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Critical Pedagogy (CP) is a prerequisite for a democratic society where pedagogy empowers teachers and learners to be both socially reasonable and knowledgeable. It is a novel and rather minimally investigated motif, being rarely noticed in the Iranian educational system. Recognizing the importance of fostering critical thinking and active engagement within educational settings, the current study intended to investigate perspectives on critical pedagogy among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers with different academic degrees and language backgrounds. Following a qualitative research design, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 18 EFL teachers to provide information on their perspective of CP to identify the challenges against CP awareness and solutions towards a balanced CP. Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) as a thematic analysis approach was followed for the purpose of qualitative data analysis. The results showed that although teachers were aware of the importance of critical pedagogy, they did not have the freedom to put it into practice. The findings yield implications for teachers, students, and educational systems, highlighting the need for greater emphasis on CP in the Iranian context.

This study was conducted to examine the comments provided by ChatGPT 3.5 and doctoral students on doctoral dissertation proposals. Feedback receivers’ behavioral engagement with these two feedback types was also examined. The participants of this study, selected based on convenience sampling, were 28 Teaching English as a Foreign Language PhD students from three provinces who wrote their dissertation proposals in English. The first version and revised versions of their proposals and the provided comments were analyzed to identify the feedback types and the extent they applied the comments. Furthermore, stimulated recall interviews were used to identify the reasons why they did not apply some of the participants. Findings showed that both ChatGPT 3.5 and doctoral students were successful in providing both content-related and form-related comments. These two feedback sources also provided significant numbers of elaborated and justified feedback on dissertation proposals. Feedback receivers applied most of the comments provided by these feedback sources, and the specificity levels of comments affected the incorporation rate. The findings of the thematic analysis of the stimulated recall interview data revealed that the participants did not apply the comments because they were too broad, inaccurate, difficult to apply, and difficult to understand.

In the present essay, the researchers aim at studying two famous novels "The Crossing" and "The Road" in the light of Deleuzian geocritical concepts such as: nomad, rhizome, smooth space, and war machine. Studying space and place in American literature is a new trend. Space and landscape, considered as smooth space and striated space in Deleuze and Guattari's nomadology, are significantly highlighted in American literature. By drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's view of rhizome, which does not follow any plans or structures, the novel can be regarded as a rhizomatic structure in which the characters with nomadic existence move freely in a smooth space- a space without an explicit beginning and a clear destination. Portraying American space and landscape is a dominant theme in Cormac McCarthy's novels, including "The Crossing" and "The Road", in which the characters move from a rooted life to a nomadic life. Through examining these two novels, this paper is going to investigate the movement of nomadic characters in the smooth space of the postmodern world. Moreover, through exploring the relationship between literature, space, and identity, drawing on the philosophical ideas of Deleuz and Guatari, this paper is going to expose in what extent the representation of spaces in literature can reflect and shape cultural and national identities.

This research study aims to investigate the motivation behind Iranian EFL learners' desire to learn English, with a specific focus on the political and socio-economic factors that influence them. The study takes into account the changing political and social landscape in Iran, which has been shaped by globalization and advancements in information and communication technology (ICT). In order to gain a deeper understanding of the driving forces behind Iranian EFL learners' English language acquisition, the researcher conducted interviews with thirty participants who had been studying English for approximately 3 to 6 years. The interviews were transcribed and the data was then analyzed using a systematic approach, including open, axial, and selective coding. The resulting model identified seven factors and twenty-seven categories that contribute to language motivation. These seven factors were a) The government’s foreign and economic policy, b) Transfer of religious and national ideology and patriotism, c) Academic and occupational aspirations, d) Improving social life, e) Fear of failure, f) International posture, and g) IT advancements. This model can serve as a valuable resource for informing future educational policies and curriculum development in Iran.

Kurmanji uses two morphological forms of pronouns and R-expressions: direct and oblique. The direct form of first and second pronouns (local pronouns) is fully specified for person and number. In contrast, direct third-person pronouns and R-expressions are unmarked; however, these arguments still exhibit person and number agreement with verbs and number and gender agreement with Ezafe heads. There are two approaches to deal with direct unmarked arguments. In the asymmetric approach, these arguments are assumed to be fully specified for relevant φ-features, which are deleted at PF (Phonological Form) after agreement, whereas in the symmetric approach, they are merged as underspecified for relevant features and acquire their interpretation via agreement. Given the prevalence of unmarked arguments in Kurmanji, the symmetric approach is more economical and minimalistic, requiring fewer theoretical tools and computations. The present study shows that the key distinction between local pronouns and unmarked arguments lies in the specification of relevant φ-features. Direct unmarked arguments enter the derivation underspecified for these features, establishing a relation of ‘subset control’ in agreement and acquiring their interpretation by spreading features from the agreeing head at the LF (Logical Form) interface. This study also reveals that agreement in Ezafe constructions and pro-drop sentences also involve subset control and agreement is the only possible way to license φ-features, such as gender in inanimate arguments and person in R-expressions.

