درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Language transfer refers to the application of previous language knowledge to the target language learning. Using questionnaires, this paper investigates the lexical transferring behaviors of 230 Dongxiang-Chinese bilingual and monolingual students who are in the early stage of learning English vocabulary. The results display that Chinese predominates the transference, while bilinguals’ Dongxiang Language is described as a barrier during the process of English learning. To show the individual-level differences, several learner-based factors: age, linguistic background, social background, cognitive level, emotion, and learning attitude are also confirmed, which appear to promote or inhibit this transferring behavior. The experiment data suggest that there are two different types of the factors mentioned above, which depend on whether they are affected by context-based factors---learner-based factors and learner-context-based factors. The paper also concludes with suggestions to teachers and policymakers in Dongxiang area for the modification of current teaching methods based on the quantitative analysis of surveys.

سواد سنجش معلم نقش محوری در برنامه های آموزش معلمان بازی میکند، با این حال به نظر میرسد هم در سواد سنجش و هم در اجرای آن کاستی هایی وجود دارد. مطالعه حاضر با استفاده از یک کلاس سنجش آنلاین، که شامل مباحث تئوری و همچنین عملی میشود، سواد سنجش 16 معلم (8 معلم ضمن خدمت و 8 معلم پیش سرویس) و میزان استفاده از سواد سنجش آنها را بررسی میکند. بخش کمی مطالعه سواد سنجش معلمان، و بخش کیفی صحت نتایج بخش کمی و همچنین میزان استفاده معلمان از سواد سنجش در قلمرو عملی را مورد بررسی قرار میدهند. داده های این تحقیق با استفاده از پرسشنامه های معتبرجمع آوری شدند، که یکی از آنها از Mertler (2013) اقتباس شد و دو مورد دیگر به وسیله محققین طراحی شدند. به علاوه، از یک پروژه ارزیابی عملی نیز برای جمع آوری داده ها استفاده شده است. یافته های تحقیق نشان میدهند اگرچه معلمین ضمن خدمت به واسطه تجربه بیشتر، در ابتدای تحقیق از سواد سنجش بیشتری برخوردار بوده اند، در انتهای تحقیق و در مقایسه با معلمین پیش سرویس از درجه کمتری از سواد سنجش برخوردارند. یافته های بخش کیفی تحقیق نیز نشان دهنده عدم ترجیح معلمان برای استفاده از سواد سنجش در فعالیت های کلاسی است. نتایج تحقیق حاضر گنجاندن هم جنبه های تئوری و هم جنبه های عملی سواد سنجش معلمان را در برنامه های آموزش معلمان پیشنهاد میدهد. به علاوه، بررسی دقیق موانعی که مانع استفاده سواد سنجش تئوری معلمان در عمل میشود نیز پیشنهاد میشود.

In this research, the teacher-researcher (henceforth, I) presents a chronological report over some life-long educational experiences in an EFL setting and during a long period—twenty - five years aimed at verifying/authenticating role conflicts. In so doing, I decided to carve my earlier educational paths to describe my diverse roles/realities. To this end, I recounted my past and presented experiences, including my three roles as (A) Language learner, (B) Language teacher, and (C) Language researcher. Using life-history narrative research designs and in line with auto-ethnography approaches, I initially embarked on critically describing my English language educational experiences from a recollection of past events in my memory through my first two roles—language learner and teacher—and mapped them onto my recently assigned role as a language researcher. The findings were self-revealing to me in that while recounting my experiences, I found out how specific intuited conflicts involving ‘impotency in using the English language for non-educational aims’, ‘the gap between theories and practice’, ‘the influence of essential others on my future decisions’, ‘the duality of exposures with people having more vs. fewer authorities’ among others had inflicted me to a great extent. Then and there, during such a long period for demonstrating my professional identity construction, I summarized my intuited conflicts. This was to designate how the unpredictability of affairs in ELT and maintaining intricate interactions with people in the community of practice, which resulted from numerous aims and led to unpredictable directions, might have influenced me as a language practitioner in my future attempts to experience a new being. The findings may promise implications for professional identity construction as mapped on recent narrative accounts for English language teachers.

Emotion and cognition are both considered influential factors in language learning. In this study, the role of "emotioncy" (which is a combination of emotion and frequency) in the cognitive load and sentence comprehension of a group of language learners was examined. Emotioncy includes emotions that are evoked by the senses. To this aim, 200 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners were asked to fill out the NASA Task Load Test, a sentence comprehension test, and an emotioncy scale. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was run to measure the construct validity of the emotioncy scale. Subsequently, Pearson Product-Moment correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data. The results showed that emotioncy has a significantly negative and positive relationship with cognitive load and sentence comprehension, respectively (p

The study aimed at examining the effects of scaffolding ESP readers, by using graphic markers and highlighting syntactic and emphatic prosody, on their Foreign Language Reading Anxiety (FLRA) and fluency. A mixed-methods research design was used for a deeper understanding of the obtained data. An experimental design was planned with a control and an experimental group including 38 students of two fields, museum studies, and conservation of historic buildings in Shiraz University of Arts. Participants of the experimental group were scaffolded to develop reading fluency with different graphic markers, while members of the control group had their usual ESP classes. The participants’ FLRA and reading fluency levels were assessed prior to the study and after it ended. Statistical analysis of the results proved that scaffolding the students with graphic markers had the potential to lower their FLRA. Also, the results of fluency assessment frameworks including Words Read Correctly per Minute (WCPM), Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MDFS) and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) confirmed the effectiveness of scaffolding the readers with graphic markers. For a deeper understanding, the data were explored using qualitative data classification and analysis by the NAEP framework. The qualitative analysis of the observations showed while graphic cues can scaffold the learners to notice their shortcomings toward an optimum level of fluency, they could not be the sufficient condition for achieving the goal. It was also concluded that online decoding, sight-word reading, and sensitivity to stress and intonation are pre-requisites of fluent and prosodic reading with expression.

