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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.

Extensive research exists on the effects of task design features on measuring L2 learners’ implicit and explicit knowledge. However, the role of structure difficulty has received limited attention. Additionally, the use of fine-grained measures of implicit knowledge has remained underexplored. To address these gaps, utilizing objective criteria to select easy (plural -s) and difficult (third-person -s) structures, a total of 256 experimental items, equally divided into grammatical and ungrammatical, as well as easy and difficult structures, were developed and administered to 32 advanced L2 learners. A word monitoring task (WMT) assessed their implicit knowledge through reaction time (RT) and grammaticality sensitivity index (GSI), while a timed grammaticality judgment test (TGJT) measured their automatized explicit knowledge through accuracy scores. The WMT results showed longer RTs for ungrammatical items and larger GSI for the plural -s items, revealing participants’ more implicit knowledge of the easy structure. The results of the TGJT revealed that L2 learners judged grammatical items more accurately than ungrammatical ones and the plural -s items more accurately than third-person -s ones, showing participants’ more automatized explicit knowledge of the easy and grammatical structures. The findings highlight the influence of grammaticality and structure difficulty on knowledge retrieval and suggest that advanced L2 learners exhibit stronger implicit and automatized explicit knowledge of the easy structure. These findings underscore the need for tailored instructional approaches to address difficult structures and emphasize the importance of using real-time psycholinguistic measures to examine L2 learners’ implicit knowledge.

Due to the fact that job satisfaction plays a crucial role in teacher attrition, numerous scholars have investigated the predictive variables for occupational well-being in educational contexts. However, this research area has been relatively ignored in higher education contexts. To fill this lacuna, this research employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design to examine the predictive roles of teacher mindfulness and self-efficacy in impacting the job satisfaction of English instructors in various Iranian universities. In the quantitative phase, data from 226 EFL instructors were analyzed following a rigorous screening of an initial pool of 234 participants who completed measures of the focal constructs. Structural equation modeling (SEM) confirmed that teacher mindfulness and self-efficacy significantly predicted job satisfaction, with self-efficacy emerging as the strongest predictor. Furthermore, mindfulness exerted a significant indirect effect on satisfaction through the mediation of self-efficacy. In the subsequent qualitative phase, follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive subsample of 12 instructors to clarify the mechanisms underlying these statistical paths. Thematic analysis revealed that mindfulness facilitates a "psychological pause" through affective detachment, while self-efficacy provides the pedagogical agency necessary to maintain value-action congruence despite institutional stressors. These results suggest that mindfulness acts as a cognitive precursor that enhances pedagogical presence and professional resilience. The implications for developing targeted onboarding strategies and mindfulness-based interventions in higher education are discussed.

Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) is a widely adopted pedagogical approach that emphasizes real-world tasks to enhance second language acquisition. In a bid to empirically assess TBLT effectiveness, this study focused on the extent to which TBLT functions in the development of EAP students' pragmatic competence. To this end, 150 adult undergraduate Iranian students from various majors participated in this study. Also, three authentic role play tasks were designed based on a needs analysis, focusing on scenarios relevant to an EAP setting. Given the data nature, parametric statistical approach in the form of MANOVA of both pre-and post-test data was run to measure the students’ pragmatic competence prior to the intervention and following it. The pretest data-based MANOVA revealed no significant differences among the four groups not only in their overall pragmatic competence but also in the target sub-competences of it including instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, explanation, share knowledge, and imagination competences; thereby indicating groups homogeneity prior to the treatments. However, the post-test data analysis in the light of MANOVA resulted in an exactly opposite direction in that significant differences were reported in all six sub-competences, underscoring the effectiveness of task-based assessment methods in enhancing pragmatic competence in general. Post hoc analysis also confirmed the post-test data-based MANOVA. So, the findings underscore that authentic task-based assessment effectively enhances students' pragmatic competence, fostering their ability to use the language appropriately and confidently in real-life communication situations. This study underscores the significance of methodological rigor in evaluating pragmatic competence in educational contexts.

This paper investigates the payment's impact on the quality of translated products, an area that has been largely overlooked in translation sociology. Drawing on Actor-Network-Theory, the study analyzed recent translations by 10 Iranian freelance and agency translators with over five years of translation experience in the market. Participants provided the researchers with translations completed for low and good payments, which were evaluated using the Waddington (2001) model. Interviews were conducted to gather the participants’ opinions with regard to the Iranian translation market. Despite dissatisfaction with low payment and the unjust translation market, most translators produced high-quality translations. However, the unjust market frustrated translators and led many to leave their jobs. The findings suggest that while low payment does not necessarily negatively affect translation quality, it can significantly impact the job satisfaction and retention of translators. This study sheds light on the economic aspect of translation and has important implications for the translation industry.

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

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.

Because of the significance of teachers’ individual and psychological qualities in affecting their performance, an increasing number of studies have been conducted to probe the relationships among teacher constructs in influencing their professional development. In an attempt to clarify the association among teacher constructs, the current study examined a structural model hypothesizing the predictive role of teachers’ resilience and psychological well-being in promoting their professional development using 300 Iranian English language teachers as a sample. In doing so, the validated scales of the three mentioned constructs were administered to gather data and Structural Equation Modeling was utilized to evaluate the hypothesized model of the variables. The findings indicated that both resilience and psychological well-being significantly predicted professional development for the whole sample. However, psychological well-being appeared to be a stronger predictor of professional development in comparison with resilience. The results are discussed, and the pedagogical implications are proposed for teacher education programs.

This study seeks to investigate the role and impact of translators in the (anthropological) field during research conducted by foreign anthropologists in Iran. To achieve this, a questionnaire, an apparent open-ended one with six items, was distributed to 30 anthropologists who conducted field research in Iran, aiming to identify invisible interpreters/translators, including local informants, who assisted researchers in overcoming language barriers and communicating with participants during anthropological fieldwork. Given that anthropologists are typically trained to work independently without the aid of translators, certain participants displayed hesitancy in discussing the subject matter. Anthropologists who completed the questionnaire and said they conducted the research without utilizing translators in the field cited their fluency in the local language, perceiving translators as impediments, and their accessibility as the main reasons for their approach. Nevertheless, some of these researchers emphasized the potential benefits of using translators, particularly in terms of enhancing comprehension. Conversely, there were anthropologists who found value in engaging both formal and informal translators, as they served as gateways to communication. As an interdisciplinary study, this article endeavors to shed light on a relatively unexplored aspect of anthropology, namely translation. It is crucial to acknowledge and engage in further discussion regarding the collaboration between professionals from different disciplines, including Translation Studies and anthropology, within various scientific journals and conferences.