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Objective: The effectiveness of Lexical Bundle (LBs) instruction for facilitating writing skill development has been a controversial issue in language teaching. This study examined the impact of LBs instruction on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) learners’ performance on IELTS writing task 2. Methods: To this end, first, 60 male and female ESP learners were randomly selected from among 150 ESP learners of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences as participants. Second, these participants were assigned to the experimental group and the control group, each with 30 learners. Both groups were then administered IELTS writing task 2 as a pretest. The experimental group was provided with ten sessions of IELTS-Task 2-related LB instruction.  The control group, however, did not receive this kind of instruction. Finally, the researchers administered IELTS writing task 2 to both of the groups anew as a posttest. Results: The results suggest that teaching the relevant bundles had significant positive impacts on ESP learners’ general performance of the relevant writing tasks, task achievement grammatical range and accuracy, vocabulary knowledge, as well as observing cohesive ties and coherence in their writing. Conclusions: The results may provide some useful insights regarding the instruction of LBs in IELTS preparation courses for the ESP learners.

This study represents the inaugural attempt at assessing the authenticity of the tasks encompassed in the IELTS Speaking Module. The evaluation is conducted from the vantage points of applied linguistics and general education, and serves to enhance comprehension of authenticity and authentic assessment. In order to achieve this objective, an analysis was conducted on the Speaking Module tasks using Bachman and Palmer's (1996; 2010) model of test usefulness from the discipline of applied linguistics, as well as Herrington and Herrington's (1998; 2006) inventory of the fundamental attributes of genuine assessment from the realm of general education. The results of both task analyses revealed low indices of authenticity of the tasks. The high degree of the convergence of the results from the analyses could open new horizons to experts in applied linguistics to exchange ideas about authentic language assessment with those in general education. Furthermore, such characteristics as problem-solving skills, higher-order thinking skills, integrated assessment, and multiple indicators of learning, are not included in Bachman and Palmer’s framework.

Written corrective feedback (WCF) becomes an essential part of students writing development. The efficacy of WCF for EFL learners has been the subject of numerous studies. However, the studies neglected the idea of the feedback literacy. Thus, this study aimed to investigate how two English teachers provide WCF, what students expect from their teachers, and whether or not both students and teachers share common grounds seen from the feedback literacy framework. Thus, thirty EFL students and two teachers from EFL writing classes of one Indonesian Islamic university participated in this study. The data related to students' expectations of WCF and teachers' practices were gathered through open ended questionnaire, interview, and observations. Positive attitudes toward WCF were shared by students and teachers. It was discovered that students place a higher value on direct feedback rather than indirect feedback. Students perceived their learning motivation is best preserved through a positive tone of feedback, such as interaction with teachers and teachers' compliments on their strength instead comments on deficiencies. The study indicated that there was a gap between students’ expectation and teacher practices about the type and relevance of feedback. Students perceived indirect feedback as less helpful in addressing their specific writing issues. While teachers have demonstrated feedback literacy in their practices, students' readiness and ability to fully engage in feedback literacy may vary depending on their proficiency levels and developmental stages. To bridge this gap, both students and teachers need to have good literacy in feedback. The findings highlight the potential significance of further exploring the impact of cultural factors in driving WCF decisions.

This article aims at contrasting the conceptualization of space in Persian and English. Using three semantic primes of 'space', namely 'below', 'side' and 'touch' proposed in Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), as one of the cognitive semantics approaches to study language, this cross-linguistic design intends to uncover the similarities and differences of conceptualizations in the two languages. The data came from the Hamshahri corpus of Persian-written data and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA).The data were compared to see whether or not the NSM theory is viable to explain the spatial conceptualization. The results indicated that the semantic primes have more than one exponent in Persian and English, with their particular function and conceptual range. Besides, the prime of 'touch' has not spatial correspondence in Persian language. This means that the NSM approach does not provide enough analytical toolkits to satisfactorily explain the similarities and differences in cross-cultural cognitive semantic comparisons and cannot exhaustively explain the conceptualization of ‘space’. Nonetheless, this approach provides us with some insight into the cognitive properties in the minds of the speakers.

