Iranian Journal of Applied Language Studies
Volume:14 Issue: 1, Spring 2022

This paper examined impoliteness strategies used by characters and their resulting reactions in five American comedy series. Drawing on Culpeper’s models (1996 & 2003), the comedy series were watched several times with one month interval to make sure that the impolite utterances and their reactions were put in the correct categories. The results of the study revealed that sarcasm was the most frequently used strategy among other strategies, and male and female characters were not distinct in using this strategy. However, male characters exploited the bald on record strategy more than their female counterparts. One striking result was the frequent use of offensive reactions by male actors. The reasons behind the variable use of these strategies are twofold. First, impoliteness is used as a tool to show off the power of the male characters. Second, using impoliteness strategies in comedy series reflect the entertaining role of sarcasm used by the actors.

The objective was threefold: (a) to investigate the difference among online teaching performance of EFL student teachers at Iran University of Science and Technology who received peer feedback, expert feedback, and reflected on their own teaching practice; (b) to examine the difference between rating scores given by student teachers and those by instructor to online teaching; and (c) to determine student teachers’ best experiences, challenges, and lessons they learnt from expert feedback, peer observation, and reflection. The results of this mixed methods experimental research revealed no statistically significant difference in the three group’s scores on their second teaching practice; however, there was statistically significant difference between the scores of the first and second practices for all three groups. The results also showed that student teachers mostly underrated their first teaching, while they overrated their second teaching. The findings also indicated that their best experiences were related to using technological tools, working with Adobe Connect, making interesting materials, and using games and songs. Their challenges included lack of face-to-face communication, engaging all participants, and preparing suitable materials, whereas teaching new vocabulary in context, simplifying songs by pre-teaching their unknown words, and using online games and websites were the lessons they learnt.

Therapeutic discourse is a special type of organizational discourse which is used by psychotherapists when treating their patients. The present study uses the conversation analysis approach to find the principles of turn taking in the therapeutic situation. This study specifically examines the therapeutic discourse of treatment sessions for patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) based on the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) approach. The method used in this research is qualitative. The corpus used in this study included 2520 minutes of conversation in psychotherapy sessions. The participants in this study were 16 people of both sexes. ATLAS ti. computer software has been used to construct and present the verbal pattern. The results of this study show that most of taking were related to female clients and psychotherapists. This result is related to the relationship between clients and psychotherapists, women's verbal habits, excessive curiosity, and their challenging personality. The presence of overlap in the speech of female psychotherapists and clients and pause in other conversations have been the most widely used signs of taking in this type of . The present study has faced some limitations. One of the most important limitations of this research was the prevalence of Covid 19 virus. Also, obtaining the consent of some psychologists and clients to record their videos and voices in psychotherapy sessions has been another limitation of this research. Given the importance of communication and linguistic studies in psychotherapy, it is suggested that future research be conducted on the following topics: “Comparison of GAD Patients' Speech Pattern with Speech Pattern of Other Anxiety Disorders” and “The effect of direct and indirect expression on anxiety in patients with anxiety disorders”.

Various types of focalization are important elements in creating suspense and surprise. This study finds use of narrative discourse analysis in order to discover the narrative affordances and limitations of internal focalization for creating suspense and surprise in Persian detective novels, specifically, Esmail Fassih’s The Falcon and the Owls. Duality (the existence of two temporal sets in the structure of the narrative), raising implicit questions in the first and other scenes of the novel, flashback, flashforward, different types of internal and external conflicts, spatial limitation of the focalizer and the suspense after the surprise are some of the affordances and limitations of the internal focalizer in creating suspense and surprise. In The Falcon and the Owls, the most significant strengths of the internal focalizer are the extensive attention given to narrative affordances such as raising implicit questions in the first and other scenes of the novel as well as going back and forth in time; while its weaknesses include giving insufficient attention to the tactic of multiple internal focalization, paying unnecessary attention to unimportant omissions and omitting important events.

The present study examined the effect of mobile assisted language learning (MALL) on Iranian EFL learners' idiom learning and perceptions of classroom activities. To do so, this study was carried out in six classes at Imam Reza International University in Mashhad, Iran. The participants included 114 BA students of Teaching English field. The present study was quasi-experimental that utilized a mixed methods research design. It contained a control group with 45 participants and an experimental group with 69 participants. MALL for teaching idioms via Telegram was considered as a treatment in experimental group. In the present study, Telegram app was chosen because the researcher, the teachers, and the participants had similar experience of using this app. Pictures, texts, audio, and video files, were used as the materials in teaching idioms. Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Activities scale designed and validated by Gentry and Gable (2001) and translated into Persian and validated by Ghanizadeh and Jahedizadeh (2015) was used for assessing students’ perceptions of classroom activities (interest, choice, joy, and challenge). Twelve students in experimental group sat for an interview which was audio and video recorded. In the interview sessions, students were asked about the experience of informal learning in this research, the materials used, pros and cons toward the channel and MALL. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of mobile phone usage in enhancing EFL university students’ idiom learning as well as in students’ perceptions of classroom activities with the highest differences observed in challenge and joy perceptions. The results of the qualitative phase were also in line with those of the quantitate phase.

