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There is ample research evidence indicating that task implementation options and design features differentially affect the linguistic quality of second language (L2) oral output. The overarching aim of the current research was to add to the available body of research findings by investigating what effects the combination of two task implementation options, namely pre-task planning and post-task transcription, exerts on L2 learners’ focus on form. The study involved sixty Iranian L2 learners who were presented with a picture story to be narrated under one of the following four conditions: pre-task planning (PTP), post-task transcription (PTT), both pre-task planning and post-task transcription (PTP/PTT), and control. Findings showed that while pre-task planning increased fluency and complexity, the anticipation of post-task transcription enhanced focus on form as indicated by more accurate performance. More importantly, pre-task planning along with the foreknowledge of post-task transcription of performance made for an exponential increase in accuracy, a gain which was achieved to the detriment of complexity. The outcomes are of pedagogical significance in that they lend support to the efficacy of using pre-task planning opportunity along with the anticipation of post-task transcription to elicit the highest accuracy level while learners are primarily concerned with conveying meaning.

Teachers who possess an achievement value orientation may concentrate on establishing ambitious objectives for themselves, as well as creating opportunities for pupils to showcase their abilities and attain success. This can increase student motivation and ultimately improving job performance. While previous teachers' reflective studies in the field of English as a foreign language (EFL) have examined a wide range of variables, certain variables such as EFL teachers' achievement value orientation and job performance related to reflective teaching have remained under-researched. To this end, this study examined the EFL teachers' achievement value orientation factor identified as having a contributive role in EFL teachers' reflective teaching regarding the mediating role of job performance. The study sample consisted of 237 Iranian EFL teachers aged between 25 and 60. Based on the results of structural equation modeling (SEM), EFL teachers' achievement value orientation directly and significantly influences counterproductive work behavior (CWB) dimension of their job performance as well as metacognitive and affective dimensions of their reflective teaching. It was also shown that task performance (TP) has a direct effect on cognitive, contextual performance (CP) on cognitive and critical, and CWB on the metacognitive dimension of reflective teaching. The results also indicated that the CWB dimension of job performance mediates the impact of EFL Teachers’ achievement value orientation on metacognitive dimension of their reflective teaching. Teacher training programs should emphasize the importance of developing an achievement value orientation in teachers and reflective teaching should be promoted as a key component of teachers' professional development.

In today's society, it is important for teachers, particularly foreign language teachers, to understand that reflectivity is considered as a main factor in growing teaching profession. This study sought to examine the different dimensions of reflective teaching among Iranian EFL teachers considering the variables of gender, academic degree , teaching experience ,and interactional effect between them .In doing so, initially using an explanatory sequential mixed method survey design a five–point Lickert scale ,29-items Reflective Teaching Questionnaire including (practical, meta-cognitive, critical, cognitive and affective ) was distributed to 142 EFL teachers (male and female) with 4 to 30+ years of professional experience with BA, MA, and PhD. academic degrees. Considering teaching experience, the participants were categorized into three groups.MANOVA results indicated the significant effect of teachers’ experience on their reflective teaching with the least effect reported on the affective dimension. Secondly, sixteen EFL teachers were invited to participate in an interview. The results of the present study will be useful for EFL teachers to have effective teaching, and to involve themselves more in exploring their students’ learning styles and critical aspects of the teaching context. Obviously, reflective teaching would help teachers to foster their independence. The analysis revealed that shortage of time, prescribed syllabi, predetermined textbooks, and ineffective teacher training programs were the main obstacles to reflectivity as experienced by the teachers. The outcomes have pedagogical implications for Iranian EFL teachers and theoreticians in the area of language teaching.

Reviewing the literature, there is an evident lack of appropriate research on the potential difficulties of assessing speaking skill and the urgent need of more rigorous assessment of speaking skill and its intricacies. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a collaborative local rubric for assessing Iranian high school students’ speaking skill constructed through the school-university members' collaboration. The participants of this study were 3 high school English teachers and 3 university instructors. They had at least 5 years of experience in English teaching and familiarity with rubrics and how to use and develop them.To gather data, a semi-structured interview was conducted with the participants. After coding and analyzing the data, it was revealed that the participants mentioned some similar criteria such as the importance of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and the use of a 0-4 assessment scale. However, some contradictions arose between the participants about the scores and the strictness/flexibility of those levels. The currently-developed speaking rubric, which is a simulation of the IELTS and TOEFL speaking rubrics, intended to help high school teachers undertake a more thorough assessment resulting in students’ enhanced learning of speaking. This study proposed practical implications for teachers and instructors in particular test constructors and examiners.

Valid online formative assessments are crucial for accurate measurement of students' progress and effective pedagogical decision-making in digital learning. This quantitative-based study followed two primary aims. First, it aimed to investigate the extent to which Iranian EFL teachers working in universities and language institutes apply indicators of online formative assessment validity. Twenty-one online classrooms were observed in three sessions using a checklist. The second aim of this study was to determine the effect of EFL teachers’ place of living on the validity of online formative assessment. To this end, 316 Iranian EFL teachers from diverse EFL settings, including public schools, private schools, language institutes, and universities were asked to fill out online formative assessment validity scale developed by Maleki et al. (2023). The sample included both male and female teachers with varying age group ranges and academic degrees. The findings of the study indicated that Iranian EFL teachers in universities and language institutes tend to overlook indicators associated with the learner-centered aspects of online formative assessment validity. Furthermore, it was revealed that EFL teachers’ place of living could impact the validity of online formative assessment. This study has several implications for online EFL teachers and policymakers. The findings of this study emphasize the context-bound nature of validity in online formative assessment. Besides, it helps Iranian EFL teachers identify specific areas that need more attention and improvement in order to enhance the validity of their online formative assessments.

