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Résumé Une partie considérable de la littérature est née du voyage. L’interaction constante de la littérature avec le voyage et le déplacement entraîne la critique littéraire à évoquer de plus en plus la question de l’espace et de l’altérité dans la littérature. Le parcours littéraire et personnel de Zoya Pirzad, romancière iranienne contemporaine, est toujours marqué par le déplacement. Ses textes entretenant un rapport mobile à l’espace, nous permettent d’interroger les identités par le biais de l’espace. D'ailleurs, les notions de "l'autrui" et de "l’altérité" constituent les éléments inséparables des écritures de Pirzad plus présentes dans C’est moi qui éteint les lumières et On s'y fera. L’altérité, ce concept d’origine philosophique a été redéfinie et élaborée récemment par les nombreux critiques et théoriciens. Selon Emanuel Levinas, dans une relation d'altérité, il y a un engagement réciproque, une responsabilité de l'un envers l'autre (Levinas, 1998 : 65). C’est pour cette raison qu’après avoir découvert autrui, on prend conscience de notre responsabilité. Dans ces deux œuvres, Pirzad raconte les expériences de la vie des personnages féminins, Clarisse et Arezou. Dans cette présente recherche nous étudierons quel rapport les personnages féminins entretient avec l’espace et l'altérité et comment ce dernier entraine chez elles la responsabilité.

Teachers may come across a point in their career at which they would ponder upon choosing to stay or withdraw from their job. Several conditions in their organization would lead them to the ultimate decision. This study aims at providing enhanced awareness of one of the components that might lead instructors to their determination with respect to withdraw from or stay at their teaching position at an institution. Consequently, the link between collective instructor efficacy and withdrawal intention was scrutinized. Data was gathered through an online survey to collect information from Iranian EFL teachers using two questionnaires. The findings of this analysis noted that there exists a negative association between instructors’ collective efficacy and withdrawal intention. As collaborative competence perceptions elevate in teachers, their withdrawal intent is likely to drop. Furthermore, another research question was whether it was possible for collective efficacy subscales to predict withdrawal intention or not. Instructional strategies and student discipline are subsets of collective efficacy. Student discipline was reported to predict to some extent variability in withdrawal intention. It was also concluded that headmasters and educational leaders need to focus on collective efficacy as an asset to diminish the unfavorable attrition of staff members.

This study examined the effects of virtual English instruction via the Iranian Student Education Network (SHAD) on the speaking accuracy of Iranian high school English learners with varied personality traits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants (n = 54) completed the Quick Oxford Placement Test and the Eysenck Personality Inventory before taking a speaking test based on the Vision English for Schools Series. The participants' voice-recorded responses to the speaking test were then analyzed for accurate verb usage. After completing 18 online sessions with diverse speaking tasks on SHAD, the participants retook the speaking test, and their performances were analyzed. The results indicated significant effects on the speaking accuracy of both extroverts and introverts, with introversion showing the most positive impact. Semi-structured telephonic interviews were conducted to gather participants' perceptions of virtual education. The findings highlighted the challenges and opportunities faced by Iranian high school English learners in online classes, with implications for virtual language education and materials development. 

This research explored the intricacies of incitement as a speech act in political discourse, particularly in the context of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. Utilizing a mixed-methods design, the study combined qualitative analyses—focusing on rhetorical structures and pragmatic strategies—with quantitative evaluations of speech act frequencies. The corpus included speeches from prominent political figures delivered between February 2022 and March 2024, selected for their relevance to incitement. The analysis revealed that incitement often straddles the boundary between illocutionary and perlocutionary acts, showcasing how politicians use indirect language to maintain plausible deniability while still mobilizing action. This ambiguity complicates traditional classifications within speech act theory. Furthermore, the study highlights various persuasive strategies employed in political rhetoric, such as emotional appeals and historical analogies.The implications of this research are significant for understanding how language functions as a tool of political power, particularly in conflict situations. It provides insights into ethical considerations surrounding incitement in political communication, suggesting that awareness of linguistic strategies can help prevent escalation of tensions and promote more responsible discourse among leaders.

