Cultural discontinuity is recognized as a culturally motivated academic process where sociocultural behaviors and communicative skills valued in the home culture of students are discontinued at school thus resulting in their low academic performance. This process may be reinforced by structural inequality in the mainstream society and education…

Developing intercultural sensitivity in the current multicultural world is an essential, but challenging requirement. This necessity is significant in EFL classes where learners are expected to gain intercultural skills to communicate more efficiently in culturally diverse contexts. Grounded in Bennett's (Bennett, International Journal of…

Iranian authorities view English language learning as a disturbing influence on national identity. They are concerned about its impact on learners' identities. Despite the political concern, there is growing interest in learning English in Iranian private schools for personal and social development. This article reports on a study in which six…

It is believed that there is a significant difference between the use of technology in technologically advanced and advancing countries, and the users in the former act far better with technology than the users in the latter. However, there is not enough report on how this usage differs in terms of the independent use of technology in a foreign…

Earth science concepts can be challenging for children to grasp due to their abstract nature. This study explores the potential of 3D computer animation as an engaging and effective medium to communicate various earth science processes to young learners. By creating age-appropriate, scientifically accurate visualizations of geological features and…

Purpose: This narrative study seeks to explore cultural identity (CI) construction of Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in light of Tong and Cheung's (2011) definition of CI. Design/methodology/approach: Ten language teachers were selected using purposeful sampling. Data were collected through reflective teacher journals and…

Politeness is a phenomenon which is common to all cultures. Each culture has a different perception of what is polite and each language has various devices for expressing politeness. Besides, gender can be considered as an important variable in language use and research suggest that men and women use language differently. Speech acts is not an…

With the increasing attempts to use gender-fair language, different studies have investigated this issue from different viewpoints. To find an epicene pronoun used as a third-person singular, some research has been conducted investigating them in various contexts, yet few studies have focused on cultural differences. Since how to use language…

This study tended to investigate the effect of culture, as depicted in language, on the use of stance in the applied linguistics research articles of two groups: native speakers of Persian, and native speakers of English. The two corpora comprising the discussion sections of forty research articles from reliable journals were compared for amounts…

Due to the crucial role textbooks play in any educational system, an urgent need is felt to examine, evaluate, and choose the most suitable ones available. This study is an attempt to critically examine and uncover the hidden curriculum in First Certificate Masterclass (FCM) that is taught at Navid institute in Iran. To this aim, FCM was deeply…

The present qualitative study sought to explore the relationship between English language learning and identity reconstruction from the viewpoints of Iranian language learners. The data were collected by means of focus-group interviews with forty-five male intermediate learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). To define the concept of…

Recent findings in the field of pragmatics have revealed that pragmatic accuracy (knowledge) and pragmatic speed (processing ability) function as two distinct and non-parallel components of pragmatic competence. Anderson's adaptive control of thought--rational (ACT-R) model, which emphasises the development of skill through repeated practice,…

The present study was an attempt to evaluate and specify teachers' perception of the cultural elements of Total English book series. Another objective was to study the techniques and strategies that teachers usually use in teaching these elements. To this end, a total of 50 male and female teachers working at Kish Language Institute in Esfahan…

The current study aimed at investigating the nature of EFL teachers and learners' perspectives on the intercultural competence potentiality of an EFL textbook, i.e. "Top Notch Series," which is used extensively in Iranian institutional EFL context. To this end, forty EFL teachers and eighty-eight advanced EFL learners from private…

The present paper is an attempt to evaluate "Pacesetter" Series (Strange and Hall, 2005), an EFL course book series, in four levels of "starter", "elementary", "pre-intermediate", and "intermediate", being currently instructed at several language institutes in Iran. The purpose of this study is to…