محمد عباس نژاد

Although dyadic collaborations (DC) are sensitive to individual differences, the role of levels of equality (LoE) and gender disparity as potential mediators are largely unexplored. To address the research gap, this case study investigated whether symmetrical (equal and gender-matched) and asymmetrical (unequal and gender-mixed) peer interactions differ in terms of efficacy for morpho-syntactic development and learners’ retrospective reflections. Forty-three young learners were randomly assigned into symmetrical (equal) and asymmetrical (unequal) pairs and into dyads of various gender dispersal (matched and mixed). The learners’ behaviors and perceptions during and following the paired tasks were recorded via observation, field notes, focused-group discussion, and member-checking meetings. The results of the Mann-Whitney U-test and Friedman Test were as follows: DC was more effective than non-collaborative learning for both short-term and long-term structure and vocabulary learning. It was helpful for expert-expert and gender-matched dyads in both domains alike and for experts and novices in unequal pairs in the structure area only. It was ineffective, however, for novice-novice and cross-gender dyads. Among the recurrent themes in observation and interviews were overall preference to pair up with female partners, consensus on the advantage of DC for grammar judgment (structure) over fill-in-the-blank (vocabulary) tasks, the realization of DC as effective for promoting rapport and responsibility, experts’ willingness to pair with novices or work alone, novices’ tendency to work with experts, and role of personality traits as a substantial mediator. Based on the findings, several implications for research and practice are offered.

Learning vocabulary has always been a major concern for language learners. The current research was implemented to find out the kinds of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (popular, somehow popular, and unpopular) in Schmitt’s new taxonomy (DET, SOC, COG, MEM, MET) used by English-major students. Fifty advanced English-major students at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman participated in this study. To this purpose, Schmitt’s Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire (VLSQ) and the last level of his Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) were used as the instruments. It was found that MEM was the most frequently used category and SOC the least frequently used one. Furthermore, COG, DET, and MET were the second, third and fourth categories respectively. The results of the study can be used by various people involved in language education including materials developers, language teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders.