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Acknowledging the strengths of the national curriculum, the present study aimed at evaluating its approach towards foreign language education from three perspectives: (1) analyzing the foreign language section of the national curriculum based on the methodological and theoretical underpinnings, and its internal consistency; (2) examining its content based on the basic assumptions mentioned in the literature for setting foreign language policies and (3) evaluating its content based on the macro-documents of the country. In so doing, first, the relevant sections of the national curriculum were analyzed. The results indicated that, although the foreign language section of the national curriculum has some strengths such as a move toward decentralization and increase in hours of instruction, it suffers from some weaknesses such as vagueness of the content and lack of consistency and connection among the aims of the instruction. In order to examine the document from the second perspective, 6 criteria that foreign language education policies should follow were extracted from the relevant literature, and the document was evaluated based on these criteria. The results indicated both consistencies and inconsistencies between the content of the document with these principles. The national curriculum, then, was evaluated to find its matches and mismatches with the policies and orientations of macro-documents. The results indicated that the foreign language section of the national curriculum cannot set the ground for achieving the goals proposed in the macro-documents of the country. Finally, the paper offers some guidelines for developing national English language curriculum.

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Unwillingness-to-communicatation in a foreign language (UTC) on the part of learners, which is a tendency to avoid oral communication, is one of the main problems of language teachers. In a way, if the source of this unwillingness is determined, language teachers can decide better about those students who seem reluctant in the communication and usually avoid interactions. Yet the extent of this unwillingness is not constant among different individuals and it can be the result of many diverse factors. This study has focused on the relationship between the students' personality traits and their UTC, and the role of gender in the levels of UTC. In so doing, two highly validated measures of NEO Five Factor Model (NEO-FFM) and UTC scale of unwillingness to communicate were administered to 250 participants from four universities. The results of step-wise multiple regression showed that, from the five factors of personality (extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, openness to experience and agreeableness), extraversion was the best predictor of UTC. The second and the third predictive variables were neuroticism and conscientiousness, respectively. While extraversion and conscientiousness had a negative relationship with UTC, neuroticism had a positive correlation. Moreover, the results of t-test proved no significant difference between the two groups of males and females with respect to their levels of UTC. In the end, drawing on the relevant literature, the results of the study have been discussed and the importance of findings has been explicated for teachers and language teaching practitioners.

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The present study was set out to investigate the generalizability of the findings of quantitative research studies in Iranian English Language Teaching (ELT) context. To this end, the researchers, first, examined the general characteristics of the people who had participated as study subjects in quantitative ELT research studies during the last ten years. Considering the subjects’ age and the research sites, it appeared that the participants in previous quantitative ELT studies belonged to 11 groups of people. Subsequent analyses revealed that more than 60% of previous research studies had been carried out in academic settings and on university students. About 20% of the studies had focused on language learners in private language institutes and students in junior high schools and high schools. Pre-university centers had participated in only 7% of previous studies. Highlighting the possible causes of the imbalanced focus of previous studies, the researchers then discussed the limitations that this skewed distribution impose on the generalizability of previous ELT studies.    

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Fair assessment of language proficiency and use is one of the challenges language assessment experts have faced. In Iran, according to the parliament’s ‘Act of Student Admission to Universities’, University Entrance Examination (UEE) should be gradually substituted by the students’ schooling backgrounds mostly reflected in their high school exam performances. In spite of this upcoming change, however, various English language exams students take during high school have not been assessed in terms of their ethical effects. In the present study, 80 students who had graduated from high school determined the degree to which teacher-made exams in the second grade and pre-university level, national third-grade exam and English part of UEE can be regarded as fair. The data obtained were analyzed by ANOVA. In addition, the contents of students’ essay-type responses to the items of another questionnaire were analyzed and qualitative data were collected. The results showed the extent to which students could remember cases of unfair assessment associated with each type of high school English exam. It was finally concluded that the English part of UEE and national English exam are perceived as the most ethical forms of assessment. It also seems that authentic assessment of the language, which is the most noticeable in the pre-university English examination can contribute positively to fair assessment. The findings can be utilized for filling the fairness gap after UEE is removed from the educational system.