The present investigation aimed to examine the impact of dynamic assessment on the acquisition of passive voice in a speaking context among Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To this end, forty intermediate-level learners from a Language Institute in Lahijan were randomly chosen to participate in the study through the administration of an OPT. The study employed a pre/post-test design with two participant groups: experimental and control. Speaking proficiency was assessed using four instruments: EIT, TGJT, UGJT, and a focused communication task, all administered orally. The experimental group engaged in task-based interactions with their interlocutors while receiving dynamic assessment interventions. Conversely, the control group completed the same tasks, but their instruction focused on explicit form correction. After the intervention phase, participants in both groups were administered a post-test of speaking proficiency. This post-test utilized the identical four measures employed in the pre-test. A battery of statistical analyses, encompassing t-tests and ANOVA with Pearson correlation coefficients, was conducted to assess group differences. The results yielded statistically significant differences in mean scores between the groups. These findings suggest that Dynamic Assessment (DA) may be a more effective intervention strategy than the Focus on Form approach. The study concludes by exploring the broader implications of these results for language learning pedagogy.

The neurolinguistic approach (NLA) nests the claim that both internal and external grammars (i.e., implicit and explicit grammar knowledge) develop through an intensive orality-based pedagogy. The present study put this claim to the test focusing on Iranian English language learners’ development of implicit and explicit knowledge of definite and indefinite English articles (EAs). Forty-three Iranian English language learners constituting 2 intact lower-intermediate classes were randomly assigned to a control group (CG; N = 20) and an experimental group (EG; N = 23). EG underwent four 1.5-hr project-based sessions of NLA-based instruction on definite and indefinite EAs. Each session began and ended with authentic oral practice of the structure under study. There was (a) a paragraph reading phase followed by rule induction and (b) a writing phase in between the two oral practice phases. CG was presented with reading texts (amply instantiating EAs), rule explanation, and communicative tasks. A timed grammaticality judgment test and an EA-focused oral proficiency interview were employed to estimate the participants’ implicit knowledge, and an untimed grammaticality judgment test and a metalinguistic knowledge test were deployed to measure their explicit knowledge. ANOVA results showed (a) EG’s development of implicit and explicit knowledge of EAs, but CG’s development of only explicit knowledge of EAs, and (b) EG’s significantly greater gain in both knowledge types. The findings reveal NLA’s potential for the development of both types of knowledge concerning definite and indefinite EAs, and have implications for the intensive instruction of knotty structures for low proficiency L2 learners.

Pronunciation is one of the sub-skills which has significant effect on improving the communication competency and linguistic performance. Moreover, Pronunciation is one of the most difficult parts of teaching a foreign language to adults. It seems that the sub-skill of pronunciation is not taught in the form of a well-rounded program in communicative approaches and interactive conversations in Persian language classes, and that learners pronounce Persian under the influence of the phonemes of their mother tongue. This study is an attempt to provide an answer for the question of what strategies foreign learners use in their learning process by examining pronunciation learning strategies. The current research is the application and collection of research data using the field research approach and the descriptive method is used for the data analysis. The research instrument in data collection is a questionnaire composed of 43 items, each question containing a pronunciation strategy. After verifying validity and reliability, it was randomly distributed among foreign Persian learners. Based on the findings, they make significant use of cognitive, social, metacognitive and compensatory strategies. Commonly, mother tongue does not have a significant effect on the use of these strategies, but Chinese speakers use the group of cognitive strategies significantly more than Arabic speakers do.

Within the last few decades the conception of research engagement has been widely considered vital in teachers’ professional development. The literature is replete with numerous arguments both about the benefits of doing and reading research and the reasons for doing so. Within these discussions, however, the opinions of teachers are mostly ignored or reflected only circumstantially. The present study was conducted to investigate the reasons for which Iranian English teachers engage in research. First, a provisional survey questionnaire was designed, using experts’ opinion and a comprehensive review of the related literature. The instrument was then validated through conducting exploratory factor analysis on teachers’ responses to the survey instrument. Analysis of the results showed that teachers’ reasons and motivations for research engagement can best be categorized in four groups: benefits for professional development, instrumental and personal motivations, organizational expectations, and pedagogical benefits. Subsequent analyses also revealed that research engagement among Iranian English teachers is mainly shaped for personal and professional reasons. The findings point to the importance of developing a holistic perspective toward educational research in order to promote research engagement, making it a sustainable path to professional excellence for language teachers.

