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In this paper, the effects of reflected waves of the facets on the internal optical intensity of semiconductor DFB lasers are investigated. The uniformity of optical intensity along the cavity length is evaluated with flatness parameter. The dependence of this parameter on coupling coefficient, reflectivity and grating phase at the facets is also studied. This investigation shows that in some structures reflected waves of the facets cause optical intensity along the cavity length to have more uniformed distribution than a DFB laser with anti-reflective facets. It is also shown that flatness parameter is very sensitive to grating phase .Thus it is necessary for designing a DFB laser to consider the effects of reflected wave and grating phase at both ends of cavity in order to increase the stability of the laser against SHB (Spatial Hole Burning) effect. The effects of reflectivity and grating phase on longitudinal distribution of photon and carrier density above threshold are investigated, too.

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Research subject: Bio-hydrogen is a renewable energy source with many economic and environmental benefits as a fuel. Controlling the concentration of the substrate in the reactor has a significant effect on the amount of hydrogen production. However, bio-hydrogen production is a nonlinear process that requires the implementation of nonlinear control methods. In this paper, substrate concentration in an anaerobic bio-reactor is controlled using the feedback linearization method.
Research approach: The model employed for the simulation is a well-known model consisting of three state variables. The proposed controller is a globally linearized controller (GLC) designed based on the feedback linearization technique. In this method, the nonlinear system is precisely linearized by a transformation of the coordinate system. As a result, the linearized system can be controlled using a linear controller. In order to linearize the system, a nonlinear compensator is designed using the design model and applying the concepts of differential geometry. Proportional-integral (PI) controller is adopted as a linear controller. GLC controller performance has been compared with a nonlinear controller (NC) and a PI controller. The performance of these controllers has been studied by numerical simulation based on the integral of time-square error (ITSE).
Main results: The simulation results show that substrate concentration control can contribute to the hydrogen production. The control method applied has better set-point tracking than the other two control approaches. The ITSE performance index for the feedback linearization method is lower than the other two methods. The nonlinear feedback controller fails if the kinetic parameters are changed by 25%, but the PI method and the feedback linearization are robust against model uncertainty. An efficient controller guarantees stable bio-hydrogen production. Comparing open-loop and closed-loop simulation results shows that controlling the substrate concentration increases hydrogen production by 90%.

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Given the fact that corrective feedback has been proved to have a positive impact on the acquisition and development of second/foreign language, the aim of the present study was to investigate and compare the effect of oral and written corrective feedback on the development of discoursal and metadiscoursal aspects of Iranian EFL learners ‘writing. To this end, a total of 67 intermediate learners were selected, homogenized, and given a pre-test of writing. Then, written and oral metalinguistic corrective feedback on coherence, cohesion, and metadiscourse markers were given to the first and second group respectively. At the end, the two groups were given a post-test. The results of the study showed that the group which received oral metalinguistic feedback, compared with the written feedback group, could have a better writing performance as far as discoursal and metadiscoursal features of writing are concerned. It was also shown that transition markers and engagement markers were the most and the least frequent discourse markers among the two groups. It can be concluded that oral feedback has a significant effect on EFL leaners’ writing ability, as far as discoursal and metadiscoursal features are concerned. This study has implications for language instructors as well as language researchers.   

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The present study tries to compare differential effects of two types of written corrective feedback, that is, direct corrective feedback and metalinguistic explanation, on Iranian EFL learner acquisition of English conditional sentences and indefinite articles. During both types of feedback, all learners were given sufficient time to revise their writings in the first time. They were not given such a chance in the second time. Then, their accuracy and precision in writing were assessed. It was found that the all types of feedback were effective in their precision and accuracy in writing conditional sentences. It was further confirmed that the effect of direct corrective feedback was more effective that meta-linguistic explanations. Also, giving the learners more chances to revise and rewrite their texts enhanced the effect of the feedback. The results revealed that if the written feedback is given to multiple syntactic structures at the same time, the learners would most probably concentrate on the one which more meaning focused than form focused. As to complex syntactic structures, direct correction of the learners' errors will produce better results than metalinguistic explanations. 

