درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The major role of self-directed learning (SDL) in a successful learning at distance education has been confirmed by various studies. Although learners pass General English courses before studying any ESP courses at distance education of Iran, they usually lack the preliminary skills for independent language learning. The current study aimed to explore the effect of self-directed training (SDT) on ESP learners’ self-directed learning readiness (SDLR). Eighty-six B.A students (19 male and 67 female) studying English for Economy and Management at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University participated in this study. A demographic questionnaire and Guglielmino’s (1978) self-directed learning readiness scale (SDLRS) were implemented to select the participants of the control and experimental groups. The experimental group was provided with SDT in three different stages a) an introduction to SDL, b) SDT workshop, and c) SDT pamphlet. Then, a post-test of SDLRS was given to the two groups. ANCOVA was applied to analyze the data. The results revealed that SDT could enhance ESP learners’ SDLR. The findings imply that an appropriate training is needed to improve learners’ SDLR. Higher levels of SDLR can contribute to a successful ESP learning at Payam-e-Noor University in Iran.

There is a general consensus that critical thinking can be influential in almost every occupation due to its association with the abilities such as problem solving and decision making. This paper aims at probing the role of critical thinking (CT) skills on EFL learners' reading comprehension performance using Bloom's taxonomy. Therefore, the role of CT strategies training across two language proficiency levels, high & low, was investigated. Then the difference between females and males regarding their CT was studied. In so doing, 240 male and female Iranian EFL students were selected and screened into two proficiency levels based on the Longman preparation course for TOEFL test. Each proficiency group was divided into critical and non-critical group. The results suggested CT skills significantly affected EFL learners’ reading comprehension performance. However, the effect of critical thinking strategy training didn’t vary across different language proficiency levels. Overall, the findings provide empirical support for the facilitative effect of critical thinking strategy training on reading comprehension performance of EFL learners.

این تحقیق به بررسی تاثیر پیچیدگی زبان و اندازه گروه بر ساخت دانش در دو بحث آن لاین می پردازد. ساخت دانش از طریق مدل تجزیه ارتباطات Gunawardena و دیگران (۱۹۹۷) سنجیده شد. پیچیدگی زبان از طریق تقسیم تعداد کلمات خاص بر کل کلمات به دست آمده و به تغییر لغوی اشاره دارد. نتیجه این تحقیق نشان می دهد که ساخت دانش و اندازه گروه به طور چشمگیر و البته به شکلی منفی با هم مرتبط اند که بیان کننده این موضوع است که هر چه اندازه ی گروه کوچک تر باشد میزان ساخت دانش بالاتر می رود. نتایج همچنین نشان می دهد که ساخت دانش و پیچدیگی زبان به طور چشمگیر و مثبتی با هم مرتبط اند که مشخص کننده این موضوع است که هرچه تغیرات لغوی بالا تر باشد ساخت دانش نیز بالاتر می رود. به علاوه، این تحقیق ثابت کرد که پیچیدگی زبان بیانگر ساخت دانش در بحث های آن لاین است. کارهای متفاوتی می تواند صورت بگیرد تا پیچیدگی زبان در بحث های آن لاین افزایش یابد برای مثال: دادن تکلیف های خواندنی و نوشتنی به شرکت کنندگان. اندازه ی گروه ها نیز باید محدود شده تا از خستگی و کم کاری دانش آموزان در بحث های آن لاین جلوگیری شود.

مقاله حاضر در نظر دارد که تاثیرﺁموزش درون متنی کلمات فرانسه را بر روی دانشجویان سال دوم و سوم لیسانس زبان فرانسه دانشگاه اصفهان بررسی کند. این مقاله سعی در بررسی دلایل برخی از عدم موفقیتها در به خاطر سپاری کلمات در متن و یا در خارج از ﺁن را دارد.هدف اصلی، در اینجا، هدایت دانشجویان به طرف شناخت علائم زبانی و معانی کلمات توسط تمرینات جایگزینی کلمات در متن (قبل و بعد از جلسات ﺁموزش لغات) و به همراه ارزشیابی های اولیه و پایانی است. به این ترتیب ﺁموزش اصطلاحات فرانسه ضروری به نظر می رسد تا از مشکلات فرهنگی مانند تداخل زبان مادری و زبان هدف ٬ ابهامات و مشکلات درک مطلب احترازشود. نتایج حاصله لزوم تربیت آموزگاران توانا و قادر به ایجاد تطبیق با موقعیت آموزش را ﺁشکار می سازد.

A longitudinal study was planned, and a scale was suggested for assessing EFL learners’ oral presentations. The scale had three major evaluation components: `Preparation’, `Organization’, and `Presentation’. The students were informed about the rating scale against which their performances would be evaluated. Throughout the course each student had five performances on different occasions. The results of the study indicated that: (a) significant improvement was observed in the learners’ performances, (b) ANOVA results indicated that the five performances were significantly different, (c) there were high correlations between each paired performances, and (d) the rating scale was a reliable and consistent measure by means of which the instructor could assess the student’s speaking ability.

