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This article reports on a study of interaction amid beginners with the use of the technological resource WhatsApp . Its major objective was to analyze online oral negotiated interaction characteristics, using mainly WhatsApp audio-recorded messages, but also multimodal interaction (text, images, GIFs, emoticons, etc.). It was a qualitative, interpretive, and exploratory case study applied to 33 participants from a public technical school in Brazil, in which participants were in the first year of High School. The analysis revealed that negotiated interaction was the main component of interaction, although in a different sense if related to the theoretical framework held in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Therefore, this study added a discussion on interaction in SLA, which considered the peculiarities of the online oral negotiated interaction among beginner learners of English using WhatsApp . The interpretive findings discussed in this article may enlighten pedagogical practices in SLA as well as broaden possibilities in terms of activities development to work on online oral interaction amongst beginners, with the aid of technological resources. Finally, this study may serve the purpose of promoting reflections on SLA theories about interaction.

Translation quality assessment with its focus on the formulation of a comprehensive model for translation evaluation has gained a growing interest in the field of translation studies. However, little attention has been paid to the use of linguistic theories in the evaluative judgment of a translation. The aim of this study was to apply a particular kind of linguistic analysis based on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) as a framework for the translation quality assessment of a novel. Meanwhile, it aimed to identify the kinds of overt errors and the used translation strategies in English to Persian. To this end, thirty pages of The Sound and The Fury by Faulkner (1329) and its translation by Bahman Sholevar (2003) were selected and the mismatches across the three metafunctions of ideational, interpersonal, and thematic meanings were identified based on SFL. The comparison of the source text (ST) and the target text (TT) revealed that the ideational meaning had the greatest number of errors as produced by the translator. Moreover, omission constituted the largest kind of overt translation error. Thus, the translator mostly used reduction strategies and text expansion strategies in translating the ST. The results showed that SFL can successfully be applied to evaluate the correct translation of the three metafunctions of language. This study has important implications for syllabus designers of translation studies, translation teachers, and literary translators.    

The present study was intended to investigate the roles of test-taking strategies, critical thinking, and self-efficacy in the language proficiency of the female Iranian Ph.D. students at Islamic Azad University (IAU), Shahrekord Branch, Shahrekord, Iran. The participants of the study, who were 98 Ph.D. students from a range of disciplines, were getting ready to sit for the English Proficiency Test (EPT) as a partial requirement for the completion of their courses and take the Comprehensive Exam subsequently. These participants were required to complete the test-taking strategies, critical thinking, and self-efficacy questionnaires, one questionnaire per session, towards the end of their English course with the present researcher. They also took a sample of EPT for their final exam. Standard multiple regression was conducted to see how well self-efficacy, critical thinking, and test-taking strategies could predict the participants’ language proficiency. The obtained results revealed that language proficiency had strong, positive, and significant correlations with critical thinking, test-taking strategies, and self-efficacy. Moreover, it was found that all the three independent variables were significant predictors of language proficiency, with critical thinking being the best predictor, test-taking strategies the second, and self-efficacy the third. The significance of these results lies in the fact that individual attributes like critical thinking, self-efficacy, and test-taking strategies play a significant role in the success of students when it comes to language proficiency.       

Cet article présent, nous ne projetons en aucune façon d'établir ou de définir ce qu'est l'art, dont l'œuvre d'art en ontologie. Ce n'est pas notre préoccupation aujourd'hui, et non plus davantage de la plupart des artistes contemporains. À la recherche d'une ontologie bien particulière sur l’œuvre d’art contemporain, Roger Pouivet, le philosophe contemporain français, l'appelle « l'ontologie appliquée ». Il s’agit de considérer l'œuvre en tant que telle, sans se préoccuper des catégories fondamentales qui la possèdent. À ce stade, il paraît nécessaire de parler du changement de paradigme dans le champ d’arts plastiques, qui résulte de l'apparition des œuvres des textes écrits ou oraux.  En ce qui concerne le concept de « Zugganzes » de ’Heidegger, il faut bien comprendre, quoi qu'il en soit, le cumul des éléments nécessaires jusqu’à ce que l’établissement d’un système s’achève. Cela veut dire que pour un processus de créer une œuvre d'art contemporain il explique qu’à la fois chaque élément a son rôle clé, même indispensable, et une mission pour compléter le rôle des autres éléments. Au fur et à mesure de cet article, nous répondrons aux questions de recherche : 1) Comment peut-on mettre en avant un processus de détermination d'une œuvre d'art qui s'enrichit des textes écrits ou oraux, en époque contemporaine ? 2.) Pourquoi et pour quelle raison a-t-on choisi de mettre en lien les deux concepts de « Zugganzes » et de l'hypothèse de « l'ontologie appliquée » dans ce travail de recherche ? Cette recherche essaye de nous montrer que: les œuvres d'art contemporaines qui sont considérées comme des textes visuels enrichissent des textes écrits ou oraux. En effet, cet acte vise à attirer l'attention des spectateurs en tout temps et en tous lieux. À la fin, on comprendra qu’il est possible de créer visuellement des textes symboliques en pratiquant simultanément les textes écrits ou oraux comme des éléments visuels et en profitant de leurs contextes.   

