there are two major theories of measurement in psychometrics: classical test theory (ctt) and item-response theory (irt). despite its widespread and long use, ctt has a number of shortcomings, which make it problematic to be used for practical and theoretical purposes. irt tries to solve these shortcomings, and provide better and more dependable answers. one of the applications of irt is the as...

a novel acrylic acid-functionalized fe3o4 magnetic nanoparticle with a core-shell structure was developed for utilization as a heterogeneous organosuperacid in chemical transformations. the structural, surface, and magnetic characteristics of the nanosized catalyst were investigated by various techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (tem), thermogravimetric analysis (tga), and ft-ir...

abstract this quasi-experimental study was aimed at examining the impact of storyline complexity on the grammatical accuracy and complexity of advanced and intermediate efl learners. a total of 65 advanced and intermediate efl learners were selected from iran language institute (ili). an intact group including 35 intermediate participants and another intact group with 30 advanced participants ...

the present study aimed at investigating how different news agencies using the concept of legitimation/delegitimation represent the same event differently. to this end, van leeuwens (2008) legitimatory/delegitimatory framework was applied to the data gleaned from the iranian state-run news agency fars news, british state-run news agency bbc, and also american state-run news agency voa. the resu...

plagiarism in esl/efl learning contexts has been established as a dynamic and multi-layered phenomenon and has become a topic engaging many researchers in a heated debate in recent years. comparisons of student-generated texts with their source texts have shown that students rely on source texts in their writings and copying is a major strategy used by both l1 and l2 writers. in our country a...

the present dissertation aims to investigate four-word lexical bundles in applied linguistics research articles by iranian and internationally-published writers. the aims of this study are two-fold: first of all, attempts have been made to create a comprehensive list of the most commonly used four-word lexical bundles categorized by their type and token frequency, their structural characteristi...

as some definitions show, idioms are expressions whose meanings cannot be obtained from individual words. in every society, people use their own conceptions and feelings through different idioms and expressions. so every culture and society has their own idioms. some scholars proposed methods for translating idioms but baker’s strategies are very important and constructive. this research tried ...

now-a-days graphic design plays a major role in influencing culture, society, business, and customers, in such a way that one could look upon every individual as a potential customer. graphic designers seek to identify customers needs and find an intelligent solution for them. correct identification and understanding of those needs is the first step towards achieving ones goals. marketing knowh...

this study investigated (a) the learners’ existing reading strategy repertoire, (b) the effect of instruction in reading strategies on learners’ strategic performance, and (c) the effect of explicit instruction in top-down reading strategies on reading comprehension ability of intermediate learners. the study was conducted with 40 intermediate efl learners in two groups of experimental and cont...

phatic communion is a cultural concept which differs across cultures. according to hofstede (2001), the u.s. tends to have individualistic culture; however, asian countries tend to have collectivistic cultures. these cultures view phatic communion differently. in individualistic cultures like u.s., phatic communion reflects speakers’ socio-cultural relationships in conversations. to see whether...