Both lack of time and the need to translate texts for numerous reasons brought about an increase in studying machine translation with a history spanning over 65 years. During the last decades, Google Translate, as a statistical machine translation (SMT), was in the center of attention for supporting 90 languages. Although there are many studies on Google Translate, few researchers have considered Persian-English translation pairs. This study used Keshavarzʼs (1999) model of error analysis to carry out a comparison study between the raw English-Persian translations and Persian-English translations from Google Translate. Based on the criteria presented in the model, 100 systematically selected sentences from an interpreter app called Motarjem Hamrah were translated by Google Translate and then evaluated and brought in different tables. Results of analyzing and tabulating the frequencies of the errors together with conducting a chi-square test showed no significant differences between the qualities of Google Translate from English to Persian and Persian to English. In addition, lexicosemantic and active/passive voice errors were the most and least frequent errors, respectively. Directions for future research are recognized in the paper for the improvements of the system.

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the aim of the study is to provide insights into the use of the corpus-based approach in L2 classes. The study aimed at comparing the effects of the corpus-based approach with the effects of the traditional approach on learning collocations of near-synonymous pairs. The study was run on 2 groups of L2 learners. One group named experimental group studied with concordancing and the other group named the control group studied with the traditional approach. The participants in each group were similar in terms of their proficiency and collocation competence. During the study, the first group was taught through concordancing materials taken from BNC as the concordancing, whereas the control group was taught the collocations explicitly. The instruments used for data collection were a pretest, a posttest, a prewriting and a postwriting. Through running a t test and descriptive statistics, the results revealed a difference between the two approaches about their effect on the comprehension and production of collocations of synonyms. The study has some implications for L2 learning and teaching that are discussed in the last part of the study

Among various variables affecting the learning of a language, motivation and autonomy play salient roles. The present study aimed at investigating the possible relationship among autonomy, motivation, and academic performance of Persian L2 learners. To do so, 60 Persian L2 learners from Shahrekord Payam-e-Noor University were randomly selected to see whether or not autonomy, motivation, and academic performance are interrelated. Two questionnaires, one for autonomy and one for motivation, were employed to gather the required data. Analyzing the data through correlation and regression, the results revealed that there is a significant relationship between autonomy and academic performance, and also between motivation and academic performance. On the contrary, no significant relationship was observed between motivation and autonomy. The results of studies like the current one will help L2 teachers and curriculum developers make L2 learners more self-directed, motivated, and successful in conducting their own learning in distance contexts

Due to differences across languages, meanings and concepts vary across different languages, too. The most obvious points of difference between languages appear in their literature and their culture-specific items (CSIs), which lead to complexities when transferring meanings and concepts from one language into another. To overcome the complexities arisen from the distinction between languages in the process of translation, translation scholars have proposed different strategies. Newmark's proposed taxonomy for translating CSIs is the framework for achieving this study. So, after adopting CSIs with Newmark's (1988) 5 proposed domains of CSIs, we sought to find his proposed translation strategies applied in the English translation of Jalal Al-Ahmad's By the Pen by Ghanoonparvar (1988) and to evaluate the frequency of each in order to determine which strategy could help the most in translating CSIs. To do so, first, both the source language text and its translation were studied; then, the translation strategies applied were found. Having found the strategies as the sources of the data, they were arranged and analyzed. Results showed that functional equivalent was the most frequently used strategy, and modulation and paraphrase were the least frequently used ones. Findings have pedagogical implications for translation students and literary translators.