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PhD Student of TEFL, English Department, Faculty of Foreign Languages and The available empirical evidence on the long-term efficacy of written corrections is limited to the studies that have investigated the effect of focused feedback on improving grammatical accuracy of two specific aspects of English articles. It is clear that focused corrections, which target only one or two grammatical error types at a time, lack ecological validity in writing courses. The aim of the present study is to investigate the reaction of different structures to corrections which enjoy more validity in writing classes. Using a pretest-posttest design, the long-term reaction of three features of English grammar (articles, the infinitive, and the present unreal conditional) to mid-focused and unfocused written feedback and revision were investigated. The results showed that on the delayed posttest, which was administered one month after the feedback treatment, the performance of the students in the experimental groups was not significantly different from the control group and that there were no significant absolute gains in any of the groups compared with pretest scores. 

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There is a mismatch between the types of errors that receive corrective feedback (CF) and those that learners manage to notice; the beneficial effects of CF on some linguistic targets in comparison to some others have been reported. The present study explored the effectiveness of recasts and prompts with regard to different linguistic targets (grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation). Seventy six intermediate Iranian learners of English, randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group, were exposed to recasts, prompts, or no feedback condition. Fifty four hours of the interactional episodes were audio-recorded, transcribed, and later coded for types of error. Analyses of individualized immediate and delayed-posttest results indicated no significant difference in the performance of the prompt and recast groups in dealing with grammatical and lexical errors but outperformance of the recast group in pronunciation errors was observed in comparison to the prompt group. Also, the two experimental groups achieved statistically significant gains compared with the control group in all the linguistic domains targeted in this study.

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Thyristor-Controlled Series Compensator (TCSC) is one of the electric power lines series compensators. TCSC increases transmission system capacity and improves system dynamic and voltage stability. Several controllers have been proposed, but most of them generally improve one of TCSC capabilities. In this paper a TCSC robust controller is designed based on Nonlinear Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT). This controller improves both of small signal and transient stability of power system.

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This study examined the effect of metalinguistic feedback and revision on the accuracy of the regular and irregular simple past tense. To this end, 56 Azari-Turkish learners of English participated in a quasi-experimental study. The study lasted for 7 sessions. In session one, a proficiency test (KET) was administered to all learners. The learners in 4 classes were randomly assigned as a metalinguistic explanation (ME) group (N = 13), a metalinguistic explanation plus revision (R) group (N = 17), a revision group (N = 14), and a control group (N = 12). To get assurance as to the initial homogeneity of groups involved in terms of the dependent variable (i.e., past tense command), a pretest was administered. The feedback treatment was performed for 4 sessions. In each session all individuals were required to write a 150-word text in 20 min. All texts drafted in each session were returned to the same individuals with varying comments in line with the condition defined for each group. The texts produced by the control group were not manipulated. Finally, all learners took a post-test and completed an attitude questionnaire to assess their attitude towards the treatment. The results indicated that the metalinguistic explanation plus revision group outperformed the other groups significantly in the accurate use of the past tense. English teachers are advised to spare enough time to provide appropriate feedback along the writing tasks of Iranian learners of English.
 

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1. Introduction

 
The usefulness of error correction in improving students’ grammatical accuracy has been the focus of attention in the past decades, and hot debates have raged on over this issue. There is yet no clear answer, to date, as to the efficacy of feedback and its various types. The aim of this study is, thus, to shed more light on the relative effectiveness of feedback per se and also the efficiency of some types of grammatical feedback, delivered electronically through MS Word software, over the others in improving students’ written accuracy.
 
 

2. Research questions

 

1. Is there any effect, whatsoever, for different types of feedback (i.e. direct, indication only & indication plus location) when delivered electronically in improving students’ level of grammatical accuracy?
2. Is there any priority for each of the above feedback types over the others?

 
 

3. Method

 
Participants
 
The participants of this study included 85 Iranian English majors. Of the total participants, 53 were female and 32 were male. The number of females and males were 15 and 11, 13 and 6, 12 and 8 and, 13 and 7 for control group, direct feedback group, indication group and indication and location group respectively.
Design and procedure
This study employed a pretest-treatment-posttest format. Of the four groups involved in the study, three were treatment groups and one was the control group. In the first treatment group, direct feedback group, the correct form of the students’ grammatical errors was provided. The two other treatment groups were, however, both provided with indirect feedback. In one of them, the indication-only group, the students were provided with an indication in the margin of the line in which the error was committed to show that an error or errors have occurred. The indication and location group was provided with feedback as to the exact word or phrase in the text that included a grammatical error.
Analysis
To answer the first research question (i.e. its three sub-questions), three paired sample T-test were used. The second research question (i.e. its three sub-questions) was answered using one-way ANOVA.

