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In this article, the low back vowel // in word-final positions in Eghlidian dialect, one of Persian dialects, is studied. This vowel is represented phonetically as [], [] and [] in different phonetic environments. Therefore many words were collected via interviewing ten native speakers so that these different alternant forms can be accounted for appropriately. Since one of the authors of this article is a native speaker of the dialect, the verity of the data is confirmed. In writing this article, the collected data were classified in terms of different alternations of the vowel //, then related contexts were analyzed. Analysis of data showed that, firstly, in individual words, the final vowel // is pronounced as [o] when it is preceded by a non-glottal consonant; however, it is pronounced as [] when preceded by a glottal consonant and, secondly, in continuous speech, as a result of an assimilation, the final position vowel // is pronounced as [o] and [], respectively according to the graveness and acuteness of its preceding consonant.

در این مقاله به بررسی این مسئله می پردازیم که آیا زبان آموزان ایرانی از گونه های مختلف زبان انگلیسی که در سراسر جهان صحبت می شوند آگاه بوده و به گونه خاصی از آن تمایل دارند یا خیر. همچنین به بررسی نگرش زبان آموزان ایرانی به گونه های بومی و غیر بومی زبان انگلیسی می پردازیم. بعلاوه تلاش می کنیم دریابیم که آیا این نگرش جنسیت محور هست یا خیر. بدین منظور 30 زبان آموز دختر و پسر با سطح متوسط زبان انگلیسی که سن آنها بین 22 تا 30 سال می باشد به عنوان نمونه انتخاب شدند و به سه پرسشنامه پاسخ دادند. سپس اطلاعات جمع آوری شده از طریق تحلیل واریانس یک طرفه با اندازه گیری های مکرر (one-way repeated measures ANOVA)، آزمون LSD post-hoc فیشر و آزمون t مستقل مورد ارزیابی قرار گرفت. نتیجه اصلی حاصل از این پژوهش این بود که زبان آموزان ایرانی دیگر به وجود یک گونه واحد از زبان انگلیسی اعتقاد نداشته و به تدریج به « انگلیسی های دنیا » معتقد شده اند. در حقیقت آنها از یک گونه انگلیسی کامل و واحد چشم پوشی کرده و برای برقراری ارتباط با دیگر افراد در سراسر جهان گونه های دیگری از انگلیسی را نیز می پذیرند. بعلاوه با وجود اینکه شرکت کنندگان در این پژوهش گونه های غیر بومی زبان انگلیسی را پذیرفته اند، گرایش داشتن آنها به گونه های آمریکایی و بریتانیایی نشان می دهد که آنها به یادگیری زبان نگرشی مثبت دارند

Research in academic writing has revealed a strong tendency on the part of writers to interactively communicate their scientific findings with their readers. In doing so, the writers should take a position while arguing their propositions. This interaction as proposed by Hyland (2005b) takes places having two sides of stance and engagement. This study targeted the stance component of writer-reader interaction by integrating Hyland’s (2005b) and Hyland and Tse’s (2005a) frameworks to survey lexical and grammatical stance markers in the major subsections of English research articles in anthropology, education, horticulture, and zoology. The corpus included 240 English research articles published during two periods, namely, 1990 and 2010; 60 from each field, 30 articles from 1990 and 30 from 2010 yielding a total number of 1,270,021words. The findings suggested that stancetaking is a common feature of academic writing in the sampled disciplines regardless of the nature of the discipline. Also, hedges ranked first on the list of frequency count. Furthermore, there was a decreasing pattern in the use of stance markers highlighting a convergence among the scholars of the fields with respect to the totality of the facts established day by day. Then, some implications are drawn with plausible applicability in academic writing and EAP syllabus design.

