Given the essential status of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in applied linguistics (AL), ELF and Applied Linguistics—Reconsidering Applied Linguistics Research from ELF Perspectives calls for a radical reappraisal of the principles and practices of English language education in the current globalized world. Written by some of the leading figures in the field, this edited volume examines the impact of ELF on applied linguistics to encourage an open and reasoned debate...

The last thirty five years have created a challenging situation for Iran and its people: on the one hand, the discriminatory British and American policies towards the country have given rise to considerable bitterness; on the other, we continue to teach both British and American English. If Iranian people wish to play a more active role internationally, it is time to review our English language teaching policy, practices, and pedagogy. There are many different approaches such as EIL (English as an International Language), WE (World Englishes) and ELF (English as a Lingua Franca), which have challenged the superiority of such notions as ‘ the Queen’ s English’ , ‘ Received pronunciation’ , or ‘ General American’ . By adopting any one of the three approaches, we can align both our teachers and our English language teaching system with the new trends in thinking and teaching. The focus of the present paper is on ELF. It is a relatively new trend, which originated in Finland in 2008 and has spread to many European and Asian countries. Increasingly, the younger generation, irrespective of country, is interested in developing social and cultural relations with other parts of the world. ELF thus deserves a more prominent position in the Iranian educational system. This paper addresses six important principles of ELF. These are based on Kirkpatrik (The Pedagogy of English as an International Language, 2014). The paper discusses their relevance and potential in relation to the present cultural and teaching situation in Iran, focusing on the position of the native speaker and the importance of mutual intelligibility, intercultural competence, the importance of training local multilinguals, the value of lingua franca contexts as learning environments, the difference between spoken and written English, and the adaptation to the Iranian context of assessment procedures. Our paper ends with a brief discussion of the implications for pedagogical practice of the use of the Internet, including the use of blogs, in the ELF classroom.

Background: Extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) have been common in daily life all over the world. They have produced by power lines and electrical appliances, but higher levels of them have raised a lot of concerns about their carcinogenesis. Both epidemiological and laboratory studies have suggested that EMFs might increase cancer incidence, including acute childhood leukemia, brain and breast cancer.Methods: In the present study, SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cell line has exposed to 2mT, 50 Hz magnetic field for 3 h. Next, effect of this exposure on protein expression including over-expression or under-expression has assessed by proteomics.Results: Bioinformatics and statistical analysis using progenesis same spot software on the obtained 2D electrophoresis has shown that expression of 189 proteins in exposed group has changed relative to control. Besides, PCA analysis has verified results of clustering, and has shown that protein data has clustered according to experimental conditions.Conclusion: The results of this study have shown that ELF-EMF changes cell morphology via altering protein expression, but more profound studies have needed to determine the kind of proteins altered.

The Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are ancient remnants of exogenous retroviral infections. Their abnormal activation is associated with several diseases, such as cancer and autoimmunity. Epigenetic and environmental factors are probably playing essential roles in the expression of these elements. This study aimed to examine the 96-hour effects of ELF-EMF on HERV-H, K, and W expression in human melanoma cells. SK-MEL-37 cells (the human skin malignant melanoma) were continuously exposed to ELF-EMF (50 Hz) at 1.5 and 3 mT intensity for 96 hours. Following mRNA extraction, the expression level of HERV-H, K, and W was assessed by qPCR. According to our results, exposure to ELF-EMF intensities for 96 hours could significantly downregulate HERV-H, K, and W env gene expression (P<0.001). Our obtained data suggest that low intensity and long-term exposure to ELF-EMF may pave using this type of radiation as a novel therapeutic approach by neutralizing the HERVs upregulated expression in melanoma cells.