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Recently translation researchers have endeavored to adopt new directions in the current translation quality assessment (TQA) approaches. To this end, they made them more congruent with the desired requirements of a translator’s competence, especially considering the latest paradigm shifts, including ideological skewing and localization (Tiselius & Hild, 2017). Thus, such frameworks as Angelelli’s (2009) definition of translation competence (TC), as the study’s theoretical framework, need to be improved. An attempt was made in this study to design a rubric based on the proposed TQA model representing the TC construct with its comprehensive sub-components and finally, to test its applicability to the Persian translation of The Catcher in the Rye . The assessment procedure through which the obtained results were textually analyzed based on the proposed rubric specifically for each sub-component, revealed the inadequacy of the translation quality on the whole and the underlying implications of the rubric’s applicability to other translation products.                                                                                                                                                                   

The use of task-based collaborative output activities in enhancing EFL students’ writing proficiency has been underrated in the Iranian context. To foster students’ writing ability, the present study, employing a mixed-methods design, aimed to evaluate the effect of innovative tools, dictogloss and debating, on the writing development of English-major university students in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). The study involved two experimental extracurricular classes and consisted of 11 sessions during the regular academic term. Having analyzed the writing tasks produced by the students’ performance on pre-test and post-test, the researcher found that the students of both groups significantly enhanced their writing performance, representing an increase in a number of indices of CAF measures following the intervention. More specifically, the results of a paired-samples t-test confirmed that the students in the dictogloss group showed significant improvement in six indices of CAF measure, and the students in the debate group displayed significant improvement in seven indices of CAF measures. Moreover, the results of ANCOVA confirmed that the debate group improved more than the dictogloss group in terms of CAF measures. The results of the interviews with the students regarding the role of task-based collaborative output activities in their written performance yielded several commonalities, which were coded into 11 codes for dictogloss and 16 codes for debating, taking inter-coder reliability and agreement into account. In the end, the study offers some practical implications for L2 learners and teachers.

As the use of paper-based portfolios and, more recently, ePortfolios began to attract unprecedent significance in many educational learning contexts, many researchers in the field of second and foreign language learning also begun to look more closely into their effects from diverse aspects. Nevertheless, a small number, if any, have addressed the issue from teachers and students' points of view in a comparative frame. This issue is even more noticeable in the Middle East, where portfolio learning has lately been incorporated in tertiary level studies. Hence, the present study compares students and teachers’ perception of the portfolio component of the English Foundation Program at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. Seventy eight students and nine teachers participated in the study, where students expressed their ideas through a questionnaire, the teachers were interviewed to see how they perceive the portfolio element of the course. Using a mixed method for data collection and analysis, several chi-square tests were run to see if there is any significant difference between the perceptions of students and teachers. The results show that although the students generally agreed on the usefulness of the component, the teachers believe that it has lost its meaning.

The study of lexical bundles, known as fixed phrases, chunks, clusters and multi-word expressions, has attracted considerable attention. While there has been much research on lexical bundles across different registers and a number of disciplines, their deployment in some special sections of research articles as the most high-stakes genre has not yet been well explored. Accordingly, the present study aimed at identifying 4-word lexical bundles by analyzing the data obtained from a collection of the abstract and conclusion sections of 1000 English research articles written by L1-persian and L1-English writers in AL and IT , as published between 2015 and 2019. The researchers used Antconc software to analyze the data composed of about 600,000 words; then, the functional analysis was carried out based on Hyland's (2008) framework. Overall, the analysis revealed that AL writers outweighed their IT counterparts in their use of lexical bundles. Also, L1-persian writers used more lexical bundles in the abstract section; despite this, both writers used the same number of bundles in the conclusion section. In addition, both AL and IT writers had a similar use of the three main functional categories; however, there were substantial differences and similarities in regard to these two parts of research articles. The findings of this study can help writing instructors to improve students' academic writing. They can enhance their abilities to better comprehend the role of lexical bundles in different genres and sub-genres.

This study aimed at investigating the interrelationships between EFL teachers' mindsets, self-efficacy, and emotional experiences and Iranian EFL learners' willingness to communicate (WTC) and L2 motivational self system (L2MSS). The participants of this study were 100 Iranian teachers and 501 students of the same EFL teachers, both male and female randomly selected from high schools. To fulfill the purpose of the study, teachers were asked to complete four questionnaires to measure their implicit theories of intelligence, efficacy, and emotional experiences including their burnout symptoms. Learners were required to complete two questionnaires to measure their willingness to communicate and L2 motivational self system. The results of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) revealed a significant structural relationship among all variables. Results also indicated that motivation was the strongest direct predictor of willingness to communicate. WTC was also indirectly correlated with teachers' implicit theories, efficacy, and emotional experiences through the mediating effect of L2MSS.

