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This article examines the impact of gender, age, and education on the attitudes of Kurdish speakers in Mahabad towards standard Persian and the Kurdish language. Since people’s emotions towards their own or others’ languages are related to their language attitudes, this important component plays a significant role in measuring success in language planning, learning speed, language selection and use, and predicting the extinction or sustainability of a language. The study’s statistical population consisted of 80 Kurdish-Persian bilinguals in Mahabad who were randomly selected. This study is situated within the theoretical framework of sociocognitive linguistics, and the research perspective was measured through an indirect method (matched-guise test). After distributing the questionnaire and conducting the matched-guise test, the collected data were analyzed. The results of the statistical analysis showed that the variables of gender, age, and education in Mahabad had no significant impact on the attitudes of bilingual Kurdish speakers towards standard Persian and the Kurdish language. The Kurdish speakers of Mahabad exhibited numerically positive attitude towards the standard Persian language compared to Kurdish language, but no significant difference in terms of any of the mentioned variables was observed between the two languages under study.

The present study set out to chart the experience of Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) and its antecedents in online education settings using the genealogy of emotion (Zembylas, 2002, 2008) as the theoretical framework. To fulfill this aim, e-learners in EFL classes were asked to keep emotion diaries for a semester-long period. The emotion diaries reporting the experience of FLE were then analyzed using Pekrun’s (2014) taxonomy of emotions in connection to FLE including achievement-related FLE, epistemically-related FLE, topic-related FLE, and socially-related FLE. Analysis of results indicated that teachers, peers, and family members were the main sources of FLE in the social category. Additionally, achievement in exams and classroom tasks and activities, topics related to students’ local cultural and social context, in conjunction with cognitively demanding tasks and questions that required learners to struggle over finding the answers were reported as other antecedents of enjoyment in online setting. It was discussed that Pekrun’s model (2014) is a good fit for the analysis of the origin of single emotions like FLE as the previous data-driven analyses missed out on some of the main antecedents of FLE. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications were discussed especially for teachers.

Considering the body of research on the intersection of psychology and assessment that suggests assessment is not only under the influence of the model against which a translation is assessed, the present study aimed to investigate the role of raters’ personality traits in their assessment. It was also intended to see if the application of an agreed-upon unified assessment tool could change the way evaluations are made, and if this possible change is the same among raters with different personality traits. To this end, seven raters were asked to score an English text translated by 23 students twice with an interval of at least two weeks. In the first scoring, they were asked to assess the way they usually did with no specific guidelines. However, the second assessment was done through the application of an agreed-upon model. Moreover, the raters were scored on the personality traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness as it is believed that these two traits are predictors of leniency. The data analyzed revealed (1) a significant correlation between the raters’ score on agreeableness and the scores they assigned to the translations, and (2) a significant negative correlation between the raters’ score on conscientiousness and the scores they assigned to the translations. This proved that more agreeable less conscientious raters are prone to be more lenient. The value of Cronbach alpha also revealed that more conscientious less agreeable raters were more consistent in their assessments in both rounds of scoring. This, however, turned out not to be the case for less conscientious raters.

Professional learning community (PLC) has been a generally recognized model for promoting teacher development, including EFL teachers’ writing assessment literacy, intercultural teaching competence, digital literacy, and so on. However, research on whether the changes in beliefs of teachers engaging in a PLC affects their teaching competence is relatively scant. To fill this gap, the present study investigated the extent to which a PLC with intercultural components changed EFL teachers’ beliefs in intercultural teaching, which in turn affected their intercultural teaching competence. In doing so, adopting an exploratory sequential method, qualitative data from teachers and a questionnaire from students were collected and analyzed through NVIVO 12 and SPSS 26.0. The data analyses revealed significant changes in the EFL teachers’ knowledge construction, motivation inspired by peer interaction, and reflection on intercultural learning and teaching practices. These changes led to the transformations in their beliefs and practices concerning intercultural instruction, although individual orientations were observed in their pedagogical approaches. Furthermore, the study’s findings were supported by evidence of corresponding changes in students’ learning outcomes in the development of intercultural competence. The study highlights the significance of PLCs in enhancing EFL teachers’ intercultural teaching competence and their professional development.

