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The purpose of the study reported in this article was to investigate the contribution of engaging in an online Teacher Professional Development (oTPD) course to improving different facets of English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ Professional Development (PD). To this end, ten EFL teachers of a language institute participated in the study to be taught via Telegram mobile app (as a common Mobile Social Network Site (MSNS) in Iran) during a six-month teacher training project. A 35-item technology-enhanced TPD checklist consisting of several main sections incorporating demographic items, background information, and different issues regarding TPD was designed to measure EFL teachers’ self-report TPD scores at the outset and end of the training course. Results pointed to the positive effects of oTPD course on participants’ PD across different facets. The obtained findings have some implications for teacher educators, syllabus designers and practitioners in EFL contexts to have a fresh look at the complicated construct of PD including several facets, consider using MSNSs in teacher education and TPD courses, prepare online teacher education courses based on teachers’ needs and opinions and provide teachers with follow-up support by devoting an elapsed time between teachers’ participation in oTPD and application of their learning in the course.

The purpose of this study was three-fold: first, it aimed to develop a scale to shed light on English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of using Mobile Social Network Sites (MSNSs) in language teaching and learning. To this end, a 36-item MSNSs Utility Perceptions Inventory (MUPI) was developed. Second, the current study made an attempt to investigate the construct validity and reliability of the MUPI through collecting data from 184 Iranian EFL teachers. The factorability of the data has been substantiated by running Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test of Sampling Adequacy (KMO) and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity. The results of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) revealed a three-factor solution for the inventory items. Furthermore, it was deemed that the scale had a high level of internal consistency. Third, this study strove to explore EFL teachers’ perceptions of MSNSs use by analyzing the results of the administered scale. The findings showed that teachers put more emphasis on factor one (Advantages of MSNSs for Teaching and Learning) and factor three (Barriers to Using MSNSs for Teaching and Learning). The findings also indicated that approximately half of the teachers believed MSNSs allow them to have a more detailed, in depth conversation with their peers and colleagues in the course. Moreover, student distraction, insufficient Internet bandwidth/speed, and insufficient technical support for teachers were some barriers to using MSNSs in classrooms. It was also confirmed that developing communication skills, increasing communication, motivating students, and sharing feedback are some advantages of using MSNSs for teaching and learning. This study has some implications for EFL teachers, teacher educators, and syllabus designers to pay particular attention to the positive features of MSNSs and harness their pedagogical benefits in English language teaching and learning on the one hand, and teacher education courses on the other hand.

Learning about language teacher cognition (LTC) is useful for understanding how language teachers act in the classroom. Employing an ecological framework, this study aimed to explore the factors influencing language teachers’ LTCs at different levels. To this end, qualitative data using semi-structured interviews and observation were collected from 62 (30 males and 32 females) Iranian EFL teachers. The results indicated that, at microsystem level, factors such as teaching equipment and facilities, teachers’ mood and feelings, their job satisfaction, and language proficiency influenced LTC. At mesosystem level, LTC was influenced by teachers’ prior learning experience, the collaboration and collegiality among teachers working in the language institute, teachers’ self-efficacy, and critical incidents that happened when teaching or learning. Additionally, the results indicated that exosystem level factors including teacher appraisal criteria, the teaching program and curriculum, and teacher immunity affected LTC. Moreover, LTC was subject to the influence of the government’s attitudes about ELT and religious beliefs about self and interaction, and friendliness with students at macrosystem level. More importantly, it was found that the factors influencing LTC were interrelated and interconnected and in several cases, LTC was a product of joint effect of several factors at various ecosystem levels. Finally, findings in this study suggest that language teaching programs provide recent educational technology in the classroom, foster collaboration and collegiality among teachers, and clarify teacher appraisal criteria for teachers in order to help create positive language teaching beliefs.

