مهدی حاصلی سنقری

Purpose: Despite the importance of university students' academic engagement and the role of academic support in facilitating their success, there appears to be a dearth of research investigating the mediating effect of psychological capital in this relationship, highlighting a significant gap in the existing literature. Methodology: This research was quantitative on the basis of the natural and general features and employed a descriptive-correlational approach based on the structural equation model (SEM). The statistical population of the research included all undergraduate students of Farhangian University of Kerman, approximately 2100 students. Out of this statistical population, 677 participants responded to the online survey. The sampling method was convenience sampling and the data was collected in the first semester of the academic year 1401-1402 (From Aban to Azar). Sands and Plunkett’s (2005) academic support scale, Reeve and Tseng’s (2011) academic engagement scale, and Luthans and Avolio’s (2007) psychological capital scale were used to gather data. The statistical analyses were conducted with SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the validity of the scales used in the Iranian tertiary context. Correlational results indicated that the relationships among main research variables were significant. Findings: Structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated that psychological capital mediated the linkage between academic support and academic engagement (β = 0.58, p < 0.01). The results also revealed that academic support (β = 0.69, p < 0.01) and psychological capital (β = 0.39, p < 0.01) were predictive of university students’ academic engagement. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated that providing academic support has the potential to influence students' psychological capital, resulting in their active engagement and participation in educational and learning endeavors. The limitations of this study and the future directions will be discussed.

In an attempt to profile the effect of two methods of teaching Second Language (L2) idioms, Etymological vs. Literal, a group of English Language learners (n= 14) were selected to participate in this study. It was a within-subjects study and the chosen idioms were taught in 6 sessions regarding the two methods to the same group (each method in three sessions). In the first three sessions, 30 idioms were taught literally. In the next three sessions, 30 other idioms were taught etymologically. Then, their post-tests were performed immediately after instruction. Finally, a delayed posttest was conducted after one-week interval to find out the amount of retention of idioms’ constituents. The results indicated no significant effect in the retention and later production of L2 idioms and their constituents in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. Following either of these methods regarding time and goals of instruction can be considered as an implication of this study.