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Learners’ self-regulation is of paramount importance in online language learning. Thus, the present study was conducted to compare three online instructional methods of Technology-Mediated Task-Based Language Teaching (TM-TBLT), Problem-Based Instruction Online (PBIO), and Online Flipped Learning (OFL) with each other and with lecture-based online teaching in terms of their effect on language learners’ self-regulation.  To this end, 120 intermediate-level English learners were selected through convenience sampling, screened through the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT), and assigned (randomly) to one control and three experimental groups. They received instruction according to the principles of TM-TBLT, PBIO, OFL and a conventional lecture-based method, respectively. The data were collected using an online self-regulated English learning (OSEL) questionnaire and analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The findings revealed that all three experimental treatments had significant effects on online language learning self-regulation. The comparisons showed that all three instructional methods were equally effective in improving the participants’ online self-regulation. The findings will have practical implications for teachers to choose the best-fitting online instructional methods for improving learners’ self-regulation in online contexts. These findings can also help syllabus designers and material developers to write syllabi or create materials with special attention to fostering language learners’ self-regulation.

The paradigm shift from traditional language curricula to communicative ones necessitates the (re)evaluation of language materials from the perspective of learner-centered pedagogy. The purpose of this study was to compare two English coursebooks (i.e., Interchange 2 and Four Corners 2) in terms of learner-centeredness based on the criteria of the existing theories. For the purpose of this mixed methods study, a directed content analysis (DCA) was initially done to develop a framework based on the related theories for evaluating learner-centeredness of the activities and tasks in language materials, involving six subcategories (i.e., information gap, open-endedness, contextualization, authenticity, discursivity, and skill integration). Moreover, fourteen types of learner-centered activities and tasks were identified from different theoretical sources, which fell under the six categories of the learner-centeredness framework. To validate the framework, it was expert-wised. It was found that the directed approach to content analysis supported and extended the existing theories of learner-centeredness using the contextual aspects of the phenomenon. In the second phase of the study, the types of tasks and activities in the two coursebooks were identified and analyzed through summative content analysis using the researcher-developed framework. Finally, the quantitative data gathered after coding the corpus were statistically analyzed to check whether there was any significant difference between the two coursebooks in terms of the learner-centeredness of their tasks and activities. The result of Mann-Whitney Test showed that there was no significant difference between the frequency of the learner-centered activities and tasks in Interchange 2 and Four Corners 2. The findings of this study may carry implications for the language instructors, learners, and material developers.

Drawing on the team-teaching model of multiple instruction, this study aimed to investigate the impact of team-teaching on the English language achievement of Iranian high school students. The study employed a sequential explanatory mixed-method design, consisting of two phases for data collection and analysis. In the quantitative phase, 40 male and 40 female students aged 16-18 were conveniently sampled from tenth-grade high schools in Lahijan, Iran. They were divided into two experimental and two control groups. The experimental groups received instruction using the team-teaching model, while the control groups received traditional instruction. Data analysis was conducted using one-way ANOVA, which revealed a statistically significant improvement in the performance of the experimental groups compared to the control groups. Due to gender differences, the results showed no significant disparities in the outcomes achieved by male and female students. In the qualitative phase, the same participants from the experimental groups were asked to provide open-ended responses regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the team-teaching method, using a questionnaire developed by Jones and Harris (2012). The responses were carefully examined using open coding techniques, and common themes were identified through systematic comparison of the codes. The findings indicated that team-teaching offered a wide range of benefits. Considering gender differences, it was evident that male participants perceived the benefits of the team-teaching model to outweigh the drawbacks more than their female counterparts. These findings have pedagogical implications for Iranian teachers and theoreticians in the field of English language instruction.

This investigation aimed to examine the impact of spaced and massed education on the reading comprehension and vocabulary gain of Iranian EFL students. The researcher selected 150 Iranian participants out of 300 based on their enactment in the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). The selected medium participants were unsystematically assigned into two empirical groupings (spacing and massed) and one control group. The participants' reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge in English were estimated using a pre-test. Three groups were provided with instruction on reading skills by English texts and new words from American English File 3. The massed group received a 90-minute session for each text, whereas the spaced group received three 30-minute sessions; the first session lasted 30 minutes, followed by two more sessions, each lasting 30 minutes, scheduled two days apart. Behind the teaching, a reading and vocabulary post-test post-test were distributed to the three classes. The results of data analysis utilizing independent samples t-tests and one-way ANOVA showed a considerable distinction between the post-tests of the spaced and massed groups compared to the control group. The findings demonstrate that the spaced grouping, which followed the specific recommended steps in their community, outperformed the massed and control groups (p < .05). This has consequential implications for English instructors, learners, and curriculum developers.

