elaheh sotoudehnama

Cognitive Training (CT) refers to programs designed to enhance the efficiency of cognitive and brain mechanisms through practice and/or intentional instruction. A highly controversial issue in the field of Computerized Cognitive Training (CCT) is its possible transferability to non-trained areas; one untouched discipline is second language (L2) learning. Hence, due to the facilitative role of attention and the predictive strength of working memory in L2 development and comprehension, CCT seems necessary for English language learners. Furthermore, few studies have investigated users’ perceptions of potential improvements in their cognitive functioning. To fill such inherent gaps and overcome the imposed barriers of conducting intervention studies during the COVID-19 pandemic era, this study adopted an interdisciplinary approach to explore English language learners’ self-perceived Far Transfer (FT) effects of Remote Adaptive Multi-Domain Computerized Cognitive Training (RAMCCT) in general cognitive functioning and L2-specific cognitive functioning. Thus, online observations of L2 receptive skills courses (reading and listening) and synchronous semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a convenience sample of 11 intermediate EFL learners who completed eight weeks of RAMCCT. Thematic Analysis (TA) revealed perceived advances in working memory, attention, multitasking, processing speed, hand-eye/ear coordination in general cognitive functioning, and improvements in either one or both of the L2 receptive skills in terms of attention and comprehension and speed. The results are discussed by the corresponding links between attention, working memory, and multitasking, together with the automatization of the core cognitive processes. Implications address game designers, L2 teachers, teacher training programs, and researchers.

The purpose of the present study is to determine whether studying or teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) will lead teachers to decrease home cultural values or help them to develop their cultural values in both cultures. This mix-method research was conducted in two different contexts, university and language institute in Gorgan, Iran. To this end, the Home Culture Attachment Scale questionnaire was given to 50 English language professors and 50 institute teachers. Also, a semi-structured interview was conducted with ten participants from each group. The collected data of quantitative phase and qualitative phase were analyzed using multivariate ANOVA and thematic analysis, respectively. The findings of the quantitative phase showed significant differences between professors and institute teachers in terms of religious, western and cultural attachment. Besides, six themes were identified for the qualitative part including the changes, definition of culture, Iranian attachment, religious attachment, western attachment, and artistic attachment. Consequently, the study illustrates that whoever is dealing with English is in danger of losing his/her home culture and teachers must be aware of this. The results urge English language teachers to pay more attention to this issue because they can have a great impact on students in terms of beliefs and values.

The present research aims to examine the effects of using culturally oriented texts in project-based classes on the views of EFL university students regarding their L1 culture. To this end, three experimental groups of intermediate EFL freshmen, assigned to classes A, B and C, participated in this study. Each of the classes were presented with reading passages focused on L1 culture, L2 culture, and a combination of both L1 and L2 culture, respectively.  A written two-question structured interview was designed by the researchers to gain in depth detailed information about the studentschr('39') views regarding L1 culture in each class. The interviews were then examined using content analysis. Findings revealed the effectiveness of the combined approach (i.e. the use of reading materials focused on L1 and L2 culture) in establishing more positive views about L1 culture in students. The results can provide insightful recommendations and implications for EFL instructors, educational materials developers and educational policy makers.

The aim of the current study is to investigate if teaching English as a foreign language makes learners lose or decrease their home cultural values, ​​or it helps them enrich their cultural values. This mixed-methods study was conducted in two different contexts, University and Language Institute in Gorgan, Iran. For this purpose, a questionnaire of Home Culture Attachment Scale was given to 50 English language university students and 50 language learners of the institute. Moreover, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 10 participants from each group. Data collected from the quantitative and qualitative stages were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance and thematic analysis, respectively. The findings of the quantitative stage show significant differences between university students and learners of the institute in terms of religious, Western and Iranian attachment. In addition, six themes were identified in the qualitative section, including identity, definition of culture, Iranian attachment, religious attachment, Western attachment and artistic attachment. This study shows that those who deal with English is at risk of losing or decreasing their home cultural values, and teachers in particular need to be more aware of this crucial matter.

