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In spite of the resurgence of interest in teachers' language assessment literacy (LAL), teachers' critical language assessment literacy (CLAL) has not garnered satisfactory prominence. This constitutes a substantial void in the extant corpus of literature that this study will address. To this illumination, a cross-sectional survey research approach utilizing the Critical Language Assessment Literacy (CLAL) scale (Tajeddin et al., 2022) was employed to accomplish the stated purpose of the study. The current study conveniently selected 120 Iranian EFL teachers in different language institutes and universities in Tehran and Kermanshah province. To analyze data, descriptive (e.g., mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (e.g., one sample t-test) were employed to illustrate a comprehensive answer to the study's primary research question. The results of the one-sample t-test and the mean value for all CLAL items showed that teachers have moderate or low knowledge of CLAL factors. In addition, the findings signposted that effective teachers must retain high linguistic competence, teaching/learning cognition, and knowledge of critical language assessment literacy factors; this could be accomplished by including these factors in teacher training programs. These findings displaying shortcomings and gaps in the critical language assessment literacy (CLAL) level of Iranian EFL teachers hold many theoretical and pedagogical implications for teacher development in the realm of assessment and testing at the practice, policy, and professional development levels.

Teacher identity has been studied from several perspectives. However, the present study makes an attempt to investigate the process of identity formation through narrative telling from the framework of complexity theory. In a case study design semi-structured interview data and teacher-produced diaries of a novice Iranian English teacher were analyzed in order to identify attractors of identity formation. As a result, four major attractors that had the strongest effect on the process of identity formation were detected. Then the mechanisms through which these attractors exerted influence on identity formation are discussed. Finally, it has been argued that narrative construction of identity requires the individual to stress different aspects of their identity at different times; and that the phase shifts that occurred when the identity system moved in the direction of another attractor were triggered by the moment-to-moment requirements of narrative formation. The findings are followed by a discussion of pedogogical and theoretical implications.

This study investigated Iranian English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners’ use of vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) and its interrelationship with breadth of vocabulary knowledge (VK), depth of vocabulary knowledge and learning styles especially in relation to gender and age. There was a significant relationship between determination VLS and depth of VK. Learning styles of theorist, reflector and activist provided the basis for increasing and improving breadth of VK. Also, there was a significant and incremental (direct) relationship between theorist, reflector & activist learning styles with depth of VK. In three groups of theorist, reflector, and activist learning styles, social VLS provided the basis for increasing and improving breadth of VK. Also, in three groups of pragmatist, theorist & reflector learning styles, there is a significant and direct relationship between memory VLS and breadth of VK. In males group, there was a significant and direct effect between determination VLS and breadth of VK. Furthermore, in females group, there was a significant and direct relationship between social VLS and depth of VK. Considering the age of participants, in the age group of 20-24 years, there was a significant and direct relationship between metacognitive VLS and breadth of VK. However, in the age group of 25-30 years, there was a significant and direct relationship between cognitive VLS and breadth of VK. Given the important mediating effects of gender and age, it is proposed that vocabulary learning be strategically and stylistically integrated into the accumulative process of English learning.

This study was an attempt to explore the impacts of recast and prompt as two types of corrective feedback on the development of knowledge of past tense by Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners. This study followed quasi- experimental design including pre-test, treatment, an immediate post-test, and a delayed post-test procedure. Initially, the pretest data from learners' performance on the Oral Performance Test (OPT) and the Untimed Grammatical Judgment Test (UGJT) was collected. After administering the pretest, the researchers gave the treatment to two experimental groups. Recast corrective feedback was supplied to the first experimental group, prompt corrective feedback was provided to the second experimental group, and no specific corrective feedback was given to the control group. The immediate post-test was given immediately following the delayed post-test, which was performed three weeks later. The findings of the study showed that when it came to their explicit and implicit knowledge of past tense, students who received prompt or recast corrective feedback outperformed those who received no particular corrective feedback. The results also showed that in this area, students in the group receiving prompt corrective feedback still did significantly much better than those in the recast group. The findings of this study may be useful for all stakeholders in the field of education but particularly for language teachers and students. They would benefit language teachers, teacher trainers, and material developers interested in employing task-based approach with feedback in their pedagogical activities.

