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...

language learning courseware has been receiving growing attention by english educators since its advent. a variety of softwares have been designed by software designers and resorted to by language educators to supplement language textbooks. this experimental study investigated how the application of computerized version of language textbooks and the reception of the entire course through comput...

the present study sought to investigate the impact of using mind-mapping technique instruction on female elementary efl learners reading comprehension; it also investigated their attitudes towards using mind-mapping technique as a tool to improve their reading comprehension. this study followed a quasi-experimental design with two intact groups as experimental, and control groups. the participa...

growing demands and requires of high data rate systems cause significant increase of high frequency systems for wideband communication applications. as mixers are one of the main blocks of each receivers and its performance has great impact on receiver’s performance; in this thesis, a new solution for ku-band (12-18 ghz) mixer design in tsmc 0.18 µm is presented. this mixer has high linearity a...

there is no doubt that human being needs to become integrated with industry and industry needs to be progressed, daily. on the other hand, serious events in industrial units specially in oil industries has been shown that such damages and events are industry related ones. the consequence of such events and damages which resulted in chemical and poisoned explosions and loss of life and property ...

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 ...

abstract tasks nowadays are at the center of attention in sla research. task types is one of the critical issues in this regard, their effectiveness and suitability to any particular context, their characteristics and the result they yield are among some of these issues. on the other hand, discourse markers (dms) have been very much investigated and their effectiveness in conveying the meaning...

in the past couple of decades sociocultural theory of sla and its implications in efl contexts have attracted attentions of research circles worldwide and aroused some controversies. firth and wagner (1997) have questioned the principles of the cognitive view which gives importance to mental constructs in favor of sociocultural view which highlights social and contextual constructs. but if soci...