4. Results

Significant difference was found between the pretest and the posttest of the direct feedback group in the mean rate of errors (t=3.475; p‹.05). It means that the provision of direct written corrective feedback has been effective in improving students’ level of accuracy to a statistically significant level. However, the second group of the study, the indication only group, did not show any significant improvement in accuracy from the pretest to the posttest (t=1.627; p›.05). No significant improvement in grammatical accuracy was also observed for the indication and location group.
The primary result of the analysis indicated that there was a significant difference between the four groups with respect to their improvement from the pretest to the posttest (F=6.771; p‹.001). To further investigate the details of this comparison Tukey’s post hoc measure was used. Tukey’s index indicated that there were significant differences between direct feedback group on the one hand and control group (p‹.001), indication only group (p‹.05) and indication and location group (p‹.05). It was, in fact, the direct corrective feedback group whose improvement in accuracy was statistically significantly higher than the other groups. No other significant difference was found between other pairs of the groups with respect to accuracy improvement.
 

5. Conclusion

An explanation for the findings of the first question can be offered with regard to Schmidt (1990) noticing hypothesis. Among the three types of feedback offered to the groups of the study, direct feedback is apparently the most noticeable. This characteristic may lend this type of feedback to longer retention and quicker internalization. Comparison of the means of improvement for the three treatment groups clearly indicates that the direct group made the most substantial improvement of all. The second substantial improvement is made by indication and location group and the lowest improvement was made by the indication only group. This ranking of improvement is in other words a ranking of noticeability of feedback, and although not consistent with many parts of the literature, is totally consistent with some others especially Schmidt’s noticing hypothesis.
 
The findings of the second research question can also be interpreted and justified in light of the noticing hypothesis. This point that the direct feedback turned out to make a significant difference and is significantly different from other types of feedback can be justified in light of the fact that the participants of this study were roughly (and not definitely) of the intermediate level of proficiency. For these students, getting involved in problem solving (as the indirect types of feedback requires) while at the same time involved in the quite demanding task of following the ideas might be rather over-demanding, hence distracting their attention. Also, there are many grammatical points which are yet totally unknown to intermediate students and therefore any involvement in problem solving will lead nowhere, no matter how much effort the student makes. This point is also well recognized by Ferris and Roberts (2001) who suggest that direct feedback is perhaps more efficient than indirect corrective feedback with writers of low levels of proficiency.
 

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Customer statisfaction has received considerable attention in the marketing litrature and practice in the recent years. It affects several desirable outcomes like customer loyalty, word of mouth, promotion and purchase. Since such an increasing attention is given to customer satisfaction as a corporate goal in addition to traditional financial measures of success, customer satisfaction must be translated into a number of measurable parameters directly linked to people,s job, i.e. the factors that people can understand and influence. This paper presents a customer statisfaction survey in commercial banks. A customer,s path to statisfaction model would display justice, perceived organizational support, similarity, liking, prior experiences, feedback and statisfaction as highly related.

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There has been an increasing attention to written corrective feedback (WCF) and its potential effectiveness in recent years. This paper examines the roles of direct versus indirect WCF in fostering learners’ written and oral accuracy across language proficiency. A quasi-experimental design was adopted to conduct the study. Seventy-six pre-intermediate and upper-intermediate EFL learners were randomly assigned into six groups (four experimental and two control groups). In the experimental group, a series of pictures were used as prompts for writing tasks in the treatment sessions, and pre-, immediate, and delayed posttests were used to measure written and oral accuracy. According to the results, WCF, regardless of the type, was facilitative in developing learners’ both written and oral accuracy, which was a manifestation of implicit knowledge. The results also revealed that the proficiency level played a key role in determining which type of CF was more beneficial. While the pre-intermediate learners benefited more from direct CF, the upper-intermediate group improved more as a result of indirect CF treatment. This study calls for more informed decisions by L2 teachers in the correction of written errors considering that it improved L2 learners’ oral accuracy

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In this paper, stabilization conditions and controller design for a class of nonlinear systems are proposed. The proposed method is based on the nonlinear feedback, quadratic Lyapunov function and heuristic slack matrices definition. These slack matrices in null products are derived using the properties of the system dynamics. Based on the Lyapunov stability theorem and Sum of Squares (SOS) decomposition techniques, the conditions are derived in terms of SOS. This approach has two main advantages. First, using the polynomial model, the proposed method uses the polynomial state space matrices in the model description. Therefore, it does not need any existing modeling methods such as the Takagi Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model which can be a source of conservativeness in the control design conditions, because the membership function information cannot be used completely in the derivation of the controller design conditions. Second, using slack matrices, one can find the matrices that leads to applicable controller design which this means it provides extra degrees of freedom. To show the effectiveness of the proposed method, a PMSM is considered in the numerical simulation.

