The availability and the use of mobile messaging applications are increasingly widespread among the new generation of students in Iran. The present study aimed to investigate the role of WhatsApp in the vocabulary learning improvement of Iranian junior high school EFL students. Using a mixed method design, a group of 60 students including 30 male and 30 female students studying at two male and female junior high schools in Isfahan, Iran participated in the study. A pre-test and post-test were used. Four English classes were instructed and the experimental group received vocabulary instructions electronically four days a week for four weeks using the WhatsApp while the control group was taught vocabularies of their textbook inside the classroom by traditional method used in all Iranian schools for teaching English to students. The results revealed that using WhatsApp had significant role in vocabulary learning of the students. The results also showed that there was not a substantial difference between male and female students regarding their vocabulary knowledge after using WhatsApp. The findings of this study can be beneficial to Iranian EFL students, teachers, language schools, policy makers, and syllabus designers.

The advent of new technologies and rapid growth of online distance education have fostered interaction as well as collaboration among learners and created a true learning community. Moreover, forming synchronous and asynchronous learning networks utilizing the Internet have been simplified by new technologies. Since the importance of technology is undeniable, teachers and instructors must use it to create new opportunities and experiences for educators. The present study investigates the use of audio podcast plus still pictures and audio podcasts plus animated pictures on learners' vocabulary gain and retention in a process-oriented approach. The results indicate that the participants who received audio plus animated pictures had higher levels of vocabulary gain as well as retention. The present study showed that podcasting is an influential tool to course resources and increases the contact between students and teachers.

Some significant components are essential in teaching a language. Among these, textbooks are the most significant ones and must be considered seriously. Textbooks play an important role in EFL teaching and learning because they can provide ready-made materials to both teachers and students. Besides, if textbooks aren’t used appropriately, they may spoil the process of teaching. This study aimed at analyzing listening and speaking activities of the textbook Prospect 3 which is used for Junior High School third graders in order to investigate in which level of lower or higher of the learning objectives related to Bloom’s (2001) Revised Taxonomy of Cognitive Domain they would be classified. The findings revealed that all of the activities of listening and speaking skills were classified as the low level of cognitive complexity and could not train the students of this grade for high levels of learning objectives. Hence the teachers should employ extra activities to make the students perform in higher levels of thinking skills and book designers should improve the content of the textbook to cover the higher levels of the cognitive domain.

Video podcasting technology or vodcasting is a burgeoning technological advancement which can make computer assisted language learning more convenient. Video technology is extensively used in traditional L2 classrooms. Yet, video podcasting together with the application of meaningful, logical, reasonable, and challenging tasks is rarely used in distance language learning programs. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of video podcasting tasks on listening comprehension progress of Iranian intermediate learners. For this aim, a quasi-experimental design was used to examine the efficacy of these tasks on a group of 120 English learners. The treatment took twelve weeks and it comprised of working on online vodcasting tasks from five different genres. Paired samples t-test was utilized to assess the amount of listening achievement and the test-taking performance by comparing the results of the pre-test and the post-test. The results demonstrated a statistically significant increase in listening comprehension scores from pre-test to post-test. The magnitude of the difference was calculated by the Eta squared statistic which indicated a large effect size. It was concluded that the superior performance of the learners was contributed to the association of vodcastsing tasks. In addition, Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation was used which revealed a significant positive relationship between participants' engagement rate with Vodcasting Tasks and their test performance.

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