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This study compared the effect of four reading models on reading comprehension, foreign language reading anxiety (FLRA), and reading self-efficacy. In order to do so, 184 female Iranian senior high school EFL students at intermediate English reading level were selected through convenience sampling in three high schools and one language institute in Zanjan. The participants were in four intact groups. Each group was randomly assigned to one of the treatment conditions— ‘Direct Activities Related to Texts’ (DARTs), Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), ‘Read, Ask, and Put into your own words’ (RAP), and ‘Title, Headings, Introduction, Each first sentence, Visuals, End of each part, Summary’ (THIEVES) models. These models were taught for eight sessions. Data were collected using the reading comprehension part of the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS), and Reading Self Efficacy Questionnaire (RSEQ). The collected data were analyzed using three one-way ANCOVA procedures. The results showed that the four models did not significantly differ in terms of their effect on foreign language reading anxiety and reading self-efficacy. However, there was a significant difference between the effect of THIEVES and RAP on reading comprehension in favor of RAP. Besides, only RAP and PALS improved reading self-efficacy. Moreover, DARTs, THIEVES, and RAP improved reading comprehension and decreased reading anxiety, whereas PALS increased reading anxiety and negatively affected reading comprehension. The theoretical and pedagogical implications of the findings are also discussed.

The increasing impact of audiovisual media and film industry in particular has led researchers to think of audiovisual translation strategies. Huge investments in film industry need global markets. Hence, there is a need for qualified translations and systematic studies dedicated to this area are in great demand. This study aims to investigate translation strategies adopted in the translation of two awards-winning dramas. The selection criterion is based on winning international awards or compliments received in the target community. Although some may argue that these successes are rooted in the selected movies’ ideologies, the role of an accurate translation in transferring such elements is undeniable. The present study analyzes the translation strategies employed in the subtitled version of the following films: A Separation and I Daniel Blake. The theoretical framework of the current study is based on Gottlieb’s (1992) Classification of Interlingual Subtitling. The obtained results depicted that except dislocation and transcription, all Gottlieb’s strategies were applicable. The results also showed that the film’s genre plays an influential role in translators’ decisions. As these films were warmly welcomed by the target audiences, the frequent translation strategies will be useful and practical for the future of audiovisual translation industry.

A significant amount of contribution to pragmatics research comes from cross-cultural and developmental pragmatic studies with L2 learners in focus; however, despite broad interest in such analyses, the role of lecturers has been relatively ignored. As the lectures’ perceptions/opinions of L2 learners’ e-mail requests are important, L2 learners must become familiar with their lecturers’ perceptions of (in)appropriateness and (im)politeness of e-mail requests. Therefore, through examining Iranian applied linguistics lecturers’ perceptions of (in)appropriateness and (im)politeness of L2 learners’ e-mail requests, this study was an attempt to provide insights into lecturers’ ideal norms of (in)appropriateness and (im)politeness of L2 learners’ e-mail requests. To this aim, a purposive sample of 38 university lectures participated in this study. A questionnaire was utilized to collect the data. The lecturers’ comments in the questionnaire served as the basis to identify the major themes (e.g., directness, language use accuracy, etc.). An in-depth qualitative analysis of the lecturers’ comments revealed that the perceptions of the lecturers were greatly influenced by the use of appropriate openings and closings of the e-mails. Also, language use accuracy and appropriateness were among the most recurring reasons mentioned by the lecturers to regard the e-mails as (in)appropriate and (im)polite. Overall, the results stress the importance of pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic aspects of language for applied linguistics lecturers. Findings have implications for L2 learners, teachers, and researchers.

