Abstract-This study project was launched in order to contribute to the studies conducted for investigating the efficiency of different models of reading instruction. The aim of this paper was to investigate students' attitude towards using cooperative language learning techniques for reading instruction. Although cooperative methods are becoming more prevalent in private language schools, there are few studies regarding evaluating the students' attitude towards using cooperative learning for instructing reading comprehension in Iranian context. Evaluation of students' attitude towards the cooperative language learning in this research project was conducted using a survey questionnaire. Analysis of the quantitative questionnaire results showed that the participants generally tend towards supporting the implementation of cooperative strategies in teaching and learning reading comprehension.

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This study aimed at investigating whether applying pre-writing strategies would affect the quality of L2 learners' compositions. Twenty three adult EFL students from Jahad-e-Daneshgahi English centre in Iran participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups, including 11 and 12 participants in each. They were at the advanced proficiency level. Each student wrote five argumentative essays. Students in experimental group were treated to perform three pre-writing activities alternatively (concept map, reading relevant texts, and negotiation). The findings revealed that students wrote better compositions as a result of applying pre-writing strategies. Significant differences in two groups indicated that pre-writing activities had significant effect on the participants' writing achievement. The findings may have implications for English learners, English teachers and material developers.

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Classroom discourse is the investigation of the models of classroom participation and is a comprehensive and multidimensional phenomenon. As semantically empty and functionally complicated linguistic devices, discourse markers assist the teachers and the learners monitor their discourse in the classroom. This exploratory study analyzed the frequency of occurrence, distribution, and the pragmatic functions of DMs in the Iranian university EFL teachers' and learners' classroom discourse quantitatively and qualitatively. Applying Fraser (1999Fraser ( , 2008 taxonomy, the researchers explored the frequency of occurrence and distribution of discourse markers quantitatively. The qualitative phase researched the functions of DMs on the basis of Brinton's (1996) classification. The data was recorded and transcribed from four EFL teachers' and students' classroom interactions. The results revealed that the subjects applied few DMs -7.76% out of the whole lexical size; overemployed message relating DMs; underused focus and attention markers; and never used comment and attitude markers. Also, in the process of monitoring discourse, teachers utilized more than 60% of DMs and their gender played no significant part. Moreover, the subjects applied textual functions more frequently than interpersonal functions, overusing information indicators and underusing closing and turn giving markers. The insufficient and imbalanced use of DMs and their relevant functions provide the evidence for the typical neglect of the knowledge of these discourse managing and regulating devices as an educational reality due to the inadequate input for discourse pedagogy in the Iranian university EFL context. This study can have some pedagogical implications for curriculum designers, teachers, learners, teacher trainers, and materials developers.