مطالب

Despite being an important category of multimodal tourism discourse, Inflight magazines and their roles in promoting international airlines’ profile and their host country, are mostly under-researched. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the application of different visual and semiotic strategies regarding social actors' race, age and social class and how people are represented in different international airlines’ inflight magazines. For this purpose, 16 international airlines’ inflight magazine issues were selected depending on the host country's geographical location and availability. Using Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006 [1996]) and van Leeuwen’s (2008) visual grammar, the data were analyzed based on ideational, interpersonal and compositional levels. The results revealed that inflight magazine designers, content developers and advertisement agencies tend to apply certain visual and semiotic resources. They reinforce bias and false stereotypes towards certain groups of people in terms of their age, race and social class originating in political, historical and ideological perceptions and standpoints of higher institutions across the world. The findings also highlight the importance of visual literacy being promoted to the target audience, including air travelers and EFL learners.

This study investigated Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ remotivational strategies drawing on an integrative framework encompassing Ecological Systems Theory (EST) and Self-Determination Theory (SDT). In this framework, the four EST layers consisting of microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem and the three related aspects of SDT, including autonomy, relatedness, and competence, were integrated to unravel teachers’ remotivational strategies. The participants included 32 Iranian EFL teachers teaching at six language institutes in Isfahan and Hamedan provinces in Iran. The data were collected via conducting semi-structured interviews. The results of a thematic analysis indicated that Iranian EFL teachers’ remotivational strategies were embedded in the four EST layers consisting of the immediate classroom setting, situations beyond the immediate setting, the linkages and processes taking place between the settings, and the manifestation of a particular subculture. Moreover, the results revealed that teachers’ remotivational strategies were also situated within the three SDT aspects, including autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Overall, the results of thematic analysis led to the emergence of various themes positioned in the four layers of EST, while such themes conceptually fit the three aspects of SDT. The results provide EFL teachers and teacher educators with awareness concerning how remotivational strategies are nested across multiple systems while simultaneously being informed by a certain motivation-specific theory.

Assessment of learners affects all processes of their learning. Generally, without assessment, it is very difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process. Understanding their weak points and difficulties in their writing would help teachers and administrators focus more on these areas. Therefore, this content analysis study was an attempt to investigate the relative contribution of each writing component to the variation in the overall writing performance of TEFL undergraduate students to determine areas of strength and weakness in their writing. To this end, the writing samples of 73 students who were willing to participate in this study at different universities in Tabriz, Iran, were assessed through an Analytical Scoring Scale. These participants were divided into two groups: group 1, first-year and second-year students, and group 2, third-year and fourth-year students. The results of Stepwise Multiple Linear Regression analysis revealed that the greatest contributions to the variance of the total rating of TEFL undergraduate students' writings were related to the grammar and punctuation components in groups 1 and 2, while the least contributions were related to the content and spelling in group 1, and vocabulary and spelling in group 2. In addition, results indicated that the weaknesses and issues of participants in both groups of this research were mostly related to the grammatical structure and using punctuation marks in paragraphs. Moreover, the positive effects of the analytical scoring scale as well as the implications of the findings were discussed.

A C-Test is a gap-filling test for measuring language competence in the first and second language. C-Tests are usually analyzed with polytomous Rasch models by considering each passage as a super-item or testlet. This strategy helps overcome the local dependence inherent in C-Test gaps. However, there is little research on the best polytomous Rasch model for C-Tests. In this study, the Rating Scale Model (RSM) and the Partial Credit Model (PCM) for analyzing C-Tests were compared. To this end, a C-Test composed of six passages with both RSM and PCM was analyzed. The models were compared in terms of overall fit, individual item fit, dimensionality, test targeting, and reliability. Findings showed that, although the PCM has a better overall fit compared to the RSM, both models produce similar test statistics. In light of the findings of the study, the choice of the best Rasch model for C-Tests will be discussed.

Dictation is a traditional technique for both teaching and testing overall language ability and listening comprehension. In a dictation, a passage is read aloud by the teacher and examinees write down what they hear. Due to the peculiar form of dictations, psychometric analysis of dictations is challenging. In a dictation, there is no clear boundary between the items and every word in the text is potentially an item. This makes the analysis of dictations with classical and modern test theories rather difficult. In this study, we suggest a procedure to make dictations analyzable with psychometric models. Our strategy entailed using several independent short passages instead of a single long passage. The number of mistakes in each passage was counted and entered into the analysis. Rasch model analysis was then applied to the passage scores (mistakes). Our findings showed that dictations fit the Rasch model very well and it is possible to measure examinees’ ability on an interval scale using dictations.

This study intended to explore the effect of Augmented Reality (AR) on lowering foreign language anxiety (FLA) in adult Iranian EFL learners. To this end, a triangulation study including a quasi-experimental pre-test post-test design in the first phase, and an oral interview in the second phase was designed and implemented. Forty adult Iranian EFL learners took part in the quantitative study and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The authors developed and delivered the AR-infused materials through the Zappar application, an AR platform. The treatment involved the conventional language teaching method for the control and the AR-integrated one for the experimental group for 20 sessions. The anxiety level of learners in both groups was assessed before and after the treatment to check for any effects. Data on participants’ FLA has been gathered through Horwitz’s (1986) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Survey (FLCAS) questionnaire and analyzed via ANCOVA in SPSS. Also, the participants in the experimental group were interviewed at the end of the experiment to provide feedback on their AR-integrated language learning experience. Results revealed that AR did not affect learners’ foreign language anxiety levels. Also, some learners found it not very relaxing and easy to use. This could be attributed to the novelty of the experience and the cognitive load imposed on learners. The study’s outcomes were in contrast to several previous research findings; however, since research in this area is still in its infancy, more research should be done on the impact of AR on language education.

