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Blended learning (BL) is being increasingly utilized in teaching and learning languages, therefore, carrying out this study in view of the lack of studies on BL within the Iranian EFL context is very significant. The study conducted at the English Department of Karaj Islamic Azad University provides valuable insights into how instructors and learners perceive the interplay between blended, online, and face-to-face (F2F) instructions. A mixed methods design has been applied to the study. 410 learners, studying English translation, and 46 university instructors responded to a Likert-type questionnaire and an open-ended one and 10 of them were interviewed. The findings revealed that, by incorporating both traditional classroom instruction and online learning tools, students can benefit from a more personalized and interactive learning experience. This approach can also help educators adapt their teaching methods to better meet the needs of diverse learners. In terms of educational policies, there may be a need for increased support and resources for implementing BL modules in language education. Additionally, language teaching programs may need to be revised to include more digital resources and tools to enhance language learning outcomes. Overall, the integration of BL in language classes can lead to more effective and engaging language education practices.

This study investigated the effectiveness of two different scopes of corrective feedback on enhancing the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of L2 written productions among 150 intermediate EFL learners participating in intact online courses. The corrective feedback scope includes highly focused and comprehensive feedback delivered via digital platforms in synchronous and asynchronous formats. Participants were divided into five groups: synchronous highly focused feedback, synchronous comprehensive feedback, asynchronous highly focused feedback, asynchronous comprehensive feedback, and a control group receiving corrective feedback via traditional methods, characterized by the indiscriminate identification and marking of all errors. Results across the feedback groups regarding their impact on complexity, accuracy, and fluency in EFL learners' written productions indicated a significant effect on accuracy, while complexity and fluency showed no significant differences based on feedback scope and delivery modality. The results of this study have several important implications for educators, material developers, and policymakers in the field of language education. For teachers, adopting synchronous feedback strategies could significantly enhance the accuracy and complexity of students' written work.

Advocating the inclusion of neurocognitive science concepts in English language teacher training curriculum is gaining more interest. However, little is known about the prospective teachers' perceptions of neurocognitive science core concepts. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the prospective ELT teachers' perceptions of the neurocognitive core concepts and the applications of them through the lens of four neuro-educational models in the classroom practices. Fifteen prospective Iranian ELT teachers were interviewed and the data were analyzed using the phenomenological method. The findings revealed that the prospective ELT teachers lacked a clear understanding of the neurocognitive concepts and their implications in classroom practices. The findings support the inclusion of neurocognitive science core concepts training in language teachers' professional development.

This study aimed to explore Iranian EFL teachers' perceptions of Critical Pedagogy (CP) and their classroom practices. For this purpose, a total of 22 EFL teachers were selected through convenience sampling and participated in an online semi-structured written interview. A sub-group of them also took part in a phone interview. Textual data were analyzed using grounded theory coding types, including open, axial, and selective coding, with MAXQDA software (Version 2020). The findings revealed two broad themes: raising students' critical consciousness and learner-centered pedagogy for CP definition, and communicative tasks and learner-centered activities for CP classroom practices. Additionally, the dominant barriers to the implementation of CP in the Iranian EFL context were identified as the top-down educational system, teachers' variables, and practical barriers.

In recent years, technology-mediated collaborative writing has received great attention in the research literature. The purpose of the present study is to compare the effects of online collaborative writing using Google Docs and individual writing in a face-to-face conventional classroom on the writing performance of Iranian EFL learners. To this aim, a sample of 32 homogeneous intermediate learners was selected as the study's participants. They were then randomly divided into an experimental group (N = 16) and a control group (N = 16). Then, the experimental group participants performed online collaborative writing using Google Docs while the control group fulfilled individual papers in the face-to-face classroom. Two writing tasks by the students were employed to gather the data. Later, data were analyzed through paired-sample t-tests to investigate differences in writing in each group. Finally, ANCOVA was used to investigate the difference in writing performance between the two groups. This study added further insights concerning the contribution of Google Docs in technological research in technology-mediated collaborative writing and provided some pertinent pedagogical implications

