درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

در این تحقیق ابتدا حافظه ی کاری و مدل پیشنهادی آن توصیف می گردد. سپس طرزساخت یک تست حافظه ی کاری به همراه تشریح کامل آزمایش هایی که روی آن صورت گرفته ارائه می گردد. به طور دقیق تر، این تست شامل 64 جمله فارسی می باشد که با ویژگی های خاصی توسط یک کارشناس زبان فارسی تهیه و سپس بر روی سه دسته زبان آموزکه جمعا 74 نفر بودند امتحان شد و نواقص آن طی این سه مرحله بر طرف شد. این تست نهایتا در یک تحقیق بزرگ، جهت اندازه گیری ظرفیت حافظه ی 140 نفر زبان آموز به کار گرفته شد. نتایج تحلیل عناصر تست، پایایی 840 0/ و 7900/ را نشان داد. این بدان مفهوم است که تست ساخته شده قابل اعتماد بوده و می تواند در تحقیقات دیگر مورد استفاده قرار گیرد. همچنین محققان زبانهای دیگر می توانند از فرایند طی شده در این تحقیق جهت تهیه تست حافظه در زبان خود پیروی کنند.

The current study aims to investigate how Iranian EFL students make use of compliments in Persian and English. To that end, 50 students majoring in English as a foreign language from Isfahan and Tehran, and Sheikhbahaee universities were asked to respond to a Discourse Completion Test consisting of six situations in both English and Persian. They were asked to put themselves in those situations and respond to the compliments made on them. The results of the study showed that in addition to pre-existing categories of compliment responses, Iranians made use of other strategies not included in the pre-existing categories of compliments. Furthermore, in both English and Persian languages, students made use of compliments in the same order: accept, evade and reject strategies. The results of this study could add to crosscultural findings, differences or similarities regarding compliments as a beneficial way of studying speech acts.

The present study was conducted to evaluate data driven learning (DDL) combined with Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) as an approach to improving vocabulary knowledge of Iranian postgraduates majoring in teaching English, English literature and translation. The purpose was to help language learners get familiar with DDL as a student-centered method taking advantage of a computer program for enhancing the knowledge of vocabulary. This research paper analyzed the efficiency of DDL from different angles including the participants' ability to remember the word meanings and make meaningful and grammatical sentences after doing DDL exercises using the Microsoft Power Point program. The results of the study showed that this technique could significantly enhance the participants' vocabulary knowledge in all the above mentioned aspects. The analysis of the questionnaire given to the participants to elicit their attitudes towards DDL showed that most of them were interested in this technique. The results of this article can be helpful for the language teachers who teach the learners at advanced levels of language proficiency and advanced students who would like to learn new items of vocabulary on their own.

Based on the controversial beliefs among L2 teachers about effective corrective feedback (CF) strategies, recast and prompts as 2 kinds of CF have drawn the attention of L2 researchers(e.g., Braidi, 2002; Iwashita, 2003; Loewen & Philp, 2006; Panova & Lyster, 2002; Sheen, 2004). Despite these numbers of studies, debate continues to exist about their usefulness as a CF technique. Whereas recasts provide a correct reformulation of L2 learners’ nontarget utterance, the other alternative type of feedback in L2 classroom settings is referred to as prompts (Lyster, 2004) because they provide signals that prompt L2 learners to self-repair rather than provide them with a correct reformulation of their nontarget utterance. Hence, the focus of this study was to examine the effect of recasts in comparison to prompts on the learning of English third person singular marker “s” by Iranian preintermediate L2 learners. Two CF techniques of recasts and prompts were utilized in 2 experimental groups in response to their errors in using the correct form of the verb for third person singular subject. In the third group as the control group, No-CF was provided by the L2 teacher. The results revealed that the Prompts Group had outperformed the Recast Group and No-CF Group. Thus, it could be concluded that prompts as a CF strategy led to more gains than CF that provided the L2 learners with the correct form (recast) than No-CF.  

Audiovisual devices such as satellite and conventional televisions can offer easy access to authentic programs which are considered to be a rich source of language input for SLA (Second Language Acquisition). The immediacy of various audiovisual programs ensures that language learners’ exposure is up-to-date and embedded in the real world of native speakers. In the same line, in the present paper, some anecdotal as well as experimental studies conducted to highlight the pedagogical values of various audiovisual programs such as news broadcasts, movies, cartoons, series and documentary films are reviewed. The related literature indicates that most of the studies are anecdotal which highlight the pedagogical values of various audiovisual programs as sources of authentic language input particularly in an EFL context where access to social interaction in English as a potential source of language input is limited. As a result, teachers are encouraged to expose the language learners to various audiovisual programs to enhance second language acquisition.  

The current study was carried out to investigate the functions of the ritual speech act of ‘ya Allah’ (literally meaning ‘O God’) employed by Iranians in social interactions. To this end, sixty-two Persian native speakers of different age groups, ranging from 35 to 85, of both genders were observed in 250 natural situations such as daily interactions, gatherings, public or private places and local TV programs until the saturation point. Their verbal interactions were recorded, transcribed and later analyzed. Moreover, in order to corroborate the representativeness of samples, ten people were interviewed and were asked directly when they utter ‘ya Allah’. It was concluded that the speech act may be employed in either religious or non-religious contexts to serve two major functions: to ask for permission (to enter a place) or call for an action. Moreover, the two major functions of the speech act in question may be broken down into nine minor functions: (1) Declaring one’s entering a house/apartment/orchard, tent or the like to be allowed or welcomed by the owner/insiders; (2) Warning intimate women to observe their hijab, when a strange man is to enter; (3) Entering a place in general, especially employed by men; (4) Being late to join community prayers; (5) Greeting someone who has just joined a group; (7) Commencing an action; (8) Asking someone to hurry up and (9) Doing something difficult with the help of others unanimously.