درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This study was inspired by VanPatten and Uludag’s (2011) study on the transferability of training via processing instruction to output tasks and Mori’s (2002) work on the development of talk-in-interaction during a group task. An interview was devised as the pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest to compare four intervention types for teaching the simple past passive: traditional intervention as the comparison group and three task-based groups were processing instruction, consciousness-raising, and input enhancement. The interviews and the interactions during the treatments were also analyzed qualitatively. Task-based instruction (TBI) proved significantly more effective than traditional intervention and processing instruction significantly outperformed all others on both posttests. Furthermore, processing instruction was the only task-based intervention to retain its improvement till the delayed posttest. Qualitatively, processing instruction led to true negotiation of meaning and deep-level learning, consciousness-raising led to massive negotiation over the function of the target structure and deep-level learning, input enhancement led to enormous unfocused interaction about meaning, and traditional intervention just led to interaction about the forms. It was concluded that a well-planned processing instruction is a promising intervention for focusing on language form; however, due to the strong points cited for the other two tasks, their roles should not be ignored.

بررسی کارپوشه تولید گفتاری زبان آموزان ایرانی در زبان فرانسه (از ارزشیابی تکوینی به خودارزشیابی) روح الله رحمتیان دانشیار دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، تهران r_rahmatian@yahoo.com مرضیه مهرابی دانشجوی دکتری دانشگاه تربیت مدرس،تهران marzieh_mehraby@yahoo.fr ژاله کهنمویی پور استاد دانشگاه تهران jkahnomi@ut.ac.ir تاریخ دریافت:28/11/1391 تاریخ پذیرش: 23/5/1392 امروزه متخصصان علم آموزش بر این باورند که ارزشیابی جزء لاینفک فرایند یاددهی/ یادگیری زبان هاست و باید با استفاده از ابزارهای مناسبی مانند کارپوشه تحقق یابد. هدف پژوهش حاضر، بررسی کاربرد و کارآمدی کار پوشه تولید گفتاری زبان آموزان ایرانی در کلاس فرانسه به عنوان زبان خارجی بوده است. به عبارت دقیق تر، مؤلفه های زبان گفتاری از جمله توانش دستوری، تلفظ و آهنگ کلام، توانش گفتمانی، روانی در کلام و تعامل میان زبان آموزان تحلیل شده است. در این جستار، ابتدا چارچوب نظری موضوع بررسی و سپس نتایج حاصل از تحقیقات مطالعه میدانی ارائه شده اند. جامعه آماری متشکل از یازده زبان آموز بزرگسال در سطح B1 زبان فرانسه می باشد. بر اساس دستاورد این تحقیق، زبان آموزان به کمک روش کار پوشه در تمام مؤلفه های تولید گفتاری پیشرفت داشته اند و توانسته اند توانایی خودارزشیابی خویش را رشد دهند. کلید واژگان: ارزشیابی، کار پوشه، تولید گفتاری، زبان آموزان ایرانی.

خلاصه سازی متن در کلاس های رشته های مهندسی و تخصصی دانشگاه ها و موسسات صاحب نام و همچین در آزمون های بزرگ استخدامی و دولتی به خصوص در آی. ان. پی-اچ. بی یاموسوکرو جایگاه مهم و خاصی دارد. اما متاسفانه فرایند خلاصه سازی متن برای دانشجویا اغلب مشکل آفرین است. از میان مشکلات و نواقصی که وجود دارد، فرایند تفسیر عبارت برای دانشجویان و مدرسان دغدغه ای بسیار جدی و حقیقی است. موضوع اصلی پژوهش حاضر بررسی فرایندهای زبانشناختی است که قادرند متن را به سمت و سوی نوعی تفسیر عبارتی مطلوب رهنمون سازند. در پایان یک آزمون گرفته شده از دانشجویان، مشخص گردید که حداقل پنج متغیر از نمونه های ممکن تفسیر عبارت وجود دارد. این نتایج می تواند در جهت بهبود روش شناسی آموزش خلاصه سازی از متون به کار گرفته شود. اگرچه این موارد به هیچ روی نمی توانند کلیت روش های متفاوت بازگویی یک متن را که در عمل وجود دارد، در بر بگیرند.

