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Abstract-This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between cultural background of Iranian EFL learners and reading comprehension. 45 Iranian language learners majoring in TEFL and English language translation from three different ethnicities in different provinces were selected through purposive sampling. All participants received three different reading comprehension sub-tests: a reading sub-test including culturally familiar topics and two reading sub-tests with culturally unfamiliar topics. The results showed that the means of all groups on culturally familiar reading tests were greater than their means on reading tests with unfamiliar contents.

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Educational networks become the most popular form of instructional technology during the past decades. The effect of this educational technology on the teaching English methodologies has been significantly increased all over the world. The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Otus social educational network on the English achievement of Iranian high school English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. It also attempted to find out students' attitudes towards the use of Otus application. To this aim, fifty male language learners were selected based on convenience sampling as the participants of the study. While the lessons and assignments were presented through Otus in the experimental group, the students in the control group had a traditional class. Finally, to explore the learners' attitudes towards the application of Otus, a questionnaire was used. It was found out that the application of Otus had a significant effect on the English achievement of Iranian first-grade high school EFL learners. The findings also indicated that students in the experimental group had positive attitudes towards Otus.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate Iranian English teachers' beliefs about how to teach English grammar. For this purpose,forty-three teachers, eighteen females and twenty-five maleteachers from Kermanshah, Iran, participated in this study. To gather data in the studies about teacher beliefs, MacDonald Badger & White, (2001) questionnaire was used (TBQ). The questionnaire used for this study contained close-ended sections that required teachers to respond to statements on a five point Likert scale-as well as open-ended questions that invited teachers to describe or comment on the issue in details. Findingsof the study indicated the extent to which some of these teachers' beliefs became an influential factor in their teaching and actually their stated pedagogical decisions. Consistent with the findings from previous research studies, this study indicates that teachers do possess a vast array of complex beliefs about pedagogical issues (e.g. importance of grammar) including beliefs about students (e.g. their ability to understand grammar) and classroom practices (i.e. approaches to grammar teaching). It was clear from the teachers' responses to thequestionnairethat their pedagogic beliefs represented an interconnected system in which some beliefs were central. These core beliefs were seen to influence other less strongly held beliefs. One strong core belief that almost all teachers shared was that grammar instruction was not only necessary but it should form a substantial part of the curriculum. Grammar was regarded by the teachers as a declarative set of facts to be learnt. Moreover, grammar instruction was seen to entail the explanation of grammar rules.Keywords: Iranian EFL high school teachers; beliefs;; teaching grammar; classroom activities. As crenças de professores iranianos de inglês sobre como lecionar gramática da língua inglesa rESUMOO objetivo principal deste estudo é investigar as crenças dos professores de inglês iranianos sobre como ensinar gramática inglesa. Para esse fim, quarenta e três professores, dezoito mulheres e vinte e cinco homens de Kermanshah, Irã, participaram deste estudo. Para coletar dados do estudo sobre as crenças dos professores, utilizou-se o questionário MacDonald Badger & White (2001) (TBQ). O questionário usado continha seções fechadas que exigiam que os professores respondessem as declarações em uma escala Likert de cinco pontos -bem como questões abertas que solicitavam aos professores detalhes sobre as respostas. O estudo indicou em que medida algumas dessas crenças tornaram-se um fator influente nos ensinamentos desses professores e em suas decisões pedagógicas. Em consonância com os resultados de estudos de pesquisas anteriores, este estudo indica que os professores possuem uma vasta gama de crenças complexas sobre questões pedagógicas (por exemplo, importância da gramática) incluindo crenças sobre estudantes (por exemplo, BELT | Porto Alegre, 2017;8(2), p. 335-354 336 Original ArticleKamran-Janfeshan | Iranian EFL teachers' beliefs about how to Te...