This study focused on the importance of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLSs) in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and how Iranian EAP students learn academic vocabulary. The study used a predominantly quantitative approach by gathering data from 238 participants through online self-report VLS questionnaires, which were analyzed using SPSS-26. A triangulation approach was used to ensure accuracy and consistency, with qualitative data gathered through semi-structured interviews with 20 students. The analysis revealed that participants frequently used strategies for incorporating new vocabulary into their repertoire. Additionally, teacher-related, student-related, and material-related themes emerged through coding the participants’ beliefs. The results indicated that raising learners’ consciousness of VLSs, training teachers, providing tasks for all language skills, using technology, materials revision, and developing autonomous and independent learning can help with vocabulary acquisition and the satisfaction of EAP students. Overall, this study highlights the importance of VLSs in EAP and provides insights into effective strategies for acquiring academic vocabulary.

In line with Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (SCT) of mind, digital game-based language learning (DGBL) and dynamic assessment (DA) offer language learning opportunities via sociocultural engagement. This quantitative study explored the role of pragmatic learning strategies (PLSs) and gender in game-based group dynamic assessment. Our participants included thirty upper-intermediate EFL learners (15 males and 15 females) from two intact classes taking an English pragmatic course via game-based group dynamic assessment. Following a pre-test, treatment, and post-test design, the participants filled out a PLS inventory to identify the strategies for tackling L2 conversations in different situations. Besides, all learners were required to write reflective journals following each treatment session. Descriptive statistics and correlational analysis were employed to analyze the data. The findings indicated that the participants most widely used memory strategies, i.e., they relied more on memorizing and storing previous pragmatic knowledge. In addition, compensatory strategies were positive but weak predictors of the learners’ L2 pragmatic performance, and gender did not impact the learners’ use of different PLSs. The study’s limitation and its practical and pedagogical implications for educational policymakers, teacher education programs, and L2 instructors will be discussed in light of the posed research questions.

This study posits that an important key component of political discourse derives from its heavy reliance on persuasion strategies to support the ideological bases. Throughout the argument, the study positions an emphasis on the US Democratic Party’s (DP) success in receiving the public consent and acceptance. Their victory is more likely the result of the power of their democratic ideologies that are constructed through the strategic use of rhetorical devices and linguistic structures. In an attempt to investigate which particular discursive strategies and rhetorical devices are instrumental in constructing a particular type of ideology, we adopted a CDA approach and analyzed Barak Obama’s public speeches to the US nation. The analytic categories found in his speech are: rhythmic paralleled structures and repetition; nominalization; and metaphorical framing. Moreover, in our macro-analysis of Obama’s discourse, special attention is paid to the effective role of devices such as topoi, or fallacies in his political argumentations and positive representation of DP.

I am delighted to be invited to write a paper for the inaugural edition of the journal Applied Linguistics Inquiry . I am also honored to be invited to serve on its editorial board. In this paper, I will first describe the seminal study reported by Biggs and Edwards (1991) to serve as a backdrop for a discussion of classroom communicative and interactional competence. The paper outlines how teachers can reflect on such competence by exploring teacher questions, teacher feedback, grouping and nonverbal communication, and classroom communicative and interactional competence. The paper end with a discussion of evidence-based reflective practice as professional development as well as the place of emotions in reflection.

This study investigates the impact of film watching versus traditional narrative listening on the language development of Iranian preschoolers across three age groups. The primary objective is to assess and compare language development in preschoolers exposed to narratives through both traditional listening and animated film watching. The study investigates differences in language skills, such as topic maintenance and descriptive abilities, between these two exposure methods. Conducted in Iran, the study encompasses various settings where children were exposed to both narrative listening and animated film watching, followed by story recounting over five sessions. The collected data were meticulously coded to identify disparities in topic maintenance and the length of story descriptions. Key findings reveal that traditional narrative listening resulted in more consistent topic maintenance and longer descriptions compared to film watching. Older children consistently crafted similar stories, demonstrating a deeper understanding of literacy concepts. Additionally, children with more educated mothers exhibited extended and fluent language skills, while others excelled in the context of film watching. This research underscores the significance of considering different media in preschoolers' language development, highlighting their distinct impacts on language skills. These findings carry implications for literacy practices, parenting, materials development, and policymaking.