پژوهش نامه ی آموزش زبان فارسی به غیر فارسی زبانان
پیاپی 18 (پاییز و زمستان 1398)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of using self-regulation learning strategies on Arab Persian language learners' academic achievement. This study was descriptive and 45 male and female students from the Persian language center of Imam Khomeini International University were selected as participants through random sampling. The Pintrich and De Groot’s Self-Regulation Learning Strategies Inventory (1990) was used as a tool for data collection. The learners’ grade point averages on a four-skill coordinated test of Persian language in the academic year 2017-18 were considered as indicators of academic achievement. After filling out the questionnaire, the data were analyzed by means of Pearson correlation coefficient test, t-test of two independent samples, and a stepwise multiple regression. The results of this study showed that, in learning Persian language as a second language, there is a significant positive correlation between self-regulation, self-efficacy and internal evaluation and academic achievement. Between test anxiety and academic success, a significant negative correlation was observed. Also, in this study, there was no significant difference between male and female learners in applying self-regulation strategies. Cognitive strategies positively, and test anxiety negatively predicted the academic achievement of Persian learners. At the end, suggestions were offered for Persian language instructors to have their students attend to the use of self-regulation learning strategies. Extended Abstract</strong> In the area of ​​academic achievement, one of the most influential theories of learning is the theory of learning strategies. According to (Omalley & Chamot, 1990), learning strategies are skills that are first acquired as declarative knowledge and eventually become highly procedural knowledge through practice. Different researchers have classified strategic learning in different classifications (Griffiths, 2008). Zimmerman (2015) provided a broader classification of self-regulated strategies according to an active process which involves thoughts, emotions, and spontaneous behaviors and guides one towards the goals he or she has set for himself. Therefore, self-regulated learners are introduced as individuals who contribute to their learning.</strong> In the past few years, non-Persian speakers of different L1 backgrounds have been learning Farsi, and many centers within Iran have been entrusted with teaching Persian as a second language. Therefore, the role of influencing factors on improving Persian learning process and efficient learning is of great importance. Considering the background of the studies and the importance of self-regulation skills as an effective factor in appropriate and effective learning on the one hand and the importance of academic achievement on the other hand, research has been conducted in English and other languages. The impact of applying self-regulated learning strategies on the success rate of non-Iranian students, no reliable research has been conducted to date. Therefore, it seems necessary to examine the impact of such learning strategies on the success rate of non-Iranian students who are learning Farsi as a second language. Therefore, the present study sought to discover the relationship between the use of self-regulated learning strategies and the academic achievement of non-Iranian Persian-speaking students by using the results obtained in Persian as a second language to improve their learning and academic achievement.  With this aim in mind the following hypotheses were considered: 1. There is a significant relationship between the use of self-regulated learning strategies and academic achievement of Arab Persian language learners. 2. There is a significant relationship between the use of motivational beliefs (self-efficacy, intrinsic evaluation, and anxiety) and academic achievement of non-Iranian Persian learners. 3. There is a significant relationship between gender and the use of self-regulated learning strategies. 4. The contribution of each of the self-regulation strategies and motivational beliefs to the prediction of Persian language learners’ academic achievement is different. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of using self-regulation learning strategies on Persian language learners' academic achievement.  This study was descriptive and 45 male and female Persian language learners studying at Imam Khomeini International University were selected as participants through random sampling. The Pintrich and De Groot’s Self-Regulation Learning Strategies Inventory (1990) was used as a tool for data collection. The learners’ grade point averages on a four-skill coordinated test of Persian language in the academic year 2017-18 were considered as indicators of academic achievement.  After answering the Farsi version of the questionnaire, the data were analyzed by means of Pearson correlation coefficient test, t-test of two independent samples, and stepwise multiple regression.  The results of this study showed that in learning Persian as a second language, there is a significant positive correlation between self-regulation, self-efficacy and internal evaluation and academic success. Between test anxiety and academic success, a significant negative correlation was observed.  Also, in this study, there was no significant difference between male and female learners in applying self-regulation strategies. According to the results, in teaching Persian as a second language, teachers should not only pay attention to what is to be taught, but also how and how to learn it. Planners and authors of Persian language teaching books to non-speakers can adjust their educational content according to the principles of self-regulation learning strategies so that teaching through these strategies makes learning more efficient and lasting. Teachers can also get acquainted with this type of learning by holding science courses. Studies show that when using self-regulated learning, 80% of classroom activities are done by the learners and only 20% by the teacher. Therefore, teachers should manage the classroom so that the learners can self-organize and manage most of the activities and hold themselves responsible for their own learning. As a suggestion for future research, it may be worthwhile to study Farsi acquisition by non-Arabic-speaking nationalities in the context of self-regulated learning and compare the results with the research results of this study. On the other hand, the study of the effect of teaching self-regulated learning strategies on the development of Persian language as a second language can also be the subject of future research.

Undoubtedly, mental and conceptual complexities are reflected in the language, as well. Relative clauses are a sample of mental and conceptual complexities which in recent decades,many studies have tried to decode their perception and representation patterns. This topic becomes even more important when it is concerned with teaching language. In the present research, in order to facilitate the teaching of relative clauses, especially to non-native Persian language learners, four kinds of relative clauses including: subject-subject, subject-object, object-object, and object-subject were studied. Perception speed of several forms of each pattern was measured through a computer-based test and twosoftware programs calledMulti Timer Ultimatespeedometerand Snagitscreen capture. The results of the two groups were compared. The data were analyzed through SPSS software (Version 23) and the results indicated that there was no significant difference betweenfour types of relative clauses in terms of perception speed; that is, there wasno relationship between perception speed and the type of relative clause, and both native Persian speakers and Persian language learners can understand these four types of relative clauses at a relatively similar time frame; but the choice of the type was related to being a native Persian speaker or a Persian language learner. Extended Abstract</strong>A reflection of the various mental and conceptual complexities can be found in language. Relative clauses are known as one of the mental and conceptual complexities in various languages around the world. Research on the importance of relative clauses and their typology has received a great deal of attention during the past few decades. Research on relative clauses aimed to decode and reveal linguistic perception patterns in various languages around the world. This type of research is an inseparable part of teaching a language and its results greatly impact the approaches, methods, and techniques used by teachers around the world. In the present research, in order to improve the quality and simplicity of teaching relative clauses to non-native Persian learners, four kinds of relative clauses including: subject-subject, subject-object, object-object, and object-subject were studied.  In order to conduct the research, perception speed regarding several forms of each pattern were investigated through a researcher made computer-based test. This computer-based test was designed through the use of two computer softwares, namely, Multi Timer Ultimatespeedometer and Snagitscreen capture. This study utilized a comparative method in order to compare the two groups of participants. The two groups included 32 university students who were studying at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and 32 advanced non-native Persian learners studying at the International Center for Teaching Persian to Non- Persian Speakers at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. The advanced non-native Persian learners were all international students who had applied to the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and had to learn and pass the Persian language courses before gaining admission into their post graduate studies. Each participant was given a written consent form which included the aims of the research and the purpose of investigation, a general description of the study, the task each participant was expected to perform, confidentiality of the test results, and also the right of the participants to withdraw from the study at any point in time. One of the researchers was also present to answer any possible questions that the participants might have. After the consent forms were signed by both the participants and the researchers, a copy of the consent form was given to the participants. The computer test included 8 sentences containing relative clauses 4 of which were the main samples and 4 were confirmatory ones to check the overall perception of the participants. Each participant was asked to sit in front of a computer screen and answer the questions which were displayed on a Microsoft Word file. Multi Timer Ultimate speedometer and Snagitscreen capture were used to pace and monitor the participants’ responses. The speedometer software recorded the time lapse while participants selected the order of sentences and the time difference between comprehending one sentence and moving onto the next sentence was calculated through the use of the recorded times. The Snagitscreen capture was used in order to record the participants’ performance during the test so that each reaction of the participant could be studied further and in more detail after the test.  The test included two parts: first, the participants were asked to read each of the 4 sentences in order and to tick which one they understood faster. Multi Timer Ultimate speedometer was used to record how long it took the participant to comprehend the sentences.  In the second part of the test, the participants were asked to reorder the sentences based on their understanding, and also elaborate on the reason behind their selected order of sentence placement. The directions in the second part of the computer test pointed out that the order of sentence placement did not have to be the same one as the original sequence selected by the researchers. The collected data was analyzed through the use of SPSS software (Version 23). The most prominent results of the present study included the following: A positive correlation was found between the main and the confirmatory tests regarding all 4 types of relative clauses, namely, subject-subject, subject-object, object-object, and object-subject. This affirms the validity of the collected data. Based on the obtained t-test results, the average speed of perception regarding all 4 types of relative clauses under study, namely, subject-subject, subject-object, object-object, and object-subject The results also indicated that there was no significant difference regarding the perception speed of these four relative clauses; that is, both native Persian speakers and non-native Persian learners can understand these four relative clauses in a relatively similar time frame. 

