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This article sets out to examine the effect of utilizing different culturally-based materials on EFL university students' foreign language reading anxiety, reading comprehension self-efficacy, and reading proficiency within project-based classes. The research was carried out with two classes of intermediate freshmen majoring in English Language Teaching. The comparison group had to present their projects based on the reading passages of the book "Active" (L2 culturally-oriented texts) and the experimental group had to deliver their projects based on their L1 and L2 culturally-based reading texts designed by the researcher. Reading comprehension self-efficacy scale, foreign language reading anxiety scale, and the reading section of the Michigan Test (1998) were administered to students as pre-tests and post-tests at the beginning and at the end of one academic year consisting of two project-based reading courses. ANCOVA was utilized for analyzing the data. The results indicated that although in both groups significant improvements were observed regarding the three aforementioned variables, it was the experimental group that showed significantly less degrees of anxiety, compared to the comparison group. However, no differences regarding reading self-efficacy and reading proficiency were observed between the two groups. The findings of this study suggest that EFL teachers, material developers and syllabus designers can take advantage of cultural familiar texts when generating their own learning materials.

Drawing on the literature on the emergence of different varieties of English in the globalized world, current debates surrounding English as an international language (EIL), and more orientation towards intelligibility and mutual understanding in international communication, this article reports the findings of a quantitative and qualitative research study with 112 native American and British, 120 Indian and 120 Iranian teachers as members of Inner Circle (IC), Outer Circle (OC) and Expanding Circle (EC) (Kachru, 1992) to explore their attitudes towards pronunciation pedagogy within the framework of English as an international language and  how they see their role in relation to different varieties of English. The findings demonstrate the extent to which teachers’ acceptance of pronunciation and varieties of English differs. In particular, the Iranian teachers’ norm-bound orientation was found to be the greatest among the three groups. Native English teachers’ replies were also indicative of their acceptance of different varieties of English. Teachers’ preferences will be discussed with consideration of their attitudes towards varieties of English which might have influenced the construction of English teachers’ identity and the educational policy of each country. The findings also highlight the localization of L2 language planning and policies in an EIL pedagogy. This article argues that, together with encouraging and valuing different varieties of English, it is important to acknowledge and promote ways to raise awareness of teachers and learners towards global spread of English and the realities of English today which can be really helpful to be more realistic and not just blind followers of a particular model. Keywords: Pronunciation, Intelligibility, English as an International Language, Language Awareness, Identity   نگرش معلمان نسبت به انواع انگلیسی جهانی: معیار های تلفظ در زبان انگلیسی و  نوع آموزش تلفظ زبان انگلیسی در لایه های درونی، بیرونی، و رو به گسترش زبان انگلیسی یکی از مهمترین موضوعات در حوزه آموزش زبان توجه به انواع انگلیسی جهانی از دیدگاه تلفظ زبان انگلیسی و نوع آموزش تلفظ می باشد. تمامی افراد حتی غیر بومی ها عضوی از جامعه انگلیسی به عنوان زبان بین المللی می باشند و هیچ گروهی دستور زبانی خاصی راتعیین نمی کند. بومی سازی زبان نقش مهمی در ارتباط میان افراد در یک جامعه خاص را دارد. اهمیت موضوع تلفظ می تواند به دو دلیل اصلی است: اول، ساخت فهم که اشاره به ایجاد یک گفتمان قابل فهم در میان شرکت کنندگان در یک چارچوب ارتباطی دارد. دوم، با در نظر گرفتن نقش اصلی تلفظ درزبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان بین المللی و راه آن است که شکل آگاهی زبان آموزان نسبت به هویت فرهنگی اجتماعی خود را شکل می دهد .مقاله حاضر با استفاده از روش تجزیه و تحلیل کمی و کیفی به بررسی دیدگاه معلمان در سه لایه زبانی (112 معلم بومی انگلیس و آمریکا: لایه درونی؛ 120 معلم هندی: لایه بیرونی؛ و 120 معلم ایرانی؛ لایه روبه گسترش)، اعتقادات و نگرش آنها نسبت به هنجارهای تلفظ و آموزش آن می پردازد، چرا که آنها می توانند با توجه به عوامل اجتماعی فرهنگی و سیاسی متفاوت  تغییر کنند.  این مطالعه همچنین نسبت به تغییر نگرش معلمین نسبت به انگلیسی بومی و سوق دادن آنها بسوی اهمیت زبان بر اساس قابل فهم بودن و توجه به ارتباط میان مخاطبین تا تلفظ بومی خاص زبا انگلیسی توجه دارد. توجه ویژه به انواع انگلیسی های جهانی و حفظ هویت فرهنگی خود به هنگام یادگیری زبان خارجی از دیگر اهداف این تحقیق می باشد کلمات کلیدی: تلفظ، گفتمان قابل فهم ، انگلیسی به عنوان زبان بین المللی، آگاهی زبانی ،  هویت