The current study was conducted to examine Iranian EFL students’ listening comprehension and writing performance after receiving auditory and audiovisual input. With a quasi-experimental test-retest design, a listening comprehension test was administered in auditory and audiovisual formats to 51 intermediate EFL students from two intact classes. The results indicated that the students’ mean scores in the audiovisual listening test were significantly higher than that in the auditory test administered after a six-week interval; however, no significant difference was found in the accuracy and fluency of summary writing. The analysis of the participants’ responses to the questionnaire indicated that 75% of the students preferred the video format of the test and only 22% found it distracting. Most participants believed that visual input helped them remember details for a longer period and stay more concentrated, engaged and interested in the topic. To conclude, in addition to auditory input, audiovisual material is recommended as a preferred instrument to assess learners’ listening comprehension.

Following an explanatory sequential design, this study explored the possible association between the Professional Identity (PI) of Iranian female EFL university teachers in the Habitual Burnout (HB) phase and their Emotional Quotient (EQ). In the quantitative phase, a Structural Equation Model (SEM) was developed to investigate the promising relationships. In the subsequent qualitative phase, their comments regarding the associations determined were analyzed to evaluate the model and seek remedies to help female EFL university teachers in the HB phase. To collect the required data from 67 conveniently selected Iranian female EFL university teachers in the HB phase, the Burnout Assessment Tool, Emotional Intelligence Scale, and PI Scale for Iranian English Teachers were employed. The results showed a significant causal relationship between the PI and EQ of the participants, and the findings of the interviews confirmed the causal association, providing some suggestions for female EFL university teachers to help them handle their severe burnout levels. The findings may provide implications for university EFL teachers, curriculum designers of TEFL education, and educational psychologists.

What we know about the vision of an ideal Young Learners of English (YLE) classroom environment is only limited to a number of small-scale qualitative studies that have explored the development of teachers’ vision throughout their careers. This gap prompted the researchers of this study to pursue the development of a psychometrically valid measure of the factors involved in teachers’ vision of an ideal YLE classroom environment. To this end, an item pool was developed based on an extensive literature review, expert opinion, and interviews with 60 YLE teachers. Next, the first version of the questionnaire was administered to 366 YLE teachers from different cities of Iran. Confirmatory factor analyses through structural equation modeling procedures were applied to the data obtained to test the validity of the hypothetical model. Rounds of statistical analyses and the follow-up remodeling led to a final measurement model of a questionnaire with 23 items tapping into five factors of learner characteristics, attitudes toward the course, teacher characteristics, classroom environment, and organizational impact. The results of this study empirically support the multidimensionality of YLE teachers’ vision of an ideal classroom environment and yield a relatively concrete measure of the construct.

The success of language teachers and learners is definitively pertinent to the emotions they experience in academic environments. Accordingly, the factors impacting language teachers’ and learners’ emotions must be recognized. Many scholars have scrutinized emotional variables in response to this necessity through various methodological approaches. The present study aims to evaluate some of the innovative approaches to assessing emotional factors to see how innovative they are and review their positive points and shortcomings. To do so, Q Methodology (Q), idiodynamic method, Latent Growth Curve Modeling (LGCM), Process Tracing Approach (PTA), Social Network Analysis (SNA), Nested Ecosystem Model (Ecological approach), and Retrodictive Qualitative Modeling (RQM) methods have been selected to be reviewed in this research. The findings highlight several strengths and weaknesses of each of the methodological approaches. It has also been reported that these approaches need to be context-specific and person-sensitive to generate more accurate data. Among the approaches, PTA and SNA have received scant attention in the investigation of emotional factors since the data in these two approaches cannot be reported precisely in narrative form. Our study would be conducive for all researchers, notably those working in the field of language teachers’ and learners’ psychology.