The present study, adopting a sequential mixed-methods design, chiefly aimed to determine the strongest predictors of EFL learners’ involvement in the components of motivational self-regulatory strategies (MSRSs). In so doing, 154 English-major university students joined in the quantitative phase, and a pool of seven students was selected to participate in the qualitative phase of the study. A number of validated instruments were utilized to gather the relevant data. The Pearson moment-to-moment correlation, SEM, multiple regression, and a semi-structured interview method were used to analyze the data. The results showed a positive relationship between the components of MSRSs and involvement in writing skills. Among MSRSs components, performance self-talk, mastery self-talk, and environmental control made significant contributions to the prediction of involvement in writing skills. More specifically, the strongest predictor of involvement in writing skills in MSRSs components was performance self-talk. Following the inter-coder reliability, the responses elicited from the interviews regarding EFL learners’ opinions about the role of MSRSs in increasing their involvement in writing skills delineated eight themes, including quiet talk, consistent working, interest, coping with distractions, class environment, motivating peers, regulating emotions, and teachers’ help. In the end, the interplay between MSRSs components and involvement factors was discussed and several practical implications were proposed.

This study takes a critical look at the purposive manipulation of discourse and rhetoric by the former Iranian President — Hassan Rouhani — when announcing the lockdown of holy sites during the COVID-19 crisis. A discourse analysis with a qualitative design was applied to study the political dimension of the discourse. This study is framed within the domain of systemic functional linguistics mood systems and the classical Aristotelian rhetoric trio — logos, ethos, and pathos. The results revealed that Rouhani mainly used the declarative mood in his speeches which performed three main functions: statements of opinion, statements of fact, and indirect directives. From a rhetorical perspective, Rouhani applied ethos considerably more than pathos and logos as a way to increase the credibility of his words while persuading the audience. Moreover, the researchers noticed that the former president employed multiple strategies to build pathos and ethos with the audience. These findings can suggest and encourage novel future research directions.  

The present study sought to investigate the effects of face-to-face and web-based group dynamic assessment (GDA) on the speaking skills of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. A total of 100 participants from Ariana Institute in Rasht were involved in the study, with 36 introverted and 36 extroverted learners selected based on their scores on the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and Eysenck’s Personality test. These participants were then divided into experimental and control groups. Each experimental group, comprising 12 participants, underwent either face-to-face or web-based GDA sessions, while the control groups received traditional instruction. The research design included a pretest, 15 treatment sessions, and a posttest to assess the progress of speaking abilities among the learners. The statistical analysis, which included paired samples t-test and one-way ANOVA, indicated significant enhancements in speaking skills among the learners who participated in the experimental GDA sessions compared to those in the control groups. Notably, introverted learners in the web-based GDA group exhibited superior speaking abilities, whereas extroverted learners showed more improvement in face-to-face GDA sessions. These results have important implications for English language educators and researchers in Iran, highlighting the significant influence of GDA delivery mode on the speaking proficiency of EFL learners, particularly in relation to their introverted or extroverted traits. Such findings can offer valuable insights for pedagogical approaches and theoretical frameworks in English language teaching in Iran.

Reviewing related literature shows deviation from Searle’s felicity conditions has not been given attention. The present paper aims to investigate pragmatic deviation from Searle’s (1969) felicity conditions of illocutionary speech acts in the previous president of the US, Donald Trump’s political language. A qualitative method is used to gather and examine the data. The instrument consists of three oral documents which are chosen purposefully: (1) Trump’s discourse to a group of his supporters in Illinois state, (2) Trump’s meeting with Broadcasters MacCallum and Baier on Fox News Channel, and (3) Trump’s interview with Broadcaster Cooper on CNN Channel. The paper uses a discourse analysis method to study these documents. Findings reveal that Searle’s conditions (propositional content, preparatory, sincerity, essential) are deviated from in Trump’s political speeches: (1) Representative acts by making false claims without providing any evidence, (2) commissive acts by committing himself to do a future action, but Trump fails to fulfill it, (3) directive acts by ordering Joe Biden’s administration to prevent immigrants from entering the US, but Trump’s order cannot be done, (4) expressive acts by jokingly apologizing to his wife because he does not do anything wrong that pushes him to make an apology to her and thus has no real intention to do this act, and (5) declarative acts by declaring they are going to end Pelosi’s career politically, but she is not done.  It is also found that deviation from these conditions happens as a means of persuading, influencing, threatening, mocking, and attacking others.

The present study aims to explore negation patterns in Ardalani, a variety of central Kurdish (Sorani) spoken mainly in Sanandaj, within the typological framework proposed by Miestamo (2005). This framework explains the main negation patterns found in the languages of the world as symmetric, asymmetric, and symmetric-asymmetric. Although Miestamo applied this stypological framework to analyze a wide range of languages, none of the Kurdish dialects are represented in his study. The data used in the present study comprises 263 negative sentences with their affirmative counterparts, which were obtained from the spoken Sorani material broadcast on Kurdistan Radio and Television. The results indicate that Ardalani follows a symmetric-asymmetric pattern. It reveals a symmetric pattern in the past tense with perfective and imperfective habitual aspect but displays an asymmetric pattern in the imperfective continuous aspect and modal structures. For the sentences in the imperfective continuous aspect, the speakers apply either A/Fin/Neg-LV or A/Cat/ATM. In the former, the verb loses finiteness and the features move to the available copula in the structure. In the latter, the aspect changes from continuous to habitual, a more common strategy. Modal structures also follow A/Cat/ATM, in which the modal marker is removed and replaced with the negation marker. However, the modal content remains semantically the same as its affirmative counterpart.