Oral Communication Strategies are conscious techniques that L2 interlocutors employ to overcome the communication breakdowns in the target language. Hence, they can help to promote the effectiveness of communication ability. However, it must be noted that many variables can influence the use of these strategies. The present study, therefore, aimed to investigate the role of language proficiency and cultural background variables on the use of oral communication strategies. After piloting the Oral Communication Strategy Inventory and Cultural Milieu and examining the reliability analysis as well as the construct validity, the questionnaires were administered to 320 participants majoring in the English language at B.A and M.A levels. Then, SPSS 18.0 computer program was used to analyze the collected data. Next, an interview was held to gain more information on the use of strategies by the Iranian EFL learners. The results of this inquiry revealed that there is no significant difference between learners at different language proficiency levels in terms of oral communication strategies use, while there is a significant difference between different cultural backgrounds in the use of OCSs. The findings of this research can be useful for developing the use of oral communication strategies among EFL learners, particularly with Persian and Turkish cultural backgrounds.

The present research investigated the effect of self-regulatory approach (with two components of self-checking and self-efficacy) on pre-intermediate Iranian learners' lexical segmentation in listening comprehension via authentic listening comprehension texts. To achieve this purpose, the investigators administered an Oxford Placement Test (2007) to ninety-eight students of two girls’ private junior high schools in Abadan. The participants were in grade seven at pre-intermediate level. Ninety-two students were selected out of ninety-eight and after homogenizing the participants linguistically, they were divided into four groups. Twenty-three students of every 4 classes whose scores were nearly the same were considered as one group. There were one control group and three experimental groups. A teacher-made pretest which was piloted by the researchers was administered to all groups. Then, the experimental groups were instructed under an eight-sessions treatment which was self-regulated teaching via authentic and non-authentic texts. Finally, the participants took a posttest similar to the pretest on lexical segmentation in listening comprehension. Both pretest and posttest reliability were calculated with Cronbach Alpha. Statistical analyses were done through one-way ANOVA. the result of the study indicated that self-regulated approach teaching through authentic materials can improve learners’ lexical segmentation of listening comprehension.

The present study explored the effect of a pedagogical blog on Iranian EFL learners’ creative and critical thinking skills using a mixed-methods approach. In the pedagogical blog, the researchers asked learners divergent and evaluative questions based on Lindley’s model (1993). The quantitative data were collected by administering Creativity Test Questionnaire (ATC) and the Persian version of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test and were analyzed using SPSS Version 16.0 software. The qualitative data consisted of the posts written by the participants of the study in the class blog and were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that the pedagogical blog significantly improved the participants’ creative and critical thinking skills, which were represented in their posts by the main themes of fluency, elaboration, and flexibility as components of divergent thinking and inference, evaluation, induction, and reconstruction as features of open and active critical thinking skills. Further findings and implications are discussed in the paper.

This study investigated the impact of visual-kinesthetic tasks on ESP university students’ vocabulary learning. Two intact classes of university students were selected as control (23 students) and experimental (36 students) group. A proficiency test, a pretest and a posttest were administered and the students were exposed to a set of treatments. Also a questionnaire administered to students, recognized each student’s learning style. The posttest mean score of experimental group was significantly different from control group’s posttest proved significant effect of visual and kinesthetic activities on ESP students’ vocabulary learning. Also this significant effect was repeated regarding student’ related learning style.

The aim of the present study is to investigate and compare the choice of language used in an online platform (Facebook) and during offline communication with reference to a family member, a friend, and an acquaintance in the same multilingual speech community. As part of this study, a structured sociolinguistics questionnaire was administered to 38 multilingual postgraduate students. This is followed by interviewing selected focus group to elicit more information on various factors that influence their language behavior. The major finding of this study is that apart from family circle, a majority of multilingual users in India prefer to use English for Facebook private communications only among friends and acquaintances while Mother tongue is the dominant language use for offline communications.