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As an integral componet of discourse competence and professional expertise, generic competence is intervowen with the concept of multi-litracies, which in turn highlights the role of technology and multimodality. Conefernce PowerPoint presentations are among the research-process genres, which rely substantially on the textual and visual generic competences of discourse community members. In spite of their significant role for the membership in a community of practice, they are underexplored even in the "English for Specific/ Academic Purposes" tradition of genre analysis, where static versus dynamic nature of genres has been a controversial issue. The present genereic study utilized a typology of visuals along with a framework for description and explanation of their characteristics and features to analyze more than 400 conference slides by two groups of non-native applied linguists (a representative of soft scientists) in light of the definition of genre, its functions, and the influence of Microsoft software on its features. Apart from highlighting the importance of visuals and the dominance of scriptuals in soft sciences, the reported similarities and differences between the two groups and the obtained patterns revealed that PowerPoint presentation can be considered a genre, which would manifest a variety of identity expressions. Moreover, in the absence of disoursal and metadiscoursal elements, many slide characteristics and features can fulfill their fuctions. Sheding some light on the undeniable role of the software and its implications for methods of reasoning and argumentation, genre integrity, and definition of metadiscourse and genre along with some applied suggestions are among the main aims of the study.  

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The present article takes a critical and analytic look at various dimensions of studying vocabulary in academic texts, hence providing a quite clear prospect of the requirements, methods and challenges of this line of inquiry. The basic focus of the article is however to draw attention to the paucity of corpus-informed research on Persian academic texts as well as the linguistic productions of Persian speakers in other languages. In the first section, a holistic picture as to the significance of learning academic vocabulary is drawn. Then, some academic word and phrase lists and some academic corpora are briefly introduced. In the next section, different aspects which should be taken into consideration (e.g. collocation, lexical bundles, intra and inter-text lexical variation) in such type of research are elaborated and some of precautions to be taken by researchers are discussed. In the final section, some of the challenges and limitations of this type of research are mentioned and a scheme of the ecology of “studying academic vocabulary” is given. The scheme is supposed to act as a synoptic road map for interested researchers who are at the beginning of their academic endeavor.


 

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Assessment of the English proficiency of applicants of entry into postgraduate studies, undeniably, is of utmost importance. Nationally speaking, the current status of the English test administered by the National Organization of Educational Testing (NOET) in Iran has been a topic of heated contention in recent years. This study purports to investigate the validity of the Iranian English proficiency test for Ph.D. admission purposes adopting the assessment use argument as the main framework for its validation research. To this end, the required data were collected from the relevant stakeholders of the test, namely applicants of the test, experts in educational assessment and language testing, and test readiness instructors. Structured interviews and focus groups were conducted and the acquired data were analyzed using the qualitative content analysis approach. Most prominent themes that emerged from the data in addition to a number of relevant representative quotes constituted the major findings of this study. The results revealed that the test is in need of major revisions in some parts, and further modifications are deemed as necessary. In the final section, summary of the results along with suggestions for optimization of the test are put forth. Keywords: Iranian Ph.D. admission English proficiency test, test validation, assessment use argument

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In this qualitative study, through studying the thought patterns of two master candidates of the International Relations discipline, the process of development in their disciplinary genre awareness has been investigated. In so doing, academic writing skills were taught to the two cases of the study in a period of 18 months. In this period, one of the researchers held regular training sessions. The theoretical framework used for this study was the interaction model of Hyland (2005) and the methodology in the phase one to three of the study was descriptive ethnography and in phase four it was analytical and quantitative. Several rounds of interviews, stimulated recall sessions, field notes, and document analysis were used to collect the data. Based on the definitions provided by IELTS organization, the two cases improved from the level of limited user (band score 4) to the level of good user (band score 7). Finally, the result of the investigation of the stages of development in the disciplinary genre awareness of the participants was presented in a model of development. This study can shed light on the future perspective of curriculum design for academic and ESP writing courses.

