درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

این تحقیق کیفی استفاده از فعل بودن (be) در زبان انگلیسی امروزی را مورد مطالعه قرار می دهد. بر اساس این تحقیق، یک ادعای ساده و یک ادعای پیچیده مطرح می شود. ادعای ساده در تلاش است ثابت کند که تفاوت سنتی بین فعل بودن به عنوان یک فعل صرفاَ لغوی و فعل بودن به عنوان یک فعل کمکی، غلط می باشد. به خصوص در مورد ""بودن ربطی"" -- همیشه یک فعل لغوی در نظر گرفته می شده است -- که در اصل یک فعل کمکی است. ادعای پیچیده تراین است که یک تفاوت دستوری بین بودن لغوی و بودن کمکی وجود دارد، اما این تفاوت بااستفاده ی ربطی و غیر ربطی فعل بودن منافاتی ندارد. بلکه، تفاوت دستوری بین فعل بودن لغوی و بودن کمکی اساساَ یک تفاوت معنایی است. این تحقیق علاوه بر جمع آوری مدرک برای اثبات این دو ادعا، درصدد است تا فرضیه کلی دستورسنتی مبنی بر این که همه جملات انگلیسی نیازمند یک فعل لغوی می باشند را به چالش بکشد. این فرضیه با نظریه ی جدیدی جایگزین می شود مبنی بر این که همه ی جملات انگلیسی باید صرف شوند.این تحقیق پلی است بین زبان شناسی تئوریک و زبان شناسی کاربردی و می تواند تصورات مربوط به تدریس و یادگیری دستور زبان انگلیسی را به صورت چشم گیری ساده کند.

As building blocks of coherent discourse, lexical bundles, frequent word combinations that commonly occur in different registers, have attracted the attention of researchers in corpus linguistics in the last decade. The importance of these word clusters lies in their often necessary functional contribution to the development of evolving discourse. While most previous studies of bundles have been mainly concerned with variations in the use of these word sequences across different registers (e.g., conversation, classroom teaching, and lectures) and a number of disciplines (e.g., history and biology), postgraduate genres have not been the subject of adequate rigorous analysis. This corpus-based study explored possible differences andor similarities between two students' genres in terms of the variety, structure, and function of lexical bundles. Through two corpora of master theses and doctoral dissertations in one single discipline of applied linguistics, the study showed that not only was there a large intradisciplinary difference between the two genres in the range of bundles employed, but also there were some striking differences in the total frequency and function of these word combinations. Some implications for academic writing instruction have also been discussed.

Test method facet is one of the factors which can have an influence on the test takers’ performance. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of two different response types, multiple-choice cloze and multiple-choice test, on the pre-intermediate and intermediate test takers’ reading comprehension performance. To this end, 40 pre-intermediate and intermediate learners participated in the study. To counterbalance the practice effect, the participants of the study at both pre-intermediate and intermediate levels were randomly assigned into two groups. For each level, there were two types of tests and two test administrations. Within each level, the two groups took these two tests in a different order. For all participants of the study there were two scores based on multiple- choice cloze and multiple-choice tests. Two Paired sample t tests were separately run to compare the pre-intermediate and intermediate test takers’ performance on multiple-choice cloze and multiple-choice tests. Two independent samples t tests were run to compare the pre-intermediate and intermediate test takers on these two tests. There was no significant difference between the pre-intermediate test takers’ performance on these two types of tests. There was a significant difference between intermediate test takers’ performance on the tests. There was no significant difference between the pre-intermediate and intermediate test takers’ performance on the multiple-choice cloze tests. The intermediate test takers outperformed the pre-intermediate test takers only on the multiple-choice tests. Based on these results it can be concluded that test methods can have an influence on the test takers’ performance, especially at higher proficiency levels and learners may need to have reached a certain level of proficiency to be able to understand the text.

As Schmidt (2008) states, deeper engagement with new vocabulary as induced by tasks clearly increases the chances of learning those words. This engagement is theoretically clarified by the involvement load hypothesis (ILH, Laufer and Hulstijn, 2001), based on which the involvement index of each task can be measured. The present study was designed to test ILH by evaluating the impact of 4 different reading-based tasks on vocabulary acquisition and retention. Investigating learners' beliefs about the use and effect of the tasks they performed has been another concern of this study. To this end, 120 female and male English undergraduates, attending Reading Comprehension 4 at the Islamic Azad University of Najaf Abad took part in the experiment. There were 4 intact classes that received 4 different tasks randomly. The first class completed an input-oriented task (multiple-choice questions or MCQ) with an ILI of 2. The second class completed an output-oriented task (sentence making or SM) with an ILI of 3. The third class completed an input-oriented task (multiple choice cloze test or MCT) with an ILI of 2, and the fourth group completed an output-oriented task (blank-filling or BF) with the same involvement load as that of the second class. The results showed that all tasks were conductive in vocabulary learning and retention. However the SM task was found to be the most effective of all. The task effectiveness which was asked through an interview with some of the participants, chosen randomly from each group, was in line with the above mentioned results. In other words, participants agreed that reading-related tasks could facilitate L2 vocabulary acquisition and retention. Concerning their opinions about task type, they found SM easier and more conductive to vocabulary learning and retention. The findings of this research could attract EFL and ESL teachers' attention to utilize the same task types in their classes in the form of class activities and could provide EFL and ESL students with an effective way of vocabulary learning and retention.                                         

This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between teachers' personality type (feeling vs. thinking) and speaking skill of pre- intermediate EFL students in Iranian context. Twelve teachers and forty eight students from a local language institute participated in the study. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), an instrument based on Jung’s personality theory, was taken from teachers and students were administered Preliminary English Test (PET) interview. SPSS was used to calculate the required analyses. The results showed a statistically significant positive relationship between teacher’s’ personality type and learners’ speaking skill. It was also indicated that there is a statistically significant difference between speaking skill of learners taught by feeling teachers vs. thinking teachers. In fact students in the feeling group had higher speaking scores than their counterparts in the thinking group.

Textbook evaluation serves as a useful tool at teachers‘ disposal to cope with uncertainty in opting for the proper material prior to embarking on their teaching career. This study aims at comparing two different ESP textbooks, one of them English for students of Mechanical Engineering, design of solids (SAMT publication), and the other one English in Mechanical Engineering (Oxford University Press). For the purpose of comparison and contrast, Textbook Evaluation Checklist (Miekley, 2005) was used against which the components of these two books were weighed to show what they have in common and where the point of departure from any commonality is. Although based on evaluative questions some inherent inefficiencies of these textbooks were revealed, it was generally concluded that both of them have tenable justification to be taught as an ESP course book.