gholam reza zarei

This research study was conducted to investigate the most representative characteristics of the habitus developed by academically successful Iranian English majors. Learning a second or foreign language, like many sociocultural practices, from a Bourdieusian perspective, is informed by the interrelation between habitus, field, and cultural capital (CC). Within an exploratory qualitative design, utilizing the Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method of both semi-structured and unstructured one-on-one interviews, seven academically successful BA students majoring in English language studies were studied in an attempt to explore their CC and habitus. Each participant was interviewed in 3 separate sessions. The constructivist grounded theory method was adopted to analyze the collected data. Constructed on 75 initial codes, 22 focused codes, 10 categories, and 4 themes, two major themes were most relevantly indicative of theoretical associations with the research problem. The findings suggest that the habitus developed by the English majors in this study was representative of their accumulation of certain forms of CC. Their habitus seemed to have been developed under the influence of their interaction with the mediatory field of learning and majoring in a foreign language. In an exigency-driven social quest for certain forms of cultural capital, the participants’ habitus were majorly characterized and influenced by their strategic accumulation of institutional and social capital, their field-oriented social identities, and their strategic administration of CC in the field. The knowledge developed by the findings of this study can provide useful sociocultural insights into academic achievements of English language majors.

While the bulk of literature repletes with studies on emotional intelligence and its effect on teachers' performance and students' academic achievement, few have been released as to the potency of the factors that can foster emotional intelligence inside classrooms. Accordingly, the present study aimed to investigate the extent to which spiritual intelligence could be a predictor of emotional intelligence. The data were collected through a merger of the Brief Emotional Intelligence Scale (BEIS-10) and Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory (SISRI).  The evolved 34-item questionnaire was translated into Persian to ensure maximum comprehension of participants. The sample of this study consisted of 847 undergraduate Iranian EFL learners from two provinces in Iran. Three phases were in this study. First, an exploratory factor analysis of SISRI-24 was performed. Second, confirmatory factor analysis of both inventories, individually, was done by IBM SPSS AMOS. This was followed by CFA of the 34-item questionnaire. Last, multiple regression analysis was modeled to find the predictive relationships. The results of PCA revealed a three-factor model of SISRI (18 statements). CFA also verified both inventories under investigation. The model fit estimated of the 34-item questionnaire was sufficiently adequate to approve the model. Multiple regression analysis also indicated that critical existential thinking could predict both appraisal and regulation of own emotions as well as utilization of emotions. Likewise, conscious state expansion could predict the utilization of emotions. It was also found that personal meaning production could predict the appraisal of other emotions.

Technological developments, especially information and communication technology, have become very important in the banking sector in the last decade. Today, mobile banking is expanding to eliminate physical banking services and provide services with higher speed and quality. Based on this study, with the aim of investigating the role of behavioral intentions in the intention to accept mobile banking in Bank Saderat of Bushehr province. The statistical sample of the research was 384 customers of Bank Saderat in Bushehr province, to which the same number of questionnaires were distributed and collected. Analysis of statistical data and testing of research hypotheses were performed using SPSS24 and Smart PLS3 statistical software using structural equation modeling. Data analysis showed that compatibility, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, flexibility and perceived risk have a positive and significant effect on attitudes toward mobile banking acceptance. Self-efficacy and facilitating conditions have a positive and significant effect on perceived behavioral control. Innovation in new technology has a positive and significant effect on the acceptance of mobile banking and the intention to accept mobile banking. Mental norms have a positive and significant effect on the intention to accept mobile banking. Attitudes toward accepting mobile banking and perceived behavioral control have a positive and significant effect on the intention to accept mobile bankin

