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Academic Confidence, Grit and WTC of students play important roles in their second language achievement. This paper examined the role of academic confidence and grit in willingness to communicate of Iranian EFL students in different communicative and educational contexts. To this end, 385 EFL students responded to the relevant questionnaires. The analysis of the data revealed that the students with higher levels of academic confidence and grit had a higher L2 WTC in in-class, out-of-class, and online classrooms. The results also revealed that the students’ grit was a predictor of their L2 WTC in all communicative contexts, and the university students scored the highest, followed by language institute and senior secondary school students. Moreover, academic confidence and grit had significant relationship with L2 WTC of students in senior secondary schools, language institutes and universities. Another finding was that grit was a predictor of all groups’ L2 WTC, while academic confidence predicted L2 WTC of students in language institutes and universities. The results of this study have implications for EFL teachers.

Given the seemingly important link between children’s working memory (WM) and their scholastic performance, it would be a worthwhile research enquiry to explore language learning as one potential way to improve WM. To this end, the present study examined the impact of two language teaching paradigms, namely, Presentation-Practice-Production (PPP) and Total Physical Response (TPR), on children’s WM over time. Seventy participants, aged 8 to 9 years, were administered tests of phonological, visuo-spatial sketchpad and central executive components, and made up TPR, PPP and control groups for a period of three months. Then, a posttest and a delayed posttest were administered to identify whether the treatments led to significant improvements. The results of the 3 WM measures indicated that the 2 interventions led to certain improvements. Whereas TPR led to significant improvements in the central executive, PPP produced significantly higher gains in phonological memory over time. Neither treatment induced any positive impact on the visuospatial sketchpad. The results lend evidence to the trainability of WM. It is also suggested that language learning experiences have long-lasting repercussions and that each language learning experience can impact certain components of WM.

The application of zone of proximal development (ZPD), as a major tenet of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (SCT, 1978), has recently been invited in the L2 learning/teaching profession. This study mainly examined whether Iranian EFL learners’ interactions in diverse ZPD-activated proximal contexts through the use of storytelling instruction could improve their oral (speaking) proficiency and attitudes towards speaking in ZPD-based learning context. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used with 60 intermediate EFL participants selected from Asre-no English Language Institute in Iran, after administering the OQPT. Then, the participants were assigned into 2 experimental groups (ZPD-activated equal and unequal groups), and 1 control group, with 20 participants in each group. The students in both experimental groups were exposed to the storytelling-based instruction within different ZPD-activated proximal contexts (equal and unequal), but in the control group the traditional teacher-fronted instruction within a non-ZPD context was conducted. A semistructured interview and a questionnaire were used to assess the participants’ speaking proficiency and attitudes before and after the instruction. The findings from the analysis of covariance and t test suggested that using storytelling instruction within ZPD-activated contexts significantly improved both the participants’ speaking proficiency and their attitudes. Further data analysis of the ZPD participants’ performance indicated that no significant difference between the learners’ speaking proficiency development of equal and unequal peer groups was found. By implication, ZPD-based pair work and storytelling-based instruction, interwoven with each other in a balanced manner, would be highly fruitful in developing EFL learners’ speaking skill and their attitudes.

This study is a mixed-methods parallel design aiming at exploring the perception of 49 ESP teachers toward formative classroom assessment with regard to their language assessment literacy (LAL) in Iran within the theoretical framework of Hay and Penney (2013). The data were collected through an online semi-structured interview and a questionnaire, extracted from Shahzamani and Tahririan's (2021) questionnaire, consisting of 13 Likert items and 9 open-ended questions which were validated for this study through confirmatory factor analysis. The results of a Chi-square test on the Likert items showed a significant difference between the participant’s responses to each item which revealed an overall tendency of the ESP teachers toward employing formative assessment as an efficient way for evaluating their own teaching efficacy, the quality of the teaching materials, and their students' progress. The results also revealed that the two features of 1) ability to assess learners based on cultural-related issues in a certain context, and 2) ability to design suitable assessment methods for multilevel ESP classes should be added to the components of LAL in the existing literature. The results have implications for teacher educators to consider these two features in teacher education programs. Also, academic authorities are to notice that reliance on summative assessment and evaluation merely based on final exam scores are not appreciated by most ESP teachers.           

