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The present study aimed at constructing a reliable and valid instrument that could explore EFL learners’ perceptions of culture management. A focus group was held with EFL university students familiar with culture-related concepts, and the themes were extracted from a detailed analysis of transcripts. An extensive literature review and interviews with applied linguistics experts were conducted to generate the CM Questionnaire items. Subsequently, the draft questionnaire was piloted with 251 Iranian undergraduate EFL students studying at two public universities in Iran. An exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis were run, and the overall factor loading estimates illustrated a satisfactory level of convergent validity for the developed Instrument. The satisfactory levels of factor loading and construct validity test supported the convergent validity of CM factors and their related items. The explored factors included Cultural Communication, Cultural Leadership, Cultural Awareness, Cultural Performance, and Culturally Relevant Teaching, with Cultural Communication as the most meaningful factor. The findings demonstrated that CMQ could be a valid and reliable instrument for investigating culture management perceptions. The implications of the study for EFL teachers, learners, and other stakeholders are also discussed along with some recommendations

همچنان عدم قطعیت های زیادی در خصوص نقش محتمل عوامل میانجی فراوان نظیر زمینه زبانی و قومیت در فرایند بازخود اصلاحی وجود دارد. در پاسخ به این موضوع، مطالعه حاضر بر روی 79 زبان آموز فارس و 79 زبان آموز دوزبانه ترکمن با سن 13 تا 18 سال در دو موسسه آموزش زبان استان گلستان صورت گرفت. شرکت کنندگان به سه گروه تیمار و یک گروه کنترل تقسیم شدند. دو پیش آزمون، اشتباهات گرامری زبان آموزان را نشان داد که براساس آن سه راهبرد بازخورد اصلاحی فرازبانی شفاهی، کتبی و تلفیقی تنظیم گردید و بر روی 5 اشتباه گرامری پرتکرار زبان آموزان اعمال شد. گروه کنترل تیماری دریافت نکرد. آزمون کروسکال والیس نشان دهنده تفاوت معنی دار گروه ها پیش و پس از تیمار بود که براساس آن، پس-آزمون مقایسه زوجی کانوور انجام شد. نتایج نشان داد که در فارس ها و ترکمن ها تیمارها به شکل معنی داری بر روی کاهش اشتباهات گرامری اثر گذاشته است. راهبردهای اصلاحی فرازبانی شفاهی و تلفیقی برای فارس ها و هر سه راهبرد برای ترکمن ها بر روی کاهش اشتباهات اثر معنی دار داشتند. رتبه راهبردها به کمک روش نزدیکی به راه حل ایده آل (تاپسیس) با وزن برابر اشتباهات بررسی شد که برای فارس ها، روش شفاهی و برای ترکمن ها روش کتبی را به عنوان بهترین نشان داد. روش تاپسیس با تغییر وزن ها به میزان 50 درصد به میزان 10000 بار تکرار شد که نشان دهنده ثبات رتبه بندی به دست آمده بود. نتایج این پژوهش می تواند برای فراگیران زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجی، آموزگاران زبان به فراگیران دوزبانه، طراحان سرفصل دروس و مواد آموزشی کمک نماید و هم زمان درهای جدیدی به سوی پژوهش های مرتبط بگشاید.

This study attempted to evaluate and compare language learning apps and the related traditional books on the same subject. The apps included Murphy’s English Grammar and Cambridge Discovery Readers and the traditional materials were English Grammar in Use and Developing Reading Skills. The study, thus, aimed to do a comparative analysis between traditional ELT materials and the digital versions. In doing so, it aimed to evaluate ELT mobile apps and consider their effectiveness for English language learning. The analysis was conducted based on the frameworks adapted from Hubbard (2006) and Reinders and Pegrum (2015). Based on these frameworks, the overall features and functions of the selected applications were analyzed in terms of three categories: ‘content and design’, ‘L2 approaches’ and ‘technology’. The analysis demonstrated that these ELT apps seemed to be effective in that they could provide a personal and learner-centered learning opportunity for learners as they would make them independent from any time and any place. Needless to say, by realizing mobility as a more situated, field-dependent and collaborative form of learning, the effective design and use of ELT mobile applications should continue to be studied in order to suggest the right direction to effective MALL.

