درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The process of globalization entails the acquisition of a construct, cultural intelligence, with which EFL students can function appropriately in intercultural situations. This study was, first, intended to find the relationship between cultural intelligence and the use of expressions of gratitude by Iranian EFL learners. Second, it sought to determine whether there were any significant differences between low and high culturally intelligent EFL learners in the way they used expressions of gratitude in English. To this end, 118 intermediate learners were selected through convenient sampling, with their proficiency level being controlled. A discourse completion test (DCT) for the expressions of gratitude and a cultural intelligence scale were given to the participants of the study. Learners’ DCT responses were rated on a five-point Likert scale and then analyzed. Statistical tests including Pearson Correlation Coefficient and t-test were used to investigate the research questions. The results of the analysis revealed that there was not a significant relationship, either positive or negative, between cultural intelligence and use of expressions of gratitude. Furthermore, no difference was found between the two groups, high and low culturally intelligent, in the way they used English expressions of gratitude. These findings have implications for the instruction of pragmatic competence.

گرچه بررسی های متعددی جهت ارزیابی تاثیر مؤلفه های پیچیدگی شناختی فعالیت ها بر اساس متغیرهای متمرکزکننده قوای ذهنی ( رابینسون، 2001) انجام شده است، تحقیق کمتری برای بررسی همین تاثیر در راستای متغیرهای پراکنده کننده قوای ذهنی انجام شده است. علاوه بر این، بررسی اثرات تقابلی این متغیرها و شرایط فعالیت بر تولید زبانی زبان اموزان بررسی نشده است. همچنین در بررسی این متغیرها، زبان آموزان کمتر در انجام فعالیت های شفاهی مورد توجه قرار گرفته اند. تحقیق حاضر، به بررسی متغیرهای پراکنده کننده قوای ذهنی بر اساس فرضیه شناختی رابینسون (2001) بر پیچیدگی تولید زبانی زبان­آموزان می پردازد. پس از قرار دادن زبان آموزان در دو گروه بالا و پایین از نظر توانش زبانی، از دو گروه دو نفره خواسته شد که چهار فعالیت زبانی که دارای کمترین تا بیشترین پیچیدگی شناختی بود انجام دهند و در همان حال تعامل زبانی آنان ضبط می شد. بررسی آماری داده ها نشان داد که افزایش پیچیدگی شناختی فعالیتها لزوماً همواره منجر به پیچیدگی کمتر تولید زبانی بین گروهها آنطور که رابینسون ادعا کرده است نمی شود.

Materials evaluation studies have constantly demonstrated that there is no one fixed procedure for conducting textbook evaluation studies. Instead, the criteria must be selected according to the needs and objectives of the context in which evaluation takes place. The speaking skill as part of the communicative competence has been emphasized as an important objective in language teaching. The present study explored the core units of spoken grammar inherent in four widely-used ELT textbooks following McCarthy and Carter’s (2002) classification. A coding scheme was developed to make it possible for the researchers to use the classification in codifying the data. The data were then analyzed to detect the units of spoken grammar inherent in the target textbooks. Results from codification of dialogues and transcripts of audio recordings showed that the units of spoken grammar are not evenly distributed in these ELT textbooks. In addition, a significant difference was found between the textbooks in their inclusion of different categories of the spoken grammar.

Articles in general and definite articles in particular can create problems even long after all other aspects of English have been mastered. The present article investigated the learnability problems related to the acquisition of count-mass distinction of English nominals by Persian L2 learners. The theoretical underpinning of the study is the interpretability hypothesis (Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou, 2007) arguing that the features which are semantically interpretable can be acquired. To this end, 50 learners constituted the participants of the study and completed a forced-choice elicitation task requiring the use of articles. The results of the study substantiated the interpretability hypothesis. Nonetheless, the advanced L2ers showed a conservative behavior in the mass context. They significantly opted for a/an in wide scope indefinite non-referential de/re context. The findings reveal that article suppliance creates more learnability problems in the plural and indefinite mass contexts compared to the count singular ones.

