https://ijeap.cmu.ac.ir/ Iranian Journal of English for Academic Purposes en daily 1 Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0330 Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0330 https://ijeap.cmu.ac.ir/article_240521.html While vocabulary development, Self-Regulated Learning (SRL), and Learner Engagement (LE) are all critical dimensions of effective English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education, conventional instruction in Iranian classrooms often lacks the required tools to foster deep and lasting development in these areas. This study explored the influence of digital gamification on Iranian EFL learners’ development of vocabulary knowledge, SRL, and LE. One hundred fifty participants, aged 14 to 20, were selected from an initial pool of 200 using the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). The instruments used to gather data included the OQPT, a teacher-made vocabulary test, and adapted versions of SRL and LE questionnaires. Based on the OQPT scores, two cohorts of participants were delineated: an experimental and a control group. The experimental group participated in a digitally mediated program incorporating points, badges, leaderboards, and interactive digital tasks, while the control group received conventional instruction. The findings demonstrated notable improvements in learners' vocabulary scores (Cohen's d=-0.740) and engagement levels (Cohen's d=-1.437) in the experimental group. However, statistical testing demonstrated that learners’ SRL scores remained comparable across the two conditions. Implications of these findings extend to EFL teachers, particularly in the design of vocabulary and engagement-focused interventions, instructional designers, and policymakers aiming to modernize language instruction and boost learner motivation and autonomy through gamified environments. https://ijeap.cmu.ac.ir/article_240525.html This study employs a corpus assisted quantitative-qualitative CDA approach (Fairclough, 2003) of 1,308 utterances from Miraculous Ladybug in the processes of facing and solving a problem. Findings reveal a pervasive authoritarian discourse characterized by high-frequency imperatives (58.5%), certainty modals (24.5%), and absolutist language (42.5%), against a critical deficit in collaborative markers (<1% conditionals). While these repetitive structures align with input flooding (Ellis, 2015) for SLA, they simultaneously model a miseducative discourse and regressive pedagogy that promote instinct and magical solutionism over deliberation. This discourse naturalizes a deep hierarchical divide and trains L2 learners in the unquestioning acceptance of authority, thereby fostering an anti-deliberative, reductive, and uncritical mindset. To address this paradox, we propose a critical pedagogical framework that integrates Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) and critical media literacy (Kellner & Share, 2019). This approach transforms the series’ limitations into teachable moments, enabling educators to use its valuable comprehensible input while reducing its ideological load and developing learners' critical, collaborative problem-solving skills.   https://ijeap.cmu.ac.ir/article_240616.html Recent studies on task-based approaches have explored how variations in task demands influence linguistic features such as fluency, accuracy, and syntactic or lexical complexity (Johnson, 2017). However, the studies on task complexity and discourse features have received scant attention. In response to this limited attention, this study examined how Iranian EFL learners employed discourse features across tasks of varying complexity levels. Furthermore, the study investigated the influence of strategic self-regulation in writing, overall language proficiency, and writers’ confidence on students’ academic writing performance. To this aim, 108 intermediate EFL writers participated in an English Proficiency Test (PET) and writing tasks with varying degrees of difficulty. They also completed self-regulated writing strategies and self-efficacy questionnaires. To examine how different levels of task complexity shaped EFL writers’ performance in cohesion, coherence, and organizational patterns, along with the role of learner-related factors (language proficiency, self-regulated writing strategies, and self-efficacy), a range of measures was employed. The results revealed that increasing task demands contributed to improved student performance with respect to discourse-related aspects of writing. In addition, learner-related variables showed meaningful predictive power for academic writing performance, explaining 31% of the variance in low-complexity tasks, 58% in medium-complexity tasks, and 64% in high-complexity tasks. Findings highlight pedagogical and assessment implications, emphasizing scaffolded instructional support and task-sensitive evaluation in academic writing https://ijeap.cmu.ac.ir/article_240717.html Native speakers use various brief verbal or nonverbal responses to signal attention, understanding, and involvement in spoken interactions. Known as “backchanneling”, such responses are conspicuously absent in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners’ conversations even though they are crucial in maintaining conversational coherence and rapport. This study looks into Iranian EFL learners’ awareness of backchanneling and the extent to which they employ such signals in English conversation. Twenty-seven undergraduate English major students participated in two audio-recorded peer discussions separated by a backchannelling-focused consciousness raising (CR) task. The conversation analysis performed on the collected data revealed that learners began to use backchannelling devices more frequently in the post-consciousness raising peer discussions. The findings suggest that most – even highly advanced – EFL learners lack awareness of interactional features present in native speaker conversations and that pedagogical intervention in the form of explicit instruction and modeling of backchanneling is needed to improve learners’ interactional and pragmatic competence. In the end, some pedagogical implications are discussed in relation to communicative classroom practices that can promote active listening and more natural conversational engagement. https://ijeap.cmu.ac.ir/article_240797.html Considering the paramount role of learners' multiple intelligences in language learning, this study was conducted in an Iraqi EFL context to investigate the relationship between EFL learners' intelligences and speaking and reading skills and determine how gender affects this relationship. The participants were 100 EFL learners in the fifth and sixth grades of two preparatory schools in Wasit, Iraq.  