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The COVID-19 pandemic compelled universities worldwide to adopt Learning Management Systems (LMS) as the primary medium for emergency remote teaching. While these platforms ensured continuity of instruction, many students encountered significant technological, pedagogical, and equity-related challenges that limited their learning experiences. This study draws on qualitative data from 249 Iranian university students’ reflections during the pandemic to explore both barriers and opportunities in LMS use. Thematic analysis revealed recurring issues such as unstable internet connectivity, difficulties with uploading assignments, limited digital literacy, insufficient instructor support, and inequitable access to digital resources. Students also reported increased workloads, lack of feedback, and emotional fatigue. However, some identified benefits, including improved digital skills, flexibility in learning, and opportunities for self-paced study. Beyond documenting these emergency-period challenges, the study highlights how student voices can provide valuable guidance for the post-pandemic development of digital education. The findings underscore the importance of institutional policies, digital equity strategies, and culturally responsive pedagogy in shaping sustainable and inclusive higher education. By foregrounding student experiences, this research contributes to ongoing discussions on how hybrid and blended learning models can strengthen resilience and ensure meaningful engagement in future digital learning environments.
 

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The rapid transition to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to examine preservice teachers’ readiness and experiences with digital instruction. This qualitative study explored the perspectives of 15 undergraduate EFL preservice teachers and a focus group of 5 teacher educators at a public university in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, Iran. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis to identify key patterns in technological competence, pedagogical integration, student engagement, and professional support. Findings revealed that participants’ engagement with online platforms was largely driven by necessity, with initial struggles in technical operation and lesson adaptation gradually giving way to growing confidence and autonomy. Despite developing practical skills, many preservice teachers encountered challenges in designing interactive lessons, maintaining student motivation, and addressing infrastructural limitations. Teacher educators emphasized the importance of mentorship, reflective practice, and structured guidance in building pedagogical readiness. The study also highlighted a gap in context-specific preparation in Iran, particularly regarding institutional support and tailored professional development for digital teaching. Implications suggest that teacher education programs should integrate experiential training, ongoing mentorship, and context-sensitive strategies to bridge the gap between technical competence and effective online pedagogy. This research contributes to understanding the factors influencing preservice teachers’ preparedness for online language instruction and provides practical recommendations for enhancing teacher education in digitally mediated environments.
 

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This study highlights the pivotal role of mobile phones in education, with particular emphasis on vocabulary acquisition in contemporary EFL/ESL classrooms through the use of two prominent applications. To ensure a homogeneous sample, 180 intermediate learners were selected from an initial pool of 270 individuals on the basis of their scores on the NELSON test, specifically those whose scores fell within one standard deviation above or below the mean. Subsequently, the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) test was administered to assess participants’ existing vocabulary proficiency. Then, the participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: two experimental groups and one control group. One experimental group utilized the English Vocabulary Builder application, while another experimental group employed the VocAPP English Flashcards application. Following the intervention period, all participants completed an identical post-test to evaluate their vocabulary learning. Te second post-test was administered six days after the intervention to assess participants' vocabulary retention. Analysis of the collected data demonstrated that learners who used the VocAPP English Flashcards application achieved significantly higher scores compared to those in the other groups. These indicated results a statistically significant effect of the application on long-term vocabulary retention, leading to the rejection of the third null hypothesis. This outcome also indicates a meaningful difference between the two applications, which may be attributed to the user-friendly interface of the VocAPP English Flashcards and its incorporation of flashcard creation as an innovative and engaging vocabulary learning strategy.
 

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The current study reports the steps taken in the first phase of a larger project aiming at assessing the pragmatic competence of Iranian EFL learners with a focus on L2 (im)politeness features. To this end, a Multiple-choice Discourse Completion Test (MDCT) was developed, based on the scenarios present in two recently published webcomics. First, the types and the frequencies of the L2 (im)politeness strategies found in the webcomics were determined through discourse analysis.  Next, similar situations to those present in the webcomics were developed based on a table of specifications developed by the researchers. The developed (im)politeness questionnaire was first piloted by a number of native English speakers and improved according to their comments and suggestions. Finally, the finalized version of the questionnaire, i.e., the developed DCT, was administered to a few Iranian EFL learners for the final piloting. The steps taken and the findings of each one is reported and discussed.
 

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Abstract
This paper offers a critical exploration of the postwar psychological and political terrain depicted in David Hare’s Plenty, with a particular emphasis on the interplay of power and emergent political trajectories. Anchored in Organski’s Power Transition Theory, the study interrogates the residual impacts of World War II on personal identity formation and shifting power dynamics. Employing a single-case cultural analysis centered on the character of Susan Traherne, the research foregrounds the tension between wartime idealism and the pervasive disillusionment of the postwar period. Through qualitative and interpretive methodologies—drawing on frameworks from political psychology and critical discourse analysis—the study uncovers the ways in which sociopolitical ruptures destabilize subjectivity and reconfigure hegemonic structures. The findings reveal that Plenty stages the disintegration of ideological coherence and the psychological ramifications of geopolitical transformation, ultimately portraying individual crises as symptomatic reflections of broader global realignments.