: This study investigated the impact of audio-visual input enhancement teaching techniques on improving English as Foreign Language (EFL) learnersˈ collocation learning as well as their accuracy concerning collocation use in narrative writing. In addition, it compared the impact and efficiency of audio-visual input enhancement in two learning contexts, namely traditional and mobile learning contexts. First, 120 homogenous intermediate EFL learners were randomly divided into four groups, two experimental and two comparison groups. Next, two pre-tests, a collocation and a paragraph writing test, were administered. The experimental groups received enhanced target collocations through input enhancement teaching techniques while in the comparison groups the “unenhanced” collocations were taught through conventional simple vocabulary teaching method. After the treatment sessions, the researcher administered two post-tests including a collocation and a paragraph writing. As the data analysis suggested, with regards to the first research purpose, audio-visual input enhancement positively affected EFL learners' collocation learning and enhanced their accuracy concerning collocation use in narrative writing. Regarding the second purpose of the study, the results revealed that, in comparison to traditional learning context, audio-visual input enhancement teaching techniques were significantly effective in mobile learning context in terms of collocation learning. The efficiency of audio-visual input enhancement teaching techniques was not significantly different between the experimental groups in the two learning contexts in terms of enhancing EFL learners’ accuracy concerning collocation use. The findings of this study can create awareness for second language teachers and learners about the critical and beneficial role of input enhancement and mobile assisted language learning in successful language acquisition and learning.

Interlanguage pragmatics has attracted considerable attention in recent years. One strand of interlanguage pragmatics research includes studies comparing the effectiveness of implicit versus explicit teaching on the development of pragmatics. Many studies, although inconclusively, have shown the superior effect of explicit teaching of pragmatics, but few have focused on finding ways to improve the implicit teaching of pragmatics. The present study attempted to unfold the effect of collaborative dialogue on the quality of implicit teaching of request (head act and preparator). To this end, 28 participants (19 to 33 years old, intermediate) majoring in English (freshman and junior) were divided into two groups. The experimental group (n=14) had the opportunity to complete the tasks collaboratively and the control group (n=14) were not provided with any specific pragmatic instruction. The instructional procedure included four successive sessions of teaching request in situations where the sociological parameters were systematically varied. For the purpose of data collection, the classes were audio-recorded and a pretest-posttest design for discourse completion task (DCT) was adopted. For the purpose of data analysis, target request head acts and preparators were scored and also the audio recordings of classes were transcribed and the process of learning during treatment was checked in detail. The findings indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group in producing target preparators and head acts. And evidence of noticing the pragmatic forms namely noticing unnoticed forms, noticing the gap, and negotiation of form was observed during the collaborative task. This study suggests that teachers may need to provide learners with the opportunities for collaborative tasks along with input enhancement tasks in order to improve the pragmatic knowledge of the learners.

Despite widespread interest and research among applied linguists to explore metadiscourse use, very little is known of how metadiscourse resources have evolved over time in response to the historically developing practices of academic communities. Motivated by such an ambition, the current research drew on a corpus of 874315 words taken from three leading journals of applied linguistics in order to trace the diachronic evolution of stance markers in methodology section of research articles from 1996 to 2016. Hyland’s (2005b) model of metadiscourse was adopted for the analysis of the selected corpus. The data were explored using concordance software AntConc (Anthony, 2011). Moreover, a Chi-Square statistical measure was run to determine statistical significances. The analysis revealed a significant decline in the overall frequency of stance markers in methodology section of RAs. Interestingly, this decrease was entirely due to the overall decline in the use of self-mentions. Approaching interactional dimension of academic writing from such a diachronic perspective, it might be argued that the very selective use of stance markers by academic writers over time means metadiscourse does not operate in vacuum and is sensitive to changes within disciplines and their academic practices.

This study investigated the receptive and productive vocabulary command of learners based on their willingness to communicate (WTC) and critical thinking skill. The study also aimed to compare gifted and non-gifted learners in terms of the above-mentioned variables. To this end, 112 gifted and non-gifted Iranian EFL learners were picked out and given four instruments (WTC questionnaire, critical thinking skill test, receptive, and productive vocabulary tests). Having analyzed data through two-way ANOVA and independent samples t-tests, the study revealed that, first, no significant difference was found between high and low WTC learners and also high and low critical thinkers in their receptive lexical command; and second, high and low WTC learners, high and low critical thinkers, and also gifted and non-gifted learners showed significant differences in their productive lexical command. Thus, while for receptive vocabulary knowledge, giftedness is a more influential factor than WTC and critical thinking, for productive vocabulary knowledge, WTC, critical thinking, and giftedness are all influential. The pertinent theoretical and practical implications of the study will also be explicated.