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Aiming at highlighting the important role of print media discourse in the implicit transfer of the dominant ideology of discourse context, the present data-driven paper demonstrates how the lexical features of repetition and synonymy as well as the structural and thematic features of passivization, nominalization and predicated theme were utilized by the discourse producers to mediate between their own underlying ideology and the target readers' understanding of the events of September 11, 2001. Through a comparative statistical analysis of the print media discourse of the data for the study written in two ideologically opposing contexts of Syria and America, we have tried to explicate how the discourse producers utilized various lexical and thematic strategies to produce different impressions of the event and implicitly impose the underlying ideology on the readers.

Inclusion as an educational practice that has its roots in social justice promotes equal access to educational opportunities for all students irrespective of their special educational needs (SEN). The efficacy of such inclusive education largely depends on teachers, particularly their attitudes and skills for teaching students with SEN in mainstream classrooms. That being the case, teacher education programs play a crucial role in fostering these requisite skills and attitudes. This quantitative cross-sectional correlational study examines the attitudes, sentiments, and concerns of pre-service English language teachers regarding inclusive education. A total of 139 pre-service English teachers from five universities completed the Sentiments, Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education–Revised Scale. Descriptive statistics and correlational analyses were used to analyze the data. The results indicated moderate attitudes towards inclusive education among the pre-service English language teachers. While their sentiments and concerns about inclusive education showed variations based on their prior coursework experience, their attitudes remained stable. Moreover, the attitudes and concerns of the participants did not reveal a significant correlation with their policy knowledge, but the sentiment scores showed statistically significant differences in the two groups. Finally, the amount of previous experience with SEN students did not significantly differ in terms of attitudes, sentiments, or concerns about inclusive education. The findings provide implications for foreign language teachers, teacher educators, and initial teacher education program developers.

Acquiring a new language necessitates adeptness in mastering its lexicon. Language learners must possess a broad lexicon to effectively decipher texts in their target language. Among the array of skills imperative for foreign language learners, reading comprehension reigns supreme, influenced by myriad factors, including vocabulary breadth. This study endeavors to scrutinize the impact of vocabulary breadth on the reading comprehension of Iranian male and female learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Engaging 80 EFL learners at the intermediate level, the study employed two assessments: the Vocabulary Levels Test (Nation, 1990) to gauge learners' lexical proficiency and the Reading Comprehension Test (TOEFL version, 2004) to assess their reading acumen. Utilizing a Two-way ANOVA for data analysis, the findings underscored the substantial positive influence of expansive lexicon on reading comprehension. Notably, gender differentials in reading comprehension were not discerned among the participants. These findings carry implications for language pedagogy, assessment practices, educator preparation, and curriculum development.

Changing the English textbook of the first grade junior high school at Iran’s public schools after 27 years has sparked researchers’ interests in conducting evaluations of the new English textbook to get insights into its strengths and weaknesses. In line with this trend, this study aimed at evaluating the new textbook (Prospect 1) from teachers’ perspectives. To attain this objective, 30 junior high school teachers were interviewed and the data were then analyzed by qualitative content analysis. The results revealed that from teachers’ perspectives, there were some pitfalls with the new textbook such as applying an unsuitable method of literacy instruction; over-attention to the communication skills at the expense of literacy skills; over-localization of the content; overlooking the development of intercultural competence in students; and lack of authenticity in the presentation of the content. Finally, as the central figures in the process of educational change, the participant teachers offered some suggestions to amend the new textbook with the hope that their voices be heard by the pertinent authorities.

Two main features of vocabulary knowledge, namely breadth and depth, have a fundamental role in vocabulary research. This research aimed to study the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, and to investigate which feature of vocabulary knowledge, breadth or depth, had better impact on identifying reading comprehension performance. Therefore, three language tests were used, including a reading comprehension test, Vocabulary Levels Test, and Word Associates Test. 64 students majoring in Medicine at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, participated in the study. The outcomes of the two-tailed Pearson Correlations and multiple regression analyses declared that test results on vocabulary breadth, depth of vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension were positively correlated and breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge were closely interrelated.