In the field of second/foreign language learning, Journal Writing (JW) has been used as a tool for self-expression, acknowledged for its multiple benefits with regard to various aspects of language learning. With the advancements of technology, however, few studies have addressed the potentials of internet-based platforms such as blogs in the practice of JW. The present study, therefore, has attempted to juxtapose the traditional paper-and-pencil mode of JW with Blog JW to explore the potential impacts on L2 learners’ writing skill. To this end, four elements of accuracy, fluency, lexical, as well as syntactic complexity were examined in the participants’ writing samples through relevant measures. To analyze the data, (M)ANCOVAs and (M)ANOVAs were conducted, the results of which are summarized and presented. The general conclusion of the study was that, JW, in particular, in the form of blogging has the potential of enhancing the quality of language learners’ writing.

This study investigated the effect of Narrow Reading (NR) on learning mid-frequency words. Vocabulary Size Test (VST) designed by Nation and Beglar (2007) was administered as the first pre-test to 196 students, from among whom 91 students whose vocabulary size ranged between 2100- 3500-word families, , became the target of this study and were randomly classified into four groups. Then another pretest administered was a modified version of Wesche and Paribakht’s Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) which assessed how well they knew twenty vocabularies derived from the expository and narrative texts. After thirty sessions for direct instruction, VKS was repeated immediately as a posttest to assess vocabulary learning while a month later, VKS was taken as a delayed posttest to assess vocabulary retention. To address research questions, a mixed design factorial ANOVA was conducted. The findings revealed that while the theme was fixed, reading expository texts rather than narrative ones led to the growth in vocabulary knowledge. In addition, the group that read narratives forgot most of the mid-frequency words in the retention phase. As opposed to multi-author texts, reading texts written by one author resulted in a better vocabulary achievement in both learning and retention phases. It was also revealed that there was no interaction between genre and author. In other words, the author was as influential in learning mid-frequency words among expository texts as it was in narrative ones. Finally, it was concluded that NR has a positive effect on learning mid-frequency words.

Although certain dimensions of foreign language learning in dyslexia have already been examined in the literature, no study has yet explored the language learning experiences of Iranian students with dyslexia, and parents’ views of the language learning experience of their children has also been neglected in the international literature despite its importance. The present study aimed to present a qualitative analysis of these experiences. The present study is part of a larger project aiming to teach English as a foreign language using the multisensory phonics method to Iranian students with dyslexia. In this study, following the educational course, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants, including five students with dyslexia and four mothers, selected via convenience sampling. Interviews were transcribed, translated into English, and analyzed in MAXQDA 2018 using thematic analysis in order to extract emergent sub-themes which were eventually subsumed under 10 themes. Moreover, a systematized review was performed on articles published in scientific journals focusing on dyslexia and problems in learning a foreign language. Results and Results of the systematized review indicated that the most prominent problems faced by students with dyslexia learning a foreign language are issues with spelling, reading, grammar, and memorizing vocabulary. Furthermore, based on the analysis of interviews, students disliked their English learning experience at school, whereas both students and their mothers witnessed the efficiency of multisensory phonics instruction for English. Moreover, the mothers judged their mothering experience to be difficult since their mother-child relationship was occasionally strained. Finally, mismatches were observed between the students’ and mothers’ views in certain cases.

Self-regulation is the ability to regulate one’s actions, behaviors and thoughts to achieve goals. In the same line, self-regulated learning (SRL) refers to plans and behaviors to reach one’s learning goals. Therefore, this research probed into the effect of training English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners according to Zimmerman and Moylan’s self-regulated learning (SRL) model when directed at reading on their motivation for EFL reading. Moreover, the moderating role of the learners’ proficiency level was investigated, as well. Self-regulation strategies which can be used while reading were taught to two experimental groups; they were trained to implement the three phases of Zimmerman and Moylan’s cyclic SRL model while trying to make sense of the reading sections of their textbook. Meanwhile, two control groups received the traditional, routine reading instruction. The data of the study were collected through Mori’s questionnaire of motivation for EFL reading before and after the treatment. A two-way analysis of covariance showed that self-regulation training, when directed at EFL reading, could significantly enhance the participants’ motivation for EFL reading, but their level of proficiency did not have any moderating role in the outcome of self-regulation training. These findings can encourage teachers to train EFL learners in self-regulation strategies with the purpose of improving their motivation for reading.

