The current study investigates the effect of self- and group-reflection training on Iranian in-service EFL teachers’ performance development. From all available participants teaching at the International College of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, 40 in-service EFL teachers were selected. An observation checklist, a semi-structured interview, and the Skype app were employed. There were two groups, i.e., a self-reflection group (N=20) and a group-reflection group (N=20; five subgroups with four members). A mixed-methods design was used in this study. Before the training phase, the pre-test (observation checklist) was administered. During the training phase, the self-reflection group members were exposed to self-reflection practice. In addition, the group-reflection participants were exposed to the group-reflection practice. The instruction was presented in 16 sessions twice a week for two months. After the training phase, the post-test (observation checklist) was administered. Moreover, participants were given a semi-structured interview on their reactions to their teaching efficacy. The obtained data were analyzed through SPSS software version 23. The analysis of data revealed that implementing the principles of self-reflective and group-reflective instructions had statistically significant effects on Iranian in-service EFL teachers’ teaching performance. Also, participants believed that reflective practice in both forms had constructive effects on their teaching performance. This study has pedagogical implications for English language teachers, EFL learners, and teacher educators who seek to find more effective teaching methodologies and help them to construct their own meaning of teaching. Manuscript profile

The purpose of this cross-sectional mixed methods sequential explanatory study was to find out the effects of enriching McCroskey's (1992) Willingness to Communicate (WTC) questionnaire using oral-visual role-play on EFL responses from comparing the responses of 117 pre-intermediate EFL learners to this instrument before and after the enriching act. This study relates to sociolinguistic research in order to develop more authentic data collection and assessment. The quantitative results indicated no statistically significant effect in average score of the responses, and a decrease in reliability from original to the enriched one, but individual and item internal changes. Then, it followed up with 12 purposefully selected typical respondents to explore those quantitative results in verbal protocol after each administration of original and enriched WTC questionnaire that detected source of variability due to purpose, place, visualization, age, gender, and personality of the interlocutors in the role-plays. The quantitative and qualitative findings from the two phases of the study are discussed with reference to the prior research. Finally, implications and recommendations for EFL instructors, supervisors, and language assessors are provided. Manuscript profile

The interdependency between education and psychology has been valued for a long time and the educational psychology as an interdisciplinary field reconciling these two disciplines has been introduced to the field of teacher education. However, theoretically present in teacher training programs, the practical ways of applying educational psychology has not gained enough attention. The interviews with 21 Iranian EFL teachers and educators reveal that those teachers start their career after doing a teacher education course, do not have enough awareness to deal with learners’ cognitive and emotional problems. Therefore, the researchers tried to put psychological theories into practice through assigning some mini-action research during the teacher education courses. To check the effectiveness of the method, two groups (experimental and control) were selected and then their awareness of psychological issues while reflecting on their teaching process were compared after the treatment. The qualitative findings of the study indicate that the method was successful in increasing pre-service teachers’ psychological awareness towards language teaching. The method is beneficial for those designing and planning teacher education courses. Manuscript profile

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of task-based instruction (TBI) and project-based instruction (PBI) on the improvement of EFL learners' referential and expressive writing performance. To accomplish this objective, 60 students majoring in English translation participated in Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT), but out of them 50 students were selected as the members of a homogeneous sample. Then, they were assigned into two experimental groups. They were exposed to IELTS module task-based writing pre-test, treatment, and post-test, to assess the participants' writing performance. The participants in first experimental group received TBI to practice the referential and expressive types of writing, while those in the second group received PBI. The results showed that TBI and PBI affected the development of both referential and expressive writing among EFL learners. In addition, the results revealed that there was not any statistically significant difference between the effect of PBI and TBI on developing expressive and referential writings among EFL learners. The pedagogical implications of the study are discussed at the end of the paper. Manuscript profile

