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Over the last three decades, Second Language Teacher Cognition (SLTC) and the factors affecting teachers’ cognitive patterns have turned into one of the concerns within the realm of Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE). The inconsistency of the findings concerning the role of teacher education courses in bridging the gap between theory and practice has highlighted the need for exploring new techniques to encourage teacher reflection and cognitive development. In line with this perceived need, in the present qualitative study, seven researcher-designed Problem-Based Teaching Scenarios (PBTS) were assigned to seven TEFL students to explore the cognitive patterns recurring in their responses. Besides, their transformation while generating practical pedagogical solutions to the posed problems were traced over the course of study. The analysis of the data collected through the PBTSs and a structured electronic interview revealed a number of cognitive patterns including thinking within the boundaries of the prior language learning experience, educational culture, teaching experience, and pedagogical content knowledge. Furthermore, three main cognitive changes namely, moving from not fully grasping the problem to providing well-ordered solutions, from imitating to partially reflecting, and from prescribing to describing were observed. It is hoped that the findings have pedagogical and practical implications for SLTE instructors, curriculum designers, materials developers, and researchers.

The concept of “orthographic depth” refers to the degree of the deviation of the writing system from the one-to-one correspondence between graphemes and phonemes. This study aims to explore and compare of the “orthographic depth” between Persian and English writing systems using UTPECC corpus and homographic scale. To this end, the scope of the application of the homography feature in 10000 words of Persian writing system was determined by using the word processing software 2010 through the synchronic study in the field of graphology. Then, the occurrence frequency of this feature was briefly compared with a similar number of words in English writing system. The research results show only 4 graphemes possess homography feature in Persian writing system, each of which corresponds to a limited number of phonemes (maximum 4 phonemes). While this feature is observed in 11 graphemes of English writing system and the variety of their corresponding phonemes was much more than Persian writing system. Considering the fact that the extent of the occurrence of the homography feature in English writing system is significantly higher than Persian writing system, it can be stated that the orthographic depth of English writing system exceeds that of Persian writing system.

The present study aimed to analyze the postmodern features of Slaughterhouse-Five , authored by Kurt Vonnegut, and its two Persian translations by Bahrami and Abbasi. To this end, Lewis’s classification of postmodern features (2011) and Parham’s model (2015) were employed. The features investigated in this study were temporal disorder, fragmentation, vicious circles, paranoia, reader involvement, polyvocality, pastiche, and intertextuality. The results indicated that most postmodern features were preserved in both translations. However, the absence of several fragmentations and intertextuality features in Persian translations can imply the translators' unawareness of the significance of translating these features. To translate these features into the target text, translators should be aware of their impacts on the text, content, and audience. To translate postmodern features more precisely, it is suggested that postmodern features be taken into consideration by literary translators and translator trainers. The findings of this research can have implications for literary translators, and literary translation classrooms.

Students’ engagement in classroom activities has been at the center of attention these days that affect learners’ success, mental health and alternatively, their disengagement impacts their achievement and may also affect their future professional well-being. Motivation is another important contributor to success in education, which is also in line with engagement. Likewise, demotivation has been a concentration point of instructional research; yet, it has not obtained much concentration in the realm of language acquisition. Indeed, English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ demotivation has an essential role in hindering their learning in the English language learning classroom. The level of these two concepts, namely disengagement and demotivation is influenced by different factors in students and as far as EFL teaching is concerned, one of these factors is school climate which is deemed as a predictor of academic success. Indeed, the learning climate has been attracting the attention of researchers for decades given that this construct improves or prevents student achievement and poor mental health. Nevertheless, its contribution to mitigating learners’ demotivation and disengagement has not been scrutinized yet. Accordingly, this review presents the power of the learning climate where EFL students are learning a language and its role in students’ demotivation and disengagement. Subsequently, this is followed by giving some implications for EFL teachers, school authorities, and researchers.

This study explores the relationship between the story and the author’s personal life encounters. Specifically, it aims to construe the linguistic choices in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper , which highlights the discriminatory factors that worsen the woman’s plights and struggles specifically shown by masculine dominance, feminine poor role positioning, oppression, and marginalization. Considering these issues, the current study aims to describe the author’s experience of the world, what’s inside her, and around her. Results show that the text has 629 transitivity processes, with relational as the dominant process type by the inanimate characters which effectively describes the kind of environment which shapes a clear conflict against her milieu.  Among the participant roles and circumstances, carrier, and location show their dominance, respectively.  An in-depth analysis using the transitivity system unveils the author’s connectivity to her own life presented through literary metaphors.  The paper further proves that literature can be taught using linguistic approaches. 