Our planet faces major environmental issues that must be addressed through ecological initiatives, education, and awareness raising. In language education, ecolinguistics has grown substantially during the last decade and has taken a cognitive step toward fostering and improving people’s ecological awareness; however, there was no mention of pedagogical practices of ecolinguistics rooted in theories of second language teaching and learning. Thus, the present study sought to apply a framework of English teaching based on the Activity Theory to raise EFL learners’ ecological critical language awareness. The researchers of the current quasi-experimental study employed a non-equivalent pretest and posttest control-group design to assess the effectiveness of using an AT-based framework in EFL classes to foster learners’ critical language awareness of ecological issues. An experimental group (n=45) and a control group (n=45) with intermediate-level members selected through convenience sampling took part in the study. The experimental group was taught with the AT-based framework, while the control group was not. The result of the independent samples t-test indicated that the ECLA of the experimental group had risen significantly compared to the control group. Also, the results of a series of paired samples t-tests comparing the pretest and posttest of the experimental group’s score on each domain of the ECLA showed that the learners’ awareness of all six domains had significantly improved. The study suggests that implementing the AT-based framework to teach ecolinguistics in language classes can be a promising way to raise learners’ ECLA.

Possible selves represent individuals' ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become and what they are afraid of becoming. This paper, using a mixed method design, probes the possible teaching selves of 108 pre-service and 41 in-service Iranian EFL teachers to explore their professional fears and hopes. Data were collected via Possible Language Teacher Self Questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the qualitative data using MAXQDA demonstrated the fears and hopes of the teachers in terms of professionalism, instructional strategies, classroom management and professional interpersonal relationship. Moreover, both fears and hopes were found to be rooted in personal (cognitive and affective) and social (mostly organizational) sources. Further, analysis of quantitative data via ANOVA, independent-samples T-test also revealed that the pre-service teachers and their in-service counterparts are similar in terms of their feared and ideal to selves whereas their ought self has a determining role in justifying the observable variations in their possible self. In addition, pre-service teachers' year of education was also found to be a significant factor affecting their possible selves; that is, it was shown that first-year, second-year and third-year pre-service teachers' ought self is significantly different from that of in-service teachers. Nevertheless, there was no significant difference between fourth-year-pre-service teachers and in-service teachers in terms of their ought self. 

Cet article s’interroge sur la traduction des métaphores politiques dans le discours diplomatique des hommes d’Etat iraniens au cours des deux périodes qui précédent et suivent le PAGC. En optant le modèle de la traduction des métaphores proposées par Hagström, cette étude vise à découvrir les méthodes et les stratégies de traduction que les traducteurs utilisent lorsqu’ils sont confrontés à des métaphores politiques venant des cartes conceptuelles éloignées. Il en ressort que pour les sphères sociolinguistiques éloignées (Iran vs pays occidentaux) tout un large éventail des stratégies est utilisé afin de restituer les allusions métaphoriques. En outre, il paraît que les stratégies de la traduction des métaphores politiques sont plus variées dans la période de Pré-PAGC, alors que durant la période de Post-PAGC les stratégies sont moins variées et elles se contentent de restituer une traduction littérale (reprise de la même métaphore de la culture source et sa restitution dans la langue-culture cible), réclamant ainsi une lecture plus active de la part des destinataires

In Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, the way the Anthropocenic set of circumstances is narrated could not be easily explained away through giving precedence to either materialist or structuralist narratologists. In this sense, neither the materiality of the environment nor the arbitrary categories and models of structuralists such as Greimas could determine the ultimate narratological scheme with which one could make sense out of such set of circumstances. Only through modifying the extant narratological categories and models and exposing their arbitrariness via indicating their incapability to contain the formidable materiality of the environment, one could reach a workable semiotic framework for devising a narrative out of the anthropocenic set of circumstances. Reaching this framework would be the present study’s research objective. As its findings, the study recognizes that such a framework would not give the agency of devising narration to either non-human/environmental or human entities in the anthropocene, and at the same time will be the result of the uneasy, yet workable, coupling of these entities. This framework would also acknowledge the uncontainable nature of the environment in the anthropocene, and turn both human and non-human entities into mere actants that have no particular motivation. The study uses the modified narratological models of Algirdas Greimas and Amitav Gosh proposed by critics like Hanes Bergthaller, Marco Caracciolo and Jean Paul Petitimbert to reach this semiotic framework.  

The present study aims to explore negation patterns in Ardalani, a variety of central Kurdish (Sorani) spoken mainly in Sanandaj, within the typological framework proposed by Miestamo (2005). This framework explains the main negation patterns found in the languages of the world as symmetric, asymmetric, and symmetric-asymmetric. Although Miestamo applied this stypological framework to analyze a wide range of languages, none of the Kurdish dialects are represented in his study. The data used in the present study comprises 263 negative sentences with their affirmative counterparts, which were obtained from the spoken Sorani material broadcast on Kurdistan Radio and Television. The results indicate that Ardalani follows a symmetric-asymmetric pattern. It reveals a symmetric pattern in the past tense with perfective and imperfective habitual aspect but displays an asymmetric pattern in the imperfective continuous aspect and modal structures. For the sentences in the imperfective continuous aspect, the speakers apply either A/Fin/Neg-LV or A/Cat/ATM. In the former, the verb loses finiteness and the features move to the available copula in the structure. In the latter, the aspect changes from continuous to habitual, a more common strategy. Modal structures also follow A/Cat/ATM, in which the modal marker is removed and replaced with the negation marker. However, the modal content remains semantically the same as its affirmative counterpart. 