Translation quality assessment with its focus on the formulation of a comprehensive model for translation evaluation has gained a growing interest in the field of translation studies. However, little attention has been paid to the use of linguistic theories in the evaluative judgment of a translation. The aim of this study was to apply a particular kind of linguistic analysis based on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) as a framework for the translation quality assessment of a novel. Meanwhile, it aimed to identify the kinds of overt errors and the used translation strategies in English to Persian. To this end, thirty pages of The Sound and The Fury by Faulkner (1329) and its translation by Bahman Sholevar (2003) were selected and the mismatches across the three metafunctions of ideational, interpersonal, and thematic meanings were identified based on SFL. The comparison of the source text (ST) and the target text (TT) revealed that the ideational meaning had the greatest number of errors as produced by the translator. Moreover, omission constituted the largest kind of overt translation error. Thus, the translator mostly used reduction strategies and text expansion strategies in translating the ST. The results showed that SFL can successfully be applied to evaluate the correct translation of the three metafunctions of language. This study has important implications for syllabus designers of translation studies, translation teachers, and literary translators.    

This paper reports on an investigation of native language-based differential item functioning (DIF) across the subtests of Iranian Undergraduate University Entrance Special English Exam (IUUESEE). Fourteen thousand one hundred seventy two foreign-language test takers (including four groups of Azeri, Persian, Kurdish, and Luri test takers) were chosen for the study. Uniform DIF (UDIF) and Non-uniform DIF (NUDIF) analyses were conducted on data from the four versions of IUUESEE. After establishing the unidimensionality and local independence of the data, DIF findings showed that Luri test takers were more advantaged than other native language groups across the subtests. NUDIF analysis uncovered that almost all subtests functioned in favor of low-ability test takers who haven’t been expected to outperform high-ability test takers. A probable explanation for native language-ability DIF was that Luri and low-ablity test takers were more likely to venture lucky guesses. Thoughtless errors and guessing, test-wiseness, overconfidence, stem length, unappealing distractors, and time were proposed as possible causes of DIF in IUUESEE. It was also found that the reading subtest included the large number of items with significant DIF.

Flipped classroom is a learning model where assignments are shifted, and learning happens outside of educational settings. This modern concept fundamentally refers to lesson input being conducted at home by the learner for sharing and applying knowledge. FL approaches have received considerable focus in recently with the power to encourage involvement and cooperative learning. The FC is a technique that flips the conventional education setting. The FC is accordingly appropriate for online or mixed learning. In this research, the effects of FLA on autonomy and EFL skill-learning of EFL learners were examined. The research questions were pertinent to the basic outcomes of the implementation of FC. The results demonstrated that those getting benefit of FC approaches more enthusiastically perused using them compared to those who had not employed them before. The research outcomes indicated contribution of FL on autonomy and EFL skill-learning of the EFL participants in the experiment group. 

This quantitative study aimed to investigate Iranian EFL student teachers’ perceptions on the use of Machine Translation (MT) for foreign language learning in academic context. To this end, 107 EFL student teachers from a women-only state university in Tehran, Iran, completed a recently developed and validated questionnaire in the field. The findings revealed that most participants were familiar with digital technology including MT and its different types such as Google Translate (GT). Satisfied with MT output, the majority of the participants in the study installed MT apps on their smartphones or used its website on their computers to complete assignments or to translate from Persian to English and vice versa. However, they were neutral about whether their instructors confirmed their MT use, or whether they preferred their teachers know they use MT or not. They were also not sure whether consulting MT was against the regulations. The results showed that authorities in the field of foreign language teaching are required to take a positive stand on this emerging technology; in addition, considering the importance of training for both instructors and learners, they should hold workshops for more responsible and effective MT implementation. 

Despite extensive studies concerning written error correction, it is imperative that more research be conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of error correction on improving L2 writing. Driven by this gap, this study aimed to examine whether unfocused direct and indirect types of written corrective feedback had any impact on the writing accuracy of the Iranian English language learners’ new compositions. Through the random matching technique, ninety Iranian English language learners from seven foreign language centers in southwestern Iran were split into two groups for treatment and one group for control. As part of the evaluation, a writing test was utilized to determine whether the learners had improved their writing accuracy due to the treatment. The results showed that the participants in both treatment groups improved their writing accuracy, though the learning gains from both treatment were not significantly different. This study concludes with some implications for teachers regarding their use of appropriate types of written error correction. 

Despite its importance, a review of the related literature reveals not many studies have examined criticality in EAP. Accordingly, in the present study, whether critical approaches were followed in Iranian EAP classes were investigated among EAP teachers and students based on Benesch (1993). To do so, 40 EAP teachers and 150 EAP students were selected based on convenience sampling. The study drew on both qualitative and quantitative approaches as the participants completed a researcher-made questionnaire and attended an interview. The quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and independent-samples t -tests and inductive content analysis respectively. The quantitative results indicated that Iranian EAP classes (from both teachers and students’ views) suffered low levels of criticality and that there was a significant difference between teachers’ and students’ perspectives on the existence of criticality in EAP classes. The qualitative findings also confirmed EAP teachers’ low familiarity with criticality in EAP courses. The inhibitors and facilitators in the journey towards criticality were finally identified based on the teachers’ perspectives.