The current study investigates the feasibility of implementing EFL teachers' Individual Development Planning at Iranian public schools. It further explores the underlying reasons for the (imp) possibility of practicing this program and seeks the teachers' suggestions to improve the schools' condition. To this end, data were collected from 180 EFL teachers using a researcher-made questionnaire and a follow-up semi-structured interview. The results of one-sample t-tests revealed a slight possibility following the interviews which indicated 14 underlying reasons for the insufficient grounds at public schools. Participating teachers also argued that equipping a room with necessary technological tools, allocating monetary resources, assigning specific teachers time to practice IDP, taking advantage of head teachers, changing the school administration delegation, and performing advocating cultural acts can provide a ground for IDP implementation. The findings demonstrate the necessity of creating changes by policymakers, school principals, and EFL teachers so that they can all benefit from this program.

The current study aimed to explore the impact of content and language integrated project (CLIP)-based instruction on electrical engineering students’ vocabulary knowledge. To this end, a sample of 60 electrical engineering students was selected based on their performance on the Cambridge English Objective Proficiency Practice Test (CEOPPT). The participants were subsequently divided into two groups including an experimental and a control group. The study comprised five main stages: administering the proficiency test, conducting a vocabulary pretest, implementing the treatment, administering a vocabulary posttest, and administering a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) questionnaire. Both groups received CLIP/CLIL instructions over the period of eight sessions. The experimental group, however, received their instructions enriched by the assistance of co-teachers following a team model and supplemented by video-based instructions. At the end of the treatment, the vocabulary posttest and a questionnaire were used to collect the data. The results of a repeated-measures two-way ANOVA revealed that CLIP instruction delivered through co-teaching had a substantial positive effect on the electrical engineering students’ vocabulary knowledge. This finding was further corroborated by the results obtained from the CLIL/CLIP questionnaire, showing the participants’ positive attitude toward CLIP instructions.

This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between test anxiety and writing performance among Iranian intermediate EFL students. To achieve this goal, 50 participants of EFL students (male and female) at Iran, Tehran, were selected on the basis of sampling convenience. The instruments used in this research consisted of the proficiency test and TAQ (Test Anxiety) questionnaire. After homogenizing the students via a proficiency test (Cambridge Placement Test, 2010), those students who were selected as upper-intermediate ones were allowed to take part in this research. Their age range was between 20 and 40. Having collected the results, the researchers recorded the scores in computer files for statistical analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.00. In order to measure the relationship between the variables (test anxiety & written performance) Pearson Correlation tests were run. The results illustrated that there were significant relationships between writing performance and text anxiety and all its sub-scales of worry and emotionality. In addition, it was proved that there was not any significant difference between male and female in respect to writing performance. It must be reiterated that a Pearson Correlation test was also run to measure the Inter-Rater Reliability. The results of this study will provide insights to help EFL learners reduce their test anxiety and increase the level of their confidence.

The present study, adopting a mixed-methods design, aimed to compare three types of task instruction entailing translation-based, meaning-based, and hint-based instructions for vocabulary acquisition. In so doing, a pool of 45 male Iranian intermediate L2 learners, which were divided into three groups, participated in the study based on convenient sampling. The treatment phase lasted for 20 sessions, allocating the last 45 minutes of each class to teaching vocabulary. Each class was exposed to a different treatment taking the experimental condition it was assigned into account. The treatment consisted of two tasks. The results obtained from one-way ANOVA confirmed that there was a statistically significant difference in learners’ vocabulary scores for the three sets of scores. Moreover, following the coding reliability and agreement, 12 common themes emerged from the students’ responses to the semi-structured interview questions. At the end, the study offers some practical implications for L2 learners and teachers.

Today, technological applications provide language learners with many possibilities to improve their learning. Online learning environments create opportunities for more flexibility, interaction, and collaboration in a way different from face-to-face learning environments. This study attempted to investigate the effects of synchronous distance education on the oral comprehension of Iraqi English language learners. The participants were 19 Iraqi English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in a language institute in Karbala, Iraq. All learners were following the same language course at the B1 level. These learners were randomly divided into three groups: the face-to-face control group, the experimental group taught via the Adobe Connect platform, and the experimental group taught via the Skype application. The data were collected through pre- and post-oral proficiency tests. The findings showed significant differences in the improvement of oral comprehension among the three groups. Experimental groups scored significantly higher than the control group. Moreover, the results indicated that the Adobe Connect-based instruction had a better effect on the learners’ oral comprehension in comparison to the Skype-based instruction. Concerning the performance of males and females in the experimental groups, the findings showed a significant difference between females and males in the Adobe Connect condition, with females showing more improvement. However, no significant difference was observed between males and females in the Skype group. The study stresses the mediation of virtual classrooms in enhancing EFL learners’ learning achievements. Relevant pedagogical implications for classroom practice in EFL education are presented and discussed and some suggestions are made for future research