باقر یعقوبی

This study was conducted to examine learners’ attitudes and perceptions toward the efficacy of task repetition: whether or not they appreciated task repetition as an effective classroom strategy for enhancing their oral performance. To this end, a multiple case study approach was adopted in which six intermediate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners were investigated over a four-month period in an intact class. Four data collection tools were used: (1) multiple interview sessions, (2) learner diaries, (3) participant observation, and (4) classroom portfolios. In addition, 20 hours of the learners’ audio-recorded task performances across sessions were transcribed and analyzed for signs of improvements in qualities of oral performance. Results indicated that despite the fact that repeating reciprocal narrative tasks led to gains in oral performance, learners viewed task repetition as a futile activity that did not affect their performances over time. The findings are discussed, and implications are provided in the context of education.

The timing of corrective feedback (CF) provision has been a controversial issue in SLA research. Despite widespread research, there is still disagreement on whether the erroneous structures should be addressed immediately or at a delayed time after task completion. This study investigates the comparative effects of immediate and delayed feedback on developing subject-verb (s-v) agreement by Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 28 university students were divided into immediate (n=14) and delayed (n=14) CF groups after the administration of the Oxford Placement Test. The study involved a pre-test, three treatment sessions and a post-test. The two feedback groups received treatments followed by either immediate feedback provided after task completion or delayed feedback delivered after 3 days of task completion. The tests and treatments contained various activities including multiple-choice, cloze, fill-in-the-blanks and picture description task. The results of the analysis of test scores on the pre- and post-tests were indicative of the outperformance of the immediate CF group, implying that the immediate feedback may be more beneficial for developing s-v agreement accuracy than delayed feedback. The findings of this investigation can bear efficient implications for language teachers and researchers.

Interlanguage pragmatics has attracted considerable attention in recent years. One strand of interlanguage pragmatics research includes studies comparing the effectiveness of implicit versus explicit teaching on the development of pragmatics. Many studies, although inconclusively, have shown the superior effect of explicit teaching of pragmatics, but few have focused on finding ways to improve the implicit teaching of pragmatics. The present study attempted to unfold the effect of collaborative dialogue on the quality of implicit teaching of request (head act and preparator). To this end, 28 participants (19 to 33 years old, intermediate) majoring in English (freshman and junior) were divided into two groups. The experimental group (n=14) had the opportunity to complete the tasks collaboratively and the control group (n=14) were not provided with any specific pragmatic instruction. The instructional procedure included four successive sessions of teaching request in situations where the sociological parameters were systematically varied. For the purpose of data collection, the classes were audio-recorded and a pretest-posttest design for discourse completion task (DCT) was adopted. For the purpose of data analysis, target request head acts and preparators were scored and also the audio recordings of classes were transcribed and the process of learning during treatment was checked in detail. The findings indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group in producing target preparators and head acts. And evidence of noticing the pragmatic forms namely noticing unnoticed forms, noticing the gap, and negotiation of form was observed during the collaborative task. This study suggests that teachers may need to provide learners with the opportunities for collaborative tasks along with input enhancement tasks in order to improve the pragmatic knowledge of the learners.

الگوی غالب در تعاملات کلاسی یک توالی سه بخشی تحت عنوان آی آر اف (IRF) (مبادرت معلم، پاسخ شاگرد و بازخورد معلم) می باشد (سینکلر و کلتهارد، 1975). گرچه این الگو دارای مزایای تعاملی خاصی است، ولی به دلایلی، به ویژه به واسطه ی ایجاد فرصت مشارکت محدود برای شاگردان (کاسپر، 2001)، مورد انتقاد قرار گرفته است. به همین سبب، کنش جایگزین معطوف به اعتلای مبادرت و عاملیت شاگرد در تعاملات کلاسی از طریق برون رفت از آی آر اف می باشد. اما وقتی ساختار تعامل معلم محور باشد، آی آر اف کانون تعامل گشته و برون رفت از آن دشوار خواهد بود. مطالعه ی حاضر به دنبال پاسخی برای دو پرسش تحقیقی می باشد: اول اینکه شاگردان برای مبادرت و یافتن عاملیت در تعاملات معلم محور به چه چیزی نیاز دارند؟ و دوم، معلمین چگونه می توانند به شاگردان در رسیدن به این هدف کمک کنند؟ گفتمان کاوی تعاملات کلاسی یک معلم در خلال مرور تکالیف نشان داد که چگونه به کارگیری زمان انتظار مبسوط به یکی از شاگردان فضای تعاملی لازم را برای مبادرت و طرح پرسش ایجاد کرد. علاوه بر این، استفاده مداوم معلم از زمان انتظار مبسوط پس از مبادرت شاگرد، فرصت را برای سایر شاگردان به منظور مشارکت و مذاکره در تعاملی شاگرد محور پدید آورد. گزیده هایی از تحلیل داده های این مطالعه، مدیریت و جهت دهی یادگیری توسط شاگردان را به تصویر می کشد.

Teacher questions are claimed to be constitutive of classroom interaction because of their crucial role both in the construction of knowledge and the organization of classroom proceedings (Dalton Puffer, 2007). Most of previous research on teachers’ questions mainly focused on identifying and discovering different question types believed to be helpful in creating the opportunities for learners’ interactions. Drawing on conversation analysis through adopting socio-cultural perspective, this study, however, aims to examine how EFL teachers manage understanding-check questions in their talk-in-interaction. For this purpose, six EFL teachers’ discursive classroom practices were observed, video-recorded, and transcribed line-by-line in its entirety. Through the microanalysis of the transcribed data, our findings suggest that EFL teachers vary in their management of understanding-check questions and the teachers’ understanding-check questions tend to serve different functions in the different micro-contexts identified. Three major sequential environments emerged to feature understanding-check questions in this study: Activity-boundary environment, post-instruction environment and within-activity environment. The findings of the study indicate that understanding-check questions at activity boundary environment are designed to accomplish dual functions, however those launched in post-instruction and within-activity environments maintain a singular focus on ensuring absolute understanding of the just-given explanation or instruction.

هدف از این پژوهش بررسی چگونگی استفاده از راهبردهای ارتباطی توسط معلمان زبان انگلیسی در میان کنش­های کلامی می­باشد. اگرچه درباره راهبردهای ارتباطی تحقیقات فراوانی صورت پذیرفته است، اما در خصوص رابطه بین این راهبردها و فضای سیال کلاس و نیز چگونگی بکارگیری راهبردهای ارتباطی در میان کنش­های کلامی معلمان تحقیقات چندانی صورت نپذیرفته است. با توجه به این نکات، میان کنش­های کلامی سه کلاس از هر یک از پنج معلم شرکت کننده در این تحقیق ضبط و مورد بررسی قرار گرفت. بررسی داده­ها با استفاده از رویکرد کیفی نشان داد که راهبردهای ارتباطی در تعاملات بین معلمان و زبان آموزان حضور فراوان توام با کاربردهای متفاوت داشته و در نتیجه این مفهوم فقط محدود به گفتار زبان آموزان نمی­شود. بعلاوه، نتایج این تحقیق نشان می­دهد که توجه و پرورش این مهارت، در برقراری ارتباط موثر از اهمیت فراوانی برخوردار است.