مطالب

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory (SCT) emphasizes the crucial role of social interaction in cognitive development, including second language acquisition (Vygotsky & Cole, 1978). Grounded in this theory, the present quasi-experimental study investigates the effectiveness of the Blended Feedback Approach in enhancing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' essay-writing skills. Sixty university students were divided into two groups: an experimental group receiving BFA, which integrated online peer reviews, teacher feedback, and iterative revisions, and a control group receiving traditional teacher feedback. Pre-test and post-test assessments were conducted to evaluate improvements in coherence, grammatical accuracy, vocabulary, and overall structure. Additionally, end-of-semester interviews captured learners' perceptions of the feedback approach. Results indicated that the experimental group showed significantly greater improvements in writing proficiency, critical thinking, and collaboration skills than the control group. Moreover, BFA was found to reduce writing anxiety and foster student engagement. These findings suggest that BFA offers valuable enhancements to feedback methods, reinforcing the role of integrated feedback in language education and providing insights for future pedagogical practices.

This study seeks to rigorously assess the relationship between Iran’s stock market index and monetary policy within the framework of the Markov Switching Vector Autoregressive (MS-VAR) model. The MS-VAR methodology is particularly well-suited for capturing regime-dependent dynamics and structural shifts in macroeconomic and financial time series. For this purpose, quarterly data spanning from Spring 2009 to Fall 2023 have been employed. All estimations were conducted using EViews 12 and OX Metrics 7 software. As a preliminary step, the Hodrick-Prescott filter was applied to differentiate between two distinct market regimes. Combined with a univariate Markov Switching model, this approach enabled the identification of cyclical fluctuations in the stock market, distinguishing bull from bear market phases. The results indicate that Regime 1 (bear market) demonstrates greater persistence and stability relative to Regime 2 (bull market), suggesting asymmetric market dynamics. Subsequently, the study investigates the effects of monetary policy—proxied by the interbank market rate and liquidity growth—on the growth of the stock market index within the MS-VAR framework. The findings suggest that monetary policy has different effects during bull and bear market phases. The stock index exhibits a prompt and asymmetric response to changes in both the interbank market rate and liquidity growth. Specifically, in both bull and bear market regimes, an increase in the interbank interest rate exerts a contractionary effect on stock index growth, with a more pronounced negative impact observed during periods of market recession. Moreover, liquidity growth consistently contributes positively to stock index growth across both regimes, with a more pronounced effect under bull market conditions. Variance decomposition analysis further reveals that, in both regimes, shocks to the stock index itself account for the largest proportion of its fluctuations. Nonetheless, the relative importance of monetary policy instruments varies by regime: In both expansionary and recessionary phases of the stock market, shocks stemming from the interbank market rate play a more prominent role in explaining stock index volatility compared to liquidity shocks. Finally, the presence of nonlinear interactions among the variables is statistically validated based on the Likelihood Ratio (LR) test.