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This study explored the competition between semantic and morphosyntactic processing in L1 and L2. In addition, the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and L2 semantic-morphosyntactic processing was scrutinized. To this purpose, 73 Persian learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) participated in an offline grammaticality judgment test (GJT), an L1 as well as an L2 semantically-primed test, and a WMC test. The results showed that L1 morphosyntactic processing was not affected by semantic priming. But, L2 morphosyntactic parsing decisions, irrespective of the participants’ WMC, was significantly influenced by semantic priming, indicating that L2 morphosyntactic knowledge in learners' interlanguage system might be shaky and subject to communicative aspects of input. Additionally, the findings revealed a significant relationship between the participants' WMC and their L2 semantic/morphosyntactic processing. The findings of the study provide some implications for foreign language teachers with regard to teaching morphosyntactic aspects of language and correcting morphosyntactic errors.

The present study aimed at investigating English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ level of reflection and the barriers to their reflection. To do so, based on an experimental research method, 98 EFL teachers were recruited and the English language teacher reflection inventory (ELTRI) was distributed among them. To consolidate the findings of the inventory, 20 volunteers from the same pool were interviewed. As the next phase of the study, to investigate the barriers to the teachers’ reflectivity, the same participants were given an open-ended questionnaire to probe their ideas about barriers to reflective practice. Based on the obtained data and the related literature, a Barriers to Reflective Practice Questionnaire (BRPQ) was developed and distributed among the participants. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics, one sample t-test, and content analysis were employed. The findings revealed that EFL teachers did not practice reflection at high levels. They considered top-down curriculum, disrespect for teachers’ authority, teachers’ inclination to the conventional teaching practice, lack of appropriate context for reflection, teachers’ workload, and lack of appropriate training courses as the most important factors which bar their reflection. Teacher education programs should raise EFL teachers’ awareness regarding the concept and use of reflective practice.

Teacher autonomy and teacher personality, both affecting teaching and learning processes, were focused on in this gender-comparative study. The required data was gathered through convenience sampling by online distributing two sets of questionnaires, which were responded by 156 Iranian EFL teachers, including both males and females. Then, SPSS-26 was used to analyze the data in this quantitative correlational survey to answer the two research questions, and the results indicated that a) among the five sub-constructs of personality traits, the Extraversion construct stayed on the first place according to its correlation degree to teacher autonomy, which was assessed very strong; b) male teachers naturally felt more sense of autonomy than females did; also, they are more extraverted, open, and conscientious than female teachers. Finally, Self-Determination Theory (SDT) was applied to support the acquired results. This survey can be best suited for EFL teachers to become more sensitive about their personality constructs.

Much research has been done on semantics of the verbal element of complex predicates (CPr), usually referred to as light verb (LV). Most researchers have confined their studies to a few limited features of light verbs. After criticizing major views proposed by scholars on the semantics of light verbs, this article presents a hypothesis on the formation of complex predicates, arguing that all of which directly or indirectly have roots in incorporation process. This process starts with a complete sentence, incorporating two elements into it and ends in eliminating other elements. Formation of each complex predicate leads to the formation of the constructional schema X+LV0 which sanctions formation of new complex predicates with the same light verb and in the same semantic field. Accordingly, the meaning of light verb in direct incorporation case is the same meaning as its heavy verb, and in indirect incorporation case is dissolved in constructional meaning of the sanctioning schema. The meaning of light verb in each of these two cases could be different and each of them is taken or similar to one of its heavy meanings. There is a third case in which the light verb plays the role of verbalizing element and makes possible for a nonverbal predicate to inflect as a verb. Thus light verbs vary from having completely schematic and non-thematic meanings to their own primary heavy meanings.

