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Collaborative dialogue (CD) in developing L2 skills known as ‘knowledge-building dialogue’, in spite of its momentum in foreign language acquisition, has rarely been conjoined and empirically investigated with a Task-based approach. To this end, the present research was conducted with a two-fold aim: firstly, investigating the effect of task-based collaborative dialogue on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ speaking ability, and secondly, exploring teachers’ and learners’ perceptions of the exercised treatment process. The participants of the study consisted of 100 Iranian B.A. TEFL and Translation Studies students were identified as relatively homogeneous with regard to their language proficiency through administering Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and ten Iranian EFL teachers. The experimental group was exposed to task-based collaborative dialogues, while the control group experienced conventional mainstream teaching the speaking skill. Upon completing the treatment, CD questionnaires were administered to the experimental group of learners and teachers to investigate their perceptions of implementing CDs in speaking classes. Subsequently, the teachers and 12 students from the experimental group attended the semi-structured interview sessions to explore their views regarding the efficiency of task-based CDs. The findings indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control one regarding speaking skill. The results of the questionnaires and the semi-structured interviews complemented each other and indicated that the teachers and the learners adopted positive views toward applying the task-based CD. The findings offer some implications for the stakeholders, including material developers, EFL learners, and teachers, to incorporate task-based collaborative dialogues in second language education.

This study focused mainly on the shifts of the grammatical cohesion in texts translated from English into Persian. It aimed to identify the grammatical cohesive devices (GCDs) in ST and TT separately, based on Halliday and Hassn's Model (1976), determine the number of occurrences of GCDs in two texts and finally, illustrate types of shifts of grammatical cohesion and strategies used in TT. To achieve these aims, a mixed-method (comparative and descriptive model) research design was used to spot cohesive shifts in TT due to translation, together with the employed strategies. To this purpose, the book, Oral Reproduction of Stories was investigated, with its translation. 39 different stories by different writers were selected as the sample of analysis. The results showed that the TT adopted all the three types of GCDs except verbal and casual substitution, with verbal substitution in Persian being carried down by reference, ellipsis and lexical cohesion. The occurrence of GCDs in the TT was more frequent than that of ST. Regarding the general analysis of the cohesion shifts, the study showed that three types of shifts (i.e. establishment of new cohesion, elimination of cohesion and change of type of cohesive features) occur in translation. Finally it was revealed that the translation strategies undertaken by the various translators are motivated and influenced by three factors (i. e. systemic language differences Baker (1992), stylistic preferences and the translation process itself (Blum- Kulka, 1986).

Perhaps the degree of test difficulty is one of the most significant characteristics of a test. However, no empirical research on the difficulty of the MSRT test has been carried out. The current study attempts to fill the gap by utilizing a two-parameter item response model to investigate the psychometric properties (item difficulty and item discrimination) of the MSRT test. The Test Information Function (TIF) was also figured out to estimate how well the test at what range of ability distinguishes respondents. To this end, 328 graduate students (39.9% men and 60.1% women) were selected randomly from three universities in Isfahan. A version of MSRT English proficiency test was administered to the participants. The results supported the unidimensionality of the components of MSRT test. Analysis of difficulty and discrimination indices of the total test revealed that 14% of the test items were either easy / very easy, 38% were medium, and 48% were either difficult or very difficult. In addition, 14% of the total items were classified as nonfunctioning. They discriminated negatively or did not discriminate at all. 7% of the total items discriminated poorly, 17% discriminated moderately, and 62% discriminated either highly or perfectly, however they differentiated between high-ability and higher-ability test takers. Thus, 38% of the items displayed satisfactory difficulty. Too easy (14%) and too difficult (48%) items could be one potential reason why some items have low discriminating power. An auxiliary inspection of items by the MSRT test developers is indispensable.

This study was conducted with the objective of investigating the practice of teaching early reading comprehension. The study was carried out in sixty-six Grade 2 government primary schools found in SNNPR State in Gedeo zone,Ethiopia, in the academic year 2015. Sixty-six English language teachers were subjects of the study. The study employed mixed method, specifically QUANT-QUAL one. Data were collected using questionnaires, observation and interview. Sixty-six of the teachers (one teacher from each selected school) who were teaching English in Grade 2 completed the questionnaire. Ten of the teachers were observed while they were teaching reading to see how they were teaching reading and six of the teachers were interviewed. Data from questionnaires, classroom observations and interview were categorized and descriptively analyzed using frequency and percentage. The data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The findings revealed that teachers failed to implement the teaching of early reading according to the theories and principles of teaching early reading. Teachers were seen using inappropriate reading techniques and procedures in the mentioned grade level. The study also revealed that teachers are deficiently trained in phonological awareness, phonics instruction, comprehension, fluency and vocabulary.