House wives hold a specific position at home, as it is known to everyone. This study aimed at investigating the effect of virtual English language teaching on Iranian house wives’ emotional regulation, anger control, and domestic violence. In so doing, a quasi-experimental pre-test post-test control group design was used. The target population of this study included all Iranian house wives. From the population, about 60 Iranian house wives from different cities of Iran were selected through available sampling. The participants were randomly divided into two groups namely, the experimental and control groups. The required data were collected through the following instruments: The Persian version of Anger Control Questionnaire, developed and validated by Buss and Perry (1992); the Domestic Violence against Women, developed and validated by Mohseni Tabrizi et al. (2011) in Persian; and the Persian version of the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (Garnefski et al., 2003). The findings confirmed a significantly positive impact of virtual English language teaching on Iranian House wives’ emotional regulation, anger control and domestic violence. The findings have implications for top-level educational authorities, social emergency administrators, and future researchers.

This study intended to unveil the impact of incorporation of positive psychology theory into English instructions on the preference for anxiety-reducing strategies among Iranian EFL learners. The participants consisted of 60 EFL learners, from Safir Institute, Tehran, Iran, at the intermediate level, who were selected out of 90 EFL learners selected on convenience sampling basis. The 60 learners selected on the basis of their scores from an Oxford Placement Test (OPT), given to the 90 learners, were split into two equal 30-member groups. Both groups were given the language anxiety reducing strategies (LARS) questionnaire as pretest. Then, positive psychology-based instructions were provided to the experimental group drawing on five types of positive psychology-based instruction techniques for 20 sessions. These five instruction techniques included gratitude, optimistic intervention, positive affirmations, savouring, and strength-building measures. The control group received no intervention concerning positive psychology, and learners followed the conventional syllabus of the language school. After the treatment, the two groups took the LARS questionnaire as post-test. The results of ANCOVA indicated that teaching positive psychology techniques significantly increased anxiety-reducing strategies preference among Iranian EFL learners.

Incremental intelligence plays an important role in self-regulating and enhancing writing performance among language learners. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship among variables of the incremental theory of intelligence, self-regulatory writing strategies, implicit theory of writing, and writing performance in EFL learners. To do so, 320 Iranian IELTS candidates were invited to participate in the study. Three questionnaires, namely incremental intelligence, self-regulatory writing strategy, and implicit theory of writing, were utilized. The participants included male and female IELTS candidates aged 19-27 years with a minimum band score of 6.5 in their writing skill. Furthermore, their educational qualifications included BA and MA degrees. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and structural equation modeling (SEM). The correlation analysis showed that the incremental theory of intelligence had a significant relationship with self-regulatory writing strategy, implicit theory of writing, and writing performance. Moreover, the obtained results of SEM confirmed the findings of the correlational analysis, indicating statistically significant positive correlations among the variables of the study. The findings revealed that a growth-oriented mindset could affect students’ use of four types of self-regulatory writing strategies. Self-regulatory writing strategies also played a pivotal role in guiding, stimulating, motivating, and sustaining learners’ efforts, thus predicting writing performance. The results of this study can help EFL learners learn how to regulate and manage themselves in writing skills. Learners can assess the extent of their professionalism and endeavor to identify their weaknesses in the learning process.

ChatGPT-assisted language instruction is gathering irresistible momentum in today’s fast-moving, AI-governed world of educational enterprises. The current scoping review article sought to analyze and synthesize the existing literature on the complementary use of ChatGPT in second/foreign language (L2/FL) education and pedagogy. Aligned with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA‑ScR), the study adopted a systematic approach to evidential data search and analysis. A total of 28 peer-reviewed articles retrieved from well-established databases, such as Scopus and Web of Science (WoS), were reviewed to map the scope and consequences of the growing body of literature on using ChatGPT as an L2/FL learning/teaching tool. Centering around five predetermined variables, including setting, design, focus area, objective, and concluding remarks, the content or thematic analysis results helped to shape a clear picture of the literature under review. The literature-derived evidential data also referred to the fruits of ChatGPT-assisted instruction under three distinct headings: learning outcomes, pedagogical outcomes, and cognitive-affective impetus for language learning and teaching. The review results also revealed the repercussions of the instruction mainly concerned with ethical and technical concerns. Given the immature but fast-paced nature of the literature on the instructional model, this early attempt, though provided a brief sketch of the research scope and chief outcomes of the model, needs to be complemented with future systematic reviews to fully unlock the potential of language pedagogy well suited to the demands of today’s technology-governed education.

