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The current study explores the way the six Persian translators of Woolf’s two novels,<em> The Waves</em> (<em>TWS</em>) and <em>To the Lighthouse</em> (<em>TTL</em>), have translated the proper names (PNs). Also, how the PNs might be connected to the translators’ style through foreignizing/domesticating strategies that the translators have used through the optional shift. Also, how the translator shows his discursive presence may be related to how the translator may employ some recurring patterns for translating the PNs through some strategies. The procedure of ‘retention of the name’ is the nearest to foreignization and the farthest from domestication; the procedure of ‘replacement of the name by a TL name’ is the nearest to domestication and farthest from foreignization. Comparing the strategies, we can see that Najafipour has used the foreignizing and Ghebraei foreignizing and domesticating strategies differently. Also, Bejanyian tends to make the TL sound foreignized; Hosseini shows a pattern of domestication or normalization. Both Daryush and Keyhan have tried to keep the middle ground, though offering a tendency to use foreignizing strategies with a higher propensity. The final result shows that the six Persian translators have translated the PNs differently, whether using foreignizing or domesticating strategies.

This study intended to explore the perceptions of Iranian high-school English teachers and the perspectives of policymakers on success in teaching English. Data were collected through questionnaires and curriculum documents. To this end, one-hundred-twenty Iranian high-school English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers contributed to the research. National Lesson Plan and Fundamental Reform Document of Education (FRDE) were used to explore policymakers’ perspectives on success in teaching English at the high school level. The data were analyzed using both the Constant Comparative Method (Charmaz, 2006) and template coding to realize similarities and differences between the answers. General themes and patterns were recognized and discussed. The results of this study showed that while the teachers tended to improve students’ communication skills, policymakers must also be aware of the fact that change is an all-inclusive phenomenon demanding full cooperation and commitment from a host of policy workers. In conclusion, teachers’ perceptions of success in teaching English and expectations of educational change should be modified in such a way that the teachers see the importance and relevance of educational change to their professional success. In this respect, most Iranian high school EFL teachers are needed to modernize, i.e., to provide them with valuable pre-service and in-service courses with communicative frameworks that they can operate in their classrooms. The findings can be helpful for EFL teachers to reflect on their perceptions and accord them with their practices, use communicative activities that are more constructive in their classrooms.

The current study aimed at investigating the impact of Personal Response System (PRS) on Iranian EFL learners’ English language performance, class communication, and comfort level. To this purpose, a mixed methods design was used. The participants comprised 60 male-female Iranian grade eight junior students studying at Bahonar secondary school, Kazeroon, Iran. They were selected through convenient sampling method from two intact classes and divided into two experimental and control groups. The needed data was collected using the following instruments: Oxford Placement Test (OPT), Preliminary English Test (PET), Observation Checklist, and PRS. The two groups of the participants attended twelve English class sessions of the high school once a week. The only difference between the two groups was that during the class sessions, the experimental group attended PRS. Data analysis was conducted through descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests and qualitative content analysis of the observation data. The results showed that PRS had a statistically significant impact on English language performance, class communication, and comfort level of Iranian EFL learners. Accordingly, EFL teachers are recommended to use this tool in an attempt to enhance EFL learners' general English language performance.  

The traditional face-to-face language school has been replaced with online schooling by virtue of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, recent studies have significantly covered teachers’ emotional attitudes toward online education. What is not yet clear is their cognitive attitudes toward online language education, particularly during the recent pandemic. To fill the current gap, researchers selected Innovation diffusion theory (IDT) as the main theoretical framework and explored 11 Iranian EFL teachers’ attitudes through semi-unstructured interviews. The findings of the deductive content analysis revealed that teachers had positive attitudes toward compatibility features of online education; however, they had negative attitudes toward complexity stemming from Computer Assisted Language Learning) CALL (illiteracy, power cut, and low internet speed. Furthermore, teachers prioritize traditional language learning over online ones. Among many pedagogical implications, this study suggests that pedagogical experts should run some teacher training programs and workshops for English teachers to escalate their pedagogical and professional needs to teach both receptive and productive skills through online platforms. Additionally, English teachers should escalate their CALL literacy to efficiently manipulate their online classrooms, culminating in integrating more online tools in their language classes and placing a premium on online teaching rather than traditional ones.

