درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Over the last few years, the realm of foreign language learning has witnessed an abundance of research concerning the effectiveness of corrective feedback on the acquisition of grammatical features, with the study of other target language subsystems, such as pronunciation, being few and far between. In order to bridge this gap, the present study intended to investigate and compare the immediate and delayed effect of explicit (overt) and implicit (covert) corrective feedback (CF) on treating segmental word-level pronunciation errors committed by adult EFL learners of an institute in Tabriz named ALC. To this end, through a quasi-experimental study and random sampling, three groups were formed, an explicit, an implicit and a control group, each consisting of 20 low proficient EFL learners. Besides, considering the levels that learners were assigned to, based on the institute’s criteria, a Preliminary English Test (PET) was administered in order to determine the proficiency level of learners. Having administered the pretest before treatment, to measure the longer-term effect of explicit vs. implicit CF on segmental word-level pronunciation errors, the study included delayed posttests in addition to immediate posttests all of which included reading passages containing 40 problematic words. The collected data were analyzed by ANCOVA and the obtained findings revealed that both explicit and implicit corrective feedback are effective in reducing pronunciation errors showing significant differences between experimental and control groups. Additionally, the outcomes showed that immediate implicit and immediate explicit corrective feedback have similar effects on reduction of pronunciation errors. The same result comes up regarding the delayed effect of explicit feedback in comparison with delayed effect of implicit feedback. However, the delayed effect of explicit and implicit CF lowered comparing to their immediate effect due to time effect. Pedagogically, this study could enhance teachers’ effort, knowledge, and beliefs in teaching pronunciation and providing corrective feedback to pronunciation errors.   Keywords:corrective feedback; explicit CF; implicit CF; segmental word-level pronunciation errors   طی چند سال اخیر، در حوزه ی آموزش زبان انگلیسی شاهد تحقیقات کثیری در زمینه ی ﺗﺄثیر بازخورد اصلاحی بر یادگیری ساختار های دستور زبان انگلیسی بوده ایم.  با این وجود، در رابطه با ﺗﺄثیر آن در یادگیری تلفظ صحیح زبان انگلیسی تحقیقات بسیار اندکی انجام شده است. به منظور پر کردن این ﺧﻸ، مطالعه ی حاضر سعی داشته به بررسی و مقایسه ی ﺗﺄثیرات آنی و مدت دار بازخورد اصلاحی صریح و ضمنی در بهبود خطاهای تلفظی واحد های زنجیری در کلمات انگلیسی بپردازد.بدین منظور، طی یک تحقیق نیمه تجربی، شرکت کنندگان که از زبان آموزان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجی انتخاب شده بودند به سه گروه صریح، ضمنی و کنترل تقسیم شدند. هر کدام از این گروه ها شامل 20 زبان آموز سطح پایین بوده که تواناییشان در تلفظ لغات مورد نظر از طریق پیش آزمون، پس آزمون فوری و پس آزمون تاخیری اندازه گیری شد.اطلاعات به دست آمده از طریق آزمون تحلیل کوواریانس ANCOVA تحلیل و بررسی شد. تفاوت معنادار بین گروههای آزمایشی و کنترل در یافته های به دست آمده نشان می دهد که هر دو بازخورد صریح و ضمنی تاثیر بسزایی در کاهش خطاهای تلفظی زبان آموزان در پس آزمون فوری داشته است. همچنین تاثیر مشابهی در پس آزمون تاخیری دو گروه صریح و ضمنی مشاهده شد. با این وجود، مقایسه ی بین پس آزمون های فوری و تاخیری نشان داد که تاثیر بازخورد در هر دو گروه آزمایشی با گذشت زمان کاهش یافته است. کلیدواژه ها: بازخورد اصلاحی، بازخورد اصلاحی صریح، بازخورد اصلاحی ضمنی، خطاهای تلفظ زنجیره ای

This study examined the impact of Clear Pronunciation 2 software on teaching English suprasegmental features, focusing on stress, rhythm and intonation. In particular, the software covers five topics in relation to suprasegmental features including consonant cluster, word stress, connected speech, sentence stress and intonation. Seven Iranian EFL learners participated in this study. The study lasted for six weeks and both the teacher and the software were involved in teaching suprasegmental features. To measure the learners’ pronunciation and their degree of progress for both pre-test and post-test, the software itself was used. The software has the ability to generate report and score on learners’ performance at the end of any activity. So, the analysis of learners’ performance was based on the software reports on their performance. The results of the study showed that the learners had a significant level of progress in all aspects of suprasegmental features. They learned suprasegmental features effectively and the exercises of the software were helpful for them. The results provide empirical evidences on the value of using Clear Pronunciation 2 software for teaching English pronunciation. This software yield promising results for the field of language teaching and can provide inspiring results in future

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the authenticity of IELTS academic tests. Bachman and Palmer (1996, p. 23) define authenticity as “the degree of correspondence of the characteristics of a given language test task to the features of a target language task”. Authenticity is then an important aspect of testing since it describes the relationship between the test and the real world. The participants of this study included 80 Iranian IELTS test takers who took IELTS academic test in 2014 and 2015, and 100 lecturers of university and IELTS teachers. Twenty IELTS test takers also were interviewed to collect the required qualitative part of data. The data were gathered through a semi-structured interview and authenticity checklist. Descriptive statistics used to analyze the collected data. The findings of the study showed that IELTS academic tests are not authentic in terms of tone, format, channel, form and scope of interaction. Moreover, mostly the interviewees stated that answering the items in IELTS academic test requires specific techniques and test takers can not succeed without mastering these techniques.   

