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The rich and still expanding literature on TBLT is helping to mature both its theoretical conceptualization and practical implementation in foreign and second language education. Similarly, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has grown as a field, with the use and integration of technology in the classroom continuing to increase and will continue to play an important role in this maturation process. The present study, hence, reports on an empirical study that investigated the effects of CALL-mediated TBLT on the perceived self- efficacy of Iranian university non-English major EFL students. Through non-probability and convenience sampling, two intact freshmen classes were chosen and randomly assigned as the experimental and the control group. During the treatment sessions, the students in the experimental group received instruction in a CALL-mediated TBLT format, while the control group received no CALL-mediated TBLT instruction but underwent only a task- based instruction on reading without the mediation of CALL. A univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was run, while controlling for pre-intervention scores as the covariate. A significant effect was found for CALL-mediated TBLT (F = 81.450, p = .000, partial eta squared =.504), suggesting CALL-mediated TBLT had a positive effect on the self-efficacy perceptions of the students in the experimental group .

Although story mapping strategy has been shown to be beneficial in many reading comprehension classes, the benefits of this technique have not been thoroughly investigated in L2 writing research. The small number of previous studies (e.g., Li, 2007; Brunner, 2010) have found the potential benefits of using story mapping strategy on students’ writing performance, but they did not focus on different aspects of students’ writing. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the effect of story mapping strategy on writing performance of EFL learners in terms of writing components (i.e., organization, content, grammar, mechanics, and style). After administering a standard proficiency test (OPT), 30 out of a pile of 82 Iranian EFL learners all majoring English teaching were selected and assigned to two groups: one experimental group and one control group. Both experimental and control groups completed two thirty-minute composition writing tests, one as a pre-test and the other one as a post-test. The experimental group received four sessions of instruction on how to use story mapping strategy in writing personal narratives. The results of One-way ANOVA and post-hoc Scheffé test indicated that the experimental group, which used story mapping strategy, made more progress in their personal narrative writings. Also, the results revealed that L2 learners made more progress in all writing aspects. The study contributes to teaching pedagogy by encouraging teachers to use story mapping strategy in L2 writing classes

In order for a classical foreign-language drama to be performed in the target country, a suitable translation is required so that the audiences understand the physical version of the play. This research indicates that the translation of a drama on pages differs from the translation of that drama on stage. This study was conducted to examine the differences between the translation on page and stage of Macbeth, the result of which can help improve the quality of the translation on the stage of a play. In this study, the researcher compares the translated text of Macbeth's play with its translation on stage. This comparison is based on Kowzans' (1968) framework that introduced 13 theatrical systems with 5 subcategories namely; Spoken Text, Body Expression, Stage Appearance, External Appearance of Actor(s), and Inarticulate Sound. The frequency of each of the categories was calculated and it was found that the spoken text category has the largest number of differences between the translation on pages and stage by 42% percent since the spoken text deals with the translated text more than other categories. The results of this study will be beneficial for strengthening the actor's relationship with the text, and translators' quality of translation.

This study analyzed the requirement of English education for arts students and the language needs for arts administrators in the workplace in Taiwan. A total of 83 participants, comprising 37 graduate students majoring in the arts and 46 company administrators in art-related jobs, responded to a questionnaire requesting their opinions concerning English education. The results indicated that the language skills that the students required were similar to those that company administrators used in the workplace. Reading was the skill that company administrators used the most, and speaking was the least used skill. However, among the 30 language tasks, the comparison of mean scores indicated a discrepancy in needs between the students and company administrators. The arts students required sufficient vocabulary and adequate reading practice, because they were required to take English proficiency tests as a graduation requirement and their course materials included English articles and journal papers. Regarding the company administrators, introducing artwork and presenting products were crucial because they must sell artwork. The results can serve as fundamental information for reforming and preparing English curricula and courses tailored to the needs of arts students in Taiwan.