One prominent criterion to achieve efficient learning and instruction in an educational setting is the appropriate material(s) specifically developed for that particular group of learners, particularly in an English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) context. This study aimed at developing new EOP materials for pre-service cabin crew in an aviation school. To do so, initially the researchers performed the evaluation of the current EOP textbook through a checklist and interviews with 20 English teachers who did not express much satisfaction about it. Consequently, having been convinced about the unsatisfactory results, the researchers developed new materials for this group of learners. The new materials was later implemented on 30 learners as the experimental group as opposed to another 30 as the control group being instructed by the current material. The findings demonstrated significant differences in the experimental group achievement of language proficiency at the end of the course compared to their language proficiency at the beginning of the course. Moreover, the results expressed significant differences between the achievement of control and experimental groups at the end of EOP courses, in favor of the experimental group. The newly developed EOP materials for flight attendants could be widely instructed in the airlines and aviation schools based on the obtained findings. Manuscript profile

L2/FL writing ability, which per se includes many different types, is considered a major skill in academic settings. However, little research has been done in this area and even less has focused on the effectiveness of task-based writing instruction on the two specific kinds; namely, referential writing and expressive writing. To this end, 60 English Translation sophomores of both genders were selected and divided into two classes after ensuring their homogeneity through the Quick Placement Test (OQPT). For the pre- and post-tests, the participants were required to take IELTS writing tests requiring referential and expressive types of writing. As for the treatment of the study, all participants were instructed based on the same content materials of advanced writing and a task-based framework. The results of the statistical analysis indicated significant improvements in the participants’ writing abilities in referential and expressive written tasks. Besides, the effectiveness of task-based writing techniques was approved in terms of referential and expressive types of language functions in the academic writing of Iranian EFL learners. Manuscript profile

This mixed-methods study aimed at investigating the effects of a gadget-based Internet multimedia extensive reading program on promoting language proficiency. In so doing, a pretest-posttest design was applied in the quantitative phase to comparatively analyze outcomes of three classes of college-level EFL learners (two experimental groups and one control, each including 30 university students) on how much they improved in their receptive proficiency, before and after the general English language course they were taking. The first group took the General English course along with a multimedia-based Internet extensive reading program as the study’s treatment, and the second group took a linear text (traditional) extensive reading program with their English course. The posttest scores showed that students in experimental group 1 (extensive reading using multimedia texts) outperformed both experimental group 2 (extensive reading using linear texts) and the control group. Furthermore, experimental group 2 had higher scores in comparison to the control group. As for the qualitative phase, results of the follow-up interviews and open-ended questionnaires also indicated that the learners liked, and would prefer to substitute traditional reading programs by gadget-based multimedia ones. EFL teachers may be most interested in outcomes of this study since insights may be gained regarding the extent to which Internet-based reading should enter language courses. Manuscript profile

Flipped classroom establishes a framework for personalized education tailored to students’ individual needs by incorporating simple technologies of audio/video recordings into instruction. Considering the challenges General English (GE) students and instructors face such as time limitation, students’ low motivation and diverse learning preferences, there seems to be an urgent need for studies on flipped learning. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of flipped classrooms on Iranian EFL learners’ learning outcome in a GE course. As such, fifty students of engineering majors in two intact classes participated in the study and were assigned to a control (n=25) and an experimental (n=25) group. The experimental group received instruction in line with the principles of flipped learning while the control group was taught using the conventional method. The participants’ level of learning outcome was measured before and after the treatment by an achievement test consisting of two parts: grammar and vocabulary. The data were analyzed by Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). The results revealed a significant difference between the two groups’ performance on the achievement post-test in general and in its two sections (grammar and vocabulary) in favor of the experimental group. Further analysis showed that the effect size for the intervention was large (ηp 2=.19>.14) for general learning outcome; however, as for the components of the achievement test, the effect size was found to be large for vocabulary section (ηp 2=.16>.14) and middle for the grammar section (ηp 2=.134<.14), respectively. Possible interpretations of the findings are discussed and certain implications and applications for GE instructors and materials developers are suggested. Manuscript profile

