Iranian students

Given that L2 engagement serves a vital role in students’ academic success, studying the predictors of this construct seems critical. Notwithstanding, factors influencing one’s engagement in an L2 context have remained unclear. To respond to this gap, the present research sought to unravel the effects of teacher support and teacher-student rapport on Iranian EFL students’ L2 engagement. To this aim, 216 Iranian students majoring in Applied Linguistics, Linguistics, English Translation, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, or English Literature were invited to cooperate in this investigation. To obtain the required data, three pre-designed scales were virtually distributed among the respondents. Then, through correlation tests, the association between teacher support, teacher-student rapport, and student L2 engagement was measured. Following that, the impact of teacher support and teacher-student rapport on Iranian students’ L2 engagement was assessed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The correlational analysis uncovered a strong, favorable association between constructs. The SEM analysis also indicated that teacher support and teacher-student rapport can strongly influence Iranian students’ engagement in EFL classes. The implications of the results are further discussed.

Online binge-watching is a common practice nowadays. It is defined as watching multiple episodes in one sitting. It may seem a new phenomenon, but the same mechanism happened to the Persian King and kept him listening to Scheherazade's stories for 1001 nights, which made him forgot about killing young virgin girls and also delayed his bedtime. This study aims to investigate the relationships between these variables in Iranian college students in Ghazvin with a sample of 133 people between the ages of 19 and 25 using brief self-control scale (BSCS), bedtime procrastination scale (BPS), and binge-watching addiction questionnaire (BWAQ). The research indicates that there is a notable negative correlation between online binge-watching and self-control (r = -.443, p < .001). Also, a negative relationship between self-control and bedtime procrastination was found (r = -.360, p < .001). Further, a positive correlation between online binge-watching and bedtime procrastination was detected (r = .307, p < .001). The problematic binge-watching can be identified by the motives and cognitive processes underlying this phenomenon, such as narrative transportation. Ways to prevent mental illness caused by them and future research paths are discussed.

The incentive behind conducting the present study was initially ignited by the curiosity to examine the extent of Iranian EFL teachers’ familiarity with the concept of “critical literacy”. This qualitative contribution was carried out in two phases. In the first phase, an open questionnaire was developed and compiled after reviewing the literature, analysing existing questionnaires and gathering feedback from academics in the field. Qualitative data was then collected from 29 EFL teachers and analysed using an open questionnaire followed by an interview. The obtained data allowed the development of 23 questions for the interview part, which was accompanied by observing the online courses of all teachers by the researchers throughout the semester. It was concluded that the participants displayed very low levels of knowledge of Critical Literacy along with little, if any, application or incorporation of it. These findings may assist stakeholders in education, including second/foreign language (L2) policy makers, teacher educators, teacher recruitment institutes and material developers. They need to take appropriate action to enhance the critical literacy of L2 teachers before and during employment, thus promoting the implementation of this key concept in the pedagogical context of the process.