Social Sciences

Motivation plays an indispensable role in learning. Though motivation has got a lot of attention in literature of language learning, demotivation has not got much attention in general and particularly in Iranian EFL context. As Dörnyei (2001: p. 5) postulates "Demotivation is a salient phenomenon in L2 learning" and "much further research is needed to do this important motivational factor justice". The aim of the present study is to find out what the main demotivating factors in speaking skills among gifted students at SAMPAD schools are. In order to achieve this goal, 571 students who are secondary students in SAMPAD schools in Tehran were selected. The sampling was convenient sampling, and both male and female students participated in this study. A questioner which was validated and reliable was distributed among participants, and 68 students were interviewed. The findings of both quantitative and qualitative data reveal that five demotivating factors hindering learners in speaking classes are, teacher, material and content, facilities, attitude and teaching learning context. The findings can be applied for teacher development courses in which mentors can shed light on the importance of motivational factors in EFL classes. Key Words: motivation, demotivation, speaking skills, exceptionally talented students

The main aim of this study is analysis of job satisfaction and professional commitment between staffs in Kermanshah. Materials and methods: This study is according to descriptive analysis and reaching branch and information gathering tools is question air and for assessing job satisfaction we use briefed and worth 18 question airs and for analysis of professional commitment and organizational commitment receive 83% static and 87% from job satisfaction question air, because crownbakh in both question air is more than 0/7 so both question air necessary static. Sample population volume 150subjects from privet banks in Kermanshah and according to sampling random way some of them had been chosen a stoical population and finally we collected 18 questions airs. Findings: For determining normality of data we use kolomogrove – sminoroph test and results of tests confirm normality of data so meaningful relationship between them had approved.

The focus of this study is to explore EFL teachers’ evaluations and expectations about English language courses as EFL in Iran. In other words, this article aims at creating a new avenue for effective EFL teaching curriculum and syllabus in the Iranian context. Iranian universities offer basic, general, and specific English courses as a part of their program, which are not being very effective. These courses do not promote the students in dealing with their disciplines or programs oriented courses. Even after completion of these courses in three or more semesters, students fail to grasp comprehensive control over the reading materials of their field. This is a common scenario in almost all the universities in Iran. The authors of this paper ventured to study the predicament of EFL courses in some universities. The data were collected through questionnaires from a total of 40 EFL teachers at 8 universities. The research results revealed that the existing English Course syllabus is not tailored appropriately to the needs of the students. It, therefore, suggests that university English courses should be redesigned in assimilating the learners’ need, and course contents should cover the socio-cultural factors of the learners.

From the beginning of creation, human being has always been hostile towards the ecosystem by changing the environment. Dams are one of the important structures in the systems of water transport and resources. The goal of these studies is to evaluate the environmental effects of the dams, obtaining a comprehensive recognition of the present situation of the environment in the location of dam and the span influencing it. These studies also aim at recognizing the design activities which are done in the considered environment. After gaining a dual recognition, the effects of design activities on all components of the environment (consisting of about 100 factors such as air, water, soil, plant, animal, biodiversity, population, culture, monuments, and etcetera) are determined. In this article, the advantages and disadvantages of dams will be investigated from an environmental perspective. From this perspective, there are lots of advantages as well as disadvantages for dams. They provide reliable water resources, protect the surrounding areas from floods, and also provide a clean energy. Hydroelectric energy (generating electricity by the energy of water) has more advantages than the other two major sources of generating electricity i.e. fossil fuel and nuclear energy. However, dams and water resources also cause some problems. In arid and semi-arid areas, water is easily evaporated from the tanks and canals which transport water. This causes a waste of water and an increase in the density of the salt in water. Dams are a barrier to floods. The floods are important since they enrich the soil with the nutrients which are essential and significant for the ecosystems. Dams change the water flow, the temperature, the transparency of a river; change the water from a current state into a stagnant state. The changes in temperature may have an effect on the living creatures of the river because the life cycle of many invertebrates depend on the temperature. These effects may also have an effect on the situation and behavior of weather, biology, culture, monuments, and etcetera and make them change and more complicated. As a result, with regard to the significance of the positive effects of building dams, it is necessary to minimize the negative environmental effects for the sake of sustainable development. In this article, the negative effects and ways for decreasing these effects in the environment are more investigated.