This study examines the effect of implementing group-reflection training on Iranian in-service EFL teachers’ beliefs and performance development. From all available participants teaching at the International College of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, 20 in-service EFL teachers participated in this study. All participants held a master's degree in TEFL. Teacher’s belief questionnaire, observation checklist, and Skype app were used as the instruments to collect data in this study. Before the training phase, the pre-test (observation checklist) was administered, and teachers’ previous teaching performance was evaluated and recorded by an expert supervisor (one of the researchers). Also, the teacher’s belief questionnaire was used by all the participants in this study to evaluate teachers’ assumptions about the efficacy of their teaching practice. The researchers utilized Skype App to instruct the participants in an online setting. During the training phase, participants were exposed to the group-reflection practice. The instruction was done in 16 sessions twice a week for two months. After the training phase, the post-test (observation checklist) was administered, and teachers’ teaching performance was evaluated and re-recorded. The teacher’s belief questionnaire was also utilized as the post-test. The data analysis indicated that implementing the principles of group-reflective instruction had a statistically significant effect on Iranian in-service EFL teachers’ beliefs about their teaching efficacy and teaching performance development. The findings of the present study have some implications that can assist English language educators, EFL learners, students, language curriculum program policymakers, and syllabus designers. Manuscript profile

The distinction between implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge and their distinct roles and contributions to the second language acquisition has been the recent subject of debate among second language acquisition researchers (Ellis, 2004).. To bridge this gap, whereas the first question of this study aimed at appraising the explicit vs. implicit grammar instruction among EFL leaners, further investigation was accomplished to illuminate the relationship between EFL learners’ explicit/implicit grammar knowledge and their general language proficiency. To this end, 40 EFL leaners participated in the first phase of the study. While the participants in the first experimental group received explicit interventional program (Ellis & Worthington, 1994), the second experimental group benefitted from enhanced input instruction (Sharwoodsmith, 1981). The results indicated the superiority of the explicit instruction in developing explicit grammar knowledge among the EFL participants. For the sake of the second phase of the study, a sample population of 140 EFL learners was asked to complete Timed and Untimed Grammatical Judgment Test and the sample TOEFL language proficiency test. A set of correlation coefficients was run and the results revealed that there was no significant correlation between the EFL participants’ implicit knowledge and their language proficiency, while the findings confirmed a statistically significant relationship between EFL learners’ explicit grammar knowledge and the subcomponents of their general language proficiency. The findings have some pedagogical implications for EFL teachers, practitioners, and also material developers. Manuscript profile

This study investigated the comparative effect of authoritative vs. facilitative virtual intervention models on the development of second language speaking components of Iranian EFL Learners. The study participants were 60 intermediate male and female EFL learners at Imam Reza University in Mashhad who were selected out of the total number of 80 participants taking a standard Preliminary English Test (PET) as a language proficiency test. Subsequently, the participants were randomly divided into two experimental groups and received a standard speaking pretest. Next, one experimental group received authoritative intervention and the other one received facilitative intervention. After ten sessions of treatment, the speaking section of another version of PET, as the posttests, was given to the participants. Finally, the learners took part in a semi-structured interview. The use of SPSS examined the quantitative data, and the outcomes were examined through a series of t-tests and MANOVA. The results of quantitative analyses revealed that Facilitative Intervention (FI) model was more effective than the Authoritative Intervention (AI) for the L2 speaking development of Iranian EFL learners. Another point of variance was concentrating on the grammatical accuracy in measuring L2 speaking. For the AI group, grammatical errors and pronunciation were more important, whereas for the FI group, pronunciation and lexical resources were more central, followed by discourse management and interactive communication. Manuscript profile

As developing material is an ongoing process that needs to be analyzed in a multidimensional manner, the present study focuses explicitly on English Textbook Vision3 in Iranian senior high schools to investigate to what extent this English textbook involves the domains of learning objectives defined by Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy (1985) each of which contains several subcategories investigated through the study in details. Considering gained tables on analyzing Information Load and Significance Factor of the English textbook Vision3 (Student’s and Workbook) within cognitive, affective and psycho-motor domains of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy using Shannon Entropy Method, it is concluded that regarding cognitive domain,“Evaluation” in the first, “Application” in the second, “Synthesis” in the third “Knowledge” in the fourth, “Analysis” in the fifth and “Comprehension” is in the sixth place of significance and none of six defined cognitive subcategories are neglected within developing the textbook as the last English textbook of senior high school program in Iranian Educational Curriculum. However, statistical results show that among affective domain’s subcategories only“Responding” and “Receiving” are put into practice, while higher levels of affective domain including “Valuing”, “Organizing” and “Characterization” are neglected throughout the both student’s and the workbook. Furthermore, studying the psycho-motor domain of the considered English textbook it seems that “Guided Response”, “Mindset” are the only subcategories which are noticed through strategies In general, tables reveal that the most frequent involved domain among Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy belongs to cognitive one and the other two domains (affective and psychomotor) play little role through their higher subdivisions. Manuscript profile

