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The present article experimentally studied the impact of mindfulness-cultivating intervention on various dimensions of learning. The mindfulness-cultivation techniques employed in the experimental group involved observance of all experience, analyzing, planning, judging, reasoning, and fantasizing (van Vreeswijk, et al., 2014). Furthermore, Pirson et al.’s (2012) contention that mindfulness encompasses four facets of attributes:; novelty producing, novelty seeking, engagement, and flexibility informed the selection of techniques. Learners’ level of proficiency was checked before the treatment. Before and after the treatment, three questionnaires were employed: 1) Langer Mindfulness Scale 2) Reflective thinking questionnaire 3) Positivity Scale. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) results demonstrated, approximately 50 percent of variance in reflective thinking was predicted by these techniques. Furthermore, the results via independent samples t -test demonstrated that positive orientation and language achievement promoted in the experimental group, thus implying that the intervention executed in the experimental group was effective in enhancing these two factors as well.

Cet article organise la réflexion autour de l’impact des représentations sociales sur l’enseignement de la grammaire dans les cours du FLE en Iran. Comme nous le savons, la dimension socio-affective de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage des langues, qui comprend les notions telles que les représentations sociales, les stéréotypes, les attitudes et la motivation des apprenants, se penche sur les rapports existants entre la didactique des langues et la sociologie. Cette étude a pour origine deux questions à répondre : quelles sont les représentations sociales dominantes de la grammaire auprès des enseignants du FLE en Iran ? Dans quelles mesures ces représentations sociales influent sur l’enseignement de la grammaire ? Nos résultats s’inscrivent au croisement d’entretiens semi-directifs avec les enseignants de FLE et du journal du bord du chercheur pendant l’observation des cours de ces enseignants. Nous avons pu montrer l’importance de la prise en considération des attitudes dans l’animation des séquences didactiques qui portent sur l’enseignement de la grammaire pour remédier aux représentations partielles voire stéréotypées de cette tâche en Iran et proposer des pistes de réflexion pour de futures recherches.

The present study investigated comparatively the impact of two types of input enhancement (i.e. textual vs. compound enhancement) on developing grammar ability in Iranian EFL setting. Sixty-five female secondary high school students were selected as a homogenous sample out of about a 100-member population based on Nelson language proficiency test. Then, their grammar ability was measured based on a researcher-made diagnostic test prior to the experiment. The sample was randomly divided into two equal groups; one group received text-enhancement-based instruction of grammar, while the other received compound-based enhancement. Finally, they received an achievement test of grammar as a posttest to measure their progress in light of two different types of input enhancement mechanisms. The pertinent statistical analyses of the results indicated that a) the effect of textual enhancement-based instruction of grammar is not significantly meaningful, while b) the compound enhancement-based instruction has significant effect on learning grammatical structures. Comparatively speaking, therefore, c) compound enhancement-based instruction of grammar is more significantly effective than that of textual in developing grammar ability. It can be safely concluded that grammar instruction and its resultant development are subject to intervention type, which, pedagogically, bears promising messages for both teachers and syllabus designers to incorporate parameters of input enhancement in both teaching and materials development, respectively.

<span>The present study aimed to explore how nominalization is manifested in a sample of Physics and Applied Linguistics research articles (RAs), representing hard and soft sciences respectively. To this end, 60 RAs from discipline-related professional journals were randomly selected and analyzed in light of Halliday and Matthiessen’s (1999) taxonomy of nominalization. Comparing the normalized frequencies indicated that articles in Applied Linguistics differ significantly from their counterparts in Physics as they include more nominalized expressions. Moreover, the analysis brought out the findings that deployment of nominalization Type Two is significantly different from the other three types of nominalization in each discipline. Subsequently, the obtained expressions were put into their context of use in order to extract the most prevalent patterns of nominalization in the RAs. The investigation into the embedded patterns introduced 15 common patterns for Physics and Applied Linguistics RAs. Chi-square analyses suggested statistically significant differences in using only four patterns. Finally, implications accrue to the findings in reference to academic writing teachers and course designers.</span>

An understanding of language as ‘open, dynamic, constantly evolving and personal encompasses the rich complexities of communication (Shohamy, 2007, p.5). Knowing about the important role of culture as well as psychological aspects of language can give us a broader view of languageteaching and learning. In order to obtain a better understanding of different aspects of language teaching, the present study aims to investigate the possible relationship between Iranian EFL teachers’home-culture attachment and its underlying components, with their emotional intelligence. To this aim two questionnaires namely: Home culture Attachment/dependency and Bar-On EI test were distributed among 80 EFL teachers, both men and women who taught at different levels in state schools in Birjand, Kermanshah and Zabol. Data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multiple regressions. Finally results of the study revealed no significant relationship between Iranian EFL teachers’ home culture attachment and its underlying components, with their emotional intelligence. The most important result of this study is bringing about awareness for EFL teachers, EFL syllabus designers, teacher educators and policy makers about the important factors in cultural attachment or detachment of Iranian EFL teachers that consequently affects their teaching and transfer of cultural values into their students.

