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Group Dynamic Assessment (G-DA), introduced by Poehner (2009), applies mediation through concurrent and cumulative approaches. This study investigated the effect of the two approaches on Iranian homogeneous and heterogeneous EFL learners' auditory memory in listening tasks. Eighty female intermediate EFL learners were chosen as the participants of the study. They were assigned to two groups of forty homogeneous and forty heterogeneous learners. Then, each group was divided into two experimental groups with twenty participants in each. Homogeneous and heterogeneous participants were assessed through both concurrent and cumulative approaches. To find out the main and interaction effect of concurrent and cumulative G-DA and homogeneity and heterogeneity of EFL learners, the post-test scores of the participants were analysed through a two-way ANOVA.  The results indicated that G-DA approaches on the one hand and homogeneity and heterogeneity of EFL learners on the other, had both significant main and interaction effect on EFL learners' auditory memory.  For the independent effect of both approaches, a one-way ANOVA was also used. The results indicated that cumulative G-DA had more significant effect than concurrent one on heterogeneous EFL learners' auditory memory. ANOVA analysis also proved that the two approaches did not differ in their effect on homogenous learners.  

Annually, a good number of Iranian students who have completed their undergraduate studies in non-English-related majors apply and enroll in Master’s level Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) programs. Although evaluating MA TEFL program in Iran from university instructors’ and students’ perspectives has so far been the subject of several studies, the experiences and views of these TEFL major-changers have not been duly explored. To address the existing gap, in this qualitative research, the experiences of major-changers studying TEFL at MA level in three state universities in Tehran have been investigated. Besides, six TEFL university instructors were asked to share their perspectives concerning major-changers attending MA TEFL programs. In the main , the findings revealed that motives like interest in pursuing an English teaching career rather than a job related to their former major; gaining the required competency through attending crash courses held by university exam preparatory institutes; facing challenges in acquiring the specialized discourse of the community; and witnessing realities which ran counter to their prior supposition, as discussed by the major-changers and the instructors, formed part of the lived experiences and views of these major-changers.

In case not enough caution is exercised in the assessment of second or foreign language learners’ writing performance, one cannot trust the accuracy of decisions made accordingly. As experts or trained raters are often not available or it is not cost-effective to employ them in most educational contexts, writing assessment is often carried out by language instructors, who may not enjoy an adequate competence in teaching and assessing L2 writing. This makes the investigation of the accuracy of ratings done by language teachers a must. In so doing, 30 language teachers in three groups, each with a different background in teaching English and L2 writing, were selected, and their ratings of 30 IELTS samples were compared against those of expert raters using One-Way ANOVA tests. A statistically significant difference was found among the raters for the total writing score as well as the four components, with the L2 writing teachers demonstrating the closest performance to that of the expert rater and with language teachers with no or very little background in teaching L2 writing demonstrating the lowest accuracy. Moreover, the only significant correlations were found between the ratings done by the writing teachers and those of the expert rater, indicating that only they could interpret the scoring criteria not significantly different from the expert rater. The results demonstrate that language teachers are not generally suitable writing raters as they are affected by their own teaching background and understanding of the rating criteria.

Teacher professional development rests on the provision of knowledge, development of skills, and change of attitudes of teacher candidates and in-service teachers. Teachers’ professional knowledge, perceptions and teaching practice contribute greatly to student learning. This study sets out to investigate the relationships and inter-relationships among professional knowledge, academic self-concept and self-reported instructional practice which was found as a research gap in the literature. Using a sample of 92 pre-service TEFL teachers in Iran, a significant positive correlation was found between professional knowledge and academic self-concept. The findings also revealed that different domains of professional knowledge are not related to each other for TEFL. Finally, the obtained results indicated that academic self-concept affected instructional practice in total and at the level of sub-dimensions while professional knowledge had an effect on the two dimensions of instructional practice, namely cognitive activation and student learning support but not on the dimension of classroom management .