This study intended to identify the status of educational accountability and quality of classroom life in Iranian public-and private-sector EFL contexts. To this end, 120 (60 public-and 60 private-sector) EFL learners and 80 (40 public-and 40 private-sector) EFL teachers of distinct ages (16-50) from different senior secondary schools and private language institutes in Kermanshah took part in the study. The participants completed the relevant questionnaires. Moreover, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 20 (ten public-and ten private-sector) EFL learners and 20 (ten public-and ten private-sector) EFL teachers. The results revealed that educational accountability was reasonably high among Iranian EFL teachers and learners, and the quality of classroom life was also acceptable in Iranian EFL contexts. Additionally, both EFL learners’ and teachers’ educational accountability was found to be more significant in the private-sector context. Besides, the quality of classroom life was significantly higher in the private-sector context than the public-sector context. The findings can help EFL teachers, syllabus designers, and material developers to grasp a better picture of educational accountability and quality of classroom life in Iranian public-and private-sector EFL contexts.

Teaching English through virtual online platforms has been practiced by language teachers during Covid-19 pandemic. The present mixed-methods study aimed to investigate EFL learners’ and teachers’ perceptions of virtual online classes and examine the potential (non)alignment between their perceptions as well. To do so, 80 learners and 30 teachers took part in the quantitative part and then, 18 learners and 12 teachers of English were selected for the qualitative part of the study. In the quantitative part, the participants responded to a self-report questionnaire on their experiences with online classes. In the qualitative part, the participants took part in online semi-structured interviews. After the questionnaire data provided a general profile of the learners’ and teachers’ opinions, analysis of the qualitative data resulted in the emergence of two major themes of 1) using online instruction as a productive device in language learning; and 2) efficient learning through communication. EFL teachers’ data revealed their belief in 1) fostering interactive classroom through online instruction; and 2) learners’ involvement and enthusiasm for classroom participation. It was also found that both learners and teachers expressed satisfaction with virtual online classes and creation of an interactive learning atmosphere through virtual classes, which indicated the existence of relative alignment between their perceptions. The findings of the study contributed to the EFL teachers’ awareness of applying online instruction in order to create an interactive learning environment for EFL learners and assist them to be enthusiastically involved in classroom communication.

Despite extensive studies concerning written error correction, it is imperative that more research be conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of error correction on improving L2 writing. Driven by this gap, this study aimed to examine whether unfocused direct and indirect types of written corrective feedback had any impact on the writing accuracy of the Iranian English language learners’ new compositions. Through the random matching technique, ninety Iranian English language learners from seven foreign language centers in southwestern Iran were split into two groups for treatment and one group for control. As part of the evaluation, a writing test was utilized to determine whether the learners had improved their writing accuracy due to the treatment. The results showed that the participants in both treatment groups improved their writing accuracy, though the learning gains from both treatment were not significantly different. This study concludes with some implications for teachers regarding their use of appropriate types of written error correction. 

Attention to form in input now seems to have found its way into second language acquisition (SLA), and it is recommended that language learners’ consciousness be raised for language learning to occur and become intake. Input enhancement and output have received considerable attention in recent SLA as two attention-drawing devices. In the present study, we chose visual input enhancement to examine its effect on noticing and acquisition. To that end, two classes were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Both groups were exposed to ten different short stories for ten sessions for five weeks, but the type of exposure was different for each group. The English third person singular was highlighted for the experimental group through formatting techniques such as underlining, italicizing, and capitalising. Language learners in the experimental group were supposed to answer the questions following each short story and write a summary for it. Both groups were post tested one week after the treatment on both Noticing Test and a Written Production Test. The results of two independent t-tests showed the superiority of experimental group over the control group in noticing and learning the third person singular. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Conducting qualitative research in applied linguistics seems to have some challenges. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the challenges of applied linguists across different research abilities to conduct qualitative studies. To that end, the biographical narratives, authored by 13 applied linguists, were collected. Then, the narratives were analyzed through qualitative data analysis principles, including organizing and familiarizing, coding and reducing, and interpreting and presenting (Ary et al., 2014). The findings showed that applied linguists face four challenges: methodological issues, technical issues, ethical issues, and qualitative research dissemination while doing qualitative research. The findings also indicated similarities and differences among applied linguists' challenges across different research abilities. It can be concluded that teaching qualitative research is more than mere lecturing about qualitative concepts. Thus, there should be practice-based instruction on qualitative research for applied linguistics students. Moreover, there should be a community for addressing pedagogical dialogs among applied linguists about doing qualitative research.

This study aimed at investigating the effects of grammatical error correction on EFL learners’ accuracy. Twenty-two male and female senior students were chosen randomly to respond to a questionnaire investigating their beliefs about immediate grammatical error correction.  Actually, the study was conducted in order to answer this question: what is the effect of grammatical error feedback on students’ accuracy? The obtained results related to the questionnaire revealed that immediate error correction had a positive effect and thus enhanced the learners’ accuracy.