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Academic essays entail taking a stance on the truth value of propositions. Epistemic adverbs deal with the speaker's assessment of the truth value of propositions. Employing a corpus-based approach with descriptive statistics and qualitative description, this study explored the use of epistemic stance adverbs in academic essays written by native English speakers and Iranian EFL learners. Following Biber et al.'s (1999) framework of stance adverbials, the researchers employed a corpus of 62077 words taken from class assignments written by Iranian EFL learners and a corpus of 65268 words taken from British Academic Written English (BAWE) to investigate the use of epistemic stance adverbs. Antconc software 3.4.3 version was used to search the most frequent stance adverbs. Frequency counts for each of the adverbs were extracted and normalized per 1000 words; then, Chi-square was run to pinpoint any differences between the two groups. The findings revealed both similarities and differences in the use of stance adverbs between the two groups. For example, EFL writers used more confident adverbs to show their authorial presence while native speakers used more maybe adverbs which are less authority-oriented. The findings may have implications for second/foreign language learners and writing instruction.

Recent research has shown that academic writing is not ‘author-evacuated’ but, rather, carries a representation of the writers’ identity. One way through which writers project their identity in academic writing is stance-taking toward propositions advanced in the text. Appropriate stance-taking has proved to be challenging for novice writers of Research Articles (RAs), especially those writing in a foreign language. To contribute to the literature on stance-taking, the present study compared the move-based use of evaluative resources in the introduction section of L1 (written by native English speakers) and L2 (written by Iranian, non-native writers) English RAs in the discipline of Applied Linguistics. To this end, 100 English Research Article Introductions (RAIs), 50 by L1 writers and 50 by L2 writers, were investigated as the corpus of the study. Categories of analysis were taken from Appraisal framework (Martine & White, 2005) and CARS model (Swales, 2004). The results revealed that the two groups of texts were not substantially different in the overall use of appraisal resources in the whole body of RAIs. However, more detailed analyses of the specific categories of appraisal in each of the rhetorical moves demonstrated that in some cases, especially in moves 1 and 3, L1 and L2 writers made different choices when taking a stance. The findings of this study can serve as a valuable source providing a practical and comprehensive understanding of the use of evaluative resources in RAIs for EAP researchers, teachers, and other professionals involved in the teaching of academic writing.

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of peer and teacher scaffolding through a process approach in a technology-enhanced environment on vocabulary learning among high and low self-regulated learners. Participants of the study were 120 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners who were selected based on their scores on a sample copy of the Oxford Placement Test (OPT). The participants were divided into three groups each consisting of 40 learners. One group of the participants received peer scaffolding; the second group was exposed to teacher scaffolding via the Telegram app based on process approach principles, while the third group served as the control group. The control group received conventional vocabulary teaching in such a way that the Telegram app was not employed. The learners in the control group were also provided with vocabulary exercises in the vocabulary book (English Vocabulary in Use). Data were collected through a sample copy of OPT, a vocabulary test, and a self-regulation questionnaire. The results of a one-way ANOVA revealed that both peer and teacher scaffolding significantly affected vocabulary learning. However, there was no significant difference between peer and teacher scaffolding in terms of their effects on vocabulary learning. The results of a two-way ANOVA indicated that the main effect of treatment on vocabulary learning was significant; however, there was no statistically significant difference between the effects of the two treatment modalities on students’ vocabulary learning.

Translation is almost always conducted within a certain socio-cultural framework with its particular ideology. In the present study, the application of various shift types in two legal translations was examined to show how socio-cultural and ideological inclinations of the translator affect adequacy and acceptability in translation. Two legal texts in English (the Geneva Interim Agreement and NPT) and their Persian translations released by IRI’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs formed the corpus of the study. The analysis of the translations indicated the lack of ideological and cultural shifts and the presence of structural and stylistic shifts. Legal texts are highly sensitive and need the utmost precision in their translation. These requirements could make ideological and cultural shifts out of the question in legal translation. The results, therefore, suggest that in legal translation training, attention should be devoted to structural and stylistic shifts.  As for the adequacy and acceptability, it was also observed that translated texts cannot be totally adequate or totally acceptable; the poles of adequacy and acceptability are on a continuum, and translators move between these two extremes.

The marriage between technology and teaching in educational milieus in recent years has been a major concern among educational researchers in general and applied linguists in particular as far as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are concerned. Augmented reality after virtual reality received much attention over the last decades in mobile assisted language learning context. AR mixes virtual world onto real environment, VR delve the participants in to the virtual world. To examine the effect of AR and VR on abstract writing of EFL students, 12 intermediate proficiency pairs (high and low proficiency) participated based on their scores on TOEFL and a hypothetical abstract writing task. The participants were required to write an abstract according to the sub-moves of Hyland's (2000) move analysis provided through three mobile applications including AR-, VR HeadSet virtual reality-, and paper-based scaffoldings for four weeks in a collaborative context. In evaluating the groups' abstract writing scores before and after the treatment, no significant differences were found among the three groups. However, the AR group revealed better mean average results ( M = 33) compared to the other VR ( M = 24) and paper-based groups ( M = 29). Besides, the low intermediate proficiency subjects in the AR group received higher scores ( M = 40) compared to heir higher counterpart ( M = 37). Results imply that the integration of real and unreal worlds might be a good asset in teaching the genre of abstracts to EFL learners in general and low intermediate proficiency learners in particular.

