محمدرضا خدادوست

The present study examined the comparability of Paper-Based (PB) and Computer-Delivered (CD) IELTS in the academic module reading section, focusing on Iranian IELTS candidates' cognitive and metacognitive strategies. The study intended to determine if the delivery mode had any impact on the use of these strategies. To this aim, 200 upper-intermediate learners were randomly selected and divided into two groups to participate in the study under the two aforementioned test conditions. They completed a test-taking strategy survey under both test conditions. Moreover, five participants from each test condition group took part in think-aloud protocols. The quantitative data were analyzed by means of Independent-sample t-test and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) to test the research hypotheses. Content analysis of the think-aloud protocols was also conducted to identify the strategies employed by the IELTS candidates in both PB and CD formats. The results revealed that the PB group had a significantly higher mean than the CD group on the cognitive and metacognitive processes used in academic IELTS. However, the think-aloud protocols indicated that, in many cases, these differences were minimal, with cognitive and metacognitive processes being similarly employed across both formats. Moreover, significant differences were observed between the PB and CD groups in their reading test-taking strategies. The implications of these findings for test preparation and design are discussed.

The present study examined the comparability of Paper-Based (PB) and Computer-Delivered (CD) IELTS in the academic module reading section, focusing on Iranian IELTS candidates' cognitive and metacognitive strategies. The study intended to determine if the delivery mode had any impact on the use of these strategies. To this aim, 200 upper-intermediate learners were randomly selected and divided into two groups to participate in the study under the two aforementioned test conditions. They completed a test-taking strategy survey under both test conditions. Moreover, five participants from each test condition group took part in think-aloud protocols. The quantitative data were analyzed by means of Independent-sample t-test and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) to test the research hypotheses. Content analysis of the think-aloud protocols was also conducted to identify the strategies employed by the IELTS candidates in both PB and CD formats. The results revealed that the PB group had a significantly higher mean than the CD group on the cognitive and metacognitive processes used in academic IELTS. However, the think-aloud protocols indicated that, in many cases, these differences were minimal, with cognitive and metacognitive processes being similarly employed across both formats. Moreover, significant differences were observed between the PB and CD groups in their reading test-taking strategies. The implications of these findings for test preparation and design are discussed.

The choice of terms of address is a typical instance representing the relational aspect of language. People address and are addressed in diverse ways in their everyday lives. Their reciprocal use of terms of address hinges upon a number of factors including power, affect, distance as well as degree of intimacy. Moreover, the use of a variety of words in different settings is a true measure indicating whether the interlocutors have crossed the borders of socially accepted and appropriate language or not. The present study focuses on the dialogues of the play entitled "Death of a Salesman" in the framework of Brown, Levinson, and Wardhaugh's theories on politeness, taboo words, and power relations. A careful  sociolinguistic examination of  the discourse features  of some samples of the play  indicated that different factors influence the exercise of power, observing politeness, and the use of taboo words by people in their everyday interactions via verbal and non-verbal language.

As the most basic means of instruction and learning, textbooks play a pivotal role in teaching any language since they provide a dependable source of language input for learners. However, with the wide array of textbooks available in the market, opting for the textbooks suiting the peculiar educational parameters of different settings, seems to be a cumbersome task; therefore, to gain greater educational outcomes, to save time, and to incur less costs on learning, logical selection of textbooks through scientifically sound principles seems to be a sensible strategy. The present study utilized an a priori evaluation of the widely-used Pre-intermediate Three (Pre3) textbook of Iran Language Institute (ILI) by using two textbook evaluation schemes by Grant and Demir and Ertas. The results indicated that, despite the numerous merits of the mentioned textbook, including the active role of the learners in completing the tasks, it has got a rather traditional view of the learners’ roles, and one-way teacher-student interaction predominates at the expense of invaluable group and team interaction. Moreover, the written mode of input outweighs the oral one and with its over-emphasis on forms instruction, it prescribes structures for use by learners. Some revisions, are, finally, proposed to make the book more suitable for the Digi-minded learners today.

This study attempted to determine the effect of background music while silent reading on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. The participants were 57 Iranian EFL learners between the ages of 14 and 16 in two 3rd grade high schoolclasses at pre-intermediate proficiency level. Before treatment,both experimental and control groups took a reading comprehension pretest. In the experimental group, the researchers played Mozart sonatas as background music and asked them to read the passage silently and then answer the reading comprehension questions. In the control group, the procedure was the same, but no music was played while silent reading by the students. After ten sessions, the students of both groups were asked to answer another independent but parallel form of reading section of PET as their post-test. The independent samples t-testresultsindicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group in reading comprehension posttest, and listening to background music while silent reading had a significantly positive effect on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. The results of the present study have implications for EFL students, teachers, and teacher educators as well as syllabus designers and materials developers.

Aiming at highlighting the important role of print media discourse in the implicit transfer of the dominant ideology of discourse context, the present data-driven paper demonstrates how the lexical features of repetition and synonymy as well as the structural and thematic features of passivization, nominalization and predicated theme were utilized by the discourse producers to mediate between their own underlying ideology and the target readers' understanding of the events of September 11, 2001. Through a comparative statistical analysis of the print media discourse of the data for the study written in two ideologically opposing contexts of Syria and America, we have tried to explicate how the discourse producers utilized various lexical and thematic strategies to produce different impressions of the event and implicitly impose the underlying ideology on the readers.

With the purpose of examining the sources of spelling errors of Iranian school level EFL learners, the present researchers analyzed the dictation samples of 51 Iranian senior and junior high school male and female students majoring at an Iranian school in Baku, Azerbaijan. The content analysis of the data revealed three main sources (intralingual, interlingual, and unique) with seven patterns of errors. The frequency of intralingual errors far outnumbers that of interlingual errors. Unique errors were even less. Therefore, in-service training programs may include some instruction on raising the teachers’ awareness of the different sources of errors to focus on during the teaching program.