Background and Objectives: Regarding the fact that most of the submitted official documents are written in or translated into English, all English for Specific Purposes (ESP) learners are not only required to learn professional knowledge but also need to know English technical vocabulary in their field of study. Therefore, enhancing technical vocabulary competence (VC) is one of the aims defined by ESP learners. In this new digital era, various techniques facilitate vocabulary learning via using Information and Communication Technology. Due to the advent of technology and the developmental trend of learning, learners are provided with the opportunity to use online and mobile applications in a very wide range to develop their English vocabulary knowledge. Accordingly, this study was an attempt to explore the effect of using Google docs on ESP students' vocabulary learning. The research also intended to find out the learners' perceptions toward using Google docs on learning and practicing target technical vocabulary.Materials and Methods: To this end, a quasi-experimental research design was employed for gathering both quantitative and qualitative data. In this regard, 40 Iranian ESP nursing learners who were randomly allocated into an experimental (n=20) and a control group (n=20) participated in this study. The learners in the control group were asked to use their personal traditional techniques for learning technical vocabulary, while the experimental group was assigned to use Google docs for vocabulary learning. Four data-gathering instruments were utilized; first, an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was employed for homogenizing the participants. Second, each group underwent a pretest and a posttest to assess their learning of the assigned vocabulary lessons. Then, a survey was conducted among the experimental group to investigate learners' motivation about learning technical vocabulary through using Google docs. Lastly, a semi-structured interview was employed with the experimental group to explore their thoughts and perceptions toward using Google docs. A series of t-tests, including two paired sample t-tests and one independent samples t-test were employed to compare the performance of the two groups in terms of learning technical vocabulary.Findings: Subsequent to validating the assumption of normality, the results of an independent samples t-test revealed that there was a significant difference between the students of the experimental and control groups on post-test scores. The obtained data revealed that both experimental and control groups were able to improve their vocabulary learning successfully. However, comparing the two groups showed that the experimental group performed significantly better than their counterparts in the control group who used their practical traditional techniques for learning specialized vocabulary in ESP courses. Additionally, face-to-face semi-structured interview results uncovered that the experimental group learners had positive perceptions toward using Google docs for learning technical vocabulary.Conclusions: Counting on the integration of technology into the curriculum of learning/ teaching ESP, it was concluded that Google docs was an effective website tool that boosts, engages, and motivates learners to expand their technical vocabulary learning. Based on the limitation of the research, it is suggested to conduct a similar study with both male and female ESP learners, and also with a larger sample. The results of this research contain considerable implications for ESP instructors and learners and also curriculum and syllabus designers. Incorporating ICT into ESP education has revolutionized and changed the method by which ESP material developers construct ESP materials. So, findings can be implemented in any educational contexts as well as other languages.

The use of Web 2. 0 technology in language education has received much research attention quite recently. In an attempt to shed more light on the use of Google docs as a kind of Web 2. 0 technology in language learning, the purpose of the present study was to compare the effects of online collaborative writing using Google docs and collaborative writing in a face-to-face classroom on the writing performance and writing self-regulation of EFL learners. A sample of 38 homogeneous intermediate learners was recruited as the participants who were then randomly divided to an experimental group (N = 19) and a control group (N = 19). The participants of the experimental group received online collaborative writing using Google docs while the control group received collaborative writing in the face-to-face classroom. Two timed-writing tasks and the Second Language Writing Self-regulation (SLWS) scale were administered to gather the data. The results obtained from performing paired-samples t-tests and ANCOVA revealed that collaborative writing both via using Google docs and in the face-toface classroom significantly enhanced the writing performance and writing self-regulation of the participants. However, the gains experienced by the experimental group were significantly higher than those experienced by the control group. Pedagogical implications for Google docs-supported collaborative writing are finally discussed.

Background and aim: Citation is the most important scientific elements and assessment index among researchers, universities and research centers. The aim of this study was to compare the citations of researchers in the field of engineering in Scopus, Google Scholar and Google Books.Material and methods: This study investigated the relationship between citations using citation analysis and data were extracted from Scopus from 2008 to 2012. Totally, 100 subjects were randomly selected using Webometric Analyst, and the numbers of citations were transferred to SPSS and analyzed.Findings: Results showed that the median of citations to articles was 4, 6 and 1 in Scopus, Google Scholar and Google Books. Although there was no difference between the mean of Google Scholar and Scopus, it was found that the citations had high distribution based on variance values. Most of the citations to articles in Google Scholar, Scopus and Google Books were 1061, 652 and 72, respectively.Conclusion: There was a direct and significant relationship between the citations of Scopus and Google Scholar; therefore, the use of all three bases regardless of overlapping articles showed the better results in evaluation of scientific outputs. Moreover, even, assessing the scientific outputs can be performed through Google Scholar in case of lack of access to Scopus.

Linear dunes are widespread in the Earth’s deserts and also in some extraterrestrial locations such as Titan and Mars. They show great variety in their forms, and occur in three main classes: simple, compound and complex. Using Google Earth this paper illustrates this diversity. Among the topics covered are simple dunes, linear dunes with tuning fork junctions, linear dunes with complex crests, linear dunes associated with stars, with domes, with zibars, with barchans and with parabolics, and linear dunes controlled by topography.