درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Among the many applications for enhancing pronunciation skills, the ELSA (English Language Speech Assistant) application is one that shows how to improve students’ pronunciation effectively. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of the ELSA application on learners’ pronunciation skills and their attitudes toward its use. A quasi-experimental design was employed with 50 EFL learners divided into experimental and control groups. First, a placement test was conducted to assign learners to appropriate levels. Then, the pretest was administered to both the experimental and control groups. The experimental group received the treatment and practiced pronunciation with the ELSA application, while the control group practiced pronunciation using traditional pronunciation exercises. At the end of the course, a post-test was administered to both groups. Both groups were evaluated through interactive tasks in the oral performance pretest and posttest. The results indicated a significant difference between two groups after using the application. Additionally, a validated questionnaire administered showed they had positive attitudes toward the application. The findings suggest that ELSA can improve EFL learners’ pronunciation skills. Therefore, it can be beneficial for course designers and teachers to enhance learners’ pronunciation in an engaging environment.

Understanding and producing relative clauses (RCs) presents significant challenges for second language learners, particularly when L1 and L2 relativization strategies differ. This study investigated the effect of Persian (L1) on resumptive pronoun (RP) usage in English RCs by Iranian EFL learners (N = 90 English Literature and Translation Studies majors), examining the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy Hypothesis (NPAHH). The study had two primary objectives. First, we hypothesized that lower-proficiency learners would demonstrate more negative transfer. Participants were categorized into high- and low-proficiency groups using the Oxford Placement Test. Results revealed significant between-group performance differences, though error patterns based on the RC head's grammatical function were similar across groups. Both groups showed highest accuracy for object-function RCs, suggesting strong L1 influence. Second, testing the NPAHH revealed that learners (regardless of proficiency) exhibited lowest error rates for object-position RCs, followed by subject, complement, and genitive positions. This pattern partially aligns with but does not exactly match the NPAHH's predicted difficulty hierarchy (subject > object > complement > genitive). The findings highlight how L1 transfer interacts with universal accessibility constraints in RC acquisition.

Although Sociocultural Theory (SCT) was introduced to English Language Teaching (ELT) almost three decades ago, it has not yet started to find its way into the epistemological and practical aspects of English Language Teacher Education (LTE) programs in Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) language institutions context. Not having met the needs of English teachers, teacher educators, and academic and non-academic teaching programs and feeling a pressing need for innovative approaches in language teacher education, the time is ripe for LTE programs to present a curriculum that is globally driven and locally appropriate. To this end, this paper aimed to develop a sociocultural language teacher education (SLTE) curriculum model as an alternative to the LTE programs in the Iranian EFL context. The researchers applied Vygotskian principles and extensions of SCT pedagogy to construct a curriculum model that draws on Graves’ framework of LTE curriculum design and Richards’ model of teacher education that collectively incorporate different aspects, namely context analysis, needs analysis, approach, content, process, teacher educator’s roles, student teachers’ roles, and program evaluation. To present an  innovative LTE program, the researchers extracted and put together the tenets, extensions, and categories of SCT comprehensively and presented them through a complementary curriculum model that is a combination of Graves’ framework and Richards’ model of teacher education. This tentative but dynamic curriculum model might help teachers, teacher educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders to reconceptualize and restructure their mentalities and use the findings when designing small-scale and large-scale LTE programs.

Given the cognitive demands of consecutive interpreting and the psychological pressures faced by novice interpreters, the present quantitative study aims to identify the most frequently occurring disfluencies in the output of English-Persian interpreter trainees and to explore how interpreting anxiety influences different types of disfluencies. A total of 23 translation trainee students were selected based on convenience sampling. Data were gathered through the Interpreting Classroom Anxiety Scale and a CI exam. After classifying the disfluencies =, it was revealed that hesitation, silent pauses, and prolongation are the predominant disfluency features. These types of disfluencies indicate cognitive overload and failures in language planning. Statistical analyses showed a significant correlation between high levels of anxiety and an increased frequency of these disfluencies; however, no meaningful relationship was found between interpreting anxiety and disfluency in general. This suggests that anxiety adversely affects fluency and overall interpreting performance. This study highlights the critical role of psychological factors, particularly anxiety, in interpreter performance and training. The findings call for the inclusion of anxiety-reduction techniques in interpreter education and suggest future research on experience-based disfluency patterns and Persian-specific disfluency classification.