The current study aimed to find the relationship between personality traits and learning styles of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students across high, intermediate, and low levels of reading proficiency in online courses. To this purpose, 50 male and 50 female BA students were selected through convenient sampling from the executive management department at Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran. Their age range was 20 to 26 years. They were divided into three groups of high, intermediate, and low reading proficiency based on a simulated TOEFL CBT reading test. Their learning style and personality type were assessed through Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)-Form M and the Learning Style Inventory-3 (LSI3), respectively. Upon collecting the data from the MBTI, the LSI3, and the reading tests, the researchers coded the scores and used path analysis. The results showed that there were significant relationships among a number of the variables under investigation; especially extroversion was found to be an important personality trait affecting online reading proficiency and other variables. The results also showed that the extroversion trait had a positive significant relationship with high reading proficiency, while the thinking dimension resulted in low reading proficiency. Moreover, The participants who had the objective experience trait possessed a high ability in reading, and those who had the reflective observation trait were less proficient in reading.

The current study aimed at investigating the impact of Personal Response System (PRS) on Iranian EFL learners’ English language performance, class communication, and comfort level. To this purpose, a mixed methods design was used. The participants comprised 60 male-female Iranian grade eight junior students studying at Bahonar secondary school, Kazeroon, Iran. They were selected through convenient sampling method from two intact classes and divided into two experimental and control groups. The needed data was collected using the following instruments: Oxford Placement Test (OPT), Preliminary English Test (PET), Observation Checklist, and PRS. The two groups of the participants attended twelve English class sessions of the high school once a week. The only difference between the two groups was that during the class sessions, the experimental group attended PRS. Data analysis was conducted through descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests and qualitative content analysis of the observation data. The results showed that PRS had a statistically significant impact on English language performance, class communication, and comfort level of Iranian EFL learners. Accordingly, EFL teachers are recommended to use this tool in an attempt to enhance EFL learners' general English language performance.  

The literature on foreign language reading instruction has witnessed a significant bulk of research reporting the effectiveness of strategy instruction in improving reading outcomes. However, few studies have investigated the effects of reading strategy instruction on reading affective variables among young English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of teaching second language (L2) reading strategies on young Iranian EFL learners’ reading self-efficacy and reading attitudes. To this end, a sample of 48 Iranian EFL learners, aged 11-13, was recruited through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to an experimental group (N = 25) and a control group (N = 23). Using a quasi-experimental design, the researchers employed an experimental group that received a 12-week reading strategy instruction and a control group that were taught with the regular method without any strategy instruction. The Reading Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (RSEQ) and Reading Attitude Questionnaire (RAQ) were administered to measure the reading self-efficacy and reading attitudes of the participants as pre-test and post-test of the study. The strategy instruction intervention for the present study was based on Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA). The findings of the study indicated that the learners in the experimental group significantly outperformed those of the control group in terms of L2 reading self-efficacy. However, it was revealed that there was no significant difference between the reading attitudes of the two groups at the end of the semester. Overall, it may be concluded that EFL practitioners can incorporate teaching of reading strategies into their classrooms in order to help learners to gain both confidence and competence to address reading tasks more effectively.

The current study was an attempt to investigate the impact of grouping type on the grammatical accuracy of Iranian EFL learners in collaborative writing. Through administering the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency, 64 female university students available participated in this study and were assigned to two groups--heterogeneous and homogeneous. The treatment process lasted 12 weeks of collaborative writing and revising, with emphesis on the development of the the participants’ written grammatical accuracy. They were pretested and posttested through a descriptive free writing measure. The results revealed that the participants in both groups had higher posttest scores. Using ANCOVA, it was found that there was a differential effect of grouping type on the grammatical accuracy of homogeneous and heterogeneous pairs, indicating that the participants in heterogeneous group had significantly higher posttest scores than those in homogeneous group. Furthermore, although the grammatical accuracy of both groups increased, a significant difference was observed between them, revealing that the participants in heterogeneous group outperformed those in homogeneous group. The findings of this study can be interpreted in terms of the sociocultural theory and Vygotsky’s idea of the zone of proximal development.