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The present study investigated the differential influence of direct focused and unfocused written corrective feedback on the intermediate learners’ accuracy of simple past tense. To this end, 60 Iranian EFL learners were divided randomly into two experimental groups (focused and unfocused) and a control group. All groups were required to perform a story-writing task and deliver it to the teacher for four sessions. The focused group received feedback on regular and irregular simple past tense errors. The unfocused group received feedback on all types of errors. The control group received no feedback on their writing. Results revealed that the performance of the focused group was better than the unfocused and control groups on the immediate posttest. Results of the attitude questionnaire showed that learners preferred the focused feedback more than the unfocused one.

1. Introduction
Developing the writing skill in second language (L2) is a big challenge for learners (Zacharias, 2007) since they fail to use accurate sentences in their writings. In order to help them overcome such problems, teachers are recommended to provide written corrective feedback (WCF) on their errors (Hyland, 1990). Focused and unfocused corrective feedback are two common types of WCF provided on learners’ errors. In focused feedback, only one or two types of errors (e.g., only past tense) are corrected while in unfocused feedback all errors related to grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. are corrected by the teacher. Proponents of focused feedback (e.g., Bitchener & Knoch, 2010a) claim that it can decrease the learners’ cognitive load and can facilitate mastering those forms. However, the advocators of unfocused feedback (e.g., Bruton, 2010) argue that focused feedback can delay developing the writing skill and can lead to fossilization. So far, a large body of previous studies have compared the role of focused and unfocused corrective feedback in improving the writing skill (e.g., Ellis et al., 2008; Marefat & Pashazade, 2016). However, the inconclusive results of the previous studies urge more future studies to shed light on the superiority of one type over the other. 
Analyzing the literature demonstrates that most previous studies have compared the effect of focused and unfocused feedback on structure-based errors which are easily corrected by consulting with a dictionary or grammar book including the article a and the (e.g., Ellis et al., 2008; Sheen et al., 2009), the prepositions (e.g., Marefat & Pashazade, 2016), and regular past tense (e.g., Frear, 2010). However, only a limited number of studies have addressed item-based errors which cannot be corrected relying on the information provided in books and are in need of teacher intervention and explanation such as conditional sentences (e.g., Marefat & Pashazade, 2016; Shintani et al., 2016) and passive voice (e.g., Palizvan, 2018). The present study intends to compare the influence of focused and unfocused feedback on a structure-based (i.e., regular past tense) and an item-based (i.e., irregular past tense) error. It also attempts to elicit learners’ attitudes towards these two types of feedback. The following research questions are formulated:

1. Do focused and unfocused corrective feedback influence learning regular and irregular past tense differently?
2. What are learners’ attitudes towards focused and unfocused corrective feedback?      

