درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This study examined the effects of EFL teachers' behavior on intermediate L2 learners’ WTC in English. To this end, a proficiency test was administered to 150 female learners, and 98 intermediate learners aged 16 to 26 were recruited as the participants. Subsequently, a WTC questionnaire was distributed among them to measure their level of WTC. Moreover, interviews were carried out with 30 volunteers who agreed to participate in this phase of the study. The results of the analysis of the WTC questionnaire showed that the WTC level of the learners could be rated as above-average. Besides, the results of the interviews revealed that different kinds of teachers’ behavior affected learners’ WTC both positively and negatively: teachers’ sense of humor and rapport could positively affect learners’ WTC; on the other hand, teachers’ methods of error correction while learners’ speaking and teachers’ lack of support could negatively affect learners’ WTC. Additionally, according to learners’ perspectives, there were a number of ways through which a language teacher could increase the learners’ WTC in English such as encouraging learners to read extra-curricular topics and highlighting learners’ strengths instead of their weaknesses. Several implications were proffered at the end of the study to heighten the awareness of L2 teachers, teacher-trainers, and language institute managers regarding the issue under investigation.

Considéré comme noyau de la phrase, le verbe fait l’objet d’étude de cet article. Pour circonscrire le champ de recherche, nous avons cerné quatre catégories de verbes dont introducteurs, synonymes, ceux construits avec préfixes et les verbes polysémiques pour les examiner sur le plan sémantico-lexical et voir leurs effets en traduction. Nous voulons savoir comment il faut réagir devant chaque catégorie pour trouver un équivalent convenable selon le contexte. Un corpus constitué des extraits d’un livre de jeunesse, ainsi que les phrases en langue persane élaborés à notre initiative et leur traduction en français nous ont permis d’effectuer notre étude. Les résultats de ce tour d’horizon verbal basé sur les exemples analysés nous montrent l’immense richesse des verbes français et leur raffinement lexical, de sorte que pour un moindre geste ou une légère nuance dans un acte, un verbe vient en aide pour compléter la phrase sur le plan sémantique.

In line with the technological advancement during the last few decades, virtual learning has been addressed more widely, which affected English language teaching and learning as well. Since Covid 19 pandemic, which has resulted in the long-lasting closure of educational settings worldwide, virtual learning as the alternative of traditional education has been developed unprecedentedly. An option for virtual learning specifically for language teaching is teaching on the phone which has been mostly neglected in educational research. The aim of this study was to analyse the lived experience of 16 adult English language learners who experienced learning English through one-to-one, audio call sessions. Due to the pandemic, semi-structured interviews were conducted on the phone, which were recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed with a phenomenological approach. Many times revisions of the statements driven from the transcriptions resulted in six themes namely: a) learning on-the-phone as a new, satisfying experience, b) advantages, and c) disadvantages of one-to-one audio sessions, d) the participants’ preferences, e) the requisites of on-the-phone-learning, and f) the expectations of on-the-phone teacher, According to the result of this study, some educational recommendations for improving on-the-phone teaching are: covering four language skills through developing individualised lesson plans based on each learner’s needs and English language proficiency level; holding group video sessions along with one-to-one audio sessions; and using the facilities of messengers like WhatsApp to send audio, video and textual files to learners based on their needs and learning objectives.

Standard political discourse is replete with ambiguity and vagueness. Politicians frequently use vague language to hide their inadequate knowledge, show their low interest in the issue, and/or evoke emotion. This study reports on a qualitative content analysis of vagueness in two Iranian presidents' political interviews within a pragmalinguistic and sociopolitical paradigm. The data consisted of nine question-answer exchanges extracted from seven internationally live broadcast interviews. A total of 57 instances of vague language use were analyzed in terms of 21 pragmalinguistic vagueness strategies. Implications are that vagueness in political discourse is motivated by a multiplicity of factors such as face management, sociopolitical and situational adaptation, conflict avoidance, and personal characteristics of the interviewers and the respondents. Vagueness was also found to be a sign of diplomatic prudence or wisdom.

Given its key role in enhancing learners’ communicative competence, willingness to communicate (WTC) has received much research attention in the field of second language (L2) teaching and learning. Numerous studies have explored the antecedents of WTC in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. As an attempt to shed more light on this line of research, this study was set to investigate the effects of grit and foreign language anxiety as predictors of L2 WTC among Iranian EFL learners. For this purpose, a number of 163 undergraduate English major students from several universities participated in this survey. The required data were collected by distributing valid and reliable instruments measuring the three target variables (i.e., WTC, grit, and anxiety). A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was utilized to test the hypothesized structural models for the relations between these variables. The SEM results indicated that grit accounted for 10.6 % of the variance and FL anxiety explained 20% of the variance in the participants’ L2 WTC. Furthermore, the unique impact of foreign language anxiety on WTC was greater than that of grit. The implications of these findings for language teaching and learning are discussed at the end of the paper.