Due to the primary role of teachers as practitioners of educational principles, considering teachers’ effectiveness and productivity are regarded as significant issues in the field of language teaching which has recently received experts’ attention in SLA research. In response to this outlook in education, this interdisciplinary explanatory ‎sequential mixed-methods study aimed to address the relationship between EFL teachers’ effectiveness and productivity in the light of a famous model taken from the field of human resource management now applied to the EFL domain. On this premise, out of 100 English teachers, 80 female Iranian EFL high ‎school teachers, selected through convenience sampling from 34 public high schools in Mashhad, ‎Iran, participated in the study and responded to the Teachers’ Effectiveness Questionnaire (Kumar & Mutha, 1974), and Teachers’ Productivity Questionnaire (Hersey & Goldsmith, 1980). A semi-structured interview with 15 female EFL teachers was also undertaken to help triangulate the results. Results from the quantitative phase indicated that teachers’ perceptions of the teachers’ effectiveness were significantly correlated with their productivity. The qualitative findings added to the quantitative findings by explaining several main personal and organizational issues concerning EFL teachers’ perceptions of teachers’ effectiveness and productivity, for example, teachers’ interpersonal relationships, personal needs, motivational factors, subject knowledge, professional development, personal attributes, and administrators’ support. The findings of this investigation may have some implications for stakeholders, policymakers, administrators, and teacher educators to re-plan their professional development programs to meet the real needs of teachers in their particular educational context rather than providing teachers with theory-based programs. Manuscript profile

This study aimed to investigate the sense of professional agency of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) pre-service teachers at Farhangian University, Iran. The study aimed to examine changes in teacher agency across Farhangian University campuses using a newly-developed survey that was part of a larger study. The survey assessed the professional agency of 210 pre-service teachers through convenience sampling in three dimensions, namely iterational, practical-evaluative, and projective dimensions. Based on the theoretical framework of ecological teacher agency, the pre-service teachers' agency questionnaire comprised instructional beliefs, supportive beliefs, competency, collaborative learning, the opportunity to influence, the opportunity to make choices, support, equality, trust, institutional context, community, short-term and long-term goals. The collected data were subjected to statistical analyses, including Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. The study observed a significant correlation between all major elements of pre-service teachers' professional agency. Notably, senior students perceived as having higher agency than freshman students. However, no significant gender effects were observed in achieving agency. In conclusion, this study suggests that the development of professional agency among student teachers is crucial for their overall performance as teachers. The study provides valuable insight into how teacher education programs can enhance student teachers' professional agency and offers recommendations for future research. Manuscript profile

Writing has a unique position in language teaching since its acquisition involves the practice and knowledge of the other three language skills. One of the best ways to attract students to writing is to let them write at the beginning of the learning process as freely as possible and evoke in them the feeling of creativity. Creative writing obviously can play a crucial role in the development of writing skills. This study is an inquiry into the role grammar-based stylistic imitation plays in learning how to write in English classes. To this end, the researcher, taking advantage of qualitative and action research to collect and analyze the data, attempted to teach paragraph writing to EFL in-service teachers using the grammar-based stylistic imitation. Fourteen non-native English teachers from the Gooyesh language institute in Shahrood were asked to do a close and free imitation. The researcher made use of semi-structured interviews to explain if and when they would use it in their own classes. The results showed grammar-based stylistic imitation could be of tremendous help to novice learners in their classes in that it can alleviate the burden they feel trying to master writing. However, a few teachers argued against it stating concerns about voices getting lost and styles getting killed. The results from the present inquiry can raise awareness of the way imitation, grammar-based stylistic imitation to be more specific, can find its way back into the classroom, which can help curriculum designers, stakeholders, policymakers, and administrators. Manuscript profile

Since second or foreign language learning is a?.m long term endeavor and learners may lose their initial interest and enthusiasm, they need to be kept motivated. Student engagement has been recommended as one approach to sustaining such at risk learners at high levels of motivation. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the dimensions of student engagement and language learning motivation among Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 117 intermediate EFL learners at the Iran Language Institute (ILI), Gorgan adult male branch, Iran, having been selected as the participants of the study through convenience sampling, were given two questionnaires: Student Engagement Questionnaire (Hart, Stewart, & Jimerson, 2011; Reeve, 2013) and Language Learning Motivation Scale (Noels, Pelletier, Clément, & Vallerand, 2000). The quantitative data gathered through these questionnaires were analyzed by the software package of SPSS, version 24. The results of the correlation tests showed that there were significant relationships between language learning motivation and each dimension of student engagement, with the cognitive engagement having the highest correlation. Further, the results of multiple regression analyses indicated that cognitive engagement was the sole predictor of language learning motivation. Manuscript profile

The study of attribution and decision-making is a process that involves improving people's beliefs in the causes of their failures and success to promote future motivation for achievement. It is nowadays widely accepted that decisive teaching and making use of attributional implications is a vital ingredient of a superb academic life. Accordingly, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between different dimensions of decision-making types, attributional styles, and teaching effectiveness among Iranian EFL teachers. Further, this study tried to explore the mediating role of decision-making types between attributional styles and teaching effectiveness. As the study participants, 146 adult male and female EFL teachers aged between 25 to 40 years old at different language institutes in several cities of Golestan province, Iran, were selected based on a purposive sampling method and were given three questionnaires. To analyze the data, structural equation modeling (SEM) was run by using the SmartPLS software, version 2. The obtained results showed significant relationships between different dimensions of attributional styles, decision-making types, and teaching effectiveness. The results indicated that decision-making types could successfully mediate between the dimensions of attributional styles and teaching effectiveness. Finally, the findings were discussed concerning the context of Iran. These findings would hopefully be advantageous for EFL teachers (English as a foreign language), SLTE courses (second language teacher education), and also TTC centers (teacher training course) to shape and empower different domains of teaching effectiveness by exploring teachers' decision-making types and attributional styles. Manuscript profile

The present study investigated the association between teachers’ efficacy and productivity among EFL teachers of adolescent students. On this premise, eighty high school English teachers from 34 public high schools in Mashhad were selected out of 100 English teachers through convenience sampling. Data were collected via two instruments, the Teachers’ Efficacy Questionnaire (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk, 2001), and the Teachers’ productivity Questionnaire (Hersey & Goldsmith, 1980). Subsequently, the data analyzed through the Pearson correlation and regression toward the mean analysis. The results of the correlation tests uncovered that there was a critical connection between EFL teachers’ efficacy and productivity. Furthermore, the results of simple regression analyses confirmed that teachers’ efficacy was a noteworthy predictor of their productivity. Thusly, in light of the results of assessing teachers’ perception, policymakers and professionals might have the option to cultivate teachers’ competency by planning and determining their future professional paths and provide a clearer perspective for their professional growth and development. Manuscript profile