There is growing interest in integrating scaffolding in educational decisions everywhere including Iran. Drawing on sociocultural theory, this quasi-experimental study was aimed to determine the effect of technology-, motivational-, and metacognitive-based scaffolding on improving Iranian adult advanced EFL learners’ speaking. A sample of 90 advanced EFL learners was selected non-randomly based on their performance on Certificate in Advanced English (CAE) from two language institutes in Tehran, Iran during the summer and autumn semesters of 2019. The selected participants were randomly assigned to three equal groups. IELTS was used to compare their language proficiency at the beginning and the end of the study. Scaffolding provided conditions for learners to highly engage in speaking activities. The results of paired-sample t-tests revealed a significant improvement in the speaking scores of the three study groups. The results of the one-way ANOVA and Scheffe post-hoc tests indicated that motivational-based scaffolding was more conducive to enhance Iranian EFL learners’ speaking. The results of this study showed the positive impacts of integrating scaffolding into different language learning strategies, and this may carry pedagogical implications for both language teachers and learners.

This article presents an overall exploratory comparison of the English teacher training courses (TTCs) held in Iranian private language institutes and Certificate in Teaching English to Adults (CELTA). Data were gathered through Iranian institutes' websites; interviews with Iranian English teachers, English teachers holding CELTA certificate, and teacher trainers; as well as questionnaires filled out by institutes' supervisors and CELTA holders. Content analysis and document analysis were conducted to reveal the similarities and differences between CELTA and Iranian TTCs. Results showed that Iranian TTCs were quite different from CELTA, especially at implementation and evaluation stages. The findings revealed that Iranian TTCs neglected the trainees' needs, limited the teachers to a series of practical steps in teaching, did not provide enough opportunities for teaching practice, and evaluated the trainees' performances subjectively. However, they enjoyed systematic planning, contained practical techniques for teaching the language components and skills, and were based on institutes' needs. Iranian teacher trainers are advised to involve the trainees more in the implementation of the course through doing assignments, to provide the trainees with video recordings of the experienced teachers' classes for observation, and develop an objective criterion for assessing the trainees' teaching performances.

This study reports on an extended learner needs analysis carried out at different stages of course progress in the undergraduate course of Consecutive Interpreting. The participants were 32 undergraduate translation students. Two questionnaires were used to identify the initial- and final-stage lacks and wants, and learners’ reflective diaries served as a tool to gain ongoing insight into their lacks. At each stage, after the identification of lacks and/or wants, the required adaptations were decided on and implemented, and their effect was traced on learners’ views. The ongoing lacks were mainly related to L2 listening comprehension and note-taking from L2. The final stage investigation of the lacks revealed that although the majority of the learners reported progress in note-taking, listening comprehension, and consecutive interpreting, almost half of them did not feel confident to be active members in class. Moreover, the investigation of wants revealed that a high percentage of the learners believed the class materials and activities were effective regarding their progress. However, activities in which interaction and cooperation were essential were least preferred. This together with the final-stage investigation of lacks revealed that the course curriculum needed to work more toward creating a non-threatening atmosphere for interaction. Although the study was conducted in a specific setting, it bears implications for different settings since it is a practical example of how an extended needs analysis could be done. Besides, the nature of the problems the learners reported and the measures taken to address them could be very similar in other contexts.

The merits of the application of flow theory in foreign language teaching have been demonstrated in recent research. This experimental study was aimed at investigating the role of task type and modality in the perception of flow experience by learners as they are engaged in communication tasks. The participants were 78 non-English major university students at an intermediate level of proficiency based on the result of the Oxford quick proficiency test. To do so, the flow experience perceived by 39 dyads while performing information-gap and jigsaw tasks through three modes of communication, i.e. audio-synchronous computer-mediated communication, text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication, and face-to-face communication, was assessed using the short flow scale questionnaire (Martin and Jackson in Motiv Emot, 32(3):141–157, 2008) and task specific flow scale questionnaire (Czimmermann and Piniel in Positive psychology in SLA, 193–214, 2016. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783095360-009). To examine the role of task type and modality in flow experience perceived by the participants, the mixed between-within subject’s ANOVA test was run for each task in different pair categories. The results indicated that in all three modalities, the jigsaw task induced more flow than the information gap task did. Moreover, in both tasks, Text-SCMC modality aroused less flow than that in either of F2F and Audio-SCMC modalities as perceived by the interlocutors. Hence, no interaction between task type and modality was observed regarding their impact on the perception of flow experience. The findings of the study could provide implications for second language acquisition and instruction.

