مطالب

Giving certain elements more significance than others in the same context is called prominence. This study aims at identifying and comparing markers of focal and thematic prominence in Persian general       practitioners’ books (GPBs) and Persian online medical journals (OMJs) based on Levinsohn’s model. The data were gathered from 100 texts from two written Persian GPBs and 100 texts from two Persian OMJs. SPSS software version 24 was used to evaluate the data. Results demonstrated “emphatic   markers” such as fæqæt ‘just’ were used for focal prominence much more frequently in OMJs than in GPBs. In addition, significant differences were observed between GPBs and OMJs with regard to the markers of focal prominence and prominence in general, but not with regard to markers of thematic prominence. This may be related to the twofold effect of the different discourse types and different addressees of these texts.

The purpose of this research is to investigate Iranian English teachers’ perception of teaching reading comprehension and reading comprehension strategies and their use which can be influenced by individual factors such as gender and teachers’ teaching experience. To serve this purpose, 78 EFL teachers were selected in a stratified manner from West and East Azerbaijan’s language institutes and schools in the second semester of the academic year 2021. This sample included 54 females (=22 experienced, 17 developing, and 15 novices) and 24 males (=1 highly experienced, 6 developing, and 7 novice). To collect the research data, the first three sections of a five-point Likert scale standardized questionnaire was employed to tap teachers’ perception of reading comprehension and the importance of reading strategies. The obtained data were analyzed through Two-Way between Groups Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to investigate the significant main and interaction effects of teachers’ gender and their teaching experience on their perception of teaching reading comprehension and reading strategies. The results showed that the gender and teaching experience had no significant main or interaction effect on their understanding of the way reading comprehension should be taught or the paramount of reading comprehension strategies. Moreover, the findings unraveled some uncertainties in   teachers’ perceptions of reading comprehension skills and misconceptions regarding the significance of reading comprehension strategies. The findings are pedagogical significant and will be discussed in length.

The present study strived to determine the utility of tailor-made and learner-difference-based teacher education for the amelioration of the EFL teachers’ productive teacher immunity. To this end, 62 EFL teachers were selected from 12 language institutes in Urmia, Iran. The participants were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group, and were asked to complete the teacher immunity questionnaire prior to the onset of the treatment sessions. In the treatment phase of the study, the experimental group received a tailor-made teacher immunity education on the basis of the overarching sub-constructs of the teacher immunity construct using a web conferencing system in ten sessions during a 5-week period. Notwithstanding, the control group received a learner-difference-based teacher education based on the predominant learner factors. Finally, both groups filled out the pertinent teacher immunity questionnaire anew, in order to examine the efficacy of the aforementioned treatments for the betterment of the teachers’ productive teacher immunity. The results of the study accentuated the fact that the EFL instructors’ teacher immunity was not impervious to the teacher education intervention. Furthermore, the tailor-made teacher immunity education had a more favorable impact on the improvement of the teachers’ productive teacher immunity. The findings might provide teacher educators with certain guiding principles that might empower them to revamp the current teacher education courses and tailor their education to meet the language teachers’ needs.