 
2. Literature Review
            To date a vast number of studies (e.g., Bruton, 2010; Ellis et al., 2008; Farrokhi & Sattarour, 2011; Frear, 2011; Lee, 2004; Sheen et al., 2009; Van Beuningen, 2010) have compared the role of focused and unfocused feedback on L2 writing. However, controversial findings have been achieved. Some (e.g., Bitchener & Knoch, 2008; Farrokhi & Sattarpour, 2011; Sheen, 2007; Sheen et al., 2009) have found the superiority of focused feedback while some others (e.g., Ellis et al., 2008; Frear, 2010; Karimi & Fotovatnia, 2012; Rouhi & Samiei, 2010) have not found any significant difference between focused and unfocused feedback.
       The inconclusive results of the previous studies might be attributed to four main reasons. The first reason refers to the difference among the target forms which have been investigated. Some studies (e.g., Ellis et al., 2008; Shintani & Ellis, 2013) have examined the role of feedback in improving structure-based errors. While some others (e.g., Marefat & Pashazade, 2016; Palizvan, 2018) have investigated item-based errors. Frear (2002, 2003) argued that structure-based errors, which result in less cognitive load, improve more than item-based errors which need more cognitive processing. Since previous studies have investigated the role of focused and unfocused feedback on different structure-based and item-based errors, they have found different results.
       The second reason that can play an important role in the effectiveness of feedback is learners’ level of proficiency. High proficient learners can easily overcome the form-meaning competition (Van Patten, 2004) and pay attention to form more than low proficient learners who rely more on meaning. Different studies have compared the role of focused and unfocused feedback in the accuracy of low intermediate (e.g., Bitchener, 2008; Bitchener & Knoch, 2008, 2010a), intermediate (e.g., Sheen, 2007; Sheen et al., 2009), and even advanced learners (e.g., Rummel, 2014; Truscott & Hsu, 2008). Relying on the poor capacity of low proficient learners’ attention to language forms (Van Patten, 2004), those studies who have recruited low proficient learners are expected to result in little gains.
       The third reason goes for the degree of the salience of the focused or unfocused feedback for learners. Some studies have adopted direct feedback (e.g., Bichener & Knoch, 2008; Frear, 2012; Stefanou Revesz, 2015) in which errors are underlined or crossed out and the correct forms are written above.  Other studies have used indirect feedback (e.g., Rouhi & Samiei, 2010; Truscott & Hsu, 2008) in which errors are underlined but the correct forms are not provided. Studies which have compared the effect of direct and indirect feedback on L2 accuracy (e.g., Sheen et al., 2009; Van Beuningen et al., 2008) have found that direct feedback improves L2 accuracy more than indirect one. However, proponents of indirect feedback (e.g., Ferris, 2003) purport that it can result in more L2 accuracy since it urges learners to self-correction.
       The last reason refers to some methodological problems associated with previous studies. Ellis et al. (2008), that found no significant difference between focused and unfocused feedback, reported that the focused group was exposed to more feedback than the unfocused one. Sheen et al. (2009), that found focused feedback superior to unfocused one, explicitly stated that the unfocused group received feedback irregularly. Although a huge number of studies have compared the influence of focused and unfocused feedback on the accuracy of L2 writing, more future studies are needed to remove such controversies. The present study intends to compare the role of focused and unfocused corrective feedback on the accuracy of regular and irregular past tense among Iranian intermediate learners of English.
 
3. Methodology
            A total of 60 (39 female and 21 male) Iranian intermediate learners were recruited in an eight-session study. In the first session, all learners were given a proficiency test (Preliminary English Test) to ensure their homogeneity. They were then randomly divided into two experimental and one control group, 20 in each. In the second session, learners were given a pretest to measure their initial knowledge on past tense. In a four-session treatment, learners completed a written picture-description task and were required to embed as many past tense sentences as they could. The next session, they received the teachers’ feedback on their errors under three different conditions: The first experimental group received focused feedback on their regular and irregular past tense. The teacher had underlined their errors and had written their correct form using a red pen. The second experimental group received unfocused feedback on all types of errors. The teacher also had underlined and written their correct form using a red pen. The control group did not receive any feedback. The experimental groups were required to look at their corrected paper carefully for five min and give it back to the teacher. Then learners did the second picture-description task. They received the same treatment in the next two sessions. In session 7, learners took an immediate posttest. They were also given a Likert-scale attitude questionnaire to elicit their opinions on the treatment. Three weeks later, in session 8, they took a delayed posttest. 
      
4. Results and Discussion
                        Results of a one-way ANOVA run on the data obtained showed that the focused group outperformed the other groups significantly in producing more accurate simple past tense on the immediate posttest. Results of the present study are in line with some studies (e.g., Bitchener & Knoch, 2010a, 2010b; Ellis et al., 2008) which have concluded the positive influence of focused feedback on L2 writing. However, such a gain was not maintained on the delayed posttest in which there was not a significant difference between the focused and unfocused groups. Results of the delayed posttest are supported by previous studies (e.g., Frear, 2010; Marefat & Pashazade, 2016) which found the similar effect of focused and unfocused feedback on learners’ writing skill.
The unfocused group of the present study who was overwhelmed with a large number of red-pen corrections failed to benefit from unfocused feedback due to high cognitive load. The outperformance of the focused group can be attributed to Schmidt’s (1990) noticing hypothesis. The focused group, who was provided with feedback on past tense only, paid more attention to the accuracy of past tense. Consequently, such a noticing and attention improved the accuracy of their past tense. Results of the questionnaire indicated that learners preferred focused corrective feedback over unfocused one. Results of the questionnaire are on a par with the results of one-way ANOVA. However, they are contrary to some studies (e,g., Lee, 2004, 2005; Oladejo, 1993) which found learners’ positive attitudes towards unfocused feedback.
As an implication of the study, results recommend language teachers to use more focused feedback, especially for intermediate learners’ written errors. Future researchers are commended to compare the role of focused and unfocused feedback on other item-based errors. Also, they are suggested to investigate the probable difference between the improvement of regular and irregular past tense under the influence of focused and unfocused feedback
           