Learning to teach is conceptualized as a complex process of identity development. To address this process, this study explored Prospective Teachers’ (PTs) professional identity development at different stages of learning to teach within a four-year Second Language (L2) initial teacher education program. Participating in a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach, 140 PTs filled out the English language teacher professional identity questionnaire three times: at the end of the second year, third year, and fourth year. Then, after each round of the questionnaire administration, 12 PTs were asked to participate in the interview phase to gain further insight into the participants’ professional identity development. Three separate sets of Freidman test and grounded theory were employed to evaluate the questionnaire and interview data, respectively. The results of both quantitative and qualitative data analyses revealed that the second-year PTs’ language awareness had a major contribution to the enactment of collective identity of language analyst and language user roles as part of their professional identity. Teaching practicum experiences also helped the third-year PTs develop a sense of belonging to the school community by aligning themselves with its rules and policies, which helped them develop their professional identity in a prescribed manner, informing institutionally situated identity of formal teachers. The fourth-year PTs’ identification of themselves with regard to their prospective learners’ needs was also the identity development observed in the form of learner-oriented attitude toward learners as whole persons, all conducive to imagined future identity of needs analysts. The results and implications are further discussed.

Culture is an indispensable part of Foreign Language Education Policy (FLEP), especially in English Language Teaching (ELT). In addition, the spread of English around the globe has resulted in English users’ tendency to embed their local culture in their English communication (Kirkpatrick, 2012). However, literature remains silent on culture representation in FLEP, especially in an ideologized country like Iran. To address this issue, due to lack of an explicit FLEP in Iran, the present study analyzed the cultural schemas addressed in the seven major national policy documents of Iran, namely 20-year National Vision, Comprehensive Science Roadmap, Support for Comprehensive Science Roadmap in the Domain of Languages, Cultural Engineering Document, National Curriculum, Fundamental Reform in Education, and Islamicization of Universities. Results of content analysis using MAXQDA Software unmasked Islamic-Iranian culture as the baseline for ELT in Iran. In order to further examine the representations and implications of ‘Islamic-Iranian culture’ hidden in the documents, open coding, axial coding, and labeling along with constant comparative procedure revealed various Islamic cultural schemas. However, very few instances of Iranian cultural schemas were unveiled. The findings were discussed in light of the hidden curriculum and the power relations behind the extracted cultural schemas

Les études abordant la question des compétences culturelles sont aujourd’hui de pleine actualité et sont souvent reprises pour analyser différents aspects de ces compétences au sein de l’enseignement-apprentissage des langues-cultures étrangères ; ces études ont donc leur utilité dans la mise en évidence de la diversité de ces compétences sous les différentes appellations et applications parmi lesquelles nous avons choisi de mettre en lumière la compétence transculturelle. Il n’existe pas de commun accord quant à la définition du concept de la compétence transculturelle et à sa place à l’égard d’autres compétences culturelles. Cet article tente de répondre à la question comment définir précisément la notion de compétence transculturelle, comment l’interpréter et la promouvoir. Cette étude a donc pour objectif de proposer une conception de la compétence transculturelle. La manière dont la compétence transculturelle peut être acquise et développée sera également discutée et abordée dans le cadre d’une recherche de terrain auprès des étudiants de licence en langue et littérature françaises de l’Université Hakim Sabzevari. Nous avons décidé d’emprunter le dispositif de la pensée en réseaux pour la mise en application et le développement de cette compétence. Quant au choix de la modalité de la collecte des données, nous avons eu recours aux entretiens semi-directifs afin de vérifier l’impact de la mise en œuvre du dispositif sur le développement de la compétence transculturelle sur le public examiné. L’analyse des résultats obtenus par les entretiens montrent les traits distinctifs de la compétence transculturelle due à la mise en place du dispositif choisi..

This study was an attempt to investigate the impact of elementary learners’ L1 in consciousness-raising tasks on their L2 writing accuracy. To achieve this end, 32 male and female elementary EFL learners, aged 17 to 26, participated in this study. They were assigned to two experimental groups (L1 and L2 groups) using the intact group sampling technique. The treatment was 13 two-hour sessions in which the participants of L1 group were exposed to consciousness-raising tasks through their L1, but the L2 group experienced the same tasks in English. At the end, a writing test was administered for both groups and the data collected through the pre-test and post-test were analyzed using paired-samples t test and one-way analysis of covariance. The results of the data analysis showed that L1 group significantly outperformed the L2 group in writing accuracy. This finding verifies the rejection of the ideological dogma of using first language in foreign language classes.