Abstract: Integrating technology into instructional designs is currently a growing topic in higher education. This study sheds light on the integration of technology and KARDS factors. The researcher designed the integrated version of the teachers’ knowledge questionnaire to provide a more comprehensive understanding of teacher’s knowledge. This study aimed to develop and validate a Teachers’ Integrated Knowledge Questionnaire (TIKQ) through a quantitative investigation. The researcher aimed to assess individuals’ integrated knowledge in a specific domain. This research involved multiple stages: item generation, pilot testing, and statistical analysis. The researcher generated a pool of potential items for the TIKQ. These items covered various aspects of integrated knowledge within the chosen domain. The questionnaire was piloted and administered to 461 teachers in the second segment, which included 58 items. To determine if the trait structure of the teachers’ integrated knowledge questionnaire enjoys a good fit, statistical analysis techniques such as factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted. Cronbach’s alpha reliability and structural equation modeling were used to measure the internal consistency reliability of the teachers’ Integrated Knowledge Questionnaire (TIKQ). The new version of the integrated knowledge scale will assist teacher trainers in assessment of teacher’s knowledge. The findings from this study will contribute to developing an effective tool for measuring integrated knowledge in a specific domain. The tool can be used in various contexts, such as educational settings, research studies, and professional assessments. Manuscript profile

Abstract The present study investigates the relationship between multiple intelligences and teaching styles of Eng-lish as Foreign Language (EFL) learners and teachers. The participants of the study included 106 EFL teachers and 400 EFL learners. Teachers were invited to complete a Multiple Intelligences Inventory for EFL Teachers, developed by Christison (1998) and a Thinking Styles Inventory in Teaching, developed by Grigorenko and Sternberg (1993). The students were also asked to complete Student-Generated Inven-tory for Secondary Level and Young Adult Learners, which was developed by Christison (1996; 1998). The results of the descriptive statistics showed that EFL teachers and students preferred the interaction of different kinds of multiple intelligences and teaching styles in the classroom. Pearson correlation, three-way ANOVA and Multivariate ANOVA further illustrated that there was a significant relationship be-tween EFL teachers’ multiple intelligences and the styles of teaching. Factors such as age, field of study and gender, however, did not have any significant effect on multiple intelligences and teaching styles of EFL teachers. Manuscript profile

This study aimed to discover the insight of error correction by implementing two correction systems on three Iranian university students. The three students were invited to write four in-class essays throughout the semester, in which their verb errors and individual-selected errors were corrected using the Code Correction System and the Individual Correction System. At the end of the study, the students’ change of verb errors and individual errors from the first to the last in-class essays were calculated to examine the effectiveness of the two correction systems in this study. Moreover, to uncover the students’ perceptions and opinions toward the two correction systems, three researcherstudent conferences were conducted each time after the correction. The findings of this study suggested that (1) Conferences are important for students to clarify confusing ideas and enhance their interaction with the teacher and their errors. It is recommended to be used in error correction to make the correction procedure a two-direction communication; (2) Learner-centered correction in which the control rests on learners may contribute to learners’ autonomy of learning and intrinsic motivation, and may further result in the effectiveness of error correction; (3) While correcting students’ errors, teachers may need to pay more attention to less-advanced students, as they may need more help and may benefit much from the correction; (4) The better way to solve Iranian university students’ problem in using English tenses may be to expose them to more authentic English, but not in over-simplified rules; and (5) Teachers should avoid putting answers directly on students’ written errors, but adopt more implicit error identification techniques for students to reflect on their own errors. Manuscript profile

