درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The present research addressed the prosodic realization of global and local text structure and content in the spoken discourse data produced by Persian EFL learners. Two newspaper articles were analyzed using Rhetorical Structure Theory. Based on these analyses, the global structure in terms of hierarchical level, the local structure in terms of the relative importance of text segments and the rhetorical relations between text segments were identified. The texts were read aloud by 18 high-proficient Persian learners of English. We measured pause durations preceding segments, F0-maxima (as a correlate of pitch range) and speech rates of the segments. Results suggested that speakers give prosodic indications about hierarchical level by means of variations in pause duration but not pitch range or speech rate. Furthermore, it was found that speakers articulate causally related segments with shorter in between pauses and at faster rate than non-causally related segments. However, they did not vary any of the prosodic measures to distinguish between important vs. unimportant segments. Overall, the results suggest that (1) variations in pause duration and speech rate are not used systematically by Persian EFL speakers as fully structured cuing devices to indicate organization of spoken discourse, importance of sentences and meaning relations between sentences; (2) pitch change structuring as a cue to discourse prosodic prominence is completely absent in Persian learners' text production. The results are not consistent with earlier findings of prosodic realization of text structure and content in English native speakers' discourse data, but are in line with those obtained for non-native spoken discourse.

This article presents the outcomes of how Dynamic Assessment (DA) may be organized to function within a class’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The testing field also has recently undergone noticeable changes leading to a shift to use technology that is emerged in our era. The study investigated college students’ barriers and motivations for testing reading comprehension ability using the newly designed software. To this end, 30 participants were interviewed and the related data were analyzed thematically to identify emerging themes relating to the current status of the new testing environment. Four themes emerged relating to potential barriers and motivations and the results showed that working with the software provided positive experiences of working in a supportive environment. The study found that using the newly designed software in the classroom generally enhances learning and other outcomes. This novel software does not only aim to reduce barriers in conventional testing environment but also highlights the positive aspects which enhance motivation.

The study aims at focusing on the relationship between motivation, culture, and success in foreign language learning in globalizing world. Many studies have been done to examine the relationship between them. The studies showed that culture can play a motivating role in language learning success. Considering Gardner's instrumental and integrative motivation, a learner with a high degree of integrative motivation is likely to make more efforts to form bonds with people of the target culture. To conduct the survey 48 students of Ardestan Azad University were chosen. Some activities and techniques were taken to promote their multicultural competence. In the first session a brief explanation was given to the students along with some questionnaires regarding cultural issues to answer. During 16 weeks of the semester students were taught and monitored through class discussions, essay writings etc. The goal of the activities was to encourage and estimate their respect, tolerance and empathy to people of different cultures. In the last session a questionnaire designed by the researcher was used to collect data. It was composed of three sections: 1) 11 statements about cultural issues to be rated with a likert scale of agreement (based on the Bennett's intercultural communicative model). 2) 10 rating questions (considering Byram& Risager's multidimensional model of ICC).  3) 5 open questions about their belief and behavior to elaborate on. The results showed that respect for others, adaptation and integration with people of target culture were the highest rated among others. An unexpected result was that there was no significant relationship between students' lesson scores and their attitude toward foreign language culture. This can be justified by globalization process by which "people of the world are incorporated into a single world society, global society". Therefore learners who belong to a global English-speaking culture are ready to suspend disbelief about others and adopt new cultural aspects while respecting and maintaining their own culture.

Naturalization is a translation procedure that is predominantly utilized in the translation of English medical terms into Indonesian. This study focuses on identifying types of naturalization involving the adjustment of spelling and pronunciation and investigating whether naturalization has been appropriately applied based on the rules in the Indonesian general guidance of term formation. The data were taken from the translation of selected articles of a medical textbook, General Ophthalmology (2008). The findings show that naturalization in English-Indonesian medical terms occurred in four categories, namely (1) adjustment of spelling with complex adjustment of pronunciation, (2) adjustment of spelling with simple adjustment of pronunciation, (3) adjustment of pronunciation without adjustment of spelling and (4) adjustment of spelling without adjustment of pronunciation. The products of naturalization have followed the guidance yet several new adjustment standards need to be included to enrich the pattern of foreign term adoption. In addition, this study recommends that types of ‘absorption’ in the Indonesian guidance of term formation needs to be revisited in order to precisely classify how foreign term’s pronunciation and spelling adjustment is made in the Indonesian language.

Co-teaching is a method that two teachers work together and deliver the instruction in the same classroom to a heterogeneous group of learners. This study was an attempt to find out the effect of one teach-one assist model of co-teaching on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. To this end, a quasi-experimental design with the pre-test, post-test, and control group was employed and 35 female students within the age range of 15-18 at the elementary level were selected as the participants of the study from Sanjesh-E-No institute in Tabriz, Iran.  They were randomly assigned into the experimental and control groups after taking Key English Test (KET). The experimental group received instruction through two teachers while the control group was taught by a single teacher. Both groups took part in the pre-test and post-test of reading comprehension. The results of an independent-samples t-test revealed that the experimental group had significantly better reading performance compared to the control group. The results of the study can be useful for teachers, students, and any ELT program.