There are two different trends for the study of metadiscourse, including interactive and reflexive. The reflexive model suggested by (Mauranen, 1993) and (Ädel, 2010) cares about reflexivity in language. As reflexivity plays a pivotal role in spoken genres, this study aimed to study the frequency and functions of reflexive metadiscourse markers in academic interviews. Hence, this study focused on a corpus of three academic interviews carried out in English native academic context that was taken from “The Michigan Corpus of Academe Spoken English” (MICASE). The corpus was analyzed using the model by Ädel that includes four functional categories of metalinguistic comments, discourse organization, speech act labels, and references to the audiences . The results showed that about one-quarter of the personal pronouns were metadiscourse. Besides, among the personal pronouns that perform metadiscourse function, singular first-person pronoun was the most frequent while plural first-person pronoun was very rare. It was also found that among the four functions, the interviewees and interviewers paid more attention to metalinguistic comments and references to the audience . The results of this study could add to the knowledge of those participating in interviews in general and in the academic context in particular.

Developing textbook material is a crucial component of any curriculum, which should be based on sound and systematic techniques. In a detailed view, considering the importance of knowing English not only as an international language but as the language of commerce, tech and science, English course needs to be programmed efficiently to provide a suitable circumstance of learning for learners. In this regard, the present study is to develop a new English textbook for Iranian Senior High Schools to provide an opportunity for high school students as well as teachers to be actively engaged in the text, questions, and images of the textbook based on William Rummy’s Technique to keep up with the developments of the field. The results of the study demonstrate demonstrates that the involvement index is appropriate enough to actively engage the learners in the newly developed English textbook. That is, the texts, questions, and images within the textbook are suitably developed to engage the students actively.

Intercultural competence and intercultural sensitivity have drawn the attention of a myriad of scholars in the fields of language teaching, communication, culture, gender, and ethnicity. This is the rationale behind the current research aiming at investigating EFL teachers’ beliefs concerning the concepts of intercultural communication competence (ICC) and intercultural sensitivity (IS) and how such concepts are promoted in their real practices in English classes. To this end, utilizing a qualitative design, a sample of 20 EFL teachers (11 experienced and 9 novice teachers) from different language institutes in West Azerbaijan province were selected. A semi-structured interview and a three-session observation were conducted as data-gathering tools. The results of the data analysis indicated that even though Iranian EFL teachers were familiar with the concepts of IS and ICC and they knew that language and culture are not isolated terms, they ignored culture in the classes due to some regularities imposed on them by society. As a matter of fact, for teachers, the concept of language is the top priority while culture plays a second fiddle. The study has some pedagogical implications for EFL teachers and learners in overcoming cultural differences to improve the level of language proficiency.

The epistemological tenets of sociocultural theory view teacher professional development as a continuous and reflective analysis of pedagogical practices and learner development. Accordingly, inquiry-based approaches to teacher professional development and specifically reflective journals can be an asset for teachers, in their endeavor for self-empowerment, by creating a mediational space in which they can exercise their agency and achieve more productive instructional practices. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate the professional development of ten Iranian EFL student teachers through narrative inquiry, “which is conducted for and by the teacher” during one year of attending practicum. To this end, 100 reflective writings of 10 EFL student teachers, which were written during one year, were analyzed based on three functions of narratives as “externalization”, “verbalization” and “systematic examination” (Johnson & Golombek, 2011). The results indicated the importance of narrative inquiry in the development of the professional identity of student teachers. The results also implied the value of responsive mediation in L2 teacher education. 

This study was conducted to examine the effect of asynchronous computer-mediated condition on L2 learners' speaking ability, speaking apprehension, L2 self-confidence, and willingness to communicate. The participants of this study included 40 intermediate undergraduate students of English language teaching at an Iranian university. The participants were assigned to two experimental (asynchronous computer-mediated) and control (face-to-face) conditions randomly. In the experimental group, the participants practiced speaking in an asynchronous online environment, and in the control group, the students spent a part of their class time accomplishing monologue tasks. Using questionnaires, the participants' speaking ability, speaking apprehension, L2 self-confidence, and willingness to communicate were measured at the beginning and at the end of the term. The findings showed that the monologue speaking ability mean score of those in the computer-mediated group improved significantly more than that of the face-to-face group. Another finding of this study was the superiority of the computer-mediated condition with regard to the participants' speaking self-confidence, speaking apprehension, and willingness to communicate. Overall, the results suggest that asynchronous computer-mediated condition can provide learners with a less-threatening condition that can improve the chances of their L2 monologue speaking ability.