منصور کوشا

This study investigated the predictive role of HEXACO personality traits (honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience) in the speaking performance of Iranian EFL learners, as well as the role of gender in the relationship between HEXACO personality traits and EFL learners’ speaking ability. To this end, 250 learners (125 male and 125 female learners) were selected using a random cluster sampling method and were asked to complete the HEXACO personality traits questionnaire. The speaking ability of all the learners was checked via a scored interview and then was evaluated by three interviewers based on the IELTS speaking bands. Fisher's Z and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that extraversion, conscientiousness, and altruism could predict 90.3 percent of the variance in the speaking ability of the participants. The findings also showed that the gender of the language learners did not have a predicting role in the relationship between personality traits of the language learners and their speaking ability.

In L2 development, the cognitive complexity of tasks plays a crucial role in task performance and language features produced. However, there have only been few studies addressing the impact of task complexity on EFL learners' attention to L2 system and form-focused self-repairs (FFS).This study explores the role of increasing cognitive task complexity in EFL learners' form-focused attention (FFA) to L2 system (i.e. grammar, lexis, and phonology) and FFS and the effect of increasing procedural task complexity on EFL learners' FFA to L2 system and FFS. The participants comprised one hundred EFL junior students of TEFL. The sample was chosen from the cohort of EFL students at Islamic Azad and state universities in Isfahan and Shahrekod. The participants performed under task conditions of−/+ casual reasoning and −/+ planning time. After each stage, each participant filled in a Likert-type scale to examine his/her attention to different aspects of L2 system .Finally, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used to compare the learners’ instances of of self-repairs at un-increased and increased task complexity occasions. Repeated-Measures ANOVA was used to examine the data. Results showed an overall effect of task complexity on EFL learners' attention to L2 system and FFA behavior across task types.

This study investigated the effectiveness of colligational corpus-based instruction on enhancing the pragmalinguistic knowledge of speech act of request among Iranian intermediate EFL learners. The objective of the study was to find out whether or not providing students with corpora through using colligational instruction had any significant effects on enhancing their pragmalinguistic knowledge and, hence, speech act learning. Sixty participants from several institutes in Mazandaran Province, Iran, participated in the study. They were all intermediate- level students, and were divided into two homogeneous groups (30 each) of experimental and control groups based on the OPT results. A multiple discourse completion test was then administered to both groups as the pretest to measure their ability and knowledge in using the speech act of request. Subsequently, the treatment started where the experimental group received corpus-based instruction through colligational practices, while the control group practiced learning the same speech act through traditional or common methods of learning speech acts (i.e., using textbooks, audios, and videos). After 15 sessions of training, a posttest of multiple discourse completion test was administered. The data were analyzed using paired- and independent-samples t tests. In order to increase the validity of the results, the researchers observed and interviewed all the participants, too. The results that learning of the speech act of request improved significantly better through corpus-based instruction vis-à-vis traditional method of teaching colligations.

در حیطه ی فراگیری زبان سوم٬ نتایج متناقض تحقیقات نشان می دهد که در میان محققان در مورد مزایا و یا معایب دو زبانگی در فراگیری زبان سوم اجماعی وجود ندارد. بنابراین دغدغه ی اصلی مطالعه حاضر بررسی تفاوت های احتمالی بین دوزبانه ها و تک زبانه ها در خصوص دانش دستور می باشد. این تحقیق تلاشی بود برای بررسی اینکه آیا زبان آموزان تک زبانه فارسی و دوزبانه فارسی- آذری در یادگیری بند نسبی زبان انگلیسی تفاوت معنی داری دارند. برای انجام این مطالعه، در مجموع دویست دانش آموز دختر در حال تحصیل در کلاس دوم دبیرستان به طور تصادفی از دو ناحیه ی آموزش و پرورش شهرهای تبریز و شیراز در ایران انتخاب شدند. تمامی شرکت کننده ها از نظر سطح زبان انگلیسی، جنسیت، و سن همگن بودند. یک آزمون استاندارد تعیین سطح زبان انگلیسی، یک پرسشنامه و دو تکلیفِ ساختارِ نحوی در هر دو گروه اجرا شد. تجزیه و تحلیل داده ها نشان داد که تفاوت معنی داری بین زبان آموزان در ارتباط با بند نسبیِ انگلیسی وجود دارد. در نهایت، کاربردهای این پژوهش برای کسانیکه در امر یادگیری و آموزش زبان انگلیسی فعالیت دارند مورد بحث قرار گرفت.

The present paper aimed at highlighting the judicious incorporation of literary genres (i.e. novel, short story/fiction, drama, and poetry) as a supposedly inspiring teaching technique and an allegedly potent learning resource into ESL/EFL curricula. The rationale behind this pedagogical inclusion is to promote both teaching and learning effectiveness through capitalizing intensively on the genres so as to teach basic language skills and language areas- macro and micro levels. Much mention was made of the 'why' (i.e. justification and benefits), the 'how' (i.e. logistical considerations), the 'where' and the 'when' (i.e. spatiotemporal factors) aspects of introducing literary texts into the confines of the ESL/EFL classroom. What this vigorous discussion spawned was some detailed accounts of literary competence as an overarching term consisting of morphological, lexical, phonological, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, discourse, stylistic, and sociolinguistic / sociocultural knowledge bases . Afterwards, evaluation process as the last but most important element of the teaching-learning process was explicated. In the end, seven solutions to the problems and dangers of using culture transmitters in the ESL/EFL classroom were suggested in an attempt to bring literature and ESL/EFL pedagogy into a happy contact leading to teaching and learning effectiveness maximization.

If the target of foreign language teaching is to use the language, communicative language teaching (CLT) seems to be an ideal teaching model. The goal of teaching with this method is to use the language as a medium of communication (Adi, 2012).The application of the communicative approach in teaching English as a foreign language, however, is associated with some problems that can cause the method turn out not to be so much successful and the learning outcome not to be efficient enough. This paper mainly intended to evaluate the problems that may lead to the failure of communicative language teaching in EFL contexts and some possible solutions for such problems. Awareness of these problems and the possible remedies can be helpful for both EFL teachers and learners, providing them with insightful ideas about how to manage their teaching and learning activities for the successful implementation of this method.