Since the emergence of the process-oriented approach to second language writing instruction two main questions have been what and how error feedback should be given to the students. The question of whether teachers should provide feedback on grammar in the writing assignments of English as a foreign language students, and if so how, has been a matter of considerable debate in the field of second language writing. The present study investigated the possible effect of implicit and explicit corrective feedback on descriptive writing accuracy of Iranian intermediate EFL learners (N=39) in Hamedan Islamic Azad University. Two groups were selected: explicit corrective feedback group (N=22) and implicit corrective feedback group (N=17). They received corrective feedback on three grammatical structures. The results showed that written corrective feedback can lead to writing accuracy improvement in the short-term, but it may be unhelpful in the long-run.

Literature is the aesthetic manifestation of language. It is ‘as old as human language and as new as tomorrow’s sunrise.’ This paper explores the interrelationships between language and literature from 600 AD to the present day. The grammar of present-day English is closely related to that of Old English with the same tense formation and word orders. The verse unit is a single line and its organizing device is ‘alliteration’. The range of Chaucer’s English did much to establish English as a national language. The writers of the Elizabethan period reshaped the literary language by borrowing foreign words and by coining new expressions and figures of speech. Shakespeare’s language and modern English have enough in common so that historians consider that they both belong to the same stage in the history of English. Milton attempted to reinvent the English language through his Paradise Lost. The writers of the seventeenth century developed a prose style that could bear the weight of the most serious and complex ideas. Then, the writers of the eighteenth century devoted themselves to developing out a formal, polished, and “correct” style of expression. Wordsworth and Coleridge intended to purify and renew the literary language and make it closer to the everyday speech of the ordinary people. Modernism tried to articulate a representation of the world and the way of seeing it through complexities of mind using the spoken rather than the formal language.

Although investigating the factors that influence test scores is important, a majority of stakeholders show a paucity of attention towards individual learner differences due to having large classes of L2 learners. This study sought to explore the possible effect of working memory and cognitive style on L2 learners’ metaphorical test performance. The study was conducted in 2 phases. The first phase was quantitative, and the second consisted of a series of case studies using “think-aloud protocol” and “retrospection.” In the statistical phase, aimed at shedding light on the effect of the cognitive style of field (in)dependence (FI/FD) on metaphorical test performance, 80 senior undergraduates majoring in English Translation were selected through a truncated test of TOEFL adopted from Barron (2004). Metaphorical test performance was analyzed through recognition, text-based true-false, and scripturally implicit questions, refined by conducting factor analysis. Moreover, the participants’ cognitive style of FI/FD was identified via GEFT. In the qualitative part, after analyzing the verbal reports of 8 informants, the participants’ strategy preferences were examined. Results revealed the impact of the cognitive style of FI/FD and working memory on the participants’ strategy preferences. Due to the advent of learner-centered approaches, this study has some implications for L2 pedagogy discussed in the paper.

Though privileges ascribed to various facets of language learning strategy training have long been espoused with regard to varied language skills and components, the role some individual variables such as emotional intelligence might play in this respect seems to have received very scant attention. The researchers in the current study embarked on a probe into the impact of metacognitive strategy training on Iranian EFL learners' argumentative writing performance, in the light of individuals' emotional intelligence and gender differences. To this end, a total of 69 advanced EFL institute learners were selected as the participants of the research. The experimental group members were, then, treated through the application of O'Malley and Chamot's (1990) CALLA (Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach) for metacognitive writing strategy training. Moreover, Bar-On's (1997a, 1997b) Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) was administered to learners to gain insight into their emotional intelligence status. The final analysis of data via running t-test and three-way ANOVA revealed significant differences between the performance of control and experimental groups. Additionally, while gender differences were found to produce significant writing performance differences, disparities in learners' emotional intelligence level didn't significantly affect the degree of gains resulting from metacognitive strategy training.

This paper reports on the findings of a study designed to investigate the cultural and social complexities governing the compliment responses among the Persian native speakers. 200 Persian respondents took a 24-item Discourse Completion Task (DCT) while 15 native field workers were also set responsible for collecting the examples of complimenting exchanges they either observed or participated in. The results suggested a significant effect for the treated intervening social variables of age, gender, educational background, social distance, and relative power as well as compliment topics in determining the type of compliment response. The responses were further suggestive of the contextual effects of the three systems of hierarchical, solidarity and deferential as well as a newly coined system as kinship system.

A growing body of research has indicated that students of ESL/EFL are reticent and unwilling to be engaged in oral activities in English lessons. Communicative language ability includes speaking ability, so vocabulary knowledge plays an integral role in speaking a language. However, there have been few studies examining the degree to which vocabulary knowledge affects speaking ability. The present study aimed to explore the degree of reticence in Iranian EFL learners and to find out the roles that productive vocabulary knowledge and gender may play in their reticence. To accomplish this, 56 male and female English language learners participated in the study. Unwillingness-to-Communicate Scale and Vocabulary-Size Test of Controlled Productive Ability were used. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics, Pearson Product-moment Correlation and an independent t-test were used. Results of the study revealed a relatively low level of reticence among Iranian EFL learners. However, it seems that learners mostly avoid communication rather than have a negative attitude toward class participation. In addition, it was found that the learners’ vocabulary knowledge had a significant relationship with their reticence; while, no significant difference was found between Iranian male and female learners in terms of reticence.