 

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Most studies on Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) have focused either on ESL or EFL teachers’ beliefs and practices. However, it is still not known how teachers who teach second or foreign languages other than English will provide information on the learners’ written language production. To bridge the gap in the literature, this current study reports on an interview study investigating nine university lecturers’ beliefs and their actual practices about WCF on an assignment done by the third-year exchange student of Thai as a foreign language (TFL). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through feedback tasks and semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated that there was alignment between teachers’ beliefs of their WCF practice and their actual practice in terms of types of WCF and feedback techniques. However, the amount of feedback provided and the teachers’ time constraint, not the level of students’ ability as they thought, appeared to be the reasons for these misalignments of TFL teachers’ beliefs and practices

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The present study was conducted to identify novice and experienced Iranian EFL teachers’ beliefs towards the most effective written corrective feedback types and the most serious errors they might address while correcting students’ paragraphs and see whether there exist any tensions between what they believed and what they practiced through the methodology of pre-observation interview, observation, and post-observation interview. The results revealed that for novice teachers, there were fewer tensions between their stated beliefs and observed practices, yet this tension was more obvious while interviewing experienced teachers. Some implications for language teacher education will also be discussed.

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Teacher written feedback (TWF) has received growing attention from researchers and teachers. Although TWF arguably targets multiple dimensions of students’ writing, research to date has largely focused on the relationship between written corrective feedback and language development. More research is needed to understand TWF more holistically and as a two-way social process (Storch, 2018). As such, it is important to understand students’ perspectives on TWF in different instructional contexts. The present study explores Vietnamese EFL students’ perceptions of TWF practices and their preferences for TWF. Data was collected from 97 English-major students in a Vietnamese tertiary setting by means of a questionnaire and follow-up interviews. The findings show that while TWF tended to weigh more on the linguistic end of the form-meaning continuum, students preferred TWF to target both form and global issues of content/idea development and writing style. However, students were divided in their preferences for comprehensive/selective feedback and for direct/indirect feedback. Although students were aware of the necessity of revising their writing upon reception of feedback, they reported different post-feedback actions. Above all, students’ preferences and expectations were underpinned by their own beliefs about the values of TWF that encompass both cognitive/non-cognitive and affective dimensions. The study offers important pedagogical implications for planning written feedback in writing instruction.

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Proper use of source material in second language writing is an essential skill in the academic writing process. The present study investigates source use and plagiarism level in the essay writing process by the English as a foreign language (EFL) student in one of the international universities in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Thirteen first-year students who failed and then retook the language program were chosen for the purpose of the study. A mixed-methods research design was used to collect the data (i.e., language programs over two subsequent academic years were analyzed for their relevance to the process-based writing). To evaluate the students' opinions on both programs and correct academic citation, a paper-based questionnaire was circulated. The data analysis revealed a positive influence of program two on organizing ideas, incorporating source-text ideas, and using more academic and error-free sentences. A comparative analysis of the plagiarism level and writing performance in students' papers in both programs was performed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, which showed a positive difference in the overall writing scores but an insignificant difference in the level of plagiarism. Findings of the study identified that the engagement of the EFL undergraduate students in process-based writing made a positive impact on writing from sources and overall performance.

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This paper considers control of a laboratory Quadruple Tank System (QTS) in its non-minimum phase mode. This system is a well-known laboratory process suitable to illustrate the concepts of multivariable control methods. The objective of this paper was to design a controller based on combination of the sliding-mode and the state-feedback control methods using fuzzy logic. The proposed method takes advantage of the fast transient response of the sliding-mode controller and the zero steady-state error of the state-feedback controller. In other words, the fuzzy system uses the SMC when the QTS is in the transient mode and utilizes the SFC when it is near the steady-state mode. Hence, the advantages of both controllers have been used simultaneously. The switching between these two controllers is continuous and smooth based on a few simple fuzzy rules. Stability analysis of the proposed method is presented based on the Lyapunov stability direct method. Experimental results confirmed effectiveness of the proposed method as compared with the stand-alone controllers, especially when there are uncertainties in the system parameters.