the present study investigated construct equivalence of multiple choice (mc) and constructed response (cr) item types across stem and content equivalent mc and cr items (item type ‘a’), non-stem-equivalent but content equivalent mc and cr items (item type ‘b’), and non-stem and non-content equivalent mc and cr items (item type ‘c’). one hundred seventy english-major undergraduates completed mc ...

testing plays a vital role in any language teaching program. it allows teachers and stakeholders, including program administrators, parents, admissions officers and prospective employers to be assured that the learners are progressing according to an accepted standard (douglas, 2010). the problems currently facing language testers have both practical and theoretical implications but the first i...

abstract the present study was conducted to examine the effect of proficiency on students interaction while carrying out the grammar-based task(s) in collaboration. in particular, the study examines whether the level of proficiency affects the learners’ focus of attention to grammatical and lexical features. the study takes a further step and examines whether there is any difference in the use...

the aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency and the type of discourse markers used in the argumentative and expository writings of iranian efl learners and the differences between these text features in the two essay genres. the study also aimed at examining the influence of the use of discourse markers on the participants’ writing quality. to this end the discourse markers us...

abstract the present study deals with a comparison between reactive and pre-emptive focus-on-form in terms of application and efficiency. it was conducted in an intermediate english class in shahroud. 15 male learners participated in this research and their age ranged from 18 to 25. a course book, new interchange 3, and a complementary book were used. every session the learners gave lectures o...

due to extraordinary large amount of information and daily sharp increasing claimant for ui benefits and because of serious constraint of financial barriers, the importance of handling fraud detection in order to discover, control and predict fraudulent claims is inevitable. we use the most appropriate data mining methodology, methods, techniques and tools to extract knowledge or insights from ...

the present study was carried on to investigate the use of face-keeping strategies in reaction to complaints by male and female in two different cultures, persian and american english. to see if apology strategies are affected by cultural, contextual preferences and gender of interlocutors in two distinct languages of persian and american english. the hypotheses to be tested were 1) ifids, acce...

the present dissertation aims to investigate four-word lexical bundles in applied linguistics research articles by iranian and internationally-published writers. the aims of this study are two-fold: first of all, attempts have been made to create a comprehensive list of the most commonly used four-word lexical bundles categorized by their type and token frequency, their structural characteristi...

in this thesis, we exploit a simple and suitable method for immobilization of copper(ii) complex of 4?-phenyl-terpyridine on activated multi-walled carbon nanotubes [amwcnts-o-cu(ii)-phtpy]. this nanostructure was characterized by various physico-chemical techniques. to ensure the efficiency and fidelity of copper species, the implementation of three-component strategies in click-chemistry all...

this study intends to investigate samuel beckett’s waiting for godot and endgame under the lacanian psychoanalysis. it begins by explaining the most important concepts of lacanian psychoanalysis. the beckettian characters are studied regarding their state of unconscious, and not the state of consciousness as is common in most beckett studies. according to lacan, language plays the sole role in ...