The rapid development of technology and its impact on the creation of images have made it essential to provide students with digital visual literacy (DVL) practices to help them explore and understand the images. More importantly, images have valuable connections to language learning and hold the potential for teaching English effectively. Accordingly, the present study investigated the impact of the DVL-integrated instructions in an English-speaking course on EFL learners' speaking proficiency. The Digital Image Guide (DIG) method was conducted for the DVL instructions. A total of 18 female Iranian EFL learners aged 18-27 from a national university participated in the study, undergoing ten instructional sessions. Various components, such as visual elements in several images, flyers, brochures, memes, and book covers, were introduced to the learners throughout the treatment phase. Using mixed-methods research, quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The quantitative phase employed a pretest-posttest one-group design, and data was collected through the speaking section of the Cambridge English Qualification Test. The qualitative phase collected data on the learners' attitudes toward the course. The data were analyzed using SPSS and content analysis. The findings of a paired-sample t-test examining oral proficiency test data revealed the effectiveness of the course on the speaking proficiency of the learners. The analysis of the interview data revealed that the students held positive attitudes toward the course and the instructions. The findings of this study demonstrated that teaching digital visual literacy through the Digital Visual Literacy (DVL) approach and Digital Image Guide (DIG) Method could help learners with their speaking proficiency.

There is research paucity concerning EFL learners’ self-formation, taking the role of IELTS writing skills into account. With a view to this, the present study aimed to see what a model of possible self-construction before and after training on IELTS writing skills emerges and what the psychometric properties of the emerged model are. To this end, a grounded theory approach was used. Of the IELTS candidates taking part in five IELTS preparation centers in Kerman, 90 (55 males and 35 females) candidates were selected as the participants of the present study through cluster sampling. A semi-structured interview was used to identify the possible selfof the participants. Coding procedures (i.e., open, axial, and selective coding) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data. According to the results, a model of possible selfconstruction before and after training on IELTS writing skills emerged wherein before training on IELTS writing skills, feared possible selfwere more dominant than expected and responsible possible selves. Furthermore, after training on IELTS writing skills, expected and responsible possible selfwere constructed more dominantly than feared possible selves. Implications of the results for EFL curriculum planners, teachers, and learners have been discussed.

A sustained, school-based approach that offers in-service EFL teachers opportunities for collaboration in creating an environment that promotes their capacity-building and instructional growth is necessary for their professional growth. This study aimed to contribute to the growing body of research on the effect of distributed leadership in teacher professional learning. Specifically, this study scrutinized the connection between distributed leadership and professional learning of teachers, focusing on the mediating role of teacher agency. A cross-sectional survey design was applied, collecting data from 458 teachers in Iran. Teacher Professional Learning Scale, Teacher Agency Scale, and Distributed Leadership Scale were completed by them. Structural equation modelling was run to analyze the relationship between variables. The findings revealed a minimal direct relationship between distributed leadership and the professional learning of teachers, with teacher agency acting as a major mediating factor. These results contribute to existing research by suggesting that distributed leadership may not have a substantial direct effect on teacher learning, but rather indirectly improves teacher agency.

Mounting attention has recently been paid to authorial stance in academic writing due to its important role in the interpersonal aspect of writing, encompassing the ways in which authors establish connections, convey attitudes, and engage with an audience. This study was an attempt to explore how native and non-native authors of Applied Linguistics deploy linguistic features to project their authorial stance. To this end, a corpus of 100 research articles authored by native and non-native researchers was collected from journals in the field of ELT. Hyland's Interpersonal Model of Metadiscourse (2005) was employed to differentiate the features produced and figure out how authors navigate the complexities of expressing their meaning while considering the ELT community expectations, and SPSS was used to analyze the data. Based on the results, the proportion of interactive resources was found to surpass that of interactional resources in both native and non-native writings, with transitions being the leading feature, followed by evidentials; and regarding the interactional resources, boosters, and hedges were the most dominant features employed by native and non-native authors, respectively. Overall, no tendency was found towards textuality through which authors consider the target audience (engagement markers), signal their confidence through the portrayal of authors' feelings (attitude markers), and take credit for their findings (self-mentions) throughout the whole corpus, particularly non-native writings. It seems that writing courses offered in non-native contexts require improvements to meet the standards of academic writing. Therefore, the study has important implications for both non-native and novice researchers and course designers.