This case study examined the adaptivity of learning transfer from an English for general academic purposes course to different disciplinary writing contexts. Data were collected at the end of one academic semester from 7 students of engineering disciplines enrolled in the writing course. Their EGAP writing course lasted for 16 weeks over which they were taught The St. Martin's Handbook, 6th Edition. The participants’ disciplinary writings together with interview transcripts served as the data sources for the extraction of adaptive transfers and also the processes of realizing the transfers. Adaptive transfers were identified by participants. Findings indicated that learning outcomes can transfer adaptively through a variety of processes to accommodate to the new writing demands. The results showed that the participants could adapt their learning along two broad dimensions of transfer, ‘idea generation’ (IG) and ‘text construction’ (TC) with the former involving ‘explication’ and ‘integration’ of knowledge and the latter achieved at macro and micro level. Within these adaptive transfers, we found a range of writing issues pursued including ‘goals, topics, logics, propositions, integrity, disciplinarity, linearity, paragraphing and linguistic resources’. Furthermore, the findings displayed two broad categories of ‘higher order’ and ‘lower order’ processes employed for the realization of adaptive transfers. While higher order processes operated through ‘transformative and evaluative’ mechanisms, the lower order processes involved two categories of ‘avoidance and affordance’, with the former as an attempt to refrain from going wrong and the latter as an effort to generate adaptivity. The findings for L2 writing are theoretically discussed.

Although heavy metals are components of the earth's crust and are naturally present in all ecosystems, their concentrations are increasing significantly. In recent decades, a significant portion of marine environmental pollution has been due to the entry of heavy metals into marine environments and their harmful environmental effects have been a major topic in environmental research. Although the increasing development of industry has numerous benefits, but unfortunately it also leads to special problems such as environmental pollution and threatens all human activities in relation to nature.The main problem with heavy metals is that these inorganic pollutants are not biodegradable unlike organic pollutants, and this fact has made heavy metals one of the most dangerous groups of environmental pollutants. Heavy metals enter aquatic ecosystems through direct discharge of industrial and municipal effluents or indirectly through rainwater runoff as well as through the atmosphere, and cause serious problems, especially by accumulation in sediments. Due to their stability and lack of biological decomposition, heavy metals have a high tendency to accumulate in the body of aquatic organisms and accumulate in the tissues of mollusks, bivalves and fish.The results of Bagheri et al., (2013) in surface sediments of Bandar Abbas coasts show that more than half of all lead and cadmium in Bandar Abbas coasts are of natural origin and the increase in metal concentration in Bandar Abbas coasts due to the presence of these two amounts is more It is natural in the earth's crust in the study area.Heavy metals can enter this ecosystem due to natural factors such as erosion, floods, seawater rotation, industrial and human wastewater, oil and gas leaks, ship accidents, and unbalanced water discharge. As a result, ecosystems such as industrial coastal ports, which are chronically exposed to metals, appear to have the most contaminated sediments, leading to ecological changes on the coast and endangering human health due to their toxic effects and bioaccumulation potential.One of the most important environmental problems of Bandar Abbas city at present can be the entry of sewage and waste into the coasts and estuaries of the city, which minimizes tourism uses. Since most of the urban wastewater of Bandar Abbas and some industrial wastewater is discharged directly into the sea, the coastal waters of Bandar Abbas are heavily polluted and any aquatic abstraction from the coastal waters and swimming in these waters can be due to pollution. Preliminary studies show that the beaches of "Shilat", "Gorsuzan", "Posht-shahr", " Soro" and "Hadish" are the main swimming areas of the indigenous people and at the same time the main receiving areas of Bandar Abbas urban sewage. The purpose of this study was to assess the ecological risk of heavy metals in coastal sediments of tourism-prone areas in Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan province.

For the purpose of study, a systematic randomly classification method was used to determine the sampling points. Thus, 5 potential tourist destinations along the coast of Bandar Abbas, including the beaches of Shilat, Gorsuzan, Posht-shahr, Soro and Hadish, were randomly selected to cover the entire coastal strip of the city and were sampled as points. Sampling was performed in the spring of 2020, at full tide and almost daily between 10 and 15 o'clock. Acid digestion of the samples was performed and after purification, the concentration of each metal element was measured by atomic absorption spectrometry using calibration solutions.For the data analysis, at first, the compliance of the data with the normal distribution was examined by the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic quantifies test, which showed that the data have a normal distribution. After confirming the normality of the data, heavy metal concentration analysis was performed. Pearson's correlation coefficient also was used to investigate the correlation relationship between metal concentrations. Finally, the sediment quality was assessed using pollution indices and ecological risk assessment index.