ساختن آزمون رایانه ای پویا و بررسی موثر بودن آن در پیشبرد مهارت خواندن دانشجویان هدف اصلی این تحقیق می باشد. امکان پذیری و ویژگی های روان سنجی دو مقوله ای هستند که استفاده ازازمو ن های پویا را محدود ساخته اند. نسخه رایانه ای ارزشیابی پویا به عنوان راه حلی برای این چنین محدودیت هایی ارائه می گردد. آزمون رایانه ای پویای خواندن (CDRD) این توانایی را دارد که به دانشجویان در صورتی اشتباهی مرتکب شوند کمک ارائه نماید. در پایان آزمون نرم افزار گزارشی از عملکرد دانشجویان به ما می دهد که حاوی دو نوع نمره می باشد: 1- نمره غیر پویا که بر اساس اولین پاسخ آنها به هر سوال می باشد و 2- نمره پویا که بر اساس مقدار کمکی است که آنها دریافت کرده اند. 77 دانشجوی زبان انگلیسی که اکثراً در سطح کارشناسی ارشد زبان بوده اند در این تحقیق شرکت کرده اند. نتایج تحقیق نشان داد در حالی که این آزمون رایانه ای استانداردهای روان سنجی آزمون را رعایت می کند قادر است که به دو هدف ارزشیابی پویا یعنی پیش برد توانایی دانشجویان و دادن اطلاعاتی در مورد پتانسیل توانائیهایشان نائل گردد. توصیه می شود که معلمان ارزشیابی پویا را در کنار ارزشیابی سنتی استفاده کنند. در این صورت آنها می توانند شناخت کامل تری از توانایی های دانش آموزان خود داشته باشند وهمچنین می توانند آموزش موثرتری برای آنها فراهم نمایند.

Literature has already confirmed that student engagement as an external or multidimensional construct may contribute to the academic success of college students. However, very few studies have tried to examine the contributions the more ""internal forms of engagement"" (cognitive and affective) might make in this regard, and how the engagement patterns may change over the academic years. To fill the gap, this study was carried out to answer two research questions: (1) what is the relationship between the internal forms of engagement (cognitive-affective) and students’ academic success (represented by Grade Point Average--GPA)? ; (2) How does the pattern of the relationship change across years of study? To do so, a 40-item Cognitive-Affective Engagement Questionnaire (CAEQ) was developed, validated (α=.91), and administered to a sample of 312 undergraduate English major students (222 females and 90 males). The results indicated while cognitive engagement and academic success are positively correlated throughout years of study, the relationship reaches its peak for the affective engagement in the second year and then gradually diminishes. The findings have implications for curriculum and materials developers, as well as the English language teachers who seek programs which can consistently challenge and satisfy students throughout their studies.

Vocabulary is an important component of language proficiency which provides the basis for learners’ performance in other skills. But, since vocabulary learning seems to be so demanding, learners tend to forget newly-learnt words quite soon. In order to identify vocabulary learning conditions which can produce a more lasting effect, this study investigated the effect of three kinds of gloss conditions, that is traditional non-CALL marginal gloss, audio gloss, and extended audio gloss, on vocabulary gain of EFL learners. To this end, three experimental and one control groups, each comprising 15 participants, took part in the current study. In order to ensure that the participants were from the right proficiency level, KET (Key English Test) was used as the homogenizing tool. Participants in each group read two unseen passages under one of the three mentioned conditions for experimental groups, with no gloss offered for control group. They all completed one pre-test, one reading session, one post-test, and one delayed post-test of vocabulary. The data were analyzed using t-tests and one-way ANOVAs for both immediate and delayed post-tests. Statistical analyses of the results revealed that the audio gloss group, who were provided with the voice of a speaker to read the meaning of the target word, and extended audio gloss group, who had access to audio gloss as well as L2 English example, both significantly outperformed the other groups in terms of vocabulary acquisition in both the immediate retention and in the delayed retention of key words. Further results and implications are discussed in the paper.

