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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.

Task-based language teaching, which requires learners to transact tasks resembling their real life language needs, demands language learners to perform planning at different stages of their learning. Since various types of tasks can be used in task-based instruction, the present study examined the effect of task types and various participatory structures during pre-task planning on the quality of learners' writing performance, (i.e., accuracy). Towards this end, 120 intermediate EFL students were randomly assigned to 3 experimental groups and one control group. While the experimental groups were subjected to different pre-task planning conditions, (i.e., individual, pair, and group), the control group performed tasks without any planning. During the treatment, they experienced task modeling, presentation and completion. A factorial design was followed in the present study, and the collected data were analyzed through ANOVAs that revealed task type and pre-task planning condition influenced the writing accuracy of the participants in a way that resulted in greater accuracy in the decision-making task in the experimental groups, thereby ensuring the effectiveness of the treatment in mitigating the long-standing problem of EFL learners in achieving higher levels of accuracy when a specific task type is concerned.

This study aimed at finding out the effect of two different methods of ESP instruction, namely, the traditional grammar translation method and an eclectic method on improving university students' reading comprehension ability. The main assumption was that compared to the Grammar-Translation which is probably not an efficient method, an eclectic method that focuses on improving reading comprehension ability of the university students through the use of some necessary strategies and skills, as proposed by Brown (2003), seems to be more effective.The participants, within the age range of 18-24, included 72 male and female Agriculture students who were semi-randomly assigned to two experimental groups (i.e. eclectic vs. traditional) each consisting of 36 learners. Following a pre-test, treatment (15 weeks, 2 sessions per week), and a post-test, the obtained data was analyzed using two-way ANOVA to examine the effects of the independent variables, while taking gender as a moderator variable. The results of the analysis showed that the eclectic method was significantly more effective compared to the traditional one in improving reading comprehension ability of the students, while gender did not turn out to have any significant effect on the students' reading comprehension. The findings are discussed in relation to effective reading comprehension instruction through the use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies in ESP teaching contexts.

The interplay of Iranian EFL learners’ tolerance of ambiguity and their performance encountering unknown vocabularies in reading comprehension while considering their L2 reading anxiety was investigated in this study. A sample of 70 intermediate-level EFL learners from a language institute in Shiraz, Iran participated in the study. The Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale (SLTAS) and the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) were used to measure participants’ ambiguity tolerance and L2 reading anxiety, respectively. To assess students’ performance in dealing with new words in reading comprehension, two vocabulary tests and two reading tests were given to them. The data were analyzed by both SPSS and PLS 4 software using Pearson correlation and structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings revealed significant relationships between ambiguity tolerance and reading comprehension performance encountering unknown vocabularies, between L2 reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance encountering unknown vocabularies, and between ambiguity tolerance and L2 reading anxiety. Additionally, L2 reading anxiety was found to play a significant mediating role in the relationship between ambiguity tolerance of Iranian language learners and their performance in dealing with unknown vocabularies in reading comprehension. Moreover, the study provides evidence that reading anxiety does not play a moderating and significant role in the relationship between ambiguity tolerance of Iranian language learners and their performance in dealing with unknown vocabularies in reading comprehension. The study suggests that ambiguity tolerance and L2 reading anxiety are important factors that influence Iranian EFL learners’ performance encountering unknown vocabularies in reading comprehension. This study highlights the importance of fostering ambiguity tolerance and reducing L2 reading anxiety in both language teaching and learning. In addition, it provides insights for syllabus designers to d

Stress is considered as an inseparable part of life. Although it is sometimes useful and positive, if there is overstress, there would be some disturbances created in human life as the negative aspect of stress. In this research the different dimensions of stress regarding family, environmental, and personal stress and their effects on the amount of learning English among students at Islamic Azad University, Ahar Branch have been investigated. The statistical population of the present research includes students majoring in different courses at Islamic Azad University, Ahar Branch who have selected to pass the courses entitled: ‘General English’ or ‘Prerequisite to General English’. In the present study we have used a random sampling method. To determine the participants of the study, a questionnaire was distributed among them. Then, based on Cochran's formula our sample was calculated. Results showed that all stress factors (personal, environmental, family) affected the performance of the students in English learning, and they should be regarded as important factors in devising new materials to be presented to General English classes.

This study was conducted to examine the comments provided by ChatGPT 3.5 and doctoral students on doctoral dissertation proposals. Feedback receivers’ behavioral engagement with these two feedback types was also examined. The participants of this study, selected based on convenience sampling, were 28 Teaching English as a Foreign Language PhD students from three provinces who wrote their dissertation proposals in English. The first version and revised versions of their proposals and the provided comments were analyzed to identify the feedback types and the extent they applied the comments. Furthermore, stimulated recall interviews were used to identify the reasons why they did not apply some of the participants. Findings showed that both ChatGPT 3.5 and doctoral students were successful in providing both content-related and form-related comments. These two feedback sources also provided significant numbers of elaborated and justified feedback on dissertation proposals. Feedback receivers applied most of the comments provided by these feedback sources, and the specificity levels of comments affected the incorporation rate. The findings of the thematic analysis of the stimulated recall interview data revealed that the participants did not apply the comments because they were too broad, inaccurate, difficult to apply, and difficult to understand.

