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This study focuses on complexity matching and lexical matching to investigate speech convergence in the conversations of bilingual Persian-English speakers in three language conditions namely Persian, English, and mixed in the context of lingua receptiva as an attempt to investigate such matching mechanisms between a Latin-based language and a non-Latin-based language. Complexity matching investigates convergence in terms of the hierarchical temporal structure of human speech while lexical matching explores convergence in terms of the frequency occurrence of the matched lemmas. For this purpose, 14 master’s students from the Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz majoring in English language conversed with one another in dyadic groups in three language conditions each of which had its own topic namely movies, music, and books. In complexity matching, Allan Factor analysis in terms of multiscale clustering of onset events was considered. In lexical matching, the focus was on the distribution of all lemmas and matched lemmas and the possible correlation between the two. The results revealed a gradual increase in Allan Factor log-log plots in relation to the longer timescales that correspond with discourse patterns for complexity matching. For lexical matching, the positive correlation between all lemmas and matched lemmas (r<sub>s = .607) suggested that as participants talked to each other more, they unconsciously tried to match their psychological perceptions with each other more. This suggests that speech convergence is vigorous in both bilingual and monolingual interactions.

Metadiscourse markers are aspects of a text’s organization denoting a writer’s stance toward its propositional content. Given the ideological difference between quantitative and qualitative research in terms of determinacy, metadiscourse markers can be viewed as a venue through which writers’ epistemological positions are presented. The present study was designed to compare the use frequency of interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers in the discussion section of 20 quantitative and 20 qualitative applied linguistics research articles, with reference to Hyland's (2005) framework. The analysis involved the comparison of frequency counts of metadiscourse markers across the two corpora using a series of Chi-square tests. To that end, the results were computed and analyzed through SPSS. The results revealed significant differences in terms of the frequency of all interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers except for frame markers, evidentials, attitude markers, engagement markers, and boosters. The findings of study have important implications for academic writing instruction.

Assessment of learners affects all processes of their learning. Generally, without assessment, it is very difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process. Understanding their weak points and difficulties in their writing would help teachers and administrators focus more on these areas. Therefore, this content analysis study was an attempt to investigate the relative contribution of each writing component to the variation in the overall writing performance of TEFL undergraduate students to determine areas of strength and weakness in their writing. To this end, the writing samples of 73 students who were willing to participate in this study at different universities in Tabriz, Iran, were assessed through an Analytical Scoring Scale. These participants were divided into two groups: group 1, first-year and second-year students, and group 2, third-year and fourth-year students. The results of Stepwise Multiple Linear Regression analysis revealed that the greatest contributions to the variance of the total rating of TEFL undergraduate students' writings were related to the grammar and punctuation components in groups 1 and 2, while the least contributions were related to the content and spelling in group 1, and vocabulary and spelling in group 2. In addition, results indicated that the weaknesses and issues of participants in both groups of this research were mostly related to the grammatical structure and using punctuation marks in paragraphs. Moreover, the positive effects of the analytical scoring scale as well as the implications of the findings were discussed.

Dictation is a traditional technique for both teaching and testing overall language ability and listening comprehension. In a dictation, a passage is read aloud by the teacher and examinees write down what they hear. Due to the peculiar form of dictations, psychometric analysis of dictations is challenging. In a dictation, there is no clear boundary between the items and every word in the text is potentially an item. This makes the analysis of dictations with classical and modern test theories rather difficult. In this study, we suggest a procedure to make dictations analyzable with psychometric models. Our strategy entailed using several independent short passages instead of a single long passage. The number of mistakes in each passage was counted and entered into the analysis. Rasch model analysis was then applied to the passage scores (mistakes). Our findings showed that dictations fit the Rasch model very well and it is possible to measure examinees’ ability on an interval scale using dictations.

Vocabulary learning is at the heart of language learning and language use. It is what makes the essence of a language. Having it in mind, most of the students always complain about lexical problems, and unfortunately, they are unaware of the different tools, which can help the students to learn vocabulary and improve vocabulary retention. A useful tool for learning and teaching vocabulary is a tool that uses authentic samples to enhance comprehension. Concordancing software is one of these digital tools that enable learners to explore billions of real-world materials. In this regard, the present study was conducted to investigate the actual effect of using this software on vocabulary retention. To gain this purpose, a sample of 54 intermediate female EFL students took part in this study. Participants were randomly assigned to two equal experimental and control groups. Before starting the treatment, the researcher gave the pretest to both groups. Then the treatment sessions were started for both groups, which lasted 12 sessions (4weeks); ten vocabularies were taught in each session and during this time the vocabulary of each lesson was taught by using concordancing software to the experimental group and by using a list of vocabulary to the control group. After the treatment sessions, the posttest was administered to both groups. The results of this comparison proved that the use of concordancing software improved learners' vocabulary knowledge. The outcomes have the potential to affect language learners' performance and teachers' beliefs about the effectiveness of using CALL programs, especially concordancing programs.