Abstract-Within the last few decades, with the growing emphasis on learner-centered curriculum, selfassessment and peer-assessment have become of particular interest in educational assessment. This study aimed at examining the relationship between the accuracy of self-and peer-assessment on the paragraph writing performance of a sample of Iranian intermediate EFL students and their learning styles. To do so, 7 paragraphs during 7 sessions were written and then self-and peer-rated by 62 students from Touba Language Institute in Tehran. Kolb's learning style inventory was used to determine the students' learning styles including diverging, assimilating, converging, and accommodating. The results revealed a significant and positive relationship between the accuracy of self-and peer-assessment of the students and their learning styles. The findings indicated that the students with converging learning style were the most accurate raters of their own performance, while those with diverging style were the least accurate ones. Furthermore, the students with accommodating learning style were the most accurate raters of peer-performance, whereas those with assimilating style were the least accurate ones. The obtained results may offer EFL teachers and educators the opportunity to design alternative assessment methods addressing learners' individual differences including learning styles.

Abstract-Despite the popularity of action research in the field of teacher education and professional development, not much is found regarding the role of action research in language curriculum development. This lack of interest may stem from the dominance of top-down approach over curriculum development in some EFL contexts where no special place is given to the local needs and wants. This paper starts with the definition and some basic characteristics of action research and then follows with a brief overview of its origins as well as different types. How action research can make changes in a curriculum is discussed next. Then it looks at the role action research may play in creating positive changes in teachers' roles in curriculum development. Some of the challenges of implementing action research are mentioned later. Finally, the paper ends with some guidelines for teachers to make improvements as a result of conducting action research.

Autonomous learning and social activity have excessively been the focus of interest in second language acquisition over the past decades. The present study aimed to explore how activity theory-as a branch of sociocultural theory focusing on social context-can promote Iranian EFL learners' autonomy. To this end, fifty-six EFL students studying English translation at Islamic Azad University, Tehran Central Branch, participated in the study. The participants were assigned to two groups, one experimental group and one control group. At the beginning of the semester, both groups took a language proficiency test to ensure their homogeneity. They also completed an autonomy questionnaire as the pretest and posttest. The instruction in both groups was based on a five-step process of developing the academic writing skill, including prewriting, organizing, writing the first draft, revising and editing, and writing a new draft. However, only the experimental group received the instruction through an e-learning platform designed based on the six elements of activity theory-subjects, objects, mediating artifacts, rules, community, and division of labor-suitable for EFL writing classrooms. The results revealed that integrating activity theory to e-learning had a decisive role in enhancing the students' learner autonomy. It is hoped that the findings raise both teachers and students' awareness of implementing activity theory as a social learning framework to foster autonomous learning in EFL contexts.