درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The present study investigates the efficacy of preparation time in four speaking tasks of TOEFL iBT. As the current pre-task planning time offered by ETS is very short, 15 to 30 seconds, we intended to explore how the test-takers’ speaking quality would change if the preparation time was added to the response time, giving the respondents a relatively longer online planning opportunity. To this aim, two groups of TOEFL iBT candidates were studied under pre-task and online planning conditions. Totally, 384 elicited speaking samples were first transcribed and then measured in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). The results yielded by a series of One-way MANOVA revealed the online planning group significantly outperformed the pre-task planning group in terms of accuracy and fluency across all four speaking tasks. Although with less robustness, the online planners had significantly higher speech complexity represented by lexical diversity and left-embeddedness. The results obtained through this study may challenge the efficacy of the currently provided preparation time in TOEFL iBT speaking subsection.

To date, with the everyday growth of technology and the increase of online classes, busy modern teachers seek to lighten their burdens and boost their learners’ autonomy. Thus, this multi-method action research aimed to probe the differences between receiving computer-generated and direct corrective feedback (CF) on the syntactic accuracy and complexity of female adolescent Iranian EFL learners’ writing. Two intact classes took part in the study; one group (Group C) received CF from an AWE (Automated Writing Evaluation) tool, called Ginger software, and the other group (Group T) received CF from their teacher. Subject-verb agreement and verb form errors were considered to measure the syntactic accuracy while the average sentence length and verb form variation were regarded as the syntactic complexity. Moreover, via a questionnaire, the students’ perceptions of the kind of CF they had received were taken into account to see which one was more effective. Findings obtained from MANOVA revealed that both groups made significant improvements regarding syntactic accuracy. Group C produced more complex outputs after being exposed to the treatment while Group T didn’t make such progress. The results obtained from the questionnaire also indicated that both groups found the CF satisfactory. However, Group C held more positive attitudes. Not only was the Ginger application effective in decreasing the number of students’ writing errors but also it motivated them to be better writers and write more. The study further points to the likely merits of technology-enhanced feedback in improving EFL learners' writing ability in general, and their written syntactic accuracy/complexity in particular.

The book Practical Language Testing, authored by Glenn Fulcher (2010), is an epitome of comprehensive and detailed documentation on the relevance of the appropriate techniques, knowledge, and conceptual frameworks required to interpret and develop language assessments. It is also a systematic, helpful reference for researchers and educators that address assessment selection and design concerns, offering instructors guidance on picking the proper test for a particular educational setting and assisting in interpreting the scores generated by such tests. The book lays the groundwork for instructors to establish a thoughtful awareness of test scenarios to furnish the most efficient language assessment for their learners. The book's language is highly lucid and user-friendly to both experts and novices. The book finds an appropriate amalgamation between practical applications and theoretical underpinnings to empower practitioners in comprehending the objectives of effective assessment and its function in facilitating good learning and teaching. On account of the fact that the referenced book has the potential to make a substantial contribution and have significant implications for teachers, test designers, and other stakeholders, the current article attempts to provide a review of the book and emphasize the critical concepts in each chapter.

Modern teaching practices emphasize learner autonomy and learner-centered approaches to language learning. Such teaching methods require corresponding assessment approaches. Self-assessment is viewed as an assessment mode which matches modern learner-centered teaching methodologies. However, the validity and reliability of self-assessments are not yet conclusively established. This study aimed to provide validity and reliability evidence for self-assessments among Iranian EFL university learners. The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) Self-Assessment Grid was translated into Persian and was given to a sample of Iranian undergraduate students of English. A C-Test battery containing four passages was used as a criterion for concurrent validation. Self-assessments of university EFL learners were examined for internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Findings showed that while self-assessments are highly reliable they lack validity as evidenced with low correlations between components of self-assessment grid and the C-Test. The implications of the study for the application of self-assessments in foreign language education are discussed.

This cross-cultural study aims to examine how Iranian and American motivational speakers employ metadiscourse devices as a convincing tool to interact with their audience. To this end, eight motivational speeches in English and Persian were randomly selected from 2015 to 2021, and analyzed for the use of stance (i.e., hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and self-mentions) and engagement (i.e., reader-pronouns, directives, questions, shared knowledge, and personal asides) expressions. The findings showed that self-mention and attitude markers were the most frequently used stance markers in English and Persian corpus, respectively. Moreover, hedges found to be the least frequently used stance markers in the two corpora. With regard to the use of engagement markers, results showed that reader pronoun is the most frequently used engagement markers, and shared knowledge and personal asides were the least frequently used engagement markers in both languages. Finally, the results of chi-square test showed statistically significant differences in the use of stance and engagement expressions in the two languages, confirming cultural septicity nature of metadiscourse markers, and that speakers of different languages employ interactional devices according to their context.

