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The main goals of the study were to decipher the English language needs of dental students and to evaluate the effectiveness of the recent official English for specific purposes (ESP) book published for Iranian dental students by SAMT Publication. Accordingly, the study sought to determine whether this book has the potential to meet the specific needs of dental students. Needs analysis data were gathered by interviewing 34 ESP stakeholders from two universities of medical sciences in Iran. The interviews attempted to examine the students' language needs, lacks, and preferences. Following the needs analysis, six evaluators evaluated the coursebook based on a book evaluation form. The results obtained from the needs analysis highlighted the significance of practicing 4 language skills in addition to medical terminology.      In terms of students' language skill lacks, it was found that the majority of the students had problems in listening, speaking, vocabulary, and pronunciation. The participants also reported the learners' preferences and some drawbacks of current ESP courses with respect to learning styles and methodology. Following the book evaluation process, it was concluded that even though the book did not gain a fully satisfactory score, among a few ESP books published for Iranian dental students, this book was the most appropriate one to be used in ESP courses. However, considering some points can surely improve our future ESP books and give the material developers a better understanding of ESP materials.  

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, educational institutes around the world including Iran transitioned from the face-to-face method to an online modality to sustain education. Adapting to this abrupt transition was challenging for teachers, especially those working in remote and low-resource schools. To have a profounder understanding of Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) in rural secondary schools, in this qualitative study, the researchers explored the technological tools, teaching platforms, and assessment strategies employed by 12 Iranian English teachers during the pandemic. The analysis of the data, collected through semi-structured interviews and e-observations, revealed that the participants mostly, but not exclusively, used SHAD application as their online platform and used different technological tools for creating pedagogic content such as screen recorder, video editors, and PowerPoint. The teachers also adopted different methods for delivering teaching including flipped method, live broadcasts, pre-recorded teaching materials, voices, and images. They used Google forms, Digi forms, and video calls for evaluating the students; nevertheless, they chiefly deployed these tools for designing traditional exam types. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

In education, the terms “assessment” and “motivation” seem paradoxical. However, a closer examination of the two terms leads to the understanding that the two terms can conceptually be aligned. Assessment for Learning (AfL) and teachers’ Motivational Strategy (MotS) can be synergized using AfL pedagogical principles that purportedly foster students’ motivation. The dearth of studies juxtaposing both constructs prompted us to examine the AfL practices of seven higher-education teachers in Indonesia, with the aim of providing empirical data on the convergence between AfL and MotS. Set against the backdrop of a low-motivation context, namely the emergency remote learning and teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing, the teachers were interviewed regarding their AfL practices, and the data was examined using principally deductive qualitative analysis. The results showed that the greatest alignment occurred in the “maintain” stage of MotS, where teachers provided a supportive classroom environment where mistakes are a natural part of learning and involved students in self and peer assessment. On the other hand, the constrained context resulted in divergent conceptions in the teachers of what they perceived as motivating for the students. This implies the need for EFL writing teachers to integrate AfL and various stages of motivational strategies to lead to more engagement and help students improve their writing achievement.  

As conceptual models of language learning, use, and processing mature, it is both natural and necessary for the statistical models we apply to follow suit. One statistical approach with great potential in the field Applied Linguistics and L2 studies is structural equation modeling (SEM). SEM is introduced in this paper as a powerful and highly flexible family of analyses. In doing so, the paper outlines (a) the types of variables and possible modeled relationships that SEM is equipped to address and (b) statistical considerations for applying SEM in L2 research, and (c) a number of additional and key considerations for those interested in delving deeper into SEM (e.g., goodness of fit indices, model modification procedures, etc.). This paper also describes the potential of SEM to contribute to construct validation (e.g., convergent and discriminant validity). Throughout the paper, a plethora of examples pertaining to applications of SEM in L2 research are provided.

This study is aimed at investigating the effect of reading-based vs. discussion-based pre-writing activities on the writing ability of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, a quasi-experimental study was conducted with 40 Iranian intermediate EFL learners within16 to 20 age range who were selected based on their performance on an Oxford Solution Proficiency Test. They were divided into two experimental groups: Reading Group and Discussion Group. The former group was made to involve in some reading activity prior to doing the main writing task, and the latter group was made to participate in a discussion activity before the main writing task. After the treatment for 10 sessions, both groups were post-tested. The findings indicated that both groups’ writing ability improved over the course of the study, but the difference between the performances of the groups on the post-test was not statistically significant, although the Reading group’s mean score was greater than the Discussion group. The results of this study have some implications for students, language teachers, syllabus designers and material developers.

