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This study investigated the effect of collaborative learning (CL) and scaffolding strategies through the Learning Management System (LMS) on EFL students’ writing performance. Employing an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, 180 upper-intermediate EFL learners (90 undergraduates and 90 postgraduates) from four universities in Isfahan were selected via convenience sampling. The quantitative phase used a pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design. One experimental group received CL-based instruction via LMS, the other applied scaffolding strategies through LMS, while the control group used traditional methods. All groups attended 14 weekly 90-minute sessions. Quantitative results (one-way ANCOVA) indicated that both CL (p = .000, p < .05) and scaffolding (p = .01, p < .05) significantly improved writing skills, with CL being more effective than scaffolding (p = .02, p < .05). The qualitative phase, using thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, revealed five key themes: digital and technological literacy, instructional quality, infrastructure, assessment, and satisfaction.

Although there are growing attempts to equip learners with strategies in the English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) classroom, there has not been much effort made to implement strategies to assist learners in the learning of speech acts (e.g., Cohen & Ishihara, 2005). Moreover, in the realm of second language acquisition, the exploration of individual differences has garnered significant attention from researchers and practitioners alike. Considering these two important facts, this study delved into the intricate relationship between willingness to communicate (WTC), learner subjectivity, and the utilization of speech act strategies among 200 Iranian EFL learners. Drawing upon the WTC questionnaire developed by MacIntyre et al. (2001), learner subjectivity scale by LoCastro (2001), and speech act strategy inventory by Cohen and Ishihara (2005), this research aimed to unravel the interplay between these variables. The findings obtained through Spearman's rho correlation illuminated the positive interplay between WTC and learners' speech act strategy use, as well as the positive interaction between learner subjectivity and EFL learners' speech act strategy use. These results underscore the significance of personal attributes, such as WTC and learner subjectivity, in influencing learners' strategic competence in utilizing speech acts. Furthermore, this study contributes valuable insights for learners seeking to enhance their autonomy and self-directed learning, while also fostering a deeper awareness of individual differences and speech act strategies among EFL learners to facilitate their success and self-confidence.

Among the many applications for enhancing pronunciation skills, the ELSA (English Language Speech Assistant) application is one that shows how to improve students’ pronunciation effectively. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of the ELSA application on learners’ pronunciation skills and their attitudes toward its use. A quasi-experimental design was employed with 50 EFL learners divided into experimental and control groups. First, a placement test was conducted to assign learners to appropriate levels. Then, the pretest was administered to both the experimental and control groups. The experimental group received the treatment and practiced pronunciation with the ELSA application, while the control group practiced pronunciation using traditional pronunciation exercises. At the end of the course, a post-test was administered to both groups. Both groups were evaluated through interactive tasks in the oral performance pretest and posttest. The results indicated a significant difference between two groups after using the application. Additionally, a validated questionnaire administered showed they had positive attitudes toward the application. The findings suggest that ELSA can improve EFL learners’ pronunciation skills. Therefore, it can be beneficial for course designers and teachers to enhance learners’ pronunciation in an engaging environment.

Effective feedback has a pivotal role in translator education. However, its implementation has remained unclear as the nature of translation tasks is multidimensional. Thus, this article proposes a framework, which is grounded in the seven principles of good feedback practice identified by Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006), to integrate high-quality feedback into translation classrooms. The seven principles emphasize clarifying performance standards, promoting structured self-assessment, ensuring timely and constructive feedback, encouraging dialogic interactions, supporting learner self-esteem, enabling iterative revision, and examining student performance to refine teaching methods. The customized version for translation classrooms emphasizes the use of rubrics, annotated models, exemplars, reflective journals, peer review, group translation projects, and low-stakes assessment cycles to encourage autonomous and self-regulated learning. The holistic view of the process indicated the reciprocal nature of feedback: while learners benefit from targeted feedback and opportunities for revision and resubmission, instructors also gain insights into students’ needs and the areas that call for pedagogical adjustment. When feedback is systematic ally aligned with the course goals, learning strategies, and metacognitive development, strategic competence, critical awareness, and autonomy in translation learners can be facilitated. In effect, the proposed framework offers a structured model that can enhance both instructional effectiveness and translation learners’ performance, which contributes to the broader systematization of translator education.