In response to the increasing interest in and need for a practical brief measure in language testing, this study explored the properties of an offline short-form test (OSF) versus a conventional lengthy test. From the total of 98 vocabulary items pooled from the Iranian National University Entrance Exams, 60 items were selected for the conventional test (CT). To build the OSF, we created an item bank by examining the item response theory (IRT) parameter estimates. Data for the IRT calibration included the responses of 774,258 examinees. Upon the results of the item calibration, 43 items with the highest discrimination power and minimal guessing values from different levels of ability were selected for the item bank. Then, using the responses of 253 EFL learners, we compared the measurement properties of the OSF scores with those of the CT scores in terms of the score precision, score comparability, and consistency of classification decisions. The results revealed that although the OSF generally did not achieve the same level of measurement precision as the CT, it still achieved a desired level of precision while lessening the negative effects of a lengthy test. The results also signified an excellent degree of correspondence between OSF and CT scores and classification results. In all, findings suggest that OSF can stand as a reasonable alternative for a longer test, especially when conditions dictate that a very short test be used.

A community of practice may shape and reshape the identity of members of the community through providing them with situated learning or learning environment. This study, therefore, is to clarify the salient learning-based features of the language teaching community of practice that might formulate the identity of language teachers. To this end, the study examined how learning situations in two communities of practice (English and Arabic) developed the professional identity of language teachers. The results of the semi-structure interviews with 5 language teachers highlighted some differences between English and Arabic language teaching communities of practice in terms of the situated learning activities they provide for language teachers to develop their professional identity. Furthermore, since the community of practice can be considered a potential curriculum that may be learned by newcomers with legitimate peripheral access, it would be considered as a main source of identity formation of both English and Arabic language teachers. The findings of the study can be used to better understand the nature of being a professional language teacher in non-native contexts. They have implications for novice and experienced language teachers as well as for teacher educators to review the content of the teacher training courses

The study aims at focusing on the relationship between motivation, culture, and success in foreign language learning in globalizing world. Many studies have been done to examine the relationship between them. The studies showed that culture can play a motivating role in language learning success. Considering Gardner's instrumental and integrative motivation, a learner with a high degree of integrative motivation is likely to make more efforts to form bonds with people of the target culture. To conduct the survey 48 students of Ardestan Azad University were chosen. Some activities and techniques were taken to promote their multicultural competence. In the first session a brief explanation was given to the students along with some questionnaires regarding cultural issues to answer. During 16 weeks of the semester students were taught and monitored through class discussions, essay writings etc. The goal of the activities was to encourage and estimate their respect, tolerance and empathy to people of different cultures. In the last session a questionnaire designed by the researcher was used to collect data. It was composed of three sections: 1) 11 statements about cultural issues to be rated with a likert scale of agreement (based on the Bennett's intercultural communicative model). 2) 10 rating questions (considering Byram& Risager's multidimensional model of ICC).  3) 5 open questions about their belief and behavior to elaborate on. The results showed that respect for others, adaptation and integration with people of target culture were the highest rated among others. An unexpected result was that there was no significant relationship between students' lesson scores and their attitude toward foreign language culture. This can be justified by globalization process by which "people of the world are incorporated into a single world society, global society". Therefore learners who belong to a global English-speaking culture are ready to suspend disbelief about others and adopt new cultural aspects while respecting and maintaining their own culture.

