The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perception of EFL teachers and learners on the fundamental principles and constructs of critical thinking, the main characteristics of a critical thinker, and strategies for reinforcing critical thinking ability. Semi-structured interviews with eight EFL teachers and ten learners, who were theoretically sampled from three different contexts of public, private, and seminary schools in Sabzevar and Qom, Iran, were conducted using the constructivist grounded theory methodology (Charmaz, 2008). Using the MAXQDA software version 12, the data were analyzed based on the three levels of the open, axial, and selective coding of grounded theory. A model of critical thinking was proposed with ELT teachers’ and learners’ awareness as the core category and the characteristics of a critical thinker and strategies for reinforcing critical thinking ability as sub-categories. The results of the study revealed several pedagogical implications for EFL teachers to help their learners develop critical thinking skills, for EFL learners to think more deeply, solve problems better, communicate and collaborate more effectively, and for curriculum developers and syllabus designers to put certain critical thinking activities in textbooks and support in-service classes for teachers.

The writer capitalizes on the notion of a transdisciplinary approach to SLA. In chapter one, Introduction, the writer elaborates on eight themes on which the entire book rests. The book comes into nine chapters, each chapter corresponding to a theme save chapter one. Where possible, the writer has made an endeavor to embellish different concepts with examples, often real life ones. Furthermore, the book is embroidered with a ‘pedagogical activities’ section which I think is the linchpin of the book.

The present exploratory study probed Iranian in-service EAP teachers’ cognitions on language teacher role identities. Life history narratives and teaching philosophy statements were employed to collect qualitative data from nine Iranian in-service EAP teachers at one of the state universities in Iran. The data included the teachers’ descriptions of their teaching philosophies as well as their evaluations and interpretations of their prior teachers’ ways of being language teachers. Inductive analysis of the data allowed the researchers to identify Eight role identities including ‘teachers as creators and users of learning opportunities’; ‘teachers as selectors and users of teaching/learning materials’; ‘teachers as assessors and evaluators’; ‘teachers as researchers’; ‘teachers as realizers and facilitators of the development of learners' (full) potentials’; ‘teachers as observers of ethicality’; ‘teachers as learners’; and, ‘teachers as teacher educators’. In addition to providing a typology of teacher role identities that Iranian language teachers identify with, the study might promise some implications for language teacher education and teacher education research.

This article presents a rationale for making idioms and their use a mainstay of the second language (L2) curriculum. First, it offers a definition of the elusive term “idiom” as a point of departure for the ensuing discussion. Second, it offers five specific reasons why idiom instruction should be integrated into the L2 curriculum: here, it is argued that students’ knowledge of idioms needs to be anchored in language materials and situations that are both authentic and purposeful. It is further argued that requiring students to produce idioms in ways that native speakers use them enhances students’ mastery of them, facilitating the binding and mapping processes of idiom internalization. Finally, this article challenges the SLA profession to propose a systematic, theoretically informed program for developing idiomatic competence in L2 learners that is based on meaningful, authentic idiom use in the classroom and beyond.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is advocated by many applied linguists as a common vehicle to curriculum innovation in many ELT contexts. It represents a change of focus in language teaching from linguistic structures to learners’ need for developing communication skills. In recent years, the Iranian Ministry of Education has introduced the development of a new English curriculum for secondary schools with the aim of establishing the use of communicative activities in language classes. The present study was an attempt to investigate Iranian teachers’ perception of CLT principles and practices through a survey of 75 secondary school teachers in the context of the newly introduced English language curriculum developed based on CLT principles. Based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data using a semi-structured questionnaire supplemented with interviews with a smaller group of teachers, the results of the survey revealed that a change in classroom arrangements is required before CLT can be practiced in secondary school English classes in Iran. The results also showed that the employment of CLT procedures at the local level is at its beginning stages and might take time to take root. The conclusion is that for the suggested changes in the curriculum to be implemented and realized in English education in Iran, the findings of more comprehensive surveys complemented with observation of teachers’ instructional practices is required to inform the change implementation.