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The current second language (L2) instruction research has raised great motivation for the use of both processing instruction and meaningful output instruction tasks in L2 classrooms as the two focus-on-form (FonF) instructional tasks. The present study investigated the effect of structured input tasks (represented by referential and affective tasks) compared with meaningful output tasks (implemented through text reconstruction cloze tasks) on the acquisition of English nominal clauses (NCs). The study sought to investigate if (1) both input and output instruction would lead to significant gains of knowledge in acquiring NCs, and (2) there were any significant differences between learners' receptive and productive knowledge of nominal clauses. First-year undergraduate students studying at four intact university classrooms participated in the study. The effectiveness of the tasks was determined by a noun-clause recognition test and a sentence combination production test administered both as the pretest and posttest. The results revealed that both processing instruction and meaningful output instruction helped the learners improve their receptive knowledge of grammar effectively; nevertheless, the processing instruction group did not significantly outperform the meaningful output group in their gains of receptive knowledge of grammar. The findings further illustrated that meaningful output instruction group significantly outperformed processing instruction group in their productive knowledge of grammar

مفید بودن تدریس تلفظ در تدریس زبان همیشه یک موضوع بحث برانگیز بوده است. اگرچه تحقیقات گذشته نشان می دهد که معلمان نمی توانند تفاوت عمده ای در بهبود تلفظ دانش آموزان خود به وجود آورند، مطالعات جدید نشان می دهد که تلفظ زبان خارجی می تواند با بکار گیری عوامل مشخصی مانند استفاده از عناصرعروضی تا سطح زبان مادری پیشرفت کند. با تاکید بر ارتباطات معنادار و فهم این که تولید سخن تحت تاثیر درک سخن می باشد، نیاز به ادغام فعالیت های عروضی و ارتباطی برای ایجاد موقعیت هایی که در آن تلفظ دانش آموزان از طریق شنیدن وسخن گفتن پیشرفت کند، احساس می شود. این مطالعه به بررسی این عوامل می پردازد.

This article reports on the findings of a study that investigated the impact of manipulating task performance conditions on listening task performance by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The study was designed to explore the effects of changing complexity dimensions on listening task performance and to achieve two aims: to see how listening comprehension task performance was affected and to investigate possible overlaps between EFL learners’ perceptions of task difficulty and hypothesized task complexity. A purposive sample of 54 first-year EFL learners randomly assigned to two parallel conversation classes in an English department of a major public university participated in the study and performed listening tasks in a language lab. The instruments used for data collection were seven tasks taken from a TOEFL Test Preparation Kit, each followed by listening comprehension questions and an item on the participants’ personal perception of the difficulty of the task. During counter-balanced administrations, the tasks were manipulated for one of the four dimensions of task difficulty (adequacy, immediacy, perspective, and prior knowledge). The resulting data included the participants’ perception of difficulty as well as their performance scores under less complex and more complex conditions. One-sample T-test and correlation analyses of the data revealed that for all of the four complexity dimensions, the hypothesized less complex task condition led to better learner performance. The correlation between learner-assigned difficulty score for the task at hand and theoretical task complexity level was significant only for the immediacy dimension (r=-0.67, p<.05). The results offer support for task complexity frameworks, raise doubts about learners’ perceptions of tasks, and imply possibilities for task manipulation in language learning contexts.

This study compared the effects of two types of form-focused tasks on proceduralization and transfer of linguistics knowledge in case of English modals. All participants of the study attended pretests, posttests and delayed posttests. The procedural comprehension and production knowledge were measured through the groups’ performance on a timed dual task test that resembled the context of practice. The transfer of knowledge was measured by evaluating the performance of participants on a timed dual task test in a context dissimilar from or reverse to the practice context. Three intact classes of intermediate EFL learners were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The output group (n= 27) received explicit grammar instruction and a combination of three output practice, while the input group (n=25) received explicit instruction and a combination of three input practice. Identical texts were exposed to the control group (n=25) through listening and reading tasks. The texts were followed by some questions irrelevant to English modals. On the procedural knowledge posttests, the experimental groups outperformed the control group. The participants were able to transfer the knowledge to dissimilar contexts. The results may help language teachers design more effective activities for the learners considering the institutional constraints

تحقیق حاضر کوششی در جهت یافتن مولفه های فرهنگی پنهان در مجموعه کتب درسی cover to cover از انتشارات اکسفورد می باشد که هم اکنون در برخی دانشگاه های ایران در درس زبان عمومی تدریس می شود. برای انجام تحقیق حاضر از دو شیوه استفاده شد: 1) بررسی کیفی متون خواندنی مجموعه سه جلدی این کتاب با استفاده از تحلیل محتوایی متون ان بر اساس اصالت سنجی متون از جهت گنجاندن ارزش های فرهنگی غربی. در این مرحله بررسی بر روی شش متن ( از هر جلد دو متن) به شکل انتخاب تصادفی صورت گرفت. 2) در مرحله دوم از روش مصابه با ""گروه هدف"" از تجربیات مدرسینی که از این مجموعه کتب در کلاس های درسی خود استفاده کرده بودند بهره گرفته شد. در نهایت بررسی دو مرحله ای نشان از عدم تطابق مفاهیم فرهنگی پنهان موجود در این مجموعه با محیط های فرهنگی و ملی ایرانی داشت. در پایان پیشنهادات نویسنده در راستای ارتقای وضعیت موجود با استناد به افزایش قدرت و آگاهی فرهنگی به مدد اموزش های تحلیلی برای گویندگان غیر بومی زبان بررسی شدند.

