مطالب

The present study was carried out with the purpose of examining the role of metaphorical language in the critical discourse analysis (CDA) of political texts based on a modern framework postulated by Kövecses (2015). The corpus of the study consisted of thirty-thousand words chosen as a textual sample to see which source conceptual domains are used and what generic/discursive attributes emerge upon the analysis. It was prepared through systematic random sampling from different editorial articles in Western political magazines on the relations between Iran and the West in the time span of 2010-2019. Then, Critical Metaphor Analysis was used to explain the trend and patterns in the political articles, mostly lending support to previous research by authority figures in critical and political metaphor analysis that metaphors are used in shaping political thinking, in aiding political persuasion, and in steering cognitive scenarios and models towards the shaping of interpretations of the nations as person or body metaphors. Finally, the study lent ample support to this latter view in its textual findings of the conceptual metaphors used. The findings of the study provide foreign language education in general and the EFL classrooms in particular, with some implications for further research.

The present study was an attempt to explore the ‘washback effect’ of task-based assessment (TBLA) on EFL Iranian learners’ pragmatic development. To this end, through conducting KET (Key English Test), 60 out of 120 EFL Iranian learners studying in an English language school, were randomly selected. They were assigned to treatment group (N=30), and control group (N=30). The treatment group was assessed through TBLA and the control group was assessed via non-task based assessment for 20 ninety-minute sessions. The class sessions were held twice a week. The obtained data was examined through independent sample t-test. The findings implied that TBLA as a pedagogical measurement tool can well replace the classic assessment procedures, since all educational efforts including testing and assessment procedures are planned to maximize the educational gains and developments.

Almost all language schools in Iran enforce teacher supervision with the purpose of promoting good teaching practices and higher standards of quality education. Despite its widespread practice, the body of research on language teacher supervision in Iranian EFL setting is scant. The present qualitative study explored language school managers’ attitudes toward EFL teacher supervision in Iranian language schools. Based on a researcher-developed protocol, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven language school managers from Tehran and Karaj, Iran, whose managing experiences ranged from 5 to 18 years, with the purpose of identifying their attitudes, experiences, and challenges regarding supervision. The interviews drew upon emergent methodology to categorize the interviewees’ value-laden comments into five major attitudinal themes of becoming a supervisor, the requirements and responsibilities of a teacher-supervisor, evaluating a supervisor’s performance, challenges regarding teacher supervision, and supporting supervisors. The findings revealed that there are not any transparent criteria and rubrics for language school managers to draw upon to select teacher-supervisors, and supervisors are mostly selected based on their teaching potentials, experience, and merits. Moreover, the findings demonstrated that apart from observing classes and providing feedback, too many other responsibilities are assigned to supervisors in Iranian language schools. To improve the ongoing supervisory practices, the interviewees suggested the need for the development of transparent criteria and rubrics for supervisor selection.

The purpose of this study is to compare the implicit and Explicit curriculum in the personality development of junior high school students from the perspective of students. The research was applied in terms of purpose and survey in terms of method. The statistical population includes all female first year high school students in Bukan who are studying in the academic year 1399-1400. According to information received from the Buchan County Education Department, the total number of students is 1,620. In this part, multi-stage cluster random sampling method was used. In the first stage, from all the girls' schools of the first secondary school of Buchan city, 1 school was selected from each district in the north, south, east, west and center of the city, respectively, then two classes were randomly selected from each school (for one The questionnaire class role questionnaire on Explicit personality development questionnaire and for the other class the implicit curriculum role questionnaire on personality development questionnaire) and a total of 10 classes that were selected for approximately 28 to 30 people for each class, for a total of 300 (150 people in each group). Multivariate analysis of variance was used to analyze the data. The results showed that the implicit curriculum is more effective in the development of students' personality than the Explicit curriculum. The results also showed that the components of the obvious curriculum such as purpose, content, method and evaluation are effective on students 'personality development, among which the content component has the most effect and the goal has the least effect on students' personality development and finally That the components of the implicit curriculum such as the interaction of individuals, the organizational structure of the school, the social atmosphere of the school, and the physical structure of the school also affect the development of students' personality. Among these, the component of interaction between individuals has the most effect and the organizational structure of the school has the least effect on the development of students' personality.