This study represents the findings of a systematic review (SR) of literature in the teacher professional development (TPD) domain to outline the research patterns through content examination of 199 research articles (RAs) in the area of TPD over the previous 40 years (1982 -2021). RAs were investigated and their research content areas, utilized research methods, data collection procedures, and findings were analyzed and coded. The broad investigation of the RAs showed a wide variety of themes that corresponded to 22 research areas. TPD program effects, TPD & technology, and TPD & Sociolinguistics were the most searched content areas. It was also found that the qualitative method with 52.26% of occurrences appeared to be the dominant research method used in RAs. Exploring data collection procedures, it was uncovered that interview, questionnaire and observation were the main data collection strategies utilized within the TPD RAs. Analyzing the findings, changes in teacher practices, attitudes and knowledge, learner achievements, and determining priorities for TPD programs were the most reported findings in TPD RAs. This corpus-driven SR underpins the notion that TPD makes a difference in altering teachers’ practices and attitudes and improves learner abilities if specific characteristics are taken into account in the planning and administration of TPD programs.

Teachers' decision-making and pedagogical reasoning and their improvement are key to the effectiveness of teaching. Although a number of studies have been conducted on these issues, there is still not enough information about teachers' interactive decision-making and pedagogical reasoning, and teachers also do not have the necessary skills in this area. To address this gap, the current multiple case study investigated four novice EFL teachers' decision-making and their underlying pedagogical reasoning in implementing instruction. The result of the constant comparative and categorical content analysis on the ten-session classroom observations and the transcribed stimulated recall interviews indicated common themes, including teachers' overusing of learners' L1, excessively using the deductive approach to teaching, failing to incorporate technology but using available resources in class during instruction, using whole-class or individual instructional techniques, and rarely emphasizing on learners' knowledge of the world. The targeted teachers made such decisions to perform their predetermined responsibilities, transfer the correct information, motivate learners, manage time, and help learners toward their language achievement. This study has implications for teachers to reflect on their instructional decisions and pedagogical reasoning, and for managers to provide them with opportunities for reflection.

Developing, exploring and standardizing digital game based learning for EFL and English for Specific Purposes (ESP), requires a thorough understanding of learning context, gaming elements, ludical manners, as well as features of virtual reality in a real-life and career like setting. Unlike some traditional scientific approaches that focuses only on individual systems separately as a dipped in fashion approach, digital game requires a platform for understanding game genres, games’ use and various kind of games in order to define game design characteristics, theories of learning in digital era and to expand the characteristics and patterns of CALL application combined with linguametric perspective for digital games. It is a means and umbrella term for combined framework for multidimetional advancements, research and practices from major areas of inquiry, namely applied linguistics, psychometrics, and edumetrics of inter, supra disciplinary perspectives and emotional intelligence which gives importance to this discussion and a need to implement, develop, blend and use positive features of various digital game types in a user friendly and massively online course platform worldwide.

Two of the central concepts in teaching skills are decision making and pedagogical reasoning. Taking benefit from the dearth of studies on teachers’ actual or real-world decisions, this study aimed to respond to this invitation by keeping track of novice Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ decisions in two different times using six research-oriented teaching scenarios reflecting the student and personal features. Furthermore, their pedagogical reasoning was also attended to once through their responses to imaginary teaching scenarios and once through their actual classroom decisions. The participants comprised of ten novice Iranian EFL (six female and four male) teachers with an age range of 19 to 25 and a male experienced teacher, aged 30, who acted as a researcher-as-participant and was only accountable for the novices’ real-world reasoning. The data were collected through utilizing a total of six teaching scenarios, classroom observation, and video stimulated recalls. The findings, obtained through conversation analysis and pertinent vignettes and excerpts, revealed that the participants underwent a change in their decisions in two of the three scenarios reflecting the student features, while an approximate conformity could be observed in all scenarios mirroring personal features. It was revealed that whenever the teachers’ reasoning changed, their decisions underwent some changes as well. In addition, the findings showed that the flow of conversation in the classroom could be strongly influenced by the teachers’ decisions. A number of implications and recommendations for further research are also pinpointed.