materials

This study aimed at providing learners with an opportunity not only to bring together their core and disciplinary knowledge to acquire major skills of learning English as a foreign language (EFL), and the intellectual challenge of these issues at the interface of media, language and religion, but also help the materials generators to produce suitable types of content to be delivered through the medium of mobile technology. Therefore, it sought to examine the new way of teaching EFL in the form of correspondence with respect to Iranian learners' native culture and language. For the purposes of this study, English was the target language for 680 Iranian students with pre-intermediate level of language proficiency whose native languages were Persian, Arabic, Georgian, and Turkish. This study took as its point of departure the existence of important differences between the two learning materials (off the shelf vs. Islamic culture) types; thus, applying the Qur'ānic criteria of intelligence, knowledge and virtue parallel with the digital representation of common textbook materials, materials delivery was adapted to the cellphone screen to be accessed by learners' in 18 virtual sessions. Learners took part in two summative and 18 formative components included in the assessment design of this study. Also, they all answered a questionnaire which yielded information concerning their attitude towards the target language, and learning through the wireless technology. Learners' short texting correspondence as well as their performance in battery and their answers to items of questionnaires formed the reference for analyzing the results. The gains from English Islamic materials were outweighed by the effects of obtaining materials which involved more categorized cases.

: The purpose of the current attitudinal study is to investigate the attitudes and opinions of language teachers toward the implemented ELT program resulted from the Fundamental Reform Document of Education in the Iranian Ministry of Education. Three items were investigated: Teacher’s Practice, Teacher Training Courses, and Materials. Following the rigorous and systematic procedure, the quantitative approach was applied and the 5-Likert scale with 30 items was used so as to determine the issues mentioned before. First the items were extracted based on the FRDOE and, thereafter, the primary questionnaire was developed and after ensuring of its validity and reliability the final version was obtained. Then, after ensuring its practicality, the questionnaire was distributed among 240 language teachers. The results showed that the ELT based on the new program had inconsistency in a number of respects with policies approved by the policy-makers. The findings showed that the lack of agency of the language teachers is the main reason for the failure of the new program and it is recommended that language teachers’ contribution should be taken into account before-, while- and after administrating and implementing the new program in ELT program in the future.

Constructed upon a height (by footing) or breaking in to the ground, in a building, making a close relation between earth and soil is of great importance. In addition, earth as a prior factor in creation of a shade and residence, plays a crucial role in architecture history. Throughout the different area, earth is paid attention differently: as a source of cool (in China), a source of heat (Cappadocia, Turkey), and conversely as an offensive source in Amazon forests. In hot-arid climates, proximity to earth is useful to apply the heat in the buildings. Present study aims to investigate the mentioned factor in Dastkand village located at Kerman province. Mountainous moderate climate, cold and icy winters and moderate summers is of the considerable properties of the studied area. The maximum and minimum temperature was recorded, 42 and -18° C during summer and winter, respectively. Hence, in addition to cultural as well as economic factors, temperature fluctuation played a key role in breaking the buildings in to the ground. So, this study assists to investigate the studied area within natural bed, in plan and section. On this basis, technical methods of earth profiting throughout the studied area have been investigated, in order to profit earth in modern architecture. Results showed a harmony between dominant winds and buildings in winter and summer. Moreover, profiting from high sun shining with special architecture is of Meymand village characteristic. Using breaking in to the ground technique, 26.57 % decrease occurred in cooling need, annually. On the other hand, Day-Degree heating need has reduced to approximately 13.65 % annually solely by earth profiting technique. Overall, results demonstrate a harmony between applied technique and the studied region climate. Besides, there reported a proper isotropy between temperature fluctuation and air aridity throughout the region.

The present study intended to design some materials based on the guidelines of González Davies (2004) for ‘legal texts and correspondence translation’ course of graduate students majoring in translation studies. To this end, first a checklist on the basis of Gentry and Gable's (2001) model was designed to find out the participants’ perceptions of the tasks. Next, the researchers designed related tasks based on Gonzales Davies’ (2004) guidelines inspired by Kiraly’s (2000) constructivist approach. In the third phase, the participants were given the designed tasks published in a book during10-12 sessions. Finally, the researchers held a semi-structured interview with the participants to find out their perceptions towards classroom activities as well as their translation ability. The results indicate that the participants had positive perceptions regarding the designed tasks. The findings have implications for translation classroom courses.