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This study investigates persuasive strategies used in the writings of Iranian university students in the field of teaching English as foreign language (TEFL). The study utilized the 7 principles of persuasive strategies presented by Cialdini (The psychology of persuasion, Quill William Morrow, New York 1984; Pre-suasion: A revolutionary way to influence and persuade, Simon & Schuster, New York 2016), which include 'reciprocity', 'commitment and consistency', 'social proof', 'liking', 'authority', 'scarcity', and 'unity'. The results indicate that strategies such as 'liking', 'unity', and 'authority' were used more frequently than other persuasive strategies. On the other hand, 'scarcity' was the least used strategy by the participants. Significant gender differences were also observed in the data. These findings have important pedagogical implications and suggest the need to incorporate persuasive strategies into instructional materials and teaching practices to enhance the persuasive writing skills of university students. Furthermore, gender differences highlight the importance of considering individual differences when teaching persuasive writing. Finally, the study discusses the pedagogical implications of these findings in the context of learning and teaching., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

In the wake of tragic events such as the 'Paris Attacks of 2015', the expression of condolences through e-messages has become a common way for individuals to offer support and sympathy to those affected. However, limited research has been conducted on the linguistic aspects of condolence e-messages and how they reflect the speech act of condolence. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the syntactic and pragmatic elements present in these messages. The aim is to understand how the syntactic and pragmatic elements of these messages contribute to the expression of the communicative speech act of condolence. Condolence e-messages were identified and analyzed using an adapted version of Elwood's (2004) coding scheme. The analysis focused on common themes in the condolence sentences, revealing that some linguistic functions were overtly used to express grief. Additionally, specific words such as 'pray', 'love', and 'condolence' were frequently used in conjunction with the expressions of condolence. The findings highlight the influence of sociocultural factors in shaping the norms and variations in the production of speech acts across different cultures. Understanding these linguistic variations can contribute to effective communication and cultural sensitivity in expressing condolences., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

In line with the concept of mobile learning in English Language Teaching (ELT), the aim of this research is to explore how Iranian ELT practitioners take advantage of social media to propose supportive and impactful language learning programs by adhering to persuasive linguistic devices. The research design is nonexperimental and explorative. ELT-related commercial videos and pictures were identified on social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. We delved into the syntactic and pragmatic features of the data on ELT-related ads to identify the persuasive techniques and strategies these ads resort to for attracting language learners to online classes and services. To analyze the data, the widely-used and acknowledged Cialdini's (The psychology of persuasion, Quill William Morrow, 1984) principles of persuasion are employed. The results manifested that 'reciprocity' and 'scarcity' were the most used persuasive strategies, while 'commitment and consistency' and 'consensus' were the least favorable persuasion principles in these ads. The analysis of the Iranian ELT-related ads indicated that the language used within this context is purposeful and strategic. A contextual investigation of the ELT-related ads on social media can meaningfully contribute to social practices underlying English language pedagogy and digital literacy., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Research on the discursive features of graffiti in institutional settings is in its infancy and few studies have investigated the phenomenon and its implications in educational contexts. In this paper, we report on a study in which we employed systemic functional linguistics (Halliday in Learning how to mean, Edward Arnold, 1975). to probe communicative functions and gender differences in Iranian university student graffiti that appeared in all-male and all-female locations. The data comprised authentic instances of graffiti generated by students, analysis of which suggests that male and female university students each have their own distinctive motives for using graffiti, as realised in significant differences observed in the context-specific functions they perform. Graffiti pieces represented a distinctive and meaningful way of communicating, and its most salient features were creativity, simplicity and variation. Indications are that university students' graffiti reflects psychological and social challenges, and the thoughts, attitudes and feelings expressed through it serve students' personal and interactional purposes., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)