The study of EFL in Iran reveals complex challenges faced by both teachers and learners, particularly in fostering learner autonomy. This qualitative study explored the challenges to learner autonomy in the Iranian EFL context through semi-structured interviews with 17 teachers and 13 learners selected through purposive sampling to ensure diverse representation from various educational settings. Thematic analysis using MAXQDA was employed to identify recurrent themes related to the challenges. Findings revealed that both groups face significant obstacles, primarily stemming from curriculum rigidity, which includes prescriptive syllabi, an overemphasis on standardized testing, rote memorization, and severe time constraints. Teachers also reported barriers related to their adherence to traditional teacher-centered approaches, limited understanding of innovative methods, and insufficient professional development, alongside perceiving learners' lack of motivation and passive learning styles as hindrances. Learners, conversely, highlighted the focus of curriculum on memorization, assessment methods prioritizing grammar over practical language use, and a lack of personalized guidance from instructors, compounded by personal struggles with initiative, time management, and cultural influences. The study concludes that comprehensive educational reform is essential, advocating for more flexible curricula, diversified assessment methods, continuous teacher professional development, supportive learning environments, and a cultural shift towards valuing autonomy to enhance student engagement, language proficiency, and lifelong learning.

Dynamic Assessment (DA) has increasingly been recognized as a promising approach for integrating assessment and instruction in second language learning. Despite their growing application, limited research has systematically compared the two major DA paradigms (i.e., interactionist and interventionist), particularly regarding their short- and long-term effects on learners’ speaking performance. The present study aims to address this gap by investigating the immediate and delayed impacts of interactionist and interventionist DA on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ speaking complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). Eighty-six advanced EFL learners from a language center in Tehran, Iran were assigned to three groups based on the Oxford Placement Test. Following a speaking pretest, learners in the experimental groups received eight sessions of either interactionist or interventionist DA, while the control group underwent regular speaking assessment. An immediate and a delayed speaking post-test were used to evaluate both short-term progress and retention. Two trained raters scored the CAF measures, and the data were analyzed using repeated-measures two-way ANOVA and MANOVA. The findings indicated no significant differences between the two DA approaches; however, both experimental groups significantly outperformed the control group on the immediate and delayed post-tests. These results suggest that regardless of the mediation type, DA effectively enhances learners’ speaking performance and promotes the durability of learning gains. The study highlights the pedagogical value of embedding DA-based mediation into routine speaking assessment, enabling teachers to provide targeted scaffolding that supports both immediate improvement and longer-term development in learners’ oral proficiency.

Creativity, learning style, and metacognition are significant factors in education. Many research studies have been conducted on these three factors, but few studies have been carried out on the correlations among these factors and second/foreign language (L2) writing accuracy and fluency. Therefore, this mixed-methods study tried to clarify the best predictors of writing accuracy and fluency among these three factors. To achieve this purpose, 120 Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners were selected based on the results of the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). Three types of Questionnaires were used to collect data. In addition, the participants wrote about the intended topics to check their writing accuracy and fluency. Moreover, the accuracy and fluency frameworks were applied to rate writings. Further, a semi-structured interview was utilized. To analyze the data, the multiple regression analysis was run. The findings indicated all these three factors were the best predictors of writing accuracy among intermediate learners, while metacognition was the best predictor of writing accuracy among advanced learners. In addition, learning style and metacognition were the best predictors of writing fluency among advanced learners. This study has some significant implications for learning. The most important implication is that learners can become aware of their creativity levels, learning styles, and metacognitive activities. In addition, the findings can enrich the literature concerning the predictors of writing accuracy and fluency among these three variables.

The question of whether, and to what extent, different measures of pragmatic knowledge mirror students' capabilities as represented in their authentic application of language has been an important consideration in the vicinity of interlanguage pragmatics. To examine the production of politeness markers, as defined by House and Kasper's (1981) seminal work, this study compared and contrasted language learners' performance across four different measures of pragmatic competence: Written Discourse Completion Test, Oral Discourse Completion Test, Role-play, and Natural Methodology in an EFL setting. Furthermore, the requests made by 27 learners in natural situations and by means of WDCT, ODCT, and Role-play with similar characteristics were analyzed. The results revealed that hesitators enjoyed high prevalence in Natural Methodology and consultative devices and scope-stators were more popular in the WDCT, ODCT, and Role-play suggesting, regardless of some minor similarities, significant disparities between the three conventional data-gathering techniques and Natural methodology. The investigation exhibits that Natural Methodology might not necessarily be the ideal pragmatic measure to truly represent all politeness markers. WDCT, ODCT, and Role-Play could be more appropriate to draw on learners' explicit/declarative knowledge, though Natural methodology might be more advantageous to capitalize on learners' automated/procedural knowledge.

