مطالب

Speaking is deemed by many scholars as a fundamental skill in second language (L2) learning. From the myriad of factors playing a role in willingness to communicate (WTC) in a foreign language, communication apprehension and self-perceived competence have attracted a good deal of interest in recent decades. Furthermore, it is generally agreed that cooperative teaching can enhance learners' linguistic and psychological variables. To unravel the aforementioned dilemmas, 60 male and female EFL learners within the age range of 19 to 25(i.e., 30 each) were selected out of 100 participants via double sampling from several English institutes in Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan province and were assigned equally to an experimental and a control group. Subsequently, the treatment started where the experimental group was taught based on cooperative teaching, while the control group received conventional treatment. Before and after the treatment, three questionnaires (WTC, communication apprehension and self-perceived competence) were given to all the participants in three different phases. After collecting the data, they were analyzed descriptively. Finally, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was run. The findings of the study highlighted that there is a negative correlation between communication apprehension and WTC as well as a positive correlation between self-perceived competence and WTC of Iranian EFL learners in post intervention. The findings further indicated that cooperative teaching can influence learners' WTC, self-perceived competence and communication apprehension.

The study examined the impact of high school English teachers’ awareness of pedagogical competence on student learning. A psychometric measurement instrument of English language teachers' pedagogical competence (ELTPC) was first developed through factor analysis with 320 high school teachers in Guilan, Northern Iran. Based on the developed instrument, 36 teachers were divided into two groups of aware and unaware teachers of pedagogical competence (PC) according to Contrasting Groups Method of cut score. Then, 160 high school third graders received instruction from the aware and unaware teachers for 7 weeks. Finally, a survey regarding the teachers’ implementation of pedagogical competence in classrooms was conducted with 30 students. The findings from the experiment and survey supported the teachers in aware group. Although, based on the survey results, the aware teachers were reported to act better, they were not reported as highly practicing the pedagogical competence. The findings can be practically used by schools, education administration, and teacher educators.

Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) and Technique Feature Analysis (TFA) are two frameworks which operationalize depth of processing of a vocabulary learning task. However, there is dearth of research comparing the predictive power of the ILH and the TFA across second language (L2) vocabulary learning tasks. The present study, therefore, aimed to examine this issue across four vocabulary learning tasks (i.e., reading with glosses, keyword techniques, word card, and reading and finding the words in text) ranked differently by the ILH and the TFA. To this end, 80 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners were randomly assigned to one of four tasks of learning 16 target words. The results of one-way ANOVA, LSD Post hoc tests, and multiple regression analyses showed that the TFA had a better explanatory power than the ILH in predicting vocabulary learning gains. The findings highlight the TFA as a more powerful framework.

The current study was an attempt to investigate the effect of performing Focus on Form (FoF), Focus on Meaning (FoM), and Focus on Forms (FoFs) instructions on the development of collocational knowledge among Iranian intermediate EFL learners, and to explore any significant difference on the achievement of the participants' collocational knowledge among three groups. In so doing, 107 female intermediate EFL learners were selected for this research. They all took the Nelson proficiency test and 90 students who had gotten the higher scores were randomly divided into three groups of FoF, FoM, and FoFs. Before the treatment they were pretested and the results of the three groups did not have any significant difference, thus all of the learners were at the same level of knowledge. After the treatment, they were posttested and their scores in FoM group were considerably higher than the learner' scores in FoF and FoFs groups but the learners' scores in FoF and FoFs groups did not have any significant difference with each other. The findings of this study offer beneficial implications for EFL teachers, learners, and materials developers which are finally discussed.

This essay investigates the geopolitics of contemporary Southern Yemen. Due to the civil war, two intertwined dynamics have been altering intra-Southern balances, shifting consolidated power relations. At a domestic level, inter-regional and tribal struggles for autonomy and/or independence grow, given also the persisting vacuum in local governance and security. At a regional level, the geopolitical game played by Middle Eastern (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Turkey and Iran) and international players (United States, Russia and China) in the Aden regional security complex is on the rise, driven by commercial and military interests. Yemen’s sovereignty fragmentation represents a security risk for Persian Gulf powers, as well as a geostrategic chance to enhance and/or expand their influence on Southern Yemen, the Persian Gulf rimland. For Saudi Arabia and most of all the UAE, Southern Yemen is a platform for their new interventionist foreign policies: for geostrategic purposes, Abu Dhabi has invested in transnational patronage in many Southern regions, thus gaining new military leverage in the sub-region.

This essay briefly reviews the history of emergence of south-south cooperation which started in the discourse of the development agenda in the 70s and was closely associated with the New International Economic Order discourse, aimed at overcoming asymmetries and gaps inherited from the previous decades, as a means of enhancing international cooperation among developing countries with the focus on the realization of the right to development. I also examine the recent resurgence of South–South cooperation, which has moved once again onto the center stage of world politics and global economics, leading to a renewed interest in its historic promise to transform world order. This article also provides an overview of contemporary debates on this reality, noting in particular the opportunities that lie therein and the challenges that global south faces in promoting such cooperation.  Finally, I will provide some concrete guidelines and recommendations for enhancing the cooperation between developing countries to better achieve the right to development.    

On 14 July 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was finalized, marking the end of long-term negotiations between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of both Iran and the E3/EU+3. Only six days later, the United Nations Security Council askedall participants of JCPOA to fully implement the deal. It also adopted Resolution 2231 and terminated all previous resolutions. However, despite all absolute commitments of the participants of JCPOA and contrary to theU.N. Security Council resolution, the U.S. overlooked the deal starting from the implementation day. Eventually,the current U.S. President, Donald Trump, announced on Tuesday, May 8, 2018, that he will withdraw the United States from the Iran nuclear deal. Nevertheless, according to international law, JCPOA is not considered a bilateral agreement and so does not provide grounds for any participants to alter their position asthey wish. Rather, it is a multilateral political comprehension endorsed by the UNSC and has a binding nature deriving from Resolution 2231. This resolution reiterates full and holistic implementation of JCPOA and prohibits any violation regardingthe deal. The main question of the present paperis about the legal nature of the JCPOA. The approach of the UNSC towards JCPOA and the responsibilities of the participants and other U.N. member states toward JCPOA are other questions thatare worth considering from an international perspective.

It seems that paying attention to social responsibility by companies can lead to a better stakeholder’s view toward the company, thereby increasing their loyalty and trust. Having the ability to obtain more financial resources in times of crisis, due to the greater loyalty of investors, will result in reducing the company risk. In contrast, being overconfident about the loyalty of individuals to the company can lead to keeping a short-term debt structure, thereby increasing the risk of obtaining financial resources. Recently, the negative impacts of petrochemical companies on the environment have made social and environmental groups focus more on this industry, and this focus has pushed companies into involving in more social activities. Considering the potential impact of CSR on the company’s risk, this study examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility and value at risk in petrochemical industry using a sample of 27 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during the 2010-2017 period. Eviews 10 is used for computing and analyzing the data, and the generalized auto regressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model is employed to estimate value at risk. The results indicate a negative and statistically significant relationship between corporate social responsibilities and company value at risk. <strong> </strong>