این تحقیق سه نوع تفکر کلامی که در روش تدریس ادراکی جامع رایج است را مورد بررسی و مقایسه قرار داد تا تاثیر این سه شیوه به زبان آوری فکر را در فراگیری وجه مجهول در بین فراگیران زبان دوم مشخص کند. بنابراین چهار کلاس پایه دوازدهم از یک دبیرستان انتخاب شدند و به بطور تصادفی به سه گروه آزمایش و یک گروه گواه تقسیم شدند و به تمام دانش آموزان وجه مجهول آموزش داده شد. در واقع به هر کدام از سه گروه آزمایش به یکی از شیو ه های رایج آموزش ادراکی سیستمی: الف) تفکر کلامی درونی، ب) تفکر کلامی بیرونی، ج) تفکرکلامی درونی و بیرونی آموزش داده شد وبه گروه گواه به روش معمول استقرایی آموزش داده شد. نتایج تحقیق نشان داد که هر سه شیوه ادراکی سیستمی در یادگیری وجه مجهول توسط فراگیران موثربود. البته شایان ذکر است که از سه روش فوق دو روش تفکر کلام بیرونی و روش تفکر کلامی بیرونی و درونی از روش تفکر درونی موثرتر بودند. در حقیقت علت این برتری را می توان در ماهیت منحصر به فرد روش تفکربیرونی جست که همزمان به دو شکل باعث توسعه ذهنی می شود. شکل اول توسعه ذهنی از طریق مفاهیم می باشد که از ویژگی بارز آموزش ادراکی سیستمی است و شکل دوم حالت توسعه ذهنی از طریق تعامل می باشد که از ویژگی های بارز ارزیابی پویا است. به عبارتی دیگردر روش تفکر بیرونی بستری فراهم می شود تا دو مدل آموزش ادراکی سیستمی و ارزیابی پویا نمایان شوند.

Studies on the generic structure of thesis and dissertation acknowledgments have resulted in some influential models such as Hyland’s (2004) and Al-Ali’s (2010) models. Few studies, if any, have investigated the generic structure of acknowledgments in books. Therefore, the present study was an attempt to find out whether the acknowledgments of books follow an organizational pattern. To this end, 200 books (100 written by native and 100 by non-native speakers of English) which included acknowledgements section, from a mass of 1000 books, were considered. The data were analyzed with reference to Hyland’s (2004) scheme. The results obtained from the analysis of the acknowledgments written by both native and non-native writers of English revealed that the overall structure of the acknowledgements section of the books follows an organizational pattern which is a combination of two models: Hyland’s (2004) scheme (all moves and steps), Al-Ali’s (2010) model (Praising and Thanking God Step and Signing off Move) and two new moves: Copyright Move and Commenting Move. The findings suggest that a full appreciation of this organizational pattern can help writers to enjoy this unique space for thanking all those who have contributed to completion of their work and academic identity formation.

In an attempt to profile the effect of two methods of teaching Second Language (L2) idioms, Etymological vs. Literal, a group of English Language learners (n= 14) were selected to participate in this study. It was a within-subjects study and the chosen idioms were taught in 6 sessions regarding the two methods to the same group (each method in three sessions). In the first three sessions, 30 idioms were taught literally. In the next three sessions, 30 other idioms were taught etymologically. Then, their post-tests were performed immediately after instruction. Finally, a delayed posttest was conducted after one-week interval to find out the amount of retention of idioms’ constituents. The results indicated no significant effect in the retention and later production of L2 idioms and their constituents in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. Following either of these methods regarding time and goals of instruction can be considered as an implication of this study.

Exploring various dimensions associated with classroom Willingness to Communicate (WTC) appears to have become a focal issue among researchers. Despite previous studies on WTC, there still exists the paucity of research reflecting actual learners’ WTC behavior via the lens of the Sociocultural Theory (SCT). The present study, therefore, delved into the role task-mediation and teacher scaffolding might play in EFL learners’ WTC, juxtaposing STC, and task-based instruction. Through a multiple case study approach, six types of tasks were applied with 11 Iranian EFL learners over 9 weeks. Relying on triangulation, the authors of the present study collected the data using observation, stimulated recall interviews, and learners’ reflective journals. To treat the data, the qualitative method of analysis was utilized. The results showed that the learners behaved variably in their WTC with respect to the tasks. Furthermore, teacher scaffolding was found to contribute to the learners’ WTC. Mediation via task and teacher scaffolding carry implications for English teachers, which have been discussed at the end of this article.