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The present study aimed at investigating the initial and final attitudes of Iranian EFL learners in two different age groups (8 and 11 year olds) during one year of inquiry and seek to witness whether the language learners’ age of  starting foreign language learning can influence their attitudes or not. The participants’ attitudes were measured via questionnaires and interviews. The modified AMTB (Attitude Motivation Testing Battery) used in this study was designed in such a way as to measure the learners’ attitude in eight different domains (Learners’ interests in foreign language, Attitudes toward English speaking people, Attitudes toward learning English, National identity, Integrative orientation, Instrumental orientation, English class anxiety and parental encouragement). Our focus in the present study was on the participants’ performance on the first four attitudinal domains and also their performance on the whole questionnaire so the participants’ answer to these relevant items on the questionnaire (items related to the first four domains) and also the whole questionnaire was subject to statistical analysis .For the first four domains, results of the study showed that our participants hold positive attitudes towards foreign language learning and learning English both at the beginning and also at the end of inspection. For their attitudes towards English culture and its speakers and also their national identities, our learners in different age groups revealed different patterns. Taking the total attitude picture into consideration (the questionnaire as whole with all its 8 domains) however, there was not any significant difference between the attitudinal behaviors of participants of two different age groups of this study.
 

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One of the most important issues in the realm of education is assurance regarding the quality and effectiveness of teaching and teachers. In this regard, it is essential that models and instruments be developed in order to describe and assess them. It is one of the subjects creating a lot of interest in learners is English. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a model as well as a measuring instrument for describing quality of teachers and teaching in English. The present study was an attempt to develop such a model and instrument in a qualitative and a quantitative phase. In the qualitative phase, seven factors were identified as the underlying structure of teacher quality on which basis a 48-item questionnaire was developed. Then, in the quantitative phase, using Exploratory and Confirmatory factor Analyses, the reliability, and the validity of the model and the questionnaire were obtained. Based on the findings, both the model and the questionnaire are acceptable and valid and can be utilized.

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For the first time, exuviae of Crocothemis sanguinolenta and Zygonyx torridus were collected from southern parts of Iran. Females of Z. torridus were also observed mating and ovipositing in two habitats. According to our data, these two species successfully breed in some suitable microhabitats and are neither immigrants nor vagrants. Our findings based on this research and recent information showed that habitat dispersal for these two species is not limited to the Hormuz Strait region, as previously thought. Suitable habitats for Z. torridus expanded from the Southwest to the East of the country. For C. sanguinolenta, the habitat range covers the far southeastern parts of the country near the Pakistan border area. Based on the geological history of the Persian Gulf region in the last glacial period and similar African coexisting species in these microhabitats, we suggest that these species are relict populations that survived in a few suitable habitats from a wider area in the past. This view seems more appropriate to explain the current distribution of these species than their recent migration from the UAE or Oman regions

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Baryscapus evonymellae (Bouché, 1834) (Hymenoptera, Eulophidae) was rediscovered on Leucoma wiltshirei Collenette, 1938 (Lepidoptera, Erebidae) attacked by different parasitoids. This species had already been reported under different names; therefore, its inaccurate identifications were corrected. It was reared as a larval and pupal hyperparasitoid of two important primary parasitoids of L. wiltshirei including Brachymeria tibialis Steffan, 1958 (Hymenoptera, Chalcididae), and Dolichogenidea persica Abdoli, Mohammadi, Sedaratian-Jahromi & Farahani, 2023 (Hymenoptera, Braconidae). The last parasitoid-hyperparasitoid association is new. Its morphological characters were illustrated and its biological data and main characteristics were discussed.
 

