درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

هدف تحقیق حاضربررسی تاثیر سه روش متفاوت نگارش دفتر تفکرات انتقادی به صورت انفرادی، مشارکتی با همگروه و به صورت مشارکتی با معلم بر روی مهارت خودسازماندهی زبان آموزان ایرانی میباشد. در ابتدا صد و پنجاه زبان آموز ایرانی سطح فوق متوسط مونث که در یک موسسه زبان مشغول فراگیری زبان انگلیسی بودند به سوالات پرسشنامه مقیاس سنجش خودسازماندهی تحصیلی پاسخ دادند. از بین این صد و پنجاه نفر، تعداد شصت زبان آموز که نمره آنها در این آزمون در محدوده یک انحراف معیار بالاتر و یا پایین تراز میانگین بود، انتخاب و به صورت تصادفی به چهار گروه تقسیم شدند. پس از استفاده از روش نگارش دفاتر تفکرات انتقادی برای یک ترم چهل و دو ساعته از شرکت کنندگان خواسته شد مجددﺍ به سوالات پرسشنامه خودسازماندهی تحصیلی پاسخ دهند. نتایج تحلیل پراکنش آزمون مرحله دوم نشان داد که نگارش افکار و وقایع انتقادی به صورت مشارکتی با همگروه یا معلم که فرصت استفاده از بازخورد همگروه و یا معلم را فراهم می آورد می تواند مهارت خودسازماندهی زبان آموزان را به صورت به صورت معنا داری افزایش دهد. زبان آموزانی که از روش نگارش تفکرات و وقایع استفاده کردند اما از بازخورد همگروهان و یا معلم بهره نبردند نیز نسبت به زبان آموزانی که این روش را به کار نبردند نمرات بهتری کسب کردند. بنابراین، نتایج این تحقیق نشانگر نقش موثر نگارش تفکرات انتقادی به صورت انفرادی در بالابردن مهارت خودسازماندهی می باشد.

In recent years, the line of research on the socio-pragmatic aspects of language and language use has been increasing very rigorously. In this regard, taboos as well as euphemisms, due to their significant role in impacting on the interactions among interlocutors, have been the subject of research in various societies and cultures from a vast variety of aspects. That being so, the present study was an attempt to explore the perceptions of Iranian adult speakers of linguistic taboos and euphemisms in Iranian society. To achieve this aim, a convenient sample of 48 Iranian adult speakers, 24 males and 24 females, from Shiraz, Iran was recruited to participate in the study. The researcher interviewed them one by one and audio recorded their answers for further analysis and to determine their perceptions of linguistic taboos and euphemisms in Iranian society. The findings indicated that: a. Most of the participants believed that sex is the most offensive topic in Iranian society; b. All of the participants believed that people should use euphemisms in their speech and should take after of their speech especially in formal situations; c. Most of the Iranian adult speakers believed that the most important factor which leads to the use of taboo words is anger; and d. Most of the participants, both male and female, said they do not discuss taboo topics in mixed-sex groups.

Learning from experience is a central physiological and theoretical idea in adult language learning which has become increasingly important in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) and is closely connected to task-based language teaching (TBLT). Accordingly, this study was designed to investigate the role of experience-based learning strategies in developing male and female intermediate EFL learners’ speaking fluency. To this end, from the target population of 300 language learners attending evening English classes at a language institute, a sample of 50 intermediate participants were randomly chosen by administering an Oxford placement Test (OPT). The average age of the selected students ranged between 17 and 25. An interview was utilized as a pretest to determine participants’ speaking fluency entry behavior. Subsequently, they were divided into two groups labeled as experimental and control groups. While the control group students received instruction through a traditional method without any focus on experience-based activities and strategies, those in the experimental group were exposed to interactive solutions verbally participating in class discussions during task-based classroom sessions in which they discussed their experiences in performing carefully prepared two-way tasks. The analysis of the data obtained from the posttest interview indicated that the participants in the experimental group outperformed those in the control group. Moreover, the results reflected that experience-based tasks considerably improved language the learners’ speaking fluency. Notably, the findings of the present study may have certain insightful pedagogical implications for language instructors and material developers.

The monopoly of Western ideologies, theories and methods through English language education as well as the marginalization of Islamic values in English language learning materials has caused heated debates and controversies among Muslim TEFL scholars. In a descriptive and interpretive analysis, this study attempts to bring light to some theoretical issues pertained to language education and Islamic education in a historical mode hoping to pave the way for further exploration of Islamic heritage in English language education theory and practice. The study also calls for designing English literacy programs in light of the Islamic education theories and methods, and urges Muslim TEFL scholars to restructure English language education in a way that meets the demands of an Islamic education. Thus, it first looks at the roots where Islamic education has guided many intellectual movements including language education. Secondly, it reviews the colonial era in which western education has created a gap between the glorious Islamic past and through its language superiority. Then, it explores the awakening movements that call for reunion and return to our ‘true selves’ in education, in general and in language education, in particular. It is hoped that the present work may pave the way for further exploration of Islamic heritage in English language education theory and practice.

This mini-corpus, cross-linguistic, comparative, and norm-referenced study intends to render the most frequently and oft-used affixes in the written descriptive tasks in the performance of English language materials developers (ELMDs) and Iranian English language undergraduates (IELUs). Samples of writings of both groups were studied and analyzed through affixation principles. The frequency of nearly 63 affixes both inflectional and derivational morphemes was taken into account. The statistical analysis showed a highly significant correlation (.86) with (.75) coefficient determination (shared variance) between the performance of IELUs and ELMDs. The result of the study bears approximately a close resemblance to the findings by Bauer et al.(1982), Fry and Kress (2006), Honig, Diamond, Gutlohn, and Mahler (2000), and White, Sowell, and Yanagihara (1989). Finally, the implications of the study were taken into account.

Second or foreign language (L2) learners’ development of interlanguage pragmatic (ILP) competence to understand and properly interpret utterances under certain social and cultural circumstances plays a pivotal role in the achievement of communicative competence. The current study was designed to explore the effects of synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) and asynchronous computer-mediated communication (ACMC) course modules delivered through social media networks (SMN) on the development of the Iranian L2 learners’ comprehension of implicatures. The participants of the study were 90 English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) undergraduate students attending three intact classes. The classes were randomly assigned to one control and two experimental (SCMC and ACMC) groups. An open-ended implicature comprehension test was used to assess students’ ILP development in this pretest-posttest comparison-group study. The control group received the traditional teacher-fronted instruction, and the S/ACMC groups received instruction via synchronous and asynchronous modules of SMNs for 4 months, respectively. Students’ attitudes towards the CMC-based courses were also sought. Split-plot ANOVA results indicated that both experimental groups developed significant ILP ability to comprehend and interpret L2 implicatures after the instruction; however, by comparison, the ACMC group improved more considerably. It is concluded that, first, comprehending L2 implicatures is not impervious to computer-mediated instruction and, second, different CMC affordances may result in differential ILP developmental effects in teaching L2 pragmatics. The findings can help L2 teachers decide how to use CMC affordances and SMN modules to raise L2 learners’ pragmatic awareness