The study followed a correlational design and McKenzie's Multiple Intelligences questionnaire and tests of speaking and reading were used as data collection instruments.  Data were analyzed using Spearman's rho Correlation and Fisher's Z analyses. The results revealed significant correlations between verbal (r = 0.55, p = 0.00), logical (r = 0.39, p = 0.00), interpersonal (r = 0.32, p = 0.00) and natural (r = 0.28, p = 0.00) intelligences and speaking skill and verbal (r = 0.51, p = 0.00), logical (r = 0.51, p = 0.00), interpersonal (r = 0.34, p = 0.00), natural (r = 0.35, p = 0.00), and kinaesthetic (r = 0.30, p = 0.00) intelligences and reading skill, but no significant relationships between musical, visual, existential, and intrapersonal intelligences and the two skills (r = 0.01 to 0.17; p = 0.07 to 0.88). Moreover, gender had no significant role in the relationship between learners' multiple intelligences and speaking and reading skills (z = 0.12 to 0.93; p = 0.15 to 0.90). The findings provide new support for the available empirical literature on the topic. Based on the findings, educational managers and instructors are recommended to assess EFL learners' multiple intelligences at the beginning of instructional courses and use methods and learning activities that cater to individual learners' intelligence profiles to enhance their motivation and engagement as well as improve learning outcomes. https://ijeap.cmu.ac.ir/article_240798.html This study aimed to investigate the relationship between Kurdish EFL teachers’ expertise and their students’ academic achievement, and how this relationship is influenced by teachers’ academic degree, gender, school type, and teaching experience. Teacher expertise was conceptualized as self-perceived cognitive, pedagogical, linguistic, and contextual competencies, measured through a multidimensional questionnaire completed by 135 high school teachers in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Student achievement data were obtained for a subsample of 28 teachers using standardized English exam scores. Pearson correlations and multiple regression analyses showed a strong positive association between teacher expertise and student achievement (r = .648, p < .001), with expertise significantly predicting achievement beyond the effect of teaching experience. Subgroup analyses revealed that this relationship was strongest among MA holders (r = .809, p = .015), female teachers (r = .793, p < .001), and public-school teachers (r = .662, p = .007). Although private-school teachers reported higher self-perceived expertise, its impact on student outcomes was more pronounced in public schools. Teaching experience significantly predicted expertise but did not independently predict achievement when expertise was included in the model. These findings suggest that self-perceived expertise, above and beyond years of experience and formal qualifications, is strongly associated with EFL achievement. The findings also advance understanding of teacher expertise in under-researched contexts such as Iraqi Kurdistan and highlight the need for policies and professional development systems that prioritize multidimensional expertise in everyday classroom practice. https://ijeap.cmu.ac.ir/article_240805.html Technological advancements have been one of the major influences on language instruction and learning in recent decades. Interactive mobile multimedia constitutes one category of these advancements that takes the form of interactive mobile applications and engages learners in learning tasks beyond academic settings. This study scrutinized the extent to which Duolingo mobile application influenced Iraqi EFL learners’ vocabulary and grammar learning. In addition, it endeavored to determine these learners’ perspectives on this language-learning application. Accordingly, the researchers used a mixed-methods approach. To this end, in the quantitative phase, they used convenience sampling to select 50 intermediate-level Iraqi EFL learners at a university as participants. Moreover, they utilized vocabulary and grammar pretests and posttests to determine the efficacy of Duolingo-based treatment sessions. In addition, the researchers provided the experimental group with Duolingo-based treatment in 16 sessions in two months. More specifically, in this group, they asked the learners to do the vocabulary and grammar exercises provided by this application and to share their answers with the researchers and the other learners. Additionally, they conducted interviews with a number of the learners who had received the relevant treatment to determine their perspectives on this application. The results showed that Duolingo-based teaching significantly benefited the participants’ acquisition of vocabulary items and the grammatical structures of the target language. Moreover, learners had favorable views on this application’s efficacy and considered it as a viable language-learning instrument. The study discusses implications of these results for Iraqi teacher education courses, syllabus designers, and language teachers.