Following Swales’ (1981) definition of genre analysis many scholars have attempted to characterize good academic writing; however, this can be difficult and worrying for non-native writers. Since a well-written abstract encourages readers more effectively, the present study intended to find differences in the rhetorical structures of abstracts by TEFL students from the University of Tehran (UT) and Islamic Azad University of Gorgan (IAUG). To meet this end, 100 abstracts (50 abstracts by TEFL students from UT and 50 abstracts by TEFL students from IAUG) were randomly selected. Swales’ (1981) IMRD (Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion) and Swales’ (1990) CARS (Created A Research Space) models were employed to recognize the rhetorical structure of the abstracts. Then, the frequencies and sequences of moves and steps were calculated using chi-square to find the differences. The results revealed that there were significant differences between the abstracts by TEFL students from UT and IAUG. The findings indicated that TEFL students from IAUG followed the IMRD and CARS more than TEFL students from UT. The findings of this study have some pedagogical implications for both non-native writers and postgraduate students as well as English academic writing teachers and students.  

Various studies suggest that it is important to determine students' personality charecteristics and assertiveness and make them aware of these differences in order to improve learning process and outcomes. This study aimed to find out how much of the variance in postgraduate students’ assertiveness is explained by five personality characteristics (i.e., Openness, Neuroticism, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) and which one of these characteristics significantly predicts the students’ assertiveness. To this end, 66 postgraduate students within the age range of 22 to 35 participated in this descriptive correlational study. They were majoring in English language teaching at Islamic Azad University,Tabriz Branch, Tabriz, Iran. The College Self-expression Scale (CSES) and Big-Five Personality Inventory were used to assess the students’ level of assertiveness and their personality characteristics, respectively. In order to answer the research questions, a multiple linear regression analysis was carried out. The results revealed that about 14 percent of the postgraduate students’ assertiveness is explained by five personality characteristics and out of them, only Extroversion has a significant contribution to their assertiveness. The pedagogical implications are presented for teachers, students, syllabus designers, and materials writers.

To better illuminate the link between scaffolding and visual aids, this quasi-experimental study attempted to scaffold an intact group of 14 intermediate-level Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners through providing graphs with the aim of enhancing their writing ability. Ensuring lack of familiarity with eight unknown words, they were scaffolded through visual images. The scaffolding process included three respective phases of contingency, fading, and transferring. As post-tests for checking the learners’ understanding of and opinion about the graph scaffolding process, a researcher-made questionnaire and a semi-structured interview followed the treatment phase. The results of the questionnaire showed that visual scaffolding aided the learners to better grasp the meaning of the target vocabularies and even some grammatical points in the materials. Moreover, the visual scaffolding helped them to produce the material in different modalities. The results also indicated all the three characteristics of scaffolding were met by the visual scaffolding. Finally, the interview results revealed the learners had favorable attitude toward visual scaffolding and considered the third phase of the scaffolding as the most challenging one. It can be concluded that the findings gave credence to the effectiveness of visual scaffolding in improving EFL students’ writing ability.

This study explored the autonomy of advanced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in reading comprehension through scaffolding and jigsaw in computer-assisted and conventional contexts. After being homogenized through the reading section of DIALANG proficiency test, a total of 80 female advanced EFL learners with the age range of 21 to 45 were selected as the participants of the study. They were randomly assigned to four groups: experimental group A (scaffolding in a conventional context), experimental group B (scaffolding in a computer-assisted context), experimental group C (jigsaw in a conventional context), and experimental group D (jigsaw in a computer-assisted context). Next, the autonomy in RC questionnaire, which was designed and piloted by Ebadi and Shirzad (in press), was administered as the pretest. Then, the learners in each group took part in three months (16 sessions) autonomy in reading comprehension training courses. After the treatment, the same autonomy in RC questionnaire was administered as the posttest. One-way ANCOVA was used to analyze the quantitative data. The results revealed that although both jigsaw and scaffolding approaches were successful in both conventional and computer assisted contexts from pre-test to post-test, the scaffolding method proved more effective. Moreover, both the scaffolding and jigsaw approaches were more effective in computer-assisted environment compared to conventional contexts, with the scaffolding CA approach outperforming the jigsaw CA technique. The findings’ implications for learners, teachers, and syllabus designers are discussed in both contexts.