The present study is an attempt to explore any significant relationships between learners’ preferences for error correction, demotivation, and language proficiency (LP). One hundred Iranian EFL students, including both males and females, studying at the departments of foreign languages of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman and Tehran University took part in this study. In order to obtain the required data, two questionnaires and a proficiency test were utilized: the learners’ preferences for error correction questionnaire (Fukuda, 2004) to measure learners’ preferences for error correction, the demotivation questionnaire (Sakai & Kikuchi, 2009) to measure demotivation, and Michigan Test (1997) to measure the learners’ language proficiency level. The findings of this study revealed that first, there was a significant negative relationship between the learners’ preferences for error correction and demotivation (- 0.79): the more satisfied learners are with the error corrections they receive, the less demotivated they will be; second, there was a significant positive relationship between learners’ preferences for error correction and LP (0.69): the higher the learners’ satisfaction with error corrections they receive, the higher their level of LP; third, there was a significant negative relationship between demotivation and LP (- 0.59): the more demotivated learners are, the less their scores of LP will be.

Although explicit and implicit knowledge of language learners are essential to theoretical and pedagogical debates in second language acquisition (SLA), little research has addressed the effects of instructional interventions on the two knowledge types (R. Ellis, 2005).This study examined the relative effectiveness of explicit and implicit types of form-focused instruction (FFI) on the acquisition of four morphosyntactic features by four measures of explicit and implicit language knowledge. The measures included: oral elicited imitation, timed and untimed grammaticality judgment, and metalinguistic knowledge tests. A pretest and two posttests were conducted immediately and three weeks after the instructional interventions. Durable effects of FFI on low intermediate Iranian learners were found for the target language forms.In particular, explicit and implicit FFI positively facilitated the development of explicit and implicit knowledge of the target features, both immediately after the instructional interventions and, marginally decreasing, over time. Also, explicit FFI was more effective than implicit FFI as measured by both explicit and implicit knowledge tests. The findings may contribute to understanding of the efficacy of explicit and implicit FFI on L2 learners’ controlled (explicit) and spontaneous (implicit) use of morphosyntactic forms at relatively early stages of L2 acquisition.

دراین مطالعه شبه طولی از دو روش خطای معمول و بازخورد اصلاحی جهت بررسی ثبات غلط (فسیل شدگی) میان زبانی استفاده شد. خطاهای نوشتاری در مقالات استدلالی 76 زبان آموز ایرانی در سه سطح زبانی متفاوت با استفاده از مدل ارائه شده توسط گس و سلینکر(1994) شناسایی و طبقه بندی شدند. این خطاها برای باراول با بازخورد ضمنی و برای باردوم با بازخورد صریح تصحیح شدند تا بررسی شود که آیا این دو نوع بازخورد باعث بهبود درنوشتار می شوند، و آیا خطاهائی وجود دارند که در برابر تصحیح مقاومت کنند. نتایج نشان داد که خطاهای مربوط به ""انتخاب کلمه ، جمع، شکل کلمه و حرف تعریف the"" جزوشایع ترین خطاهای این زبان آموزان بودند، که ""انتخاب کلمه"" در صدرفهرست قرار دارد. نتایج همچنین نشان داد که اگرچه هر دو نوع بازخورد می تواند منجر به کاهش خطاها شود، ارائه بازخورد صریح ومستقیم برای فراگیران روشی موثر تر میباشد. با این حال نتایج آزمون تی نشان داد که تاثیر کوتاه مدت بازخورد نمی تواند در طول زمان پایداربماند و این تایید کننده گفته کسانی ازقبیل ترواسکات (2007) است که اثر تصحیح خطا را زیر سوال برده اند. علاوه بر این، یافته ها نشان می دهند که خطاهای مربوط به ""ضمیر، ترتیب کلمات، مجهول و مالکیت"" را احتمالآ می توان جزو خطاهائی برشمرد که فسیل شده اند، زیرا اگر چه برای تمام انواع خطاهای دیگر بازخورد ضمنی توانست مفید باشد، این چهار خطا در برابر تصحیح مقاومت نشان دادند و تنها بازخورد صریح توانست موجب کاهش معنادار آنها شود.