The present study sought to investigate the effectiveness of teacher versus learner assessment activities on the Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ writing ability. In order to find an answer to the questions of this research, 30 intermediate students from Zaban Iran Language Institute in Rasht, Iran were selected via administering Solutions Placement Test (SPT). Next, they were divided into three groups of 10. Learners were randomly assigned into two experimental groups of peer assessment and self-assessment, and one control group, teacher assessment. A pre-test of writing was then administered before the groups received 8 sessions of treatment through peer, self-, and teacher assessment techniques. After the treatment period, a post-test of writing was administered to all groups. The results of descriptive and inferential analyses revealed that the peer assessment group attained the highest scores on the writing test, and a statistically significant difference among the effects of the teacher assessment, peer assessment, and self-assessment on Iranian Intermediate EFL students’ writing ability was reported. Also, the group using teacher assessment technique attained higher scores than the group that used the self-assessment technique. The implications of this study can be considered for EFL teachers, learners, materials developers, and syllabus designers.

This study aimed at determining the effect of teaching idiom strategies, that is, socializing learning and cognitive linguistic approach, on Iranian EFL learners' recognition and production of ambiguous idioms. To this end, 78 upper-intermediate students of Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, Iran, formed the total population of the study. Then, Proficiency English Test (PET) was administered to ensure the homogeneity of the needed sample. Based on the results of this test, 60 students were selected as the final participants. They were randomly assigned to two experimental groups: WhatsApp socializing group and etymological elaboration group. A pretest was used to ensure the unfamiliarity of the idioms. The criteria for choosing ambiguous idioms were that all ambiguous idioms required to have etymology and could be illustrated using a picture Also, posttests for the recognition and production of ambiguous idioms were used to compare the performance of the two groups. The statistical analysis of results indicated that the etymological elaboration group outperformed the socializing group in both idiom recognition and production. The findings of this research have pedagogical implications for teachers, syllabus designers, and materials developers in using appropriate instructional methods for teaching idioms.

Considering the fact that engagement with political economy is central to any fully rounded analysis of language and language-related issues in the neoliberal-stricken world today, and that applied linguistics has ignored the role of political economy (Block, Gray, & Holborow, 2012), for the first time, this study investigated the representations of neoliberal ideologies in the Interchange Third Edition Series. To this end, both quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted based on Du Gay, Hall, Janes, Mackay, and Negus’s (1997) model of ‘Cultural Circuit’, especially their concept of ‘Representational Repertoires’. Furthermore, Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (1996) ‘visual grammar’ was used for the analysis of the artwork. The results of the quantitative analysis revealed that more than 50% of the total number of units in each of the textbooks featured neoliberal-related content. Moreover, the results of the qualitative analysis confirmed Du Gay et al.’s (1997) argument that textbooks are not only curriculum artifacts but also cultural artifacts or communicative acts which serve to make English mean in particular ways - in this case the hegemonic culture of neoliberalism. As a result, it is necessary for EFL/ESL teachers and students to collaboratively develop counter-hegemonic discourses through critical thinking and dialogic interrogations of neoliberal discourses.

In an attempt to contribute to the ongoing debate about how output tasks affect noticing of linguistic forms, the present study set out to investigate the effect of pushed output tasks on grammatical accuracy in sentence writing of Iranian EFL learners. Fifty homogenous Iranian EFL learners were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. Then, every group underwent ten different treatment sessions. The control group received writing instruction through conventional methods, while the experimental group received instruction through two pushed output tasks. In the case of the experimental group, in the first five treatment sessions, four grammatical structures were presented through picture cued tasks. The next five treatment sessions directed at other structures took place via reconstruction tasks. Two different versions of the writing section of the Preliminary English Test (PET) were used as pre/post-test. The results indicated that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group. Therefore, it might be argued that pushed output-based tasks had a positive effect on the Iranian EFL learner’s grammatical accuracy in sentence writing. These findings provide empirical support for the output hypothesis and have pedagogical implications for the choice of output-oriented grammar tasks.