درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Georgia has experienced many developments since independence because of the presence of Russia and the West in this country, which has played an important role in making a balance of power between Russia and the West. Therefore, examining the factors that have made Georgia's role important will help to identify the issue. So, the main question in this article is what is the role of Georgia in the balance of power between Russia and the West and its impact on Iran's national security? Our hypothesis is, the role of Georgia is important in the balance of power between Russia and the West due to its unique geopolitical position and its pro-western policies, and this orientation has an important impact on Iran's national security. The hypothesis has been investigated according to the assumptions of Kenneth Waltz's balance of power theory and Mackinder’s geopolitical theory. Findings show that Georgia, as a small country, has felt threatened by Russia and has tried to join the Western structure, which has highlighted Georgia's role in the balance of power between the two sides. The West has used the energy resources of the Caspian Sea to supply its energy and Georgia is playing a key role in this process, which jeopardizes Russia's policy of monopolizing Europe's energy supply. Thus, the Western military presence in Georgia and Russia's monopoly policy to supply energy to the European Union has a negative impact on Iran's national security. The research method is descriptive-explanatory.

Discourse Markers (DMs) are pragmatic ties representing the relationship between different concepts in a discourse. As Fraser (2009) puts it, these lexical expressions are free morphemes that signal a special message about or in addition to the basic message. Given the importance of DMs in the written discourse of English as foreign language (EFL) learners, this study investigated the effectiveness of two methods of interaction in improving Iranian EFL learners’ use of discourse markers (DMs) in writing compositions. The data were drawn from comparing the compositions of two virtual groups of EFL learners who were exposed to two types of online interactions within which different flipped instructional activities were assigned. The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results showed that the learners who engaged in online discussions used higher numbers of DM in terms of both type and token. The results also showed an increase in the length of compositions in the case of those groups who embarked on online interactions and discussions of flipped content. The findings suggest that once supported by the provision of flipped content, online interactions help create authentic opportunities for learner-centered discussions, which lead to an increased authenticity level of the EFL learners’ language production. The findings might also underscore the significance of flipped content and online interactions in developing other aspects of EFL learners’ pragmatic competence.