درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The researchers in this study aimed to explore the literacy shaped in a narrative-based curriculum for medical students and the productivity of this notion for foreign language literacy. Nourished by principles of narrative inquiry, critical, like, and other events, this was instantiated through exposing learners to narratives of resistance language and literature which reports on narratives of critical events. The findings of this study illustrate how the language in narratives of resistance as critical events inspires learners to discover their own English language learning events embedded in their real lives by deep reflection. This on its turn can lead to self-discovery for learning. Moreover, depicting the vastness of human soul and his/her adaptivity and struggle for learning in pain and suffering, English language embodied in resistance narratives can encourage learners to discover their roots for language learning via the power of sharing narratives .

This study investigates the effects of gender, teaching experience, and brain dominance on English teachers’ teaching styles. In doing so, 68 English teachers (males and females) were selected from several language institutes in Shiraz, Iran. Considering the degree of teaching experience, the participants were categorized into three groups, namely novices, the moderately experienced, and professionals. Two instruments, including Hemispheric Dominance Test and Teaching Style Questionnaire were used to collect data. Using statistical package for the social science (SPSS) 20, the collected data were analyzed. The results of independent samples t-test revealed that male and female teachers differed significantly in terms of teaching styles, as far as the sub-component “formality” was concerned. Furthermore, the results of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test indicated that teaching styles in the three groups of teachers significantly differed. However, the analysis of MANOVA regarding the difference between brain dominance and teaching styles did not reveal any significant difference. Some related issues were also discussed.

Learning from experience is a central physiological and theoretical idea in adult language learning which has become increasingly important in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) and is closely connected to task-based language teaching (TBLT). Accordingly, this study was designed to investigate the role of experience-based learning strategies in developing male and female intermediate EFL learners’ speaking fluency. To this end, from the target population of 300 language learners attending evening English classes at a language institute, a sample of 50 intermediate participants were randomly chosen by administering an Oxford placement Test (OPT). The average age of the selected students ranged between 17 and 25. An interview was utilized as a pretest to determine participants’ speaking fluency entry behavior. Subsequently, they were divided into two groups labeled as experimental and control groups. While the control group students received instruction through a traditional method without any focus on experience-based activities and strategies, those in the experimental group were exposed to interactive solutions verbally participating in class discussions during task-based classroom sessions in which they discussed their experiences in performing carefully prepared two-way tasks. The analysis of the data obtained from the posttest interview indicated that the participants in the experimental group outperformed those in the control group. Moreover, the results reflected that experience-based tasks considerably improved language the learners’ speaking fluency. Notably, the findings of the present study may have certain insightful pedagogical implications for language instructors and material developers.

The present study sought to investigate the differential effect of using native-accent and non-native accent materials on the Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ listening comprehension. To this purpose, 60 primary EFL Iranian learners participated in the study. The participants were randomly divided into a control group (N=30) and an experimental group (N=30). First, a Quick Placement Test which consisted of vocabulary, grammar, and reading items was administered in order to ensure the homogeneity of participants. As the intervention of the study, the control group was provided with the listening materials accompanied by the use of their native-accent audio files, whereas the experimental group was exposed to the same listening tasks and materials which were pronounced by the non-native teacher. The experimental intervention lasted for six forty-minute sessions. To collect the data, the listening component of Pearson Test of English General (PTE General) was used as the pre-test and the post-test to measure listening comprehension of the participants. The results indicated that using non-native accent listening materials was more effective than using native-accent materials in enhancing listening comprehension of the EFL learners. These findings were discussed in the light of English as an International Language (EIL) debate and the theory of inter-language speech intelligibility benefit.