درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The present study investigated the impact of learning styles on EFL learners’ reading comprehension skills improvement and self-efficacy perceptions. To this end, 60 intermediate male/female EFL learners at Pasargad Language Center in Langarud, Iran with the age range from 14 to 20 were selected based on the results of Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency. Next, they were randomly divided into two groups of 30. Then, the participants in both groups sat for a pretest of the English reading comprehension test, and answered the English proficiency background form, self-efficacy scale, and Maggie McVay Lynch learning style inventory. Next, the experimental group received learning-style-based activities, while the control group continued to work in the traditional way, with no regard for learning styles. Finally, the English reading comprehension test and self-efficacy scale were administered to both groups as posttests. The results of the study revealed that students’ learning style preferences have significant effects on their reading comprehension skills and English self-efficacy perceptions. The results also indicated that there is a statistically significant difference in the post-test scores between the control and experimental groups. That is, the experimental group performed better than the control group in the post-test of reading comprehension skills and English self-efficacy perceptions, and the progress in the experimental group was more than the control group. The findings of the present study can encourage teachers to use learning style preferences in English language teaching to help EFL learners increase their level of reading comprehension skills and self-efficacy perceptions.

With the incremental integration of technology in writing assessment, technology-generated feedback has found its way to take further steps toward replacing human correcting and rating. Yet, further investigation is deemed necessary regarding its potential use either as a supplement to or replacement for human feedback. This embedded mixed-method research aims to investigate three groups of Iranian intermediate IELTS applicants who received automated, teacher, and blended (automated + teacher) feedback modes on different aspects of writing when practicing for the writing skill of IELTS. Furthermore, a structured written interview was conducted to explore learners’ perception (attitude, clarity, preference) of the mode of feedback they received. Findings revealed that students who received teacher-only and blended feedback performed better in writing. Also, the blended feedback group outperformed the others regarding task response, the teacher feedback group in cohesion and coherence, and the automated feedback group in lexical resource. The analysis of the interviews revealed that learners had high opinion regarding the clarity of all feedback modes and learners’ attitude about feedback modes were positive. However, they highly preferred the blended one. The findings suggest new ideas that can facilitate learning and assessing writing and recommend that teachers provide comprehensive, accurate, and continuous feedback as a means of formative assessment.

In a world with globalization and communication development as its main features, arriving at a common understanding and correct transition of meaning is an unavoidable necessity. Here the responsibility and duty of the people who hold the task of translation is of great importance and one of the issues that should be considered in translation is using euphemism. The current research seeks to find the relationship between translators’ gender, education, and age and their use of euphemisms in translation. The study consists of four hypotheses, this is descriptive research and a questionnaire is used to find the relationship between translators’ gender, education, age, and their use of euphemisms in translation. It has been distributed among the research population which consists of translators who are members of the Iran Translation Association. The results show that euphemism exists at a suitable level in the translation of the translators who are members of the Iran Translation Association. Moreover, the translators’ gender affects their use of euphemisms in translation. There is a direct relationship between translators’ age and their use of euphemisms in translation. Finally, the translators’ level of education does not influence their use of euphemisms in translation.