Problem-based Learning (PBL) as one of the newest teaching methods in the area of language teaching in second and foreign contexts, has been used by teachers in the last two decades in different institutes. In the current study, attempts were made to find out the effect of the two PBL subcategories, i.e. Hybrid Problem-based Learning (H-PBL) and Pure Problem-based Learning (PPBL) in comparison to a traditional lecture-based method, on Iranian EFL university learners’ speaking skill and their self-confidence, by implementing these two methods in the EFL classroom using eight teacher-made real-world problems. To this purpose, 56 undergraduate participants of Payam Noor university (PNU) in Abadan, Iran, were randomly selected, divided into a control group and two treatment HPBL and PPBL groups. The statistical analysis of the obtained results of the participants’ pretest-posttest scores, through one-way ANCOVA and Man-Whitney U test, revealed that the treatment groups outperformed the control group in speaking skill and self-confidence The findings of the study might bear implications for teachers and university curriculum designers to take more proper approaches towards the instructing university participants.

Grounded on Hofstede's (1986) dichotomous model of collectivism/individualism, this study explored Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' cultural identity. A sequential mixed methods procedure was adopted to examine their cultural orientation and the impact of length of experience on their degree of propensity to absorb the target language culture. A total of 120 female and male teachers of private English institutes with varying years of teaching record contributed to this research. Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions model was developed into a Likert-scale questionnaire, along with a number of complementary demographic questions. To gain a deeper understanding of the teachers' standpoints, six of the teachers were randomly selected to participate, and elaborate on their responses, in a semi-structured interview. The analysis of the findings revealed that Iranian EFL teachers were primarily identified as being individualist, irrespective of the span of their professional experience. The finding tends to contradict Hofstede's survey where Iranians had been identified as collectivists as a whole. Even though career length did not statistically disclose their degree of cultural affiliation, teachers' responses at the interview revealed some underlying trends accounting for their identity shifts. It seems to be the case that exposure to and contact with the English language covertly transformed non-native teachers' cultural identity over time. By extension, it may well be that foreign language teachers apart from their indigenous cultural persuasions, seem to grow into the target culture they are exposed to, without even being physically present in the target community environment.

The present study investigates the implantation of political science terminology approved by the Academy of Persian Language and Literature (APLL) in the Hamshahri corpus made up of news text from Hamshahri newspaper and their acceptability among MA students of English translation studies (ETS), English literature (EL), and Political science (PS). To conduct this research the frequencies of the political terms approved by the APLL with their competing terms were compiled from the corpus. For analyzing another group of terms without competing terms, 90 MA students were purposively selected from the abovementioned majors. Accordingly, a 60-item 5-point Likert Scale questionnaire (including 60 political terms) along with an open-ended question were administered. The implantation coefficients (IC) of the first group of the terms with competing terms indicate that the factors such as conciseness and derivative capabilities result in higher IC. The descriptive results indicated that around two third of the ETS and EL students agree with the APLL-approved political science terms, while less than half of the PS students accept these neologisms. Moreover, the Chi-Square test (value of 92.000, p= 0.000 < 0.05) revealed that there is a correlation between the level of agreement and the major. In addition, Cramer’s V test result with the value of 0.092 indicated a weak correlation between the academic major and the attitude. Finally, analysis of the open-ended question showed that conciseness, transparency, morphological well-formedness, and familiarity with neologisms were the main reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with them.

Audiovisual translation is the term that has been utilized to mention mainly the transfer from one language to another language of the verbal elements that existed in audiovisual products. Among various modes of AVT, dubbing is the most common. Generally, in AVT there are problems in the field of idioms translation because idioms are considered one of the most problematical and complicated aspects of language. Moreover, since the meaning of idioms is not recognized by their words, translating them is hard task for translators. For solving this problematic issue, translators use different strategies. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate and analyze the translation of idioms in dubbing. This research investigated the translation of English idioms in Persian dubbing of two comedy films named, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “21 Jump Street” according to Baker's (1992) strategies. To analyze the data, the frequency and percentage distribution were calculated for each Baker's strategy, which had been applied in the translation of English idioms into Persian dubbing of mentioned movies. Results showed that translation by paraphrase was the most frequent applied strategy, and using an idiom of similar meaning and form was the least frequent applied strategy in Persian dubbing of two mentioned comedy movies. The results of this study could be helpful for translators to recognize the frequent strategies of idiom translation used in dubbing and university teachers can train them for their students.