According to the results, the average concentrations of elements including lead (pb), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) in the coastal sediments of Bandar Abbas areas were 46.75±5.75, 17.75±1.52, 62.42±4.51, 2.97±0.13, 46.09±4.56and 9944.04±1463.49, mg/kg sediment, respectively. The results show that the sequence of total concentration of heavy metals in the coastal sediments of Bandar Abbas is Fe> Ni> pb> Zn> Cu> Cd.Analysis of the correlation shows that there is only a significant correlation between iron and nickel (P <0.05) and there is no significant correlation between other elements (P> 0.05).Heavy element coefficients factor in coastal sediments of Bandar Abbas for lead, copper, nickel, cadmium, zinc and iron, were calculated 2.34, 0.39, 0.92, 9.89, 0.49 and 0.21 respectively. Furthermore, the Cd index in the five sampling stations including the beaches of Shilat, Gorsuzan, Posht-shahr, Soro and Hadish were calculated 1.42, 2.41, 1.17, 1.45 and 1.19, respectively.Based on the the Müller geochemical index, the amount of lead in Hadish is in the range of non-polluted to medium polluted and in other stations were in the range of non-polluted.In total, the measurement of potential ecological risk for the five sampling stations mentioned was calculated as 317.6, 327.2, 331.5, 331 and 270, respectively, and the total potential ecological risk of the coasts of Bandar Abbas was calculated as 315.5.

The computational results showed that the average accumulation of Cu, Ni, Zn and Fe is negative (Igeo ˂ 0), the negative of these data indicates that the coastal sediments of Bandar Abbas in terms of these elements are in the range of non-polluted sediments. The value of this measurement was calculated for lead less than one (0˂Igeo˂1) and for cadmium less than 2 (1˂Igeo˂2), which include the ranges from non-polluted to moderate pollution and moderate pollution, respectively.Comparison of heavy elements studied in this study with different standards showed that the amount of all elements except nickel is lower than global standards. The study of the ecological risk of heavy metals in the coasts of Bandar Abbas showed that the order of danger is (zinc Assessing the quality of sediments showed that the amount of modified degree of pollution index (mCd) in all cases except Gur-suzan were calculated less than 1.5 and the status of sediment pollution is estimated to be very low degree of pollution. In total, the ecological risk potential of the coasts of Bandar Abbas was calculated to be 315.5, which is within the acceptable ecological risk.Considering the location of Bandar Abbas city and considering the development of adjacent areas and various ongoing projects in the city and the pollution load caused by the entry of municipal sewage into the coast of Bandar Abbas, it is necessary to adopt appropriate strategies that can help to reduce pollutants. In this case, considering the certainty of the role of industries in polluting the coasts of Bandar Abbas and considering the conclusions obtained in this study, it is necessary to observe the rules and standards of environmental protection and apply these rules in neighboring industries.

Nanoparticles have a wide range of applications due to their unique biological andphysicochemical properties. Among metal nanoparticles, silver nanoparticlesare of special importance due to their wide application. Although there are severalchemical and physical methods for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles, biologicalmethods are more suitable due to their time and low energy, non-use of toxicsolvents, and biocompatibility. In this study, an aqueous extract of dried flowers ofAchillea eriophora (Shirazi yarrow) was used as a reducing agent for the synthesisof silver nanoparticles. The reaction was performed at room temperatureand showed a change in color from pale yellow to dark brown to form silvernanoparticles. UV-Vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fouriertransforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and particle sizing (PSA) were used toevaluate the physicochemical properties of the formed nanoparticles. Thepresence of an absorption peak at a wavelength of about 450 nm confirmed theformation of silver nanoparticles. SEM results showed that the shape of particleswas spherical and their particle size ranges were from 38 to 144 nm. FTIR resultsalso showed the role of reducing groups on the surface of nanoparticles. Theresults of PSA showed that the particles have low polydispersity and the extractis desirable for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles. Based on these results, itcan be said that the synthesis of silver nanoparticles by Shirazi yarrow extractis a simple, fast, non-toxic, and biocompatible method and can be used in food,medicine, and agriculture.

