حسین بخشی

This study aims at investigating the challenges of conducting qualitative research (QLR) from Iranian ELT (English Language Teaching) Ph.D. students’ and ELT faculty members’ viewpoints in the Iranian higher education context. The participants of the study consisted of 100 Ph.D. students majoring in ELT and 50 ELT faculty members. The study followed a mixed-methods approach with the exploratory design. The instruments utilized for collecting the data were a semi-structured interview and a researcher-made questionnaire. To analyze the qualitative data, a grounded theory approach was employed (Charmaz, 2006), and to analyze quantitative data, both descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized. The results of the study indicated that from the ELT Ph.D. students' perspectives, the Iranian educational system, professors, and lack of time, respectively, are factors affecting the possible weaknesses in undertaking QLR. While from the ELT faculty members' points of view, lack of time is the only reason for weaknesses in undertaking QLR. The results also demonstrated that from the viewpoint of ELT Ph.D. students, data interpretation, data analysis, data collection, data coding, and determining the validity of research, respectively, are the most challenging parts of conducting QLR. Moreover, from the perspective of ELT faculty members, data analysis, data collection, data interpretation, and data coding, respectively, are the most challenging parts of undertaking QLR. The implications of the present study for the universities in the context under investigation are discussed. At the end of the paper, some suggestions for further research are presented. 

Poor vocabulary retention is one of the major difficulties experienced by English as a foreign (second) language (EFL/ESL) students. To tackle this problem, the current study explored the impacts of the modified visual input and the modified oral input on the short-term and long-term vocabulary retention of Iranian EFL students and their perceptions regarding implementing these two types of input in their classes. The initial population consisted of 90 male and female students from Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch in Tehran, Iran. The convenience sampling method was implemented to select the participants. After administering the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), 60 students were chosen to serve as the participants, and they were randomly divided into two groups of 30 learners, namely the experimental groups A and B, which received instructions based on the modified visual input and the modified oral input, respectively. Later, the participants received ten 60-minute treatment sessions. Next, the learners' short-term vocabulary retention was assessed using the same vocabulary test as the posttest. One month later, the same test was given to students to check their long-term vocabulary retention as the delayed posttest. The results showed that the two types of input had significant impacts on the vocabulary short-term and long-term retention of the Iranian EFL students to varying degrees. Moreover, the qualitative findings indicated that the learners adopted a significantly positive view toward implementing oral and visual input modifications in their classes. In the end, the implications of the study are provided.

The development of knowledge and advancement in technology has created a wide-ranging transformation in societies and has led to changes in the per-formance of companies in order to respond to environmental turmoil and social expectations. In this way, they tried to gain a significant competitive advantage over other competitors. The purpose of this study was to investi-gate the moderating role of managerial fortification in relation to the impact of technology-based capabilities on the product market competition of knowledge-based companies in the capital market: a source-based capabili-ties (DEA). This research is applied in terms of purpose and in terms of data envelopment analysis is a quasi-experimental and post-event research in the field of positive accounting research. Then, based on multivariate regression, the research hypothesis was tested using Eviews software. The statistical population studied in this study consisted of knowledge-based companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during the years 2015 to 2019 and 79 companies were selected and reviewed based on systematic screening. The result of testing the research hypothesis is that the technological capabilities have a positive and significant effect on the product market competition of knowledge-based companies in the capital market. This result demonstrates that the resource-based technology capability based on the source-based capabilities is seen as a resource against stagnation in a competitive environ-ment and helps the company, to maintain flexibility in the face of environ-mental change in order to respond faster, at the same time to develop the company's competitive capacity to create new resources or new and innova-tive products, and to make the company's future more attractive to stake-holders with greater returns and potential risk control.