درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

مدرسین زبان انگلیسی از گذشته تا کنون از مقیاس هایی جهت ارزشیابی زبان آموزان بهره گرفته اند که حاصل نظرات و تجربیات شخصی و شهودی متخصصین حوزه آموزش زبان بوده است. از آنجایی که این مقیاس ها از مبنای علمی و تجربی لازم برخوردار نیستند، نمرات و نیز تصمیماتی که در نتیجه استفاده از این مقیاس ها حاصل می شود پایایی و اعتبار لازم را ندارند. با توجه به اهمیت گونه نگارش توصیفی و نظر به این نکته که ادبیات تحقیقی موجود هیچ مقیاس نمره دهی تحلیلی مناسبی جهت ارزشیابی این نوع نگارش ارائه نکرده است، نویسندگان این مقاله از طریق انجام مطالعه ای تلفیقی شامل ۳ فاز اقدام به ایجاد مقیاسی تحلیلی جهت ارزشیابی نگارش توصیفی زبان آموزان کردند. این مطالعه در فاز اول (فاز کمی) اقدام به آنالیز فاکتورهای مربوط به تحلیل ۱۷۲ کارشناس آموزش زبان از گونه نگارش توصیفی و در فازهای دوم و سوم (فازهای کیفی) اقدام به تحلیل محتوای ۲۰ متن توصیفی نوشته شده توسط کارشناسان آموزش زبان و نیز تحلیل محتوای۳۰متن توصیفی نوشته شده توسط زبان آموزان کرد. در نتیجه دو استنباط کلی که در طی این مطالعه صورت گرفت، مقیاس نمره دهی تحلیلی برای ارزشیابی نگارش توصیفی زبان آموزان ایجاد شد. امید است بهره گیری از این مقیاس در آینده منجر به دستیابی به نمرات و همچنین اتخاذ تصمیماتی در مورد زبان آموزان گردد که از پایایی و اعتبار بیشتری نسبت به گذشته برخوردارند.

Second or foreign language (L2) learners’ development of interlanguage pragmatic (ILP) competence to understand and properly interpret utterances under certain social and cultural circumstances plays a pivotal role in the achievement of communicative competence. The current study was designed to explore the effects of synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) and asynchronous computer-mediated communication (ACMC) course modules delivered through social media networks (SMN) on the development of the Iranian L2 learners’ comprehension of implicatures. The participants of the study were 90 English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) undergraduate students attending three intact classes. The classes were randomly assigned to one control and two experimental (SCMC and ACMC) groups. An open-ended implicature comprehension test was used to assess students’ ILP development in this pretest-posttest comparison-group study. The control group received the traditional teacher-fronted instruction, and the S/ACMC groups received instruction via synchronous and asynchronous modules of SMNs for 4 months, respectively. Students’ attitudes towards the CMC-based courses were also sought. Split-plot ANOVA results indicated that both experimental groups developed significant ILP ability to comprehend and interpret L2 implicatures after the instruction; however, by comparison, the ACMC group improved more considerably. It is concluded that, first, comprehending L2 implicatures is not impervious to computer-mediated instruction and, second, different CMC affordances may result in differential ILP developmental effects in teaching L2 pragmatics. The findings can help L2 teachers decide how to use CMC affordances and SMN modules to raise L2 learners’ pragmatic awareness

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of weblog task assessment on Iranian EFL learners’ reading ability. To this purpose, a group of 30 English language students (both male and female) in Rozaneh Language Institute in Najafabad were selected based on their performance on the OPT. The researchers tried to select a homogeneous sample in terms of age factor and proficiency level. The homogeneous students were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. With the exception of the control group, both experimental groups received treatment. Group A received journalist tasks and group B received mystery tasks. The experimental groups were treated through a weblog designed by the present researchers. Before performing the treatment, all participants were tested to estimate their reading ability. At the end of the experiment, the participants took another test on reading comprehension. The scores of the tests were analyzed and interpreted using ANOVA. The findings revealed that the journalist and mystery tasks groups outperformed the control group. However, the mystery task proved more effective. The findings of the study can be very beneficial for the teachers of English who wish to improve Iranian EFL learners’ reading ability. Actually, blogs enable us to exploit learning as a natural part of everyday life.

The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of short stories on students’ reading comprehension, vocabulary power and attitude towards the skill and the new instructional materials. The participants of the study were 120 grade 9 students of Dilla Secondary and preparatory school. In order to gather data for the study, pre- and posttest of reading comprehension, pre and post test for vocabulary power and questionnaire were used. The students were placed in experimental and control conditions for the purpose of comparing the mean difference between the two groups. The study followed a quasi experimental design, i.e. pretest/posttest control group experimental design. The study employed statistical techniques to analyze the data obtained from reading comprehension tests and vocabulary tests. To this effect, a 2-tailed independent samples t-test and repeated measures t-test were used respectively to examine if the reading tests and vocabulary tests mean differences between and within groups were statistically significant. The findings revealed that teaching reading skills through short stories is more effective than teaching through the passages prepared at the Ministry, and has a positive impact on students’ academic achievement in reading and vocabulary power.