Since the early development of interest in the interpersonal dimensions of academic communication in the 1980s, the analytic potentials of the concept of metadiscourse have motivated a large number of investigations. Although these analytic potentials have facilitated the study of diverse academic genres, there has always been a risk of detachment of textual analyses form the contextual origins and motivations. In some cases, this detachment has been so observable that the true discoursal nature of the interpersonal dimensions of academic communication has been reduced to classifications of a large number of pure textual properties. As a reaction to this reductionist trend, the present article provides a preliminary framework within which the contextual origins of metadiscourse features can be understood. It is suggested that if the findings of metadiscourse research are meant to be interpreted in meaningful ways, they should be contextualized within such process-oriented frameworks.  

Cognates are the words celebrating their similarities from phonetic, orthographic, and semantic points of view across two or more languages. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of cognate-based instruction strategy on vocabulary learning among Iranian EFL learners. To achieve the goal of the study, 80 EFL learners (15-27 years old) took part in the study; all of them were learning English at language institutes of Lorestan and Isfahan provinces in Iran. Half of the participants who were native speakers of Laki language were assigned to experimental group and the remaining 40 who were from Isfahan and not familiar with Laki language were assigned to control group. Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered to make sure that the participants were homogeneous. The participants in both groups were taught target words (42 English-Laki cognate words), by the researcher, during six sessions. A pretest was administered for both groups before the treatment and a posttest was managed after the treatment for both groups. Three weeks after the treatment, a delayed posttest was administered for experimental group, only. One sample t test for pre and posttest, and paired sample t test for delayed posttest were run. Findings of the study showed that participants in the experimental group outperformed the participants in the control group, resulting in null hypothesis rejection. In addition, the results indicated similar performance of experimental group in both posttest and delayed posttest, confirming that new cognate words were not forgotten over a period of time.

AbstractThe interference of the native language in acquiring a foreign language is unavoidable. In an attempt to explore the phenomenon why this occurs, the study was conducted in English as a foreign language writing. The study also investigated how the native language interference occurred in the writing process. In fact, this qualitative study explored the reasons and the process of native language interference in writing performances of EFL learners. The data were collected from Thai undergraduate students through semi-structured interviews. Results obtained from the analysis of this study suggested that the reasons of native language interference in EFL writing were found in three main themes: learning strategies of language learners, inadequate knowledge of the target language, and attitude towards English. Furthermore, the interference of the native language appeared in the initial stage and repeatedly occurred throughout the entire writing process. Finally, the suggestions related to the teachers’ awareness of the problematic area, the use of English as the classroom language, and the use of monolingual dictionary are offered to the EFL writing instructors in order to help their EFL students to minimize the errors caused by the native language interference.

While the advantages of cooperative learning activities have been extensively acknowledged in L2 literature, this type of pedagogy has not received due attention in the Iranian EFL context. Indeed, the traditional reading method still dominates in most Iranian EFL university classes even though it fails to meet its main objective which is training competent EFL readers. In an attempt to address this challenge, the current case study incorporated cooperative learning pedagogy into two EFL reading comprehension classes in a medium size university in Iran and sought learners’ behaviors and reflections toward the student-centered activities they engaged in during an academic semester. To serve that end, two volunteer cohorts of learners (less and more experienced) from two EFL reading comprehension classes were recruited. Class observation field notes along with focus group interviews comprised the data collection instruments of the study.  While the learners’ behaviors and activities were recorded in observation field notes throughout the semester, the two focus groups were interviewed right after the course had finished. Data analyses indicated that the learners expressed favorable attitudes toward the new approach they were involved in, even though some issues were raised by the interviewees. Some pedagogical implications and recommendations are proposed for efficient incorporation of cooperative learning activities in EFL reading comprehension classes which have traditionally been dominated by teachers based on the findings of the current study.

As a part of a larger-scale research, the present study aimed to use the main tenets of sociocultural perspective; namely, mediation, internalization, zone of proximal development, and the activity theory, to analyze the novice and expert teachers’ professional development through personal practical theorizing as an awareness raising technique. Furthermore, the study attempted to identify the contextual factors hindering teachers’ pedagogical beliefs enactment. The areas of mismatches between the teachers’ beliefs and practices were identified in the previous phases of the study, and personal practical theorizing procedure was implemented in the program to help teachers converge their beliefs and practices. Within the domain of the qualitative research, a multi-case study design was utilized, employing eight novice and experienced teachers who were selected through purposive sampling. The teachers’ professional development in the proposed program was analyzed through the lens of sociocultural perspectives, and the contextual factors hindering teachers’ beliefs enactment were enumerated based on the results gleaned through interview sessions.

The current study aimed to examine the effects of strategic planning, online planning, strategic planning and online planning combined (joint planning), and no planning on the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of oral productions in two simple and complex narrative tasks. Eighty advanced EFL learners performed one simple narrative task and a complex narrative task with 20 minutes in between. The order of the two stories was counterbalanced to control for any possible practice effect. The results suggest that no planning in both tasks was the least effective. Strategic planning led the learners to elevate both their complexity and fluency significantly in the narrative simple task and only their fluency in the complex task. Online planning helped the participants improve their accuracy significantly both in the simple and complex tasks. Finally, joint planning resulted in the significant elevation of accuracy and fluency in the simple task on the one hand, and complexity and accuracy in the complex task on the other. With respect to the effect of task complexity, the interaction between task complexity and CAF was significant. The results and comparisons between groups are discussed in the light of Levelt’s model of speaking, Skehan’s Trade-off Hypothesis, and earlier studies.