nowadays enhancing critical thinking in learners is considered one of the foreign language teachers’ tasks due to its high position in foreign language classrooms. when it comes to selecting materials for language classrooms, there are obviously some criteria that teachers should apply. the present study aimed at a critical thinking based analysis of ten picture story books and ten folktales th...

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...

The term "health inequalities" is not a descriptive one: it refers to discrepancies in morbidity and mortality, life expectancy, disability life adjusted years, etc that are due to differences in such factors as socioeconomic status, gender and race/ethnicity. Socio-economic inequalities are the differences in health status (e.g. disease prevalence and incidence rates) across various socio-econ...

the west of esfahan province, iran, is one of the most important agricultural areas throughout the country due to the climate variability and life-giving water of zayanderood river. rice is one of the major and economic crops in this area. the most important climatic elements in agricultural activities which should be considered include temperature, relative humidity, precipitation and wind. so...