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The present study investigated the educational objectives of the English literature curricula at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Iranian universities based on Bloom’s revised taxonomy. Using a detailed checklist based on Bloom’s revised taxonomy and the respective classifications, the educational objectives associated with knowledge ( factual, conceptual, procedural , and metacognitive ) and cognitive ( remember , understand , apply , analyze , evaluate , and create) dimensions were analyzed. The results of the content analysis revealed the dominance of the lower-order thinking skills in the undergraduate curriculum and the prevalence of the higher-order thinking skills in the graduate curriculum. The results showed that the most frequent objective in terms of the knowledge domain was understand in both curricula. Regarding the knowledge dimension, conceptual and procedural knowledge occurred most often at both curricula, confirming that acquiring the knowledge of concepts and the processes safeguards the commended quality for the curriculum designers. Moreover, it was found that the metacognitive-related categories were almost missing from the categories. The results of the cross-tabulation revealed the superiority understand / conceptual in BA and the supremacy of understand/procedural in MA objectives. The findings entail the revisions of the educational objectives to accommodate critical thinking. The findings have pedagogical implications for EFL teachers, the curriculum developers, and policy makers.

The present study was an investigation of metacognitive strategy training on improving Iranian EFL learners’ listening performance and the differences and similarities at three levels of elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels. Few studies have been conducted to investigate three levels. So, 348 third grade female senior high school students of Zanjan/Iran were selected through multistage cluster random sampling method and based on Cambridge placement test (2010), 116, 132, and 100 students in 3 elementary, advanced, and control groups participated in this experimental study. During two months and over period of nine forty-minute sessions, students in experimental groups received metacognitive and listening instructions. To address the research question, ANOVA test was conducted and the results showed that there were meaningful differences between students’ performance and the students of experimental advanced group showed more improvement than students in experimental intermediate and elementary groups, and students of intermediate experimental group showed more improvement than students in experimental elementary group. The implication of the study is that metacognitive strategy training should be incorporated into the regular listening teaching programs to help students become more effective listeners.

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.

بیماری همه گیر COVID-19 همه دانشگاه ها را واداشت تا تمام برنامه های خود را بصورت آنلاین ارائه دهند. اما همه مدرسان برای چنین تحول ناگهانی ای آماده نبودند. آموزش آنلاین می تواند برای مربیان و موسسات بسیار چالش برانگیز باشد چراکه دارای ظرافت های مختلفی است که آن را از برنامه های حضوری کاملا متفاوت می سازد. با توجه به شرایط حاضر همه گیری، نیاز فوری به مطالعات در خصوص بررسی اثربخشی چنین برنامه هایی در مقایسه با دوره های مشابه حضوری به شدت حس میشود. در نتیجه ، مطالعه حاضر تلاشی بود برای مقایسه اثربخشی یک دوره EAP آنلاین با دوره مشابه حضوری از نظر سه مولفه لغات ، دستور زبان و درک مطلب. شصت و هشت دانش آموز در دو گروه آنلاین و حضوری با طرح پیش آزمون-پس آزمون در این مطالعه شرکت کردند. در حالی که در شروع مطالعه دو گروه تفاوت معناداری نداشتند ، نتایج آزمون SPANOVA تفاوت معناداری را در مورد مولفه دستور زبان و نه دو مولفه دیگر نشان داد. گروه حضوری از عملکرد بهتری در یادگیری دستور زبان برخوردار بود. مصاحبه های انجام شده نشان داد که فراگیران در کلاسهای آنلاین معمولاً تعامل کمی با معلمان و همکلاسی های خود دارند و معلمان نمی توانند در طول کلاس، فراگیران را درگیر و فعال نگه دارند. همه اینها نشان می دهد که یک برنامه آنلاین، ترجمه یک برنامه درسی حضوری به یک قالب آنلاین نیست و از پیچیدگی های بی شماری برخوردار است که باید مورد توجه همه دست اندرکاران قرار گیرد.

A key component of any educational program is the “textbook”, the efficiency of which greatly contributes to the accomplishment of the pedagogical goals of the program. The grave significance of the textbook necessitates its rigorous evaluation (Tomlinson, 2008). This study aimed to investigate EFL teachers’ and students’ perspectives on a recently developed Iranian EFL junior high school textbook entitled “Prospect 3”. The participants were 218 third-grade junior high school students and 103 EFL teachers conveniently selected from different junior high schools of Khuzestan, Golestan, Hamedan, and Qom provinces. The evaluation of the textbook was carried out quantitatively through a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. The analyses revealed that EFL teachers were partially satisfied with Prospect 3; however, EFL students were rather neutral. For the teachers ,                                                                       “Vocabulary and Grammar” was the most meritorious aspect, while “ Language Type ” was the least acceptable dimension. From the students’ perspective, the most meritorious aspect of the text was “ Vocabulary and Grammar” ,  while “ Layout and Physical Appearance ” was viewed as the least satisfactory dimension. The findings of this work might be of interest to Iranian EFL teachers, syllabus designers, materials developers, and the stakeholders involved in the materials preparation Bureaus of the Iranian Ministry of General Education.  

Interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies (IPLS) as particularly tailored language learning strategies for acquiring L2 pragmatic knowledge have been recently paid paramount attention in the pragmatics literature. These strategies are, therefore, related to some other social variables which are central to pragmatic development such as L2 social identity. Because of the importance of the IPLS and the rarity of research about the relationship between IPLS and with L2 social identity as a highly pragmatic-oriented variable, the current study tried to investigate the contribution of various forms of IPLS to L2 social identity among a randomly selected sample of 125 upper-intermediate to advanced EFL learners at a state university in Iran. During the two-phased data collection procedure, first, the participants filled out Locastro’s (2001) L2 social identity questionnaire, and then Malmir and Tajeddin’s (2015) IPLS inventory in two subsequent sessions. Data analysis using multiple regression revealed that all types of IPLS were significant contributors to L2 social identity except for the memory IPLS. Among the other five types of IPLS, social IPLS was a significant and strong contributor to L2 social identity. Affective and compensatory IPLS were significant moderate contributors to L2 social identity; however, metacognitive and cognitive interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies were weak albeit significant predictors of Iranian EFL learners’ social identity in English as an L2. The results of this study imply that L2 teachers can enhance social identity among the learners by fostering the knowledge of various forms of IPLS.