This experimental study attempts to see whether incorporating supplemental podcasts into the blended module of second language (L2) vocabulary teaching and learning leads to better learning outcomes in comparison with other common teaching and learning methods as self-study and conventional. To that end, undergraduate students from Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences were summoned up via an announcement to take part in the study. Volunteers were homogenized via Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) and were then randomly divided into three groups to learn English vocabulary items via three different scenarios during 32 sessions. The collected data from the participants’ answers to the attitude questionnaire and interview as well as the data from assessing their performance throughout the course were analyzed both descriptively and inferentially. The analysis of the data revealed that the podcast-mediated blended L2 learning scenario appeared as the most successful scenario in L2 vocabulary learning. Consequently, it could be concluded that providing miscellaneous practicing opportunities for students would facilitate learning process and contribute to learning improvement.

This study scrutinized the relationship between utilizing language learning strategies, academic fields, and reading ability in reading comprehension test performance of Iranian postgraduate EAP students. The participants were 947 students, who answered a reading comprehension test and a learning strategy questionnaire successively in one session. The gathered data were subjected to a set of parametric statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance, Tukey HSD and Duncan tests. The findings manifested significant differences among the participants in different fields in employing overall, direct, and indirect strategies. A statistically positive relationship was found between the participants’ reading ability and use of overall, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, and affective strategies. The findings reflected that the actual ability of language learners was significantly influenced by some nonlinguistic factors, and the observed scores did not represent their true ability. The findings can provide an empirical evidence for Bachman’s (1990) as well as Bachman and Palmer's (1996, 2010) conceptual frameworks of language use due to the impact of nonlinguistic factors on language ability of L2 learners in test-taking process. The findings can help language teachers improve instructional reading programs, decrease error of measurement, and narrow the gap between more successful and less successful learners in different fields of study.

Moving in line with the postulation that metadiscourse (MD) markers help transform a dry and tortuous piece of text into a coherent and reader-friendly one, the researchers in the current study attempted to investigate the effect different metadiscourse markers might have on Iranian EFL learners’ perception of written texts. To this end, 120 undergraduate English students were given three different texts chosen from the most common textbooks in BA, along with their doctored versions (all MD-removed, interactive-removed, and interactional-removed). Each text duo was then accompanied by an 8-item questionnaire following Ifantido’s (2005) lead. The findings, overall, were indicative of the positive role of metadiscourse markers in bringing about EFL learners’ ameliorated text perception. Furthermore, data analysis via ANOVA and LSD tests revealed that texts with both interactive and interactional resources had more effect on learners’ perception. Moreover, it was found that interactive and interactional resources had more or less the same effect on learners’ reactions to texts. To sum it up, in line with the findings of the present study further evidence is garnered in favor of the postulation holding that metadiscourse markers bring about an increased amount of coherence and reader-friendliness in texts.

Evolution of languages has always been of interest to linguists. In this paper we study the natural progress of the syllable structure from Old Persian (O.P) to Middle Persian (Mi.P) and up to the Modern Persian (Mo.P). For this purpose all the words containing consonant sequences are collected from specific sources of each of these languages, and then analysed according to the syllabification principles. Pulgram (1970) distinguishes three principles for this matter which is stated in Hyman (2003:279).The first one, is the maximum open syllable principle, the second, the minimum coda and maximum onset principle and the last one is the irregular coda principle. In addition , to find the syllable structure of the words, phonological rules are also applied. Greenberg (1978) suggests a number of rules specifying the collocation constraint of phonemes and phonological structure of the word, which are: Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP), Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) and Syllable Contact Law (SCL). On basis of these rules and principles the clusters are separated from sequences, and the syllable structure of each language is acquired. Finally the progress of the syllable structure change is studied through representing the data from all three languages, and investigating the process taken for clusters to reach the present time. As the data exhibits, in O.P initial consonant clusters are frequently observed and also, through syllabification, some final syllable clusters will be obtained. In Mi.P also both initial and final clusters fully exist, with growing number of final ones. Initial consonant clusters are completely omitted in Mo.P and only final clusters remain. Deletion and vowel insertion are the two most occurring processes in these processes.