It is a great pleasure to be writing an editorial welcome for the first inaugural issue of Applied Research in English. Research on language, teaching practices, and communication patterns has been growing rapidly both nationally and internationally. Therefore, I believe the publication of Applied Research in English is timely. More specifically, research is growing rapidly in such areas as classroom discourse, gender issues in education, use of technology in language teaching, curricula innovation in language education and sociolinguistic practices in society, among others. Obviously, it was the intersection of these issues and the desire to reflect inter-disciplinary research paradigms that spurred the creation of this journal. Furthermore, the journal makes an endeavour to bring together researchers whose work falls within areas such as approaches to the teaching and learning of modern languages in higher education and cultural expression through teaching and reading literature. The journal welcomes potential contributions in any of these areas for future editions.
The articles comprising the journal’s inaugural issue reflect the journal’s broad scope. In the first study, Furtado and Pastell argue that the Question Answer Relationship (QAR) strategy equips students with tools to successfully decode and comprehend what they read. Their study is based on an action research project over 18 days.
In “A contrastive study of compliment responses among Persians and Australians: The effects of exposure to a new speech community”, Motaghi-Tabari and Beuzeville investigate whether Persians who have been exposed to Australian culture are still affected by their cultural norms—in particular by the politeness system taarof— in responding to compliments in an intercultural interaction. The results of their study show that although there are similarities in the choice of compliment response types by Australians and Persians living in Australia, there are still some differences.
In “The comparative effects of song, picture and the keyword method on L2 vocabulary recognition and production”, Zarei and Salimi investigate the effect of three methods of vocabulary presentation, i.e., picture, song, and the keyword method, on Iranian EFL learners' vocabulary recognition and production. The group instructed through picture had the best performance, followed closely by the group instructed through the keyword method. The group taught through the song method performed significantly worse than both the picture group and the Keyword Method group. The findings of Zarei and Salimi’s study have theoretical and practical implications for teachers and practitioners.
In “Crossing the threshold of Iranian TEFL: State of the art”, Pishghadam and Zabihi shed light on what it means to teach English as a foreign language (TEFL) in an Islamic-Iranian context. The authors introduce Iranian TEFL as the successful assertion of Iranian local culture against the cultural and ideological domination of the West, which can be an antidote to the harshness of all marginalizations Iranians have suffered for centuries.
In the fifth study, “Bringing Classroom-Based Assessment into the EFL classroom”, Andrew Finch describes how English as a
Foreign Language (EFL) teachers can bring reliable, valid, user-friendly assessment into their classrooms, and thus improve the quality of learning that occurs there. While acknowledging the place of standardized, summative tests in contemporary society, Finch suggests that CBA in the EFL classroom can enhance long-term learning and consequently enable and empower students to prepare for their future learning needs.
Shomossi, Ketabi and Eslami-Rasekh’s study is an attempt to help Persian learners develop a sense of audience awareness in writing. Thirty five Persian students of English were trained with a focus on process-oriented instruction. In sum, training Persian learners resulted in their enhanced awareness of strategies they can adopt for audience considerations.
Finally, in “On the modernist elements of ‘Ithaca’ chapter in Joyce’s Ulysses”, Abbasi and Datli Beigi take us to the amazing world of literature by showing how the human race is perceived by Joyce. Also, the authors reveal how the employed elements depict a modern picture of the modern man. In this connection, some modern aspects of the language used by Joyce and the narrative structure of the work are discussed.
We all have much to learn from each other. Interdisciplinary collaboration is now more expected than ever because of technological advancements which have facilitated the dissemination of scholarly communication. We hope to establish a forum for academic discussion. We very much welcome your feedback on our inaugural issue.
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