Teacher education programs, and more specifically practicum courses, play a vital role in pre-service teachers’ lives since these programs are opportunities for them to get perspective on the reality of their future career. With no doubt, the most important objective of any teacher education courses is to help teachers become reflective. That is why there have been numerous studies to investigate the effect of ref- lectivity on teachers’ success and to propose methods and technique to enhance this skill. This study pro- poses a three-dimensional reflectivity model considering three different aspects of a teaching context. These interwoven factors are pedagogical, psychological, and socio-cultural aspects. These aspects are extracted from a semi-structured interview with 21 experts. Testing this model on group of student- teachers and analyzing their teaching portfolios both qualitatively and quantitatively reveals that applying the model in designing the tasks and projects of teacher education programs can increase teachers’ reflec- tivity and give them insight into how to deal with any shortcomings in their future classes. This model can reshape the teacher education programs and provide the student-teachers with an opportunity to practice something more than pedagogical concerns in these courses. Manuscript profile

This study was an attempt to find out whether co-teaching model has statistically any significant impact on improving motivation and achievement of Iranian Young EFL Learners or not. The study was conducted at Salehin English Language Department in Tehran. To accomplish the purpose of this study, the researchers chose a sample of 91 participants which was reduced to 62 homogenous students through administration of YLE test. Then, these participants were divided randomly into two 30 and 32 participants groups as experimental and control groups. The participants in both experimental and control groups, were tested on test and questionnaire as pretests in the first session. In the following 10 sessions, the participants in the experimental group received co-teaching lessons, while the control group received traditional teaching. At the end of the term, the same test and questionnaire were administered to the participants of both groups as the posttests to check the effectiveness of the treatment. Finally, the means of both groups were compared through t-test (α=.05). The results indicated there were significant differences between the performances of both groups. It was concluded that participants who received teaching by two teachers, outperformed those who did not. Manuscript profile

This study determined whether there was any significant relation between EFL student’s critical thinking and their translation quality. To this end, 60 male and female translation students took part in the study. The participants were chosen from among senior BA students and junior MA students. The subjects were given a translation production test and a critical thinking questionnaire (Honey, 2005) which were to be completed in 55 minutes. Then two raters evaluated the production test. The results of an analysis of correlation between the two variables indicated that there was a significant relation between critical thinking and translation quality. Furthermore, a regression analysis showed that critical thinking was a significant predictor of students’ translation scores. Manuscript profile

The study of individual difference variables in the realm of written feedback is one of the significant lines of research which has been reinvigorated in the last few years. These variables are believed to affect both students’ engagement with feedback and their writing improvement. The present correlational study investi- gated the relationship between EFL students’ implicit theories of writing intelligence, writing motivation and attitudes toward written feedback. In so doing, 110 intermediate English language learners took three questionnaires, namely Implicit Theories of Writing Intelligence, Orientation toward Corrective Feedback, and Writing Motivation. The findings of the present study indicated that EFL students’ incremental theory of writing intelligence positively correlated with their writing motivation and feedback seeking orientation. On the other hand, EFL students’ entity theory of writing intelligence negatively correlated with their writ- ing motivation and positively correlated with their feedback avoiding orientation. In other words, those EFL learners who believed in the plasticity of their cognitive abilities were of higher writing motivation and feedback seeking orientation levels than those participants who believed that their writing ability was a fixed entity, which could not be extended. Manuscript profile

This study investigated the utilization of intertextuality in the fourth edition of the Interchange book series for English as Foreign Language (EFL) Learners using Fairclough’s (1992) framework. Ten texts were randomly chosen among the reading passages of the Interchange book series and later analyzed regarding intertextuality kinds and methods of reporting. Findings indicated that two types of intertextuality were used in the texts, namely manifest and sequential, by which various sentences or types of discourse were modi- fied and joined in a way that could be separated more easily. Moreover, the findings indicated that the texts included a large number of direct reporting, as well as a smaller number of indirect and narrative techniquesofintertextuality. Theresultsofthestudy,inrelationtotheuseofintertextuality,suggesteda specific relationship between the text and a specific genre in addition to relevance between the text and a specific culture. Manuscript profile

