درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Perceptions have absorbed scholarly scrutiny within the domain of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) due to their potential to significantly impact learning behaviors. Hence, this study investigated female English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ and learners’ attitudes toward patterns of Corrective Feedback (CF) and Collaborative Writing (CW). This study involved 150 EFL female learners aged between 14 and 20 along with 40 EFL female instructors at Iran Language Institute (ILI) in Urmia, Iran. The learners filled out the adapted version of Loewen et al.’s (2009) CF scale that encompassed 24 items. Additionally, a CF questionnaire, developed by the researcher, was administered to the teachers that comprised of 14 items. Furthermore, a CW questionnaire adapted from Aghazadeh et al. (2022) involving 8 items were administered among the learners and the teachers. To supplement the quantitative data at the end of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants. The outcomes demonstrated that both teachers and learners had a positive attitude toward CF and CW. The theoretical and practical implications of the study were accordingly discussed.

This study sought to identify the challenges and needs of TOEFL iBT candidates in achieving C1 level scores in the speaking and writing sections of the exam. To this end, the researcher employed a mixed-method approach to collect data from a population of 46 students, both male and female, between the ages of 22 to 30. The participants were enrolled in two TOEFL preparation classes at Universidad Nacional de Educación. The data were collected through a survey, class observations, and TOEFL speaking and writing mock tests, and were subsequently analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings indicated that the participants encountered challenges in discussing unfamiliar topics fluently, struggled with producing language at the C1 level while employing a variety of grammar and vocabulary, and demonstrated reduced accuracy due to influences from their first language (L1). To address these challenges, it is recommended to offer a bridging course prior to exam preparation courses wherein the primary focus is devoted to enhancing candidates’ accuracy and communicative competence in discussing unfamiliar topics through corrective feedback. The findings of this study could offer valuable insights to TOEFL iBT test preparation instructors, enabling them to better understand the challenges students face and plan strategies to address these challenges effectively within preparation courses.

The present study explored the effects of voicing and place of articulation on voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0) of onset of Persian oral plosives uttered by normal hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) children. Twenty-one NH children and twenty-one HI children matched for age and gender took part in this study. The participants were asked to repeat 36 CV words including all eight Persian plosives (/p/, /t/, /k/, /c/, /b/, /d/, /g/, /Ɉ/) in combination with the vowel /æ/. All syllables were recorded in a nearly sound-proof room using PRAAT Software. Independent samples t-test was used to compare the groups across gender. The results revealed: (a) HI children had higher VOT and F0 of onset values in nearly all aspects except for VOT and F0 onset of voiced plosives and F0 onset of alveolar and velar plosives; (b) both groups of girls had higher VOT values than boys did; (c) VOT is affected by the place of articulation and F0 is related to voiced-voiceless classification of plosives. Overall, NH children were able to distinguish and produce sounds more correctly, implying that HI children need further training. The study has implications for speech therapists, clinical linguists, and application designers to focus on speech sounds which are challenging for HI children to produce.  

This research aims to explore how the cognitive demands of tasks affect the acquisition of English verb tenses and their association with grammatical metacognitive awareness among language learners. The study addresses two key questions: 1) Differential impacts of tasks varying in cognitive load on the acquisition of verb tenses, 2) The predictive role of learners' metacognitive strategies in task conditions. Employing a quasi-experimental design, the study involved 120 first-semester Bachelor of Arts students from Azad University South Branch in Tehran, Iran. Participants were assigned to four groups exposed to different task conditions: reading, reading with textual enhancement, cloze exercises, and reading with writing tasks. Instruments included Grammar Judgment and Editing Tests, Pawlak's (2018) Grammar Learning Metacognitive Strategies Inventory, and the Oxford Placement Test. The analysis involved the learners’ performances on the Grammar Judgment and Editing Test, which were compared from the pretest to the posttest. One-way ANOVA was utilized. Additionally, comparisons among different task conditions in the posttest revealed which tasks resulted in higher learner performance. Results indicated significant improvements in tense structure proficiency associated with higher involvement tasks. This study bridges gaps in understanding optimal task designs for language learning and underscores the importance of metacognitive strategies in the Iranian EFL context.

Language teacher factors have attracted attention in the field of language teaching in recent decades. This study sought to identify predictors of productive and maladaptive teacher immunity in British and Iranian English teachers. It also investigated the differences between British and Iranian teachers’ immunity. Accordingly, the researchers selected 283 British and 295 Iranian EFL teachers at language institutes as participants. In addition, they gave the participants seven reliable and valid questionnaires to assess their teacher immunity, age, income, emotion regulation, teacher reflection, professional identity, and grit. Finally, they analyzed the data using logistic regression analysis and a t-test. The results showed that British teachers’ emotion regulation, teacher reflection, and professional identity and Iranian teachers’ income, age, and emotion regulation were the most significant predictors of their teacher immunity. In addition, British teachers’ immunity was more productive than that of Iranian teachers. The results can provide specific guidelines for dealing with teacher factors in English classrooms.    