Recently, constructing professional identity has received an increasing attention. By adopting and adapting analytical tools of critical discourse analysis (CDA), this study explored the ways through which identities of the qualitative researchers had been projected in 4 applied linguistics articles. This study intended to find out whether the authors of qualitative research articles in applied linguistics tended to prioritize particular linguistic elements in representing their identities. Detailed descriptive analyses based on 4 CDA and discourse analysis taxonomies revealed that the qualitative researchers had a particular pattern to show human and nonhuman social actors in their writings. Human social actors (teachers and learners) were preferred to nonhuman social actors (textbooks), and teachers were the focus of attention more frequently than learners. Also, human social actors were considered as individuals, rather than groups in the majority of cases. In addition, mental processes were found to be employed more than material processes in order to contribute to the subjective interpretation and greater visibility for the researchers. Although the linguistic devices which help human social actors to be seen more vividly like inclusion and activation were used more than other devices, elements like transition, self-mentions, hedges, and code glosses were also employed. Findings may be considered useful for teachers and educators and may help them become more self-conscious about identity issues embedded in research articles.

This study is an attempt to extend our current knowledge by exploring the relationship between spiritual intelligence (SI) and multiple intelligences (MI) on one hand and the relationship between spiritual intelligence and language learning strategies (LLS) on the other hand among 30 MA TEFL learners of a state university in Tehran. To this end, King's Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory, Oxford's Language Learning Strategy Inventory, and Multiple Intelligences Inventory developed by McKenzie were utilized to gather data. The obtained results revealed a moderate positive correlation between some subscales of SI and MI including: personal meaning production and musical intelligence, and also between existential intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence and critical existential thinking. Furthermore, a moderate positive correlation was found between conscious state expansion and metacognitive strategies as two subscales of SI and LLS. Based on the results, implications for further research are discussed.

Self-regulation is the ability to regulate one’s thoughts, behaviors, motivations and actions to achieve one’s goals. In the same line, self-regulated learning (SRL) entails plans and behaviors to attain learning goals. This study investigated the impact of training English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learner in a Zimmerman and Moylan’s Self-regulated Learning (SRL) model as directed at reading on their attitude toward EFL reading. It also examined whether the learners’ proficiency level could moderate the effect of self-regulation training. Two intact experimental groups were taught self-regulation strategies while reading, but two control groups received the traditional, routine reading instruction. The data of the study were collected by Yamashita’s questionnaire of attitude to EFL reading. Parametric two-way ANCOVA analysis showed that self-regulation instruction as directed at EFL reading could significantly improve participants’ attitude toward EFL reading, but their level of proficiency did not moderate the effectof self-regulation training. These findings can provide an incentive for the instructors to help Iranian EFL learners improve their attitude toward reading through using self-regulation strategies.

Teaching experience exerts a remarkable influence on instruction quality. The present study explores the role teaching experience plays in EFL university instructors’ self-assessment (SA) accuracy and its congruence with students’ assessment of it. Furthermore, it delves into the instructors’ perceptions of how their SA of instructional effectiveness is altered as they obtain experience in their career. To this end, 106 EFL instructors’ SA of their instructional effectiveness was compared to that of their 630 students. To this end, two versions of a questionnaire were administered to the instructors and their students. The findings suggest that the highly experienced (Hex, with over 21 years of experience) instructors’ SA, unlike their relatively less experienced colleagues, i.e. less experienced (Lex, with 1-10 years of experience), and moderately experienced (Mex, with 11-20 years of experience), significantly diverges from their students’ assessment. The statements of thirty-three interviewed instructors shed more light on the reasons behind such divergence besides the probable causes of instructional effectiveness erosion among Hex instructors. They blamed the students’ and instructors’ getting no education on accurate evaluation of teaching, adverse conditions dominating the higher education such as lack of standard hiring and evaluation system, job-burn-out and bias. The findings of this research can potentially contribute to EFL university instructor assessment, professional development, and education.

