درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This experimental study attempts to see whether incorporating supplemental podcasts into the blended module of second language (L2) vocabulary teaching and learning leads to better learning outcomes in comparison with other common teaching and learning methods as self-study and conventional. To that end, undergraduate students from Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences were summoned up via an announcement to take part in the study. Volunteers were homogenized via Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) and were then randomly divided into three groups to learn English vocabulary items via three different scenarios during 32 sessions. The collected data from the participants’ answers to the attitude questionnaire and interview as well as the data from assessing their performance throughout the course were analyzed both descriptively and inferentially. The analysis of the data revealed that the podcast-mediated blended L2 learning scenario appeared as the most successful scenario in L2 vocabulary learning. Consequently, it could be concluded that providing miscellaneous practicing opportunities for students would facilitate learning process and contribute to learning improvement.

This study investigated the answer changing behavior of the Iranian university students and its relationship to the academic course, gender, and field of study. 362 students at the University of Isfahan took part in the study. 76 English language teachers were also surveyed for their attitude toward answer changing on MC tests. The results indicated that 42.11% of the teachers had a negative attitude toward answer changing as they believed that the first answer selected is intuitively the best one and should not be changed. The results also indicated that answer changing would basically have positive effects on the total test scores. It was found that 63.09% of the answer changes were beneficial (from Wrong to Right choices). In contrast, 15.18% of the answer changes were negative (from Right to Wrong options), and 21.73% had no effect on the test scores (from Wrong to Wrong options). As for the effect of gender, no significant difference was found between males and females. Concerning the effect of academic course, the only significant difference lay in the number of Right to Wrong changes. Finally, it was found that field of study would make a difference only when Right to Wrong changes were considered.

The present study set out to identify the problematic areas of pronunciation among Iranian female EFL learners. Further, this study investigated the relationship between empathy and authentic pronunciation, along with gender as a moderator variable. Comparing segmental features and phonological processes of both languages helped teachers to predict the target errors. To reach such a goal, a total of 69 Iranian undergraduate EFL learners were recruited from the Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan, majoring in English literature and translation studies participated in the study. The subjects were conveniently sampled and were taking the course Conversation I. After administrating the Basic Empathy Scale (BES: Jolliffe & Farrington, 2006), the students were assigned to two groups: high-empathic group and low-empathic group. Both groups participated in an oral interview twice (before and after segmental form-focused instruction). The data were collected through taping participants’ pronunciation of some words. Two raters analyzed students’ pronunciation in terms of segmental features. The results demonstrated that the absence of some phonemes in the Farsi sound system and some phonological differences between the two languages caused difficulties for EFL learners. Furthermore, it was witnessed that those in the high-level group (i.e., more empathic learners) were more successful in acquiring authentic pronunciation than those in the low-level group.

"انسان در برابر گذر زمان وارد عمل شده از خود واکنش نشان می دهد. این واکنش ها، به واقع، به شکلی در خلال تصاویر شاعرانه آثار بشری نمود کرده اند. ژید، در کتاب مائده های زمینی، مثال های بارزی از این نمودها را به نمایش گذاشته است: وی در تصویری خویشتن را زندانی زمان چرخه ای در یک زندگی نباتی می بیند که هر چند تمایلاتی گذرا به لایتناهای عالم ملکوت دارد ولیکن دست و پای خویش را در خواهش هایی شدیدا زمینی، بسته می بیند به گونه ای که بهشت موعود را در همین عالم خاک می طلبد و در پی این طلب دست به دامان «حیله» هایی می شود تا او را به «آمیزه ای همگون» از تضادهای درونیش برسانند. با دست آویزی به «سیاست جدال با زمان» و با فرو رفتن در درون سیالیتی از زمان شبه برگسونی، ساری و جاری در بیکران فضا، ژید به زایشی از یک «جز کامل» رهایی بخش و بهشتی می رسد که در واقع خود، معنا و مفهوم زمان مطلق است. لیکن نکته اینجاست که این «جز کامل» پس از جستجوهای طولانی، نهایتا در تصویری از صحرای خشک زمینی حلول می کنند که سرزمین آرمانی او را می سازد یعنی همان بهشت مطلوب. حال سوال اینجاست که چرا صحرا؟ چه نوع تصویری از زمان این فرود به صحرا را پس از «سیاست جدال» در نزد ژید توجیه کرده است؟ ما همگام با ژید به چرخه هایی متفاوت از زمان بر می خوریم که مرتبا تکرار می شوند تا آنجا که در بیکران صحرا، در دانه های شن وارسته از قید زندگی نباتی، آینه ای از بینهایت خویش را در می یابند. آنجا تمامی چرخه های زمان به خودی خود از هم می گسلند و در چرخه ای واحد با جریانی یکتا پیش می روند و مفهومی از زمان خلق می کنند که دوام آن ابدی است، یکتاست و جاری در حال. زمانی که تمام چرخه های ذهنی و گذرا را در خود هضم نموده است.

A significant share of classroom interaction occurs between teachers and language learners. Therefore, the individual characteristics of teachers could play facilitative or impeding roles thus encouraging or discouraging learners from getting engaged in interaction and meaning negotiation attempts when interacting with their teachers. Surprisingly however, this area has attracted scant attention. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring students’ perceptions of their teachers’ socio-communicative style and nonverbal immediacy in relation to their engagement in classroom teacher-learner interaction and frequency of meaning negotiation attempts in their interactions. To this aim, 72 students were randomly assigned to six classes of 12 taught by six teachers. Richmond, McCroskey and Johnson’s (2003) nonverbal immediacy scale and McCroskey and Richmond’s (1996) socio-communicative style scale were administered to students to tap into their perceptions of these two qualities of their teachers. Then the total amount of time the students were engaged in active interaction with the teachers and the number of meaning negotiation attempts employed by them were computed. The results of Correlations and Regression Analyses revealed significant relationships between teacher nonverbal immediacy, the two dimensions of socio-communicative style (Assertiveness and Responsiveness) and the students’ willingness to engage in interaction and meaning negotiation with their teachers.