The current study attempts to explore the characteristics of author-assigned keywords in research articles as important constituents of targeted search in academic communities. To this end, the keywords of 200 research papers in the field of applied linguistics, in terms of domain, degree of specificity, and relation to the titles, were analyzed. To supplement the findings, the keyword choice strategy of a number of researchers with publishing experience in the field was also investigated. The analysis revealed a considerable rate of title-keywords match, especially with respect to field-specific keywords. This finding points to the importance of users’ field-specific background knowledge in locating relevant information on the web. The examination of authors’ viewpoints and strategies, on the other hand, helped to bring to light the complex and non-clichéd nature of keyword selection. The significance of authors’ diverging and converging attitudes and their implications for enhancing the success rate of keyword search are discussed.

This study investigated the impact of using the technique of self-monitoring on non-academic EFL learners’ composition writing. Fifty female students studying English at Navid English Institute in Shiraz, Iran were chosen based on the results of a proficiency test. They were all 16-20 years old and were intermediate learners of English who were divided into two control and experimental groups and took a writing pre-test. The experimental group (EG) received a training program on the effective use of the technique of self-monitoring proposed by Charles (1990). That is, they learned to add annotations expressing doubts and queries on various parts of their five composition drafts. The students in CG wrote their drafts without annotations. At the end of the twenty-second session course, both groups took a writing posttest. The results indicated that the learners in EG performed significantly better and the global features of organization and content in their writing were enhanced. Surveying the students’ views on self-monitoring, through a questionnaire, revealed their interest in taking charge of their writing task. Findings point to the efficacy of the self-monitoring technique in promoting learners’ writing proficiency and autonomy in handling writing tasks.

Textbooks play a pivotal role in language learning classrooms. The problem is, among a wide range of textbooks available, which one is more appropriate for a specific classroom and a group of learners. In order to evaluate ELT textbooks, theorists and writers have offered different kinds of evaluative frameworks based on a number of principles and criteria. This study evaluates one example of such a series of ELT textbooks, namely, “American English File” using Littlejohn’s (1998) evaluative framework to see what explicit features of the book are, and what pedagogic values it has. Littlejohn believes that we should evaluate a textbook based on its own pedagogic values and we should see what is in it not what the teacher and evaluators think must exist in it. Consequently his framework is claimed to be devoid of any impressionistic ideas and it is in-depth and objective rather than being subjective. Nine ELT experts and ten ELT teachers helped the researcher rate the evaluative checklists. The results of the study show that although a number of shortcomings and drawbacks were found in American English File, it stood up reasonably well to a detailed and in-depth analysis and that its pedagogic values and positive attributes far out-weighed its shortcomings. The internal consistency between ratings was computed via the statistical tool of Cronbach’s alpha that indicated a desirable inter-rater reliability

  This paper investigates the use of ‘lexical bundles’ in two broad corpora of journalistic writing. The aim of this study is to compare the use of lexical bundles in the two domains, one consisted of newspaper articles written in English and published in England and the other one comprised of newspaper articles written in Persian from Iranian publications. For this purpose, the frequency of occurrence and distribution of different functional taxonomies of lexical bundles across the subject matter were investigated. More than 2.5 million words of different English and Persian-produced online newspapers were collected and they were identified by the help of two computer programs, then their functionswere analyzed. Consistent with similar research on lexical bundles, the analysis indicates that most bundles perform a referential function in journalistic register. These findings may be particularly useful to translators and also EFL practitioners, as they seem to give new insights into the development of learner language.  

Intercultural communication is concerned with communication across cultures. Since cultures as well as languages differ from one another in significant ways, speakers conceptualize the world around them in different ways. These cultural conceptualizations form part of the collective cognition of a speech community or cultural group. This paper is an attempt to delineate some cultural schemas in Persian cultural conceptualization which are quite prevalent in Iranian culture and language which may crop up in everyday conversations. For this purpose, cultural schemas of 'maram', 'marefat', and 'gheyrat' are selected based on their frequent use in Persian language and Iranian culture. These schemas are elaborated and some implications for L2 learning are suggested.