The teaching experience shows that sometimes the etymology of words can enhance second language vocabulary learning and sometimes knowing the synonymous words help second language learners in improving their lexical knowledge. As these two are from among the most frequent ones, the major issue in this study is to evaluate the role of teaching etymologies in comparison with giving known synonyms of the words in learning the vocabulary. As the learners’ ability in using words after passing some time of learning is important, the effect of these two methods on short term and long term retention across different proficiency levels were investigated. The participants were 120 learners at Alzahra University in Tehran, Iran. Based on the results of PET test they were classified into two groups of elementary and advanced levels of language proficiency. They were taught the vocabulary items through etymology and synonym. The results demonstrated the mnemonic efficacy of etymology presentation at high level in both short and long term retention.

One of the significant aspects of the communication is its nonverbal aspect. In this study there was an attempt to explore this aspect of language teaching qualitatively from the learners’ point of view through observation and interview in Iranian context. It was revealed that four main categories of nonverbal communication(NVC) including: hand gesture, eye-contact, facial expression and tone of voice are used from the most frequently used to the least used respectively. Moreover, it was found that a teacher’s use of nonverbal communication can help learners to get more benefit from the learning context. Also, the findings indicate how utilizing NVC may contribute to different aspects (vocabulary, grammar, and pronuciation) of language learning. According to the students’ comments, six main themes as different roles of the teacher were found including: Teacher as a composer, Teacher as a constructor, Teacher as a mirror, Teacher as a conductor, Teacher as a mentor, and Teacher as a vocalist.

