درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This study investigated the effects of different learning levels, including Remember an Instance (RI), Remember a Generality (RG), and Use a Generality (UG) in multiple-choice and essay tests on immediate and delayed retention. Three-hundred pre-intermediate students participated in the study. Reading passages with multiple-choice and essay questions in different levels of learning were given to the participants to investigate the effects on both immediate and delayed retention. The findings revealed that to evaluate immediate retention, multiple-choice questions at remember levels are effective, but for enhancing delayed retention, essay questions, especially at UG level, are more effective. The results of the study suggest that tests can be used as aids to retention beyond their primary evaluation function.

This paper explores male and female students' and teachers' perceptions of the role of grammar instruction and corrective feedback. A questionnaire, administered to 60 male and female intermediate EFL students (30 males and 30 females) and 40 teachers (20 males and 20 females), elicited student and teacher perceptions concerning the role of explicit grammar instruction and corrective feedback in learning English as a foreign language. Data comparisons revealed high agreement between students as a group and teachers as a group across genders on the majority of questions. A number of discrepancies were evident between students and teachers’ beliefs within each gender. There were also some comparisons of sample groups based on gender differences which examined the effect of formal grammar instruction in foreign language teaching. Although the differences between students' and teachers’ belief system can be a threat to learning, it is essential to mention that teachers’ consideration of students’ perceptions of those factors will improve the process of new language learning, and an effort to consider the potential mismatch between students’ beliefs and teachers’ instructions will enhance learning.

Morphological Awareness (henceforth: MA), defined as the ability to understand the morphemic structure of the words, has been reported to affect various aspects of second language performance including reading comprehension ability, spelling performance, etc. Yet, the concept has been far less treated with reference to l2 listening transcription. Thus, against this background, this study aims to investigate the link between MA and listening transcription ability of Iranian pre-university students. To this aim, 40 pre-university students participated in the study, and were assigned to two control and experimental groups. Both groups were first given three short listening passages to transcribe as the pre-tests. The results of the independent-samples t-test revealed no significant difference between the two groups. The experimental group, then, received five one-hour sessions briefing them on the morphological realization of English words. The two groups were then given three short listening passages to transcribe as their post-tests. The results of the independent-samples t-tests attested to the significant difference between the two groups, thus, supporting the relationship between MA and listening transcription ability. The study concludes with some suggestions as to the incorporation of MA into L2 learning programs.

The purpose of this article is to determine the phonemic status of [h] and [ʔ] in the Sistani dialect of Miyankangi. Auditory tests applied to the relevant data show that [ʔ] occurs mainly in word-initial position، where it stands in free variation with Ø. The only place where [h] is heard is in Arabic and Persian loanwords، and only in the pronunciation of some speakers who are educated and/or live in urban centres، where inhabitants are in closer touch with Persian than in rural areas. The sound [h] also occurs in the pronunuciation of some Arabic loanwords where it replaces the glottal plosive، particularly in word medial، intervocalic position. The investigation shows that neither [ʔ] nor [h] have phonemic status in the Sistani dialect of Miyankangi at present، but that more intense contact with Persian may change this state in the future، particularly for [h].

The extensive research done on the interrelationship between different social factors such as social class، gender and age and different linguistic variables has shown that these factors have important effects on the way language is used. Among these factors a special importance can be placed on age due to the role it plays in revealing different patterns of language use، such as the age-grading pattern، the normal pattern of age differentiation and the important patterns of language change which can inform us about the emergence of a linguistic form or the death of some old form. This paper is intended to examine the interrelationship between age and the usage of Shirazi vocabulary or lexical items. Sixty respondents belonging to 6 age groups of Shirazi speakers answered a 60-item questionnaire. Each item included one Shirazi word with its definition and sometimes a short example to clarify its meaning. The respondents had to choose between two choices: either they used the item or they did not. The analysis of the results showed that age was an influencing factor on the speech of the speakers as the older people had a large collection of active Shirazi words (they actively used all the words) while the younger generation had two collections of more active and less active Shirazi words and as the age of the subjects increased their mean scores which represented their usage of Shirazi vocabulary items also increased. These words were also used less among the more educated Shirazi speakers.