Employing reliable evidence-based academic word lists has been a noticeable concern for numerous educators, students, and researchers in English for Academic/Specific Purposes (EAP/ESP) courses. Currently, many of these courses still lack research-oriented materials and rely heavily on traditional ways of teaching field-specific terminologies. This study aimed to create a specialized corpus to identify the most frequent academic words in Welding Metallurgy (WM) and to analyze the most prevalent three- and four-word lexical bundles (N-grams). We employed a corpus-based approach, and identified top-tier journals of WM; then, we analyzed the articles from 2017 to 2023 that followed the Introduction, Methodology, Results, and Discussion (IMRD) format. As such, 875 empirical research articles were compiled and analyzed to establish a specialized corpus with four million words. After applying word selection criteria, 608 lemmas were identified. Furthermore, we recognized 68 technical acronyms in the field and grouped them into an independent list. We also highlighted the most prevalent N-grams to explore the field's formulaic language. Consequently, 61 prevalent technical N-grams were recognized. As part of pedagogical implications, this study would deepen ESP course instructors’ knowledge and urges them to be more mindful of evidence-based material. It also encourages students to give more weight to their fundamental discipline-specific needs by incorporating authentic word lists in practice.

The present study was an attempt to investigate the effects of textually enhanced dual subtitles (TEDS) on vocabulary learning and listening comprehension among Iranian intermediate-level English language learners. The research explored how different types of subtitles—TEDS, plain dual subtitles (PDS), and no subtitles—impact learners’ ability to learn vocabulary and influence their listening comprehension. To achieve this goal, 51 Iranian intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners from a private Institute (i.e., Iran National Language Institute) were randomly assigned to three groups: The first experimental group, namely TEDS watched six episodes of the American sitcom Friends with TEDS; the second experimental group with PDS, and the control group without any subtitles. Before and after the treatment, all the participants took tests assessing their vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension. The results revealed that, regarding vocabulary posttest, the participants exposed to TEDS performed significantly better than those who watched videos with PDS or no subtitles. However, the difference in listening comprehension scores between the TEDS group and the PDS group was not statistically significant. Additionally, the PDS group performed significantly better than the no-subtitles group in both vocabulary and listening comprehension tests. This research highlights the potential of TEDS in supporting vocabulary learning. The findings suggest that further exploration into different types of textual enhancement of various language elements and their effects on various language skills is necessary to improve instructional practices and enhance language learning tools.

The increasing availability of scientific knowledge through digital platforms has transformed how scientific discourse reaches the general public. This study examined the use of interactional metadiscourse markers across four leading popular science subgenres: books, TV documentaries, magazine articles, and newspaper articles. The aim was to investigate the language features of these markers, focusing on how they engage readers and highlight writer presence in different subgenres. A corpus of 987,625 words was analyzed using AntConc software (Anthony, 2019) and 80,260 instances of interactional markers were identified according to Hyland’s (2019) Interpersonal Model of Metadiscourse. The study revealed how hedges, boosters, attitude markers, self-mentions, and engagement markers function to create persuasive and accessible content. Interestingly, interactional markers appeared most frequently in TV documentaries, suggesting a heightened effort to engage audiences through this medium. Chi-square tests revealed significant differences in marker usage across subgenres; however, the small effect sizes (Cramér’s V) indicated that these differences are of only modest practical significance. These results provided insight into how popular science writers adapt their rhetorical strategies to suit different communicative contexts and audience expectations. The findings also have pedagogical implications. Incorporating features of popular science into ESP/EAP materials, such as authentic texts and structured practice with interactional metadiscourse markers, can make scientific content more engaging and accessible for learners. Raising learners’ awareness of interactional metadiscourse markers can improve writing skills, especially for novice writers in non-English academic settings, helping them better engage readers and communicate more effectively.