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Appraisal theory has provided researchers with a powerful analytical tool to explore how language users express their feelings, attitude and judgments in texts. The present study was conducted to explore the use of appraisals in Persian recounts with a focus on the attitude subsystem. Forty-eight online recounts were selected (22 female writers and 26 male writers). The analysis was conducted two times at a one-week interval using the UAM corpus tool software. The results indicated that women generally used more attitude resources in their recounts compared to men and they also used more affect than men, both men and women encoded their evaluation more explicitly rather than implicitly, and in both types of recounts, attitude subsystems appeared in a special order in terms of frequency. In conclusion, predominant use of attitude in Persian recounts can be considered as evidence of effectiveness and applicability of the appraisal theory.

Using Critical Digital Pedagogy (CDP) acknowledges the recent advancements in technology in the field of education. As teachers should effectively deal with the needs of students with the help of educational technologies to increase their critical awareness, the level of digital literacy of Iranian teachers is not desirable and naturally teacher training in Iran should be in line with the latest changes in the world, this qualitative study aimed to find out how ELT experts perceive the CP technology-based EFL teacher preparation program in the Iranian context as part of a basic interpretative project. Thirty ELT experts with a Ph.D. in TEFL were selected through convenience sampling among experienced university professors who had relevant research expertise in the field. Consulting the related literature, the researcher developed a semi-structured interview in approximately three open-ended questions. The results analyzed by MAXQDA showed that perceptions of ELT experts were consistent with CP assumptions and the use of technology in education. The interpretation of the findings indicates a reconciliation between CP principles and technology. Participants perceived the valuable concepts of CP in light of technology used to shape a technology-based CP curriculum. Findings have implications for EFL teacher education administrators, curriculum planners, and educators. 

The current study adopted a qualitative-quantitative design to compare the effects of output-based production (OBP) and input enhancement (IE) as two teaching techniques on a group of EFL learners’ writing and also to seek those learners’ perceptions on the two instruction procedures. Accordingly, 65 intermediate learners were selected through convenience nonrandom sampling from among 94 students in intact classes based on their performance on a sample proficiency test (the test had already been piloted among 30 learners). These 65 learners were subsequently divided into two groups consisting of 33 learners in the OBP group and 32 in the IE group. The researchers also made sure that the learners in both groups were homogeneous in terms of their writing prior to the treatment. Next, the treatment in both groups commenced. Once the treatment was over, the researchers gave both groups the same writing posttest. The results of the statistical analysis indicated that the IE group outperformed the OBP group significantly in their writing. The participants further sat for a semi-structured interview comprising five questions about their perception regarding both instructions which demonstrated that the IE group was generally more satisfied with the course than the OBP group. The findings of this study suggest more attention to the incorporation of IE in both English language schools and pre- and in-service teacher training programs.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate speech acts performed by Iranian EFL learners on the social network of Facebook in their interaction with their teacher and with their peers in response to divergent and evaluative questions. A page was constructed for the students in order to provide the opportunity for their answering divergent and evaluative questions posed by the researchers. A total of 240 comments including 1680 speech acts were collected from five EFL students during an academic semester. Content analysis of the collected data revealed that participants primarily used expressive speech acts in response to divergent questions and directive speech acts in response to evaluative questions. The results also revealed differences in using emoticons regarding the difference in power relations between the teacher and students. Further findings and implications are discussed in the paper.

The present study investigated the impact of learning styles on EFL learners’ reading comprehension skills improvement and self-efficacy perceptions. To this end, 60 intermediate male/female EFL learners at Pasargad Language Center in Langarud, Iran with the age range from 14 to 20 were selected based on the results of Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency. Next, they were randomly divided into two groups of 30. Then, the participants in both groups sat for a pretest of the English reading comprehension test, and answered the English proficiency background form, self-efficacy scale, and Maggie McVay Lynch learning style inventory. Next, the experimental group received learning-style-based activities, while the control group continued to work in the traditional way, with no regard for learning styles. Finally, the English reading comprehension test and self-efficacy scale were administered to both groups as posttests. The results of the study revealed that students’ learning style preferences have significant effects on their reading comprehension skills and English self-efficacy perceptions. The results also indicated that there is a statistically significant difference in the post-test scores between the control and experimental groups. That is, the experimental group performed better than the control group in the post-test of reading comprehension skills and English self-efficacy perceptions, and the progress in the experimental group was more than the control group. The findings of the present study can encourage teachers to use learning style preferences in English language teaching to help EFL learners increase their level of reading comprehension skills and self-efficacy perceptions.