Nowadays, with the rapid growth of urbanization, industrialization, modernization and population growth, there are some problems in urban communities, which is one of the most important problems in urban communities are criminals and prisoners. This problem is more acute when, as we have the phenomenon of crime and recidivism and return to prison inmates to do. Given the importance of this study, using field survey techniques and the study We are looking for an answer to this question: What are the social factors affecting recidivism among prisoners? The population of the city is all prison inmates to commit robberies committed crimes more than once And a sample of 350 patients was studied. In order to answer the main question of this study is to analyze the relationship between variables such as social trust, in partnership with Friends of the offender, religion, feelings of social exclusion, economic - social, family and age as independent variables and recidivism, as the dependent variable will. The results indicate that with the exception of age, there is a significant relationship between independent and dependent variables investigated.

The aim of present study is to investigate the impact of metacognitive strategies on the improvement of Iranian EFL learners? listening comprehension skill. In order to achieve the goal of present study, a sample test of KET was administered to 70 students to check whether two groups are homogenous or not. Their ages varies between 12-15, after doing language test, participants were divided into two groups as experimental and control groups. The experimental group received listening tasks through metacognitive strategies in three phase ( pre-listening, listening, and post-listening). The Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) was developed by Vangrift et al. (2006) is used for both groups. A pretest was chosen from Cambridge Practice Test was given to the participants that ensure there were no significant difference between experimental and control groups, and they belong to the same population.. The experimental group had 16 training sessions, two hours each sessions; twice a week .used same materials were used for both groups. The students were asked to answer 7 questions of self-report after listening and 16 questions of checklists. After the treatment all participants had Cambridge test as post-test to check possible differences between treatment group and control group. Key words: listening comprehension, listening strategies, metacognition, metacognitive strategies.

Currently it is observed that political participation by youth in Malaysia is increasingly less well received, this is because most of these people are more focused on their studies and their careers. Therefore this paper will discuss the factors that influence the political participation of youth in Malaysia. Among the factors that are highlighted are the Demographic factors, Leadership and Management Factors, the factor of the Leaders’ Communication, Mass Media Factors and Social Environmental Factors that consists of Family Influence, Peer Influence and Influence of the Local Community. From these factors, to a certain extent we are able to more or less see in detail the problems that exist in the political participation of youth, which can also provide some input in the best way to encourage political participation of youth in Malaysia.

As mobile technology continues to diffuse, the numbers of mobile subscribers continue to grow, so as the numbers of complaints toward telecommunication operators in Malaysia (Celcom, Maxis and DiGi). Based on National Consumer Complaint Centre (NCCC) annual report, there is an increase in number of complaints by 30 per cent in year 2007 as compared to previous year. This indicates that consumer are aware more of their rights or the telecommunication operators perform worse in 2007. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to ascertain the relationship between students’ complaint behaviour and defection in Malaysian telecommunication industry. A convenience sampling technique and self administered questionnaires were used to collect data. A total of 366 university students from 18 Malaysian public higher learning instituition were recruited to participate in this study. The regression analysis were employed to explore the relationship between the two variables. The study demonstrated that there is a strong positive linear relationship between students’ complaint behavior and defection.The study also found that the influence of private complaint on the defection is much stronger than public complaint which corroborates with the previous study.

The system of caste is said to have originated in India though the exact origin of caste system cannot be traced. The records of Indo Aryan Culture contains its first mention. According to Dr. Muzumdar the caste system took its birth after the arrival of Aryans in India. In order to maintain their separate existence the Indo-Aryans used for certain groups and orders of people the favourite word ‘Varna” and ‘Colour’. Of the relation subsisting between four classes-Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vis and Sudra-Brahmin is definitely said to be superior to Kshatriya.

This study was an attempt to find out to see any possible relationship between emotional intelligence and reading proficiency within English language students. This study aimed to determine whether emotional intelligence and English reading proficiency are correlated . In this work participants were 110 fresh men English language students, studying in Azad University , Tehran- North Branch , both male and female , who selected randomly . Regression and correlation analyses were used and results indicated that there is a significant positive correlation between the emotional intelligence and English reading proficiency, and also there was a significant relationship between emotional intelligence sub- factors and English reading proficiency with no relationship between gender and two variables. key words: Reading, emotional intelligence.