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Within Systemic Functional Linguistics, Grammatical Metaphor (GM) is a meaning-making resource lying at the experiential level that extends the meaning potential through cross-stratal re-mappings between the grammar and the semantics, boiling down, in one of its manifestations to expressing something that should have been a process (verb) in terms of a thing (noun). This study is an attempt at seeing how the frequency of GM used in the novel ‘Frankenstein’ written by Mary Shelly plays out in its cinematic adaptation. It is an attempt at investigating possible differences in the use of GM in the novel as a type of literary prose fiction and in one of its cinematic adaptations, the respective frequencies, along with what implications these differences carry in terms of generic features and functions of GM. In the 4200-word corpus analyzed for the movie adaptation, there were 70 instances of GM emerging upon analysis. In the 4200-word purposively sampled excerpt of the novel, there were above 330 instances of GM emerging. So the frequency of instances of GM in the written version was much more than that in the cinematic adaptation. This significant difference carries many possible cognitive, semantic, discursive, generic and textual implications. A number of pedagogical implications accrue to this research, such as increasing the knowledge of teachers and English language instructors with regard to the role of GM in making metaphorical forms in different texts, increasing knowledge of how to approach the teaching of the skill of reading and writing in upper-intermediate and intermediate classes, deeper critical reading abilities for learners, etc. 

This study investigated the effect of Narrow Reading (NR) on learning mid-frequency words. Vocabulary Size Test (VST) designed by Nation and Beglar (2007) was administered as the first pre-test to 196 students, from among whom 91 students whose vocabulary size ranged between 2100- 3500-word families, , became the target of this study and were randomly classified into four groups. Then another pretest administered was a modified version of Wesche and Paribakht’s Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) which assessed how well they knew twenty vocabularies derived from the expository and narrative texts. After thirty sessions for direct instruction, VKS was repeated immediately as a posttest to assess vocabulary learning while a month later, VKS was taken as a delayed posttest to assess vocabulary retention. To address research questions, a mixed design factorial ANOVA was conducted. The findings revealed that while the theme was fixed, reading expository texts rather than narrative ones led to the growth in vocabulary knowledge. In addition, the group that read narratives forgot most of the mid-frequency words in the retention phase. As opposed to multi-author texts, reading texts written by one author resulted in a better vocabulary achievement in both learning and retention phases. It was also revealed that there was no interaction between genre and author. In other words, the author was as influential in learning mid-frequency words among expository texts as it was in narrative ones. Finally, it was concluded that NR has a positive effect on learning mid-frequency words.

The main purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between EFL teachers’ self-regulatory trait and effective teaching. Furthermore, the study aimed to find out the relationship between EFL teachers’ self-regulatory trait with some demographics such as gender and years of teaching experience. The participants were 85 EFL male and female teachers between the age ranges of 27 to 52. In addition, 200 male and female high school students between the age ranges of 15 to 17 participated in this study. Self-regulatory trait of the teachers was explored through Teacher Self-regulation Scale (TSR) questionnaire and the qualities of successful Iranian EFL teachers were explored through Qualities of Successful Iranian EFL Teachers’ Questionnaire (QSIET). Empirical analysis revealed that no significant relationship existed between teachers' gender and their self-regulatory trait. However, a significant relationship was found between teachers' self-regulatory trait and years of teaching. The implications of this study can be practical and useful for EFL teachers, who eagerly try to improve their teaching qualifications as well as teacher-training courses. The findings can be also helpful for language teaching designers to design proper syllabuses and materials for language teaching.

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of varying frequency patterns (FPs) of words on the productive acquisition of a young EFL learner in a home setting. Target words were presented to the learner using games and role plays. They were subsequently traced for their frequencies in input and output. Eighteen immediate tests and delayed tests were administered to measure the oral production following the treatments. To examine the efficacy of varying FPs, target words were grouped into four sets: High Input/High Output (HIHO), Low Input/Low Output (LILO), High Input/Low Output (HILO), and Low Input/High Output (LIHO). The findings revealed that the differences among the FPs were statistically significant. Meanwhile, Wilcoxon signed-rank test identified a significant discrepancy between the words with LILO and HIHO frequency patterns. The findings demonstrated that the differences in FPs led to different productive gains, and higher word production cropped up when words occurred very frequently both in input and output. This study shows that higher teacher talk in tandem with higher learner talk could boost lexical production by a young learner in meaning-focused instructions.

