مطالب

Proverbs, a cornerstone of folk literature, transmit societal thoughts and experiences across generations through concise and impactful sentences. Virtually every facet of human experience is reflected in proverbs, including the concept of peace, which is richly represented in Persian tradition. This study examines 30 Persian proverbs related to peace, employing a systemic-functional linguistics framework to analyze their ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions. The findings reveal that these proverbs frequently utilize or imply a relational process. Circumstantial elements within these processes often serve to compare peace with war, or to provide justification for the prioritization of peace. In terms of interpersonal function, the consistent use of the present tense underscores the timeless relevance of peace. Regarding textual function, the placement of peace-related concepts in the thematic position emphasizes their centrality for the audience. Furthermore, the cohesive juxtaposition of peace with war, or related concepts, reinforces the imperative to avoid conflict.

One of the key components for effective communication and promoting second/foreign language learners’ ability to produce meaningful performance is controlling their language anxiety. This study investigated the relationships among personality types, locus of control, and foreign language anxiety within the context of Iranian EFL learners. A non-experimental type based on a quantitative approach, the present study enjoyed a correlational design. Its participants were 317 Iranian EFL learners who all were undergraduate university students from both genders. The context of this study was the EFL face-to-face educational settings and the participants were from different fields of study at the university level in Iran. Data collection was conducted via three psychological questionnaires for measuring the variables. For data analysis, Pearson correlation and Regression analysis were used to specify the correlation between variables. To examine the mediation role of variables, Z Sobel and Bootstrapping tests were incorporated in the analysis. This study revealed significant relationships among participants’ personality types (extroversion and introversion), locus of control, and foreign language anxiety. The findings showed that there was a significant negative relationship between personality and locus of control and also a significant negative relationship between personality types and foreign language anxiety. Mediation analyses further illuminated the negative mediating role of the locus of control and the positive mediating role of the personality, shedding light on their nuanced dynamics. This study has implications for language educators, practitioners, and policymakers in terms of tailoring interventions to address individual differences and create supportive learning environments.

In light of ongoing challenges in writing education and the needs of digital-native learners, this study explored the effectiveness of using the free version of Grammarly in the writing development of EFL learners. Thirty-three TEFL students at Shahid Rajaee University were randomly selected and participated in the study. Using a quantitative one-group design, their writing performance was assessed through six tasks and analyzed via one-way Repeated Measures MANOVA. The results indicated a consistent improvement in overall writing performance through the regular use of Grammarly as an automatic corrective feedback tool. To identify which writing components improved, an RM-MANOVA was conducted on grammar, spelling, punctuation, and clarity. The analysis showed significant improvement only in grammatical accuracy, with other aspects remaining unchanged. These findings highlight Grammarly’s potential in enhancing grammatical skills. The study contributes to ELT by encouraging the integration of ICT-related content into the EFL curriculum and teacher training programs, emphasizing the role of AI tools in language learning. These findings highlight the increasing impact of AI-powered tools in improving writing skills for language learners. Educators should balance automated feedback with personalized instruction. As research on effectiveness of Grammarly is still limited, further studies are necessary to fully understand its educational potential.

In spite of numerous extant studies on IELTS test-taking techniques, insufficient research has examined the effect of such techniques on reading performance among IELTS test-takers across proficiency levels. Therefore, this study, adopting an explanatory mixed-methods design, investigated the potential effect of test-taking techniques on IELTS reading scores gained by B1 and B2 level learners. The sample comprised 62 B1-level and 63 B2-level learners. The participants were placed into four groups consisting of two experimental and two control groups. In the two experimental groups, 17 reading test-taking techniques were explicitly taught and practiced. The four groups took reading pretest and posttest before and after the treatment. Ultimately, 15 participants from each experimental group partook in semi-structured interviews. The quantitative analysis showed the significant effect of teaching test-taking techniques on both B1 and B2-level learners' reading performance scores with the B1-level learners outperforming their B2-level counterparts. As for the qualitative data analysis, the results yielded eight themes for B1-level learners and seven themes for B2-level learners. Also, the results indicated that B1-level learners earned a notably higher number theme instances than B2-level learners. The results are discussed and implications for language learning, teaching, and testing are provided.

This study seeks to delineate the representation of post-9/11 in Iraq through employing a range of ideas and conceptions from Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s formulation of Empire to Agamben’s theorization of the state of exception so as to reveal the real cause of the US invasion of Iraq, the real significance of fundamentalism which arose in the wake of the violence resulting from the invasion, and the resistance role that fundamentalism played in Iraq. The study seeks to demonstrate how Islamophobia, terrorism, fundamentalism, and Empire are inextricably intertwined and the way they are represented in Inaam Kachachi’s The American Granddaughter. The findings of the study reveal the fact that the main intentions of the invasion arise out of the Empire’s attempts to spread its supranational sovereignty to the entire world, along the way giving rise to fundamentalism, which stands as the antithesis of the Empire and which does not have anything to do with going back to the roots of Islam but rather serves the losers of the process of globalization as the means through which they can contest its winners. The novel, thus, is an attempt at giving a narrative mode to the events that led to the fundamentalist renaissance in Iraq as a form of postcolonial confrontation and indicating how fundamentalism has been a form of resistance.