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We here present the first record of Parawenhoekia aginapaica (Haitlinger, 1999) from Iran, which also represents the first record for the genus of the whole continent (Asia). The specimens were collected in association with an Oedipodinae grasshopper of the genus Aiolopus (Orthoptera: Acrididae). The genus Parawenhoekia Paoli, 1937 has only been known from three Mediterranean countries so far (Italy, Cyprus, and Montenegro) and hence our finding represents a large area extension. This study provides new metric and meristic data and supplements the current knowledge on the species based on new specimens of P. aginapaica collected from Khumeh Zar, Mamasani County, Fars Province, Iran. Photographs of important characteristics are provided. A key to the world species of Parawenhoekia is given.

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The school of romanticism emerged as a dialectical reaction to classicism and neoclassicism in the eighteenth century and it was influenced by philosophical, political and social factors of its age. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on individualism, the freedom of imagination, the sincerity of emotions and also the attempts to reach the transcendent truth, discernible beyond the scientific reality. Along with the formation of literary renaissance in Iran, many academians and literary traditionalists introduced modern literature as an imitation of the west in form of translations of western schools, including romanticism. Such an idea has been consolidated by the lack of valid and reliable literary research in the following decades. The current study has indicated that the interpretation of romanticism in Iran has been influenced by neglecting some of its essential characteristics, debasing its components from its philosophical and epistemological context and by inaccurate renditions of some of its core concepts. As literary schools contain conceptualized and structured components, literary research in Iran has seemingly employed this accessible structure in studying literary trends. Consequently, this has led to incomplete and even erroneous understanding of the trends of contemporary literature, due to focusing on sole descriptions of such elements as love and nature, without considering Persian literary traditions. 
 

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The significance of research article (RA) abstract as a key academic genre has recently motivated analysts to focus on this neglected area. Considering a summary function for abstracts, most genre researchers have adopted the conventionally proposed Introduction- Method- Results- Discussion (or Conclusion) (IMRD) model for analysis. However, the problems reported, especially for Results and Discussion sections, question the vitality of such accounts and prompt further scrutiny. Moreover, in spite of claims about disciplinary and cultural variations which can affect communication within and across discourse communities, sufficient contrastive studies which address the Iranian academics' need to communicate with and participate efficiently in the international discourse communities are scarce. Inspired by English for Specific/Academic Purposes tradition of genre analysis, this paper tries to fill these gaps presenting a comparative generic analysis of soft sciences abstracts to see what the characterizing features of the texts of Iranian scholars and their international peers are. The macro-structure, micro-structure, and some features of 100 experimental RA abstracts taken from a number of reputable Iranian (Persian) and international (English) journals were analyzed and explained drawing upon some existing rigorous models. The results revealed similarities in the presence of Introduction, Method, and concluding units, while there were also differences in the realization of units, Moves, and Steps. It is argued that the differences can point to the varying cultural norms and values of the two groups. Plus, considering the inadequacy of the four-way macro-model, an alternative three-way model was suggested, instead. Some implications of the study are discussed, too

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To launch an evidence source for successive judgment and decision making, program evaluation of any educational institute is an indispensable process, and language institutes are not the exceptions. In an attempt to propose a solution for a fundamental problem as the lack of a standard evaluation program for English language institutes, this study used a new method to be implemented in the context of ‘English language institutes (ELIs)’ of Iran. In this country, evaluation of nongovernmental centers, including ELIs, is carried out by the Ministry of Education (ME) using a performance evaluation framework which mainly collects the required data through a survey form (locally known as ‘Form 322’).  We adopted and applied the survey form 322 into developing a specific questionnaire. Ninety ELIs administrators of Mazandaran were surveyed through an instrument that was piloted and validated through the obtained data. The extracted results from the questionnaire were sorted into the categories of “validation”, “improvement”, “redesigning”, and “researchers’ opinion”. The results showed that the original form, long used in the country, needs to be redesigned. To cross-validate the obtained data and the emerging results, fifteen volunteers from the participating institutes were interviewed for their ideas through Skype and direct interview. Consistent with the results, not only for Iran are an online platform and a standard evaluation and monitoring process recommended, but also an international integrated performance evaluation standard is strongly suggested for English language institutes.