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While the previous studies showed the impact of the music on the words’ learning and retention, this study explores the effect of traditional music as an input mode on Iranian upper intermediate learners’ learning and retention of difficult English words. Eighty participants were divided into four groups. Two groups were exposed to western music while other two groups were exposed to Iranian traditional music. Each group received a pretest first, followed by instruction on selected difficult vocabulary items, and then posttest and delayed posttest. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated significant main impacts of time on vocabulary learning and retention. Descriptive statistics showed that those who were exposed to western music were outperformed by the ones who were exposed to Iranian traditional music in both immediate and delayed tests, although no significant interaction between time and music type was found. These results show that culturally familiar musical input may ease vocabulary learning and retention in L2 contexts. For language teaching and curriculum design implications are discussed.
 

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As oral language proficiency assessment relies on human judgment, raters play a crucial role in performance-based testing. Among rater-related variables, rating experience has received considerable attention. Previous research on rater training has shown that extremely severe or lenient raters often benefit most from training, leading to changes in rating behavior. However, many of these studies have applied FACETS to only one or two facets and have rarely employed pre- and post-training designs. In addition, empirical findings have been inconsistent, providing no clear evidence as to whether experienced or inexperienced raters demonstrate greater rating reliability. The present study investigated the impact of rater training on experienced and inexperienced raters. Twenty raters evaluated the oral performances of 200 test takers before and after participating in a training program. The results indicated that training increased interrater consistency and reduced bias in the use of rating scale categories. The findings further suggested that, given the difficulty of fully eliminating rater variability, rater training should prioritize improving intrarater reliability rather than focusing exclusively on agreement among raters. Both experienced and inexperienced raters showed improved rating quality following training; however, inexperienced raters demonstrated greater gains. These results suggest that inexperienced raters should not be excluded from rating solely due to limited experience. As inexperienced raters are also more cost-effective, the findings imply that testing authorities may benefit more from investing in effective rater-training programs than from allocating substantial resources to recruiting highly experienced raters.
 

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IELTS writing is a critical factor in facilitating academic and professional mobility and success of both EFL learners and non-English majors globally. This study systematically identifies and categorizes the principal research themes, methodological trends, learners’ challenges, and proposed solutions through a scoping review of the previous literature. In accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, relevant studies on IELTS writing task 2 were identified and screened from Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, and ResearchGate. Through a multi-stage screening process based on rigorous exclusion and inclusion criteria, 30 peer-reviewed studies were selected for the final content analysis. Thematic content analysis employing manual open coding was applied to these chosen studies in order to identify the recurring patterns regarding the themes, methodology, problems, and solutions. The analysis yielded five primary themes: linguistic features, cross-linguistic transfer, pedagogical interventions, assessment and washback, and emerging AI-based evaluation. The findings showed that IELTS writing research is mainly employing qualitative approach, followed by mixed-methods, making use of corpus analysis, discourse analysis, surveys, and classroom interventions. According to these studies, candidates consistently face challenges in grammar, lexical range, coherence, L1 transfer, and task management, while the proposed solutions strongly emphasize genre-based instruction, model-essay noticing, contrastive rhetoric teaching, focused feedback, strategy training, and AI-supported diagnostic tools.
 

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A significant advantage associated with peer corrective feedback (CF) is the opportunity it provides for teachers in terms of increasing the opportunities for language learning and practice. Studies have even proved its influential role and higher impact for effective learning compared to the teacher-provided feedback. Nevertheless, teachers seem to practice caution in using it in their classes. One of their significant concerns is the emotional repercussions associated with this correction resource. The present study is an attempt to shed light on the dark parts of teachers’ perception of peer correction by seeking learners’ views and comparing them with those of teachers. For this purpose, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 31 Iranian EFL teachers as well as 159 Iranian EFL learners on the most critical issues discussed in the literature in relation to peer CF. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using Braun and Clark’s (2005) thematic analysis framework. The results pointed to teachers’ misconceptions about how their learners might react to correction from peers; while teachers had a conservative attitude to peer-provided correction due to their emotional concerns, learners looked at it as an effective learning resource and their major concern was related to the quality of the provided peer corrections. The findings have valuable implications for language instructors and teacher development programs.
 

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This qualitative study explored how mentoring and reflection can really support the development of preservice EFL teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) at a public teacher training university in Iran. The research which is grounded in an interpretive paradigm tried to understand the lived experiences of eight preservice teachers in their final year of undergraduate study. The data for the study were gathered through semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and classroom observations. The analysis tried to follow Strauss and Corbin’s coding procedures. It included open, axial, and selective coding. After the analysis, five main themes emerged: the integration of theory and practice, the reflective transformation of teaching beliefs, the impact of mentorship on professional identity, challenges within teacher education programs, and the importance of peer collaboration and communities of practice. The findings clearly showed that mentoring and reflection could be vital in helping preservice teachers to connect pedagogical theory with classroom application, and to create context-sensitive teaching strategies, and to gain confidence in their instructional decisions. However, the study also highlighted the existing shortcomings in the current teacher education system, such as insufficient ongoing mentoring and limited opportunities for peer reflection. The research concludes that developing structured mentorship, reflective engagement, and collaborative professional communities can strengthen preservice EFL teachers’ PCK to a great extent and help close the gap between theory and practice which are apparent in Iranian teacher education.