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Some consider assessment in terms of a systematic way of gathering and evaluating information within educational system and particularly higher education. Since, the term ‘’assessment’’ refers and relates to administrative processes, this paper has shed light some consideration on how it can benefit the members of department and program. Program assessment ultimately emphasizes on direction for developing students learning quality and satisfaction of its central role in educational system. Thus, this study aimed to regard goals and purposes, specifically, explore new trends, techniques and procedures which play an important role in this aspect of assessment and also can have influences on outcomes of the academic units. To this end, some of the practical assessment methods were selected to be done on different fields of study in Shahrekord Azad University as well as discussing their description, strengths and weaknesses to expose whether assessments follow the rules and procedures of program assessment to reach the best consequences in assessment of academic units. 

Metadiscourse involves the self-reflective linguistic expressions that refer to the evolving text, the writer, and the imagined readers of that text. This study utilized an interpersonal model of metadiscourse to examine the authors' use of metadiscourse in the Abstract sections of Applied Linguistics Research Articles (RAs). It investigated the distributions of interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers at a corpus of 110 RAs published by celebrity and non-celebrity authors to determine the ways academic writers deploy these resources at a hight-stake research genre to persuade readers in their discourse community. The findings revealed that frame markers with a relative frequency of 112 were the most frequent strategy category for the non-celebrity authors. Moreover, evidentials with a relative frequency of 3 were the least frequently used strategy for the celebrity authors. There were no significant differences in the use of interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers between celebrity and non-celebrity authors. These findings might have implications for the teaching of academic writing and scholarly publishing and for novice writers who aim to publish their studies in academic journals.

The increasing impact of audiovisual media and film industry in particular has led researchers to think of audiovisual translation strategies. Huge investments in film industry need global markets. Hence, there is a need for qualified translations and systematic studies dedicated to this area are in great demand. This study aims to investigate translation strategies adopted in the translation of two awards-winning dramas. The selection criterion is based on winning international awards or compliments received in the target community. Although some may argue that these successes are rooted in the selected movies’ ideologies, the role of an accurate translation in transferring such elements is undeniable. The present study analyzes the translation strategies employed in the subtitled version of the following films: A Separation and I Daniel Blake. The theoretical framework of the current study is based on Gottlieb’s (1992) Classification of Interlingual Subtitling. The obtained results depicted that except dislocation and transcription, all Gottlieb’s strategies were applicable. The results also showed that the film’s genre plays an influential role in translators’ decisions. As these films were warmly welcomed by the target audiences, the frequent translation strategies will be useful and practical for the future of audiovisual translation industry.

The study reported here is survey research that aims to examine the assessment literacy (AL) of the instructors (N=12) as well as graduate and postgraduate students (N=46) in the Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics at Shiraz University. To this end, interview questions were designed using Pastore and Andrade's (2019) three-dimensional AL framework. The questions, having been field-tested and their validity having been approved by three experts, were used to interview the participants. The interviews were transcribed and idea units in them were specified and coded according to a coding scheme designed based on Pastore and Andrade (2019).  At the conceptual dimension, the results suggested that most of the participants in both groups believed in the learning potential of assessment, and most of the instructors used multiple tasks throughout the term to gather on the students' learning, especially at the MA and Ph.D. levels. At the praxiological dimension that concerned the integration of assessment with instruction, the students mentioned using the results of summative assessment to alter their studying approach, while only a few instructors used assessment results to modify their teaching practices. At the socio-emotional dimension, discrepancies existed among the instructors and between instructors and learners in how ethical issues should be observed in assessment. The results are discussed, and implications are provided for designing teacher education programs and for future research.

Computerized Dynamic Assessment (CDA), encouraged by Brown and colleagues’ graduated prompt approach, is grounded in Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory (SCT) of mind and its concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD). It emerged to respond to the challenge of implementing DA in large classes and to meet the psychometric properties of assessment. To this end, the present study attempted to design a unique computerized dynamic assessment tool to diagnose learners’ development of pragmatic competence, specifically their knowledge of the speech acts of apology and request. To conduct the research, a number of 60 BSc students of engineering, aged 18-24, participated in the study. They had different proficiency levels, including pre-intermediate, intermediate and upper-intermediate levels. In the course of CDA, they were provided with 30 multiple choice discourse completion tests of apology and request and they were required to choose what they would say in that specific situation. The participants received pre-established meditational hints for each of the unacceptable responses, which were arranged from the most implicit to the most explicit. Finally, to diagnose learners’ development, their test performance, including their actual score, mediated score and learning potential score (LPS), was instantly displayed. Paired samples t-test showed development in learners’ mediated score. The results of the univariate analysis of variance showed that there is no interaction between mediation and proficiency level. Teachers can use this supplementary dynamic assessment tool to diagnose learners’ development of pragmatic competence.

Vocabulary plays a pivotal role in second language learning and development. Concordance-based methods are considered as new techniques for improving teaching materials and motivating learners to improve their language ability with authentic texts. To this end, the present study aims to enhance the effect of Innovative Concordancing Instruction (ICI) on vocabulary knowledge by integrating principled instructional approaches. The participants included 90 university students at undergraduate level in Islamic Azad University in Tehran, Iran. First, after giving a proficiency test, the students were divided into innovative concordancing, traditional concordancing and control group. The participants in both experimental groups were given eight-week vocabulary instruction, while no special vocabulary instruction was considered for the sample in the control group. Based on the results, ICI had both better immediate and delayed instructional effects on increasing receptive and productive knowledge although the students in instructional groups improved in terms of receptive and productive knowledge. The present study could present some implications for teaching vocabulary when designing vocabulary curricula and developing materials for EFL learners and teachers.

