مطالب

The present study was conducted to identify novice and experienced Iranian EFL teachers’ beliefs towards the most effective written corrective feedback types and the most serious errors they might address while correcting students’ paragraphs and see whether there exist any tensions between what they believed and what they practiced through the methodology of pre-observation interview, observation, and post-observation interview. The results revealed that for novice teachers, there were fewer tensions between their stated beliefs and observed practices, yet this tension was more obvious while interviewing experienced teachers. Some implications for language teacher education will also be discussed.

Most studies on Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) have focused either on ESL or EFL teachers’ beliefs and practices. However, it is still not known how teachers who teach second or foreign languages other than English will provide information on the learners’ written language production. To bridge the gap in the literature, this current study reports on an interview study investigating nine university lecturers’ beliefs and their actual practices about WCF on an assignment done by the third-year exchange student of Thai as a foreign language (TFL). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through feedback tasks and semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated that there was alignment between teachers’ beliefs of their WCF practice and their actual practice in terms of types of WCF and feedback techniques. However, the amount of feedback provided and the teachers’ time constraint, not the level of students’ ability as they thought, appeared to be the reasons for these misalignments of TFL teachers’ beliefs and practices

Thai students’ writing in English is a chronic problem documented in the literature of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Thailand. However, little research has been conducted on how Thai teachers and students perceive the importance of English-writing and what difficulties and expectations/suggestions they have in teaching and learning this skill at upper-secondary schools (U-SS). This study, therefore, plans to fill this gap by employing two sets of surveys and semi-structured interviews with 114 teachers and 170 students from 30 different U-SS in the Northeastern part of Thailand and two provincial supervisors of Foreign-Language-Education Divisions (Pro-Sup). Besides their various stated personal and contextual problems in terms of time constraint, insufficient resources and poorly-motivated and mixed-ability students, national test structures and the presence of untrained English teachers, the participants acknowledged the importance of English-writing and expected to have this skill taught at all school levels. These findings suggest that to improve the teaching and learning practices of this skill at U-SS in Thailand and other countries with similar contexts, relevant support and necessary reforms from teachers, school leaders and national-test and policymakers are needed.

The Islamic Revolution victory of Iran in February 1979 has been the source of significant changes in the region and the world and has had a tremendous international impact. Concepts such as the revolution exportation from the beginning of the revolution became the strategy of the Islamic Republic. Undoubtedly, the eight-year Iran-Iraq war had an impact on this policy. The present study aimed to express the effect of these imposed factors on exporting the revolution based on a theoretical framework on the theory of Hagerstrand's diffusion and examining the impact of the imposed war at the domestic and international levels. Based on the results, in contrast to the Islamic Revolution, this influence for governments, especially those that consider it a destructive factor for their government, is prolonged or stopped. And the imposed war became a factor for governments' resistance against the revolution exportation. In contrast, the revolution values have particular importance to the nations that noticed the justice-seeking and anti-arrogance of this revolution. Defense and resistance in the imposed war symbolize oppressed nations' resistance against global arrogance as a desirable pattern of behavior. The primary questions are ‘What effects did the imposed war have on the future of Iran?’ ‘Did these effects play a positive and accelerating or negative and deterrent role in the export of the Islamic Revolution?’ According to the hypothesis, some influences had a deterrent role in exporting the Islamic Revolution by those conditions. They caused the change of idealistic to realistic views. On the other hand, the Iranian nation's voice was a symbol of the government defending the oppressed, so it has caused the export of more and more values of this revolution.

The significance of the role of interest groups in domestic politics in the US and EU countries is an undeniable fact. Lobbies, as a kind of interest group, play a crucial role in shaping the foreign policy of western countries. Israeli lobbies increasingly seek to transform the US and EU approaches in the Middle East in favor of Israel interests. In cooperation with their American counterparts, Israeli lobbyists struggle to strengthen their political presence in the EU states to ensure the achievement of their political aims. This article tries to explore these lobbyists’ objectives and activities in recent years across Europe. Findings indicate that they are committed to fighting anti-Semitism in Europe, to inhibit the growth of the BDS movement, to deviate the peace process in the Middle East from its normal path and toward Israel interests, to persuade EU leaders to take strict measures against Iran and the last, but not the least, to delegitimize Iran and Hezbollah in EU institutions and provoke EU states to recognize Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. This article basically seeks to explore the reasons behind Israelis’ efforts to establish Jewish lobbies across Europe. . To answer the research question, a case study of Israeli lobbies, established by influential Jews in the EU countries, is conducted.