مطالب

The study examines the effects of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction (SDLMI) on intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ L2 autonomous motivation, self-efficacy, and perceived locus of causality. Given the evolving paradigms of language teaching, SDLMI values ​​autonomy, competence and connectedness in teaching instruction and offers a distinctive approach. Drawing on contemporary motivational theories, the study examines how SDLMI impacts these key dimensions in intermediate EFL learners compared to a traditional instructional approach. Participants from four EFL classrooms completed SDLMI in the experimental group and conventional instruction in the control group. Instruments included the Preliminary English Test, motivational questionnaires, and SDLMI-based assessments. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent samples t-tests. Descriptive statistics for both groups (mean and SD) were calculated. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to compare the means between the experimental group and the control group and to examine possible significant differences in the effect of SDLMI on autonomous motivation, self-efficacy, and perceived locus of causality. The study contributes to instructional practices, advocating for autonomy-supportive strategies in fostering holistic language. 

Research article (RA) titles are one of the most important elements of a manuscript, influencing the reviewers’ decision and editors’ judgment, attracting the readers, and conveying the main idea of the article. Investigating 3197 RA titles published in 16 approved Iranian linguistic journals, this study aimed to map their pattern and portray their features of form and content. To this end, all the RA titles of the 16 Iranian journals publishing articles in applied linguistics up to 2022 (3197 titles) were collected. Then, they were analyzed for their length, presence of non-alphanumeric characters, syntactic structure, lexical diversity, as well as type and trend of information encoded.  Results show that RA titles in Iranian linguistic journals tend to be pretty long (average of 13.88) but mostly consist of non-repetitive words with high lexical diversity (.94). Authors mainly used colons (average of 82), hyphens (average of 79), and commas (average of 37) to form titles by nominal (average of 94) and compound (average of 82) grammatical structures. These titles mostly tended to embed information about the method, data, and results of the works and appeared to be highly informative. Interrelationships between features resulted in a checklist for RA title features that can be used by prospective researchers, academic writing instructors, and reviewers.

Mounting attention has recently been paid to authorial stance in academic writing due to its important role in the interpersonal aspect of writing, encompassing the ways in which authors establish connections, convey attitudes, and engage with an audience. This study was an attempt to explore how native and non-native authors of Applied Linguistics deploy linguistic features to project their authorial stance. To this end, a corpus of 100 research articles authored by native and non-native researchers was collected from journals in the field of ELT. Hyland's Interpersonal Model of Metadiscourse (2005) was employed to differentiate the features produced and figure out how authors navigate the complexities of expressing their meaning while considering the ELT community expectations, and SPSS was used to analyze the data. Based on the results, the proportion of interactive resources was found to surpass that of interactional resources in both native and non-native writings, with transitions being the leading feature, followed by evidentials; and regarding the interactional resources, boosters, and hedges were the most dominant features employed by native and non-native authors, respectively. Overall, no tendency was found towards textuality through which authors consider the target audience (engagement markers), signal their confidence through the portrayal of authors' feelings (attitude markers), and take credit for their findings (self-mentions) throughout the whole corpus, particularly non-native writings. It seems that writing courses offered in non-native contexts require improvements to meet the standards of academic writing. Therefore, the study has important implications for both non-native and novice researchers and course designers.

ChatGPT-assisted language instruction is gathering irresistible momentum in today’s fast-moving, AI-governed world of educational enterprises. The current scoping review article sought to analyze and synthesize the existing literature on the complementary use of ChatGPT in second/foreign language (L2/FL) education and pedagogy. Aligned with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA‑ScR), the study adopted a systematic approach to evidential data search and analysis. A total of 28 peer-reviewed articles retrieved from well-established databases, such as Scopus and Web of Science (WoS), were reviewed to map the scope and consequences of the growing body of literature on using ChatGPT as an L2/FL learning/teaching tool. Centering around five predetermined variables, including setting, design, focus area, objective, and concluding remarks, the content or thematic analysis results helped to shape a clear picture of the literature under review. The literature-derived evidential data also referred to the fruits of ChatGPT-assisted instruction under three distinct headings: learning outcomes, pedagogical outcomes, and cognitive-affective impetus for language learning and teaching. The review results also revealed the repercussions of the instruction mainly concerned with ethical and technical concerns. Given the immature but fast-paced nature of the literature on the instructional model, this early attempt, though provided a brief sketch of the research scope and chief outcomes of the model, needs to be complemented with future systematic reviews to fully unlock the potential of language pedagogy well suited to the demands of today’s technology-governed education.

lexical diversity of argumentative and narrative writings of L2 learners, and the contribution of syntactic complexity and lexical diversity to the writing quality in the L2 argumentative and narrative writings of EFL learners. To this end, 46 pre-intermediate and intermediate Iranian EFL learners from four intact classes wrote one argumentative and one narrative essay in L2, and one argumentative and one narrative essay in L1 on different topics. Paired-samples t-tests revealed that lexical diversity surfaced more in the L1 writing of the learners. Multiple linear regressions indicated that among five measures of syntactic complexity, mean length of T-unit and clauses per T-unit better predict the quality of argumentative writing. In addition, complex nominals per clause are better predictors of narrative writing quality. Simple linear regressions showed that lexical diversity is a significant predictor of L2 writing in both genres. Based on the findings, writing instructors are advised to provide L2 learners with explicit instruction on the use of diverse vocabulary and different syntactic structures in order to help them improve the quality of their writing.

