درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This study investigates incidental vocabulary acquisition among English as a foreign language (EFL) learners through engagement with video games, particularly the mobile RPG Genshin Impact and the mobile first-person shooter Call of Duty: Mobile (CODM). Although the field of digital game-based language learning (DGBLL) is expanding, there is a paucity of research comparing the effectiveness of different genres or concentrating on specific, highly engaging mobile games. Forty intermediate EFL university students in Iran participated in a six-week study. They were divided into experimental groups (Genshin Impact, CODM) and control groups. Quantitative data from Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) pre/post-tests assessed vocabulary gains, while qualitative data from focus groups, stimulated recall interviews, and gameplay logs examined learning experiences and strategies. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc tests revealed that the Genshin Impact group outperformed the CODM group in vocabulary gains, though both experimental groups showed statistically significant improvements compared to the control group. The findings suggest these games hold significant potential for vocabulary development at the intermediate level, though efficacy for lower proficiency remains a question for future research. While CODM exposure was more contextually sparse, qualitative analysis revealed the critical roles of contextual richness, repetition, motivation, and learner agency in Genshin Impact. Commercially successful mobile games, especially narrative-rich role-playing games like Genshin Impact, prove effective for incidental vocabulary learning, mainly due to contextual embedding, high-frequency exposure, and intrinsic motivation. This study bridges gaps in genre comparison and transferable vocabulary acquisition, supporting the integration of such games into supplemental language learning contexts.

Previous studies have explored the significant function of writing in the language development process, the essential role of metacognition in learning, the efficacy of scaffolding in developing students’ writing skill, and the application of technology in the learning and training process. However, the relationship between writing metacognitive knowledge and scaffolding via Google Docs and academic writing achievement needs further investigation. Therefore, the present study sought to examine whether writing metacognitive knowledge mediates the relationship between English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ scaffolding via Google Docs and academic writing achievement. The participants were 90 EFL undergraduate students enrolled in a writing course. The proficiency level of the participants was assessed through an online DIALANG test. Then, a quantitative correlational design was used to test the research hypothesis. Two questionnaires were used to gather quantitative data, and students’ performance on academic writing achievement was assessed. To evaluate the data, Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression, simple linear regression, and path analysis were run. The findings uncovered the hypothesized model of relationships among the variables of the study. More specifically, the results supported the mediator role of writing metacognitive knowledge.

AI in Language Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (2024), edited by Fang Pan, offers a comprehensive and insightful exploration of how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping language education. The book is thoughtfully divided into three well-structured sections Preview, Perspectives, and Practice, each addressing essential dimensions of AI integration. In the Preview section, Pan examines AI's transformative role in enhancing educational delivery and personalizing learning experiences, paving the way for greater efficiency and accessibility. Subsequently, the Perspectives section collates diverse global viewpoints that critically address challenges such as algorithmic bias, data privacy, and equity concerns. Finally, the Practice section offers evidence-based case studies, showcasing tangible innovations such as adaptive tutoring systems and AI-powered assessment tools, which have demonstrated real-world impact. More importantly, Pan strikes an impressive balance between highlighting AI's vast potential and scrutinizing its ethical and practical complexities. By combining theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, and practical applications, this book stands as an essential resource for educators, researchers, and policymakers, aiming to navigate AI-driven developments in language education with both responsibility and clarity.

Many researchers have explored the speech act of refusals across various genres, languages, and contexts. However, little is known about how refusals are conveyed in academic job applications by Asia-Pacific and European institutions. To address this gap, the current cross-cultural study analyzed a corpus of naturally occurring academic job rejection emails from different universities. Using Beebe et al.’s (1990) taxonomy of refusals, a total of 85 rejection letters was collected and examined. The results revealed that while both Asia-Pacific and European universities employed similar refusal strategies, the frequency differed significantly: European universities used 219 refusal strategies, compared to only 60 by Asia-Pacific institutions. Both regions primarily relied on “indirect” refusal strategies and “adjuncts” to protect the applicant’s face. Interestingly, “direct” refusal strategies, which are more face-threatening, were notably more common in European universities’ responses. The study concludes with insights and recommendations for making the academic job application process more considerate for both applicants and institutions.