This study aimed at investigating the effect of reading-based vs. discussion-based pre-writing activities on the writing ability of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, a quasi-experimental study was conducted with 40 Iranian intermediate EFL learners within16 to 20 age range who were selected based on their performance on an Oxford Solution Proficiency Test. They were divided into two experimental groups: Reading Group and Discussion Group. The former group was made to involve in some reading activity prior to doing the main writing task, and the latter group was made to participate in a discussion activity before the main writing task. After the treatment for 10 sessions, both groups were post-tested. The pre-test and post-test involved free compositions, which were scored analytically. The findings indicated that both groups’ writing ability improved over the course of the study, but the difference between the performances of the groups on the post-test was not statistically significant, although the Reading group’s mean score was greater than the Discussion group. The results of this study have some implications for students, language teachers, syllabus designers and material developers.

This meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize the effect of 22 primary studies which have been conducted to test the effect of the integrated skills approach (ISA) on language skills and components. Three questions guide this analyses: What is the overall effect of ISA on language skills and sub-skills? To what extent moderator variables such as learners level of education and proficiency modify the effect of the ISA? What is the magnitude of publication bias in this analysis? The overall effect size was found to be 1.18, which represents a large effect size based on Cohen, Manion and Morrison’ (2007) scale. The results of moderator analysis revealed that the ISA has the largest effect for advanced learners and at a tertiary level of education. The symmetrical funnel plot together with fail-safe N test shows that publication bias does not have any significant effect on the effect size reported in this study. The findings of this meta-analysis have clear implications for practitioners, policymakers, and curriculum developers.

This study sought to investigate how doctoral candidates are positioned by journal editors and reviewers and how they establish their own position while attempting to get published, as well as the challenges and opportunities they confront throughout this process. Data were gathered from two doctoral candidates at a public university employing a mixed-methods conversion design whose qualitative phase was a multiple case study. In-depth interviews, metalinguistic commentary, and document analysis were used to track the positioning patterns. Data analysis utilizing the Appraisal model revealed that doctoral candidates were perceived as novice researchers by journal editors and reviewers. In addition, doctoral candidates’ own positioning gradually shifted from being novice and intolerant researchers to being independent and tolerant ones. Moreover, the findings revealed that doctoral candidates face different challenges during the process of writing for publication, which makes this process more difficult for them. Based on the interviews, different requirements from different journals, obligations, limited sources of help, and lack of experience were among the most important challenges the participants had to deal with. On the other hand, they mentioned that publication provided them with the chance of expressing themselves and having their own voice, which could be considered as an opportunity in this process.

Teacher assessment identity (TAI) is a pivotal segment of teachers’ professional identity and practice that has recently gained momentum in second/foreign language research. However, its developmental trajectories in light of digital technologies over time have remained uncharted, to date. To fill this gap, this study intended to unpack the dynamics of EFL teachers’ assessment identity through e-portfolios uploaded on a website. In doing so, 22 novice and experienced Iranian EFL teachers were requested to prepare a series of e-portfolios for a period of two months across three phases. Furthermore, to capture the participants’ perceptions about TAI and its dynamism in light of e-folios, a semi-structured interview was held with 10 EFL teachers. The results of independent median tests demonstrated a significant difference between novice and experienced EFL teachers’ assessment identity at p < .05 with the experienced group being more affected by the e-portfolios. Based on Friedman’s tests, significant improvements in novice teachers’ assessment identity were found from phase 1 to phase 2, and phase 2 to phase 3 owing to the use of e-portfolios. However, the experienced participants did not show significant improvement from phase 1 to phase 2, while in phase 3, a significant improvement and jump were observed. Moreover, the thematic analysis of the interviews indicated that both groups concurred that e-portfolio could contribute to TAI development given its capability to inspire reflection on assessment practices. The study presents implications for EFL teachers, teacher educators, and L2 researchers regarding the dynamism of TAI in light of e-portfolios.

Research article (RA) titles are one of the most important elements of a manuscript, influencing the reviewers’ decision and editors’ judgment, attracting the readers, and conveying the main idea of the article. Investigating 3197 RA titles published in 16 approved Iranian linguistic journals, this study aimed to map their pattern and portray their features of form and content. To this end, all the RA titles of the 16 Iranian journals publishing articles in applied linguistics up to 2022 (3197 titles) were collected. Then, they were analyzed for their length, presence of non-alphanumeric characters, syntactic structure, lexical diversity, as well as type and trend of information encoded.  Results show that RA titles in Iranian linguistic journals tend to be pretty long (average of 13.88) but mostly consist of non-repetitive words with high lexical diversity (.94). Authors mainly used colons (average of 82), hyphens (average of 79), and commas (average of 37) to form titles by nominal (average of 94) and compound (average of 82) grammatical structures. These titles mostly tended to embed information about the method, data, and results of the works and appeared to be highly informative. Interrelationships between features resulted in a checklist for RA title features that can be used by prospective researchers, academic writing instructors, and reviewers.