مطالب

Critical cultural awareness as a component of intercultural competence (Byram, 1997, 2012) has received the extensive attention of scholars in the fields of language teaching, cultural studies, ethnic studies, gender studies, communication studies, etc. in the recent decades. However, no instrument has ever been developed to assess this construct among Iranian EFL teachers. To fill this gap, in the first phase of the present study a theoretical framework for critical cultural awareness and its components was developed through reviewing the literature and conducting interviews with ELT experts. In the second phase, a questionnaire was developed and piloted with 370 participants who were available and willing to participate in the study. More specifically, the 37 items of the newly-developed ‘CCA' scale were subjected to principal component analysis which revealed the presence of three components. These phases led to the development of a questionnaire with three components and 37 items: (1) ‘CCA in ELT Programs' including 20 items, (2) ‘CCA in ELT Textbooks and Materials' including 13 items, and (3) ‘CCA in General Terms' including four items. The findings of this study may shed some light on this fuzzy subject and help researchers assess Iranian EFL teachers' critical cultural awareness.

The present qualitative research, for the first time, aimed at comparing and contrasting the extent cultural components and subcomponents are represented in the elementary levels of A Course in General Persianand Top Notch Seriesas foreign language teaching textbooks. The adapted checklist of Lee's Big ‘C' and little ‘c' cultural components (2009) was used for the current study.  After content analysis, Big ‘C' cultural components with the highest, lowest, and no frequency in each textbook were identified, and the possible reasons behind the occurrence of each one were addressed. Based on the findings, it was revealed that although the two textbooks enjoyed approximately similar functions concerning non-/presenting Big ‘C' cultural components, the Persian textbook was richer in introducing cultural capsules. And while the cultural capsules in the Persian textbook were associated more with people's common life styles and their daily interactions, those in the English textbook were concerned more with entertaining life style. Concerning little ‘c,' no cultural component was observed in the two textbooks. It is implied that the embedded cultural components and subcomponents in FL/SL textbooks should be the ones which a) are in harmony with learners' language proficiency levels and b) are used (most) frequently in the daily lives of their native speakers.

Research on teacher cognition concerning listening instruction has not been sufficiently touched upon. The present case study aimed to investigate Iranian EFL teachers' stated practices, their perceptions of how effective those practices are, and their actual classroom practices of two casual process-oriented listening instructional approaches namely, strategy-based instruction (SBI) and metacognitive instruction (MCI). To this end, a mixed methods design was utilized. Five experienced EFL teachers were required to be observed and to fill a self-report questionnaire. The findings from the questionnaire revealed teachers' relative but insufficient use of the two process-oriented approaches. Regarding the effectiveness of the process-oriented approaches, the majority of the techniques were perceived by the teachers as effective. Also, the result of the observation showed that process-oriented approaches were conspicuously absent in the teachers' actual classroom practices. Finally, pedagogical implications for EFL teachers, teacher educators, and material developers concerning how best to teach listening are discussed.

In land use and transportation planning, mixed land uses usually are those various and consistent land uses which have been within a single structure or close to each other. Mixed land uses in different societies are used for different purposes. In some of these societies, mixed land uses are appropriate strategies in mixing the housing types in a small scale in order to enhance the identity of old cities. In other societies they are used as a mean to revive the worn out areas and speed up economic developments. Even some societies use them to create the suburbs' centers. In this regard, the aim of this study is to evaluate the mixed land uses in Tehran's Bryanak neighborhood. For this purpose, the most important criteria and sub-criteria are compiled to determine the situation of the mixing land uses in this neighborhood, and by using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and questionnaire an appropriate and measurable framework is provided to measure and present strategies for the preservation and promotion of mixed land uses. The results indicate that the final score of this neighborhood was calculated as 3.08 that is very close to the "average" and indicates that the situation of mixed land uses in Bryanak neighborhood is average and some actions should be taken to improve conditions for the development of mixed land uses in this neighborhood.

Crises have always caused many, and sometimes irreparable, damages and injuries to human nations having had adverse impacts on indices of society, economy and environment. Therefore analysis and optimum management of these crises are the priorities in the states around the world. Access to valid and up-to-date information plays the pivotal role in proper and timely programming and performance on managers’ and responsible organizations’ side in various phases of the crisis management cycle. While more than 80% of the required information in crises actually have a local and geographical nature, utilizing the modern technology of GIS with special capabilities in modeling, combining and analyzing the data can be effective and impasse-breaking while analyzing vast layers of information in both phases of prediction and strike of crises. A good knowledge of the crisis-causing factors before their strike or prediction of the essential arrangements to prevent or reduce their affects or aftermaths to the least is one of the base procedures in the management of unexpected events. In this direction, precision in properly locating the installations and passages of the pipes and canals would be immensely important; bearing in mind the key role of continuation of serving essential arteries; particularly water and sewage installations, in controlling and preventing the expansion of crises, and preserving public health and hygiene on the one hand, and the significant expenses of construction or reconstruction of these systems on the other. Thus, through this study, we have discussed how to exploit the creation and production procedures in purposefully locating water and sewage installations and also their other usages in designing, management, programming and development of these installations, in addition to introducing the geographical information systems and clarifications of the creation and production procedures. The location of urban water and sewage facilities is very effective in increasing the resilience of natural disasters through the use of the geographical information system.