This paper attempts to demonstrate the prospective contributions that Cultural Linguistics (CL) can offer to the field of Translation Studies (TS). The main objective is to show the common grounds between the two disciplines and the potential capacity CL approach and methodology, in theory, has in enriching TS. First, it sets the stage by introducing the status quo of CL’s relatively novel interdisciplinary burgeoning field and establishing its significance and its current trends, broad applications, and wide-ranging implications in language-oriented studies. It is followed by a concise overview of the principles and practices of the theoretical and analytical frameworks of the CL approach. Next, a critical state-of-the-art account of translation and its expanded definition in the (post)digital revolution era is provided. Bridging the relevant concepts and contexts, we then explore the possible applications of CL’s theoretical and analytical frameworks to TS, identifying the areas where the interplay between the two disciplines is most likely fruitful for TS. These domains encompass –but certainly are not limited to— the following areas: Translation Pedagogy, Postcolonial Translation, Corpus-based TS, Media/News Translation, Multimodal Translation, and Sociological-oriented TS. As for future directions in such an interdisciplinary venture, key trends that may arise in the dynamic interplay between TS and CL include Gender-oriented TS and Translational Activism, AI-informed TS, Cognitive and Ethnographic Approaches to TS, translating tourism, and Translation and Ideology.

This study investigated the developmental trajectory of Scalar Implicature (SI) comprehension in monolingual Persian-speaking children, examining how linguistic typology, contextual support, and cognitive abilities influence this process in a Subject-Object-Verb language. 60 children divided into 2 age groups (4-5 and 6-7 years), along with 20 adults, participated in a Statement Evaluation Task involving the quantifier "some" ("ba'zi"). The task was designed to evaluate whether participants interpreted "some" as "some but not all" in scenarios where the alternative "all" is true with two contextual conditions: Basic and Enriched, the latter increasing the salience of the "all" alternative. Standardized assessments of Working Memory (WM) and Theory of Mind (ToM) were also administered to explore cognitive correlates. Results showed a significant main effect of Age Group; older children demonstrated higher SI rates (mean=0.61) than younger children (mean=0.35), indicating a developmental increase in pragmatic competence. Moreover, contextual enrichment significantly enhanced SI rates overall, with older children benefiting more notably as evidenced by a significant interaction between age and context. Correlational analyses revealed that WM capacity (Backward Digit Span) was associated with SI performance in the Basic Context, whereas ToM scores correlated with SI rates in the Enriched Context, suggesting dissociable cognitive mechanisms underpin SI comprehension depending on contextual complexity. These findings supported a universal developmental progression from logical to pragmatic interpretations of scalar terms in Persian-speaking children, emphasizing the roles of WM and ToM in the emergence of pragmatic inference. Overall, the study highlighted how contextual cues and cognitive resources differentially facilitate SI understanding, lending support to resource-dependent models of pragmatic development.

This study employs a descriptive framework to explore the evolution of several suffixes in contemporary Persian. The primary focus is to determine whether these suffixes were recognized as such in ancient Iranian languages or if they functioned as independent morphemes that gradually evolved into grammatical elements. Grammaticalization is examined as the process through which lexical components acquire grammatical roles, or how elements with existing grammatical features become increasingly grammaticalized. A critical question arises regarding independent morphemes that have transitioned into suffixes: Have they entirely lost their original meanings and become purely grammatical tools for word formation, or do they retain independent functions in certain contexts? An analysis of the suffixes -(e)stān , -bār , -bān , -dān , -pād , -zār , -gār/-ger , -kade , and -gāh , along with their meanings and usages in contemporary Persian, indicates that these suffixes were once free morphemes in the ancient Iranian period. Over time, due to linguistic changes, they have diminished in lexical independence and are now primarily used as adjectival or locative suffixes in modern Persian. The necessity to generate new vocabulary for various phenomena has significantly influenced the grammaticalization of many independent morphemes.