In spite of numerous studies on the effect of AIAT on foreign language learning, few have examined its impact on university students’ academic writing proficiency over an extended period. This study, therefore, investigated the effect of Google Translate (GT) on the writing proficiency of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students. It examined fluency, lexical density, accuracy, and syntactic complexity across four versions of students’ writings: the pretest, writing with the aid of GT, the posttest, and a retention test conducted two to four months after the treatment. The findings indicated that syntactic complexity, accuracy, and fluency improved when students used GT for writing; however, these measures showed a significant decline in the posttest and retention test without GT. This decrease was more pronounced in lexical density and less so in syntactic complexity. Despite this decline, all factors assessed in the retention test still showed improvement compared to the pretest, indicating the positive effect of GT on students’ foreign language writing performance.

The concepts of work-related satisfaction, happiness, and burnout have received increasing attention in psychological research. As the field of translation studies is interdisciplinary, it has consistently drawn inspiration from various fields in the humanities, including psychology. Since sworn translators play a crucial role in translation communities, the present article aimed to look into job-related satisfaction, happiness, and burnout utilizing a qualitative interview-based approach and Iranian sworn translators as participants. The findings revealed that sworn translations involved challenges and occasionally unpleasant aspects; nonetheless, the majority of participants reported feeling satisfaction and happiness in terms of the job in general, the translation process, and their income. Furthermore, this profession has led several participants to experience fatigue, stress, nervousness, sleep disturbances, and indigestion, but the most frequent manifestations of burnout are mental exhaustion and pain in the neck, arms, hands, and eyes. These findings can be helpful for sworn translators and policymakers seeking solutions or preventing negative consequences.

Abstract The present study developed a model of L2 speaking proficiency investigating how lexical sophistication, lexical diversity, syntactic sophistication, syntactic complexity, and cohesion are associated with holistic scores of L2 speaking proficiency employing structural equation modeling (SEM). A corpus of 419 monologues delivered by Iranian EFL learners was compiled and rated to develop the model. Based on the overall scores, the corpus was divided into independent (B1 and B2) and proficient (C1 and C2) users. The results of SEM analysis revealed that the developed L2 speaking proficiency model had an acceptable fit, with partial generalizability across independent and proficient users. Structural regression analysis showed that lexical diversity, lexical sophistication, syntactic sophistication, cohesion, and the indirect effect of syntactic complexity through lexical sophistication explained 34% of the variance in L2 speaking proficiency in descending order of importance. However, their relative importance changed depending on proficiency level. Based on the results, while lexical, syntactic, and cohesive features are sound predictors of L2 speaking proficiency, they function differently across proficiency groups. These findings offer valuable insights for improving speaking proficiency assessment by showing that lexical sophistication, lexical diversity, syntactic sophistication, syntactic complexity, and cohesion do not contribute equally to overall L2 speaking proficiency, and their order of importance varies across proficiency levels. Therefore, prioritizing indicators of L2 speaking proficiency in assessment frameworks based on their importance in each proficiency level can add to the validity and reliability of speaking assessments.

This study aims to investigate how humorous language and content are rendered in audiovisual translation. Focusing on the animated film Minions , the study compares two Persian dubbed versions produced by Kaszadeh (2015) and Khajavi (2015). The entire film was analyzed, and humorous instances were identified and compared with their Persian equivalents to examine the translation strategies employed. The findings reveal notable differences between the two translations. Kaszadeh predominantly relies on free translation, while Khajavi more frequently employs cultural equivalence. Furthermore, Khajavi’s version demonstrates a higher degree of fluency, suggesting a more effective transfer of cultural nuances and contextual references into Persian. These results underscore the impact of translation strategy choice on the naturalness and reception of humor in dubbed animated films.