Important role of willingness to communicate (WTC) in learning a second language has made scholars to look for the variables that can enhance WTC among language learners. This study was an effort to examine the interrelationships between WTC, self-concept, ideal L2 self, and teacher credibility among Persian learners experimentally. That is, the effects of two personal variables (self-concept, ideal L2 self,) and a social variable (teacher credibility) on WTC were measured. To this end, 136 Persian learners participated in the study. They were asked to complete WTC (Khatib & Nourzadeh, 2014), ideal L2 self (Papi, 2010), self-concept (Erten, 2015), and teacher credibility (McCroskey & Teven, 1999) questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and regression analyses showed that teacher credibility, self-concept, and ideal L2 self could predict the participants’ WTC. Finally, some measures were suggested for the improvement of WTC.  </strong> Extended Abstract</strong> Important role of willingness to communicate (WTC) in learning a second language has made scholars look for the variables that can influence its level among language learners. This study was an effort to examine the interrelationships between WTC, ideal L2 self, self-concept, and teacher credibility among Persian learners. WTC refers to the tendency of language learners to start communication when they are given a choice not to do so. However, language learners are different from one another in terms of WTC; some of them prefer to be silent while others prefer to take part in communicative tasks and activities. MacIntyre et al. (1998), in their exploratory model, argue that WTC is not a constant variable, and its level is influenced by several personal and situational variables.Self-concept (Erten& Burden, 2014) and ideal L2 self (Dörnyei, 2005) are among the motivational variables, which have recently received considerable attention from scholars. Self-concept refers to language learners’ perceptions of their language learning abilities. Ideal L2 self, on the other hand, refers to the goals that language learners want to achieve and the person they want to become by learning L2. It can be argued that if language learners have positive perceptions about their language learning abilities and set higher goals for themselves to achieve by learning L2, their motivation to take part in classroom tasks and activities and hence their level of WTC increase too. Teacher credibility (Trad et al., 2014) is another situational variable, which can influence language learners’ engagement with tasks and activities. Teacher credibility refers to language learners’ perceptions of their teacher’s knowledge and skills, and how well s/he can teach. It can be stated that if language learners have positive beliefs about their teachers’ abilities, their engagement with language learning tasks and activities can increase. However, the interrelationship between language learners’ WTC, self-concept, and ideal L2 self and teacher credibility is yet to be examined, especially in Persian learning contexts.The sample of this study included 136 Persian language learners from different countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. The participants were asked to respond to self-concept, ideal L2 self, teacher credibility, and WTC scales. Participation in this study was voluntary, and those learners who agreed to participate were instructed how to respond to the questionnaires. Pearson correlation coefficient tests and standard multiple regression were performed to analyze the data. The results revealed that there was a positive correlation between WTC, ideal L2 self, self-concept, and teacher credibility. Additionally, standard multiple regression showed that academic self-concept, ideal L2 self, and teacher credibility could predict the participants’ WTC. The results of the present study can suggest that to increase Persian learners’ WTC, which can significantly contribute to their Persian development, efforts should be made to increase their level of motivational variables such as self-concept and ideal L2 self. If Persian learners consider themselves as successful language learners and have higher goals for their Persian learning, their motivation to take part in classroom activities and to engage with language learning materials and tasks improves and hence their WTC. Moreover, teachers can increase their Persian learners’ WTC by using appropriate interpersonal and teaching behaviors and supporting their students in their language learning process.

