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While metadiscourse has been extensively examined across several genres, contexts of publication, disciplines, and languages over the past two decades, researchers have mainly limited themselves to the qualitative checking of candidate metadiscourse markers for the various functions they serve. In the present study, however, we drew on retrospective methods coupled with semi-structured interviews to gain a deeper understanding of metadiscourse features applied linguistics apprentice and professional authors use in their research articles (RAs) in national and international English-medium journals. To achieve this goal, we built on Hyland’s (2019) interpersonal metadiscourse model to analyse RAs in three subsections including introductions, results, and discussion. We ran chi-square tests to examine the RA variations, following the descriptive analysis of the use of metadiscourse markers. A follow-up stimulated recall through semi-structured e-mail interviews was used. We used MAXQDA to analyse the interview data from authors. The results of qualitative and thematic analyses showed that metadiscourse markers play key roles in conveying the writers’ message and intention to the members of discourse communities. The findings of the study suggest raising apprentice writers’ awareness of the way they frame their message in research writing

This study aimed at investigating the relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ reading strategy use and Emotional Intelligence (EI) as well as exploring the most frequently-used reading strategies which can facilitate the process of reading comprehension. To this end, a group of 60 was selected out of 274 university learners majoring in TEFL and English Translation. Based on English Proficiency Test and Bar-On’s (1997) EI Test, they were divided into two groups (high and low EI). Then, the needed data were gathered by employing a Reading Strategy Questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed via SPSS software, version 22. The results of the study revealed that EI level was positively associated with Reading Strategy Use (r=0.623, p<0.01). Also, the results of independent samples t-test were indicative of the fact that the degree of usage of meta-cognitive and cognitive strategies by the high EI group was greater than that of the low EI group, while with respect to the test-taking strategies, this degree of usage was weaker in the former than in the latter. In addition, cognitive strategy, as the most frequent one, was observed to be a facilitative strategy for reading comprehension. It was, therefore, concluded that the importance of reading strategies should be taken into account in improving the reading skill and other areas of language learning and teaching. The findings of the can be helpful for material development, testing and teaching methodologies.

This study examined the association between teacher educators’ personality traits and their interpersonal behavior at Farhangian University (Teacher Education University in Iran). A sample of 148 student teachers majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at two branches of Iranian Teacher Education University evaluated their teacher educators’ interpersonal behavior by the questionnaire for teacher interaction (QTI). The teacher educators (N=17) also completed the QTI and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). The results of correlational analyses indicated significant associations between educators’ personality traits and their interpersonal behavior. More associations were observed between educators’ personality and student teachers’ perceptions of interpersonal behavior while fewer associations were observed between educators’ personality and the educators’ self-perceptions. Moreover, the results revealed that all educators’ personality traits except for Openness were significantly correlated with the two interpersonal behavior dimensions of Influence and Proximity. When stepwise regression analyses were done for the Influence dimension, the strongest model for prediction included Neuroticism and Conscientiousness while for the second dimension, Agreeableness emerged as the sole, significant predictor of educator Proximity.

Teacher resilience, as a recent issue of concern, enables teachers to bounce back and thrive rather than just survived in the face of challenging circumstances. Although self-efficacy has been prompted to enhance resilience, there is little empirical research to investigate the relationship. To address this gap, the present study is an attempt to examine the connection between EFL teachers’ resilience and self-efficacy. In doing so, ninety-two EFL teachers completed Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) and resilience scale (RISC). The findings showed the positive impact of different dimensions of self-efficacy on resilience. The results of the correlational analysis indicated that all three self-efficacy subscales had a significant positive relationship with teachers’ resilience. The results of multiple regression also suggested that, save for classroom management, two other subscales of efficacy as efficacy for student engagement and efficacy for instructional strategies were the good predictors of teacher resilience. In line with these findings, some suggestions for further research are provided and pedagogical implications are proposed.

The present research aimed to conceptualize the construct of Teacher Assessment Identity (TAI) by designing and validating a questionnaire in the Iranian EFL context. In so doing, a tentative scale with 96 items was piloted on 340 novice and experienced Iranian EFL teachers using Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (EFA, CFA). The results of the analyses led to the removal of 33 items, leaving the questionnaire with 61 items on a five-point Likert scale. Moreover, the results revealed that the construct of TAI has 12 factors including assessment “knowledge”, “beliefs”, “attitudes”, “skills and confidence”, “practices”, “use assurance”, “feedback”, “rubric/criteria”, “consistency and consequence”, “grading/scoring”, “question-types”, and “roles”. Likewise, the convergent validity and reliability of the instrument to measure the construct of concern was statistically confirmed (p>.05). The findings have various implications for EFL teachers, teacher trainers, course designers, and language researchers by raising their awareness of assessment identity and its underlying components.

Meta-discourse markers are an inevitable part of oral proficiency which improve both the quality and comprehension of learners’ speech. While studies of oral meta-discourse have been conducted since the 1980s in a European or US context, they have remained relatively untouched in Iran. Therefore, this study aimed to seek the impact of both explicit and implicit teaching of formal meta-discourse markers on EFL learners’ oral proficiency. To this end, the quantitative data were collected from ninety upper-intermediate students at Shiraz University Language Center. Two groups went through an instruction for an eight-session treatment. However the experimental group ‘B’ (N=45) were instructed the formal meta-discourse markers implicitly, the target formal meta-discourse markers were taught to the experimental group ‘A’ (N=45) explicitly. To compare the participants’ performances, an SOPI (Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview) posttest was administered. The results revealed that the instruction of meta-discourse markers had a positive effect on the learners’ oral outcome. Moreover, the findings showed that learners who received explicit method of teaching formal meta-discourse markers could perform better in speaking than learners who received implicit instruction. The findings can have pedagogical implications for EFL educators and materials developers to enhance learners’ oral proficiency. The findings also provide important insight into the effect of teaching discourse markers and raising learners’ awareness through explicit instruction to make pupils produce more cohesive and coherent speech.