This study aimed at examining the effects of the feedback types designed based on the regulatory focus theory (i.e., prevention vs. promotion) and reference of comparison (i.e., normative vs. self-referential) on achievement emotions and achievement goals. One hundred intermediate English language learners were assigned to four experimental groups, promotion, prevention, self-referential, normative, and one control group (N= 20 for each). The participants in the experimental groups received feedback based on their assignment for 16 sessions, and their achievement emotions and achievement goals were assessed before and after the intervention. ANCOVA analyses revealed that significant differences existed between the four experimental groups and the control group regarding achievement emotions and achievement goals. Self-referential feedback and promotion feedback increased positive emotions and led students to mastery-approach and mastery-avoidance goal adoption, while normative feedback and prevention feedback increased negative emotions. Furthermore, normative feedback positively affected performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. Prevention-focused feedback had a positive effect on mastery-avoidance goals. The researchers recommended that teachers use feedback emphasizing learners’ growth and improvement as a means for progress check. 

Known as what educational contexts do not teach, null curriculum has been considered one of the most significant types of curricula due to its absence, being left out or overlooked. This non-existent curriculum brings an important theoretical tool to the field of curriculum development for the idea that something which is not offered to students has an educational significance and effect. To follow the purpose of the study which is teachers' perspectives on the null curriculum at the BA level, 300 university instructors were selected to participate in this study. To answer the research questions various statistical methods (one-way ANOVA, independent sample t-test, Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Scheffe’s test) have been utilized. Results of this quantitative study revealed that among the sub-constructs of the 21 st century, critical thinking, collaboration skills, creativity and innovation skills, self-direction skills, technological literacy, global and local connection skills, economic and financial literacy, business and entrepreneurial literacy and media literacy should be considered as aspects of the null curriculum in TEFL curriculum in BA level in Iran, and they should be added to the present curriculum; however, communication skills are not regarded as aspects of null. In addition, Iranian EFL university instructors’ ratings on different components of 21 st -century skills as one aspect of the null curriculum significantly differed. Finally, a model was proposed to describe the relationship between the ratings of the components of 21st-century skills as one aspect of the null curriculum by Iranian EFL university instructors. The findings of the present study can help to a better understanding of the ELT curriculum, aspects of the null curriculum, and 21 st -century skills in the Iranian context.

Test de Connaissance du Français (TCF), a French knowledge test for any non-native speakers of French, is an official language exam for the certificate of proficiency in French designed by France Éducation international (FIE) and accredited by le Ministère Français de l’Éducation Nationale, de la Jeunesse et des Sports (French Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports). To meet the need triggered by American TOEFL and British IELTS, TCF was created in 2001 by FIE (formerly Centre International d'études Pédagogiques) and has been administrated in more than 120 countries by more than 700 centers around the world and has served for more than 2,000,000 candidates by the year 2022 for personal, academic or professional purposes (France Éducation International, n.d.). The increasing number of French learners worldwide and the growth of popularity French enjoyed give rise to the need of more reviews of test fairness and usefulness on recognized French competence tests such as TCF. However, unlike the large number of assessment practices focusing on English language testing, only a few studies available show awareness about the assessment on world languages other than English. With the hope to enrich the body of research in the field of language testing and to expand the scope of assessment on world languages, this review aims at examining the overall usefulness and fairness of TCF using Kunnan’s (2018) most recent theoretical framework of test fairness and justice. As a result, our review shows that TCF test developers have made great efforts on addressing core issues of validity, reliability, and authenticity, while there might be room for improvement to provide more meaningful and useful information to all stakeholders.

This study aims at exploring the developmental process from a novice writer to an expert academic contributor from a discursive viewpoint. Using a cross-sectional research design, the researcher was in contact with five graduate students (from M.A. to PhD) via semi-structured interviews and online communication. Based on the ideas of intertextuality and community of practice, the results obtained through text analysis showed two categories of intertextual references relevant for constructing genre knowledge, namely text-oriented practices (based on the discursive authority of texts) and expert-oriented practices (based on the discursive authority of experts). Moreover, novice writers were highly dependent on both text-oriented and expert-oriented practices but they favoured the former in their writing practices. Furthermore, since professional identity is an important aspect of genre knowledge, two identities of outsider and contributor were identified regarding this discourse community and its audience. The study concludes with implications for improving the discursive practices of the local academic community for developing professional identity of its novices.

Studies in literary religious discourses, including recent Quranic studies, suggest that speech act theory provides the researchers with variable pragmatic tools to interpret meanings that are constructed upon the intention of the speaker. This study draws upon speech act theory (SAT) to analyse the two ubiquitous speech acts of promise and threat in the Holy Quran. Employing the speech acts of promise and threat in the Quran to the detailed analysis of felicity conditions, this study, while arguing for the compatibility of SAT to the language of Quran, concludes that the main impetus behind the speech acts of promise and threat is creating the motivation in the addressees to conduct good and avoid evil deeds; therefore, the rules and conditions that drive the illocutionary force of promise and threat perfectly align with the motivational language of the Holy Quran.