This paper attempted to study the post-reading questions of Persian textbooks used at primary schools (4th, 5th and 6th grades) in terms of Barrett’s taxonomy. The research method was descriptive-analytic. At first, the post-reading questions of the textbooks were counted (394) and they were classified into 5 levels and 27 sub-categories of Barrett’s taxonomy. Then, the distribution of questions at different levels of the reading taxonomy was explored. Results from the codification of the 394 questions showed that the questions were not evenly distributed among the five levels of the taxonomy. The majority of the questions were of the recall type. High frequency of recall questions in the 4th</sup>, 5th</sup>, and 6th</sup> grade books showed that majority of the questions (64.10%) dealt with lowest level of reading skill. In addition, a significant difference was found between the post-reading questions of the textbooks in their inclusion of different levels of reading skill. That is, as the students proceeded to higher grades and their cognition and language competence developed, the level of questions became higher. The findings of this study can be used as a guide to textbook designers (in writing questions) and teachers (in answering questions) to modify their materials and practice to achieve the teaching-learning objectives of the reading skill. Extended Abstract</strong> This paper attempted to study the post-reading questions of Persian textbooks used at primary schools (4th</sup>, 5th</sup> and 6th</sup> grades) in terms of Barrett taxonomy. It is crucial to investigate what kind of cognitive skills are expected to be used in the post-reading questions of the present textbooks. Barrett’s taxonomy categorizes  reading  comprehension   skills  into  five  levels  of  comprehension. They are  presented  in  the  hierarchy  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  level  of  reading including literal, reorganization, inference, evaluation, and appreciation. The Barrett’s taxonomy was originally designed to assist classroom teachers in developing comprehension questions and test questions for reading. It is especially useful for classroom questioning in other content areas as well. The first two categories, literal comprehension and reorganization, deal with the facts as presented directly in the books the students have read, and thus result in closed questions that have a single correct response. Literal comprehension focuses on ideas and information which are explicitly stated in the selection.  Purposes for reading and teacher’s questions designed to elicit responses at this level may range from simple to complex. Reorganization requires the student to analyze, synthesize, and organize ideas or information clearly stated in the passage. The remaining categories will always involve the student’s own background of experience. As a result, it is possible to have as many different, but correct, responses as there are students present, since each brings to school a different background of home, family, friends, and learning. These categories therefore lead to the development of open-ended questions. Inferential comprehension is stimulated by purposes for reading and teachers’ questions which demand thinking and imagination that go beyond the printed page. Personal experience is interpreted to include formal learning experiences, as well as those things which the reader has personally experienced in a first hand situation. Prior knowledge, regardless of where this knowledge came from, is an integral part of inference. The crucial factor distinguishing inference questions from recognition and recall questions is that their answers are not explicitly stated but must be inferred. Purposes for reading and teacher’s questions, in evaluation, require responses by the student which indicate that he or she has made an evaluative judgment by comparing ideas presented in the selection with external criteria provided by the teacher, other authorities, or other written sources, or with internal criteria provided by the reader’s experiences, knowledge, or values. Evaluation deals with judgment and focuses on qualities of accuracy, acceptability, desirability, worth, or probability of occurrence. Appreciation involves all the previously cited cognitive dimensions of reading, for it deals with the psychological and aesthetic impact of the selection on the reader. Appreciation calls for the student to be emotionally and aesthetically sensitive to the work and to have a reaction to the worth of its psychological and artistic elements. Appreciation includes both the knowledge of and the emotional response to literary techniques, forms, styles, and structures. The research method of this paper was descriptive-analytic. At first the post-reading questions of the textbooks were counted and they were classified according to Barrett’s taxonomy. Then the data were analyzed considering their distribution at different levels of the reading taxonomy. Results from the codification of questions showed that the majority of the items concentrated on the first level of Barrett’s taxonomy which is referred to as the lower level of reading skill. In addition, a significant difference was found between the post-reading questions of the textbooks in their inclusion of different levels of reading skill. That is, as the students proceeded to higher grades and their cognition and language competence developed, the level of questions became higher. The findings of this study can be used as a guide to textbook designers and teachers to modify their materials and practice to achieve the teaching-learning objectives of the reading skill. Therefore, it is important for teachers to realize that they should carefully analyze the questions in a textbook and evaluate for themselves whether or not they deem the questions to be adequate or appropriate for their students, and not just to blindly accept and use the questions given in textbooks. If the questions in textbooks are not adequate, teachers need to prepare other questions by themselves. To promote  student  cognitive  skills,  it  is  necessary  to  build teacher’s  competence  for  making  appropriate  cognitive questions. A  mixture  of  questions  at  various  levels  of  the taxonomy  might  result  in  effective learning  at  higher and  lower levels of thinking skills. The  advantage  of  having  textbooks  with  mixed  questions (questions at all levels) is  that low ability students perform better on knowledge recall questions and high ability  students  perform  better  on  inference, evaluation, and appreciation  level questions.

The key role of motivational factors in L2/FL learning is already acknowledged and knowledge of motivational attributes of language learners is very important in adopting appropriate teaching methods and compilation of more effective educational resources. The study aimed to compare the motivational attributes of Chinese and Lebanese Persian learners based onL2 Motivational Self System theory and the Possible Selves theory. For this purpose, two groups of 33 students were selected from Persian language teaching center of Qazvin. Theresearch instrument was a 36 item questionnaire which drew on the works of Tagouchi et al. (2009), Papi and Teimuri (2012) and Atarsharghi and Akbari (2019) with some modifications. Finally, 66 questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS 22 software.  The results showed that there were significant differencesbetween Chinese and Lebanese learners in all of the motivational factors, except for anxiety, and the motivational level of Chinese students was higher than the other group. Regardingthe anxiety factor, there was no significant difference between the two groups. ForChinese students, themaximum and the minimum obtained indexes related to the ideal L2 self and the anxiety, respectively. In the case of Lebanese learners, themaximum and the minimum obtained indexes related to theprevention oriented factors and the ideal L2 self, respectively. Extended Abstract</strong> The key role of motivational factors in L2/FL learning is acknowledged since longtime; and recognition of motivational features of language learners is very important in order to adopt appropriate training methods and to compile more effective educational resources. The aim of this research was comparing the motivational factors among Chinese and Lebanese Persian learners based on L2 Motivational Self System theory of Dornyei and the Possible Selves theory of Markus and Nurius. This study intended to respond to 2 questions: 1- Is the motivational level of Chinese learners higher than Lebanese learnersin motivational factors including the ideal L2 self, the ought-to L2 self, the L2 learning experience, the intended effort, the instrumentality-promotion items and the attitudes to L2 culture and community? 2- Is the motivational level of Lebanese group higher than Chinese group in anxiety, the L2 willingness to communicate in class, and the effect of instrumentality-prevention items? Since the middle of 20th</sup> century, the L2/FL motivational studies were mainly based on Gardner and his colleagues' ideas (Gardner & Lambert, 1959; 1972; Gardner & Macintyre, 1993; Gardner & Tremblay 1994). And some specific terms were used by experts such as integrative- instrumental motivation, and later, intrinsic-extrinsic motivation. But at the end of the century, some imperfections of Gardner's model were revealed and it was determined that the person's imaginations, mental representations and beliefs of himself have a great effect on motivation of his activities.The theory of Possible Selves represents individuals' beliefs of what they might become, what they would like become, what they are obliged to become, and what they are afraid of becoming. Possible selves derive from representations of the self in the past and they include representation of the self in the future. Each individual creates sets of different possible selves in his psyche, according to his personal experiences and the effects of relatives, society, media, and etc. Possible selves represent specific individual hopes, fears and fantasies of the person (Markus &Nurius, 1986; Rocher-Hahlin, 2014). In the early 2000s, Dornyei and his colleagues integrated Gardner, Higgins, Markus&Nurius's ideas and presented the L2 Motivational System which is one of the most modern theories for studying the L2/FL motivation. This theory contains 3 main concepts: 1. The ideal L2 self, 2.the Ought-to L2 self and 3. The L2 learning experience. In this paper, in addition to these 3 motivational factors of Dornyei's theory, we studied 6 other motivational factors, based on possible selves concept, which were: 4. The intended effort, 5. The instrumentality- prevention items, 6. The instrumentality- promotion items, 7. The attitudes to L2 culture and community, 8.The L2 willingness to communicate in class and 9. The anxiety The statistical population of the research included at first 77 persons (37 Chinese and 40 Lebanese learners), but finally 2 groups of 33 persons of them were selected. The Lebanese students were all the Persian learners of the Persian Language Center of Imam Khomeini International University, with high school diploma or bachelor degree from Lebanon, who wanted to continue studying in different academic disciplines in Iran, after learning the Persian language. Chinese learners were all the students of Persian language and literature of Xi'an University in China 22 persons of whom had come to Persian Language Center for their third year of study, while 11 other ones stayed in China. The instrument of research was a questionnaire with 36 questions based on previous researches of Taguchi et al. (2009), Papi&Teimouri (2012) and Atarsharghi&Akbari (2019) with some modificatios. The data of 66 questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS 22 software. The demographic information about age and sex of each group was shown in Tables 2 and 3; and Figures 1 and 2. The results of calculating the Chronbach's alpha coefficient for each factor and for the whole questionnaire was in an optimal and acceptable range (ɑ> 0/7), and the reliability of research instrument was approved (see Table 1). The results showed that there were significant differences in all of the motivational factors, except anxiety, among Chinese and Lebanese learners, and the motivational level of Chinese students was higher than the other group. But there was not significant difference regarding the anxiety factor. The highest and the lowest averages of indices belonged to the ideal L2 self and the anxiety for Chinese students respectively, while for Lebanese learners the respective factors were the Instrumentality-prevention items and the ideal L2 self.