This study aimed at investigating the effect of reading-based vs. discussion-based pre-writing activities on the writing ability of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, a quasi-experimental study was conducted with 40 Iranian intermediate EFL learners within16 to 20 age range who were selected based on their performance on an Oxford Solution Proficiency Test. They were divided into two experimental groups: Reading Group and Discussion Group. The former group was made to involve in some reading activity prior to doing the main writing task, and the latter group was made to participate in a discussion activity before the main writing task. After the treatment for 10 sessions, both groups were post-tested. The pre-test and post-test involved free compositions, which were scored analytically. The findings indicated that both groups’ writing ability improved over the course of the study, but the difference between the performances of the groups on the post-test was not statistically significant, although the Reading group’s mean score was greater than the Discussion group. The results of this study have some implications for students, language teachers, syllabus designers and material developers.

The present study sought to find the most frequent lexical bundles, particularly the token of the bundles, in the introduction and discussion sections of Civil Engineering research articles. It also aimed to examine the forms or types of lexical bundles found in the introduction and discussion sections of the articles. To this end, a quantitative analysis was performed on the use of two-to-five-word lexical bundles, followed by a qualitative analysis of their functions and structures based on the structural taxonomy of lexical bundles proposed by Biber, Conrad, and Cortes (2004). AntConc, as a corpus analysis tool, was employed for the extraction of lexical bundles as well as the examination of their types and tokens. Likewise, concordancers and word and keyword frequency generators were used for the analysis of word clusters and lexical bundles.   A total of 790 lexical bundles in the introduction section and 279 lexical bundles in the discussion section were analyzed based on a set of pre-established criteria (e.g., the frequency cut-off of 20 per million words) . The findings revealed that the lexical bundles consisted largely of two-word strings, and the five-word strings were the fewest. Regarding the structural classification of bundles, phrasals were the most frequent ones, whereas clausal on es were the least frequent ones. The study carries important implications, especially for materials developers and course designers who may hopefully benefit from the results in designing EAP materials finely tailored to the linguistic needs of Civil Engineering students.

Stress and anxiety might be destructive factors in the learning or teaching journey. Enough research is required to overcome the difficulties and understand the depth of these problems. The aim of the current study was twofold: 1) to design and validate a scale for evaluating English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructors’ apprehension sources and, 2) to understand the relationship between apprehension and instructors’ gender. The module consists of four factors, including, organizational, attitudinal, L2-related factors, and classroom management. A 34-item scale on a 5-point Likert scale was developed. The scale was distributed between 100 EFL instructors from English institutions in Shiraz, Iran and the score of 700 students related to each teacher was used for analysis.  The questionnaires were examined with two other experts to guarantee the content validity of the scales and descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated. The reliability of the scale was estimated by Cronbach's alpha. The correlation coefficient was also used to demonstrate the relationship between students' overall achievement scores and their instructor's apprehension scale. Independent t-test and Pearson correlation test were used to recognize the meaningful relationship between apprehension and instructor’s gender. The results showed that the scale was adequate with empirical data. Moreover, the value of correlation coefficient indicated an inverse relationship between apprehension and gender. This implies that apprehension can impede learning in both genders. However, women’s apprehension is more than men. The findings can help instructors to enhance their personality and welfare for more effective education.

This study explored how much of the time Iranian EFL teachers partake in constant expert turn of events (CPD) activities and how powerful these activities were in improving their instructing techniques. The current review is meant to investigate the view of Iranian EFL instructors about CPD, additionally, various kinds of CPD activities for example CELTA/DELTA courses that they liked, and explored how frequently Iranian EFL educators partake in the accompanying CPD activities. The members were 55 EFL instructors educating at various language establishments in Tehran and Karaj city. The information was gathered utilizing a three-segment online overview. The survey had been arranged in light of a 5 point-Likert scale and had shipped off members by email. To address the review's exploration questions, enlightening and inferential insights were used. For quantitative investigation, the information was at first placed into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Then, at that point, utilizing enlightening measurable methodologies, different insights for the information were registered and summed up. The discoveries of this quantitative review uncovered that English educators take part in an assortment of CPD activities. The discoveries of the review have suggestions for explicit activities that might be impetuses in building uplifting perspectives towards other CPD activities for EFL educators.