درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This paper provides a fairly detailed corpus-based vocabulary profile of the Iranian EFL books used in public schools. To this end, the WordPerfect files of all the seven books were converted to text format to get rid of the formatting features and be compatible with the software used for analysis. The software tools used were the Compleat Lexical Tutor suite, version 6.2 (Cobb, 2011), AntConc (Anthony, 2012), and AntWord Profiler (Anthony, 2012). The output of the analysis included general counts of words in Iranian school books at different levels, the frequent function and content words, frequent n-grams, frequent metalinguistic words, the coverage of several well-known, corpus-based word lists in these books, the range of the words across the books, and the amount of vocabulary recycling. The paper discusses the vocabulary representativeness and recycling and the adequacy of exposure to English in these EFL books. Detailed word frequency tables as well as some practical implications of the quantitative results constitute important features of this article

یکی از نظریه های موجود در باره ی چگونگی رشد توانش منظورشناختی زبان آموزان نظریه ی اجتماعی-فرهنگی ویگوتسکی است. مقاله حاضر با بررسی یکی از مفاهیم این نظریه یعنی ""حوزه رشد تقریبی"" برای رشد توانش منظورشناختی زبان آموزان پرداخته و به دو سوال پاسخ می دهد: اول اینکه آیا ارتباطی میان میزان کمک و حمایت ارائه شده به زبان آموز و سطح بسندگی زبانی او در یادگیری توانش منظورشناختی وجود دارد؟ دوم اینکه آیا ارتباطی میان ""حوزه رشد تقریبی"" فردی و ""حوزه رشد تقریبی"" گروهی وجود دارد؟ بدین منظور، بیست زبان آموز با دو سطح بسندگی زبانی انتخاب شده و به دو گروه تقسیم شدند. آموزش هر دو گروه بر اساس ""حوزه رشد تقریبی"" انجام شد. نتایج نشان داد که ارتباط معناداری میان سطح بسندگی زبانی و یادگیری توانش منظور شناختی وجود ندارد. از طرف دیگر، میان ""حوزه رشد تقریبی"" فردی و گروهی رابطه وجود دارد. این بدان معناست که دانش عمومی زبان تاثیر چندانی بر یادگیری توانش منظورشناختی ندارد. همچنین می توان گفت که کمک ارائه شده به زبان آموز کاملا فردگرایانه است و بر اساس ظرفیت و توان فرد زبان آموز معنا و مفهوم پیدا می کند.

Research has shown that writing skill of Iranian learners is not at a satisfactory level. One of the ways to develop writing ability is improving strategic behavior of learners. The current study set out to compare writing performances and patterns of using metacognitive strategies in bilinguals and monolinguals as well as senior and freshmen students. A total of 176 English major university students took part in the study (88 bilinguals and 88 monolinguals). Data were collected through three instruments: a background questionnaire, a writing metacognitive strategy questionnaire, and participants’ compositions. A two-way factorial ANOVA was used to analyze the data obtained through the strategy questionnaire. Since the composition data were not parametric two Kruskall-Wallis tests were employed for data analysis. The results revealed that bilinguals used more metacognitive strategies and had higher writing scores than monolinguals. In addition, seniors had better writing performance than freshmen while the difference between them in using strategies was not significant. Based on the results it can be concluded that teaching writing metacognitive strategies may result in better writing performance.

Academic writing ability is an important goal that learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL) try to attain. While ESL students’ academic writings have been widely explored, owing to few studies investigating appraisal resources in EFL students’ argumentative writing, the gap still exists about EFL students’ academic writing. This study aimed to see how Kurdish-speaking learners of English employ appraisal resources in their writings. It further aimed to explore whether the appraisal framework can be utilized as an assessment scale for evaluating the students’ argumentative writing. To this end, the study investigated the argumentative essays written by 15 bilingual Kurdish-Iranian graduates of English within the framework of the appraisal theory. The instruments applied in this study consisted of a modified rating scale for assessing the essays in terms of the macrostructures exploited in them and the framework for the analysis of appraisal resources. Quantitative findings revealed high-graded essays employ more attitudinal items and fewer monoglossic resources than low-graded ones. Qualitatively, the high-graded essays articulated attitudinal values in nominal forms and sometimes in a backgrounded manner while these values were mostly presented by surge of feelings and in a foregrounded way in the low-graded essays. Regarding engagement, unlike the high-graded essays, the low-graded ones were poor in recognizing other voices and alternative positions. Inspired by the strength of the appraisal model evaluating writing, results suggest that high-graded essays are successful in positioning readers attitudinally and clarifying the ethical message to readers.

