درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

هدف از این تحقیق یافتن راه کاری عملی برای ارتقای مهارت نوشتاری در میان دانش آموزان ایرانی به عنوان زبان آموز خارجی می باشد. سوال اصلی این است که آیا کاربردشناسی تفوقی بر روش های سنتی در ارتقای مهارت نوشتاری دارد یا خیر. برای این منظور چهل دانش آموز دبیرستانی بر اساس عملکرد شان در Preliminary English Test (2009) انتخاب شدند. علاوه بر این، ابزارهای زیر نیز در این پژوهش شبه تجربی به کار رفته است: Task, and Discourse Self-Assessment Task and Writing Discourse Completion, California Standard Test (2008) این روش خاص به مدت ده هفته بر گروه آزمایشی انجام گرفت در حالی که که گروه کنترل فقط از روش های سنتی بهره برد. نتایج نشان می دهد که ارتباط معناداری میان مهارت کاربردشناسی و ارتقای مهارت نوشتاری در میان زبان آموزان وجود دارد. روش paired h-test f برای تجزیه و تحلیل داده ها به کار رفته است. نتایج این تحقیق حاکی است که دبیران می توانند از کاربردشناسی در مهارت نوشتاری به شکل شایسته ای بهره ببرند و مهارت نوشتاری را از طریق آن ارتقا دهند. بدین ترتیب زبان آموزان می توانند به شکل درستی به برقراری ارتباط بپردازند.

The study aimed at investigating whether the retention of vocabulary acquired incidentally is dependent upon the amount of task-induced involvement. Immediate and delayed retention of twenty unfamiliar words was examined in three learning tasks( listening comprehension + group discussion, listening comprehension + dictionary checking + summary writing in L1, and listening comprehension + dictionary checking + sentence writing with the target words) inducing differential ‘involvement loads’- consisting of varying degrees of need, search and evaluation. Time-on-task was kept constant among all three tasks. The results partially supported the Involvement Load Hypothesis: The sentence writing task generated the highest retention rate, a finding which is quite in harmony with the Hypothesis’s prediction. However, the other two tasks did not result in different retention rates despite equal involvement loads. These results are discussed with reference to the involvement load hypothesis and some suggestions are made as to how to improve and revise the original theory.

One of the main aims of the education agenda in the last decade has been to develop critical thinking and autonomy among children, in order to educate them to be activeand involved persons in society. The present study sought to examine the relationship between Iranian male and female EFL learners’ autonomy and their critical thinking ability. To this aim, the researcher used a language proficiency test, a questionnaire of autonomy, and a questionnaire of critical thinking. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, 242 third-grade high school students of Urmia city were provided with a Key English Test (KET). Afterwards, 162 of them were selected as the homogenizedgroup and were given a questionnaire of autonomy and questionnaire of critical thinking. Finally, the results of 144(because some of participants did not complete their critical thinking questionnaire) participants were analyzed. The Pearson coefficient of correlation revealed that Iranian EFL learners’ autonomy and critical thinking were significantly related. The findings offered important pedagogical implications for teachers, learners, and syllabus designers.

بر طبق مدل اصلاح شده ی سلسله مراتبی که توسط کرال و استیوارت پیشنهاد شده است، در مراحل ابتدایی فراگیری زبان، رابط ها ی واژگانی بسیار قوی در نتیجه ی اتکا فراگیران به زبان اول برای دریافت معانی کلمات زبان خارجی ایجاد می شود؛ این رابط ها در مراحل بالاتر نیز باقی می مانند اگرچه ضعیف ترمی شوند. برای آزمایش این فرضیه، حافظه ی رویدادی دو گروه از فراگیران فارسی زبان انگلیسی سطح پایین و پیشرفته بر روی جفت های ترجمه ای غیرهم ریشه مورد آزمایش قرار گرفت. الگوی بدست آمده برای فراگیران سطح پایین با فرضیه ی مدل سازگار بود چرا که وجود رابط های واژگانی در سطوح پایین زبان آموزی ثابت شد. لیکن، نتایج بدست آمده برای فراگیران سطح پیشرفته نشان داد این رابط ها در سطوح بالا دیگر وجود ندارند و ازبین می روند.

Although filling the gap in reading comprehension gained momentum with the rise of the top-down approach, Vygotsky’ concept of scaffolding and the dual code theory provided a strong support for the use of paratext to enhance comprehension. Scaffolding is dependent on other-regulation, one type of which is object-regulation. From this vantage-point, various types of paratext can function as sources of object-regulation to scaffold the interaction between the reader and the text. Hence, the purpose of this study was to explore the effect of three types of paratext (the picture, preface, and title) on the reading comprehension and recall of less proficient and more proficient EFL learners. The control groups in the two proficiency levels read a text with no paratext, whereas participants in the experimental groups read the same text accompanied by the three types of scaffolding paratext. Both groups were also given a recall test which required the recall of propositions from the original texts. The results showed the beneficial effect of paratext on reading comprehension among the more proficient experimental group. As to reading recall, neither less proficient nor more proficient group succeeded in manifesting better recall than the control groups. These findings have two implications. First, there is proficiency “short-circuit” for the scaffolding effect of paratext on reading comprehension. Second, short-circuit has a task-bound nature. As the results of this study show, the proficiency ceiling needed to move beyond the short-circuit effect of comprehension is different from that of recall because recall is a comparatively more demanding task.