English enjoys a unique place in the process of globalization, of which many other languages are deprived. In commerce, science, technology, politics and cultural relations English has an undeniable presence and influence. To mitigate the dominating role of the English language and to alleviate the challenging attitudes towards this language, a few models have been proposed which mostly emphasize the global nature of English and attempt to ignore its cultural interactions and impacts. Globalization in its present form is a model and way of life imposed upon the world by the U.S and the other western countries which share a great deal of cultural similarities. English serves as a medium for boosting the cultural impact of the western countries such as U.S and England upon the world. Through the English language, thoughts, cultural values and traditions of the western nations are propagated in the world, which leads to the hegemony of the western culture. This form of globalization does not conform with globalization which is defined as sharing the values and notions of all cultures and nations. In fact, this tendency may lead to the hegemony of one language and its associated culture over other languages and cultures. It seems that the more a language is employed in various social, economic or military situations, the more its hegemony reveals itself in international affairs. The power of the English language is closely associated with the GNP of the U.S and England. Economic power leads to military power and paves the way for colonialism and imperialism. As the recent history reveals, the colonies had to learn English because it meant survival in a changing world. Additionally, the new colonialism is forcing the people of all nations which want to have a share in the globalization process to adopt the same strategy, which means to speak English. Nowadays, English is employed as the language of the international organizations and financial bodies, the language of science and technology, the language of trade and economy, the language of international law and judiciary systems, the language of tourism, media, higher education, etc. Globally, English is the language of the top fifty scientific journals of the world which are published in the U.S and England. At the same time, the greatest bulk of the published materials are in English.
On the basis of the discussion, English as a means through which globalization process is spreading has turned out as threatening other languages and cultures. The domination of this language has thus been associated with the hegemony that English speaking countries, especially United Sates, are exerting across the world. This hegemony has sometimes been very radically interpreted as linguistic genocide resulting in the destruction and extinction of other languages. In order to fight the challenges posed by the unilateral dissemination of the English Language, some scholars have been stimulated to think up new models for the English language, all of which lay an emphasis on the global identity of English as a multicultural and value-free medium. Despite all the attempts made, the status quo does not seem far removed. The present article is thus intended to argue that the growing prevalence of English worldwide is the growth of a specific thought and culture, with globalization as an asymmetrical pattern for world convergence, not contributing to the universality of the language. To that end, the paper first theoretically brings to the fore the significant changes occurring to the advantage of the English language showing that the neutral models attempted to account for the fair role of the language cannot be justifiably explained. In other words, it is argued that the top-down force of the economy and sociopolitical power of the US has pushed aside much of the linguistic and cultural diversity. To concretize the argument, the paper presents a content analysis of Interchange Series to unfold the unilateral cultural density of the books. The findings reveal that the Interchange Series are fraught with the lopsided views of culture defining features such as ‘values, norms, carrier agents of cultures, and cultural products’ which are detected in the books. The results substantiate the theoretical stance of English Language unilateralism elaborated above, and the hegemonic effects it is assumed to exert on the learners of the language

The current study aims to investigate how Iranian EFL students make use of compliments in Persian and English. To that end, 50 students majoring in English as a foreign language from Isfahan and Tehran, and Sheikhbahaee universities were asked to respond to a Discourse Completion Test consisting of six situations in both English and Persian. They were asked to put themselves in those situations and respond to the compliments made on them. The results of the study showed that in addition to pre-existing categories of compliment responses, Iranians made use of other strategies not included in the pre-existing categories of compliments. Furthermore, in both English and Persian languages, students made use of compliments in the same order: accept, evade and reject strategies. The results of this study could add to crosscultural findings, differences or similarities regarding compliments as a beneficial way of studying speech acts.

