there are two major theories of measurement in psychometrics: classical test theory (ctt) and item-response theory (irt). despite its widespread and long use, ctt has a number of shortcomings, which make it problematic to be used for practical and theoretical purposes. irt tries to solve these shortcomings, and provide better and more dependable answers. one of the applications of irt is the as...

august wilson is undoubtedly one of the rare black playwrights whose works have attracted streams of attention and worldwide audience. the present study aims at analyzing fences and piano lesson which are two of the most successful plays in his pittsburgh cycle from the perspective of michel foucault’s theories and ideas. studying these two plays from foucault’s perspective opens new windows in...

for several years, researchers in familiarity of efl teachers with post-method and its role in second and foreign language learners’ productions have pointed out that the opportunity to plan for a task generally develops language learners’ development (ellis, 2005). it is important to mention that the critical varies in language teaching was shown is the disappearances of the concept of method ...

adaptation of the lord of the rings is considered by many to be among the greatest, most successful and at the same time most popular of the above mentioned trend so far. it is my intention to look at the success and popularity of this epic fantasy in the light of the 9/11 attacks and the war on terror context of g. w. bush’s aura. in so doing i aim at bringing into the light the determining fa...

1.1 introduction “i see translation as the attempt to produce a text so transparent that it does not seem to be translated. a good translation is like a pane of glass. you only notice that it’s there when there are little imperfections- scratches, bubbles. ideally, there shouldn’t be any. it should never call attention to itself.” “norman shapiro” (venuti, 1995:1) edward fitzgerald is the br...

the present research study attempted to find out the extent to which two pre-task activities of “glossary of unknown vocabulary items” and “content related support” assisted efl language learners with their performance on listening comprehension questions across two different proficiency levels (low and high). data for this study were obtained from a total of 120 language learners, female and m...

writing as a productive skill requires practice in the basic sub-skills of vocabulary and grammar. in fact, grammar has been viewed as the core of programs in writing classes to help the students put the elements of sentence together and combine sentences of specific lengths to come up with an error-free work of art. conceptualizing l2 writing in this way introduces writing as a product and enc...

abstract the current study set out to address the issue as to whether the implementation of portfolio assessment would give rise to iranian pre-intermediate efl learner autonomy. participants comprised 60 female in pre-intermediate level within the age range of 16-28.they were selected from among 90 language learners based on their scores on language proficiency test -key english test. then, t...

in one pole of the continuum of language learning, theoreticians and practitioners traditionally consider english as english as a second language or english as a foreign language. however, in the other pole of this continuum where english is thought of as the most effective tool for international communication, it is referred to as a lingua franca. those who favor an approach to english growing...

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...