مطالب

Financial markets are channels for attracting surplus financial resources and allocating them to investment. Macro-prudential policy needs to consider financial cycle in order to assess the state of the financial sector, predict its developments and justify the need for specific policy tools. we examined the effect of macro-prudential policies on financial cycle of Iran's economy Over the period 2008-2018 using Unobserved Components Structural Time Series Model. We explored the effect of macro-prudential policy index and other variables on the financial cycle. The findings of this study, using the Generalized method of moments (GMM) for the time series data, suggested that the macro-prudential policy index has a negative and significant effect on the financial cycle in the Iranian economy. Also, the probability(likelihood) of a banking crisis, the interbank market loan rate and the economic growth index have positive and significant effect on the financial cycle.

The innovation ecosystem plays a valuable role in the development of innovation and entrepreneurship. The emergence of an innovation-based economy requires the development of an innovation ecosystem in the context of the region. In most countries, especially less developed countries, the ecosystem is not properly formed and the first step to its formation is the theoretical and experimental knowledge of this area. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the dimensions and components of the innovation ecosystem. We applied bibliometric method, citation analysis, applied evaluation techniques and content analysis of documents in this research. The purpose of this research is to review studies in this field and to present a conceptual and integrated model using content analysis of documents by organizing previous research. The statistical population of this research includes all the documents presented in the Web of Science database with 438 documents related to the innovation ecosystem until 2020 and has been evaluated and illustrated using VOS viewer software. Based on the content analysis of the documents, research on the "innovation ecosystem" is divided into five sections. The first part of the research is related to the structural factors. The second part is related to the type of the relationships and interactions, and the third part is related to the results. The fourth part is about the actors and the fifth part is about how they have performed. Finally, the conceptual framework of the research is presented based on the content analysis of the documents

Given the significance and problematic nature of speaking in EFL instruction as well as lack of orthodoxy of views on acceptance or rejection of language learning transferability, this study proposed an inventive model to teaching thinking via questioning as a way to trigger speaking. It compromises six components, and organizes a rich interactive teaching/learning environment to gauge its usefulness in the development of EFL learners' oral skill as well as its inter-domain transferability effects. To this end, we compared the performance of 60 participants on pre-post-treatment oral narrative tasks over thirteen treatment sessions with a time allocation of 45 minutes for each session: One group with isolated questioning instruction and the other with integrated one. The results of independent samples t-test indicated that instructional treatment assisted the experimental group participants to outperform the control group learners solely in terms of measures of lexical and grammatical complexity. It is also suggested that the merits of questioning intervention transfer to learners' performance on a delayed task in a new social domain. As proposed, implementing the integrated approach of HOQs assisted EFL learners to successfully accomplish demanding oral tasks initially in academic setting and in later delayed novel transcontextual settings.

Sandwich and cake formats of interventionist Dynamic Assessment suffer from two problems: both are time-demanding, and the intervention presented to the learners varies from one learner to another.  To suggest a solution to the above problems in teaching and assessing reading strategies, the present researchers have introduced ‘sauce’-format mediation through which intervention is provided for the learners within ‘mediation boxes’ along the test. Thirty Iranian intermediate EFL learners participated in the study. They were first given a non-mediated reading pretest, and then they took the same test along with a ‘mediation box’ following each question to observe the probable effect of ‘sauce’-format mediation.  To measure the transcendence of the given mediation, the participants answered a non-mediated delayed posttest at the end.  Comparing the means of the mediated posttest and non-mediated pretest on the one hand and those of the non-mediated delayed posttest and the pretest on the other revealed that the learners benefitted significantly well from the ‘sauce’-format mediation and could transfer their learning to a novel context. Findings of this study are consistent with the previous research on DA that intervention supports learner development.

The present descriptive study aimed at investigating the human and machine Persian translations of The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini, and comparing the applied translation strategies in the translated texts for culture-specific items (CSI). To this end, based on Newmark’s (1988) category, the applied strategies were identified in the two translations and compared. The obtained results showed that Naturalization and Transposition strategies were the most frequently-used strategies by both human translators and machine translation. The results also showed that machine translation could not present a comprehensible translation due to overuse of these strategies (75%). It was further revealed that the spirit of the original text was not lost in the translated versions due to the closeness of Iranian and Afghan cultures. In fact, the translated versions kept the real beauty and creativity of the original work. However, the remorseful theme of the source text was kept intact to a great extent in the human translation of the novel, while machine translation lost it. Thus, the general impression is that culture-specific terms make it difficult for the machine translation to achieve complete word-for-word and semantic equivalence, and that the human translator must have a broad knowledge of the literature and traditions of both the source and target languages.