This study was undertaken to cast light over EFL learner's perception of culture. To that end, a group of English language learners was taught English through Interchange Series and their perception of culture was assessed using a researcher constructed questionnaire. The same questionnaire was also administered to the parents of the same learners to detect any probable differences. The results revealed that the EFL learners are largely distinct from their parents in perceptions of the designated cultural issues. While EFL learners were oriented towards Western Culture, their parents were lopsided towards domestic issues.

This classroom-based study sets out to study the relationships that EFL learners would form in peer responses in an EFL writing class. It examines Storch’s (2002a) patterns of peer interaction when intermediate learners are paired with partners of different L2 proficiency levels. To discover the factors that could affect the nature of peer interactions, at first a proficiency test of TOEFL was administered and thus the participants were distinguished based on their scores, into the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Further, the participants were asked to choose a partner and review each other’s writing in pair while being audio recorded. To examine learners’ behaviors from the perspective of participants involved, they were interviewed individually after the recording session. As the focus was on intermediate partnership, the data of 12 intermediate students (i.e. 6 pairs) interacting with an advanced, intermediate or beginner partner were analyzed. The findings showed that although proficiency levels narrowly affected the participants’ performances in peer responses, they did not determine them. The study revealed that it is not just the actual proficiency levels but the relationships that learners form, the roles that they adopt, and their partner’s behaviors as the factors which shape the dyadic talk. It was further found that the partners’ roles are shaped by their positioning in relation to their peers and the issues on which learners focus during their engagement in the task.

Salvia eremophila Boiss. belongs to Lamiaceae family is one of the most aromatic exclusive plants in Iran. This study was evaluated by comparing in quality and quantity of Salvia eremophila Boiss. essential oil during different stages of plant growth in spring and summer 2014 (Marvar region of Yazd province). Aerial parts of plant were collected in different stages: before blooming, in blooming, full blooming and fruit ripening. The essential oil samples were extracted by water-distillation (Clevenger apparatus) and were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. Results were showed that in both spring and summer the most amount of essential oil were related in fruit ripening stage equaled to 1.99 and 1.59 % respectively, in which α-pinene, borneol, bornyl acetate and camphene were the major compounds of essential oil during these two seasons, respectively. The α-pinene (35.97%) and camphene (12.11%) were the main components of plant essential oil in spring, while the borneol (24.37%) and bornyl acetate (19.26%) were the main essential oil components in summer stage, respectively. So in fruit ripening the plant had the highest amounts of essential oil yield and Salvia eremophila Boiss. is also reported as one of the sources of extracting alpha-pinene.

Vasha (Dorema ammoniacum) is one of the valuable forage, pharmaceutical and industrial plant that is endemic to Iran. In this study, some of habitat characteristics including climate, soil (physical and chemical properties) and geographical situation, phenology and gum yield of vasha were studied. To characterize the habitat soil, 9 profiles from habitat and 3 profiles out of habitat were sampled. Phenological stages were recorded with repeated visits to the region since March to August. To determine gum yield, at first average amount of gum by every plant calculated and then according to plant density, gum yield per hectare was calculated. The results showed that areas with Loamy-Sand soils and pH between 8.3 to 8.7 can be considered as one of the vasha suitable habitat. 472 plant/ha and 1/17 percent were density and cover of vasha, respectively. The amount of gum that produced by every plant was determined 130.3 g. The phenological studies showed that the onset of growth of vasha in this area is in March late to middle of April. According to this survey it is recommended gum harvesting starts from early July at 4-5 times. Based on climatic data, late December was determined as the most appropriate sowing of vasha seeds in the Bafgh.