Despite the determining role of culture-bound materials in the enhancement of EFL learners' productive skills, a scarcity of investigation on the influence of culture-oriented content on their productive skills is staunchly perceived. This gap can be partly filled by implementing Content Based Language Teaching (CBLT) program which contrives the EFL content especially in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classrooms. In this respect, a culture-oriented EAP course book was designed based on Tomlinson's (2001) materials development framework. A total of 100 participants were recruited according to their language proficiency results, and were fractionated into two productive EAP task groups embracing Oral Presentation and Systematic Writing as the two befitting techniques to strengthen productive skills. After practicing and teaching the developed course book in each class in twenty treatment sessions, the participants were given a posttest. Correspondingly, a paired samples t-test indicated that culture-oriented content affected the EFL students' speaking and writing skills separately. Similarly, an independent samples t-test revealed the influence of culture-oriented content on their speaking skill than the writing skill. The findings suggest the significance of the first culture as the benchmark for incorporating second culture contents in EFL teaching arenas.

This study aimed at designing a problem-based model of writing development for Iranian EFL learners. To this end, a qualitative content analysis method was used. The participants included EFL teachers (N=10) and learners (N=15) with teaching and learning experience in writing courses at different language institutes of Iran. They were selected through purposive sampling. To collect the data, a semi-structured interview was used. More particularly, initially, the respondents in this study were interviewed to find out what their views about PBL is. The researchers began the qualitative data collection procedure and continued until data was saturated. The semi-structured questions administered to the respondents dealt with various aspects of PBL including: searching for answers, collaborative learning, cognitive thinking, learner-centered learning, diminished rule of the teacher, feedback dynamics in PBL, synthesis of data, and application of findings. By using the views of participants with regards to PBL, a new PBL model for the writing skill were designed. The findings can have implications for EFL teachers, learners, and curriculum planners.

Prosody is a fundamental aspect of speech communication through which (un)truthfulness and (in)sincerity of speech can be identified. The focus of the study is on the prosodic features of (in)sincere compliments among EFL learners. Twenty male and female EFL learners were selected through Oxford Quick Placement Test. The participants did role-plays based on situations on compliment topics and their voices were recorded in a recording studio. The produced compliments were transferred to Praat software for acoustic analysis. Also, two native speakers (one male and one female) were requested to read the produced compliments both in a sincere and insincere manner. Their voices were transferred to Praat software for acoustic analysis to establish the baseline of the study. The prosodic features of the participants’ voices were compared with those of native speakers to determine the (in)sincerity of the compliments on a 5-point scale. Results showed that sincere compliments are produced with a higher pitch. Concerning the gender of the participants, males were sincerer than females. Regarding the proficiency level of the participants, there was no significant prosodic feature in determining the sincerity of their compliments. Both intermediate and advanced groups were similar to native speakers in giving sincere compliments. The results of the study open up new horizons for the importance of vocal cues in evaluating sincerity in speech acts.

A large body of research has investigated the role of motivational strategy use in EFL learners’ language achievement, teachers’ work engagement, and creativity. However, there have been very few studies on EFL teachers’ status quo of these variables and the correlation among them. This study was an attempt to investigate the Iranian EFL teachers’ status quo of these variables and to explore the correlation among them. To this end, 100 Iranian EFL teachers of both genders were selected. To explore the objectives of this study, the Motivational Strategy Use Questionnaire, Creativity Style Questionnaire, and Work Engagement Scale Questionnaire were employed. Data were analyzed through t-tests and multiple regression. Results revealed that EFL teachers have acceptable levels of motivational strategies usage, work engagement, and creativity. The results of Multiple regression analysis proved a statistically significant relationship between motivational strategy use and creativity in the classroom and no significant relationship was found between motivational strategy use and teachers’ work engagement. Teachers’ gender was found to have no contribution to teachers’ work engagement, creativity, and motivational strategies usage. This study has theoretical and practical implications for teachers. A large body of research has investigated the role of motivational strategy use in EFL learners’ language achievement, teachers’ work engagement, and creativity. However, there have been very few studies on EFL teachers’ status quo of these variables and the correlation among them. This study was an attempt to investigate the Iranian EFL teachers’ status quo of these variables and to explore the correlation among them. To this end, 100 Iranian EFL teachers of both genders were selected. To explore the objectives of this study, the Motivational Strategy Use Questionnaire, Creativity Style Questionnaire, and Work Engagement Scale Questionnaire were employed. Data were analyzed through t-tests and multiple regression. Results revealed that EFL teachers have acceptable levels of motivational strategies usage, work engagement, and creativity. The results of Multiple regression analysis proved a statistically significant relationship between motivational strategy use and creativity in the classroom and no significant relationship was found between motivational strategy use and teachers’ work engagement. Teachers’ gender was found to have no contribution to teachers’ work engagement, creativity, and motivational strategies usage. This study has theoretical and practical implications for teachers.