Following previous studies reporting a beneficial effect for pre-task planning on learners' task performance, the present research takes into account the possible effects of directing learners' attention to meaning and form of language on their written production while they have one- and five-minute strategic planning time. The study randomly categorized 48 intermediate learners of English into six groups and asked them to undertake a narrative task under formfocused, meaningfocused, and unguided planning conditions each with one or five minutes of strategic planning time. Their performances were analyzed by a set of fluency and accuracy measures whose results were put into one-way ANOVA. As for the comparison under one-minute planning condition, formfocused planners outperformed the other two groups in both measures. Similar results were obtained under the five-minute planning condition. The results also showed that five-minute planning condition enhanced the learners' fluency of production more than their accuracy, unlike one-minute planning condition. It is proposed that the formfocused planning condition better promotes writing processes than meaningfocused and unguided planning conditions; besides, the longer the planning time is, the more fluency is fostered whereas the shorter the planning time is, the more accurate the learners' production would be.

The teaching and learning of grammar have continuously been core areas of discussion among practitioners of TEFL. Despite significant investment in creating optimal conditions for grammar learning, it remains essential to explore innovative instructional methods that enable learners to engage meaningfully with grammatical structures, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of grammar acquisition. Learners may reconstruct various grammatical structures by interpreting grammar from their textbooks while drawing upon their own experiences, resources, and events from life. This is called a learning-oriented approach that involves hypothesis testing and conceptualization that, in turn, incubates awareness of one's limitations and needs. This study investigates whether the remodeling method of grammar instruction, where learners reconstruct grammatical structures based on personal experiences, significantly enhances Iranian EFL learners' grammatical and vocabulary proficiency. The research employed an experimental research design where a pretest was administered, and a posttest was administered. The study involved forty high school EFL students aged 15 to 16 from Imam Khomeini Technical High School in Shahreza, situated in the southern part of Isfahan province in Iran. While the performance of learners in the experimental group subjected to remodeling method interventions was obtained, their control group, which was not subjected to such intervention, was measured for comparison. The findings revealed that the experimental group recorded a higher improvement in grammatical knowledge due to the remodeling approach. Furthermore, the results indicated that engaging in the remodeling of various structures allowed learners to communicate more effectively in oral interactions and to enhance their understanding of grammar and vocabulary. Statistically significant differences were observed between the experimental and control groups. This study underscores the value of incorporating the strategy of having students remodel various structures based on their concepts in English language instruction to foster greater proficiency in the language. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends utilizing, activating, and implementing this strategy on the other skills of the English language.

This research was an attempt to find the relationship between English discourse markers and their Farsi translations. It was conducted in order to find out whether DMs translations completely demonstrate source texts orientation and to what extent DMs translations are functionally appropriate compared to the original text? Six instruments were used. Three of them were the original English books and the other three were their translations. Ten pages from each original book were randomly selected. Then they were compared to their translations by the researcher and two translation teachers according to Farahzad's (1992) scale. The results of the study showed that there is a high degree of relationship between English DMs and their Persian counterparts; however, there is not a 1:1 translation about DMs. It can be also said that Persian translations are, functionally and almost totally, appropriate, compared to the original texts.

Keeping pace with the continuous changes and innovations in the field of English language teaching is considered to be a necessity for the quality of teachers' teaching. There are numerous approaches to teacher development, among which self-initiated development stands as one of the noticeable trends. Although teacher development is crucial for the quality of education, it appears that there are not many studies on self-development of English language teachers in Iran. There are studies mostly concentrating on the evaluation of pre- or in-service programs in English language teaching. Addressing this call, the main purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of 48 in-service English language teachers towards their professional development. The data collection instrument used was a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of both open-ended and close-ended items. Employing descriptive statistics, the data was analyzed. The results indicated that the teachers agreed with most of the concepts that indicate the importance of professional development. Moreover, they were aware of the importance of major professional development activities for their development. Yet, peer observation and action research were not preferred as much as the other activities.

With the purpose of examining the sources of spelling errors of Iranian school level EFL learners, the present researchers analyzed the dictation samples of 51 Iranian senior and junior high school male and female students majoring at an Iranian school in Baku, Azerbaijan. The content analysis of the data revealed three main sources (intralingual, interlingual, and unique) with seven patterns of errors. The frequency of intralingual errors far outnumbers that of interlingual errors. Unique errors were even less. Therefore, in-service training programs may include some instruction on raising the teachers’ awareness of the different sources of errors to focus on during the teaching program.