Learning and teaching must have an effective relation, but of course, there is a gap between these two fields of study. That’s because of two points of view: study of learning and acquisition on the one hand and teaching and curriculum design on the other hand. However, in recent years, much attention has been paid to the nature of second language learning, because understanding the nature of the second language learning will help us to adapt our syllabus and curriculum design in accordance with the learning system and make logical connections between learning and teachings. To this end, this study scrutinized the sequence of acquisition of two types of relative clauses: restrictive and non-restrictive. So, 493 texts from a corpus of Persian learners’ written texts were analyzed. Then, the relative clauses were tagged and according to the level of language learners, they were divided into six categories. After the restrictive and non-restrictive clauses were distinguished, the acquisition of these clauses was examined. The results showed that Persian Learners, regardless of gender, nationality, method of previous teaching and age, learned restrictive relative clauses sooner than non-restrictive ones. Even after learning, they tended to use restrictive clauses more often. The implication of this study is that it is better to teach restrictive clauses sooner to accord with the learners’ sequences of learning. Extended abstract</strong> Learning and education must have an effective relation. Of course, there is a gap between these two fields of study. That’s because of two points of view: study of learning and acquisition on one hand, and teaching and curriculum design, on the other hand. However, in recent years, much attention has been paid to the nature of second language learning/acquisition because understanding the nature of the second language learning will help us to adapt our syllabus and curriculum design in accordance with the learning system. Previous studies (e.g. Fries, 1945; Lado, 1957; James, 1998) during the past decades have shown the importance of first language in acquisition of second language, but the recent studies (e.g. Selinker, 1972; Nemser, 1971; Corder, 1971) indicated that although the role of the first language in learning/acquisition of second/foreign language cannot be ignored, language learners with different first languages, follow the Universal Grammar (UG) and learners’ inter-languages are somehow similar. So, second language learners follow a sequence and order in their acquisition. Thus, in this study, sequence and order of acquisition of two types of relative clauses were scrutinized. Relative clauses can be divided into two types: restrictive and non-restrictive. A restrictive clause is a “clause which functions as an adjective to identify the word it modifies. It is essential for the intended meaning and it is not offset with commas”. On the other hand, “A nonrestrictive modifying clause (or non-essential clause) is an adjective clause that adds extra or nonessential information to a sentence. The meaning of the sentence would not change if the clauses were to be omitted and also they are usually set off by commas”. Knowing that which kind of relative clauses were learned sooner and more accurately by the students could help us to understand how and when Persian language (here relative clauses) is learned. So we can utilize these findings in our teaching, and designing our syllabi and curriculum. The question of this study is “What is the acquisition sequence of Persian relative clauses?’. We supposed that, non-Iranian Persian language learners, learn restrictive relative clauses sooner than non-restrictive clauses and they use this type of relative clause more often than non-restrictive one. The reason behind this hypothesis is that this kind of relative clauses are syntactically easier because there is no movement or extra structure on their derivation. In order to test this hypothesis, 493 Persian learner’s written texts were analyzed. The learners were from various countries such as Austria, Argentina, Spain, Australia, Afghanistan, Slovakia, Slovenia, Algeria, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Italy, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Germany, USA, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Pakistan, Portugal, Tajikistan, Taiwan, Turkey, Tunisia, Czech, China, Russia, Romania, Syria, Switzerland, Serbia, Iraq, France, Kyrgyzstan, Croatia, Colombia, Georgia, Lebanon, Poland, Hungary, Egypt and India. Therefore, the first language of learners is not influential factor in this study. The data were collected from two exams (placement test and progress test which is conducted by Sa’di Foundation in 2015 & 2016) and the learners had to use at least 120 words in their writings. After that, the data were gathered and tagged as a restrictive relative clauses and non-restrictive relative clauses. According to the level of language learners, they were divided into six groups; beginner, elementary, low intermediate, intermediate, upper intermediate, advanced, and proficient. The results showed that regardless of gender, nationality, method of previous teaching and age, in general, the higher level students use restrictive relative clauses in their language more accurately. And the emergence of non-restrictive relative clause occurs later and less than the other type even in advanced and proficient levels. Thus, we can conclude that the Persian language learners will learn restrictive relative clauses sooner than non-restrictive ones. The interesting point of this study is that even after learning non-restrictive relative clauses, the Persian language learners tend to use restrictive clauses more often. Perhaps this happens because of the economy principle (the least effort) of language which was introduced for the first time by Zipf (1949). The aim of this principle is the maximum effect with the least input. So, as non-restrictive relative clauses have extra information, language learners prefer not to use it as long as they can. On the other hand, they tend to use restrictive relative clause because of the meaning that it determines. Since one of the most important issues in second/foreign language learning/acquisition is native-like competence, we can conclude that it is better to teach restrictive clauses before non-restrictive relative clauses to incorporate education and sequences of learning/acquisition for effective teaching and learning.