Introduction It is believed that we can provide our learners with the appropriate language devices in writing through which they can increase their knowledge of linguistic and structural pattern in written texts. Besides, concepts such as identity and culture are included in written texts. Therefore, it is essential to focus on identity in education. In other words, writers show their identities in their writings. Consequently, when researchers write their research articles they manifest their professional identities in their academic writings. However, there has been little focus on this essential concept. Thus, the current study seeks to address this gap in the language education domain, and investigates how mixed methods researchers project their identities into research articles written in English from the point of view of Critical Discourse Analysis.
Methodology Four mixed methods research articles written in English were selected among different research articles published in leading applied linguistics journals including and to be analyzed. In order to have a framework to analyze the data, we devised a model of researcher identity from previous taxonomies in CDA including the patterns of inclusion / exclusion, activation / passivation, and individualization/ assimilation (van Leeuwen, 2008), transitivity pattern (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004), the why this way and not that way tool, the significance building tool, the relationships building tool, the connections building tool, the intertextuality tool (Gee, 2014), the code glosses tool, and the self-mentions tool (Hyland, 2004). Afterwards, based on the devised model, we analyzed the corpus critically to see whether mixed methods researchers have a particular pattern to project their identities into their writings. To do so, the main social actors were identified. In other words, teacher, learner, and textbook were identified as denominators.
Discussion The theme of these four mixed methods research articles was “teacher education”. Data analysis showed that the mixed methods researchers tried to follow the pre-determined format of article writing; however, they added few sections related to their own article. In other words, they tried to have the pre-determined sections such as introduction, methodology, results, and discussion. They added few sections which were specifically related to the topic of their article. Furthermore, considering the employment of social actors it was found that “teacher”, and “textbook” were included more than being excluded but this is not the case regarding “learner”. This can be due to the fact that the mixed methods researchers intended to deemphasize the role of learners in their writings. Moreover, “teacher” was the most included social actor with the “textbook” in the second position and the “learner” in the third position. This shows the fact that since the theme of the articles was teacher education, the authors tried to include “teachers” more than “leaners” and “textbooks” to show the important role of the teacher in any educational system. Furthermore, they focused on “textbook” as a non-human social actor in their writing and they included it more than excluded.
In addition, the activation/passivation pattern indicates that the occurrence of activation regarding “teacher” is nearly similar to the occurrence of passivation which shows that the mixed methods researchers were conservative in employing active and passive voice in their writing regarding “teacher” and tried to show the teacher as a dynamic force in some parts of their writing regarding actions such as complimenting, performing, arguing, etc. and as the object of the verb regarding actions such as controlling, observing, comparing, etc. in other parts of the texts to have an unbiased viewpoint.
It is worth mentioning that the writers employed different ways in representing the pattern of individualization/assimilation. “Teacher” was assimilated more than being individualized. Concerning learners, similar pattern could be seen.
Concerning transitivity, we can see that authors employed mental, material, behavioral, and relational processes more than the verbal process. Also, the writers used relative clauses to help the readers grasp the concepts in the texts better. They, similarly, used frame markers to refer to discourse acts and stages in the argument; it means that they explicitly refer to discourse shifts or text stages. The authors also employed hedges which indicate the author’s doubt. Moreover, the writers used attitude markers to show the importance of the different concepts and their attitude to the textual information. The reason for using attitude markers can be that mixed methods researchers might use this tool when they are relying greatly on their personal convictions and ideas in order to influence their readers.
Additionally, they used engagement markers to have a relationship with their readers, and they employed transitions almost frequently in their research articles. The writers employed these devices in their writings so that they can show their readers how different parts of texts were connected to one another.
These researchers also used evidentials to document their claims, and to give credit to the people whose ideas were used in texts. On the other hand, they tried not to use evidentials very frequently since they might feel that using frequent citations indicate lack of originality. In addition, they did not use code glosses very frequently in their writings. Therefore, they thought that the reader could realize the intended meaning of the elements in text; so, there was no need to elaborate on it more by using these devices.
Besides, they used self-mention devices showing that although they did not try to show their presence explicitly in most parts of their writings, they had a balance in that regard and whenever they found it necessary they used self-mentions rather than other terms such as “the researcher” to show their powerful authorial presence.
This study tried to examine how mixed methods applied linguistics researcher’s project their identities into their research articles. The results seem to imply that they followed certain patterns in their articles by using specific linguistic devices. They employed all subdivisions of the devised model. We couldn’t find any study on researcher identity; however, we found different studies in the field of identity in general, and this study was in line with these previous studies. The findings of the current study would be beneficial for language teachers, learners, and educators to help them become more self-conscious about representing their identities in the content of the textbooks and research articles. One of the strengths of this study, therefore, is that it gives hints to the writers that their readers learn beyond their words; and in research articles they not only present informational content, but also they represent their identities.

Self-regulation is the ability to regulate one’s thoughts and actions to attain goals. Accordingly, self-regulated learning (SRL) involves plans and behaviors to achieve learning goals. With this in mind, in this study we investigated whether training English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners on the basis of a Self-regulated Learning (SRL) model improved their literal and critical reading comprehension. The study also sought to find out whether the learners’ proficiency level could moderate the impact of self-regulation training. Two intact experimental groups were taught self-regulatory reading processes, while two control groups received the traditional, routine reading instruction. The data of the study were collected by College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST) reading sub-tests including both critical and literal reading comprehension parts. Statistical analyses showed that self-regulation instruction could significantly improve participants’ EFL literal and critical reading comprehension, but their proficiency level did not moderate the effectof self-regulation training. These findings can encourage EFL teachers to apply SRL strategies to reading tasks and activities.

Speaking is a significant skill that many foreign language learners are trying to master. In this study, the effectiveness of two different speaking activities, i.e. oral presentation vs. free discussion, was investigated from quantitative and qualitative points of view. To achieve this purpose, 44 intermediate learners from a language institute in Tehran participated in the study. Half of the participants experienced oral presentation while the other half (22 in two other classes) experienced free discussion for eight sessions. The two activities were exchanged between the two groups after the end of the quantitative phase of the study for eight more sessions. The results of an independent samples t-test performed on the scores ofthe speaking section of a sample Preliminary English Test (PET, 2012 ) after the first phase of the study (the first 8 sessions) indicated that the learners who experienced oral presentation significantly outperformed the learners who experienced free discussion though both activities proved to be significantly useful. Furthermore, the results of the interview with 10 participants from each activity through purposeful sampling, after the second phase of the study (the second 8 sessions) through thematic analysis indicated that both free discussion and oral presentation activities had some merits and demerits. Based on the results it can be advisable to include the two activities as complementary.

