical accuracy, with other aspects remaining unchanged. These findings highlight Grammarly’s potential in enhancing grammatical skills. The study contributes to ELT by encouraging the integration of ICT-related content into the EFL curriculum and teacher training programs, emphasizing the role of AI tools in language learning. These findings highlight the increasing impact of AI-powered tools in improving writing skills for language learners. Educators should balance automated feedback with personalized instruction. As research on effectiveness of Grammarly is still limited, further studies are necessary to fully understand its educational potential.

The following paper was designed to focus on how learners’ process different communication inputs (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing) and secondly, how gender differences play a significant role in this process. However, materials and instruction methods must also affect individual responses to given tasks. A study on these issues will necessitate the development of gender sensitive instructional materials with a special focus on improving individual comprehension strategies. First year graduate students with English as a compulsory subject of the two selected institutions were taken for our study. In this paper we have reported the differences between the male and female attitudes of the learners and their beliefs in acquiring LSRW skills for learning English as a foreign language (EFL). Survey questionnaires (through Google forms) and interview questions were designed. One sample T-test and paired sample test were taken whereas, interview question responses were analysed to validate the data. The findings revealed that average responses regarding the difficulty of listening skills are statistically significant and correlation between male students learning listening skills are better in the collaborative learning environment whereas the female students depict a positive and moderate correlation for the same. However, it is also found that there is no significant difference between the overall performance of female and male students and the implications have been discussed in the paper.

This study strived to specify and particularize Iranian medical field specialists and EFL teachers’ predominant and overriding textual interventions, which fall within the ambit of convenience editing. To this end, we required 20 field specialists and 20 EFL instructors to edit the unedited versions of 80 published medical research articles in a way that rendered them apt for publication in quality medical journals. We categorized the obtained data of the edited articles using an editing strategy framework that distinguished four editing micro-strategies and five macro-strategies. The findings revealed that medical specialists and EFL teachers’ micro-editing strategies outnumbered their macro-editing ones. Furthermore, there were significant differences between the editing micro-strategy uses of the above-mentioned groups of the participants. The results highlighted the need for a synergic collaboration between the medical field specialists and the EFL teachers to ameliorate medical articles’ formal, stylistic, and genre-related features and to expedite their publication process. 

Criticism of a translation evaluates its quality, accuracy, and effectiveness in communicating with the target readers. To ensure objectivity, such criticism requires a defined model. Pym’s (2007) model is based on two main concepts: directional equivalence and natural equivalence. Directional equivalence highlights the difference between the translation and the original, which is easily recognizable. In contrast, natural equivalence pertains to what different languages and cultures inherently produce within their own systems to convey a message, function, or referent. These two concepts make Pym’s model effective for broad evaluations of translations. This study applied Pym’s framework to objectively criticize the Persian translation of Melville’s (2021) Moby Dick to investigate the type of equivalence—directional or natural—the Persian translator employed. To do so, a comparison was made between the original and its translation to examine the translation techniques adopted by the translator at the micro-level, leading to the determination of his overall strategy at the macro-level based on Malone’s (1988) taxonomy of translation techniques, including matching, zigzagging, recrescence, repackaging, and reordering. The findings revealed that the translator employed all of Malone’s techniques but leaned toward those that prioritized naturalness over directionality. This approach enabled the production of a translation that maintained a close relationship between the source and target languages, ensuring effective communication with Persian readers. The findings of the current study offer pedagogical implications that may be beneficial for translation students, novice critics, and translation teachers.