What we know about the vision of an ideal Young Learners of English (YLE) classroom environment is only limited to a number of small-scale qualitative studies that have explored the development of teachers’ vision throughout their careers. This gap prompted the researchers of this study to pursue the development of a psychometrically valid measure of the factors involved in teachers’ vision of an ideal YLE classroom environment. To this end, an item pool was developed based on an extensive literature review, expert opinion, and interviews with 60 YLE teachers. Next, the first version of the questionnaire was administered to 366 YLE teachers from different cities of Iran. Confirmatory factor analyses through structural equation modeling procedures were applied to the data obtained to test the validity of the hypothetical model. Rounds of statistical analyses and the follow-up remodeling led to a final measurement model of a questionnaire with 23 items tapping into five factors of learner characteristics, attitudes toward the course, teacher characteristics, classroom environment, and organizational impact. The results of this study empirically support the multidimensionality of YLE teachers’ vision of an ideal classroom environment and yield a relatively concrete measure of the construct.

The incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into language development has garnered considerable interest, especially within the realm of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education. Psychological flow is regarded as a pivotal element that affects learning outcomes; however, its significance in the context of AI-assisted language learning has yet to be thoroughly investigated. This study examines the relationship between psychological flow induced by AI, tendencies of fortitude, mental health, and critical thinking among 214 university students enrolled in EFL programs who utilized AI-integrated language learning aids. Data were gathered via structured online surveys, and the relationships among the variables were examined utilizing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings suggest that the psychological flow induced by AI has a substantial impact on learners' levels of fortitude, mental well-being, and critical thinking. The findings indicate that when learners engage in AI-assisted language learning and experience a state of flow, they exhibit elevated levels of perseverance, improved mental well-being, and enhanced critical thinking. These outcomes underscore the dual function of flow in AI-assisted language learning, as it not only augments learners' cognitive engagement but also fosters positive emotional states that are conducive to improved mental health and enhanced problem-solving abilities. The findings of the study possess significant pedagogical implications, indicating that AI-based platforms ought to be developed to promote a state of fluidity by integrating personalized learning trajectories, real-time feedback mechanisms, and engaging features.

In audiovisual translation, where video game localization plays a critical role, integrating visual elements with spoken content is essential. This study investigates the translation of expressions within the video game Civilization , exploring the prevailing norms of adaptation in Persian translation. The study has two main objectives: first, to examine the application of Skopos theory principles in the Persian translation of Civilization ; second, to analyze the adaptation strategies based on Bastin’s (2005) model in this translation. For this purpose, a corpus of English text segments from the Civilization video game and their Persian translations was selected and analyzed. Using Skopos theory and Bastin’s adaptation model, the study examines adaptation strategies. The findings illuminate how adaptation strategies an6 d societal ideologies interact within the context of video game localization. Ultimately, the study reveals that, as video games are primarily designed for enjoyment, coherence as an adaptation strategy should be prioritized to enhance the game's appeal.

This study explores video game localization as a rapidly expanding field with significant potential in Iran’s market, focusing on Zula , the Persian localized version of the video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) . The comparison examines various aspects of the games, including loading pages, user interface, settings, game modes, gameplay mechanics, announcements and voices, character adaptation, maps and weapons, monetization strategies, resource systems, items and accessories, as well as bugs. The findings demonstrate that Zula effectively integrates Iranian cultural values through features such as localized maps, Persian-language text, and culturally neutralized characters, fostering a sense of national identity and enhancing the overall user experience. However, the study also identifies shortcomings in the localization process, particularly regarding writing direction and translation inconsistencies, emphasizing the need for improvements in translation practices.

While second language acquisition can be a complex and time-consuming process, developing efficient approaches that are less demanding on the part of the learner can greatly enhance the learning outcomes. The present study was an attempt to explore the potential application of priming as an approach to enhance the production of motion phrasal verbs. Ninety students were divided into intermediate and upper-intermediate groups based on their proficiency levels. The participants were required to narrate a silent movie as a baseline written production task. In the next stage, for the purpose of priming, they were required to read a storybook containing instances of motion events expressed in phrasal verbs. Immediately afterward, the participants were asked to narrate a second silent movie. The researchers also administered a working memory test to investigate its potential impact on the learning outcomes. The results indicated that only the upper-intermediate group benefited from the priming mechanism. Additionally, the results suggested that working memory did not show a significant predictive role in implicit learning within the specific context of motion phrasal verbs. These findings are in line with the processability hypothesis, which posits that developmental readiness plays a significant role in language learning.