درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Intercultural competence and intercultural sensitivity have drawn the attention of a myriad of scholars in the fields of language teaching, communication, culture, gender, and ethnicity. This is the rationale behind the current research aiming at investigating EFL teachers’ beliefs concerning the concepts of intercultural communication competence (ICC) and intercultural sensitivity (IS) and how such concepts are promoted in their real practices in English classes. To this end, utilizing a qualitative design, a sample of 20 EFL teachers (11 experienced and 9 novice teachers) from different language institutes in West Azerbaijan province were selected. A semi-structured interview and a three-session observation were conducted as data-gathering tools. The results of the data analysis indicated that even though Iranian EFL teachers were familiar with the concepts of IS and ICC and they knew that language and culture are not isolated terms, they ignored culture in the classes due to some regularities imposed on them by society. As a matter of fact, for teachers, the concept of language is the top priority while culture plays a second fiddle. The study has some pedagogical implications for EFL teachers and learners in overcoming cultural differences to improve the level of language proficiency.

In the context of the rapid dissemination of information, scaffolding the readability of online content is critical. This study introduces the brainling model as a novel approach to measuring readability, which heeds readers’ cognition, senses, emotions, and cultural background in conjunction with language. To achieve the aims, two texts covering a general topic were selected, both possessing the same readability level according to the Flesch Reading Ease scale. However, one of the texts was modified in accordance with the brainling components (i.e., cogling, emoling, sensoling, and cultuling). Following each reading text, five multiple-choice comprehension questions, a 10- item Likert scale for readability, and a scale for the text’s difficulty level scale were designed. The Google Form was used to collect responses from 209 individuals with intermediate language proficiency at an educational institution in Oman. After verifying the reliability and validity of the questions and scales, significantly higher mean scores were observed for the readability scale components of clarity and engagement in the brainling-based modified text, compared to the unmodified text. Moreover, the results obtained from the text difficulty scale, readers rated the brainling-based text as easier to comprehend. Furthermore, based on the reading comprehension test, participants achieved higher scores when reading the brainling-based text. These findings demonstrate that modifying a text based on the brainling model, which integrates both brain and linguistic structures, significantly enhances clarity, engagement, text difficulty, and reading comprehension scores. Adopting the brainling approach can be a solution for fostering mutual understanding and collaboration among culturally diverse members and alleviating challenges such as misunderstanding, that may hinder goal achievement. 

This study strived to specify and particularize Iranian medical field specialists and EFL teachers’ predominant and overriding textual interventions, which fall within the ambit of convenience editing. To this end, we required 20 field specialists and 20 EFL instructors to edit the unedited versions of 80 published medical research articles in a way that rendered them apt for publication in quality medical journals. We categorized the obtained data of the edited articles using an editing strategy framework that distinguished four editing micro-strategies and five macro-strategies. The findings revealed that medical specialists and EFL teachers’ micro-editing strategies outnumbered their macro-editing ones. Furthermore, there were significant differences between the editing micro-strategy uses of the above-mentioned groups of the participants. The results highlighted the need for a synergic collaboration between the medical field specialists and the EFL teachers to ameliorate medical articles’ formal, stylistic, and genre-related features and to expedite their publication process. 

The Islamic revolution of Iran in 1979 caused the replacement of a pro-western government with an Islamic republic which also affected the broadcast of foreign audio-visual products on the State TV. As such products contained taboos, some specific translation strategies seemed necessary according to Islamic laws. This study aimed to investigate how the State TV has dealt with taboos during the first and second twenty years of the Islamic Republic. To this end, four audio-visual products including Secret Army (1977) and Captain Tsubasa (1983) broadcast during the 1980s and 1990s and Wall-E (2008) and House of Cards (2013) aired in the 2000s and 2010s respectively by the State TV were selected. Procedures suggested by Brownlie (2007) were utilized to analyse taboo translation. The findings indicated that the most frequent procedure was changing taboos to irrelevant expressions in Secret Army and Captain Tsubasa, and Wall-E. This procedure was not included in Brownlie’s framework. But the most frequent one in House of Cards was toning down. It was concluded that procedures for taboo translation have been inconsistent during all these four decades and the reason might be ideological and political. Consequently, such inconsistencies may disrupt the logical relation the directors intended to create between their works and their audience and the sudden leniency of IRIB in translating taboos in the House of Cards series for ideological and political purposes may also lead to distrust of the Iranian audience.

