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. ...

this thesis attempts to investigate the effects of prelistening activities on enhancing iranian efl learners` listening comprehension. the present study investigated ways in which learners` background knowledge could be activated in order to enhance their l2 listening comprehension by limiting the number of possible text interpretations prior to listening. the experiments conducted in this stud...

abstract previous studies on willingness to communicate (wtc) have shown the influence of many individual or situational factors on students’ tendency to engage in classroom communication, in which wtc has been viewed either at the trait-level or situational level. however, due to the complexity of the notion of willingness to communicate, the present study suggests that these two strands are ...

until now many studies have been done over recent decades throughout the world to show the right age to start english. in iran, research is still at an early stage in terms of evaluating teachers’ beliefs about teaching children english. the problem of at what age to start teaching english and how to teach english to elementary school children has not been solved neither in this country nor els...

most specialists in the field of foreign language teachingconsiderreading skill as an interactive process between the reader’s prior knowledge and the text.accordingly, the activation of prior knowledge for an effective comprehension is very important. it is generally agreed that the pre-reading phase is the stage where this type of interaction and activation may be enhanced throughcertain stra...

this study examined the effects of collaborative strategic reading and direct instruction in persuasion on iranian high school students persuasive writing and attitudes. students in three intact classes were assigned to one of three treatment conditions: collaborative strategic reading and direct instruction in persuasion or direct instruction in persuasion or a control group. treatment effects...

abstract: about 60% of total premium of insurance industry is pertained?to life policies in the world; while the life insurance total premium in iran is less than 6% of total premium in insurance industry in 2008 (sigma, no 3/2009). among the reasons that discourage the life insurance industry is the problem of adverse selection. adverse selection theory describes a situation where the inf...

drought is transient phenomenon , slow , repetitive and integral part of the climate of each region. drought begins with a substantial reduction in precipitation over the long-term average rainfall and over time, reduced soil moisture and surface and ground water resources will continue to decrease. this phenomenon is the most important in bakhtegan basin because of its importance in strategic ...

power transformers are important equipments in power systems. thus there is a large number of researches devoted of power transformers. however, there is still a demand for future investigations, especially in the field of diagnosis of transformer failures. in order to fulfill the demand, the first part reports a study case in which four main types of failures on the active part are investigate...

this research aims at answering the questions about translation problems and strategies applied by translators when translating cultural concepts. in order to address this issue, qualitative and quantitative study were conducted on two groups of subjects at imam reza international university of mashhad. these two groups were assigned as beginner and advanced translation students (10 students). ...