AbstractA paradigm shift in education has led to implementing learner-centered pedagogy (LCP) which considers learners as the central element of the learning process, and it is progressively being encouraged in higher education. Examining the implementation of learner-centered pedagogy in English language teaching (ELT) context is important. While this paradigm of teaching has long been introduced to education in general and language teaching in particular, it is claimed that scant attention has been given to its implementation in Iranian EFL context. The present study was to compare the implementation of learner-centered pedagogy in assessment procedures at different Iranian universities. Therefore, using convenience sampling technique, 378 TEFL students from both genders and different ages (mostly 20 to 35 years old) were selected. To gather data, a reliable, valid researcher made LCP questionnaire was distributed among the participants. Gathered data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA. The results of the data analysis demonstrated that there was a significant difference between the performance of state university and Islamic Azad and non-state university, while no significant difference was observed between the performance of Islamic Azad and non-state university students. The outcomes can provide insights into considering learner-centered pedagogy in teaching to improve teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) program. Moreover, they can be practical for teachers, material developers, as well as syllabus designers.

Based on the controversial beliefs among L2 teachers about effective corrective feedback (CF) strategies, recast and prompts as 2 kinds of CF have drawn the attention of L2 researchers(e.g., Braidi, 2002; Iwashita, 2003; Loewen & Philp, 2006; Panova & Lyster, 2002; Sheen, 2004). Despite these numbers of studies, debate continues to exist about their usefulness as a CF technique. Whereas recasts provide a correct reformulation of L2 learners’ nontarget utterance, the other alternative type of feedback in L2 classroom settings is referred to as prompts (Lyster, 2004) because they provide signals that prompt L2 learners to self-repair rather than provide them with a correct reformulation of their nontarget utterance. Hence, the focus of this study was to examine the effect of recasts in comparison to prompts on the learning of English third person singular marker “s” by Iranian preintermediate L2 learners. Two CF techniques of recasts and prompts were utilized in 2 experimental groups in response to their errors in using the correct form of the verb for third person singular subject. In the third group as the control group, No-CF was provided by the L2 teacher. The results revealed that the Prompts Group had outperformed the Recast Group and No-CF Group. Thus, it could be concluded that prompts as a CF strategy led to more gains than CF that provided the L2 learners with the correct form (recast) than No-CF.  

Although discrete research on pragmatic and grammatical awareness is well-visited in second language acquisition, the exploration and assessment of these two variables in tandem in standardized language proficiency tests has not garnered thick literature. On this ground, this study attempted to examine the correlation of both pragmatic and grammatical awareness with IELTS speaking Part 3. To this end, 120 homogenized Uzbek IELTS-taken applicants were asked to fill out pragmatic and grammatical awareness questionnaire adopted from Albertson (2011) followed by IELTS speaking Part 3 administration in order to obtain a correlation between pragmatic awareness and IELTS speaking Part 3 as well as grammatical awareness and IELTS speaking Part 3, respectively. The results of data analyses via running Pearson correlation coefficient indicated that both pragmatic awareness and grammatical awareness were significantly correlated with IELTS speaking Part 3. The findings imply that building on these two types of awareness would probably help learners increase their performance on IELTS speaking Part 3. Additionally, the students’ awareness-raising on pragmatic aspect of language in IELTS speaking Part 3 upon which interaction is based could probably convince the examiners on IELTS speaking venues that they are fully aware of pragmatic items and their conveyed message would not be misunderstood.

This study aimed to explore the perception of translation educators about the need of teaching translation theories to undergraduate students of translation studies. BA Translation courses at Iranian Universities are generally practice–based. So, they lack meaningful teaching of translation theories and concepts. To this end, the researcher selected 62 translation teachers from seven universities of Iran based on their major and the study’s purpose. This study followed a quantitative design. The participants filled out an online questionnaire sent to them by email. The researcher designed the questionnaire based on the related literature review. The reliability of items was checked with Cronbach's Alpha. The result was 0.849, which shows the high consistency of questionnaire items. The face and content validity of the questionnaire was checked by two experts in the field. The questionnaire contained two main parts. One part included ten items on the implications of translation theories. The other part was designed for any general comments the professionals would like to add about each item. The findings indicated that most translator trainers have a generally positive attitude toward teaching translation theories. This study can be of great use for translators, those who work in the field, those who teach it, and those who study it.