The advent of postmethod pedagogy has completely changed today's conceptualization of language teachers, and the importance of powerful teaching has increasingly gained momentum in the field of TESOL. However, contemporary English language teaching contexts suffer a dearth of a workable package to educate the much-needed autonomous postmethod language teachers who are able to have their own contextualized praxis. As such, the present research aims to nurture the required self-growth and self-development in language teachers through forming collaborative professional and critical discussion circles. Enjoying a mixed method research design whose quantitative section included a quasi-experimental design consisting of three phases--a pretest, an educational 12-week long treatment phase, and a posttest--the results of the study gained by two instruments, namely, the reflective teaching questionnaire developed by Akbari et al. (2010) and two similar language teaching episodes, bore witness to the significant changes in the level of reflectiveness of all 13 language teachers who partook in these discussion circles. Developmentally speaking, participating language teachers were found to initiate the whole process, direct it, and finally evaluate the new experiences further along the road. Hence the ideals of teacher development, self-growth and personal development, were accomplished through the study.

Due to the importance of idioms, many researchers and teachers have long sought to find ways of making idiom teaching and learning more effective. This study compared three visual mnemonic devices (pictures, mental imagery, and movie clips) in terms of their effect on EFL learners’ recognition and recall of English idioms. Ninety intermediate level EFL learners who were preparing themselves for IELTS participated in this study. They were in three groups of thirty members each. Each group was taught idioms using one of the afore-mentioned visual mnemonic devices. Receptive and productive tests of idioms were administered to all groups after the treatment. The one-way ANOVA procedure was used to analyze the collected data. The results revealed statistically significant differences among these devices, with pictures method being the most effective on both recognition and recall of idioms. The findings of the study can have significant theoretical as well as pedagogical implications for language researchers, textbook designers, curriculum developers, teachers, and language learners. 

The present study intended to address the impact of the socio-economic status (SES) on the Iranian EFL learners’ language achievement and identity processing styles. To attain this goal, 148 students studying General English were designated on the base of purposive sampling from Yasuj University of Medical Sciences (YUMS). At the first step, questions related to social, cultural, and financial background was asked of 20 participants (sample) by an interview. Then, a the researcher constructed a questionnaire from the information attained from the interview, regarding the factors related to the social, cultural, and financial factors (variables) and was distributed among the population (148 students) of the study. The participants’ English University Entrance Exam Score (Achievement test) scores were obtained from the Education Office of Yasuj University of Medical Sciences. Afterward, Berzonsky’s forty item revised version of the identity style inventory (ISI3) (Berzonsky, 1992) assessed the identity style of each participant. Examination of the results indicated that the structural relationship between the variables of identity processing style and language skills was 0.84 and its standard value was equal to 0.345. This value indicated a positive and average relationship between the two structures. That is, with the change of identity processing style, the language skills of the participants have changed.

What is “the best method” of language teaching? It has been one of the oldest questions of language teaching and learning during the last century. However, no comprehensive quantitative study has tackled the issue. In order to answer this question, the researchers meta-analyzed 56 studies with 7960 participants from many contexts. A coding scheme of 46 variables, in the form of four major moderator sets, including design characteristics, language characteristics, participant characteristics, and teaching characteristics, was developed. The overall effect size (g= 1.00) was found to be positive, strong, and significant for all language teaching methods. The findings showed that all language teaching methods, irrespective of various contexts, were positively effective. The results of moderator analysis showed that most of the moderators, excluding language skills and place of the study, had no significant effect on language teaching methods. Implications for current theory and practice, for both method and postmethod, are discussed.

This study aimed at investigating the relationship between Willingness to Communicate and EFL learners’ Communication Apprehension, Self-perceived Communicative Competence, Self-regulation, Need for Closure, Tolerance of Ambiguity as well as Aggression. The participants of this study were 300 (197 female and 103 male) Iranian EFL learners of English language institutes in Isfahan. To fulfill the purpose of the study, participants were asked to answer seven questionnaires on Willingness to Communicate (WTC), Communication Apprehension (CA), Self-perceived Communicative Competence (SPCC), Self-regulation (SR), Need for Closure (NFC), Tolerance of Ambiguity (TA) and Aggression (Agg). The results of Structural Equation Modeling confirmed previous studies on the relationship between EFL learners’ WTC and SPCC as well as CA asserting that WTC was positively correlated with SPCC and negatively with CA. It was also found that WTC positively correlated with TA. However, the findings revealed no relationship between WTC and SR, NFC and Agg. This study had implications for EFL learners and teachers regarding the factors influencing WTC in language classrooms.