The present study compared the effects of the traditional and the phonics-based methods of teaching Persian alphabet on adult Persian language learners' reading skill. The study aimed to identify the appropriate method of teaching Persian alphabet to non-Persian speakers and, based on it, to prepare and compile learning materials. The participants of this study were eight Chinese learners of Persian language who worked in Tabas Mining Group Company and aged between 24 to 31 years old. They were assigned to control and experimental groups. In the control group, the traditional method and in the experimental group, the phonics-based method was used to teach Persian alphabet. Through SPSS software package, t-tests were run on data to detect significant differences between the control and experimental groups. The results of the study showed that compared to the traditional group, the phonics-based group performed significantly better in word reading and reading comprehension. Extended Abstract</strong> Research problem: Over the last decade, there has been an unprecedented growth in the number of foreign learners of Persian language. To cater for the needs of these learners, many measures should be taken. One of the most important measures involves the improvement of teaching materials and teaching methods. That is, it is necessary to identify appropriate teaching methods for various language skills and components. Reading as one of the important language skills requires facility with the letters of alphabet. In many Iranian schools and Persian language teaching centers, Persian language instruction begins with the teaching of alphabet. Learning the alphabet of a language is essential to acquire the ability to read and write in the language. There are several ways to teach alphabet. In the traditional method, Persian language letters are taught in the alphabetical order regardless of phonetic properties, and letters that are similar in form or have similar sounds are taught together. This method has not provided satisfactory results in terms of reading skill. To improve learners’ reading skills, other methods of teaching alphabet have been proposed one of which is called phonics method. In phonics method, the letters are taught in a non-alphabetical order. The order of presentation is determined by factors such as simplicity, familiarity, and frequency of application.This study aimed to compare the effects of traditional and phonics-based methods of teaching Persian alphabet on the reading skill of Chinese learners of Persian language.Theoretical background</strong>: For the teaching of reading and writing skills, three methods have been proposed which include analytic method, holistic method, and hybrid method (Sabaghian, 2000). The analytic method is based on the theory that teaching should begin with the parts and move towards the whole. Thus, the teaching of reading and writing skills begins with the smallest linguistic units, namely letters, sounds, and syllables and then extends to words, phrases, sentences, and texts. In the holistic method, teaching of reading and writing begins with the whole and progresses towards the parts. This theory is based on Gestalt theory which recommends the logical progression from the whole to the part. In this method, first the text and the sentences, and then the words, the syllables, the letters, and the sounds are taken into account. The holistic method is based on the theory that teaching and learning should begin with larger meaningful units such as sentences and words, and end with smaller units. The hybrid method is a combination of the analytic and holistic methods. On the one hand, in line with holistic method, it adopts a holistic view and emphasizes reading with thought and comprehension. On the other hand, in line with analytic method, it involves teaching the forms of letters and their sounds, the correct pronunciation of words, and the ways of recognizing new words. In the hybrid method, simultaneous with practicing letters and sounds, word and word reading are also attended to. Review of literature: </strong> Until 1975, in English schools holistic method was used to teach reading skills. Most students could read well, but there was always a large enough group of children who had difficulty remembering words and were unable to successfully read and write. Those children were unable to recognize sound-letter correspondences and relate them to words. To solve this problem, the teachers decided to teach the sounds of the letters as well so that they could help the learners. This method of alphabet instruction was called phonics method. Phonics method involves raising learners’ awareness of the relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. The purpose of phonics method is to teach learners to understand the relationships between letters and sounds and use their knowledge of sound-letter correspondences to identify words when they read and to spell the words when they write (Fletcher, 2009). Studies showed that children who were instructed through this method were generally more successful in reading and had very few problems (Lloyd, 1998). Research

The population of this study consisted of 24-31 years old Chinese learners of Persian language who were working in Tabas Mining Group Company. They had no knowledge of Persian language. The study sample consisted of 8 individuals who were randomly selected from the population and assigned into two equal-sized groups. In the control group, the traditional method and in the experimental group, the phonics method was used to teach alphabet. The intervention consisted of 10 two-hour classroom sessions which included teaching reading skill. After the intervention, a written and an oral exam were administered to the participants to measure their reading skills. The written test consisted of multiple-choice, matching, and true/false items. The oral test consisted of two reading texts that the learners had to read orally and answer the relevant questions. To answer the research questions, groups’ mean scores on the two tests and the overall reading were compared through t-test analyses. Results and

 On the written test, the mean score of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group. However, on the oral test, there was no significant difference between the mean scores of the two groups. On overall reading (aggregate of written and oral scores), the mean score of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group. Based on these results, it was concluded that phonics-based teaching of Persian alphabet leads to better word reading and comprehension.

One of the main factors that differentiate child speech from adults’ is the phonological processes that happen in child language, including voicing and devoicing. The present study aims to consider and compare the quality of voicing/devoicing errors occurring in Farsi-speaking children with protracted and typical phonological development. Moreover, this study compares voicing/devoicing errors of typical Farsi-speaking children with the voicing/devoicing errors of children speaking other languages.

Five children with typical phonological development (2;6-4;0) and 5 children with protracted phonological development (4;6-6) participated in this qualitative cross-sectional study. The typical children were collected from nursery schools and the protracted children were recruited from speech therapy clinics in Karaj. They were chosen via convenience sampling method. Their voicing/devoicing errors were investigated using Naming-picture task (Farsi phonology test with pictures) wherein each child asked to produce 133 single words.

Devoicing errors were distributed more widely than voicing errors in typical and atypical phonological development, especially in word-final position. The typical children participating in this study rarely displayed word-medial devoicing; however, atypical children illustrated several cases of it. Word-initial and medial voicing were observed in both groups of children; however, word-final voicing was merely detected in atypical children.

