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In recent years, audiovisual translation (AVT) has become omnipresent in different parts of the world; however, dubbing humor restrictions may hamper the translation in that maintaining the humor in the target language (TL) requires a high level of knowledge. Although several studies have attempted to describe the distribution of translation strategies, few systematic attempts are made to analyze the employed AVT strategies in humor series. The present study analyzed the Persian humor expressions’ appropriacy and their translated versions in English through a qualitative study. To this aim, the dominant strategies used to render humor in the translated versions of 3 dubbed Iranian series (i.e., Shamsolemareh, Chimney, and Medical Building ) were analyzed. Furthermore, the typologies of the employed audiovisual humor in the series were analyzed. Data analysis illustrated that clumsiness and parody were the most frequent humor typologies used in the series. The 3 strategies of omission, word-for-word translation, and free translation were the most frequent ones. In conclusion, the results indicated the failure to accommodate the Iranian series’ humorous level, preventing the target audience from appreciating humor. Findings can contribute to the improvement of the quality of humor translation.

The present study was carried out with the purpose of examining the role of metaphorical language in the critical discourse analysis (CDA) of political texts based on a modern framework postulated by Kövecses (2015). The corpus of the study consisted of thirty-thousand words chosen as a textual sample to see which source conceptual domains are used and what generic/discursive attributes emerge upon the analysis. It was prepared through systematic random sampling from different editorial articles in Western political magazines on the relations between Iran and the West in the time span of 2010-2019. Then, Critical Metaphor Analysis was used to explain the trend and patterns in the political articles, mostly lending support to previous research by authority figures in critical and political metaphor analysis that metaphors are used in shaping political thinking, in aiding political persuasion, and in steering cognitive scenarios and models towards the shaping of interpretations of the nations as person or body metaphors. Finally, the study lent ample support to this latter view in its textual findings of the conceptual metaphors used. The findings of the study provide foreign language education in general and the EFL classrooms in particular, with some implications for further research.

The present study was an attempt to explore the ‘washback effect’ of task-based assessment (TBLA) on EFL Iranian learners’ pragmatic development. To this end, through conducting KET (Key English Test), 60 out of 120 EFL Iranian learners studying in an English language school, were randomly selected. They were assigned to treatment group (N=30), and control group (N=30). The treatment group was assessed through TBLA and the control group was assessed via non-task based assessment for 20 ninety-minute sessions. The class sessions were held twice a week. The obtained data was examined through independent sample t-test. The findings implied that TBLA as a pedagogical measurement tool can well replace the classic assessment procedures, since all educational efforts including testing and assessment procedures are planned to maximize the educational gains and developments.

Almost all language schools in Iran enforce teacher supervision with the purpose of promoting good teaching practices and higher standards of quality education. Despite its widespread practice, the body of research on language teacher supervision in Iranian EFL setting is scant. The present qualitative study explored language school managers’ attitudes toward EFL teacher supervision in Iranian language schools. Based on a researcher-developed protocol, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven language school managers from Tehran and Karaj, Iran, whose managing experiences ranged from 5 to 18 years, with the purpose of identifying their attitudes, experiences, and challenges regarding supervision. The interviews drew upon emergent methodology to categorize the interviewees’ value-laden comments into five major attitudinal themes of becoming a supervisor, the requirements and responsibilities of a teacher-supervisor, evaluating a supervisor’s performance, challenges regarding teacher supervision, and supporting supervisors. The findings revealed that there are not any transparent criteria and rubrics for language school managers to draw upon to select teacher-supervisors, and supervisors are mostly selected based on their teaching potentials, experience, and merits. Moreover, the findings demonstrated that apart from observing classes and providing feedback, too many other responsibilities are assigned to supervisors in Iranian language schools. To improve the ongoing supervisory practices, the interviewees suggested the need for the development of transparent criteria and rubrics for supervisor selection.