There is growing agreement among researchers on the advantages of using automated feedback programs (AFPs), but most of the previous studies have evaluated more well-known AFPs like Grammarly, Ginger, etc. in English writing classes. None of the previous studies on AFPs evaluated the effectiveness of and users' perception of InstaText. Thus, this study was aimed at examining the effects of InstaText on improving the language quality (i.e., grammar, spelling, and style) of Persian-English freelance translators using InstaText for editing their English translations of Persian academic papers, which are considered technical translations. In addition, it was conducted to investigate how the said users perceived this InstaText. This quantitative study was conducted in two phases: a one-group pretest-posttest phase, where the effect of using InstaText on improving the language quality of translated technical texts was examined with 75 participants; and a survey phase, where the participants' perception toward InstaText was measured using Usefulness, Satisfaction, and Ease of Use (USE) questionnaire. InstaText did not help the participants make significant progress in grammar and spelling, but its effect on improving their style was significant. Further, the participants perceived the tool as intuitive, user-friendly, efficient, time-saving, and satisfactory.

Critical pedagogy is regarded as an exhaustive system of learning through which learners' critical consciousness, self-regulation and autonomy, individuality, and learning achievements are promoted. Therefore, 60 Iranian upper- intermediate EFL learners (both male and female) from among 75 students based on their OPT test scores were selected. These participants were divided into a control group (N = 30) and an experimental group (N = 30). In order to ascertain that the students in the two groups were homogeneous in terms of writing quantity, the writing pretest was administered. The control group (CG) received the traditional writing instructions, whereas the experimental group (EG), who was taught writing instructions as guideline, received critical pedagogy. After the treatment, the writing posttest was also constructed. The scores of the students on the placement test, writing pretest, and posttest of the two groups were analyzed using SPSS 20. In addition, an independent-sample t- test and a one-way ANCOVA were used to compare the CG and EG learners' writing quantity and quality on the posttest scores. The data obtained from the study indicated that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group counterparts. Implications for EFL teachers include drawing the attention to the importance and usefulness of critical pedagogy in L2 teaching classes.

The present study is aimed at investigating the relationship among Iranian EFL teachers’ reflective teaching, reflective thinking and classroom management ability. To this purpose, 102 male and female EFL teachers, aged between 25 and 40, with different academic background who were teaching at different levels, were chosen to fill in three questionnaires on reflective thinking, reflective teaching and classroom management. In this connection, the Spearman Rank-Order correlation was used as the analytical method to analyze the data and to come to the conclusion. The obtained result showed that there was a positive correlation between teachers’ reflective teaching and class management. A strong relationship was observed between reflective thinking and class management and there was also a positive correlation between teachers’ reflective thinking and reflective teaching.

This study aimed at developing and designing a new model and instrument to explore attitudes of Iranian EFL Teachers towards reflection-for-action through their teaching. In so doing, the researchers followed several rigorous steps including extensive literature review, content selection, item generation, designing the rating scales and personal information part, item revision, and detecting factor structure. An initial draft of the questionnaire consisting of ten dimensions along with 49 items, investigating teachers’ attitudes towards the components of reflection-for-action scale based on the literature and interview with a panel of experts. Then, it was distributed to a group of 150 Iranian EFL teachers to refine it more. Finally, Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the obtained data revealed that the questionnaire consisted of a seven-factor structure including Academic Qualification as the (first factor), Experience (second factor), Professional Development (third factor), Collaboration (fourth factor), Perception (fifth factor), Efficacy (sixth factor), Motivation (seventh factor).        

A C-Test is a gap-filling test for measuring language competence in the first and second language. C-Tests are usually analyzed with polytomous Rasch models by considering each passage as a super-item or testlet. This strategy helps overcome the local dependence inherent in C-Test gaps. However, there is little research on the best polytomous Rasch model for C-Tests. In this study, the Rating Scale Model (RSM) and the Partial Credit Model (PCM) for analyzing C-Tests were compared. To this end, a C-Test composed of six passages with both RSM and PCM was analyzed. The models were compared in terms of overall fit, individual item fit, dimensionality, test targeting, and reliability. Findings showed that, although the PCM has a better overall fit compared to the RSM, both models produce similar test statistics. In light of the findings of the study, the choice of the best Rasch model for C-Tests will be discussed.