This study investigated the effect of applying the dynamic system theory (DST) and cognitive linguistics (CL) insights into grammar instruction on EFL learners’ learning of English prepositions and learner autonomy. Sixty Iranian EFL learners at the lower-intermediate level of language proficiency were randomly assigned to 1 experimental and 1 control group. The 2 groups filled out an autonomy questionnaire and took a test of preposition measuring their knowledge of on, over, around, for, and under. Then, the experimental group received a DST/CL-based instruction using image-schemas, whereas the control group followed a traditional approach of repetitions, drills, and substitutions for teaching of the same prepositions. Finally, to examine the effectiveness of the DST/CL-based program, the 2 groups were given the posttests of preposition and learner autonomy. Based on the results, the experimental group outperformed the control group on the test of prepositions, but did not show significant differences regarding the perception of learner autonomy. This indicates that the DST/CL-based approach which relies on meaningful motivation of explicit and underlying levels of interactions leads to better retention and learning of prepositions, but may not contribute to learner autonomy if practiced for a limited period of time.

In this paper, Nano fibers (Engelhard Corporation titanosilicate number 10 / polyacrylonitrile) ETS-10 / PAN, as a composite exchanger to absorb heavy metals, were synthesized and optimized. Several parameters were affected on this absorption. Results show that the optimization sizes of the Nano fibers are about 75 nanometers. Structures were analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDAX). Furthermore, identification and measurement of the pore and absorbent surface to volume ratio was performed with BET analysis.

Lexical bundles are frequent word combinations that commonly appear in different registers. They have been the subject of much research in the area of corpus linguistics during the last decade. While most previous studies of bundles have mainly focused on variations in the use of these word combinations across different registers and a number of disciplines, not much research has been done to explore some high-stakes written academic genres of one single disciplinary area. This more qualitative study aimed at finding the way in which target bundles in the discipline of applied linguistics, as identified in research articles, were used by two groups of EFL postgraduate students (master-level and doctoral students) as novice discourse community members in the same discipline. Surprisingly enough, the study, contrary to some findings of the previous research, found that in many cases, postgraduate students were able to use target bundles as published writers did. The study, therefore, revealed little if any difference between the three groups of writers in their actual use of lexical bundles. Notwithstanding this, there were some remarkable discrepancies between the three groups with regard to some structural and functional classes of bundles.

Lexical bundles, as building blocks of coherent discourse, have been the subject of much research in the last two decades. While many of such studies have been mainly concerned with exploring variations in the use of these word sequences across different registers and disciplines, very few have addressed the use of some particular groups of lexical bundles within some genres of academy. To address generic variations, this research focused on anticipatory it bundles as a particular structural group of bundles. More specifically, this study chose to investigate range, frequency, and function of these word clusters in applied linguistics research articles and postgraduate writing. Through the use of two big corpora of research articles and postgraduate theses, two text analysis programs, and a functional taxonomy of it bundles, this study found that it bundles were used relatively frequently in both published and postgraduate writing. Functional analysis showed that anticipatory it lexical bundles served a wide variety of functions in both genres investigated. This study also revealed that some anticipatory it lexical bundles commonly used by students in their postgraduate writing did not count as bundles in research articles, both in terms of variety and frequency. As for implications, the study calls for the incorporation of such clusters in L2 and/or EAP (English for Academic Purposes).

The role of L1 in second/foreign language learning has been the subject of much debate and controversy. This article reports on a piece of research carried out in a junior high school in Isfahan, Iran. This study was conducted to examine the effect of using translation from L1 to L2 on the improvement of EFL learner's language accuracy. To fulfill the purpose of the study, 62 students in grade three of junior high school were chosen by means of administering an experimental made pre-test. The participants were divided into a control group and an experimental group. The experimental group received grammar exercises in translating some phrases and sentences from Persian into English related to the intended grammatical structures during the study period while the control group just did their textbook exercises. At the end, a post-test was given to the students and the mean scores of the two groups were identified. T-test revealed that the treatment had a considerable effect on student's language accuracy.