Interaction has always been viewed as a key element in developing the knowledge of an L2 and establishing dynamic communicative episodes. However, it is not always materialized in foreign language learning contexts where access to English speakers is limited. Hence, this study investigated the effects of employing interactive and individual performance tasks on Iranian male EFL learners’ speaking ability. The participants were 32 homogeneous upper-intermediate EFL learners in two intact classes, randomly assigned to two experimental groups. The first experimental group performed problem-solving, reasoning-gap, and opinion-gap tasks individually, and the second group employed problem-solving, reasoning-gap, and information-gap tasks through team-work for 16 sessions. Two speaking pre- and post-tests were administered to evaluate the participants’ oral performance before and after the treatment. The statistical analysis of the data showed no statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the two groups on the speaking post-test, indicating that neither form of performance was superior to the other in the process of developing L2 oral proficiency. However, the results of two paired samples t-tests demonstrated that the learners’ speaking skill had significantly improved in both groups at the end of the experiment. Therefore, the researchers concluded that a careful execution of individual performance tasks in the absence of interaction could also contribute to developing speaking an L2.

Toulmin's (1958) model of argumentation and Abdi et al.'s (2010) model of metadiscourse, mapped onto Grice's (1975) Cooperative Principle, are both attempts to elaborate on the process and contribute to the goal of obtaining persuasion. This study is an attempt to integrate the use of metadiscursive and argument strategies to provide a common logical rationale for their employment. Through a qualitative investigation of 40 ELT research articles (RAs), we propose a convergent framework for employing CP-based metadiscourse and argumentation model in RA arguments. As a result, endophoric markers were identified to be used as warrants to meet quantity, while transitions, frame markers, and code glosses were found to be employed as conclusions and data to fulfill manner. Furthermore, evidentials were found to be employed in conclusion, backing, and warrant; hedges were seen to be used as qualifiers; and finally, disclaimers were recognized to be employed in rebuttals; to meet quality. The findings reveal that argumentations are built metadiscursively which has implications for writers and educators. For writers, it could help to develop a deeper understanding of the positive role of metadiscursive strategies in RA arguments and as such could guide a more efficient employment of it to facilitate persuasion. For educators, the findings could provide a model for building and ensuring basic logical and rhetorical characteristics of an argument in academic writing. 

Flow, introduced as one of the founding concepts in positive psychology by Csikszentmihalyi (1990), refers to the complete absorption in a challenging mental, emotional, or physical task to the exclusion of attention to any other surrounding thing. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, whole aspects of human life have changed, and language learning is no exception. The present study explored various obstacles in experiencing flow among Iranian EFL learners while completing tasks in three different modalities: face-to-face (F2F), text-based, and audio-based interaction during the Covid-19 pandemic. The data were elicited from 55 upper-intermediate learners divided into three groups completing the tasks in pairs, each through one of the three modalities, as a part of their classroom activity. Immediately following class time, they were interviewed individually or through group chats via WhatsApp. Under the three different modalities, the qualitative content analysis identified obstacles in achieving flow and categorized them into five themes. The results revealed that the main barriers in the face-to-face group were related to contextual or environmental factors as well as to task-induced issues. However, technological, task-based, and teacher-related factors gained higher percentages among text-based and audio-based interaction themes. The findings offer insight into flow perception by second language learners in different task modalities during the Covid-19 pandemic.