There have been few representative studies investigating Iranian senior high school students’ L2 selves shaped by the ELT reform. Thus, the current study was an attempt to ponder on the ideal-self, ought-to self, and L2 experience orientations of Iranian EFL high school students. Moreover, it intended to seek whether there was any relationship between three L2 motivational variables of Iranian EFL high school students across gender and residential background. To this end, 200 males and 184 females from Iranian senior high schools in South part of Iran were selected through purposive sampling. Based on a mixed methods design, the study was conducted to gain the breadth and depth of the issue under investigation. The results showed that there was no substantial gap between male and female learners in L2 motivational preference of English learning. In addition, there was a significant difference between female and male students’ views on ought-to self. Moreover, it was observed that there was no marked difference between the L2 experience of female and male L2 learners. Regarding residential background, there was a significant difference among the mean ranks of the urban residential participants at three L2 motivational orientations but, there was not a significant difference among the mean ranks of the rural residential participants. The findings of the study recommend the incorporation of L2 motivation in teaching methods to improve the learning environment and learner investment in language learning.

The present paper analyzes the issue of poverty in the Qur’an adopting Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse analysis method. Using this approach, it is tried to highlight the importance of the subject in the Qur’an, aiming to initiate serious discussions among Muslims and the followers of other religions on solving the poverty crisis. The Qur’anic discourse has two articulations on poverty alleviation and lack of poverty alleviation: a discouraging-encouraging strategic expression and rational approach. In this way, it divides the social space into the two poles of poverty eliminating identity (i.e., the positive identity or polarity) and poverty disregarding identity (i.e., the negative identity or polarity). The discourse’s strategies for poverty alleviation include eliminating the concentration of wealth in society by paying Zakat and Enfagh by individuals and allocating a portion of the community’s income to poverty alleviation. This portion is Fay and the spoils of war back then. Also, this discourse is about linking religious life and rituals including Hajj, sacrifice, Fidya, mosque preservation, and peace concerning poverty alleviation. This discourse achieves hegemony and prevails in 7th-century Saudi Arabia, where no attention is paid to poverty alleviation; however, it died out slowly after the Prophet’s death for some reason.

The advent of postmethod pedagogy has completely changed today's conceptualization of language teachers, and the importance of powerful teaching has increasingly gained momentum in the field of TESOL. However, contemporary English language teaching contexts suffer a dearth of a workable package to educate the much-needed autonomous postmethod language teachers who are able to have their own contextualized praxis. As such, the present research aims to nurture the required self-growth and self-development in language teachers through forming collaborative professional and critical discussion circles. Enjoying a mixed method research design whose quantitative section included a quasi-experimental design consisting of three phases--a pretest, an educational 12-week long treatment phase, and a posttest--the results of the study gained by two instruments, namely, the reflective teaching questionnaire developed by Akbari et al. (2010) and two similar language teaching episodes, bore witness to the significant changes in the level of reflectiveness of all 13 language teachers who partook in these discussion circles. Developmentally speaking, participating language teachers were found to initiate the whole process, direct it, and finally evaluate the new experiences further along the road. Hence the ideals of teacher development, self-growth and personal development, were accomplished through the study.

The importance of language teacher identity has been widely recognized recently as teachers’ professional development is highly influenced by the ways teachers view themselves. Critical orientation towards identity has also received considerable attention recently. The present study, thus, investigated the effect of a Critical Teacher Education Course (CTEC) on EFL teachers’ identity (re)construction. The participants included thirteen teachers who were first interviewed using a 20-question interview checklist whose items enabled the researchers to elicit teachers’ professional identity with a focus on critical pedagogical orientation. The teachers then attended an in-service CTEC held for ten sessions. The course was primarily dialogue-based where different premises of transformative education and critical pedagogy were introduced and discussed. This was followed by the second interview session in which the teachers were asked the same questions as the first interview. In the meantime, the teachers were also required to critically reflect on their classroom practices through reflective journals. The data were subjected to content analysis (inductive category development). The findings revealed that prior to their participation, the teachers viewed teaching English as a neutral act unaffected by contextual factors, whereas after the CTEC, they became more aware of the social, cultural, economic and political factors that might affect the whole process. Secondly, compliance with the rules and regulations, policies, and the status quo marked teachers' identities. However, they changed to more integrative teachers with critical orientations after CTEC. The findings might imply that EFL teacher training/education programmes become more localized, dialogic, interaction-based, negotiation-oriented and integration-driven.

