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This article performs a CDA on White House press briefings and is especial in its focus on how gendered language impacts relations of power. Adopting a mixed-method approach, this study will examine linguistic strategies and deictic expressions used by male and female spokespersons articulating ideologies and constructing authority. The latter is based on Fairclough's three-dimensional CDA model, whereby text analysis is involved, together with discourse practices and social context in explaining how language reflects and constructs political realities. The research questions were as follows: (1) How are deictic expressions used by spokesmen and spokeswomen in the White House press briefings? (2) What is the inter-relationship between power and language through the usage of modal verbs, and is there a gender-based difference herein? (3) How do women spokespersons, through language, claim ideologies and power? It is a contribution to applied linguistics and presents evidence of subtle linguistic mechanisms that shape public perception of gendered language in political discourse. The research questions were as follows: (1) How are deictic expressions used by spokesmen and spokeswomen in the White House press briefings? (2) What is the inter-relationship between power and language through the usage of modal verbs, and is there a gender-based difference herein? (3) How do women spokespersons, through language, claim ideologies and power? It is a contribution to applied linguistics and presents evidence of subtle linguistic mechanisms that shape public perception of gendered language in political discourse.

The application of comprehension skills as a general cognitive ability has long been discussed in the literature on second language reading comprehension. To trace second language reading comprehension difficulties back to the text or reader attributes, the present study investigates the optimum load of linguistic and non-linguistic components of second language reading ability. The study followed a quantitative method of research, and the data were collected on the performance of 164 Iranian foreign language learners with different educational backgrounds. A group of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) experts provided feedback on the specifications of the sample test items based on the Comprehensive Taxonomy of Reading Sub-skills (CTRS) derived from major taxonomies in the literature. Applying exploratory factor analysis and correlational computations, the results revealed that although the items were all convergent to measure the same latent construct, items aimed at measuring general cognitive comprehension skills had more contribution to the overall test scores. Teachers at both language institutes and ministry of education, test developing organizations, and students who seek to gain more success in reading comprehension examinations can benefit from this study feedback.

This study examined the possible effects of orthographic/phonologic priming techniques on the receptive language skills of Iranian EFL learners with different proficiency levels. From an initial pool of 700 EFL learners from a language learning institute, two hundred and seventy learners from both genders were selected based on their performance on an English proficiency test and classified into six experimental and three control groups. After gaining certitude about the participants’ English proficiency levels, the semantic and orthographic/phonologic priming phase was conducted, and consequently, the participants’ contextualized comprehension of the primed words was assessed via a set of reading and listening comprehension tasks. The performances of the participants on the designed tasks indicated that semantic primes were more efficient for improving both comprehension skills compared with the orthographic-phonologic primes. Moreover, based on the results, language proficiency affected the success of the primes on both reading and listening comprehension tasks; advanced learners showed a greater improvement than the beginners and the intermediates under the influence of the priming techniques. Orthographic-phonologic primes were found to be more efficient for beginners, whereas the advanced learners showed an enhanced performance with regard to semantic primes. Overall, semantic primes showed more facilitative effects across various comprehension tasks due to their activation of deeper cognitive processing. Orthographic-phonologic primes were also successful. However, they were more efficient in the early stages of language learning, where visual recognition played a more critical role.

With the emergence of new online technologies and computer-mediated language teaching, many recent studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of online peer assessment. The present mixed methods study examined the effect of online peer assessment on Iranian intermediate-level EFL students` writing accuracy. In the quantitative phase of the study, 28 EFL learners studying in an English institute were randomly assigned to two groups and were taught for 14 sessions. The experimental group attended online peer assessment on Wiki as a forum for out-of-classroom discussions regarding English writing, and the control group attended face-to-face peer assessment. To analyze the numerical data collected through a pretest and a posttest, an independent sample t-test was used to investigate the difference between the two group scores before and after the assessments. The results showed that the difference between the posttest means of the experimental group and the control group was significant. Moreover, the results of analyzing the qualitative data, gathered through focus-group interviews, also confirmed the quantitative results, revealing the positive opinions of the interviewees about the role of technology in language learning. Therefore, online peer assessment seems to have benefits that make it worthwhile despite all the difficulties and extra effort of introducing and teaching it to students. The findings may have implications for material designers, language teachers, and language learners.

Classroom management is a key component of teachers' professional competent for promoting learning. This study investigated teachers' classroom management strategies in responding to Iranian EFL learners' misbehaviours in terms of teachers' biological factors including age and gender. The participants of the study were 75 (41 females and 34 males) teachers at universities and in language institutes of Fars Province, Iran. The study enjoyed a descriptive design using two sets of instruments encompassing a Five Likert-scale questionnaire and a semi-structured interview for collecting the data. The questionnaire determined teachers' classroom management strategies and the interview collected their opinions regarding classroom management. To analyze the data, one-way ANOVA and an independent sample t-test were run. The findings indicated that teachers' age and gender had significant effects on the types of strategies that they used when they faced misbehaviour. The findings also revealed that male teachers significantly used the strategies such as verbal warning, and female teachers removing the student from the class. The age groups were different in terms of using two strategies namely reward student with free time or activities and lower students' grade. The findings could have implication for curriculum designers, EFL teachers, and policymakers because it could enhance their skills in better management of learners' misbehaviours.

Perceptions have absorbed scholarly scrutiny within the domain of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) due to their potential to significantly impact learning behaviors. Hence, this study investigated female English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ and learners’ attitudes toward patterns of Corrective Feedback (CF) and Collaborative Writing (CW). This study involved 150 EFL female learners aged between 14 and 20 along with 40 EFL female instructors at Iran Language Institute (ILI) in Urmia, Iran. The learners filled out the adapted version of Loewen et al.’s (2009) CF scale that encompassed 24 items. Additionally, a CF questionnaire, developed by the researcher, was administered to the teachers that comprised of 14 items. Furthermore, a CW questionnaire adapted from Aghazadeh et al. (2022) involving 8 items were administered among the learners and the teachers. To supplement the quantitative data at the end of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants. The outcomes demonstrated that both teachers and learners had a positive attitude toward CF and CW. The theoretical and practical implications of the study were accordingly discussed.

This study examined the comparative effects of online and offline blended teaching on EFL learners’ listening comprehension. Based on quasi-experimental design, this study engaged an experimental (No=30) and control group (No=30), each receiving two different types of treatment. For the experimental group, the teacher taught English listening activities using a mixture of online and offline mode, while the for the control group the teacher offered face-to-face offline mode treatment of listening. Independent sample t-tests and paired samples tests results showed a significant positive effect of blended learning on the participants’ listening skills such that the experimental group improved their listening comprehension more than the control group This is justified on the grounds that online learning with more accessibility, relatively low cost, time efficient, and suitably combined with offline learning can offer self-paced instruction for learners whereby they self-manage their learning and progress at their own convenience.

This case study examines the influence of students’ motivation on their EFL performance to identify motivational factors and as a result, it was created a proposal for increasing their motivation. The population selected was 126 first-semester students and 5 professors in charge of the EFL process at a private university in Colombia, Bogotá in the first and second semesters of 2023. Moreover, the methodology used was qualitative with a social constructivist worldview to research based on students' and professors’ perceptions. That way, the collected results show that most students’ extrinsic motivation causes their low EFL level when entering the program as students may be goal-oriented and short-term sustained, which can contribute to dropping out of the program. Therefore, it is recommended that professors take action to increase students’ motivation by teaching students relevant topics, exposing the benefits of learning EFL, encouraging them to be self-directed students, promoting a safe environment, making them use e-learning tools and using gamified assessment/activity tools so that students can improve their academic performance.