The present study aimed at investigating the effect of weekly quizzes on Iranian high school students' performance on final achievement tests. This effect, which is technically referred to as washback, is defined as the effect of testing on learning and teaching. Most scholars have attempted to provide guidelines in order to achieve positive washback. While some suggest frequent quizzes as a means of positive washback, others oppose the idea. The proponents claim that frequent quizzes stimulate practice and review, give the students more opportunities for feedback and have a positive influence on students' study time. The opponents, on the other hand, believe that too frequent testing might inhibit of larger units of instructional material and frustrate anxious students, and thus, hinder learning. This study explored whether students taking weekly quizzes performed better in the final achievement tests. 70 students studying in grade two of high school were selected and divided into two groups. One group received weekly quizzes and the other group took only midterm exam. The results indicated that the group with weekly quizzes performed better than the group without quizzes.

With a cursory glance into the field of SLA, one can vividly recognize that the place of writing has been marginalized in comparison to other skills. Likewise, with the widespread implementation of communicative approaches to language teaching, writing has turned to a Cinderella skill in current EFL classes since most of the attention is paid to speaking and listening activities. However, improving writing ability has always been a concern for teachers, materials developers, and researchers. In this paper, the role of critical thinking (CT) in improving the writing ability of EFL learners was investigated. For this purpose, 70 EFL learners were asked to write a composition about a unique topic they had never thought before. A placement test was given to learners to divide them into proficient and less-proficient groups to see whether there is any variation between them. The common themes of the writings of these two groups were examined before introducing the principles of CT. After the first drafts of learners’ compositions were gathered, all of the learners were taught some underlying principles of CT. The results showed that after explicitly teaching the principles of CT, learners’ writings, in both groups, improved qualitatively and quantitatively; however, it had better effects on proficient learners. Background knowledge was also considered. It was revealed that having sufficient background knowledge is not the main key toward success in better writing. The findings proved that CT remained useful even when learners did not have any background information about the topic they were asked to write. Critical thinking was a way to provide learners with specific tools, namely, imaginative, supportive, and disciplinary. Finally, some recommendations are given

This study intends to investigate condolence responses in Persian and English. The data collection instrument was movies. The movies were utilized to study the responses native speakers employ when someone offers condolences to them. Since there was no model of comparison, the researchers had to make one based on the nature of responses collected from movies. Seven categories of responses were recognized. The categories are: token of appreciation; expressing sorrow; sharing feeling; comment on the deceased; topic avoidance; self-blame statement; and divine comment. The Chi-square formula was then employed to find out whether there are any significant differences between the observed frequencies. The findings showed that Persian responses are more celestial and collectivist in nature while English condolence responses are more terrestrial and individualistic. Finally, the results were discussed and some suggestions were made.

The role of cognitive processes in compliment-response (CR) exchanges is an underdeveloped area of investigation. This article aims to probe whether Persian speakers’ responses to compliments change in line with their appraisals of the situation. To achieve this aim, Persian speakers’ responses to compliments are analysed based on their first and second appraisals of the event. In this study, with a focus on the CR exchanges, Persian speakers (N = 160) were observed and audio-recorded during everyday conversation. The results of this study manifest that Persian speakers have distinct (and even opposite) reactions based on their first and second appraisal of compliments. This suggests, therefore, that Appraisal 1 and Appraisal 2 undergo different sociocognitive processes that reflect automatic and non-automatic responses to compliments. It is concluded that the relation between Appraisal 1 and Appraisal 2 is mostly contradictory rather than confirmatory, in that the first compliment is mostly appraised as a politeness strategy (a social lubricant), whereas the second compliment is frequently appraised as purposeful or strategic praise. In addition, the first compliment is responded to automatically, whereas the second compliment is approached non-automatically.

This article aims at investigating EFL teacher discourse while presenting reading skill. Moreover, the relationship between teacher discourse and learners" proficiency level as well as learners" cognitive state were studied based on Bloom"s cognitive taxonomy. This paper sheds light on some important aspects of teacher-student interactions in reading comprehension skill. Thirty two EFL classes were observed and the way teachers interacted with learners while presenting reading activities was analyzed and teachers" voices were audio-recorded. This research was conducted on three phases; (1) pre-reading; (2) during-reading; and (3) after-reading. Using Bloom"s taxonomy, the researchers found that most teachers use action verbs which are related to concrete end of the taxonomy regardless of the learners" level of proficiency and their cognitive state. The findings of this study made it clear that a) there is little congruency between teachers" discourse and learners" proficiency level; b) teacher discourse is so limited and is incapable to target higher-level thinking