The main objective of the present study was to investigate the differences between Iranian EFL monolinguals and bilinguals in terms of vocabulary language learning strategies. In fact, it was an attempt to investigate whether bilingual/ monolingual learners differ significantly in using vocabulary learning strategies. To this end, 70 EFL, 45 monolingual (Persian) and 25 bilingual (Arabic-Persian) pre-university students were selected to answer Schmitt’s Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire (VLSQ). The participants were homogeneous in terms of age, sex, nationality and level of instruction. Following the administration of a general English proficiency test and one VLSQ, interviews were conducted. Then, descriptive statistics and independent t-test were used to analyze the data. The findings obtained through comparison revealed significant dissimilarities between bilinguals and monolinguals’ usage of determination, memory, cognitive and metacognitive strategies. There was no significant variation, however, in their use of social strategies. Further, interviews exhibited some aspects that were not mentioned in the VLSQ.

Almost in every stage of their language learning process, the learners have motivation for what they do and receive a negative or positive feedback for it. The current study was after finding the would-be effect of motivation on 58 elementary EFL learners’ pronunciation gains successive to teacher and peer oral corrective feedback. To this aim, two intact groups at elementary level of proficiency were employed as the study participants, each of which was exposed to treatment through one type of oral corrective feedback (either teacher or peer feedback type) following the initial administration of a tailor-made recognition test of pronunciation. Thus, following pretest, an adopted motivation questionnaire was assigned to participants in both groups to gauge their motivation type (intrinsic or extrinsic) in learning a foreign language. Subsequent to the treatment applied via teacher and peer corrective feedback methods, the posttest was administered to all the study participants. The oral corrective feedback was utilized to provide implicit instruction to the EFL learners regarding their pronunciation at the segmental level. The results revealed that no statistically significant difference existed between the two groups regarding their pronunciation enhancement. Thus, it was indicated throughout the research that neither learners’ motivation type nor the corrective feedback type offered by the study played a significant role in ameliorating learners’ performance on pronunciation posttest. The issue problematized in the current study may help teachers rethink the way they provide corrective feedback in their classes, and be more vigilant of and sensitive to the preferred ways of feedback provision on the part of learners in the light of motivational and attitudinal factors.       Keywords: motivation; second language pronunciation; oral corrective feedback   جستاری درباره تاثیر انگیزه یادگیرندگان بر بهبود تلفظشان در سایه دریافت بازخورد اصلاحی از معلمان و همکلاسان   یادگیرندگان زبان در هر مرحله از فرایند یادگیری از انگیزه برای آنچه انجام می دهند برخوردار بوده و بازخورد مثبت یا منفی در قبال آن دریافت می کنند. هدف تحقیق حاضر بررسی تاثیر انگیزه زبان آموزان سطح مقدماتی بر بهبود تلفظشان بدنبال اجرای جلسات بازخورد اصلاحی شفاهی بود. بدین منظور در ابتدای کار دو گروه از زبان آموزان سطح مقدماتی انتخاب گردیده و پس از اجرای پیش آزمون تلفظ، هر کدام به یکی از دو شیوه بازخورد اصلاحی (از طریق معلم و یا همکلاسان) مورد بررسی قرار گرفتند. همچنین جهت تعیین نوع غالب انگیزش زبان آموزان (درونی یا بیرونی)، پرسشنامه انگیزش توسط محققان ارائه گردید، و در انتهای کار پس آزمون تلفظ از فراگیران به عمل آمد. گفتنی است بازخورد اصلاحی شفاهی با هدف اجرای آموزش غیر مستقیم تلفظ به زبان آموزان صورت گرفت. بر پایه نتایج حاصله، هیچ تفاوت معناداری در میزان پیشرفت زبان آموزان دو گروه در پس آزمون مشاهده نگردید. بنابراین محققان از یافته های تحقیق حاضر اینگونه استنباط نمودند که نه نوع بازخورد اصلاحی ارائه شده و نه نوع انگیزش زبان آموزان هیچکدام تاثیر عمده ای در ایجاد تفاوت معنادار بین عملکرد دو گروه در پس آزمون تلفظ نداشتند. در نهایت چنین به نظر می رسد که نتایج پژوهش حاضر می تواند به معلمان کمک کند تا در نحوه ارائه بازخورد اصلاحی در کلاس تجدید نظر نموده و نسبت به ترجیحات زبان آموزان در این خصوص با توجه به انگیزه و نگرش های آنان آگاهانه تر و دقیق تر عمل نمایند.   کلید واژگان:انگیزش، تلفظ در زبان دوم، بازخورد اصلاحی شفاهی