While gamification has been extensively examined as an innovative teaching strategy, its potential to strengthen reading comprehension, critical thinking, and self-directed learning (SDL) in Islamic higher education has not been fully explored. Much of the existing research focuses primarily on its motivational impact, with less attention given to how gamified learning management system (LMS) environments can simultaneously support cognitive and metacognitive development. To address this gap, the present study evaluated the effectiveness of an LMS-based gamified reading comprehension course on undergraduate students’ learning outcomes at STAI Diponegoro Tulungagung, Indonesia. A quasi-experimental design was applied, involving 70 students who were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 35) and a control group (n = 35). Data were collected through pretest and posttest on reading comprehension and critical thinking, a structured SDL questionnaire based on Garrison’s (1997) framework (self-management, self-motivation, and self-monitoring), and follow-up interviews with six purposively selected students from the experimental group. Results indicated that students exposed to the gamified LMS course showed significantly higher gains in comprehension, critical thinking, and SDL than those in the control group. Qualitative findings further suggested that gamification fostered continuous engagement and sustained motivation, though certain challenges, including technological constraints and external distractions. Overall, the study underscores the promise of integrating gamification into LMS-based reading courses to support cognitive, affective, and metacognitive advancement in Islamic higher education.

This study aims to investigate the digital literacy of Iraqi Kurdish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. The study employed a quantitative approach with a sample of 418 participants, consisting of 228 females and 190 males, who teach English at Middle school, High school, and University levels. A targeted sampling was used to select the participants. A questionnaire designed by the Cambridge Assessment Center was used to explore the participants’ digital literacy. It was designed based on the Cambridge English Digital Framework for Language Teachers. The gathered data were analyzed using an independent sample t-test to compare the digital literacy of male and female Iraqi Kurdish teachers, and a one-way ANOVA test to explore any significant differences caused by different academic levels of the participants. The results showed statistically significant differences between male and female teachers in all six categories, except the evaluating learning category which deals with assessing digital resources and tools for language teachers. The results of the ANOVA test showed that there was not any significant difference between the digital literacy of middle school and high school teachers. However, it was found that the university lecturers were significantly more competent users of digital literacy skills than the middle school and high school teachers. The results also revealed that in general the Iraqi Kurdish EFL teachers demonstrated an average level of digital literacy and thus suggested more educational and technological support for the teachers at various levels across the region.

This study addresses a significant knowledge gap in understanding the effects of task-specific enjoyment and anxiety conditions on the language mindset of Iranian EFL learners in a listening course. Using a quasi-experimental design, 75 male high school students were divided into three groups: a task enjoyment (TE) group, a task anxiety (TA) group, and a control group. The TE group participated in a low-stakes, autonomy-based listening task designed to foster enjoyment, while the TA group completed a high-stakes, evaluative listening task intended to induce anxiety. Data were collected using standardized instruments, including the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale (FLES), the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), and the Language Mindset Inventory (LMI). A series of T-tests and ANOVA were conducted to analyze pre- and post-test scores across the three groups. Results showed that the TE group experienced significantly higher levels of task enjoyment and subsequently developed significantly stronger growth-oriented beliefs regarding overall linguistic intelligence and second language learning compared to both the TA and control groups. Conversely, the TA group exhibited significantly higher anxiety levels and a shift toward more fixed language mindsets. No significant differences were found between groups regarding beliefs about age sensitivity in language learning. These findings highlight the importance of considering task-related emotions in language teaching and suggest that fostering enjoyment through autonomy-supportive tasks can promote a growth mindset, while anxiety-inducing tasks may reinforce fixed beliefs about language learning.

As the aftermath of globalization and the increased demand for localized information, translation assumed a significant position in the world of news. Due to this close connection, in recent years, journalistic concepts such as gatekeeping and framing contributed towards much interdisciplinary research in the field of translation studies. Nevertheless, many other topics have remained untouched by translation scholars, one of which is the seminal concept of news value manifested in the linguistic and semiotic dimensions of news products. Exploring news values and their relation to translation offers potentials for a better grasp on the nature of translated news and the process of news translation in newsrooms worldwide. Consequently, the headlines of 120 translated news pieces related to two international conferences were analyzed using Bednarek and Caple’s (2017) discursive news value analysis framework. These news headlines were published on four renowned Iranian news websites from 2021 to 2023. The results revealed that these websites construct similar patterns of news values and establish eliteness, negativity, and superlativeness more than other news values in their translated headlines. This was an indication of the lack of originality among news websites in reporting international events and also their orientation toward following a predetermined ideological positioning. As a whole, the present research is a true interdisciplinary one attempting to learn about the construction of news values in the context of Iran and translation discourse and unveil news agencies’ motivation in linguistically constructing and establishing these values.