The present paper provides a detailed description of target situation analysis of the ESP needs of border guarding police cadets. It was conducted as a part of a comprehensive ESP needs analysis research whose results have been used to develop an ESP curriculum for police cadets at Iran’s Amin Police University. The importance of English language in border guarding missions and lack of a proper ESP curriculum in the faculty were among the reasons of ESP curriculum development for police officers. The researchers utilized a qual/quan design (exploratory sequential - qualitative first). The study was conducted in 2018-2019. The participants were chosen from among 249 participants of current BA cadets, ESP teachers, and graduate frontline officers, managers, and commanders. The data were gathered utilizing semi-structured interviews and a researcher-made questionnaire. Through target situation analysis, the researchers determined the target needs in border guarding, the needs related to language skills in academic/target career, extra needs, the type of curriculum and materials they might need, the possible situations of applying English in the academic/target career, and specific border police content and subjects. The results are to be used in designing and developing an ESP curriculum, syllabus, and materials for police cadets who study ESP in the Faculty of Border Guarding at Amin Police University. Manuscript profile

Humanizing language learning materials helps language teachers to design activities that are linked to learn- ers’ lives and experiences. This can result in higher motivation and engagement in the process of foreign language learning. Self-determination theory-based instruction enhances learners’ engagement and motiva- tion through supporting the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Howev- er, teachers’ ability to apply coursebook or even teaching style that fosters engagement and motivation among learners has received little attention in EFL context. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to compare the impacts of the two intervention programs of humanizing the coursebook and self-determination theory-based instruction on developing engagement and motivation among EFL learners. To this aim, 60 homogeneous participants were selected among the foreign language learners and randomly assigned into two experimental groups. Behavioral Regulation Questionnaire and Classroom Engagement Questionnaire were used to measure the determined variables in the study. Whereas both self-determination theory-focused intervention program and coursebook humanization indicated to significantly effect on enhancing motiva- tional subscales, the results of the study provided evidence on substantial effect of humanizing the course- book on promoting behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and agentic engagement subscales among English as foreign language (EFL) learners. The findings validated language teachers’ skills in fostering learners’ en- gagement and motivation through employing the principles of both more humanistic course books and au- tonomy-supportive teaching style within self-determination theory. Manuscript profile

This study was conducted to examine the impact of formative and summative assessment in the professional development of Iranian EFL Instructors at universities. Moreover, an attempt was made to figure out whether the formative assessment is more effective than the summative assessment. Since the present work is qualitative/quantitative research in nature, it was conducted within the ethnography of Islamic Azad University South Tehran Branch. To do so, two M.A classes were chosen and the data were collected via observations, field notes, interviews, stimulated recalls, questionnaires and through audio- video recordings. The findings of this study suggest that the formative and summative assessment enhance the practices of teaching by university instructors and that the formative assessment is more effective and beneficial. Manuscript profile

This review article explores the language learning approaches and their applicability in translation classes. Bob Hodge in his work “Teaching as Communication” stated that language, above all, holds a community together. Children learn a language implicitly without having a critical view to it. Academics such as translators and interpreters, who use the language as a professional tool, however, should view the languages more critical. Although it is still a very controversial subject to know how people learn a language. The approaches that may be particularly applicable to adult learners are suggested and defined in this study. Some of the main approaches of learning discussed in this article include the behaviorist approach, which is considered as one of the influential ones, the cognitive approach that can be appropriate to university teaching and the innovative method, which considers students’ learning styles to increase their motivation to learn. Manuscript profile

This study investigated the effect of purposeful assessment scenarios, Assessment for Learning (AFL), Assessment as Learning (AAL), and integrated purposeful assessment scenarios on Iranian EFL learners’ development of listening comprehension. To this end, 100 learners organized in three experimental and one control group participated in this quasi-experimental study. They received listening instructions of the mentioned purposeful assessment forms. Parametric statistical analysis in the form of some one-way ANOVAs revealed thatEFL learners exposed to integrated assessment could significantly develop their listening comprehension better than the AFL- and AAL-oriented instruction groups. However, no significant difference between AAL- and AFL-oriented groups’ listening comprehension was obtained. Though the findings are not in favor of any of the individual scenarios, they lend support to their feasibility in classroom performance assessment and assert the usefulness and viability of the synthetic approach to assessment through which measurement and instruction are bifurcated. Manuscript profile