This study investigates the effect of Pot-luck Flipped Classroom (PFC), meaning the implementation of pot-luck, as an innovative technique, in a flipped classroom (FC), on the development of translation competence (TC). The advances and developments in science and technology and the need to exchange the newly-developed information, knowledge, and technology highlights the demand to train professional translators, and thus, the development of TC becomes an essential skill of 21st. century. FC learning model and pot-luck innovative teaching technique have proven the enhancement of the effective learning. Therefore, in this study, we combined them as PFC to develop TC via collaboration and active involvement in a learner-centered environment. A total of 57 Translation Studies students, including 27 boys and 30 girls took part in this study. We used a quasi-experimental design with an experimental (PFC) and control group. Data were collected via Translation Competence Acquisition Questionnaire before and after the intervention of PFC. Findings showed a statistically significant difference (significant at 0.05) in all TC components in experimental group after the intervention of PFC. Thus, PFC proved to be efficient. Finally, pedagogical implications are discussed and suggestions for further studies are also provided.

Culture is an integral facet of teaching and learning English as a foreign language. This qualitative study examined EFL teachers’ perceptions toward fostering their students’ cultural awareness in Iranian language schools. Based on a researcher-developed protocol, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve EFL teachers from Tehran, Karaj, and Urmia, Iran, whose teaching experiences ranged from 6 to 19 years, with the purpose of identifying their perceptions, experiences, and challenges regarding fostering students’ cultural awareness. The interviews drew upon emergent methodology to categorize the interviewees’ value-laden comments into six major attitudinal themes of meaning of culture, the role of English culture and social norms in EFL teaching and learning, the materials and activities teachers employ to foster their students’ cultural awareness, benefits of teaching English culture in Iranian language schools, EFL teachers’ challenges regarding teaching English culture, and teachers’ suggestions or recommendations regarding teaching culture in the Iranian EFL context. The findings illustrated that despite the fact that Iranian EFL teachers preferred to include cultural content in their courses, they faced a variety of challenges regarding teaching English culture and social norms. Further, Iranian policymakers, stakeholders, and educators are expected to provide professional training opportunities for EFL teachers in teaching English culture. Thus, teaching culture should be underscored in EFL classes and instructors are required to explore and apply various effective strategies and authentic materials to enhance their language learners’ cultural knowledge. The implications are presented and discussed in more detail in the paper.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty members and students had to leave their face-to-face (FTF) classes and move into emergency distance education (EDE) contexts. Due to this drastic change in the system of education, investigating the probable effects of EDE on the quality of education seems essential. As such, this study has attempted to probe the effect of EDE on the language skills of Iranian EFL students. To do so, drawing on the maximum variation sampling, the present study embarked on a qualitative descriptive research method, triangulating data through written open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to collect data from 170 EFL students from different universities in Iran. The sample included BA students majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and English Literature, aged above 18. Using Thematic Analysis (TA), students’ responses were transcribed, codified, and interpreted. The findings of TA revealed that along with several disadvantages and challenges that Iranian EFL students experienced in EDE with regard to learning English language skills, EDE provided some opportunities and benefits for their learning. The analysis of students’ responses also indicated that they deemed speaking skill as the most negatively influenced language skill and listening skill as the most positively affected skill. Furthermore, the findings represented that most of the students held teachers and administrators responsible for the problems and challenges they experienced in EDE contexts. The findings of the present study can encourage administrators, teachers, and students to prepare themselves for EDE against the possible subsequent waves.

This study was an investigation of the washback impacts of task-based assessment on Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary learning and grammatical ability at the intermediate level. For this purpose, 184 male and female students who were in their third year of school were chosen from 12 schools of (X) (X). This election was done via a multistage cluster random sampling technique using the Cambridge Placement Test (2010). All of the sessions were divided into two parts, 20 minutes were considered for teaching grammar and 20 minutes were for teaching vocabulary. The components of this study were Oxford Practice Grammar Intermediate Diagnostic Test and a standard vocabulary test extracted from TOEFL exams between 2017-2020. The researchers prepared a test for every two groups at the end of every three sessions. It was found that by removing the pre-test factor, the covariance, the task-based evaluation’s washback impact makes the grammatical and vocabulary learning of students better. Considering the reality that every academic endeavor contains planned testing and evaluation techniques to maximize academic achievement and progress, the findings hint that TBLA as an academic measurement device can nicely replace the traditional evaluation techniques.