Results revealed that the differences observed in voicing/devoicing processes between children with protracted and typical phonological development is due to the different hierarchy of markedness and faithfulness constrains in their internalized grammar. Furthermore, there are major similarities in voicing process between typical Farsi-speaking children and typical children speaking other languages. Extended Abstract</strong>  The notion of systematicity in erroneous productions, which, at first, was presented to the field of linguistics by Stampe (1969), was later adapted and named phonological processes by the authors like Ingram (1976). Voicing and Devoicing are two known phonological processes which are from substitution category in which certain sounds or sound classes that exist in the target phonological system do not appear in the children’s system or may merely appear in certain contexts. This more restricted inventory results in some specific substitution patterns including voicing and devoicing. According to Grunwell (1985) and Stole-Gammon and Dunn (1985), the study of phonological processes highlights the correlation between the adult and child production, and presents a framework to describe patterns of typical and protracted phonological acquisition. In view of that, the present study aims to consider Voicing</em> and Devoicing</em> phonological processes in Farsi-speaking children with typical phonological development (TD) and protracted phonological development (PD) that have not been studied so far. To examine the errors produced through voicing/devoicing processes by the above mentioned groups of Persian-speaking children, this study, first, considers the types of voicing/devoicing errors found in Persian children with typical and protracted phonological development and then compares the error patterns found in the two groups with each other. Moreover, the results will be examined within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT) (Prince and Smolensky, 1993; McCarty and Prince, 1994, 1995) to infer the underlying internal grammar that creates such voicing/devoicing patterns in children with typical and protracted phonological development. The results of this study also will be compared with the results found in the children speaking languages other than Farsi wherever it is applicable. The participants in this cross-sectional study are five children diagnosed with functional (non-organic) phonological disorder (PD) (Se, Ti, Me, Ze, and He) who range in age from 4:6 years to 6 years, and five children with typical phonological development (TD) (El, Al, Sa, Ma, Ro) ranging in age from 2:6 years to 4 years. All the children were selected after considering their physical and mental health and after receiving written consent from their parents. </strong>In order to collect the necessary data from Farsi speaking children, a specific production test, called, Naming-Picture Task (NPT) has been applied.The words used in this test were selected through four criteria: a) all of them are related to the objects and animals that children generally are familiar with; b) they are all concrete names and let the researcher present them in pictures to the participants; c) the selected target words cover all phonemes and syllables in Farsi; d) It has also been attempted not to make the test too lengthy because it may make the child tired and reduces the accuracy of the produced data. Using these criteria and the results of a pilot study, 132 words were elected for NPT. The pictures used to represent the words in NPT were mainly provided from a book named “painted children dictionary” (Rotako, 2004). The data was collected by NPT from both groups of children during two-three separate sessions, depending on the age of the child and his/her cooperation in answering the questions. All the answers were recorded by means of a high quality solid state sound recorder (Samsung Voice Recorder model YP-VP1</em>).  Results showed that both voicing and devoicing errors occurred in TD and PD children; however, the occurrence of devoicing errors was more than voicing errors in both groups. Furthermore, results showed that the place of target segments in the words, i.e. word- initial, medial, and final positions, had an effect on the quality and quantity of voicing/devoicing errors. One of the most frequent cases of devoicing was word-final devoicing that was observed in both PD and TD groups. Devoicing was also detected in word-initial position in both groups; however, these processes had a higher frequency in PD compared to TD children. Voicing errors occurred in early stages of the phonological development in typically developing children and the frequency of these errors decreases from the youngest child (El, 2;9) to the eldest child (Ro 4;0). However, these errors were observed in all PD children irrespective of their age and though they are all elder than the oldest TD child. This study also examined the number of voicing/devoicing errors in codas and onsets. Though, onsets are not always in the beginning of words and codas in the end of words, but the findings related to these places have been similar to the results observed in segments that have been in word-initial and word-final positions. The data collected from the present study investigating voicing/devoicing processes in Farsi-speaking children with typical (TD) and protracted phonological development (PD) was primarily examined in OT frame work and it is concluded that the differences observed in voicing/devoicing processes between PD and TD groups is rooted in the differences in the hierarchy of markedness and faithfulness constrains in their internalized grammar. Moreover, the comparison of the results of this study with the results of similar studies on children speaking languages other than Farsi illustrated similarities in voicing process between them. Similar to children speaking other languages, the TD and PD children demonstrated more devoicing errors than voicing errors which supports the claim that voiceless segments serve as defaults for most children. In addition, this study illustrated that there is a general tendency for voicing in onsets and devoicing in codas which supports the onset-coda asymmetry suggested by Dinnsen (1996). The age-wise decrease in the frequency of voicing errors found in the TD children’s data confirmed the previous finding that voicing errors normally occur in early stages of phonological development and by 3;6 years most children are correctly producing the voicing contrast (Richtsmeier, 2010). However, the existence of voicing errors in PD children, irrespective of their age, displayed that the inverse relation between the frequency of voicing errors and age does not probably apply to atypical phonological development.

The present study examined the effect of gender on Azeri-speaking students’ attitudes toward Persian language in Marand, East Azerbaijan, Iran. Attitude is a set of beliefs that learners have about the members of the target language community as well as about their culture. The statistical population in this study included 400 high school students in Marand during the academic year of 2014-2015. Simple random sampling method was used. In the present study, data were collected using a two-part questionnaire. To ensure the reliability of the questionnaire, among common methods for data collection, adaptation and modification of existing methods were used. To test the research hypothesis, inferential statistics including independent samples t-tests were used. In the present article, it was revealed that there is a significant difference between the two groups in attitudes toward using Persian language. Female students had more positive attitudes towards the subject compared to boys. Regarding the effect of the attitudes of the two gender groups on the use of Persian language, it was concluded that girls’ positive attitudes makes them use Persian in most situations; while male students, prefer to use their mother tongue, i.e. Azeri Turkish, in similar situations.Persian language is widely used by all Iranians within the multilingual Iran. It should be noted that Persian is utilized by some speakers as their mother tongue and by some others as their second language. Being the sole official language and the language of instruction in Iran, Persian is used for all the official and educational purposes in the country. However, at least on the basis of our observations in our study area, Persian is not the only language used for instructional goals at bilingual schools in the country. It is observed that non-Persian-speaking students in bilingual areas including East Azerbaijan province tend to make use of their mother tongue besides Persian for their educational goals. Regarding Persian language use, bilingual students seem to show different behaviors. Some prefer to speak Persian in almost all settings including school, particularly with their teachers while some others show little or even no inclination to use Persian. Such reactions to using the second language are rooted in various factors such as attitudes, motivations, anxiety, and gender.Among the leading factors affecting second language use, attitude and gender have been surveyed in this research. Specifically speaking, the present paper has strived to study the Azeri-speaking students’ gender-based attitudes toward using Persian language. Brown (1981) states that attitudes are a set of beliefs that learners have about the members of the target language community (for example, whether they are honest, boring, interesting or not) and also about their culture. Fossold (1986: 93) holds that attitude is mainly based on a subjectivist view, and that attitude consists of three elements of cognition, emotion, and practice.In the present study, data were collected using a two-part questionnaire. To ensure the reliability of the questionnaire, among the common methods for data collection, adaptation and modification of existing methods was used. To this end, the attitude statements in the questionnaire in Hakuta and Dandrea (1992) and the Berni (1998) were first translated into Persian and then modified according to the purpose of the present research. The questionnaire included in the dissertation (SotoudehNama, 2001) was also used to make changes. The questionnaire used in this article consisted of two parts: background questions for gender, place of study, age, educational background sentences, including 39 items on a five-point Likert scale to measure subjects' attitudes toward using the Persian language. The expressions in the questionnaire itself consisted of three parts. The first part consisted of 13 phrases that assessed the students' perception of using the Persian language. The second part, with 13 phrases, assessed the behavior (choice between Persian and Turkish languages) of the subjects regarding the use of Persian language. The last 13 sentences measured the subjects' perception of their use of the Persian language. Subjects chose one of the five options “strongly agree, agree, I have no idea, disagree, and strongly disagree”. The overall score was calculated for each subject, i.e., sum of the scores given that, wherever the answer was in agreement with the subject, a score of 5 would be given for completely agreed, and in cases where it was against the attitude, the score of 5 would be given to I totally disagreed, and I totally agree with Score 1. In order to present the questionnaires to the students, researchers went to all schools in person. Before completing the questionnaires, the students were briefed on the research objectives and how to complete the questionnaire. Subjects were given adequate time to answer questions. All 400 questionnaires were completed by 400 subjects and then were collected and analyzed by gender of the subjects for data analysis. SPSS software was used for data analysis and calculation accuracy. First, descriptive statistics including tables and statistical indices were given, then in the second part, in order to test the research hypotheses, inferential statistics including independent samples t-tests were used for both genders. Also, chi-square test was used to assess the effect of the attitude of two groups on using Persian language in different situations.In the present article, it was revealed that there is a significant difference between the two groups in attitudes toward using Persian language. Female students had a positive attitude towards the subject compared to boys. Regarding the effect of the attitude of the two gender groups on the use of Persian language, it was concluded that girls’ positive attitudes makes them use Persian in most situations; while male students prefer to use their mother tongue, i.e. Azeri Turkish, in similar situations.