This study was intended first to categorize the L2 learners in terms of their learning style preferences and second to investigate if their learning preferences are related to lexical inferencing. Moreover, strategies used for lexical inferencing and text related issues of text density and parts of speech were studied to determine their moderating effects and the best predictors of lexical inferencing. To this end, a posttest group design with 142 students studying engineering was adopted for the study. Perceptual style preferences questionnaire was administered to identify the students’ major learning styles, followed by strategy training for deriving the meaning of unknown words. Finally, lexical inferencing texts were given to the students to study and extract the meaning of unknown words and concurrently determine the type of strategy used for lexical inferencing. The results indicated that a great proportion of students belonged to the kinesthetic category of styles while the predominant treatments in the class were audio-visually structured. The analysis also revealed that tactile, kinesthetic, and group categories of style preferences are meaningfully related. Moreover, it was found that learning style preferences lead to statistically different lexical ineferncing. As for the strategies, the ‘syntactic knowledge analysis’ showed the highest correlation with ‘auditory learners’. Lexical density and parts of speech were also shown to moderate the effect of perceptual style preferences on lexical ability. On the whole, strategy and perceptual style preferences were found to be the two best predictors of successful lexical inferencing.

To cast light over the modality specific nature of short-term memory (STM)، the present research set out to investigate if dual modalities of verbal and visual presentations of vocabulary in a foreign language context are accommodated differently by STM. Due to the recognition of the role gender can play in information processing and thus learning، the study also tried to illuminate the moderating effect of gender. To that end، English language learners of an institute in Iran were placed into four different (STM) ability groups، using Visual and Verbal STM Test and then each ability group was divided into two male/female parts. Also، cell phone based vocabulary delivery with different annotations was already adapted to the cell phone screen to be accessed by learners'' via Bluetooth application. The subjects were evaluated on their recognition and recall of vocabulary items taught. The analysis indicated that STM (high visual & high verbal) accommodates very well to delivery of materials with pictorial and/or written annotation (s)، resulting in better vocabulary learning on both recall and recognition tests. Low-visual and low-verbal ability group showed better results under no annotation condition. The two points clearly confirm that STM aligns with the related modes of presentation. The results of the study point to the minimal relevance of STM to learners'' gender in L2 vocabulary learning compared to the presentation modes having a bearing on processing orientations.

This study aimed at uncovering the extent to which individual and collaborative learning and practicing English letter writing via short texting (SMS) affect Iranian student's English letter writing ability. Accordingly, 60 intermediate university students who managed to complete the second stage of a letter writing test (Hulteinus, 2010) were divided into two groups, collaborative and individual, to learn 30 English letter writing features in ten virtual sessions through the medium of short texting; that is, three new notes per session. Using SMS, the first group of learners, divided into 10 triple groups, received the didactic materials from educational center (i.e., intelligent server) and then learned and practiced them collaboratively, while the learners in the second group received the same content from the same channel, but practiced it individually. Finally, the students took part in a test of letter writing, namely, a battery composed of three subtests, the data of which were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. Also, to study the participant's attitudes about individual or collaborative ways of practicing English through SMS, they were required to answer a Likert type attitude questionnaire. Analyzing learner's performance in the test battery indicated that the learners who practiced learning content (English letter writing notes) with their peers outperformed their counterparts in the second group who learned the materials individually. In addition, although both groups displayed favorable attitudes towards collaborative learning and the application of SMS as a medium, the amount of tendency for mlearning was higher among the learners of the collective group.