Self-efficacy, which is known as the teachers’ self-perception of their competence and abilities in doing specific tasks, has attracted considerable attention in teacher education. It is seen as the teacher’s belief in achieving specific outcomes for students in their teaching practices, but the main sources of EFL teachers’ self-efficacy have not been systematically explored in a single study.  Therefore, this study set out to present a systematic review of the studies on EFL teachers’ self-efficacy. To this aim, a meta-analysis approach was employed to systematically review closely related papers from Elsevier, Google Scholar, and ERIC. The articles examined the sources of self-efficacy in a different context. Through precise screening, 13 papers were found to be eligible enough to be included in this study. Findings revealed that ‘Mastery Experiences’, ‘Vicarious Experiences’, ‘Social Persuasion and Support’,                                 ‘Emotional and Physiological States’, ‘Language Proficiency’, ‘Intelligence’, ‘Teaching skills and experience’, ‘pre-service training courses’, and ‘professional development activities’ are the main sources of self-efficacy. The findings could be theoretically and practically significant to EFL teachers, teacher trainers, and researchers interested in teacher education.

This study examines the occurrence of increments in three languages (Nigerian English, Yoruba, and Pidgin) in the medical context in Nigeria with the aim to give a functional classification to increments built upon the conceptual and structural description in the literature. This is a step further from reflecting the manifestation of increments in the monotypic context of mundane interactions to an investigation of the phenomenon in an institutional context. Fifty audio-taped recordings of naturally occurring conversations in selected hospitals in three states in southwest Nigeria were transcribed and analysed using Conversation Analysis. Functional classification of increments in the data revealed six types of increments namely, symptom-motivated, information-motivated, history-related, face-saving, emphatic, and mundane. The increments were mainly glue-ons and very few instances of non-add-ons in the context of history-related increments. Patients were more frequently disposed to designing increments than doctors in STI and HIV consultations in Nigeria. The patients utilized the symptom-motivated increments for the purpose of elaborating on their health concerns and for clarifying the most pressing symptoms. This afforded them the opportunity of unburdening their health concerns and focalising more pressing symptoms. In addition, the sensitive nature of their condition also spurred the deployment of face-saving and history-related increments to handle embarrassing and face-sensitive questions about their condition and lifestyle. 

The study scrutinized the probable significant relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Translation Competence (TC) in the Iranian students of Translation Studies. The first stage of the study followed a conventional statistical approach, in which the significant relationship between the variables as well as the predicting role of emotional intelligence for translation competence of the participants was examined through Pearson correlation and linear regression analyses. Two questionnaires of emotional competence, derived from Bar-On (1997), and translation competence, derived from Alavi and Ghaemi (2013), were utilized in the study. The findings of the initial phase revealed the significant relationship between the participants’ emotional intelligence and translation competence. In the second stage, modeling approach was employed to probe the relation between emotional intelligence and translation competence through structural equation modeling, using LISREL. The results demonstrated a significant relationship between EI and TC, justifying the results of the first non-modeling stage. The findings are of significance as the association between translation competence and emotional intelligence has been scarcely explored. Moreover, the relation between two variables was deeply explored through using non-modeling as well as modeling approach, adding the novelty of research. The results reflected that emotional intelligence plays a significant role in predicting the language learners’ translation competence. The results have some implications for language teaching. Language teachers can promote language learners’ emotional intelligence to reach successful learning outcomes. Through using useful techniques such as discussion, group-work activities, answering questionnaires, the learners' emotional intelligence can be significantly improved, leading to effective translation achievement.