This paper reports on the findings of a research aimed at exploring the professional identity (PI) of English as Foreign Language (EFL) teacher in Iran. The research further examined the extent to which the identified PI factors affect their teaching quality. The authors argue that earlier classification of different factors of professional identity of EFL teachers is arbitrary and may only be valid by definition. The possible grouping of these factors is also examined to identify what clusters of factors have relative importance in EFL teacher's professional identity and how these clusters may contribute to the quality of teaching. Sample participants contributed in semi-structured interviews and subsequently based on the thematic analysis of the interviews a questionnaire was developed and completed by a total of 143 EFL instructors and students. Factor Analysis of data identified four distinct clusters accounted for a total of nineteen variables presenting the PI profile of EFL teacher in which Personal Characteristics (PC) emerged as the most important cluster. Consequently, five clusters identified to have a considerable effect on teaching quality, Pedagogical knowledge (PK) found to be the most influential cluster. These findings may well serve as a valuable pedagogical resource for EFL teachers and policy makers to help improve teaching quality, educational processes, and curriculum design.

This study aims at investigating the challenges of conducting qualitative research (QLR) from Iranian ELT (English Language Teaching) Ph.D. students’ and ELT faculty members’ viewpoints in the Iranian higher education context. The participants of the study consisted of 100 Ph.D. students majoring in ELT and 50 ELT faculty members. The study followed a mixed-methods approach with the exploratory design. The instruments utilized for collecting the data were a semi-structured interview and a researcher-made questionnaire. To analyze the qualitative data, a grounded theory approach was employed (Charmaz, 2006), and to analyze quantitative data, both descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized. The results of the study indicated that from the ELT Ph.D. students' perspectives, the Iranian educational system, professors, and lack of time, respectively, are factors affecting the possible weaknesses in undertaking QLR. While from the ELT faculty members' points of view, lack of time is the only reason for weaknesses in undertaking QLR. The results also demonstrated that from the viewpoint of ELT Ph.D. students, data interpretation, data analysis, data collection, data coding, and determining the validity of research, respectively, are the most challenging parts of conducting QLR. Moreover, from the perspective of ELT faculty members, data analysis, data collection, data interpretation, and data coding, respectively, are the most challenging parts of undertaking QLR. The implications of the present study for the universities in the context under investigation are discussed. At the end of the paper, some suggestions for further research are presented. 

Translation studies essentially deals with a socio-communicatively driven and contextualized enterprise. Viewed hence, it seems that no discipline tends to provide the possibility of studying the interrelations between interlocutors to generate meaning within the interactive social context as precisely as sociolinguistics (Federici, 2018). A sociolinguistic approach to translation seems to be increasingly gaining ground, at the crossroads of Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS) and sociology within the sociological turn (Wolf, 2010). Accordingly, the present study took a sociolinguistic approach to shed some light on The Great Gatsby (1925) and its Persian translation by Emami (2000). In so doing, an extended version of Hatim and Mason’s (1997) sociolinguistic model was employed to examine the texts in question. The source text (ST) and its target text (TT) version were investigated at both textual and extra-textual levels in light of the model’s respective sub-components. The results of this comparative study, analyzed individually for each register variable, revealed that the translator dealt rather superficially with both use-related categories of register variation like tenor and user-related aspects like idiolect. By contrast, the predominant features of literary expression were mostly retained in the translation.

Since second or foreign language learning is a?.m long term endeavor and learners may lose their initial interest and enthusiasm, they need to be kept motivated. Student engagement has been recommended as one approach to sustaining such at risk learners at high levels of motivation. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the dimensions of student engagement and language learning motivation among Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 117 intermediate EFL learners at the Iran Language Institute (ILI), Gorgan adult male branch, Iran, having been selected as the participants of the study through convenience sampling, were given two questionnaires: Student Engagement Questionnaire (Hart, Stewart, & Jimerson, 2011; Reeve, 2013) and Language Learning Motivation Scale (Noels, Pelletier, Clément, & Vallerand, 2000). The quantitative data gathered through these questionnaires were analyzed by the software package of SPSS, version 24. The results of the correlation tests showed that there were significant relationships between language learning motivation and each dimension of student engagement, with the cognitive engagement having the highest correlation. Further, the results of multiple regression analyses indicated that cognitive engagement was the sole predictor of language learning motivation.

This research aimed at reporting two consecutive studies on the effects of extensive reading on reading comprehension and attitudes of Ethiopian second cycle primary school students . An intervention and a control group, selected from two intact grade 8 sections, were included in each study. The intervention group was exposed to extensive reading for 6 weeks and 12 weeks in the first and second study respectively. To collect data, reading comprehension tests and attitude questionnaires were used. The results revealed that there was no significant difference between the intervention and the control group in reading comprehension and attitudes toward reading when the time was restricted and only reading was used in the intervention. However, the intervention group scored significantly better than the control group in reading comprehension and attitudes toward reading when the time for reading was extended and motivating activities were included. Implications are deduced for time allocation and use of motivating activities in the implementation of an extensive reading programme in input-poor EFL settings like Ethiopia.