according to coates’s (2004, as cited in zhang, 2010) definition of "conversational dominance" (p.111), it refers to the phenomenon of a speaker dominating others in interaction. specifically, it means how a speaker makes use of certain strategies to get the floor and maintain the floor. thus, the amount of talk is the main measurement for the dominance of the conversation. whether a speaker do...

testing plays a vital role in any language teaching program. it allows teachers and stakeholders, including program administrators, parents, admissions officers and prospective employers to be assured that the learners are progressing according to an accepted standard (douglas, 2010). the problems currently facing language testers have both practical and theoretical implications but the first i...

this study investigated how group formation method, namely student-selected vs. teacher-assigned, influences the results of the community model of teaching creative writing; i.e., group dynamics and group outcome (the quality of performance). the study adopted an experimental comparison group and microgenetic research design to observe the change process over a relatively short period of time. ...

abstract nowadaysphotovoltaic solar cells (pvs) areacknowledged the fastest growing energy technology in the word, however, they only account for only fraction of current global renewable energy capacity. it isrecognized that this incomplete market penetration has been largely a result of the technology’sexcessive cost. so researchers are trying to find innovative, economic way with theaim of ...

the present study was carried on to investigate the use of face-keeping strategies in reaction to complaints by male and female in two different cultures, persian and american english. to see if apology strategies are affected by cultural, contextual preferences and gender of interlocutors in two distinct languages of persian and american english. the hypotheses to be tested were 1) ifids, acce...

this study investigated the functions, types and frequencies of code switching in the teachers and students discourse in elt classrooms. to this end, the participants of this study including two groups of teachers and students were selected. the first group of participants were two efl teachers teaching general english courses (at two different levels of proficiency) in an institutional program...

a professional is someone whose work involves performing a certain function with some degree of expertise. but a narrower definition limits the term to apply to people such as teachers and doctors, whose expertise involves not only skill and knowledge but also the exercise of highly sophisticated judgment, and whose accreditation necessitates extensive study, often university-based as well as p...

the aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency and the type of discourse markers used in the argumentative and expository writings of iranian efl learners and the differences between these text features in the two essay genres. the study also aimed at examining the influence of the use of discourse markers on the participants’ writing quality. to this end the discourse markers us...

one very decisive factor in students’ academic destiny is the result they get at final term examinations. because of its importance, both students and teachers are curiously anxious about them. as normally it is the case, these final term tests are prepared hurriedly in short time by teachers which result in students’ dissatisfaction, complaining on how the test was different from their expecta...

the extent to which written corrective feedback on linguistic errors can play a role in helping l2 writers improve the accuracy of their writing continues to be an issue of interest to researchers and teachers since truscott (1996) mounted a case for its abolition. while there is growing empirical evidence that written corrective feedback can successfully target some types of linguistic error (...