This study aims at investigating the influence of using flipped classroom model on Iranian EFL eleven graders’ English achievements and their willingness to communicate. A pre-experimental design was used in this study. The participants were students in four classes of two high schools in Sanadaj, Iran. Two classes functioned as experimental and two others as control. The students in the experimental group (N=48) received instructional videos based on their English textbook. The videos were uploaded on a social network channel made by the researcher so the students could download them and watch them at their convenience time. Each individual participant in the experimental group then had the opportunity to interact with his classmates and teacher via the social network made by the students. This could help the students in the experimental group for the in-class discussion formed on the content of the videos and textbook exercises, Meanwhile, the students in the control group (N=47) received in class traditional teaching focusing on lectures and explanations by the teacher. Despite these two different ways of presenting the contents of the English textbook, students in both experimental and control groups had the opportunity to take part in various learning activities in each classroom session including collaborative activities, completing the textbook exercises, giving comments and presenting new ideas, giving each other support and feedback and taking in-class quizzes. Statistical analysis of the post- test results revealed that the participants in the experimental group could outperform the participants in the control group. Furthermore, the findings of this study indicated that there was a significant difference in learners’ willingness to communicate between experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental group.

Through addressing particular ideologies regarding language, meaning, level of proficiency and target writer and reader, rating criteria define and control the what and how of the assessment process. But a point which has been neglected or intentionally concealed due to concerns of practicality and the legitimacy of the native authority in setting assessment guidelines in EFL writing assessment contexts is the appropriateness of the scale. To raise attention to the current vague rating situation and consequently remedy the state, present study followed two lines of argument. First, drawing on the socio-cognitive framework of Weir (2005) for validating writing assessment, it is discussed that the important characteristic of scoring validity necessitates an appropriate choice of rating rubrics. Second, through posing a critical argument, deficiencies of the present practice of adopting rating scales are revealed and consequently it is discussed how assessment circles in native countries by setting rating standards control and dominate the whole process of writing assessment. To add more flesh to the argument, the ESL Composition Profile of Jacobs, et Keywords: writing assessment, academic writing, rating scale, validity, construct validity, ESL Composition Profile (Jacobs, et al., 1981). IntroductionWithin the past few decades, writing assessment has been a constant concern to the extent that any new publications on written composition have some references to the issues related on evaluating writing. Due to the ascending importance of writing among all sections of the present modern society that values written communication as an index of educational growth, pronouncing judgment on a piece of writing text has found a significant place (Gere, 1980). However, assessing writing faces challenges on two major frontiers: on the one hand, program-level decisions regarding placement in different levels of a course or admission purposes necessitates a rigorous assessment plan, and on the other hand Pandora's Box of performance assessment reveals itself in the writing (Mc Namara, 1996) as there are still vague grounds in the articulation of a sound and explicit basis in scoring writing (Gere, 1980).The ability to make sound decisions about the writing ability of individual writers is the de facto function expected from the scoring procedures involved. Therefore, any malfunctioning in the writing assessment might pop up this basic but critical question in mind: do scoring procedures work correctly to accomplish their expected purpose in providing a sound appraisal of writers' writing ability? Inspired by the above line of inquiry, the present study proceeds to give a second thought to the procedures of writing assessment. In this line, the venerable tradition of using rating scales in writing assessment is investigated. Upon contextualizing the concept of rating scale in its theoretical background and analyzing the value-laden nature of the scales involved, the writer proceeds to underscore the appropriateness of r...

Despite a good correlation between QGS and ECTb software packages, different normal cut-off values of PSD and PHB should be defined for each software package. There was only a modest correlation between phase analysis of gated-SPECT MPI and TDI data, especially in the population of heart failure patients with both narrow and wide QRS complex.

Gastric cancer is one of the most common and most fatal neoplasms in human. Its skeletal metastasis is less frequent, particularly when solitary. The objective of this article is to represent a case of solitary fibular metastasis from this cancer not reported before based on Medline search.

The use of dynamic assessment (DA), grounded in Vygotskian Sociocultural theory, in classrooms is believed to have the potential to provide a situation for creating a group of learners' Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) (Poehener, 2009). The present study explored the implementation of DA in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms on groups of learners at different proficiency levels in the context of listening comprehension. 146 Iranian EFL learners at three proficiency levels were selected for this study (experimental groups=71 and control groups=75). A multi-assessment procedure in the format of dynamic and non-dynamic pretest-enrichment phase-dynamic and non-dynamic posttest was conducted.During the nine-week group dynamic assessment procedures, mediational strategies were only given to the experimental groups. The quantitative data analysis revealed that through mediated interactions within the group's ZPD, group dynamic assessment is able to determine the learners' developed abilities in listening comprehension while at the same time support the development of individual learners in this skill. Moreover, it was found that the level of proficiency of the learners did not have a significant effect on learners' gains from group dynamic assessment procedures. These findings can have implications for all classroom teachers that the use of DA in classroom setting cannot only be beneficial to them but also be considered as a strategic learning and assessment method that can meet both the learners' and teacher's needs.