Given the growing body of evidence on the interaction between language and thought, the overall aim of the current study is to verify whether there is a developmental pattern in the cognitive behavior of Persian L2 learners of English as a foreign language with regard to action construal level. Specifically, this study investigates whether acquiring English as a foreign language would affect the construal level of Persian EFL learners with different levels of bilingualism. A group of 40 Persian monolinguals, a group of 40 low-level Persian EFL bilinguals (bilinguals with low L2 proficiency), and a group of 40 high-level Persian EFL bilinguals (bilinguals with high L2 proficiency) were recruited. Participants were divided into the above groups based on their performance on Oxford Quick Placement Test (QPT). The participants’ action construal level was measured using Behavior Identification Form (BIF) (Vallacher and Wegner, 1989). The results of a one way ANOVA and a post-hoc Tukey test indicated that while low-level participants behaved relatively similar to Persian monolinguals, the construal of high-level learners was significantly different from monolinguals and low-level bilinguals. These findings provide evidence of a developmental pattern regarding the acquisition of construal level, supporting the claim of previous research that learning an additional language can affect the construal of language learners.

This study aims at examining the effect of using cooperative learning strategies on learning simple present and present continuous by elementary Iraqi EFL learners. For this purpose, 60 Iraqi EFL students of the seventh grade (first grade of high school) from two intact classes were selected from among the female Iraqi high school students studying in Maysan, Iraq. They attended the pre-test of the target grammar points. Then, the treatment started and continued for 12 sessions. In the experimental group, first the teacher assigned the students into 6 groups including 4 to 6 members and asked them to do the grammar exercises cooperatively in groups while in the control group, the students did the exercises individually, on their own. The teacher of both groups was the same; so, she tried not to have any peer or group practice in the control group. The treatment lasted for about 3 months. Then, the same test of the target grammar points was administered as the post-pest and the participants' performance on the pre-test and post-test was compared in order to see which group performed better after the treatment. The results indicated the outperformance of the experimental group who used cooperative techniques for learning simple present and present continuous over the control group. Findings recommend that Iraqi English language teachers and material designers can make use of communicative tasks and activities like cooperative learning techniques in their classes.

The present study investigated Iraqi teachers' and students' evaluation of the textbook English for Iraq for first and second grades of high school based on Litz's checklist using a descriptive qualitative method. The sample of this study was 2 textbooks entitled -English for Iraq|| for 1st and 2nd Intermediate Grades. The research data was collected from the evaluation checklist of experts consisting of 5 Points in evaluation textbooks. The results of the evaluation of the two books have mostly met the standards of a decent book based on the criteria of Litz in terms of objectives, layout, design, methodology, skills, and elements of language. This study also intended to examine EFL teachers' and students' points of view on these two textbooks. The participants were 70 first and second-grade intermediate school students and 30 EFL teachers who were chosen from various intermediate schools in Wasit province. The researcher designed two questionnaires to evaluate these textbooks. The examinations uncovered that EFL teachers were to some extent happy with the -English for Iraq textbook series||; Notwithstanding, EFL students were fairly impartial. The evaluation also indicated that the English for Iraq textbook meets the CLT educational plan's points and targets in introducing the exercises and activities through legitimate texts (fiction and nonfiction) that are connected with genuine circumstances. The findings of this research may hold any importance with Iraqi EFL teachers, materials designers, and the partners engaged with the materials readiness Departments of the Iraqi Ministry of General Education.