La langue et la culture sont indissociables, car la culture se manifeste dans la langue et grâce à cette dernière, pourrait être fournie la base nécessaire à la manifestation de la culture. La traduction est un discours socioculturel où les sociétés humaines pourront afficher leur identité culturelle en invoquant l'autre. La problématique principale autour de laquelle s’organise cette recherche est celle de savoir comment dans la traduction, les culturèmes provoquent le déplacement des frontières sémantiques et comment l’union entre le nous et les autres, comme l’explique Y. Lotman dans la théorie de la sémiosphère, serait possible.  Cette recherche aura pour objectif de montrer que dans la traduction du roman Papillon, la transmission du sens des culturèmes dépend des situations discursives fondées sur deux systèmes sémantiques convergents et divergents. La présente étude est fondée sur l'analyse du corpus c’est-à-dire le roman Papillon d’Henry Charrier traduit par Parviz Naghibi. Ainsi les données principales de la recherche seront collectées à partir du corpus. Après avoir analysé les stratégies du traducteur, nous chercherons à apporter des solutions pour la bonne transmission du sens des culturèmes dans le processus de traduction. Enfin, nous essayerons de déterminer les typologies de traduction des culturèmes du point de vue de J. Fontanille. Les résultats de cette recherche indiquent que le traducteur n’a pas réussi à transférer le sens des culturèmes, car en adoptant des stratégies qui ne sont pas convenables pour traduire des éléments culturels d’une langue à l’autre, il n’a pas essayé de réduire les distances entre le nous et l’autre.   

In the context of language socialization, second/foreign language (L2) instruction is a crucial context for secondary socialization, especially when it takes place outside the learners’ culture of origin. This study explored how Iranian EFL learners socialize through the rules of EFL classes and how gender, parents, and native language affect their language socialization during the COVID-19 pandemic. We focused on two fundamental principles of language socialization (Lee & Bucholtz, 2015): agency and identity. In this ethnographic study, we collected the data by observing two classes in a WhatsApp group, interviewing the learners four times through Skype, asking them to write down their reflections about their class procedure, and writing our reflections about teachers-students interactions. We used Direct Qualitative Content Analysis method to analyze the data. To simplify data classification and interpretation, we utilized the MAXQDA-2020 software. The findings revealed two sub-categories for learners’ agency (talent and experience) and three sub-categories for learners’ identity (gender, parents, and native language). The results also showed that language socialization is bidirectional, and learners face forms of negotiating, accepting, or rejecting their agency and identity across this socialization process. The learners’ L1 and culture influence their opinion about the English language and culture. Whether this effect is negative or positive depends on proficiency level, gender, and social context. Finally, cyberspace provided a suitable context for language socialization, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings showed several pedagogical implications for EFL teachers and learners.تجزیه و تحلیل داده ها دو زیرمقوله برای عاملیت زبان آموزان (استعداد و تجربه) و سه زیرمقوله برای هویت زبان آموزان (جنسیت، والدین و زبان بومی) را مشخص می سازد. نتایج این پژوهش همچنین نشان می دهد که جامعه پذیری زبان دوسویه است و زبان آموزان در طی فرآیند جامعه پذیری با اشکال مذاکره، پذیرش یا عدم پذیرش عاملیت و هویت خود مواجه می شوند. فرهنگ و زبان اول زبان آموز بر نظر او راجع به زبان و فرهنگ انگلیسی تأثیر می گذارد. چه این تأثیر منفی باشد چه مثبت بستگی به سطح بسندگی، جنسیت و بافت اجتماعی دارد. یافته ها به چندین پیامد آموزشی برای معلمان و فراگیران زبان انگلیسی دلالت دارند.

Teachers play a pivotal role in the instruction-assessment process. Knowing EFL teachers’ conceptualizations of the role of assessment as well as their own role in the implementation of assessment is very critical. Accordingly, the current study aimed to compare Iranian EFL public high school teachers’ literacy and perceptions of dynamic assessment with those of English language institute teachers. In so doing, 45 (23 high school, 22 institute) English teachers, teaching in Lahijan, Iran were selected according to convenience sampling method. The teachers were invited to cooperate and participate in the study and fill out the questionnaire sent via social network like WhatsApp and Telegram. In addition, nine teachers (five high school, four institute teachers) were selected through purposive sampling to participate in a semi-structured interview with five questions posed through the above-mentioned social networks. A researcher-adapted questionnaire with 23 items in a Likert-type scale was utilized to collect data. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were achieved through experts’ opinion and Cronbach Alpha, respectively. Having collected the data, descriptive and inferential statistics of the findings showed that although both groups of teachers had a realistic view about the application of dynamic assessment due to its practicality and social acceptance, the teachers in two different contexts of teaching had different rates of literacy and perceptions of dynamic assessment. Furthermore, the difference in the two groups of teachers’ perceptions of dynamic assessment practicality was significantly different. The institute teachers enjoyed a higher average of both literacy and perceptions of dynamic assessment practicality in their classrooms. This study echoes the teachers’ voices, and as in the wake of new forms of curricular policy in many parts of the world, teachers are increasingly required to be agents of change that would hopefully encourage change at the discipline and in the institutional level.

This article performs a CDA on White House press briefings and is especial in its focus on how gendered language impacts relations of power. Adopting a mixed-method approach, this study will examine linguistic strategies and deictic expressions used by male and female spokespersons articulating ideologies and constructing authority. The latter is based on Fairclough's three-dimensional CDA model, whereby text analysis is involved, together with discourse practices and social context in explaining how language reflects and constructs political realities. The research questions were as follows: (1) How are deictic expressions used by spokesmen and spokeswomen in the White House press briefings? (2) What is the inter-relationship between power and language through the usage of modal verbs, and is there a gender-based difference herein? (3) How do women spokespersons, through language, claim ideologies and power? It is a contribution to applied linguistics and presents evidence of subtle linguistic mechanisms that shape public perception of gendered language in political discourse. The research questions were as follows: (1) How are deictic expressions used by spokesmen and spokeswomen in the White House press briefings? (2) What is the inter-relationship between power and language through the usage of modal verbs, and is there a gender-based difference herein? (3) How do women spokespersons, through language, claim ideologies and power? It is a contribution to applied linguistics and presents evidence of subtle linguistic mechanisms that shape public perception of gendered language in political discourse.