With the global spread of English as the lingua franca for academic publishing, non-native researchers and university students are constantly facing linguistic barriers including insufficient vocabulary knowledge in writing for publication. This persistent need motivated the development of a good number of corpus-based word lists for frequently used academic and technical words in research articles across disciplines. Nevertheless, despite its importance in corpus-based study of language for word list development, replication research has received far less attention in this line of inquiry. The current study aimed to address this gap and replicated two published studies that investigated the use of academic vocabulary in applied linguistics research articles. To this end, research articles published from 2010 to 2020 in 20 well-known journals in the field were collected, and a corpus with around 48 million words was compiled and analyzed. The findings indicated that academic vocabulary accounted for 11.46% of the corpus, which is similar and close to the reported coverage of the AWL in replicated studies. However, regarding the frequently occurring academic and non-academic content words, the findings showed considerable variation with respect to the results reported earlier. In light of these findings, the study highlighted the importance of replication research to test the reliability of corpus-based vocabulary studies that developed field-specific academic word lists. Finally, the study developed an updated version for applied linguistics academic word list, that might be regarded as a resource and guide for the vocabulary learning component of the relevant EAP programs in the field.

Interference or transfer from language learners’ first language (L1) is one of the significant variables that contributes to the complexity of SLA process and usually persists intensely at the initial stages of L2 acquisition and development. Drawing upon Meriläinen’s (2010) taxonomy of lexical transfer errors, the present study intended to explore Iranian EFL learners’ lexical transfer error caused by word form, word meaning, and word use. To this aim, a corpus of 189 compositions written by 89 male and 100 female students was investigated. The results revealed that females in general had more lexical transfer errors than males, and that a large amount of the errors stemmed from word use (54%) which was followed by word form (36%) and lastly word meaning (10%). The findings of the study suggest that shifting the students’ attention from vocabulary size to vocabulary depth and exposing them to a large number of authentic collocations and prefabricated patterns are advisable activities that might counteract negative lexical transfer.

After nearly a decade since the recognition of the importance of theticals, traditionally referred to as parenthetical constructions (see Kaltenböck et al. 2011; Heine et al. 2013), there has been a flurry of research on these linguistic elements across various languages, including but not limited to Romance languages (Schneider, 2007), Chinese (Long et al., 2019), Persian (Kazemian & Amouzadeh, 2019), and Arabic (Haddad, 2020). However, it appears that theticals still remain relatively understudied and warrant more comprehensive and fresh examination. This lack of interest in studying theticals, particularly those inherent in interaction, has prompted Bernd Heine to undertake writing a new book, “The Grammar of Interactives”, dedicated to these items and analyzing them as a distinct level called interactive grammar (IG) which works alongside sentence grammar (SG) to facilitate successful communication. The book is structured in a cohesive and organized manner, consisting of an introduction, six main chapters, and a conclusion, totaling eight chapters in all. This structure properly presents the book's content by establishing the context and scope in the introduction, delving into the subject matter in the core chapters each exploring a specific theme related to the overall subject, and providing a sense of closure and reflection in the conclusion.

Many studies have advocated the importance of teaching critical thinking (CT) skills, and have also provided some suggestions for its effective pedagogy. However, there is a dearth of research examining the efficacy of such instruction. This quantitative(quasi-experimental) and qualitative study aimed to investigate the impact of explicit instruction of critical thinking (CT) on university students’ critical thinking skills measured through the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) used as both pre- and post-test. The participants comprised four groups of 15-16 students each. The groups received different CT treatments: Critical Linguistics (CL) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (group 1), 11 Questions (group 2), CL and CDA followed by Peer Evaluation (group 3), and a control group (group 4) that only read about CT without practicing it. After receiving instruction on CT, the three treatment groups (1-3) critically analyzed 33 texts over 11 sessions. The results of the study indicated that Group 3 (CT & CDA followed by PE) had the highest improvement in their WGCTA scores from pre-to post-test, followed by Groups 2 and 1, while the control group showed no significant gain. The findings imply that reflecting critically on language learning materials can reveal hidden cultural and ideological elements within the texts. This can significantly enhance learners' advanced thinking skills, as well as support them in resisting cultural imperialism.      

Multiple-choice (MC) item format is commonly used in educational assessments due to its economy and effectiveness across a variety of content domains. However, numerous studies have examined the quality of MC items in high-stakes and higher education assessments and found many flawed items, especially in terms of distractors. These faulty items lead to misleading insights about the performance of students and the final decisions. The analysis of distractors is typically conducted in educational assessments with multiple-choice items to ensure high quality items are used as the basis of inference. Item response theory (IRT) and Rasch models have received little attention for analyzing distractors. For that reason, the purpose of the present study was to apply the Rasch model, to a grammar test to analyze items’ distractors of the test. To achieve this, the current study investigated the quality of 10 instructor-written MC grammar items used in an undergraduate final exam, using the items responses of 310 English as a foreign language (EFL) students who had taken part in an advanced grammar course. The results showed the acceptable fit to the Rasch model and high reliability. Malfunctioning distractors were identified.

