درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The process of globalization entails the acquisition of a construct, cultural intelligence, with which EFL students can function appropriately in intercultural situations. This study was, first, intended to find the relationship between cultural intelligence and the use of expressions of gratitude by Iranian EFL learners. Second, it sought to determine whether there were any significant differences between low and high culturally intelligent EFL learners in the way they used expressions of gratitude in English. To this end, 118 intermediate learners were selected through convenient sampling, with their proficiency level being controlled. A discourse completion test (DCT) for the expressions of gratitude and a cultural intelligence scale were given to the participants of the study. Learners’ DCT responses were rated on a five-point Likert scale and then analyzed. Statistical tests including Pearson Correlation Coefficient and t-test were used to investigate the research questions. The results of the analysis revealed that there was not a significant relationship, either positive or negative, between cultural intelligence and use of expressions of gratitude. Furthermore, no difference was found between the two groups, high and low culturally intelligent, in the way they used English expressions of gratitude. These findings have implications for the instruction of pragmatic competence.

Recent research in the area of Second Language Acquisition has proposed that bilinguals and L2 learners show syntactic indeterminacy when syntactic properties interface with other cognitive domains. Most of the research in this area has focused on the pragmatic use of syntactic properties while the investigation of compliance with a grammatical rule at syntax-related interfaces has not received due attention. In this study, the compliance of 67 Persian native speakers and 52 Persian speaking L2 learners of English with the Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC, henceforth) a proposed UG principle, at the syntax-pragmatics interface is investigated. Both groups of participants demonstrated violations of the OPC at the syntax-pragmatics interface. It is argued that the results of this study both confirm and complement Sorace and Filiaci’s (2006) Interface Hypothesis while showing that difficulties at interface contexts are more a result of interface complexities than cross-linguistic influence.

هدف این تحقیق بررسی آگاهی منظورشناختی-زبانی زبانآموزان در اثنای پردازش دادههای منظورشناختی ضمنی و نیز ارتباط این آگاهی با توانایی زبانی و انگیزه بود. بدین منظور ارتباط بین توجه به درخواست دوجملهای با سطح زبانی و انگیزه درونی و بیرونی سنجیده شد. آزمودنیهای این تحقیق شامل 121 زبان آموز سطح پیشرفته بودند که به پرسشنامه انگیزه و آزمون توانایی زبانی پاسخ دادند. در ابتدا بر اساس نتایج پرسشنامه، ساختار عاملی انگیزه مشخص شد. سپس از بین این افراد، 35 زبانآموز به طور تصادفی برای مرحله تجربی انتخاب شدند و درفعالیتی شرکت کردند که هدف آن توجه به ساختار درخواست بود. در پایان فعالیت، این زبانآموزان در پروتکل کلامی شرکت کردند تا میزان آگاهی آنان از ساختار مورد نظر سنجیده شود. نتایج نشان داد که زبانآموزان به ساختار درخواست به طور غیریکسان توجه کردند و اینکه این توجه با انگیزش آنها ارتباط معنیدار داشت نه با سطح زبانی. مع هذا ارتباط توجه با انگیزه بیرونی با یافتههای تاکاهاشی ( 2005 ) که مطالعه مشابهی انجام داده است مغایرت دارد. یافتههای این تحقیق دال بر آن است که زبانآموزان در محیطهای مختلف دارای تمایلات انگیزشی متفاوتی برای توجه به ویژگی های منظورشناختی داده ها هستند.

از دیدگاه زبان­شناختی، شمال دور کامرون، خود یک آفریقای کوچک بشمار می­آید. سه خانواده از چهار خانواده بزرگ زبانی تایید شده در آفریقا، در آنجا حضور دارند. علاوه بر زبان انگلیسی و فرانسه که زبان­های رسمی بشمار می­آیند، بیش از پنجاه زبان بومی در آنجا صحبت می­شود. ارتباط میان این زبان­های ملی و زبان­های رسمی غنای زیادی در این منطقه ایجاد کردهاست (بولا 148:2003). ارتباط زبان­شناختی که موید گفتمان بینافرهنگی است، از مجموعه­ای از وام­واژه­ها حاصل می­شود. در این مقاله، نه تنها روابطی که زبان­های بومی در میان خود برقرا می­کنند، بلکه روابط میان زبان فرانسه و این زبان­ها ی بومی، بویژه توپوری، فول­فولد، مِسا، موندانگ و کرا نیز مورد بررسی و مطالعه قرار می­گیرد.

The importance of input has been a broadly documented concept in the field of second or foreign language acquisition. However, kinds of input and ways of its presentation are among the controversial issues in L2 classroom research. Therefore, this study was designed to compare the effects of three kinds of input-based instruction on intake and acquisition of the English causative structures by Iranian EFL learners. A total of 105 university students in four intact classes were randomly assigned to four different conditions: processing instruction (PI), textual input enhancement (TE), consciousness-raising (C-R), and control (CO). A pretest/posttest (immediate and delayed) design was used, where participants’ ability to interpret and produce the target structure was assessed through administering a multiple choice interpretation test and a sentence-level production test. Moreover, a grammaticality judgment test was run to assess the amount of intake. Results revealed that learners in the PI group significantly outperformed learners in the other groups on both immediate/delayed production posttests. The findings also indicated that, C-R group could not retain the significant effect of instruction on delayed production posttest and TE tasks were not effective in improving the learners’ production of the target structure. Moreover, the PI group outperformed the other groups on grammaticality judgment test too. Based on these findings, we can conclude that PI which encompasses the most outstanding features of both focus on form and meaning instruction might be a more effective approach in helping EFL learners to acquire the target grammatical forms.