This study sought to determine the impact of self-regulation and emotional labor on reflective action among Iranian EFL teachers in online EFL classes using structural equation modeling. To achieve this, a combination of cluster sampling and stratified random sampling of 500 people was recruited. The participants were administered with the English version of Dutch questionnaire of emotional labor, Teacher Self-Regulation Scale and Teaching Reflection Inventory. After collecting data using three distinct questionnaires pertaining to latent variables, SEM analysis was conducted using IMB SPSS version 28.0 and Amos version 24.0 to analyze the path model relationships. To this end, a hypnotical model was proposed, evaluated, and specified to fit the data. The confirmatory factor analysis was employed to assess the hypothetical model by employing goodness of fit indices and analyzing all the convergences between the latent variables and the related sub-scales. According to the criteria for a good model's fitness, all of the model's values are above 0.90, indicating that the model has good fitness. And it was concluded that there was statistically significant relationships between the variables of the study.

 Juxtaposing the ubiquitous facets of mobile technology as everyware (Greenfield, 2010) and vocabulary as one of the most axial aspects of language learning (Bowles & Cogo, 2016; Schmitt & Schmitt, 2020) , besides the importance of considering learners’ attributes and needs (Taghizadeh, 2019) while developing a mobile vocabulary application (app), necessitates analyzing the relationship and impact of all these elements in a single structural model. To tackle the issue, first, via a mixed-methods design, the researcher developed a bespoke mobile application using the task model and the principles of agile methodology. and then investigated the impact of using the app on a sample of 62 Iranian EFL university students’ vocabulary recognition and recall, the results of which were published in two other articles. In this study, the researcher integrated the obtained data within a proposed structural model and assessed the model's fitness to investigate the interaction and interrelationship among the latent variables mentioned above. The results obtained from SEM-PLS analyses revealed that within the unified structural model, the learners’ preferences and needs were favorably influenced by their learning style orientation and technology savviness. Similarly, the findings verified the positive impact of considering learners’ preferences and needs during the agile app development lifecycle on the target participants’ vocabulary knowledge, encompassing vocabulary recognition and recall. Finally, the fitness of the proposed structural model was verified based on the criteria for model assessment mentioned by Sparks and Alamer (2022) . The SEM-PLS data analyses and the implications of the study are presented and discussed.

To date, with the everyday growth of technology and the increase of online classes, busy modern teachers seek to lighten their burdens and boost their learners’ autonomy. Thus, this multi-method action research aimed to probe the differences between receiving computer-generated and direct corrective feedback (CF) on the syntactic accuracy and complexity of female adolescent Iranian EFL learners’ writing. Two intact classes took part in the study; one group (Group C) received CF from an AWE (Automated Writing Evaluation) tool, called Ginger software, and the other group (Group T) received CF from their teacher. Subject-verb agreement and verb form errors were considered to measure the syntactic accuracy while the average sentence length and verb form variation were regarded as the syntactic complexity. Moreover, via a questionnaire, the students’ perceptions of the kind of CF they had received were taken into account to see which one was more effective. Findings obtained from MANOVA revealed that both groups made significant improvements regarding syntactic accuracy. Group C produced more complex outputs after being exposed to the treatment while Group T didn’t make such progress. The results obtained from the questionnaire also indicated that both groups found the CF satisfactory. However, Group C held more positive attitudes. Not only was the Ginger application effective in decreasing the number of students’ writing errors but also it motivated them to be better writers and write more. The study further points to the likely merits of technology-enhanced feedback in improving EFL learners' writing ability in general, and their written syntactic accuracy/complexity in particular.

The current study primarily explored the link between EAP students’ L2 situational interest (SI) and academic reading transformative engagement (TE). Moreover, it explored SI and its subcomponents, triggered SI and maintained SI as predictors of TE. We also sought the role of different disciplines as moderators of the relationship between SI and TE. Finally, we investigated the big five personality traits as predictors of TE. The participants of this study were 160 undergraduate EAP students recruited through quota sampling. A quantitative research method with a correlational design was employed to conduct the study. Two questionnaires were adopted to measure academic reading TE and personality traits, and a questionnaire was adapted from math SI to English learning SI to assess the students’ L2 SI. The results revealed a significant and positive relationship between students’ L2 SI and their academic reading TE. SI significantly predicted TE, and between its subcomponents, only maintained SI strongly and significantly predicted TE. Neither the difference between the disciplinary groups in terms of students’ TE nor the interaction of the comparative disciplinary groups by SI was significant. The result indicated the agreeableness trait as the sole predictor of TE. Our findings have fruitful pedagogical implications discussed in the conclusion section.