Acquiring a foreign language is a process which in the first place requires development of the learners’ receptive skills. This process involves the four main skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, in which listening as a receptive skill is used for obtaining enough input and making use of it in genuine interactions. The goal of this research was to study the effect of two different listening text types, i.e. argumentative and descriptive, on foreign students’ level of listening comprehension. To this end, a quantitative method was adopted to compare the effect of the independent variable (text types) on the dependent variable (the listening scores) to determine the degree of differences between two text types and proficiency level of listening comprehension. Some fifty students who were studying at different fields at two state universities in Tabriz participated in this research. They answered four descriptive and four argumentative listening text types followed by two types of display and inferential multiple-choice questions. The results obtained from the independent samples t-test revealed that there was a significant difference in the level of students’ listening comprehension between the two text types. The students in the argumentative listening type significantly outperformed those in the descriptive one in answering multiple-choice questions. It is hoped that the results will be used by teachers, materials writers, and syllabus designers to develop efficient methods and materials for teaching listening skill. The findings can also help the students to gain a broader view and use it to develop their listening skill.Acquiring a foreign language is a process which in the first place requires development of the learners’ receptive skills. This process involves the four main skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, in which listening as a receptive skill is used for obtaining enough input and making use of it in genuine interactions. The fact is that the listening process is a complicated cognitive activity. Although in the mother tongue it can easily be acquired, it requires a great deal of effort in an L2 and specifically in a foreign language acquisition process. Moreover, constant exposure to various input including television, radio, and so on, has augmented the necessity to be ready to receive and process messages obtained via the aural means more than before. However, learners have serious difficulties in listening process because some schools and universities take heed of writing, reading, grammar, and vocabulary. Therefore, the listening skill is hardly an important part of many textbooks and many teachers barely take note of this crucial activity in their classes. A number of research studies have been conducted which investigated the effects of text type and test format on students’ listening performances (e.g., Emilia & Christie, 2013). Furthermore, due to the importance of questions, there has been a plethora of research on the teachers' questions, their distribution, types, and their effect on students' participation, interaction, length and complexity of the students' responses. Therefore, with this in mind that one of the factors which may cause differences between students' performances in listening comprehension is the type of input, this study focused on the nature of the input and of expected responses by designing different types of tests, namely, display and inferential multiple-choice items. The central goal of this research was to study the effect of two text types, descriptive and argumentative, on listening comprehension processes and then identify the students’ listening comprehension issues during listening to oral texts. To this end, a quantitative method was adopted to determine the degree of differences between two text types and proficiency level of listening comprehension. Some fifty female and male students participated in the study. Their age ranged from 20 to 45 years. The participants were selected from two state universities in Tabriz: Tabriz University and Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. They were engaged in different fields of study such as: engineering, sciences, humanities, different fields of medical sciences, etc. The instruments used were the consent form for participation in the research, which included a brief statement explaining the purpose of the research, and four argumentative and four descriptive texts. Each text was followed by five display and four inferential multiple-choice items. Each participant was given one argumentative and one descriptive text. To assess the participants' listening comprehension, a listening practice paper was used which consisted of two sections with nine display and inferential questions in total. Each participant was asked to complete it in fifteen minutes and each correct answer was scored one point and the incorrect ones were scored zero. The results of the research questions were analyzed through the independent samples t-test in order to present the different levels of the participants’ listening comprehension between two texts. Based on the results obtained, it was concluded that the participants who took part in the argumentative listening comprehension tests in the inferential and display format outperformed those who took the descriptive listening comprehension tests. Meanwhile, in contrast to the general belief that at lower levels of proficiency, due to the students’ lack of knowledge, display questions lead to desired level of participation, it was revealed that there is no significant difference between answering the two types of questions in one text type. Although the level of listening comprehension depends on question types, at the higher levels, it depends more on knowing the structure of texts. Therefore, it can be inferred that through increasing the use of different listening text types at all levels, especially intermediate one, students can gradually get accustomed to listening and using their comprehension abilities, which can lead to more self-confidence, and turn them into independent listeners. An important point to bear in mind is that this study did not mean to generalize that the employment of the descriptive or argumentative text types along with display and inferential questions are useful and the others are useless and should be avoided. On the contrary, the present study emphasized their role in increasing the students' knowledge of language and the improvement of their listening skill, either through text types or question types, and what is important is the requirements of the context they are used in. The point is that whatever context we are dealing with, if the central tendency is to improve the students’ listening comprehension skill, it seems that different listening text types with mixture of both questions is needed, thereby a balance should be maintained. Since one of the important goals of language teaching is to improve the learners' listening comprehension, there should be some attempts to increase the learners' level of listening comprehension. The findings of the present research have some important pedagogical implications for classroom practice, teachers and learners by helping them redefine their proper responsibilities. The findings can also contribute to the improvement of the ability to understand different text types by representing that knowing the organization of texts by listeners will improve their comprehension of these texts.