The importance of professional development programs in enhancing teacher self-efficacy has attracted the attention of researchers in the realm of teacher education for two decades. However, the role of university programs and their curriculum in developing teachers’ self-efficacy has not been given adequate attention, specifically in educating EFL teachers. This study investigated the impact of MA TEFL curriculum on student teachers’ self-efficacy. To control the influence of experience, the self-efficacy of experienced students in teaching and novice ones was examined as well. To this end, 277 MA TEFL students from the seven major state universities of Tehran participated in this project. The results indicated that MA TEFL courses did not significantly affect teacher self-efficacy of MA TEFL students. However, a significant difference was found between novice teachers and experienced ones in terms of their self-efficacy and its subcomponents. Also, the findings of the semi-structured interviews revealed unlike the novice ones who were more interested in practicum, the experienced ones were in favor of both theoretical and practical courses. Despite this difference, some similarities were found, specifically in efficacy for classroom management and instructional strategies.

Writing and speaking are the productive skills of a language and share similar components. However, there has been little attempt to investigate the impact of writing practice on the speaking proficiency of the learners. The present study using a pretest-posttest controlled group design in a quasi-experimental approach investigated the effect of guided writing practice on the speaking proficiency of Iranian EFL students. Two elementary intact classes which were classified based on the institute’s placement test were selected for the study. The homogeneity of the learners was checked through Key English Test (2007) as the pretest of the study, and the classes were randomly assigned into the experimental group (n=26) and the comparison group (n=26). The experimental group was provided with 10 guided writing worksheets in the last 15 to 20 minutes of the class, whereas the comparison group went through the procedure of a typical institute class in which they worked on workbook exercises during the mentioned time. The quantitative analysis of the posttest using an independent samples t-test indicated that not only writing proficiency, but also the speaking proficiency of the experimental group had significantly improved. Moreover, an end of the term a semi-structured interview sought the experimental group learners’ attitudes toward the role of writing practice in improving their speaking skill. The content analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that the learners held positive attitudes toward the guided writing worksheets at the end of the term, though they did not have the same attitude at the beginning.

The purpose of this study was to assess CALL software (AceReader) effectiveness in developing TOEFL reading proficiency of Iranian EFL learners in comparison to paper-based instruction and to investigate any significant difference in the TOEFL reading comprehension of the high and low proficient learners after receiving computer-assisted instruction. The 123 female participants of the study, who were 60 high and 63 low proficient learners, were randomly divided into four groups, two experimental groups and two comparison groups. Sample TOEFL reading comprehension passages were used as the material of the study during the 16 sessions of the instruction. Before the instruction began, the participants in the experimental groups were trained for about two hours in order to be able to use the software effectively. A sample TOEFL test of the reading section as the pretest and posttest was also administered. The findings of the study indicated that there was a significant difference in the TOEFL reading comprehension of the learners who received CAI (Computer-Assisted Instruction) in comparison to those learners who received paper-based instruction. Furthermore, there was a significant difference in the TOEFL reading comprehension of the high and low proficient learners who received CAI.

The practitioners of language learning have introduced various techniques for vocabulary instruction as one of the significant bases in the process of language teaching. One of them is the presentation of new vocabulary items in semantically related or unrelated sets. This study sets forth to investigate whether there is any significant difference in vocabulary learning via the two techniques of antonymous and semantically unrelated sets among Iranian EFL learners with different proficiency levels and different sexes. For this purpose, 120 (60 male and 60 female) students took the Vocabulary Knowledge test and the Definition test. In order to analyze the data related to this study, two two-way ANOVAs were conducted. The findings revealed that the participants in semantically unrelated sets group outperformed their peers in the antonymous sets group. Also in each group, the high proficient participants outscored their low proficient peers. It was evidenced that, in all groups, females performed better than their male peers. The purpose of the current study is to find that from among the two previously mentioned techniques for teaching vocabulary, which one is the most suitable technique for teaching vocabulary to Iranian EFL learners with different proficiency levels and different sexes.

