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This study embarked on investigating the effectiveness of teaching ESP vocabulary via flipped classroom on improving Iranian students’ vocabulary learning. In addition, the attitudes of ESP learners towards the use of flipped classroom were investigated. In this study, a quantitative procedure was followed to collect and analyze data . In so doing, 60 ESP participants studying English in Payame Noor University were selected non-randomly based on their performance on Oxford quick placement test. All the participants were divided into two equal groups consisting of 30 participants and a pretest was administered. The participants of the experimental group received instruction through flipped classroom. The control group received vocabulary instruction through the conventional method that was popular in the university. A posttest was given to the participants of both groups in order to check the students’ vocabulary learning. To investigate the students’ attitudes towards using flipped classroom, a 10-item questionnaire was distributed among the participants after the treatment phase of the study. The results of one-way MANOVA showed that implementing flipped classrooms has significant effects on Iranian students' vocabulary learning in ESP courses. Furthermore, the participants of the experimental group acknowledged that implementing flipped classrooms has positive effect on their attitude in ESP courses. The findings regarding the effectiveness of flipped classroom and its prospected implications in developing vocabulary learning can pave the way for better communication in an ESP context and community.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of the Flipped Learning Pattern (FLP) in terms of the Problem-Based Teaching Approach (PBTA) on the participants’ self-management, desire for learning, and self-control in learning English. The research design was quasi-experimental using pre-test and post-test. The participants were selected via cluster sampling from the English learners enrolled in Aladdin center in the 2018-2020 academic year. They were randomly divided into experimental and control groups (n=320). To collect the data, the self-directed learning questionnaire of Fisher, King, and Tague (2001) was used. The questionnaire contains 52 items and three subscales of self-management, desire for learning, and self-control. Findings showed that there was a significant difference in the effect of the method on three subscales of self-directed learning in the experimental and control groups. The results indicated that the value and acceptability of the pattern improve self-directed learning; and choosing the right teaching method with conscious design will have a great impact on learners’ high levels of learning English skills. Therefore, follow-up studies are necessary to investigate further the application of FLP in terms of PBTA in various lessons.

Despite the fact that classroom interaction is an indispensable aspect of language learning, many EFL students do not show any willingness to participate (WTP) in classroom activities. In view of this problem, the current study aimed to describe how Iranian EFL learners’ participation in collaborative tasks can lead to WTP. Therefore, primarily discoursal features of collaborative tasks and then behavioral representations of WTP were identified. To this end, nine EFL intermediate learners (five males and four females) participated in the study and were assigned to two groups. First two collaborative tasks were designed: The first group were asked to make a digital story collaboratively and the second group were asked to make an advertisement for selling a house. The classroom interactions among students in different classrooms were video-recorded and transcribed based on conversation analysis principles. Then the frequency of the turns taken by each student was counted as indicator of WTP in the assigned task. Multimodal analysis (gaze, facial expressions, head movement, body posture and gesture) was also used to analyze behavioral representations of EFL learners’ WTP. The findings revealed that discoursal features of WTP include negotiation, elaboration, conflict, sharing expertise, humor, asking for elaboration, conflict.,and behavioral representations include eye contact, body language, and the sitting position of students which can indicate that students’ engagement in collaborative tasks can have impact on their WTP. The findings can have implications for EFL teachers, material developers, and teacher education programs.

L2/FL writing ability, which per se includes many different types, is considered a major skill in academic settings. However, little research has been done in this area and even less has focused on the effectiveness of task-based writing instruction on the two specific kinds; namely, referential writing and expressive writing. To this end, 60 English Translation sophomores of both genders were selected and divided into two classes after ensuring their homogeneity through the Quick Placement Test (OQPT). For the pre- and post-tests, the participants were required to take IELTS writing tests requiring referential and expressive types of writing. As for the treatment of the study, all participants were instructed based on the same content materials of advanced writing and a task-based framework. The results of the statistical analysis indicated significant improvements in the participants’ writing abilities in referential and expressive written tasks. Besides, the effectiveness of task-based writing techniques was approved in terms of referential and expressive types of language functions in the academic writing of Iranian EFL learners.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of multifactorial socio-educational variables of the family in the structural model of predicting the academic achievement of EFL learners and the mediating roles of parents' involvement and perceived autonomy support. The population of the study comprised all the high school EFL students in Urmia, from which 492 students (262 males and 230 females) were selected as the participants through Cochran's formula and stratified random sampling method. The study was conducted with a correlational design, using structural equation modeling method, and the assessment tools were standard questionnaires. The results of data analysis showed that perceived parental autonomy support, parental socio-economic status, and parents' involvement in education are significantly related to language learners’ academic achievement. Based on this finding, it is claimed that to improve the academic achievement of language learners, these three variables should be taken into consideration and strengthened as facilitating mediators.