Today, in addition to the verbal text, the visual aspects of language teaching scripts, which are designed in a multi-modal way, are emphasized, because the two aspects are believed to be consistent. In this research, we analyzed a multi-modal book of Persian language compiled by Ahmad Saffar Moghaddam (2012), which has two visual and textual layers, and how the meaning is created through textual and visual components. This paper intends to examine eight images of Persian textbook collection based on Marsh and White (2003) descriptive and content analysis method. They created a taxonomy of image functions in text and based their function types on earlier studies. The findings of the research show that in the textbook studied, about 25% of the images were little relation to the text, 50% had a close relation to the text and 25% of the images express more information than the text express. After evaluating the images of these lessons in terms of the relation between text and image, it can be concluded that in the textbook studied, in general, images are consistent with the verbal text. In this regard, it is suggested that the authors of educational textbooks speed up the language learning process by choosing the image appropriate to the educational purpose of the texts, so that the educational goals of the image can be achieved.
There is a wide range of approaches to picture books among the existing studies on textbooks . In most of these studies, the visual aspects have been considered as secondary, and their relationship to the verbal text has been practically ignored. In the past 25 years, however, a number of critics have analyzed how these two forms of communication, the verbal and the visual, work together to create meaning in picture books (Nikolajeva and Scott, 2006). They all seem to agree that the possible relationships between verbal and visual components range from those in which images simply illustrate or translate what is related in the words, to more complex and sophisticated forms of interaction. The more intricate interplay occurs when verbal and non-verbal elements are not mutually reproductive or when they tell different or contradicting sentences. Thus, the understanding of meaning not only requires the analysis of language in text, but also the study of other semiotic resources, such as images, gestures,.... The present study investigates the central concerns of the use of text and visuals within the Language learning textbooks taught at University which have been prescribed by Ahmad Saffar Moghaddam. To do this, the Language learning textbooks  were evaluated and analyzed. In this research, we analyze the multi-modal book of Persian language compiled by Ahmad Saffar Moghaddam, which has two visual and textual layers, and how the meaning is created through textual and visual components. The image is one of the key elements of educational books that many theorists, including Marsh and White, have been focusing on. The conceptual framework follows Marsh and White’s approach.The main objective is to “identify the verbal and visual strategies used by writers and illustrators, to convey a representation of reality, to create interaction with readers and to form coherent wholes of communication. This paper establishes a taxonomy of image‐text relationships that reflects the ways that images and text interact. It is applicable to all subject areas and document types. The paper intends to examine eight images of Persian textbook collection based on Marsh and White (2003) descriptive and content analysis method. By defining the relationships between image and text, this theory provides the effectiveness of educational books in coordinating the image with text in order to facilitate the learning process.They created a taxonomy of image functions in text and based their function types on earlier studies.The taxonomy was developed to answer the research question: how does an illustration relate to the text with which it is associated, or, what are the functions of illustration? The 3 general image functions from the first level represent 3 types of strength of relation between image and text. The first group (A) contains functions of images that express little relation to the text. The second group (B) contains functions of images expressing a close relation to the text. The last group (C) contains functions of images where the image expresses more information than the text expresses. The findings of the research show that in the textbooks studied, about 25% of the images were little relation to the text, 50% had a close relation to the text and 25% of the images express more information than the text express. After evaluating the images of these lessons in terms of the relation between text and image, it can be concluded that in the the textbook studied, in general, images are consistent with the verbal text. In this regard, it is suggested that the authors of educational books, by choosing a picture tailored to the purpose of teaching the texts, will accelerate the process of language learning to realize the educational goals of the picture.The analysis reveals how the verbal and visual modalities contribute to each other’s meaning and makes the potential of combining verbal and non-verbal language in picture textbooks. The study is intended to serve as a framework for assisting authors, teachers and other professionals involved in writing and teaching textbooks that are “appropriate for students specially students of Persian language. ” Findings of the study pedagogically call for using appropriate pictures of real people and real environment which provide sufficient input for language learners.  All in all, this study encourages students and teachers to be critical thinkers, and helps them to figure out hidden or functional parts of images and their related texts.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of flipped teaching-learning method on Persian-language learners' reading and writing skills in the context of the second language acquisition. The statistical population consisted of 58 eighth grade Persian language learners aged 14-15 of the International girls' school in Tehran. Using standardized placement test results, the intermediate language learners were selected by convenience sampling and were randomly assigned into control (29 students) and experimental (29 students) groups. The experimental group was exposed to flipped instruction throughout 10 75-minute sessions. The study adopted quasi-experimental design. The main research instrument was pre-test and post-test. Data analysis was performed using one-way covariance analysis and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to determine the normality of the data. Reliability index (Cronbach’s Alpha) was 0.91. The results of the covariance (ANCOVA), based on the e-learning materials provided by the researcher and the audio book which formed the main learning process for flipped instruction group, showed that deep and stable learning and participation of 95% of learners in the classroom was achieved. This type of learning was influenced by factors such as strategies of exploratory learning process, independent and deep learning with appropriate time management leading to understanding, application, and analysis of lesson concepts. In future research, the content and type of electronic content produced in this research can have many practical applications for researchers of material development, virtual education, teaching methods, testing and educational planning. Extended Abstract</strong> The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of flipped teaching-learning method on the development of reading and writing skills of Persian to non-Persian language learners. The statistical population consisted of 58 language learners aged 14 to 15 years at the International Girls' School in Tehran. Using standardized test results, the intermediate language learners were selected by convenience sampling and were randomly divided into control (n = 29) and experimental (n = 29) groups. The experimental group underwent the training method for 10 sessions, each session for 75 minutes. The research instrument was pre-test and post-test. As the pre-test and post-test the two groups of control and experiment are studied in reading and writing skills and the method is quasi-experimental, using one-way analysis of covariance(ANCOVA). The data were analyzed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The results of the covariance test, based on the e-learning materials provided by the researcher and the book as central to the process of flipped language learners in the classroom, provided a deep and sustained learning and participation of 95% of learners as confirmed by the teacher's observation. The content and type of the electronic materials prepared for this research and the other findings in the field of flipped learning, as a new teaching method, can provide many different usages and practical solutions for researchers of content generation, virtual education, teaching techniques, test construction, and instructional planning. 1Introduction Flipped instruction or flipped classroom is an advanced form of "reverse instruction"; a term which was first proposed in an article by Lage et al. (2000). This concept gradually became established through the publication of various articles at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. The concept of flipped instruction was conceived about one decade and a half and it has been discussed in scientific circles since its inception. Google trends do not show any decrease in interest in this concept; the tendency for the issue even increased in 2013. 2 Theoretical foundations The advancement of new technologies has led to learning-teaching activities to change from passive to active blended learning. Today, learners can follow the learning process by using e-tools like cell phones, laptops, tablets, and other related tools, and this way they play an active role in learning. One type of active learning techniques is the flipped classroom. Lage et al. (2000, 32) provide the simplest definition of the flipped classroom. According to the events that were traditionally placed inside the classroom, are now taken place outside the classroom and vice versa; in fact, the flipped classroom is based on learner-centered activities and active learning. Therefore, the traditional classroom is usually teacher-based, where the teacher manages all discussions and conversations taking place, while the flipped classroom is student-centered and is interactively managed by the teacher and learners.   3</strong>.</strong> Data Collection Method</strong> The statistical sample used in this study included 58 eighth grade female students at the International School in Tehran. A simple random sampling was used in this research, using available participants that were divided into experimental and control groups. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the learning achievement of the students' reading and writing skills using the two educational methods, namely flipped learning and lecturing as the independent variables. First, the learners took a reading pre-test. The experimental group was asked to study the course content before the class and were given the file of audio book containing reading texts and the film of stories. They could watch the film as many times as they needed. In the class, the learners worked on comprehension exercises and asked questions. They were instructed how to draw the mind map of the lesson content, how to classify the subjects in their minds, and how to organize their ideas and answers. The learners also answered the comprehension questions in groups of two, and their language mistakes were explained and fixed by the teacher. After a course of 10 sessions instruction, the experimental group with the flipped classroom and the control group with the traditional method, i.e., lecturing, took a post-test and a statistical data analysis was performed by ANCOVA. 4 Data Analysis The present research was a quasi-experimental study that investigated the effect of flipped learning and lecturing, as the independent variables, on the language students' learning achievement, as the dependent variable. The two groups performed similarly before the intervention of the independent variable. In the post-test, the experimental group had a better and more effective performance than the control group. Therefore, there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups' reading and writing skills in post-test. Thus, the mean score of the experimental group on the post-test was greater than that of the control group which confirms the effect of the flipped learning method on the language learners’ reading and writing skills improvement. 5 Discussion and Conclusion The present study sought to find the answer to this question that to what extent the flipped learning method affects language learners' reading and writing skills. The results of the study showed a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test mean scores of the two groups which means that the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group on the reading test as a post-test. The experimental group which was instructed through the independent variable of flipped instruction was more active and engaged compared with the control group which was taught the reading skill via the lecture method. With the flipped instruction method, learners found that learning is not just repeating the teacher's notes. The method specifically creates a dynamic classroom environment. Results showed that by using active methods and flipped learning strategies; the teacher can activate learners and reinforce the students' collaborative spirit.