Writing assessments in the EFL context today have put a great concern on language acquisition and proficiency testing. However, diverse techniques and practices require a comprehensive synthesis to better understand trends, gaps, and best practices. This study reviews and synthesizes prior research on writing assessments in EFL contexts. It examines the dominant assessment approaches, their effectiveness, and their impact on EFL learners' writing skills holistically. The study employs a meta-synthesis approach. Fifty journal articles indexed by Scopus, ERIC, Crossref, Google Scholar, DOAJ, Copernicus, and other indexing databases between 2018 and 2024 were selected as the data to review in this study. The data selection was conducted to ensure the relevance and quality of the literature reviewed. The results include a variety of assessment practices such as teacher feedback, self-assessment, peer-assessment, blended or collaborative assessment, automated writing evaluation (AWE), and artificial intelligence in EFL writing settings. The study also concludes that, despite the diversity and complexity of writing assessments in EFL contexts, there is a strong need for more standardized and contextually valid assessment practices. Effective assessments align with instructional goals and offer meaningful feedback that supports student learning. The study recommends developing comprehensive assessment frameworks tailored to specific EFL contexts, providing more training for educators in assessment literacy, and conducting further research into the long-term impact of various assessment practices on the writing development of EFL learners.

Impoliteness has become a crucial aspect of digital communication, particularly on social media platforms such as Instagram. Despite the vast expansion of online discourse, research on gender-based differences in impoliteness strategies remains limited, especially in the context of English comments on Instagram’s broadcast pages. This study fills this gap by examining the impoliteness strategies employed by female and male’ Instagram users.  For doing this study, a corpus of 520 comments (17,850 words) posted by 256 female and 264 male users on CNN, BBC, Fox News, and The New York Times Instagram pages between 2022 and 2025 based on Culpeper’s (2011) five impoliteness strategies was analyzed. After coding and analyzing comments, a Chi-square test was conducted to determine the significance of gender differences. Results indicated that the bald-on-record strategy was the most frequently used strategy (29.9%), and withholding politeness was the least frequent (11.81%). The results of this study also revealed that, although females exhibited a slightly higher usage of negative impoliteness strategy (19.90%) than males (18.79%), the overall gender differences in the employment of impoliteness strategies were not statistically significant. These findings showed that impoliteness on Instagram is influenced more by platform norms than by gender differences. The study highlights the importance of understanding impoliteness in online discourse for language instructors, online communicators, and digital content developers. For future studies, researchers can explore nonverbal cues, cultural differences, and the evolving nature of impoliteness strategies across multiple social media platforms to gain a more comprehensive understanding of gender and online discourse.

Effective feedback has a pivotal role in translator education. However, its implementation has remained unclear as the nature of translation tasks is multidimensional. Thus, this article proposes a framework, which is grounded in the seven principles of good feedback practice identified by Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006), to integrate high-quality feedback into translation classrooms. The seven principles emphasize clarifying performance standards, promoting structured self-assessment, ensuring timely and constructive feedback, encouraging dialogic interactions, supporting learner self-esteem, enabling iterative revision, and examining student performance to refine teaching methods. The customized version for translation classrooms emphasizes the use of rubrics, annotated models, exemplars, reflective journals, peer review, group translation projects, and low-stakes assessment cycles to encourage autonomous and self-regulated learning. The holistic view of the process indicated the reciprocal nature of feedback: while learners benefit from targeted feedback and opportunities for revision and resubmission, instructors also gain insights into students’ needs and the areas that call for pedagogical adjustment. When feedback is systematic ally aligned with the course goals, learning strategies, and metacognitive development, strategic competence, critical awareness, and autonomy in translation learners can be facilitated. In effect, the proposed framework offers a structured model that can enhance both instructional effectiveness and translation learners’ performance, which contributes to the broader systematization of translator education.