This study aimed at investigating the L2 rhetorical organization of translation and free writing tasks in terms of cohesive devices used by Iraqi intermediate EFL learners in the narrative genre. To do so, 30 Iraqi intermediate EFL learners at Kufa university took part in the study. The participants were asked to translate three narrative texts from Arabic to English and write three narratives related to the general topics given to them as prompts. The narratives were coded and rated by two experts based on Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) framework. The data obtained from translation narratives were compared with a standard translation for each text. Results of the one-sample t-test performed on the scores of translation narratives indicated that Iraqi leaners produce shorter passages in the target language than in the source language; however, they used significantly more times than expected for certain types of cohesive devices. Moreover, comparisons between translated narratives and free narratives indicated no significant difference between the translated and composed narratives. It is argued that patterns of cohesive devices used in English output of the Iraqi EFL learners are compatible with properties of their first language. The findings also show that, unlike English grammatical properties, cohesive devices are not a problematic area and would not lead to fossilized errors in the performance of Iraqi EFL learners.

The existence of subjective facts in the epistemic sense defined by Thomas Nagel’s famous article, “What is it like to be a bat?” might be taken to support an anti-physicalist conclusion. I argue that it does not. The combination of nonreductive physicalism and teleo-pragmatic functionalism is not only consistent with such subjective facts but predicts their existence. The notion that conscious minds are self-understanding autopoietic systems plays a key role in the argument. Global Neuronal Workspace Theory is assessed in terms of its potential to answer David Chalmers’ Hard Problem of consciousness. A suggestion is made for augmenting the theory that involves another sense in which facts about conscious experience are subjective. The idea of conscious minds as self-understanding systems again plays an important role.

The Absoluteness Monotheism based on absolute unity is a point of view that Allameh Tabataba'i explains based on verses and traditions. He criticized the previous philosophers' theory of formational unity and the mystics's theory of personal unity of Being and established a point of view that had an impact on his entire intellectual and philosophical system. He admits that with this point of view, even discussions of predestination and free will are dismissed and irrelevant. Therefore, the problem of predestination and free will must be solved in another way. In this research, we aim to first express the view of The Absoluteness monotheism according to Allameh. Secondly, the ratio of discretion to The Absoluteness monotheism should be checked, It will become clear that with this monotheistic view, issues and problems arise differently, and some questions and contradictions are not raised in the intellectual framework of this monotheistic view and will be irrelevant; It will be clear that according to monotheism, there is only one absolute existence in the universe, and the other entities are conditioned and related to God. A person who accepts monotheism has surrendered himself to God and freed himself from servitude to others, and such a person has the highest level of freedom, because servitude to others is slavery and coercion, and in the shadow of God's servitude, man will achieve full freedom and true happiness.

Maintaining strong flavor of Aristotelian theory of perception, Farabi as well as Avicenna have appended new phases to the theory. Depicting imaginary perception with its crucial jobs, Farabi explains these three activities: storing sensory forms, composing and decomposing sensory forms, as well as imagery. What Farabi names the imaginary faculties, is conceptualized as three inner perceptions, i.e., imagination, estimative and memory faculties in Avicenna’s works. Evolving existing theories of perception, Avicenna delivers an account of five inner perceptions. Beforehand Farabi did not consider any difference between imaginary perception and motekhayelah. However, he mentioned one faculty doing both activities and was usually calling it motekhayelah and sometimes imaginary perception. Conceptualizing imaginary perception with its functions, Farabi deals with three primary activities: storing sensory forms, composing and decomposing sensory forms, and imagery. In other words, Avicenna defines what Farabi calls the imaginary faculties as three inner perceptions, i.e., imagination, estimative and memory faculties.

The 21st century heralded the dawn of the open access era in university publishing houses. The internet has transformed publishing from a lower reliance upon peer review processes, to readers being given direct access to text via digital content delivery. The internet era now enables knowledge transfer free at the point of deliver, without copyright or license. The internet has transformed university presses and publishers, from content providers to service deliverers. As a result, global publishing has changed, and university publishing houses have had to change with it. A global consensus of publishing has been set due to the technological advance of the internet. A global consensus which has been widely accepted by most university publishers. People will need to develop a good grasp of media and information literacy as either providers or consumers of university publishing houses’ content and services. The potential effects of the internet on COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2022) compliance features. One of many questions covered in this paper is: How will impact factors, readership analytics and the metaverse, effect publishing in the 2020s. The utility of the internet enables geographically spread authors who have never met, to co-author academia.