The purpose of the study was to activate the passive lexical knowledge through noticing and to investigate the effect of sentence writing as the post task of noticing activity on strengthening the effect of noticing. Forty-two Iranian female adult upper-intermediate English students of a state university in 2 homogenous groups participated in noticing the lexical items whose production were not as easy as their comprehension through highlighting them in a reading passage. Then، the participants were involved in a four-week process of massed/distributed sentence writing; every week the participants of one group wrote one sentencewith one of the 16 noticed wordseach day during 4 consequent days، and the other group experienced this process once a week in which they wrote 4 sentences with the 4 noticed words without time interval. As the results indicated، presenting the post task was significantly effective in promoting the productive lexical knowledge of both groups. The interaction between the time factor and the methods of learning was significant. Also، the distributed group outperformed the massed group، but not significantly.

This study investigated the relationship between locus of control، test anxiety، sex and Iranian undergraduate EFL students'' listening test performance. The participants of this study were ninety-six (96) students at Islamic Azad University of Ghaemshahr at the intermediate level of listening proficiency who were all taking their listening/speaking course. At first the students took part in the listening section of the TOEFL (2003) test. Then they were given Rotter''s (1966، cited in Waddel، 1998) locus of control scale in order to determine whether they are internally or externally oriented. Also Sarason''s (1975، cited in In’nami، 2006) test anxiety scale was distributed to determine their level of test anxiety (high-mid-low). The results showed that students with internal locus of control outperformed those with an external locus of control orientation and that sex does not mediate the relationship between locus of control and listening test performance. The results also revealed that students with low level of test anxiety performed better than those with mid or high level of test anxiety; and that sex does not mediate the relationship between three degrees of test anxiety (high-mid-low) and listening test performance.

Intercultural communication takes place when individuals influenced by different cultural communities negotiate shared meanings in interaction. As every country has its own cultural value system; consequently, nonverbal communication is different from country to country. Therefore, having knowledge about the similarities and differences of nonverbal communication in different cultures increases the possibility of being understood and reduces the risk of being misunderstood and misinterpreted by people from different cultural backgrounds. The current paper aims to investigate and compare the interpretations of nonverbal messages between the findings of Pease and Pease (2004), two prominent figures in the field of nonverbal communication in Western societies and the Iranian students of English and non-English major as an example of an Eastern society. In this study, 32 body gestures were selected from among 170 pictures used by Pease and Pease (2004) and the Iranian students’ interpretations of those body gestures were investigated. The results showed that the interpretations were significantly different across Western and Iranian students; however, there was no significant difference between English and non-English major students’ interpretations.

Recently tasks، as the basic units of syllabi، and the cognitive complexity، as the criterion for sequencing them، have caught many second language researchers’ attention. This study sought to explore the effect of utilizing the cognitively simple and complex tasks on high- and low-proficient EFL Iranian writers’ linguistic performance، i. e.، fluency، accuracy، lexical complexity، and structural complexity. At first، based on their scores on the writing test of TOFEL (2003)، participants were assigned to high- and low-proficient writers. Participants in both groups first accomplished the simple task which was the narration of a story based on a set of pictures. One week later، they were asked to perform the complex task which was writing about a topic requiring reasons. Then the written productions were encoded on the measures of fluency، accuracy، lexical complexity، and structural complexity. Four two-way mixed-design ANOVAs were conducted. The results revealed that the learners significantly generated less accurate، more structurally complex، and more fluent language in the complex task. No significant effect was found for the lexical complexity measure. The high-proficient group performed significantly better in the four measures. The interaction between task complexity and writing proficiency did not yield any significant results. On the whole، based on the findings، the ‘limited attentional model’ was shown to be more accurate in comparison with ‘cognition hypothesis’ and the ‘threshold level hypothesis’ was not confirmed.