Jam (2020) attempts to provide an Optimality-Theoretic analysis of Persian vowel harmony. As to cases where backness harmony does not appear to occur, his explanation appeals to Lexically Specific Constraint Theory, treating these instances as exceptional rather than systematic. In this reply, I argue that such an appeal to exceptionality is unnecessary, and I propose an alternative analysis in which regressive vowel harmony in Persian can be accounted for in a principled, unified manner without recourse to lexically indexed constraints. By introducing an appropriately formulated markedness constraint, it becomes possible to capture the full range of observed patterns while maintaining the parsimony and explanatory elegance expected of an Optimality-Theoretic framework. In addition to this central point, I identify several further weaknesses in Jam’s analysis. These include a conflation of rule ordering with constraint ranking, which obscures the theoretical distinction between derivational and constraint-based approaches, the problematic assumption that the phonological representation of loanwords should mirror their source-language forms, and the omission of critical information in both the representations and tableaux.

Mind mapping has increasingly been acknowledged for its ability to improve learning outcomes, especially within language education. This research compared virtual and traditional mind mapping techniques for improving writing performance and motivation in Iranian EFL learners. The initial pool comprised 120 Iranian EFL students at the pre-intermediate level, selected based on their KET exam results. From this group, 90 participants were randomly divided into three cohorts: two experimental groups and one control group. Before the intervention, all groups completed a writing assessment designed by the instructor, along with a motivation survey. The first experimental group was taught using virtual mind mapping tools, while the second experimental group utilized conventional, paper-based mind maps. The control group received standard writing instruction without the use of mind mapping. After the instructional period, the motivation questionnaire and writing tests were re-administered to all participants. Statistical analysis demonstrated that both mind mapping groups achieved significantly higher scores in writing and motivation compared to the control group. Furthermore, an independent samples t-test comparing the two experimental groups revealed that the virtual mind mapping cohort outperformed the non-virtual group slightly in both writing achievement and motivational measures. Insights from semi-structured interviews showed that most learners held favorable views toward the use of virtual mind mapping in their English writing classes. These results highlight the benefits of incorporating virtual mind mapping into EFL teaching practices to boost writing skills and learner motivation.

This study investigated the discourse features of requestive speech acts in 10 textbooks from the Top Notch and Summit series to assess their potential for developing learners' pragmatic competence. Requests were analyzed in terms of directness strategies, head acts, and supportive discourse moves, drawing on the frameworks of Blum-Kulka et al. (1989) and Farch and Kasper (1989). The findings revealed a bias towards direct request strategies in both series, likely influenced by their utilitarian discourse structure. While Top Notch provided a wider range of directness levels, Summit, designed for advanced learners, offered limited exposure to diverse request strategies. Internal supportive moves, particularly the use of questions, were more prevalent than external moves in both series. These findings suggest that while the series contribute to language learning, they may not fully equip learners with the pragmatic competence necessary for effective intercultural communication. Further research is needed to explore the impact of explicit instruction and implicit learning on the acquisition of request strategies.

Language teachers are professionally expected to serve as educational innovators, change agents, and particularly teacher-researchers. Teacher-researcher identity and its negotiation have received much attention from international scholars. In Vietnam, substantial research has been conducted to examine this concept and its influential factors among tertiary lecturers. Nevertheless, a research gap remains in understanding factors affecting teacher-researcher identity negotiation from other teacher demographics, particularly from an insider’s perspective. Therefore, this autobiographical introspective narrative inquiry addressed this gap by shedding light on the contextual influences on my teacher-researcher identity negotiated during the process of completing a Master’s graduation thesis. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory of Human Development as the theoretical framework, the study gathered data from my autobiographical writings and semi-structured interviews with two purposefully-selected outsiders. The collected data were deductively analyzed through thematic analysis. Results revealed that contextual influences (personal, academic, institutional, and socio-cultural contributors) on my teacher-researcher identity negotiation were nested into an ecological system of four concentrated layers, including the micro-, meso-, exo-, and macro-systems, respectively. These findings further showed how the socio-academic condition of the Mekong Delta region affectionately nurtured my growing maturity as a qualitative teacher-researcher. Beyond its scholarly contribution, this study is also a testament to how one’s roots can illuminate the path toward becoming a teacher-researcher, offering inspiration for others walking a similar journey.