Given the significance of teacher care and its impact on student motivation, stroke as a unit of recognition seems to be related to motivation for class attendance and language learning. In this regard, this paper aimed to investigate the role of stroke in students’ willingness to attend classes(WTAC) and their foreign language achievement (FLA) in the foreign language context. To this end, a scale was developed and validated through structural equation modeling (SEM) to measure learners` WTAC. A total number of 260 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners completed the newly developed scale along with the stroke scale. Regression analysis was used to examine the relationships among the variables. The results demonstrated that WTAC, Non-verbal, and Valuing subscales of stroke were the strongest predictors and Teacher Characteristics (TCH) subscale of WTAC was the only predictor for FLA. Finally, the results were discussed, and some implications were provided for educational settings. تاثیر نوازه بر تمایل به شرکت در کلاس درس و یادگیری زبان خارجی با توجه به اهمیت توجه معلم و تاثیر آن بر انگیزه شاگردان، نوازه به عنوان واحد دیده شدن افراد، به نظر می رسد با انگیزه شاگردان برای شرکت در کلاس و یادگیری زبان ارتباط دارد. در همین راستا، در این پژوهش به دنبال بررسی نقش نوازه در تمایل به شرکت در کلاس درس و یادگیری زبان خارجی هستیم. بدین منظور، پرسشنامه ای برای سنجش میزان تمایل برای شرکت در کلاس با مدل معادلات ساختاری تهیه و هنجاریابی گردید. از 260 نفر فراگیر زبان انگلیسی خواسته شد به این پرسشنامه و پرسشنامه نوازه پاسخ دهند. از تحلیل رگرسیون برای بررسی ارتباطات بین زیر سازه ها استفاده شد. نتایج نشان داد پرسشنامه جدید با زیر سازه غیر کلامی و ارزشیابی نوازه و ویژگیهای معلمی با یادگیری زبان ارتباط معنادار دارد. در پایان، نتایج بحث شد و برخی از کاربردهای این پژوهش برای محیطهای آموزشی ارایه شد.   کلیدواژه ها:نوازه، تمایل به شرکت در کلاس، حضور در کلاس، یادگیری زبان خارجی

Though privileges ascribed to various facets of language learning strategy training have long been espoused with regard to varied language skills and components, the role some individual variables such as emotional intelligence might play in this respect seems to have received very scant attention. The researchers in the current study embarked on a probe into the impact of metacognitive strategy training on Iranian EFL learners' argumentative writing performance, in the light of individuals' emotional intelligence and gender differences. To this end, a total of 69 advanced EFL institute learners were selected as the participants of the research. The experimental group members were, then, treated through the application of O'Malley and Chamot's (1990) CALLA (Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach) for metacognitive writing strategy training. Moreover, Bar-On's (1997a, 1997b) Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) was administered to learners to gain insight into their emotional intelligence status. The final analysis of data via running t-test and three-way ANOVA revealed significant differences between the performance of control and experimental groups. Additionally, while gender differences were found to produce significant writing performance differences, disparities in learners' emotional intelligence level didn't significantly affect the degree of gains resulting from metacognitive strategy training.

The efficacy of genre-based approach to teaching writing has been regarded as an influential practice in L2 writing pedagogy (Hyland, 2007). However, there is still gap between actual structures found in reading materials recommended as textbooks and discourse patterns recommended for L2 writing in EFL contexts, the gap which would highlight the problems of genre and rhetorical patterns for teaching. The current study, therefore, is an attempt to explore the level of consistency between the rhetorical patterns found in reading textbooks and discourse pattern recommended for writing. For this purpose, a number of 22 essays selected from textbooks were analyzed to identify (1) the overall rhetorical structures, and (2) the location of main idea and opinion of writers. The results show that while some texts did not follow the three-part structure of introduction-body-conclusion, main idea was presented in the introductory parts of essays, illustrating a deductive rhetorical pattern recommended for English writing. Further research was suggested as well.

The present study adopted a mixed-methods research design and explored the role of a set of cognitive (i.e., aptitude and working memory) and motivational (i.e., self-regulatory capacity and self-efficacy beliefs) individual difference variables in the writing quality and composing behavior of 78 Iranian undergraduate EFL learners. The necessary data were collected through a series of instruments and both quantitative (e.g., multiple regression and t-tests) and qualitative (e.g., narrative construction and qualitative comparative analysis) techniques were used to analyze the data. The results of these analyses indicated that the construct of foreign language aptitude had the highest level of correlation and contributory potential to account for the writing competence of the learners. The composing process of learners with different individual characteristics was also compared and it was found that learners with high self-regulation capacity orchestrated and managed their composing behavior in more effective ways compared to their less self-regulated counterparts. Moreover, the narratives and qualitative comparative analysis provided some insights about how various individual characteristics might affect the composing behavior of the individual learners. Finally, it was suggested that consideration of individual differences in writing can reveal more subtle information about the causes of strengths and weaknesses of different learners and may enable the teachers to design and implement more effective instructions targeting their learners’ individual needs