Using observation and a semi-structured interview technique, this study aimed at finding the English learning problems of ESP students in engineering departments of Islamic Azad universities across Mazandaran province from the perspectives of 64 ESP students and 32 ESP teachers in 33 classes who were selected through convenience sampling method. The procedure used for the observation was a narrative summary which included a comprehensive view of the recorded main events in the summary. The results of the study indicated that there are different types of problems in ESP classes which are related to six main categories: Academic setting, ESP teachers, ESP students, ESP materials, ESP teaching methods, and ESP testing methods. The findings of this research are hoped to provide clear insights for ESP instructors around the problems of ESP programs and motivate material developers and Azad University educational headquarters to find a good way to eliminate these problems and improve the quality of ESP courses for engineering students. Manuscript profile

This study aimed to investigate the impact of flipped task-based instruction (TBI) on EFL learners' speaking skill and attitude towards this mode of instruction. Four intact classes consisting of 60 EFL learners were assigned to control and experimental groups. The data were collected by administering two speaking tests and a questionnaire investigating the participants' beliefs about flipped TBI. The scores of the participants on the two speaking tests were statistically analyzed through an ANCOVA. The results showed that flipped TBI has a positive impact on EFL learners' speaking skill. In addition, the analysis conducted on the participants' scores on the attitude questionnaire revealed that the attitudes of the participants in the experimental groups towards flipped TBI changed positively. The findings of this study can be theoretically and practically employed by EFL teachers and applied linguists. Manuscript profile

The current study investigated Iranian engineering students’ target situation and learning needs about a tertiary level course of English for specific purposes (ESP). To this end, a convenience sample including 27 ESP instructors and 222 students majoring in different fields of engineering from 10 randomly selected Iranian universities participated in an exploratory sequential mixed-method study. As the preliminary stage of the analysis, the instructor participants were interviewed about various domains representing the ESP needs of engineering students. The qualitative teacher-elicited data were used to develop a needs analysis questionnaire specific to the student participants of the study. The descriptive analysis of the responses provided by the engineering students to the needs analysis questionnaire shed light on the significant learner needs relevant to ESP learning and those related to the target situation of use. Providing a context-relevant scheme to design, evaluate, and modify ESP courses for Iranian students of engineering, the study’s findings could positively influence the current ESP pedagogy in Iran. Manuscript profile

This study tried to examine the effect of using scaffolded differentiation strategies on reading comprehension and vocabulary improvement of intermediate students. The effect of using scaffolded differentiation strategies on the reading strategy use of the intermediate students was also checked. The researcher selected 40 EFL learners with intermediate levels. They were mixed learners from the institutes in Tehran. Nelson proficiency test, screening test, diagnostic test, progress monitoring test, outcome test, and a close-ended questionnaire were used in the study. For the quantitative part, the selected students were randomly divided into four groups. Two were experimental groups and the rest were control ones. Each group consisted of 10 students. There were 15 sessions for the treatment. In the Experimental group the instructor used scaffolded differentiating strategies for improving the reading comprehension of the students and in the control group the teachers used ordinary methods. A test that subdivides the broad area into specific skills, in this case, inferential comprehension and receptive vocabulary was administered before and after the intervention. The questions were constructed in the related course of study. The result of the post-test showed that ‘Inferential reading’ and ‘Receptive vocabulary’ of the experimental group were noticeably greater than those of the control one. Data for the qualitative part was collected through the reading strategy inventory of MARSI (Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002). The reading strategy inventory was administered to 20 participants before the instruction and the instruction started, and after the instruction it was administered again. It consisted of 30 items that measured three factors: Global Reading Strategies (13 items), Problem-Solving Strategies (8 items), and Support Reading Strategies (9 items). The result of the posttest showed that the mean scores for the two subscales of ‘Global’ and ‘Supportive’ in the experimental group were noticeably greater than the mean scores in the control group but not for the other subscales of ‘Problem-solving’. Manuscript profile