درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Dans la présente recherche, notre objectif est de savoir comment l’emploi de la langue maternelle en cours de FLE, peut simplifier et influencer l’apprentissage du français chez les apprenants iraniens, dans les universités et dans les instituts de langue. Selon les observations qui ont été faites dans les instituts de langues étrangères, l’utilisation de la langue maternelle dans l’enseignement du français, est considérée comme sévèrement nuisible et à bannir, tandis que les professeurs d’universités se montrent en général plus tolérants. La nouveauté de cette étude consiste à étudier les besoins pédagogiques des apprenants iraniens du FLE, en ce qui concerne l’emploi de la langue maternelle en classe de langue. À cet égard, nous avons élaboré un questionnaire contenant quinze questions, en tenant compte des éléments différents comme le sexe, la situation maritale, l’âge et le niveau d’études des apprenants, qui a été soumis à 61 étudiants en français. Après avoir analysé les réponses, à partir du test de Kolmogorov-Smirnov et du test T, l’importance de la langue maternelle en classe de FLE, a été validée, autrement dit, l’emploi de la langue maternelle en classe de FLE, a été reconnu comme un élément accélérateur et simplifiant pour les apprenants iraniens..

Diagnostic classification models (DCMs) have recently become very popular both for research purposes and for real testing endeavors for student assessment. A plethora of DCM models give researchers and practitioners a wide range of options for student diagnosis and classification. One intriguing option that some DCM models offer is the possibility of examining the nature of the interactions among the attributes underlying a skill. Attributes in second/foreign language (L2) may interact with each other in a compensatory/non-compensatory manner. Subskill/attribute relationship has been studied using diagnostic classification models. The present study provides a mini review of the DCM studies on the attribute relationships in L2 reading, listening, and writing. The criteria based on which interaction between the attributes have been inferred are reviewed. The results showed that the majority of DCM studies have investigated reading comprehension and more studies are required on the productive skills of writing and speaking. Furthermore, suggestions for future studies are provided.

Culture is an indispensable part of Foreign Language Education Policy (FLEP), especially in English Language Teaching (ELT). In addition, the spread of English around the globe has resulted in English users’ tendency to embed their local culture in their English communication (Kirkpatrick, 2012). However, literature remains silent on culture representation in FLEP, especially in an ideologized country like Iran. To address this issue, due to lack of an explicit FLEP in Iran, the present study analyzed the cultural schemas addressed in the seven major national policy documents of Iran, namely 20-year National Vision, Comprehensive Science Roadmap, Support for Comprehensive Science Roadmap in the Domain of Languages, Cultural Engineering Document, National Curriculum, Fundamental Reform in Education, and Islamicization of Universities. Results of content analysis using MAXQDA Software unmasked Islamic-Iranian culture as the baseline for ELT in Iran. In order to further examine the representations and implications of ‘Islamic-Iranian culture’ hidden in the documents, open coding, axial coding, and labeling along with constant comparative procedure revealed various Islamic cultural schemas. However, very few instances of Iranian cultural schemas were unveiled. The findings were discussed in light of the hidden curriculum and the power relations behind the extracted cultural schemas

One of the controversial issues in learning English is the appropriate use of formulaic sequences as one of the effective factors in pragmatic production. Not merely the language proficiency level, but also the individual’s capability to adapt to a new culture plays a significant role in the appropriate use of formulaic sequences. First, this study intends to find the relationship between cultural intelligence and the use of formulaic sequences. Second, it seeks to identify whether there is a significant difference between the second language learners with different proficiency levels in the appropriate use of formulaic sequences. From the Universiti Sains Malaysia, a total of 50 Malaysian students participated in the study. First, the participants completed an oral Discourse Completion Task (DCT) test, and then they were required to fill a Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS). The statistical analysis revealed a significant correlation between the level of proficiency and the production of formulaic sequences. However, no relationship was found between the level of cultural intelligence and the production of formulaic sequences among the participants. The results obtained from this research would benefit the curriculum designers by boosting the communication skills of ESL learners. However, more studies should be conducted with different instruments and methodology to ensure more accurate results.

