محمد محمدی

This paper presented two complex span tasks in Persian as measures of working memory capacity (WMC). Firstly, the construct of working memory (WM) and possible WM measures that could assess this construct efficiently were critically reviewed. Accordingly, as measures of domain-general components of WM, a reading span task and an operation span task which were documented to assess this construct efficiently were chosen and developed. Following this, the developed tasks were conducted on 151 teenage learners in a foreign language institute in West Azerbaijan Province. Then, the administration and scoring of the measures were described step by step. The tasks were validated against each other as well as against a digit span task which assessed the domain-specific aspect of WMC as well. The result showed a strong correlation between the reading span task and the operation span task, and a moderate correlation of either of the functions with the digit span task. Consequently, both of the developed span tasks can be valid indicators of WM capacity for Iranian individuals and can be used in a wide array of research domains in second language acquisition studies.

Background: Islamic ethics is a cultural and religious perspective that leads to meaning in the work and personal life of individuals and the need to study the relationship and its effect in our countrychr(chr('39')39chr('39'))s organizations is of great importance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of moderating Islamic ethics of employees on the relationship between meritocracy and individual consequences (perceived organizational justice, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior). Method: This study is an applied research and in terms of purpose and research method is a descriptive-correlation study. The statistical population of the study is the managers and experts of the selected executive bodies during the years 2015 to 2017. Due to the limited number of members of the statistical population, the census method was used and 386 were selected as the sample by the available sampling method. The research tool was a standard questionnaire and for statistical analysis of data, structural equation test and partial least squares method were used. Results: The results of this study showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between organizational competence and individual outcomes. Also, the moderating effect of employeeschr(chr('39')39chr('39')) Islamic ethics on the relationship between organizational competence and organizational justice has been understood and organizational commitment has been confirmed. Conclusion: Due to the obligation of commitment, organizational citizenship behavior and more perceived organizational justice, it is important to pay attention to attracting worthy individuals and employees who have Islamic moral values.Background: Islamic ethics is a cultural and religious perspective that leads to meaning in the work and personal life of individuals and the need to study the relationship and its effect in our countrychr(chr('39')39chr('39'))s organizations is of great importance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of moderating Islamic ethics of employees on the relationship between meritocracy and individual consequences (perceived organizational justice, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior). Method: This study is an applied research and in terms of purpose and research method is a descriptive-correlation study. The statistical population of the study is the managers and experts of the selected executive bodies during the years 2015 to 2017. Due to the limited number of members of the statistical population, the census method was used and 386 were selected as the sample by the available sampling method. The research tool was a standard questionnaire and for statistical analysis of data, structural equation test and partial least squares method were used. Results: The results of this study showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between organizational competence and individual outcomes. Also, the moderating effect of employeeschr(chr('39')39chr('39')) Islamic ethics on the relationship between organizational competence and organizational justice has been understood and organizational commitment has been confirmed. Conclusion: Due to the obligation of commitment, organizational citizenship behavior and more perceived organizational justice, it is important to pay attention to attracting worthy individuals and employees who have Islamic moral values.

Recent research has shown that academic writing is not ‘author-evacuated’ but, rather, carries a representation of the writers’ identity. One way through which writers project their identity in academic writing is stance-taking toward propositions advanced in the text. Appropriate stance-taking has proved to be challenging for novice writers of Research Articles (RAs), especially those writing in a foreign language. To contribute to the literature on stance-taking, the present study compared the move-based use of evaluative resources in the introduction section of L1 (written by native English speakers) and L2 (written by Iranian, non-native writers) English RAs in the discipline of Applied Linguistics. To this end, 100 English Research Article Introductions (RAIs), 50 by L1 writers and 50 by L2 writers, were investigated as the corpus of the study. Categories of analysis were taken from Appraisal framework (Martine & White, 2005) and CARS model (Swales, 2004). The results revealed that the two groups of texts were not substantially different in the overall use of appraisal resources in the whole body of RAIs. However, more detailed analyses of the specific categories of appraisal in each of the rhetorical moves demonstrated that in some cases, especially in moves 1 and 3, L1 and L2 writers made different choices when taking a stance. The findings of this study can serve as a valuable source providing a practical and comprehensive understanding of the use of evaluative resources in RAIs for EAP researchers, teachers, and other professionals involved in the teaching of academic writing.

It is by now well established that materials may have an impact beyond simply learning a language they present. Hence, in this study attempts have been made to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of a textbook Summit 2B which is currently being widely used in Iranian EFL classes. The textbook has been evaluated based on criteria provided by McDonough and Shaw (1993) on the basis of two stages: an external and an internal evaluation. Efforts have been made to critically evaluate the textbook in terms of the layout, grading and sequencing of assignments, design, content, different activities, sort of texts utilized, and the skills emphasized in the book. The findings showed that albeit there appears to be some shortcomings, Summit 2B seems to be more efficient to meet the requirements of EFL learners as compared with the other textbooks which have hitherto been used at different language classes. Accordingly, investigating and evaluating the book proved to be very lucrative and valuable in terms of pedagogy as well as the efficient attributes that suits the context of the present study. Finally, the implications as regards the efficiency of this particular course book as the consequence of evaluating it have been put forward and the strengths and weaknesses related to it have been argued.