درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Written Teacher Feedback (WTF) aims at improving the students' writing. Hence, the way in which it is provided for the learners should be taken into account as it makes an impact on the learners' comprehension of the presented comments (Ferris, 2003; Thonus, 2002). The current study was conducted to examine the possible effect of WTF directness types on Iranian EFL learners' ability to perceive the teachers' comments as praise or criticism and the required correction implied in them. To this end, three versions of the same essay, with direct, indirect and hedged comments indexed within them were distributed to 120 EFL learners. The results of ANOVA revealed that the directness type of the WTF would make no significant impact on Iranian EFL learners' ability to perceive the positive and negative comments and their required correction accurately. We might speculate from the findings that writing instructors should focus more on the quality of the WTF rather than its directness type in Iranian context. This would hopefully empower the learners to apply the teachers' comments to enhance the quality of their written products.

The current study attempts to explore the characteristics of author-assigned keywords in research articles as important constituents of targeted search in academic communities. To this end, the keywords of 200 research papers in the field of applied linguistics, in terms of domain, degree of specificity, and relation to the titles, were analyzed. To supplement the findings, the keyword choice strategy of a number of researchers with publishing experience in the field was also investigated. The analysis revealed a considerable rate of title-keywords match, especially with respect to field-specific keywords. This finding points to the importance of users’ field-specific background knowledge in locating relevant information on the web. The examination of authors’ viewpoints and strategies, on the other hand, helped to bring to light the complex and non-clichéd nature of keyword selection. The significance of authors’ diverging and converging attitudes and their implications for enhancing the success rate of keyword search are discussed.

This study investigated the impact of using the technique of self-monitoring on non-academic EFL learners’ composition writing. Fifty female students studying English at Navid English Institute in Shiraz, Iran were chosen based on the results of a proficiency test. They were all 16-20 years old and were intermediate learners of English who were divided into two control and experimental groups and took a writing pre-test. The experimental group (EG) received a training program on the effective use of the technique of self-monitoring proposed by Charles (1990). That is, they learned to add annotations expressing doubts and queries on various parts of their five composition drafts. The students in CG wrote their drafts without annotations. At the end of the twenty-second session course, both groups took a writing posttest. The results indicated that the learners in EG performed significantly better and the global features of organization and content in their writing were enhanced. Surveying the students’ views on self-monitoring, through a questionnaire, revealed their interest in taking charge of their writing task. Findings point to the efficacy of the self-monitoring technique in promoting learners’ writing proficiency and autonomy in handling writing tasks.

بررسی کارپوشه تولید گفتاری زبان آموزان ایرانی در زبان فرانسه (از ارزشیابی تکوینی به خودارزشیابی) روح الله رحمتیان دانشیار دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، تهران r_rahmatian@yahoo.com مرضیه مهرابی دانشجوی دکتری دانشگاه تربیت مدرس،تهران marzieh_mehraby@yahoo.fr ژاله کهنمویی پور استاد دانشگاه تهران jkahnomi@ut.ac.ir تاریخ دریافت:28/11/1391 تاریخ پذیرش: 23/5/1392 امروزه متخصصان علم آموزش بر این باورند که ارزشیابی جزء لاینفک فرایند یاددهی/ یادگیری زبان هاست و باید با استفاده از ابزارهای مناسبی مانند کارپوشه تحقق یابد. هدف پژوهش حاضر، بررسی کاربرد و کارآمدی کار پوشه تولید گفتاری زبان آموزان ایرانی در کلاس فرانسه به عنوان زبان خارجی بوده است. به عبارت دقیق تر، مؤلفه های زبان گفتاری از جمله توانش دستوری، تلفظ و آهنگ کلام، توانش گفتمانی، روانی در کلام و تعامل میان زبان آموزان تحلیل شده است. در این جستار، ابتدا چارچوب نظری موضوع بررسی و سپس نتایج حاصل از تحقیقات مطالعه میدانی ارائه شده اند. جامعه آماری متشکل از یازده زبان آموز بزرگسال در سطح B1 زبان فرانسه می باشد. بر اساس دستاورد این تحقیق، زبان آموزان به کمک روش کار پوشه در تمام مؤلفه های تولید گفتاری پیشرفت داشته اند و توانسته اند توانایی خودارزشیابی خویش را رشد دهند. کلید واژگان: ارزشیابی، کار پوشه، تولید گفتاری، زبان آموزان ایرانی.

A community of practice may shape and reshape the identity of members of the community through providing them with situated learning or learning environment. This study, therefore, is to clarify the salient learning-based features of the language teaching community of practice that might formulate the identity of language teachers. To this end, the study examined how learning situations in two communities of practice (English and Arabic) developed the professional identity of language teachers. The results of the semi-structure interviews with 5 language teachers highlighted some differences between English and Arabic language teaching communities of practice in terms of the situated learning activities they provide for language teachers to develop their professional identity. Furthermore, since the community of practice can be considered a potential curriculum that may be learned by newcomers with legitimate peripheral access, it would be considered as a main source of identity formation of both English and Arabic language teachers. The findings of the study can be used to better understand the nature of being a professional language teacher in non-native contexts. They have implications for novice and experienced language teachers as well as for teacher educators to review the content of the teacher training courses

Textbooks play a pivotal role in language learning classrooms. The problem is, among a wide range of textbooks available, which one is more appropriate for a specific classroom and a group of learners. In order to evaluate ELT textbooks, theorists and writers have offered different kinds of evaluative frameworks based on a number of principles and criteria. This study evaluates one example of such a series of ELT textbooks, namely, “American English File” using Littlejohn’s (1998) evaluative framework to see what explicit features of the book are, and what pedagogic values it has. Littlejohn believes that we should evaluate a textbook based on its own pedagogic values and we should see what is in it not what the teacher and evaluators think must exist in it. Consequently his framework is claimed to be devoid of any impressionistic ideas and it is in-depth and objective rather than being subjective. Nine ELT experts and ten ELT teachers helped the researcher rate the evaluative checklists. The results of the study show that although a number of shortcomings and drawbacks were found in American English File, it stood up reasonably well to a detailed and in-depth analysis and that its pedagogic values and positive attributes far out-weighed its shortcomings. The internal consistency between ratings was computed via the statistical tool of Cronbach’s alpha that indicated a desirable inter-rater reliability

It is axiomatic that L2 teaching and learning is a process that requires dynamic involvement of L2 learners in the acquisition of knowledge and skills. L2 learners need to be assisted in setting individual learning goals. They should also be given the exposure to and guidance in effective language learning strategies (LLSs) in order to build a high level of confidence in the learning process. The study was an attempt to examine the relationship between LLSs and L2 learners’ self-esteem. To achieve such objectives, a questionnaire was administered to 120 Persian L2 learners. The results revealed that LLSs had a strong correlation with self-esteem. Besides, the same strong, positive correlation was also observed between the participants’ self-esteem and their L2 proficiency level. It was finally underestood that of the L2 independent variables of the study (i.e., self-esteem and L2 proficiency level), it was the L2 participants’ proficiency level that better accounted for their use of LLSs. Conducting studies like the present one may contribute effectively to the better teaching of an L2 to L2 learners.