Les études abordant la question des compétences culturelles sont aujourd’hui de pleine actualité et sont souvent reprises pour analyser différents aspects de ces compétences au sein de l’enseignement-apprentissage des langues-cultures étrangères ; ces études ont donc leur utilité dans la mise en évidence de la diversité de ces compétences sous les différentes appellations et applications parmi lesquelles nous avons choisi de mettre en lumière la compétence transculturelle. Il n’existe pas de commun accord quant à la définition du concept de la compétence transculturelle et à sa place à l’égard d’autres compétences culturelles. Cet article tente de répondre à la question comment définir précisément la notion de compétence transculturelle, comment l’interpréter et la promouvoir. Cette étude a donc pour objectif de proposer une conception de la compétence transculturelle. La manière dont la compétence transculturelle peut être acquise et développée sera également discutée et abordée dans le cadre d’une recherche de terrain auprès des étudiants de licence en langue et littérature françaises de l’Université Hakim Sabzevari. Nous avons décidé d’emprunter le dispositif de la pensée en réseaux pour la mise en application et le développement de cette compétence. Quant au choix de la modalité de la collecte des données, nous avons eu recours aux entretiens semi-directifs afin de vérifier l’impact de la mise en œuvre du dispositif sur le développement de la compétence transculturelle sur le public examiné. L’analyse des résultats obtenus par les entretiens montrent les traits distinctifs de la compétence transculturelle due à la mise en place du dispositif choisi..

As a part of a larger-scale research, the present study aimed to use the main tenets of sociocultural perspective; namely, mediation, internalization, zone of proximal development, and the activity theory, to analyze the novice and expert teachers’ professional development through personal practical theorizing as an awareness raising technique. Furthermore, the study attempted to identify the contextual factors hindering teachers’ pedagogical beliefs enactment. The areas of mismatches between the teachers’ beliefs and practices were identified in the previous phases of the study, and personal practical theorizing procedure was implemented in the program to help teachers converge their beliefs and practices. Within the domain of the qualitative research, a multi-case study design was utilized, employing eight novice and experienced teachers who were selected through purposive sampling. The teachers’ professional development in the proposed program was analyzed through the lens of sociocultural perspectives, and the contextual factors hindering teachers’ beliefs enactment were enumerated based on the results gleaned through interview sessions.

In this study, challenges in the translation of Islamic Shi’a texts of practical laws were investigated. The English translations of the books of Islamic laws written according to three Iranian Twelver Shi’a mujtahids namely, Grand Ayatollah Wahid Khorasani, Grand Ayatollah Sistani, and Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi were examined. Next, the culture-bound terms concerning practical laws of religion in the three English translations were looked at to see what kinds of procedures have been used by different translators and which procedure(s) is/are the most frequent one(s). The results of this study indicated that the challenges found in the translation of Islamic law texts could be classified into two groups: lexical challenges and structural challenges. Moreover, it was found out that the main challenges include Islamic words, culture-specific items, units of measurement, common words with uncommon meanings, fixed expressions, and modal verbs. In addition, it was found that the translators of these texts have used six procedures more than others and those are transliteration, literal translation, cultural equivalent, functional equivalent, descriptive equivalent and recognized translation. The analysis of examples in this research suggests that among all procedures, the translator, in most cases, has used transliteration and literal translation to cope with the lexical gap.