Writing is one of the four skills of language learning, especially, one of the skills of practical communication in a communicative approach. The purpose of this research is to evaluate and analyze writing activities of the writing sections of secondary high school English textbooks, grades 10th, 11th and 12th, so-called vision 1, 2, 3. The theoretical framework of this research, a descriptive-analytical and qualitative method, was based on Kern's (2007) and Harmer’s (2004) model and continuum of writing activities. The writing activities of these vision books were divided into three major categories of controlled, guided and free writing and fifteen more sub-categories. The exercises and activities of the writing section of these six-volume English textbooks, so-called vision 1,2,3 were counted on and the average and percentage of each category were calculated based on Kern’s (2002) and Harmer’s (2004) model and continuum of writing. The findings of this research indicate that the categories of controlled writing and copying, the first item of Kern’s continuum, are the dominant writing tasks in these books. Activities concerning the guided, and especially the free writing activities in these books are rarely seen or they have not been much carefully regarded. In the communicative approach, regarding the goods and the existing requirements, the teaching of writing is generally concerned with free writing tasks. Therefore, to enhance and promote practical communication skills as an aim of a communicative approach, free writing skills are inevitable. The findings of this research point out that English teachers can reinforce and enhance their students’ practical communication abilities in their classes by using freestyle exercises and hence, cover the shortcomings of the books.

Metaphors conceptualizing anger represent a system which is based on the cognitive cultural model of this emotion. Since this model derives from the physiological effects and the behavioral reactions associated with anger, it may be used as a criterion to compare and contrast the conceptualization of this emotion in different contexts. This article analyzes the metaphorical expressions of anger in the Qur’anic verses and the traditions of the Holy Prophet and his rightful successors to determine to what extent they follow the aforementioned model offered by Kovecses. In doing so, a corpus of 200 verses and traditions were collected from different Islamic sources and then they were grouped according to seven source domains identified by Kovecses. The findings of the study reveal that except for one source domain, i.e. burden, the other seven source domains exhibit a high frequency in the above-mentioned verses and traditions; this, in turn, is indicative of the fact that there is a systematic conceptual motivation underlying the structures of the metaphorical expressions in these verses and traditions so that it can be claimed that such expressions follow a well-established scientific pattern.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of the Flipped Learning Pattern (FLP) in terms of the Problem-Based Teaching Approach (PBTA) on the participants’ self-management, desire for learning, and self-control in learning English. The research design was quasi-experimental using pre-test and post-test. The participants were selected via cluster sampling from the English learners enrolled in Aladdin center in the 2018-2020 academic year. They were randomly divided into experimental and control groups (n=320). To collect the data, the self-directed learning questionnaire of Fisher, King, and Tague (2001) was used. The questionnaire contains 52 items and three subscales of self-management, desire for learning, and self-control. Findings showed that there was a significant difference in the effect of the method on three subscales of self-directed learning in the experimental and control groups. The results indicated that the value and acceptability of the pattern improve self-directed learning; and choosing the right teaching method with conscious design will have a great impact on learners’ high levels of learning English skills. Therefore, follow-up studies are necessary to investigate further the application of FLP in terms of PBTA in various lessons.

The use of storytelling on students’ first language literacy and development were extended to foreign/second language learning, and a large number of researchers interested in the field attempted to use storytelling and story reading strategies in teaching oral language skills to foreign/second language learners. Despite the existence of a number of studies on the impact of storytelling on English language skills, the number of studies on the impact of storytelling and story reading approaches on pre- intermediate EFL learners’ oral language production and comprehension seems to be scanty. To do so, a quasi- experimental study was employed. Ninety Iranian language learners, from 6 intact classes (each consisting of 15), were divided to three sub-groups: storytelling, story reading and conventional groups. To one group, stories were told, one group only read the stories, and the third group received no stories. The data were collected through researcher developed oral language production and comprehension tests. One-way-ANOVA test and three independent samples-tests based on Bonferroni test were employed to analyze the data and locate the sources of the differences. Findings revealed that storytelling outperformed story reading groups on both production and comprehension tests. Story reading group outperformed the conventional group. It can be concluded telling and reading stories are effective techniques for improving EFL learners’ oral language production and recognition.

Vocabulary is an important component of language proficiency which provides the basis for learners’ performance in other skills. But, since vocabulary learning seems to be so demanding, learners tend to forget newly-learnt words quite soon. In order to identify vocabulary learning conditions which can produce a more lasting effect, this study investigated the effect of three kinds of gloss conditions, that is traditional non-CALL marginal gloss, audio gloss, and extended audio gloss, on vocabulary gain of EFL learners. To this end, three experimental and one control groups, each comprising 15 participants, took part in the current study. In order to ensure that the participants were from the right proficiency level, KET (Key English Test) was used as the homogenizing tool. Participants in each group read two unseen passages under one of the three mentioned conditions for experimental groups, with no gloss offered for control group. They all completed one pre-test, one reading session, one post-test, and one delayed post-test of vocabulary. The data were analyzed using t-tests and one-way ANOVAs for both immediate and delayed post-tests. Statistical analyses of the results revealed that the audio gloss group, who were provided with the voice of a speaker to read the meaning of the target word, and extended audio gloss group, who had access to audio gloss as well as L2 English example, both significantly outperformed the other groups in terms of vocabulary acquisition in both the immediate retention and in the delayed retention of key words. Further results and implications are discussed in the paper.