The teaching and learning of grammar have continuously been core areas of discussion among practitioners of TEFL. Despite significant investment in creating optimal conditions for grammar learning, it remains essential to explore innovative instructional methods that enable learners to engage meaningfully with grammatical structures, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of grammar acquisition. Learners may reconstruct various grammatical structures by interpreting grammar from their textbooks while drawing upon their own experiences, resources, and events from life. This is called a learning-oriented approach that involves hypothesis testing and conceptualization that, in turn, incubates awareness of one's limitations and needs. This study investigates whether the remodeling method of grammar instruction, where learners reconstruct grammatical structures based on personal experiences, significantly enhances Iranian EFL learners' grammatical and vocabulary proficiency. The research employed an experimental research design where a pretest was administered, and a posttest was administered. The study involved forty high school EFL students aged 15 to 16 from Imam Khomeini Technical High School in Shahreza, situated in the southern part of Isfahan province in Iran. While the performance of learners in the experimental group subjected to remodeling method interventions was obtained, their control group, which was not subjected to such intervention, was measured for comparison. The findings revealed that the experimental group recorded a higher improvement in grammatical knowledge due to the remodeling approach. Furthermore, the results indicated that engaging in the remodeling of various structures allowed learners to communicate more effectively in oral interactions and to enhance their understanding of grammar and vocabulary. Statistically significant differences were observed between the experimental and control groups. This study underscores the value of incorporating the strategy of having students remodel various structures based on their concepts in English language instruction to foster greater proficiency in the language. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends utilizing, activating, and implementing this strategy on the other skills of the English language.

Using Critical Digital Pedagogy (CDP) acknowledges the recent advancements in technology in the field of education. As teachers should effectively deal with the needs of students with the help of educational technologies to increase their critical awareness, the level of digital literacy of Iranian teachers is not desirable and naturally teacher training in Iran should be in line with the latest changes in the world, this qualitative study aimed to find out how ELT experts perceive the CP technology-based EFL teacher preparation program in the Iranian context as part of a basic interpretative project. Thirty ELT experts with a Ph.D. in TEFL were selected through convenience sampling among experienced university professors who had relevant research expertise in the field. Consulting the related literature, the researcher developed a semi-structured interview in approximately three open-ended questions. The results analyzed by MAXQDA showed that perceptions of ELT experts were consistent with CP assumptions and the use of technology in education. The interpretation of the findings indicates a reconciliation between CP principles and technology. Participants perceived the valuable concepts of CP in light of technology used to shape a technology-based CP curriculum. Findings have implications for EFL teacher education administrators, curriculum planners, and educators. 

Much of the research on the comprehension of passive sentences has targeted healthy adults, L1 acquirers and people with aphasia. However, a topic that lacks evidence is the comprehension challenges of EFL learners facing different passive structure types. Consequently, this study investigated the comprehension difficulty of different passive structures by 186 intermediate EFL learners. The participants’ task was to read a sentence and choose a corresponding answer in a multiple-choice format via a software application designed for this study. The answers were analyzed in terms of the comprehension accuracy and the reaction time. Compared with the passive sentences, the participants needed less time comprehending active sentences and had a higher success rate. The results suggested that different passive verb types (i.e., regular/irregular, action/state, double-object/single-object, negative/affirmative, and question/statement) imposed different degrees of comprehension challenge to EFL learners; passives with regular verbs (PR) were the least challenging and passives with double-object verbs (PDO) were the most demanding structures. It was also revealed that the participants’ comprehension of different passive structures was significantly different based on their reaction times. The study’s findings may be of insight for EFL instructors and material developers to possibly invest more time for the more challenging passive structures.

This paper aimsto reveal how the universals of translation (henceforth, UsT) can beregarded as a manner to examine the translator'sstyle in the TL. In doing so, this paper examines how Saleh Hosseini, as an Iranian literary translator,  made his style through the changes he completed at each micro-and macro-levels shift to result in his discursive presence and/or style in the novels he has translated into Persian. After having reviewed the main theories on shifts  including Nida, Catford, Leuven-Zwart, and Baker, this paper takes Baker’s definition of style as the translator’s ‘thumbprint’ as a way to approach the UsT in Hosseini’s Persian translations. Having occurred with the translated texts than with the original, the UsT are: ‘explicitation’, ‘normalization’, ‘levelling out’, and ‘simplification’ (Baker, 1996). Having selected 44 sentences from the three translated novels into Persian by Hosseini as a corpus, this paper indicates that the ratio of ‘normalization’ is much higher than the other three universals, meaning that Hosseini, through adhering to the norms of the Persian language, came to this universal as one of the signposts of his discursive presence, voice, and style in his translations.