درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The focus of this study is to investigate the comparative effect of teaching grammar through interpretation tasks and pictorial clues on EFL learners’ writing accuracy. The participants were 60 female intermediate EFL learners with age range of 21-35 who were divided into two experimental groups after being homogenized by a piloted PET test. In the piloted researcher-made pre-test, the researcher required the participants to write a narration and also complete another narration with some blanks with provided words using grammatical points they were going to be taught. After the treatment phase, another researcher-made parallel form of the pre-test was administered as the post-tests. To investigate the research question of the study, an ANCOVA was conducted. The results revealed that there was not any significant difference between the performances of either group. In other words, the mentioned ways of teaching grammar had equal effect on the learners’ writing accuracy.

The sway of the pendulum in language pedagogy towards conscious learning processes marks the paramount role of metalinguistic awareness. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to compare the impact of teacher-oriented vs. learner-generated metalinguistic awareness activities on Iranian TEFL students’ writing accuracy. Sixty participants in three intact classes were randomly assigned as one control, and two experimental groups. All the participants received the same process-oriented instruction based on identical teaching materials. In the first experimental group, the teacher-focus metalinguistic awareness (TFMA) group, however, a collection of various form-focused activities, compiled by the teacher, was assigned and reviewed in the class weekly. In the learner-focused metalinguistic awareness (LFMA) group, the same assignments were assigned as supplementary self-study activities. The control group did not receive any structural assignments. The treatment perpetuated for six sessions and the analyses of the data obtained from the writing post-test revealed that both TFMA and LFMA groups outperformed the control group by producing more accurate writing and that the TF group surpassed the LF group. The findings lend credence to the significance of language awareness in EFL contexts and offer a number of pedagogical implications.

The present study was conducted to evaluate data driven learning (DDL) combined with Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) as an approach to improving vocabulary knowledge of Iranian postgraduates majoring in teaching English, English literature and translation. The purpose was to help language learners get familiar with DDL as a student-centered method taking advantage of a computer program for enhancing the knowledge of vocabulary. This research paper analyzed the efficiency of DDL from different angles including the participants' ability to remember the word meanings and make meaningful and grammatical sentences after doing DDL exercises using the Microsoft Power Point program. The results of the study showed that this technique could significantly enhance the participants' vocabulary knowledge in all the above mentioned aspects. The analysis of the questionnaire given to the participants to elicit their attitudes towards DDL showed that most of them were interested in this technique. The results of this article can be helpful for the language teachers who teach the learners at advanced levels of language proficiency and advanced students who would like to learn new items of vocabulary on their own.

This qualitative study is conducted to answer four questions: First, whether there is a difference between the grammatical competence development of a group of children aged 2.6 (two years and six months) and a group of children aged 3.6 (three years and six months). Second, whether there is a significant difference between the two age groups concerning their Mean Length of Utterance (MLU). Third, whether there is a relationship between the children’s MLU and that of the caretakers. Fourth, whether the normal limit proposed by Brown (1973) is observed in the acquisition of Persian. To this end, language samples of six children and their caretakers’ were recorded during a six-week period and studied afterwards. The results indicated neither an unequivocal yes nor a definitive no answer to the question of age difference and grammatical competence development, that is to say, in some cases there was a difference whereas in some other cases there was no difference at all. As for the difference between the two age groups concerning their MLU, there was a significant difference between the two. However, no significant relationship was found between the children’s MLU and their caretakers’. Finally, the limit proposed by Brown (1973) was observed in the acquisition of Persian.

Most of the studies on the key word method of second/foreign language vocabulary learning have been based on the evidence from laboratory experiments and have primarily involved the use of English key words to learn the vocabularies of other languages. Furthermore, comparatively quite limited number of such studies is done in authentic classroom contexts. The present study inquired into the effect of using mnemonic key word method of vocabulary instruction on the learning and retention of vocabulary over long term in a normal EFL classroom context.Fifty5th grade primary school students were selected and randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received vocabulary instruction using mnemonic key word method and the control group received classic memorization based instruction of the same vocabulary items. The two groups took three posttests a day, two weeks, and a month after the last treatment session. A MANOVA analysis was run on the data and the results indicated that subjects in the key word group outperformed the memorization group at a significant level in both their learning and retention of the newly learnt vocabularies. The results of the study underscore the efficacy of the establishment of mental links and images for the vocabulary learning and retention of novice and beginning level EFL learners. It further implies that mnemonic devices like key word method should be given prompt attention by both EFL material developers and practitioners as a potentially effective strategy for vocabulary teaching, learning and long term retention at the early stages of second or foreign language development.