This study was an endeavor to explore the main sources of EFL learners' writing problems through dialogic interactions. It also investigated the effect of metaphor and metonymy on EFL learners' writing achievement. To achieve this end, the researcher adopted mixed-method research with a sample of intermediate language students from both genders. In the qualitative section, 20 EFL learners were selected through purposive sampling, and in the quantitative section, 120 language students were selected through convenience sampling from a university in Gorgan. Data were gathered through Quick Oxford Placement Test (OPT), writing tests, and a semi-structured interview. After recording and transcribing the interviews, the transcripts of the interviews were formatted using the software NVIVO 11 Pro®. With the help of this software, the textual data were reduced into some statements which could reflect the main ideas of the participants’ lived experiences without any intervention from the researcher. However, the data of the tests were inserted into SPSS software and the ANCOVA test was run to indicate differences between the three groups in terms of their writing improvement. The main results suggested that metaphor and metonymy through dialogic interactions had significant effects on the participations’ writing achievement. As well as that, findings from the analysis of data revealed the four main sources of writing problems as linguistic, personal, epistemological, and ecological.       

This study aimed at examining the effects of the feedback types designed based on the regulatory focus theory (i.e., prevention vs. promotion) and reference of comparison (i.e., normative vs. self-referential) on achievement emotions and achievement goals. One hundred intermediate English language learners were assigned to four experimental groups, promotion, prevention, self-referential, normative, and one control group (N= 20 for each). The participants in the experimental groups received feedback based on their assignment for 16 sessions, and their achievement emotions and achievement goals were assessed before and after the intervention. ANCOVA analyses revealed that significant differences existed between the four experimental groups and the control group regarding achievement emotions and achievement goals. Self-referential feedback and promotion feedback increased positive emotions and led students to mastery-approach and mastery-avoidance goal adoption, while normative feedback and prevention feedback increased negative emotions. Furthermore, normative feedback positively affected performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. Prevention-focused feedback had a positive effect on mastery-avoidance goals. The researchers recommended that teachers use feedback emphasizing learners’ growth and improvement as a means for progress check. 

This study compared the Discussion section of theses written by M.A. English L1 and L2 students regarding lexical sophistication. Certain linguistic features were applied to investigate whether texts written in English L2 had any similarities or differences with native speakers’ (NSs) texts. To achieve this, 20 English L2 theses authored by Iranian M.A. students of Islamic Azad University of Isfahan (Khorasgan), were sampled. As such, 20 English L1 theses written by M.A. English NSs of the same major in the US and UK were randomly downloaded as a comparison corpus of English L1. The corpora were later uploaded to Coh-Matrix that processes text and discourse at different levels of language. Two main statistical procedures for data analysis were the MANOVA (Multivariate Analysis of Variance) and Discriminant Function Analysis. According to Coh-Metrix analysis, the results revealed certain similarities and differences between the corpora. Specifically, more CELEX content words were used in the NSs theses. However, the differences between the two corpora did not reach a statistical significance in terms of other indices of lexical sophistication (i.e., polysemy, concreteness, hypernymy, age-of-acquisition scores, and lexical diversity). Concerning these similarities and differences, academic writing pedagogy and theses writing abilities of Iranian English L2 learners can be improved by applying both word processing tools like Coh-Metrix, appropriate writing strategies and techniques according to the given results of current contrastive corpus study.

Literature review confirms that TBCOA and ST were effective in improving EFL learners’ writing skills. However, a new study is necessary to compare the rate of effectiveness of these activities and techniques on Iranian intermediate L2 learners' writing performance. Moreover, the impact of two types of TBCOA versus two types of ST on intermediate EFL learners' writing performance was compared. This research followed a quasi-experimental design. A sample of 80 intermediate-level EFL learners, selected through convenience sampling from a private language school, constituted the participants. The learners were divided into four groups. The homogeneity of the participants in terms of writing performance was checked through a quick placement test at the outset of the study. Furthermore, the effects of debating vs. dictogloss., teacher scaffolding vs. peer scaffolding, and overall TBCOA vs. overall ST were compared through ANCOVA, with the pretest scores treated as the covariate. Debating outperformed dictogloss, teacher scaffolding was more effective than peer, and the overall TBCOA group significantly performed better than the general ST group in writing performance. The learners' interview results concerning the role of TBCOA and ST in their writing production resulted in several common themes, which were categorized into 16 codes for debating, 11 codes for dictogloss, six common codes for teacher scaffolding and peer scaffolding. This study provides implications for EFL writing instruction.