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As one of the main topics in Persian verbal phrases, grammatical aspect has been largely ignored in teaching Persian to speakers of other languages. To address the topic, this study investigated the learning of Persian grammatical aspect through two teaching methods: structural and communicative. Test takers were selected from the non-Iranian intermediate learners of Persian. Each group consisted of 40 foreign students. Both groups were administered an aspect test as a pretest to make sure about their homogeneity before treatment. Afterwards, grammatical aspect in Persian was taught to one group through the structural method, and through communicative materials developed by the authors to the other group. Each group’s progress was measured through the same aspect test after the completion of treatment. Paired-samples t-test results analysis showed that the communicative group, compared to the structural group, made significant improvement in learning Persian aspect. Furthermore, independent-samples t-test results revealed that the communicative group performed considerably better than the structural group in the post-test. These findings indicate that communicative language teaching is an effective method, which can be used to improve the teaching of Persian grammar to foreign students.

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Piarom is considered as one of the most important semi-dried date fruits in Iran which has been highly affected by stored pests. The current study was aimed to evaluate the effects of the modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and vacuum packaging (VAP) methods on storage pests control and date quality. To do so, Piarom variety were packaged in two package systems, including passive modified atmosphere and vacuum package system. The control samples were kept unpackaged. The packages were kept under two different storage conditions; at 4 °C and 55 ± 10% RH, and 25-27 °C and 70 ± 5% RH for 30, 60, 90 and 150 days. The experiment was carried out based on a completely randomized design arranged in factorial with four replicates. The results showed that Indian meal moth Plodia interpunctella (Hübner)and sawtoothed grain beetle Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.) are the most important storage pests with 87.5 and 12.5% contamination, respectively. The passive MAP and VAP reduced the pests infestation rate significantly compared to control. Also, they could better preserve pH (5.88 and 5.85 for MAP and VAP, respectively) than the control (5.78). Changes in water activity in MAP and VAP were almost the same at the two storage conditions i.e., ambient and at 4 °C and was significantly different from the control. The maximum water activity change was observed in control treatment.

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Although intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has been foregrounded in L2 pedagogy, the status of intercultural pedagogy in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) education in terms of policymaking and planning stages has remained under-represented. Against this backdrop, the present study used interviews as a data source to explore the intercultural beliefs, knowledge, and planning of language institute managers and supervisors as micro-level policymakers. The findings revealed that, in general, participants were in favor of intercultural pedagogy and held positive views; yet, they lacked sufficient knowledge and neglected ICC in most aspects of their educational decisions and planning. In addition, their preference for considering learners’ L1 culture and the existence of restrictive macro-level language policies were among the factors that hindered intercultural practice. Overall, the findings can enhance our understanding of ICC practice in language institutes and policymaking for ICC pedagogy.

 

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Use of nanoparticles in food packaging can be an effective step to reduce waste from pathogens and increase the shelf life of various products. The aim of this study was to investigate the antifungal effect of low-density polyethylene nanocomposite film containing nano clay halloysite/carvacrol hybrid and chitosan on pathogenic fungi including Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Boterytis cinera, Penicillium Sp. and Rhizopus oryzae, the main cause of post-harvest rot of agricultural products. In this study, the nanocomposite films based on Low-density polyethylene containing 1.5 & 3% nano clay halloysite/carvacrol and 1 & 2% chitosan were produced by mixing them in a twin-screw extruder following by blowing film machine. The effect of these produced nanocomposites were then evaluated on the growth of five pathogenic fungal species. Based on the results of analysis of variance, it was found that the growth rate of the five studied fungal species was significantly affected by use of Nano clay Halloysite/carvacrol, so that the highest percentage of inhibition was related to the film containing 3% nano clay halloysite/carvacrol. However, the film containing chitosan had no significant effect on the growth of the studied fungi.

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With increasing intercultural communication among people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, the integration of language and culture has recently been foregrounded in language education. This has led to a growing need for studies on intercultural communicative competence. To address this need, this study aimed to afford an insight into the beliefs of 20 Iranian language teachers on intercultural language teaching (ICLT). Based on a mixed-method design, two different instruments were used to collect the data. First, an ICLT questionnaire which included 12 items was administered to 20 teachers. This study also used semi-structured interviews to obtain an in-depth understanding of the EFL teachers’ attitudes toward ICLT. The findings from the questionnaire revealed that the teachers were favorably disposed toward ICLT and thought that culture teaching is as important as language teaching. They believed that language teachers are required to inform the learners of intercultural issues. Also, the thematic content analysis of the interviews led to the discovery of four main themes, namely definition of culture, ICLT and its significance, challenges in ICLT, and sources used by the teachers to improve their intercultural knowledge. However, many teachers’ responses in the interviews indicated some degree of uncertainty regarding the concept of ICLT, as they were not confident how to integrate language and culture or how to deal with challenges in implementation of ICLT. These findings imply as the teachers’ perceptions would guide their practices in the classroom, more attention needs to be devoted to the inclusion of ICLT-related topics in language teacher education courses to equip the teachers with requisite skills and expertise.