World literature is replete with many texts that depict the imperialists using hypocritical language as an oppressive device for intimidating their subjects. The oppressors pretended to be the civilizers by inculcating the idea of “Benevolent Colonization” into the minds of the oppressed. In this paper, the researchers investigate how situational and linguistic contexts affect the meanings of utterances in George Orwell’s selected novels. It is aimed to remove the gaps in the multicultural world by scrutinizing the power of language pragmatically. The methodology is qualitative based on Grice’s theory of implicature. The novels under investigation both violate and adhere to the four maxims of Grice’s theory of Conversational Implicature. The findings of the paper indicate that language can be used as a suppressive weapon for supporting imperialist objectives or hamper satisfactory human relations, and that positive gifts of imperialism come with the caveat that they are being achieved at the cost of exploiting the oppressed.

Applying metacognitive strategies leads to better listening comprehension and optimal use of learners’ other cognitive skills. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the metacognitive strategies that non-Iranian Persian learners employ to comprehend oral texts and whether gender and mother tongue have any effect on it. This research is a field study in which after calculating the item reliability of the questionnaire, data were collected quantitatively through Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) developed by Vandergrift, Mareschal, and Tafaghodtari (2006). One hundred nineteen adult Persian learners from eight countries participated in this study. Data analysis indicated that non-Iranian Persian learners use problem-solving, direct attention, planning-evaluation, personal knowledge, and mental translation strategies respectively. Furthermore, the findings showed that male Persian learners employ metacognitive strategies more than female learners, even though this difference was not very significant, and that mother tongue has no effect on the use of these strategies. Research findings will help Persian language teachers to take into consideration each group of learners’ preferences and extent of their use, as well as variables such as gender and nationality.

The use of storytelling on students’ first language literacy and development were extended to foreign/second language learning, and a large number of researchers interested in the field attempted to use storytelling and story reading strategies in teaching oral language skills to foreign/second language learners. Despite the existence of a number of studies on the impact of storytelling on English language skills, the number of studies on the impact of storytelling and story reading approaches on pre- intermediate EFL learners’ oral language production and comprehension seems to be scanty. To do so, a quasi- experimental study was employed. Ninety Iranian language learners, from 6 intact classes (each consisting of 15), were divided to three sub-groups: storytelling, story reading and conventional groups. To one group, stories were told, one group only read the stories, and the third group received no stories. The data were collected through researcher developed oral language production and comprehension tests. One-way-ANOVA test and three independent samples-tests based on Bonferroni test were employed to analyze the data and locate the sources of the differences. Findings revealed that storytelling outperformed story reading groups on both production and comprehension tests. Story reading group outperformed the conventional group. It can be concluded telling and reading stories are effective techniques for improving EFL learners’ oral language production and recognition.

The teachers' competencies in the process of internationalization of higher education (IHE) are of vital importance (Brandenburg & Federkeil, 2007; van der Werf, 2012). The extent of IHE in a university is in a close relationship with the teachers' competencies (Harari, 1981). However, the required competencies of teachers in IHE are not a well-studied topic. Similarly, the "dearth of literature on EAP professional development" (Blaj-Ward, 2014, p. 113) has complicated exploring the EAP teachers' competencies. The absence of a competency model addressing the needs of EAP teachers to effectively engage in the education fitting the IHE objectives and policies gave impetus to this study. In line with this objective, an instrument measuring EAP teachers' competencies was designed and validated. The following steps were taken to develop the instrument: the theme extraction and item generation phase, the piloting phase, and the validation phase. The extensive review of the literature and interviews with IHE experts and EAP teachers yielded 8 competencies. This initial framework led to the development of the preliminary version of a 22-item questionnaire. The piloting phase resulted in 23 items. 74 EAP teachers from both camps (language and content) participated in the final administration. Various factor analyses, internal consistency, and correlation of all of the items were performed. The data obtained confirmed a sufficiently reliable and valid scale, consisting of 6 components (with the same underlying themes of 8 competencies extracted earlier) and 23 items for measuring the EAP teachers' competencies.

The notion of teacher professional identity has become a regular fixture in numerous theoretical and empirical studies in both mainstream and L2 teacher education. Consequently, a number of scales have been designed and developed to quantify this construct. To be sure, the extant instruments are general with regard to both context and subject matter, and this line of inquiry has not addressed the quantification of the concept in the ELT profession. The present study was, therefore, an attempt to provide a (re)conceptualization of L2 teachers’ professional identity through exploring its underlying components. To this end, an initial 61-item, self-assessment questionnaire was developed using a comprehensive review of the related literature and experts’ opinion. The trial scale was then administered to a sample of 676 ELT teachers. Results of exploratory factor analysis reduced the instrument to 42 items, leading to a six-factor model which indicated that L2 teacher identity includes: researching and developing one’s own practice; language awareness; institutional and collective practice; engaging learners as whole persons; appraising one’s teacher self; and sociocultural and critical practice. Confirmatory factor analysis substantiated the resultant six-factor model as a robust and valid tool for measuring ELT teachers’ professional identity.