Evaluating research designs plays a pivotal role in promoting principled Mixed Methods Research (MMR). Although the quality of mixed methods designs has been among the most debated topics, scant attention has been drawn to the investigation of Applied Linguistics (AL) Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) journals. Informed by this gap, the present exploratory sequential mixed methods study aimed at analyzing the research designs, tools of data collection, and purposes of 303 MMR articles published in 12 leading ISC journals. This involved a qualitative content analysis using a code sheet based on established MMR typologies, followed by a quantitative frequency analysis to determine the prevalence of these coded categories. The findings indicated that sequential designs were more frequently used in the corpus. Moreover, as regards the tools of data collection, questionnaires and interviews were the most commonly utilized ones. Finally, exploration purpose was the prime purpose opted for by the researchers in the study corpus. The study highlights the importance of conducting principled MMR through the reconceptualization of designs from method to methodology level. It further argues for a systemic view of MMR in which there is a cyclic interaction among fully integrated stages of an MMR design. The implications of the findings are discussed throughout the paper.

Methodologically, vocabulary instruction has faced significant ups and downs during the history of language education; sometimes integrated with the other elements of language network, other times tackled as a separate component. Among many variables supposedly affecting vocabulary achievement, the role of teaching word history, as a schemata-building strategy, in developing reading comprehension has received the least, if not any, attention. This study was an attempt, in fact, to explore the possibility of an integration of word history and reading comprehension ability of a group (No=100) of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To conduct the study, 60/100 participants, identified as homogeneous members based on the Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT), were randomly divided them into two groups; an experimental and a control group. They were exposed to a teacher-made pretest and a post-test to check the participants' knowledge of word history and reading comprehension ability prior and posterior to the experiment. Pertinent statistical analyses proved that teaching word history plays both statistically and affectively, through enhancing motivation and attitude, meaningful schemata-building role in developing reading ability. Pedagogically, resort to word history may then be suggested as an effective and affective mechanism as far as teaching language skills, in particular reading, is concerned.

Discourse markers (DMs) are linguistic elements that index different relations and coherence between units of talk. Most research on the development of these forms has focused on conversations rather than narratives. This article examines age and medium effects on use of various discourse markers in pre-school children. Fifteen normal Iranian monolingual children, male and female, participated in this study. They were divided into three age groups (4-5, 5-6, 6-7). Two tests, story production and story re-production (retelling), based on two different story books were used to elicit the children's narratives. This study shows that the functions of DMs within the oral narrative context follow neither from their usual meanings nor from their usual discourse functions in other contexts. These markers just help to continue the narrative procedure. Narrative experts illustrate how DMs initiate and conclude narrative action, how they guide listeners to follow their interruption and sequence of narrative elements. The results showed no specific difference on the kind of DM being used regarding the age of the participants; furthermore, in terms of the number of utterances and also DMs, children overall behaved differently when they were asked to retell a story, comparing to the time when they were asked to produce a story.

The role of teachers in affecting students’ attitudes and motivations to language learning and teaching cannot be denied. To improve the field of foreign language teaching and learning we need to improve the qualities of EFL teachers. To achieve this goal, recognizing and identifying the qualities of effective EFL teachers is essential. So this study attempted to investigate the view points of male and female English language students about the characteristics of effective English language teachers based on four categories: English proficiency, pedagogical knowledge, organization and communication skills, and socio-affective skills. For this purpose the researchers administered a questionnaire adapted from Park and Lee (2006) to 60 (28 female and 32 male) foreign language learners at Tabriz Islamic Azad University. The results of the U-Mann-Whitney test indicated that there was not a significant difference between the perceptions of the male and female students regarding the characteristics of effective teacher. However, the overall mean score of the female students’ perceptions was a little bit higher than the male students. For the female students the most important features of the teacher was his/her English proficiency, socio-affective skills, pedagogical knowledge and organization and communication skills, while the preferences of the male students were the organization and communication skills, pedagogical knowledge, socio-affective skills and English proficiency, respectively. The findings have some implications for EFL teachers and students.