This study investigated the role of Telegram, a mobile messenger app, in mastering receptive and productive knowledge of vocabulary by Iranian EFL learners. In addition, it was intended to survey EFL learners’ attitude toward using telegram to learn English vocabulary. Therefore, both quantitative and qualitative design were used. So, 57 students were selected from a language institute in Isfahan, Iran. To homogenize the participants, Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) was administered and the participants were divided into two groups accordingly, a Telegram group and a control group. At the beginning of the study a checklist of words was given to the participants. Afterward, during the study, the experimental group received the treatment (teaching words via telegram), while the control group received the target words traditionally. After 8 sessions, 20-30 minutes each, an achievement test was administered to the groups. The results of Independent Sample t-test revealed a statistically significant difference between the achievement test scores of the experimental and control group. Moreover, the participants had positive attitude about using Telegram to learn English vocabulary. The findings of this study may inspire teachers to use mobile applications and also course developers to modify and improve not only the curriculum, but also the methodology of teaching vocabulary.

The increasing use of technology in different parts of the world has inevitably led to the borrowing of a sizeable number of English words by many languages, including Farsi. This study was carried out with the aim of determining the extent to which a group of undergraduate Iranian EFL students studying at Sheikhbahaee University could accurately pronounce ten commonly-used technology-associated loan words with regard to two criteria: the placement of word stress and the pronunciation of words’ sounds. To this end, 50 students were randomly drawn from among the foregoing university’s students. Each student was given the chance to pronounce each of the ten loan words in and out of context. The students’ oral performance was recorded and then was subjected to quantitative and qualitative analysis. The quantitative analysis revealed that the errors’ frequencies were relatively high with respect to most words and very high with regard to two words. The qualitative analysis, which was done utilizing the literature of contrastive phonetics and pronunciation systems of Farsi and English, helped partly explaining many of the students’ errors and highlighting the need for the devotion of more pedagogical and research attention to the problems confronting Farsi-speakers in the area of the pronunciation of loan words.

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of CALL on intermediate EFL learners’ vocabulary learning and comparing it with traditional teaching method. To this end, a quasi-experimental design was used in which 80 students were chosen based on their performance in an Oxford Placement Test (OPT), and were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Six reading comprehension passages consisting of 72 new words were selected from the book “504 essential words” and used as the pretest of the study. Then, the experimental group received twelve sessions of treatment which was teaching vocabulary through different tools in the computer such as related pictures, video, textual highlights, PowerPoint slides, or Narsis software while the control group received the traditional way of teaching such as providing oral pronunciation of words, explaining their parts of speech, and offering a direct translation of words in Persian. Afterward, both groups attended the post-test of vocabulary at the end of the study. The scores of learners in pretest and posttest were analyzed statistically via running independent T-test. The findings revealed that CALL instruction was more effective in enhancing learners’ vocabulary learning in comparison to the traditional vocabulary instruction. The findings indicated that the experimental group had a better performance than that of the control group, and the learners in the CALL group learned more vocabulary than the learners in the traditional group. The findings of this research have implications for teachers and learners as teachers can use CALL in EFL classes to help them be independent learners, and make vocabulary learning more attractive and enjoyable to learners. The findings can help material developers and syllabus designers to consider the importance of CALL while planning textbooks and materials.

Notwithstanding all of the advances in language learning strategy research, there are still some areas that strategy scholars have overlooked. The dearth of research into grammar learning strategies (GLS) may be the most egregious instance of this neglect. In order for this type of research to gain momentum, the present article reports on research that sought to identify whether there was any relationship between advanced EFL learners’ creativity and their grammar learning strategy use. It also sought to find if male and female advanced EFL learners were different in terms of grammar learning strategy use. To this end, 69 Iranian advanced EFL learners (30 males and 39 females) selected through convenience sampling participated in this study. Data were collected through Creativity and Grammar Learning Strategy Questionnaires. The Pearson product-moment correlation analysis and the independent samples -test were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that there was a significant relationship between Iranian advanced EFL learners’ creativity and their grammar learning strategy use. In addition, the findings demonstrated that female learners employed the grammar learning strategy more than male learners. Finally, pedagogical implications of the study for language teachers, learners, educational policymakers, and curriculum developers were presented.