The importance of demotivation in language learning has been overshadowed in the commonplace research on language learning motivation and even in mainstream psychology (Dörnyei, 2005). The purpose behind conducting this study was to investigate the relationship between students’ demotives for studying in general and English language in particular. Besides, the importance of educational context was investigated through explaining the changes in students’ responses based on the type of university and gender. In Iran, university education is highly important for youngsters and the type of university with their various contexts is determining for their future. There are popular state universities among which one technical university as well as its satellite campus were selected. Besides, a distance-education and a unisexual university were represented in the present sample, overall comprising 194 bachelor students of different majors. Consequently, the factors considered as demotives are ranked, elaborated on and analyzed in order to shed light on the educational context-specific demotives and the pros and cons of current practices of EFL instruction in the universities.

The role of teachers in the educational context could go beyond simply teaching the subject matter. It is not uncommon for some students to be greatly influenced by certain teachers and even consider them as their role models. An interesting and novel way of inferring the impact a teacher has on the students is through revealing the status of the teacher as perceived by the students. The present study pursued two goals: first, to construct and validate a teacher status scale (TSS); and second, to reveal the relative status of English language teachers as compared to other school teachers in students’ perceptions. Regarding the first goal, an 18-item teacher status scale was designed and, using the data collected from 200 students, its construct validity was substantiated through Rasch model. As for the second goal, 650 junior high school students rated their 300 teachers. The data was then analyzed using Chi-square test. In addition, 135 students participated in short interviews and a total of 530 minutes of recorded interviews constituted the qualitative data. Based on the results, English teachers were found to have the highest status of all school teachers as perceived by the students. Finally, statistical results were discussed, and implications were provided for English language teaching in the formal context of education.

Reading comprehension (RC) and critical thinking (CT) are the two basic cognitive skills that should be developed through involving language learners in a carefully planned instruction. Multiple intelligences (MI) instruction may assist learners in developing RC and CT in L2 education. This study probed the effect of MI-based reading instruction on the Iranian EFL learners’ RC and CT skills. In so doing, it compared the effectiveness of an MI-based reading instruction with a traditional one. To this end, 4 intact classes from several English language institutes, comprising 56 Iranian intermediate-level EFL learners, were selected and randomly assigned to MI-based (experimental) and traditional (control) groups. A multiple- choice RC test, a reading summary test, and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal test were used as the instrumentations to collect data on the participants’ RC and CT. Analysis of covariance revealed a significant effect for the MI-based reading instruction. Furthermore, the RC scores increased more significantly in the MI-based group in comparison to the traditional one. However, the CT scores did not significantly improve in both groups. There was also no statistically significant difference in the CT scores between the two groups after the treatments. Iranian EFL educators are, then, encouraged to develop MI-based lessons and activities for diverse students and take explicit instruction for the enhancement of CT skills in EFL reading courses