Autonomy plays a crucial role in the enhancement of important learning qualities in the learners. In that line of thinking، this study was launched to discover how English language learners exposed to an autonomously managed versus teacher controlled conditions would respond to the learning determinants. Two classes of English language learners at Isfahan University of Technology، Iran were thus treated under the two learning conditions. On the closing days of the semester، they were administered a questionnaire constructed based on three action phases of learning، namely، forethought، performance/volitional control، and self reflection. The questionnaire statements were rated on the Likert scale. The data analysis revealed that autonomy to a large extent determines the learners'' views of learning. The class where autonomy was practiced showed a great deal of motivational boost or what is reinterpreted as forethought. The other two categories of learning، namely، their performance and self reflection، were also distinctly better perceived by the autonomous learners. The results point out the significance of preparing learners through autonomy for the prospective independent and critical learning.

This study sought to investigate identity construction in English language learners using critical discourse analysis (CDA). To that end, a number of western cultural points extracted from Interchange Series were integrated into a questionnaire, asking learners to display their own feelings, behaviors, actions and reactions to the points raised. The questionnaire-generated data coupled with interview constituted the study data, which was analyzed using Fairclough CDA framework. The results indicated that the learners (1) positively evaluate the western cultural points raised; (2) demonstrate various cultural orientations; (3) accept their compatibility with the text- based behaviors, and (4) disregard their critical own role in such cultural orientations. Also, the findings showed learners adopt different strategies to achieve their goals.

This paper reports the findings of a study designed to investigate English e-requests of Iranian EFL postgraduate students (i.e., nonnative speakers of English) made to their professors during their education at Islamic Azad University, Najaf Abad Branch, Isfahan, Iran, to find out types of politeness features employed in the students’ e-mails and the extent to which these features might influence the degree of politeness of the students’ e-mails to the faculty. To that end, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed to investigate 60 English e-mails composed by the participants. The findings revealed that the Iranian students’ English e-mails were not overly adorned with politeness features. The results also indicated that such direct and unmodified e-mails failed to create e-polite messages to the faculty and, therefore, were capable of causing pragmatic failure.

This study tries to critically unravel the way Islam is represented in western discourse through establishing the relationship between language and ideology, the forms it takes and its potential effect. To that end, headlines from widely circulated print media of the west including the Independent, the New York Times, the Herald Tribune, and The Times from January 1, 2008 to December 30, 2012 were selected and Islam and Muslim reproductions were studied therein. This study was carried out using a synthesis of Edward Said's notion of "Orientalism" and Van Dijk's notion of "ideological square", characterized by "positive self-presentation" and a simultaneous "negative other presentation". The analysis demonstrated that Islam is repetitively stereotyped and Muslims are negatively represented, both through various types of linguistic choices selected and via special construction of the headlines. The educational implications of critical discourse analysis in general and the present study in particular are discussed in relation to teaching, learning and translating the English language.

Though not every educator approves of the sweeping role the mobile devices can have in education, mobile learning (m-learning) is pushing the limits further taking over a greater share of the tasks. This is basically arising from all the advantages including availability, portability, convenience, versatility, etc. associated with this mode of learning. In that line of thinking, the present study set out to combine the cognitive theories of education and mini- laptop as one important device in m-learning and sought how Iranian learners of the English language experience learning L2 vocabulary. To that end, as many as 161 L2 learners, aged 18-23, were homogenized through a language proficiency test and then placed into four different short term memory (STM) ability groups, using Visual and Verbal Short Term Memory Test (Chen et al., 2005). Also, mini-laptop-based vocabulary presentations with different annotations, i.e., pictorial vs. written, were already prepared and run on the learners’ laptops through Bluetooth application. Their treatment lasted for two sessions and finally they were evaluated on their recognition and recall of vocabulary items taught. The results indicated that the delivery of materials with pictorial or written annotation to learners with high-visual and high-verbal abilities results in better vocabulary learning. Also, the delivery of materials with pictorial annotation to the learners with high-visual ability and their delivery with written annotation to the learners with high-verbal ability results in better vocabulary learning. Low-visual and low-verbal ability group also showed better results under no annotation condition. The results of the study point to the efficacy of congruity between the mode of material presentation and learners’ cognitive orientations.