Nowadays, digital literacy and the use of digital resources and communication tools in academic contexts have been promoted by the rise of digital civilization in the 21st-century. Thus, this research aimed to study the digital literacy of Iranian EFL teachers and students to find out any significant difference between them. One hundred and fifty Iranian EFL teachers, and 175 Iranian EFL students were invited to participate in this study. A 181-item standardized measure developed and validated by Khlaisang and Koraneekij (2019) was used to assess individuals’ three crucial 21st-century digital skills namely Information Literacy (IL), Media Literacy (ML), and Information Communication Technology Literacy (ICTL). To find that whether this difference is significant or not, a t-test was run. The results highlight that Iranian EFL teachers' scores were higher than students in all the three constructs of IL, ML, and ICTL, and ICTL had the highest mean score among all. The data regarding teachers’ and students’ digital literacy can be a reference for educational planners and decision-makers to identify digital skills which should be considered more seriously at the university level especially in these Coronavirus days.

Given that reformulation is an integral component of scientific texts in which the explanation of terms and ideas is prevalent (Candel, 1984; Thoiron & Bejoint, 1991), this study aims at examining the form, frequency, and function of reformulation markers in three sub-corpora, namely, L1 English, L2 English, and L1 Persian research articles of psychology. The study is based on a corpus of 60 research articles amounting to a total size of 1,105,433 words. Drawing on the list of reformulation markers provided in Hyland (2005) in the case of English sub-corpora and a list of Persian reformulation markers prepared by three experts in the Persian language, we searched the corpus automatically for all the instances of reformulation markers. In the next step, all the instances were examined in their textual context in order to identify their function. The results indicated that L1 English sub-corpus contains the highest frequency of reformulation markers followed by L2 English and finally L1 Persian. There were also differences with regard to forms and functions, as well as parenthetical uses of reformulation markers across the three sub-corpora, specifically between L1 English and L1 Persian, suggesting the existence of intercultural variation in the use of reformulation. Besides, Iranian researchers writing in L2 English tend to adapt their writing style to the norms and conventions of English at least as far as reformulation is concerned. The study concludes with some implications for EAP writing and teaching.

In recent years, audiovisual translation (AVT) has become omnipresent in different parts of the world; however, dubbing humor restrictions may hamper the translation in that maintaining the humor in the target language (TL) requires a high level of knowledge. Although several studies have attempted to describe the distribution of translation strategies, few systematic attempts are made to analyze the employed AVT strategies in humor series. The present study analyzed the Persian humor expressions’ appropriacy and their translated versions in English through a qualitative study. To this aim, the dominant strategies used to render humor in the translated versions of 3 dubbed Iranian series (i.e., Shamsolemareh, Chimney, and Medical Building ) were analyzed. Furthermore, the typologies of the employed audiovisual humor in the series were analyzed. Data analysis illustrated that clumsiness and parody were the most frequent humor typologies used in the series. The 3 strategies of omission, word-for-word translation, and free translation were the most frequent ones. In conclusion, the results indicated the failure to accommodate the Iranian series’ humorous level, preventing the target audience from appreciating humor. Findings can contribute to the improvement of the quality of humor translation.

The current study was an attempt to investigate whether the Unit-of-Translation has any effect on Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners’ achievement in Bizarre News translation. In addition, it investigated whether there was any difference across gender regarding the effect of Unit-of-Translation on Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners’ achievement in Bizarre News translation. To this end, 45 out of 88 EFL learners from three upper-intermediate language learners at two Language Institutes in Boumehen, Iran were selected based on Oxford Placement Test. Then, they were divided randomly into three groups; one control group (N=15) and two experimental groups (N=30). The first experimental group was male. The second experimental was female, and the third group was administered as the control group. The experimental groups received the instruction for unit of translation. The instruction was given in five sequential sessions about 50 minutes. In contrast, the control group received no special instruction. At the end of the course, a post-test was administered. To analyze the data, one-way ANOVA and independent samples t-test were run. The findings revealed that the Unit-of-Translation had a positively significant effect on Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners’ achievement in Bizarre News translation. The results also indicated that concerning the effect of Unit-of-Translation on Iranian male upper-intermediate EFL learners had a better achievement in Bizarre News translation compared to their counterparts in the female group.