This study sought to investigate the probable effects of code-switching (CS) on Iranian bilingual English learners' reading comprehension. In this study, two intact classes of freshmen, taking the four-credit Reading and Comprehension Course 1, comprising a total of 70 participants, with 35 in each class, were randomly assigned as the experimental and the control groups after their initial homogeneity in reading comprehension was assessed via the reading section of the Preliminary English Test (PET). In the experimental group, the participants were allowed to switch codes during the twenty-hour-treatment that extended over five weeks. The participants in the control group, however, were required to rely exclusively on English as the language of communication and instruction with no CS. The independent samples t-test of the post test scores, administered at the end of the treatment, revealed significant differences in the reading comprehension of the two groups. The experimental CS group outperformed the control group. Since variables such as proficiency, teaching materials, and teach methodology, were kept constant in both classes, CS might be regarded as one of the probable causes of different levels of achievement in reading comprehension in both groups. Cautious use of CS to promote different aspects of the learning process will be discussed in the paper.

Emerging within Systemic Linguistics, Appraisal/Evaluation is a framework for analyzing the language of evaluation, providing techniques for the systematic analysis of evaluation and stance as they operate in whole texts and in groupings of texts. There are three systems in the Appraisal framework: Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation. This study sets out to analyze the use of the system of Engagement within a sample of English Literature (prose fiction) and the News (news articles). Engagement is a medium through which the speaker or the writer engages dialogistically with others (i.e., the addressees, within the process of evaluation). A corpus of 20,000 words was selected from each genre, involving five cornerstones of short fiction and a collection of news articles from CNN, Reuters, BBC, Daily Mail and Yahoo News. The study sheds light on the fact that both genres are strikingly close in using the four subsystems of Engagement, and both are inclined towards dialogic expansion, albeit for different generic reasons, with dialogic contraction taking a backbench. Appraisal as a whole is a promising model to explore texts in different genres, paving the way for richer more illuminating analyses of the interpersonal semantics operating in them.

Reading comprehension is one of the most important skills, especially in the EFL context. One way to improve reading comprehension is through strategy use. The present study aimed at investigating the effect of question-generation strategy on learners' reading comprehension. The participants in the study were 63 intermediate students from three intact groups in Resa institute in Boukan, They were randomly assigned to two experimental and one control groups. They were given two samples of the reading section of the standardized Preliminary English Test (PET) as the pre- and post-tests. The students in the experimental group A generated text-based reading comprehension questions individually, and in the experimental group B in groups of three but the learners in the control group answered the reading comprehension questions provided in the text. The results of ANOVA revealed that the students in the experimental group B, who employed group-question generation strategy, outperformed the experimental group A, who employed individual- question generation strategy and the control group in the reading comprehension post-test. The findings can have some implications for EFL teachers and syllabus designers.

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.

Many significant psychological antecedents accompany second/foreign language (L2) teachers in the classrooms. Most recent studies show that spiritual intelligence, happiness, job performance, and psychological well-being are among these antecedents; however, the relationship between these constructs is still underexplored in the context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Therefore, this research aimed to explore the relationship among EFL teachers’ spiritual intelligence, happiness, and job performance considering the moderating role of psychological well-being. This study applied a correlational design. Iranian EFL teachers (n:103) were invited to participate in this study through convenience sampling. They were requested to fill out four questionnaires at work. The structural equation modeling (SEM) method was used through PLS software to analyze the collected data. Therefore, it was concluded that both spiritual intelligence and happiness positively influence EFL teachers’ job performance with psychological well-being only moderating the latter association. The findings of this study contribute to the knowledge on the teacher antecedents influencing their performance which can consequently result in enhancing the teachers’ job performance.

This study tried to examine EFL translators’ uncertainty and uncertainty management strategies through employing think aloud procedures. The participants of this study were some MA andBA translators selected from several universities in Iran. To this aim, a proficiency test was firstly administered among the volunteers. Then, think aloud protocol and retrospective interview were used to collect data. Meanwhile, Angelone coding system was used to categorize the data. To identify the significance of differences, chi-square nonparametric test was utilized. The findings indicated that MA translators had greater tendency to show uncertainty at larger chunks of language such as collocation and sentence, while BA ones were more inclined to show uncertainty in textual level. At the same time, behavioral and locus options were compared and contrasted between MA andBA translators. It was also found out that look-up and rereading strategies were frequently used to manage uncertainty. The findings of this study can be helpful for translators to improve their translation ability by being more aware of what is happening inside their minds. Awareness of a stockpile of strategies helps them have fewer difficulties while translating a text.