شواهد بیانگر این می باشد که تغییر پذیری در ارزیابی نگارش دانشجویان فقط نتیجه تفاوت مهارت نوشتاری آنها نیست بلکه عوامل بیرونی خاصی در این امر دخیلند و عوامل مرتبط با مصحح، فعالییت، موقعییت یا تعامل هر یک از اینها میتوانند در تصمیم گیریها و استنباطها در مورد توانایی نگارش فراگیران تاثیر بگذارند. هدف این تحقیق این است که مساله تغییرپذیری را در داوری مصحح به عنوان منبع خطای سنجش در ارزیابی نگارش فراگیران زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجه مورد بررسی قرار دهد. به این منظور مقالات 32 دانشجوی ایرانی زبان انگلیسی بوسیله شش مصحح ارزشیابی و نتایج با استفاده از مدل رش و برنامه فست مورد تحلیل قرار گرفتند. یافته ها نشان دادند که تفاوتهای معنی داری در میزان سختگیری مصحح ها وجود دارد و تعامل مصحح با فراگیر باعث ایجاد تورش در ارزشیابی میشود. از آنجایی که ارزیابی مهارت نوشتن امری ذهنی میباشد و بر اساس داوری مصحح می تواند متغیر باشد، بررسی و شناخت عواملی که باعث عینی تر شدن این ارزیابی میشود امری ضروری به شمارمی رود. ذهنی بودن روند ارزیابی مهارت نوشتن تهدیدی برای روایی آزمون است و سبب می شود که نمره فراگیر نشان دهنده مهارت واقعی وی نباشد. این تحقیق نشان می دهد چطور ارزیابی می تواند کارامد و سودمند باشد و چگونه می توان انصاف و صحت عملکرد ذهنی را سنجید.

This study scrutinized the relationship between utilizing language learning strategies, academic fields, and reading ability in reading comprehension test performance of Iranian postgraduate EAP students. The participants were 947 students, who answered a reading comprehension test and a learning strategy questionnaire successively in one session. The gathered data were subjected to a set of parametric statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance, Tukey HSD and Duncan tests. The findings manifested significant differences among the participants in different fields in employing overall, direct, and indirect strategies. A statistically positive relationship was found between the participants’ reading ability and use of overall, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, and affective strategies. The findings reflected that the actual ability of language learners was significantly influenced by some nonlinguistic factors, and the observed scores did not represent their true ability. The findings can provide an empirical evidence for Bachman’s (1990) as well as Bachman and Palmer's (1996, 2010) conceptual frameworks of language use due to the impact of nonlinguistic factors on language ability of L2 learners in test-taking process. The findings can help language teachers improve instructional reading programs, decrease error of measurement, and narrow the gap between more successful and less successful learners in different fields of study.

هدف این مطالعه بررسی تاثیر تفاوت های فردی بر توانایی های کاربردشناسی متغیر در فراگیران زبان انگلیسی می باشد. 48 فراگیرزبان انگلیسی ژاپنی از یک دانشگاه انگلیسی زبان در ژاپن در این تحقیق شرکت کردند. این فراگیران در یک آزمون کاربردشناسی شفاهی که توانایی آن ها را در مورد تولید دو عمل گفتارِ درخواست کردن و نظر دادن در دو موقعیت با تحمیل کم و زیاد می سنجید، شرکت کردند. سه عامل (مهارت کلی، گرایش به سمت مطالعات انگلیسی و مهارت دسترسی واژگانی) اندازه گیری شد و تاثیر آن بردو عامل تناسب و روانی کلام درعمل گفتار تولید شده سنجیده شد. نتایج نشان می دهد که عوامل فردی تاثیر بسزایی بر تغییرات کاربردشناسی می گذارد، اما این تاثیرات در دو عامل تناسب و روانی کلام متفاوت بود.

Test method facet is one of the factors which can have an influence on the test takers’ performance. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of two different response types, multiple-choice cloze and multiple-choice test, on the pre-intermediate and intermediate test takers’ reading comprehension performance. To this end, 40 pre-intermediate and intermediate learners participated in the study. To counterbalance the practice effect, the participants of the study at both pre-intermediate and intermediate levels were randomly assigned into two groups. For each level, there were two types of tests and two test administrations. Within each level, the two groups took these two tests in a different order. For all participants of the study there were two scores based on multiple- choice cloze and multiple-choice tests. Two Paired sample t tests were separately run to compare the pre-intermediate and intermediate test takers’ performance on multiple-choice cloze and multiple-choice tests. Two independent samples t tests were run to compare the pre-intermediate and intermediate test takers on these two tests. There was no significant difference between the pre-intermediate test takers’ performance on these two types of tests. There was a significant difference between intermediate test takers’ performance on the tests. There was no significant difference between the pre-intermediate and intermediate test takers’ performance on the multiple-choice cloze tests. The intermediate test takers outperformed the pre-intermediate test takers only on the multiple-choice tests. Based on these results it can be concluded that test methods can have an influence on the test takers’ performance, especially at higher proficiency levels and learners may need to have reached a certain level of proficiency to be able to understand the text.