One prominent criterion to achieve efficient learning and instruction in an educational setting is the appropriate material(s) specifically developed for that particular group of learners, particularly in an English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) context. This study aimed at developing new EOP materials for pre-service cabin crew in an aviation school. To do so, initially the researchers performed the evaluation of the current EOP textbook through a checklist and interviews with 20 English teachers who did not express much satisfaction about it. Consequently, having been convinced about the unsatisfactory results, the researchers developed new materials for this group of learners. The new materials was later implemented on 30 learners as the experimental group as opposed to another 30 as the control group being instructed by the current material. The findings demonstrated significant differences in the experimental group achievement of language proficiency at the end of the course compared to their language proficiency at the beginning of the course. Moreover, the results expressed significant differences between the achievement of control and experimental groups at the end of EOP courses, in favor of the experimental group. The newly developed EOP materials for flight attendants could be widely instructed in the airlines and aviation schools based on the obtained findings.

This study aimed at identifying the most frequent test-taking strategies used by successful Iranian male and female university entrance exam EFL applicants. To this end, 150 English major male and female freshman students who got admission to three reputable state universities of Isfahan, Shiraz, and Tehran were selected conveniently and purposively. The model used in this study was developed by Barati (2005) consisting of planning, monitoring, evaluation, and test-wiseness strategies. After selecting the participants, the modified questionnaire developed based on Barati’s test-taking strategy taxonomy was distributed among the participants. Based on the analysis of results, it was revealed that the EFL learners made frequent use of planning, monitoring, evaluation, and test-wiseness strategies, but only the level of use of planning and monitoring strategies reached statistical significance. Moreover, male and female EFL learners were only significantly different in their use of evaluation strategies, but in terms of using planning, monitoring, and test-wiseness strategies, males and females were not significantly different from one another. The findings of the study bear useful implications for EFL learners, teachers, materials designers, and test constructors.

The present study was aimed at investigating intermediate Iranian EFL learners’ feedback preferences on their L2 writing and examining the possible differences between learners with entity and incremental language mindsets with respect to their feedback preferences. To this end, 150 EFL learners were recruited from several language institutes in Isfahan, Iran, and their language proficiency level was measured through a proficiency test. The learners were then given the Language Mindsets Questionnaire and the Feedback Preferences Scale to fill out. Frequency counts, mean scores, and chi-square for independence were employed to analyze the collected data. The results of the study indicated that teacher-student conferencing, self-correction, peer correction, and correction using prompts were the types of feedback that the learners preferred to receive, and the difference between entity and incremental mindset holders reached statistical significance for teacher correction with comments, self-correction, and teacher-student conferencing. Regarding the strategies the learners utilized to handle feedback, the two groups of learners were significantly different just in terms of asking for teacher explanation. Finally, thinking prompts received priority in the following order, L1/L2, word, and rule, while goal and fit were not favored by the learners; thinking prompt did not turn out to cause significantly different preferences in the EFL learners with entity or incremental mindsets. The significance of the obtained results are discussed and the implications of the study are then proffered

The present study was carried out with the purpose of examining the role of metaphorical language in the critical discourse analysis (CDA) of political texts based on a modern framework postulated by Kövecses (2015). The corpus of the study consisted of thirty-thousand words chosen as a textual sample to see which source conceptual domains are used and what generic/discursive attributes emerge upon the analysis. It was prepared through systematic random sampling from different editorial articles in Western political magazines on the relations between Iran and the West in the time span of 2010-2019. Then, Critical Metaphor Analysis was used to explain the trend and patterns in the political articles, mostly lending support to previous research by authority figures in critical and political metaphor analysis that metaphors are used in shaping political thinking, in aiding political persuasion, and in steering cognitive scenarios and models towards the shaping of interpretations of the nations as person or body metaphors. Finally, the study lent ample support to this latter view in its textual findings of the conceptual metaphors used. The findings of the study provide foreign language education in general and the EFL classrooms in particular, with some implications for further research.

The present study was an attempt to explore the ‘washback effect’ of task-based assessment (TBLA) on EFL Iranian learners’ pragmatic development. To this end, through conducting KET (Key English Test), 60 out of 120 EFL Iranian learners studying in an English language school, were randomly selected. They were assigned to treatment group (N=30), and control group (N=30). The treatment group was assessed through TBLA and the control group was assessed via non-task based assessment for 20 ninety-minute sessions. The class sessions were held twice a week. The obtained data was examined through independent sample t-test. The findings implied that TBLA as a pedagogical measurement tool can well replace the classic assessment procedures, since all educational efforts including testing and assessment procedures are planned to maximize the educational gains and developments.