مطالب

Technology affected human life in many ways in different eras of mankind history. Today, the information and telecommunication technology has revolutionized basic structures of human life. Changes are from the whole to the parts and vice versa, which include family and society too. Family lost its former structure in the information age and differentiated from patriarchy family. Societies have been formed based on logic of networking and new network societies are predominant form of our societies with their advantages and flaws comparing with the traditional societies. Basic concepts of the life i.e. space and time also have been transformed and living in space of flows and concurrency of functions require a special structure or body. Architecture constitutes the body of our societies which must meet physical and mental needs of humankind. In a transforming world, architecture is connecting ring between society and surrounding environment, previous traditions and future world, which its borders between reality and virtuality are very close. Architecture with a global-local approach can assist human who is wondering in the virtual world to redefine its own identity and finds its position in labyrinth of global networks and also safeguards his survival via respecting nature and paying attention to sense of place as one of the principles of vernacular and traditional architecture. Technology has affected on the architectural design, leading to creation of new shapes and distinct erections. Architectural design by employing networks and collective intelligence, overcome temporal and spatial limits and became a collective activity. Architecture by creating spaces according to global, regional and local considerations and emphasis on principles of design supported by collective intelligence and strengthening bonds among the human, nature and technology, will act as a panacea which will heal crisis of identity and cultural multitude; the crisis that storm out human body and soul in our present stressful world.

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) are developing branches of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction in Iran. These branches have a marginal status in the tertiary education, and the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology’s high commission offers no clear guidance for selecting and developing basic academic instructional materials related to the linguistic or communicative standards expected by teachers (Mazdayasna & Tahririan, 2008). This paper tries to evaluate an ESP textbook written for BSc students of physics entitled, ‘English for the students of physics’, which is prepared by the Center for Studying and Compiling University Books in Humanities (SAMT). The present research was based on qualitative and quantitative research techniques and included two steps. First, internal, external and overall evaluation of the book was carried out based on McDonough & Shaw (1993) model. While conducting the external evaluation of the book, the intended audience, the proficiency level, the context of use, the language, the author's views on language and methodology, the inclusion of a vocabulary list/index, visual features, and the cultural aspects were examined. The internal evaluation included the presentation of the skills, grading and sequencing, discourse skills, listening section, the representation of different learning styles. And in overall evaluation, general suitability of the textbook was assessed. In the second step, six teachers each responded to a 22-item textbook evaluation questionnaire to express their perceptions concerning various aspects of the textbooks. The results revealed the extent of appropriateness of the textbook used by BSc students of physics. Suggestions are offered for the future revision and/or designing the textbooks.