This study examined the impacts of providing regulatory focus feedback (RFF) in the forms of prevention and promotion as well as reference of comparison feedback (RCF) in the forms of normative and self-referential on EFL learners’ speaking complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) in online speaking courses. For this purpose, 100 intermediate EFL learners in a language institute were randomly assigned into four experimental groups and one control group (N=20). Language learners were required to respond to two speaking tasks from the IELTS exam before and after receiving 16 sessions of the intervention. The data were subjected to ANCOVA analysis and paired samples comparisons. The results showed that the participants’ speaking performance was better in all four experimental groups compared to the control group. Moreover, the superiority of self-referential feedback in improving the participants’ oral production ability over normative feedback was demonstrated. Prevention-focused feedback was shown to be influential in improving accuracy. Finally, practical implications for how EFL teachers can enhance language learners’ oral production ability are discussed.

Stance has been examined extensively in the past few decades. However, the majority of the studies have been synchronic, with the few exceptions being snapshot diachronic studies without trend-related inferential statistics. This study adopted a trend-related inferential statistical measure and a more continuous diachronic dataset to examine the changes in using stance in the research articles of English applied linguistics from 2000 to 2020. To this end, 416 articles were randomly selected from 10 applied linguistics journals indexed in the first quartile of Scopus and probed using LancsBox for normalized frequency of Hyland’s (2005b) list of stance markers. Results were then analyzed for trends using the Jonckheere-Terpstra test. The results showed significant decreases for the overall stance markers (J=37168, z= -2.85, d= -.28, p= .004)), hedges (J=37014, z= -2.96, d= -.293, p=0.003), boosters (J=36298, z= -3.47, d= -.345, p=.001), and attitude markers (J=36647, z= -3.22, d= -.32, p=0.001), while self-mention markers were found to have experienced a slight, non-significant increase (J=42527.5, z= .94, d= .096, p=0.349). The functional analysis of the selected excerpts showed that the quantitative decrease in the use of stance markers has been compensated for, with an increase in the modification range and strength of the used stance markers as the two ways we could discover. After discussing the findings, the paper ends with some suggestions for further research. 

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of learner autonomy; however, the roles of teachers and language materials in fostering in have not received due attention. This mixed methods study investigated the association between what Iranian teachers perceived of LA and what they thought about the role of textbooks in fostering EFL learners’ LA, and to what extent they believed the principles of LA in their classrooms. The participating teachers were 200 male and female teachers that taught Iranian tenth-grade EFL textbook in senior high schools of Qom, Arak, and Karaj. The first instrument was a questionnaire developed by Borg and Al-Busaidi (2012), which primarily focused on the teachers’ perspectives and opinions about LA. The second questionnaire was used to investigate how Iranian EFL teachers think the EFL textbook Vision 1 helps foster LA. The questionnaire was developed based on the LA principles (Fenner & Newby, 2000). The last instrument was an interview protocol that was developed by the researcher to gain a deeper understanding of teachers’ promoting LA in their teaching. The interview protocol also was based on Fenner and Newbys’ (2000) principles. For this study, the questionnaire data were collected through two questionnaires. Moreover, an interview protocol was used to gather qualitative data from 12 teachers, who participated in the interviews (i.e., 2 face-to-face and 10 online interviews). The result of the bivariate correlation test showed that there was a significant relationship between teachers’ perception of learner autonomy and their opinions about the LA-fostering role of the Iranian 10th-grade EFL textbook. The results of the interview analysis showed that the principles of learner autonomy were largely approved of by the interviewees. The study has some implications for textbook developers, teachers trainers, and teachers.

Nowadays, teachers are expected to demonstrate a notable level of digital competence. Therefore, the current study investigated Iranian male and female pre-service and in-service EFL teachers’ digital competence. The study employed a mixed methods approach and three instruments including a questionnaire, structured interviews, and observations were utilized. Therefore, 157 Iranian in-service EFL teachers completed the DIGIGLO questionnaire. Also, 15 in-service and 15 pre-service EFL teachers participated in structured interviews. Moreover, 30 classes were observed. To analyze the qualitative data, thematic analysis was used and in the phase of quantitative analysis, descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests were used. The results indicated that the level of Iranian in-service EFL teachers’ digital competence was moderate to high. In addition, some similarities and differences could be seen in the interview questions between in-service and pre-service EFL teachers. Moreover, it was revealed that there were no significant differences between male and female in-service EFL teachers’ digital competence. Furthermore, it was found that a majority of teachers incorporated digital technologies into their teaching practice. The results of this study can help curriculum developers and teacher educators realize a better conception of Iranian pre-service and in-service EFL teachers’ digital competence and their practices of using digital tools.