Volume 5. December 2009.

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Foreword:
Drs. Rajabali Askarzadeh Torghabeh & Paul Robertson


Welcome to the last edition of the year 2009. The Iranian EFL Journal has had strong growth over the last few years with a monthly readership now exceeding 1,300 readers. For a new journal examining the topic of English second language acquisition from a local perspective, the growth and readership has been pleasing. Statistically readers are coming from almost 80 countries. This tends to show that the study of English as it’s is taught in non English speaking countries, in this case, Iran has become a growth area for global academic research. In this issue we present 6 articles for your reading.  

In the first article the authors, Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz and  Lotfollah Akbari Malek present a study using critical discourse analysis framework,   aimed at examining three aspects of meaning, namely social relations, subject positions, and contents in the conversations of advanced parts of two series of textbooks namely ILI (Iran Language Institute) and True to life textbooks to find out whether there is any discernable ideological orientation(s) in the two series of textbooks. 

The second article by Mahmood Reza Atai & Hossein Rezaie Adriani combines an analysis of the current political situation of Iran’s nuclear development.  This study explores the representation of Iran's nuclear issues throughout forty editorials form a host of American news casting outlets with regard to their discursive manipulation at structural and strategic layers.

Baqer Yaqubi & Vahid Rahmani Doqaruni  report on an empirical investigation of the Iranian non-native English teachers' use of communication strategies in Iranian EFL contexts. In the fourth article, Khalil Motallebzadeh  investigates the impact of three learning strategies for coaching candidates who were taking the IELTS speaking subtest:  cognitive strategies, social strategies, and compensatory strategies.
    The next article by our chief editor Dr. Rajabali Torgebah and his co-authors Majid Elahi and Saeed Khanalipour explored teaching, learning, and learner roles as entailed by the metaphors that were elicited from the participants categorized in the nine conceptual metaphors of provider of knowledge, friend, organizer, nurturer, spiritual leader, parent, entertainer, counselor, and innovator.

Finally, Purya Baghaei and Nazila Amrahi introduces the Rasch model as an alternative measurement framework to classical test theory.
   We hope you enjoy this edition and look forward to your readership in 2010.

Volume 5. December 2009.

PDF E-book version

Index

1. Foreword. Drs. Robertson & Rajabali Torghabeh 

2. Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz & Lotfollah Akbari Malek. Critical Discourse Analysis of ELT Textbooks

5. Khalil Motallebzadeh. Strategy-Based Instruction: A Focus  on Improvement of IELTS Speaking

6. Rajabali Askarzadeh Torghabeh, Majid Elahi & Saeed Khanalipour.   Examining Iranian EFL Learners' and Teachers' Beliefs about Teachers Through Metaphor Analysis

7. Purya Baghaei & Nazila Amrahi. Introduction to Rasch 
Measurement