This longitudinal study investigated the impact of different Frequency Patterns (FP) on the syntactic production of a six-year-old EFL learner in a home context. Target syntactic constructions were presented using games and plays and were traced for their occurrence patterns in input and output. Following each instruction period, the constructions were measured through immediate and delayed oral tests for their effects on the oral production. Instructional and measurement sessions were audio-recorded and transcribed into instruction and measurement corpora. Based on their occurrence rates in input and output, target constructions were categorized into High Input/High Output (HIHO), Low Input/Low Output (LILO), High Input/Low Output (HILO), and Low Input/High Output (LIHO) frequency patterns. Friedman procedure revealed significant differences among the learner’s production scores of the constructions with varying FPs. Wilcoxon signed-rank test located significant differences between the constructions with LILO and HIHO and those with HILO and HIHO frequency patterns. The study found that HIHO frequency pattern, in comparison, was the most efficient in developing productive acquisition of syntactic constructions by an EFL young learner. That is to say, instructor's input coupled with learner's output in the form of prompted, reformulated or spontaneous language, played a key part in heightening syntactic production of English as a foreign language. The findings can cast more light on the constantly debated issue of Teacher Talk Time (TTT) and Student Talk Time (STT) and it can be concluded that there should be a balance between TTT and STT so as to yield optimal L2 production gains.

The present study intended to compare the complaint responses used by President Rouhani and President Obama in the Iranian and US news interview contexts. For this purpose, Boxer’s (1993) six types of indirect complaint responses were adopted: ‘ignorance’, ‘questions’, ‘topic switch’, ‘contradiction’, ‘joke/teasing’, ‘advice/lecture’ and ‘agreement/commiseration’. The transcripts of the live news interviews were selected from Tehran Times in Iran and ‘The New York Times’, ‘The Atlantic Daily’, and ‘National Public Radio’ all carried out in 2015. The results of quantitative and qualitative data analyses revealed both universal and culture-specific responses. Whereas both nations made nearly equal use of ‘question’ response in order to make solidarity, ‘contradiction’ was used most frequently in the US interviews and ‘topic-switch’ and ‘commiseration’ were more frequent in Iranian transcripts. The findings are discussed with respect to the culture-specificity and universality and the way that news interviews deal with the political information including Iran’s nuclear negotiations.

This quantitative, qualitative study investigates the usage of mobile phone applications in teaching and learning processes. The study aims to identify the benefits, difficulties, and resolutions of using mobile phone applications. The study was conducted in the English Department at Hebron University at the second semester of the academic years 2015/2016. The study focuses on the Business English course. A questionnaire was used to show the general attitudes of the students towards the effects of using mobile phone applications in the classroom. Interviews were administered to reveal the general attitudes of the students and instructors towards the difficulties and the solutions. The results showed that most students responded positively to using mobile applications in teaching and learning processes. In addition, all students had smart phones, and they used varied brands applications in the learning process. Moreover, the results indicated that students understand and learn better through using the applications.

Retrieval tasks provide learners with an opportunity to focus both on meaning and on form. There are four different retrieval directions. The present study aimed to identify the optimal direction of recall type retrievals during reading and to investigate the outcomes of each one. Forty-eight intermediate EFL learners took part in the study. One of the experimental groups was provided with the productive retrieval version of the reading text, and the other experimental group with the receptive retrieval version. A Posttest was conducted in both productive and receptive directions for all the groups. Delayed posttests were administered two weeks after the treatment without prior notice to evaluate the time effect on participants' performance in each group. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference in participants' performance in immediate and delayed posttests based on the method of retrieval. Further explanation of the effect of each retrieval direction on immediate and delayed posttests has been presented.

Investigating the processes underlying test performance is a major source of data for supporting the explanation inference in the validity argument (Chappelle, 2021). One way of modeling the cognitive processes underlying test performance is through the construction of a Q-matrix, which is essentially about summarizing the attributes explaining test takers’ response behavior. The current study documents the construction and validation of a Q-matrix for a high stakes test of reading within a generalized-deterministic inputs, noisy “and” gate (G-DINA) model framework. To this end, the attributes underlying the 20 items of the reading comprehension test were specified through retrospective verbal reports and domain experts’ Delphi techniques. In the ensuing stage, the Q-matrix thus developed along with item response data of 2625 test-takers were subjected to empirical analysis using the procedure suggested by de la Torre and Chiu (2016). Item-level results showed that, except for one item, the processes underlying the other items were captured by compensatory and additive models. This finding has significant implications for model selection for DCM practitioners.