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Researchers and teaching practitioners have been trying to find more effective methods of teaching idioms due to the significance of these expressions in language learning contexts. The present study sought to investigate the effects of three verbal mnemonic tools (grouping, stories, and conceptual metaphor) on EFL learners’ recognition and recall of English idioms. Ninety EFL learners at intermediate language proficiency level who were preparing themselves to take IELTS participated in this study. They were in three groups of thirty members each. Each group was randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions and was instructed idioms using one of the verbal mnemonic devices. The collected data were analyzed using the one-way ANOVA procedure. The results showed statistically significant differences among these devices, with ‘stories’ being the most effective on recognition and ‘conceptual metaphor’ being the most beneficial in the recall of idioms. The findings of the study can have potential theoretical implications for researchers and pedagogical implications for curriculum developers, language teachers, and learners.

This paper aims to make the reader familiar with the Brahui language which is spoken as a minority language by the Brahui people, mostly in Balochistan province of Pakistan; some parts of Nimroz province of Afghanistan, and some parts of the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan. To achieve this goal, first, a brief sketch of the Brahui ethnography, the origin of their language, and the Brahui language including phonology, lexicon, dialects, and its verb system is given. Second, two texts in Brahui are interlinearized, one of which is already transcribed in Latin. The other one, which was originally written in Brahui based on the Arabic alphabet, is transcribed in the Latin-based modified alphabet. Some sentences from the beginning and the end of the first text, and all of the second text have been interlinearized. In the glossary, which consists of all the words used in both texts, grammatical information such as nominal declension, according to the eleven Brahui case system, and verb inflections, based on tense, aspect, mood, and affirmative/negative is clearly explained in full details. In the end, the reader will have an overall view of the language that makes him/her able to continue his/her study and increase his/her knowledge about Brahui.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been with us, for almost a year now. It has affected our lives in multiple ways and challenged our achievements as well. Daily life has changed in aspects we never would have imagined. We had to change our habits and behaviors quickly in order to assure the health of our family, our neighbors and the rest of the world. While facing this “unprecedented” situation, there are terms that appear to describe the health crisis and its consequences. This planetary pandemic has also changed human behavior. In this article, we will see how the word Covid-19, a real agent of change in our existence, initiated changes in language and our behavior. Indeed, within the generative process of meaning as envisioned by semiotics, Covid-19 is an actant that crosses the different stages of process, from denomination to discourse. The discursive effervescence of Covid-19 is narrative. It appears as the prototype of the anti-subject. Perfect and absolute embodiment of evil. A single narrative program motivates it: propagation. We also see that Covid-19 is no longer just the anti-subject of this story. It truly becomes the Anti-Sender, leading in the shadows an army of villains, capable of reinventing themselves at one’s leisure. This is a spectacular example of actantial cumulation.

The literature on foreign language reading instruction has witnessed a significant bulk of research reporting the effectiveness of strategy instruction in improving reading outcomes. However, few studies have investigated the effects of reading strategy instruction on reading affective variables among young English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of teaching second language (L2) reading strategies on young Iranian EFL learners’ reading self-efficacy and reading attitudes. To this end, a sample of 48 Iranian EFL learners, aged 11-13, was recruited through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to an experimental group (N = 25) and a control group (N = 23). Using a quasi-experimental design, the researchers employed an experimental group that received a 12-week reading strategy instruction and a control group that were taught with the regular method without any strategy instruction. The Reading Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (RSEQ) and Reading Attitude Questionnaire (RAQ) were administered to measure the reading self-efficacy and reading attitudes of the participants as pre-test and post-test of the study. The strategy instruction intervention for the present study was based on Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA). The findings of the study indicated that the learners in the experimental group significantly outperformed those of the control group in terms of L2 reading self-efficacy. However, it was revealed that there was no significant difference between the reading attitudes of the two groups at the end of the semester. Overall, it may be concluded that EFL practitioners can incorporate teaching of reading strategies into their classrooms in order to help learners to gain both confidence and competence to address reading tasks more effectively.

This study is aimed at examining the role of gender, and years of teaching experience in Iranian EFL teachers’ awareness of the code of ethics in research. 272 Iranian EFL teachers were chosen based on convenience sampling and were assessed through the Iranian EFL teachers’ awareness of the code of ethics in research scale inventory. After gathering the questionnaires, data was analysed by SPSS. An independent-samples t-test was performed to examine whether the teachers' awareness of the code of ethics in research differs significantly between genders. In addition, Pearson correlation was performed to find the connection between years of teaching experience and the aforementioned factor. The findings showed substantial positive relationships between all five sub-constructs of the code of ethics and experience. Besides, the findings revealed that there were considerable differences in the degree of knowledge among EFL teachers of research codes of ethics and its sub-constructs between male and female teachers. The mean score of the female teachers in all sub-constructs was higher than the male teachers. This study may be the only piece of research that has investigated the EFL teachers’ knowledge regarding factors affecting their awareness of the code of ethics in research in Iran.

This study sought to promote EFL learners' speaking ability drawing on Bakhtin’s notion of dialogic discourse pattern (DDP) and to explore their perceptions towards implementing dialogic teaching (DT) in a speaking classroom. To this end, from the population of students in different language institutes, 47 students were selected based on a purposive sampling method. The data were collected at two step-wise processes adopting a mixed-method approach. First, the researcher directed two EFL teachers to apply the DDP principles in a dialogic (DG) and non-dialogic group (NDG). The intervention lasted for 12 weeks. Then, a posttest of speaking was conducted to track the possible improvement. The findings attested that the dialogic talk could promote EFL learners’ speaking ability. Next, DG group was required to complete a written discourse completion task to determine the extent to which incorporating DT could promote learners’ speaking ability. To analyze the data, Thomas's (2006) inductive approach was adopted comprising the dominant themes. The results revealed different themes and sub-themes such as developing self-directed learning skills, disseminating critical literacy practice, fostering language learning, promoting motivation and affective factors, to name but a few. The findings propose some implications for classroom management, materials preparation, and language policy program.

This study examined the effects of input-oriented and output-oriented tasks with different involvement load indices on Iranian EFL learners' comprehension and production of lexical collocations. To achieve this purpose, a sample of 180 intermediate-level EFL learners (both male and female) participated in the study. The participants were in six experimental groups. Each of the groups was randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions, namely input-oriented tasks with involvement load 1 (True-false), 2 (Matching), 3 (Multiple-choice), and output-oriented tasks with involvement load 1 (Short response), 2 (Fill in the blanks), and 3 (Sentence formation). At the end of the treatment period, the researchers administered a 40-item test in multiple-choice format and a 40-item test in fill-in-the-blanks format to assess the participants' comprehension and production of collocations. The collected data were analyzed using two different two-way ANOVAs and a series of independent-samples t-tests. The results showed that the tasks with higher involvement load indices were more effective on both receptive and productive knowledge of lexical collocations. The results also revealed that output-oriented tasks were more beneficial than input-oriented tasks at all three indices of involvement load. These findings can have theoretical and pedagogical implications for language teachers, researchers, and learners.