In the present study, we analyze the semantic fragmentation and conventionalization in Persian compound nouns ending in the verbal stems –andāz ‘throw’, -band ‘fasten/close,’ -foruš ‘sell’, -gir ‘catch’, -keš ‘pull’, -paz ‘cook’, -yāb ‘find’, and -zan ‘hit’ from the usage-based perspective. The analysis is based on a 800 data set extracted from diachronic and synchronic corpora. The words produced from the general compounding pattern [XV PRS]N can be categorized in a range of semantic categories, including agent, instrument, location, and object. In describing the semantic fragmentation of [XV PRS]N, we propose the human agent as the starting meaning, from which the instrument sub-pattern is derived by the mechanism of metaphorical extension. However, to justify the object and location meanings, we consider the metonymic extension mechanism to be involved. The sense extension mechanisms do not only apply to the individual words but can happen on the pattern level. It is also argued that these mechanisms are not mechanically applied to all the patterns ending in the verbal stems, instead, it is the usage and the communicative needs of the speakers that determine the semantic fragmentation of any patterns. To illustrate this point, as a case study, we focus on the development of instrument meaning in the pattern [X-paz PRS]N. We show that the instrument sub-pattern is a recent linguistic phenomenon that coincides with the introduction of modern cooking equipment with mostly English names to Iranian society. The increasing use of these types of equipment has led to a new communicative need for naming such instruments. This extra-linguistic factor has motivated the pattern [X-paz PRS]N to be extended through analogy with English compound instrument nouns. The findings of this study may contribute to the understanding of word-formation patterns in general and compounding patterns in particular.

Since 2010, deep learning has been further developed, and the concept of multi-modality has penetrated into all walks of life. However, it has not been fully researched and applied in college English teaching, so this study modeled and practiced the multimodal teaching method of college English under the deep learning mode and its application. The definitions of modality and medium are first introduced, and then the definition of multimodality in this study is clarified. Then the classification of multimodal transport is expounded. The random forest algorithm is chosen as the main algorithm of this research, and a dynamic multimodal model is established. After that, there was a collaboration with a university and sophomore students were selected for practice. After processing and analyzing the collected data, it was found that in the data sample of 268 students, the number of students who did not study independently accounted for 24%, which indicates that most college students lack interest in learning English. Preliminary tests were also conducted on students' English proficiency throughout the year, and the results showed that the students' English proficiency was at a pass level and the overall English proficiency was weak. Reassessment of students' English proficiency showed that the actual teaching effect of each English proficiency was greater than 85%, and the effectiveness of English teaching in the selected universities was significantly improved. The average score improved by 8 points, indicating that multimodal teaching is scientifically effective After a semester of multimodal teaching, the English teaching effectiveness of the university selected in this article has significantly improved. The research results indicate that the development of deep computer learning has introduced multimodal concepts into the teaching field, which is very suitable for assisting language learning based on its own advantages. After a semester of multimodal teaching, the English teaching effectiveness of the university selected in this article has significantly improved. The research results indicate that the development of deep computer learning has introduced multimodal concepts into the teaching field, which is very suitable for assisting language learning based on its own advantages.

There has been a debate over the use of genre-based pedagogy to develop university students’ ability to create valued meaning in academic writing. Some researchers support an implicit genre-based instruction while others support an explicit genre-based instruction. However, few empirical studies move beyond this debate to investigate the effectiveness of genre-based approach to developing university students’ academic writing skills. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of genre-based pedagogy in developing MBA students’ ability to construe critical stance in their writing. The data consisted of 28219 words corpus of 40 essay assignments, collected pre-genre-based course and post-genre-based course. Using Hyland’ s (2005) model of intersubjective positioning and Martin and White’s (2005) theory of evaluation in discourse, the data were analyzed for the distribution of hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and disclaim markers through manual coding using UAM corpus tool. The results showed a significant decrease in the use of key linguistic resources that function to make a text informal. In addition, the results showed a less significant increase and a less significant decrease in the use of key linguistic resources that function to construe critical stance in academic writing. These results have implication for the use of genre-based pedagogy in developing students’ ability to create valued meaning in academic writing. They show the extent to which genre-based pedagogy, implemented at the beginning or during subject learning, impacts students’ academic writing skills.