Giving corrective feedback (CF) is an essential part of the teaching and learning process, and the way it should beneficially be done has been the focus of attention for numerous researchers especially when traditional ways of CF provision are not possible, particularly in rare situations such as outbreaks of diseases. This study investigated how different ways of giving feedback; namely, through online chats and class discussions can help language learners in benefitting from their instructors’ CF provision. To this purpose, the effects of two ways of feedback provision were tested on the participants writing quality. Three hundred and seventeen Iranian EFL learners took a TOEFL test, 132 of them (53 males and 79 females) scoring between 477 and 510 were asked to deliver a 200-word writing task. Then, they were randomly put into 4 experimental and control groups to undergo different treatments, i.e. receiving CF through online chats and class discussions for 10 one-hour sessions. After the treatment, they were required to deliver another 200-word piece of writing. The results of statistical data analysis showed that the writing quality of the participants receiving CF through online chats was significantly higher than that of those who received CF through class discussions. The findings of this research have practical implications for Iranian educational system to update its instructional methods and for the nature of teaching and learning processes and practices.

Through a descriptive Ex Post Facto research design, the relationship between teacher reflection and classroom management, the predictive power of teacher reflection components regarding classroom management, and classroom management strategies used by high and low reflective teachers were examined. To this end, 113 EFL teachers completed the Attitudes and Beliefs on Classroom Control (ABCC) Inventory (Martin et al., 1998b) and teacher reflection inventory (Akbari et al., 2010). The results of the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient showed that there was a significant positive relationship between teachers’ reflection and their sense of classroom management. Moreover, a multiple regression was run whose findings revealed that practical and critical components of reflection are the best predictors of teachers’ sense of classroom management. Twenty teachers were also interviewed and the thematic analysis of the interview showed that high reflective teachers used different kinds of management strategies, for their students’ social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties using proper pedagogical planning and techniques of teachers’ teaching style, expertise, and experience in better assessment of the students in the classroom.

Implicatures are the implied meanings that people communicate to their listeners. They may differ from one culture to another, making translations more challenging. The purpose of this study was to examine how implicatures were treated in the English translations of Persian texts and the extent of pragmatic equivalence. To this end, implicatures in four Persian children's stories written by Hooshang Morādi Kermāni were identified and compared to their English translations, translated by Caroline Croskery. The Gricean Cooperation Principle served as the theoretical framework of the study, and four maxims of quality, quantity, relation, and manner were used to analyze implicatures. Chesterman’s strategies of pragmatic equivalence were also used to determine the strategies used in translation. According to the results, the translator was largely successful in achieving pragmatic equivalence. Additionally, literal translation, explicitness, equivalence strategy, and illocutionary change were found to be used more commonly than the other pragmatic strategies. The findings of this study could have benefits for translators to deal with pragmatic issues and for syllabus designers to create more practical content.

Two of the central concepts in teaching skills are decision making and pedagogical reasoning. Taking benefit from the dearth of studies on teachers’ actual or real-world decisions, this study aimed to respond to this invitation by keeping track of novice Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ decisions in two different times using six research-oriented teaching scenarios reflecting the student and personal features. Furthermore, their pedagogical reasoning was also attended to once through their responses to imaginary teaching scenarios and once through their actual classroom decisions. The participants comprised of ten novice Iranian EFL (six female and four male) teachers with an age range of 19 to 25 and a male experienced teacher, aged 30, who acted as a researcher-as-participant and was only accountable for the novices’ real-world reasoning. The data were collected through utilizing a total of six teaching scenarios, classroom observation, and video stimulated recalls. The findings, obtained through conversation analysis and pertinent vignettes and excerpts, revealed that the participants underwent a change in their decisions in two of the three scenarios reflecting the student features, while an approximate conformity could be observed in all scenarios mirroring personal features. It was revealed that whenever the teachers’ reasoning changed, their decisions underwent some changes as well. In addition, the findings showed that the flow of conversation in the classroom could be strongly influenced by the teachers’ decisions. A number of implications and recommendations for further research are also pinpointed.

Given the importance of assessment in language education, this study was aimed at investigating the effects of interventionist and interactionist Dynamic Assessment (DA) on Iranian EFL learners’ perfectionism, willingness to communicate (WTC) and foreign language anxiety (FLA). The participants of the study were 166 pre-intermediate female and male learners at two public schools and one private language institute in Karaj. The participants were divided into three experimental groups and were given three separate questionnaires to measure their perfectionism, WTC, and FLA before the treatment sessions. During 14 sessions, groups A and B received instruction using interactionist DA and interventionist DA, respectively. Group C was instructed conventionally as the control group. At the end of the treatment sessions, they were given the same three questionnaires as the post test. The collected data were analysed using one-way ANCOVA. The results showed no significant differences among the two approaches of dynamic assessment and the control group in terms of their effect on learners’ perfectionism and willingness to communicate. Although there was no significant difference between the interventionist and interactionist models of DA, they were both significantly more effective than the control group on learners’ FLA. The findings suggested that dynamic assessment could reduce learners’ anxiety in language learning and lead to an effective teaching and learning process. These findings can have implications for teachers, students, and material developers.