درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

این تحقیق به بررسی تأثیر فعالیت های تمرکزی(focused tasks) بر روی پیشرفت توانش کاربردی زبان آموزان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجه پرداخته است. بدین منظور، محققین تأثیر آگاهی انگیزی (Consciousness Raising) به عنوان یک فعالیت ورود محور واملاء-انشاء) Dictogloss که یک فعالیت مشارکتی تولیدی محسوب می گردد) را به عنوان یک فعالیت تولید محور مورد مقایسه قرار داده اند. در آغاز، 147 زبان آموز انگلیسی ایرانی با شرکت در مطالعه، محققین را در ساخت ابزار تحقیق یعنی پرسشنامه درک، تستهای تشخیص و تولید یاری نمودند. در همین راستا، 43 بومی آمریکایی انگلیسی زبان برای ساختن تست تشخیص و مواد آموزشی برای انجام تحقیق دعوت به همکاری شدند. برای انجام تحقیق، 60 زبان آموز انگلیسی فارسی زبان بر اساس نمراتشان درآزمون سطح آکسورد (2004) به دو گروه همگن تقسیم گردیدند. این گروهها به طور تصادفی در یکی از شرایط آموزشی آگاهی انگیزی به عنوان یک فعالیت ورود محور و املاء-انشاء به عنوان یک فعالیت تولید محور قرار گرفتند. این دو فعالیت برای ارائه آموزش به مدت هشت جلسه مورد استفاده قرار گرفتند. براساس نتایج پرسشنامه و تستها، تأثیر آموزش(از پیش آزمون تا پس آزمون اول) و زمان (از پس آزمون اول تا پس آزمون دوم) باعث تفاوت معناداری بین دو گروه نگردید. نتایج پرسشنامه و تستها نشانگر پیشرفت معنادار شرکت کنندگان در هر دو فعالیت در پس آزمون اول و دوم نسبت به پیش آزمون میباشد. شرکت کنندگان در هر دو فعالیت توانستند تأثیر مثبت آموزش را در پس آزمون دوم بر روی پرسشنامه درک و تست تولید حفظ نمایند. اما در مورد تست تشخیص، شرکت کنندگان در فعالیت تولید محور نتوانستند تأثیر مثبت آموزش را در پس آزمون دوم حفظ نمایند.

The extensive research done on the interrelationship between different social factors such as social class، gender and age and different linguistic variables has shown that these factors have important effects on the way language is used. Among these factors a special importance can be placed on age due to the role it plays in revealing different patterns of language use، such as the age-grading pattern، the normal pattern of age differentiation and the important patterns of language change which can inform us about the emergence of a linguistic form or the death of some old form. This paper is intended to examine the interrelationship between age and the usage of Shirazi vocabulary or lexical items. Sixty respondents belonging to 6 age groups of Shirazi speakers answered a 60-item questionnaire. Each item included one Shirazi word with its definition and sometimes a short example to clarify its meaning. The respondents had to choose between two choices: either they used the item or they did not. The analysis of the results showed that age was an influencing factor on the speech of the speakers as the older people had a large collection of active Shirazi words (they actively used all the words) while the younger generation had two collections of more active and less active Shirazi words and as the age of the subjects increased their mean scores which represented their usage of Shirazi vocabulary items also increased. These words were also used less among the more educated Shirazi speakers.

The significance of error analysis for the learner، the teacher and the researcher is now widely recognized. Earlier studies of error analysis concentrated on intersystematic comparison of the “native language” and the “target language” and drew the required data largely from intuitions and impressionistic observations. This study was conducted on the basis of the following observations: (1) to restrict to the study of one area viz articles. (2) to avoid comparison in terms of the systems of native and target language. In this study the major areas of difficulties that students face in the target language، i.e. the occurrence of articles in different syntactic features was examined and an attempt was made to establish a hierarchy of difficulties 40 undergraduates faced in the use of articles. For testing the correct retrieval، a slightly modified version of Leacok’s essay ‘My Financial Career’ was prepared. It included sufficient examples of almost all the important uses of articles. The test was given to the subjects in the form of a running text. The responses of the subjects were analysed in terms of noun or noun phrases preceded by articles، noun or noun-phrases preceded by no article، and grammatical categories other than noun or noun-phrases proceeded by no article. The findings revealed that most of the errors the students committed were due to the nature as well as the grammatical complexity of the articles in English، i.e. L1 independent which cannot be explained in terms of transfer from the native language. It was also found that students’ competence using anaphoric reference is far greater than using cataphoric reference. The findings are interpreted to have pedagogical implications for syllabus designers and EFL teachers.

Most of the studies on the key word method of second/foreign language vocabulary learning have been based on the evidence from laboratory experiments and have primarily involved the use of English key words to learn the vocabularies of other languages. Furthermore, comparatively quite limited number of such studies is done in authentic classroom contexts. The present study inquired into the effect of using mnemonic key word method of vocabulary instruction on the learning and retention of vocabulary over long term in a normal EFL classroom context.Fifty5th grade primary school students were selected and randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received vocabulary instruction using mnemonic key word method and the control group received classic memorization based instruction of the same vocabulary items. The two groups took three posttests a day, two weeks, and a month after the last treatment session. A MANOVA analysis was run on the data and the results indicated that subjects in the key word group outperformed the memorization group at a significant level in both their learning and retention of the newly learnt vocabularies. The results of the study underscore the efficacy of the establishment of mental links and images for the vocabulary learning and retention of novice and beginning level EFL learners. It further implies that mnemonic devices like key word method should be given prompt attention by both EFL material developers and practitioners as a potentially effective strategy for vocabulary teaching, learning and long term retention at the early stages of second or foreign language development.