درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This paper elaborates on Persian and English orthographic shared aspects to study the effects of L1 Persian on learning English as a foreign language. While there are some examples of letter and sound mismatches in the orthographic system of both languages, those of English are more complex than Persian. In order to see the effect of the mismatch between orthography and transcription, 40 Persian EFL learners were divided into two proficiency groups i.e., advanced and elementary, and their performance was examined on comprehension and production tasks. The learners’ production skills were checked via a list of 76 pseudo words requiring the learners to read them while their voices were recorded. After one week time interval, a comprehension test consisted of 34 items was administered, requiring the learners to listen and choose among the orthographic forms presented to them. It was hypothesized that being educated in L1 Persian comprising semi-opaque orthography system, the learners would tackle the English opaque graphemes better on the mismatches. However, it was observed that both elementary and advanced groups had difficulty learning English orthography system, showing almost no positive effect from L1. Only in rare cases more proficient learners performed better due to more schooling education in English.

This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between teachers' personality type (feeling vs. thinking) and speaking skill of pre- intermediate EFL students in Iranian context. Twelve teachers and forty eight students from a local language institute participated in the study. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), an instrument based on Jung’s personality theory, was taken from teachers and students were administered Preliminary English Test (PET) interview. SPSS was used to calculate the required analyses. The results showed a statistically significant positive relationship between teacher’s’ personality type and learners’ speaking skill. It was also indicated that there is a statistically significant difference between speaking skill of learners taught by feeling teachers vs. thinking teachers. In fact students in the feeling group had higher speaking scores than their counterparts in the thinking group.

One of the major criticisms leveled at task-based language teaching (TBLT), despite its countless merits, is developing fluency at the cost of accuracy. The post-task stage affords a number of options to counteract this downside through task repetition and task recycling. These two options are considered to positively affect learners' oral performance in terms of fluency, accuracy, and complexity (CAF). The purpose of the present study is to compare the relative effect of task repetition and task recycling on Iranian EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ oral performance in terms of CAF. To this end, eight intermediate EFL learners, randomly selected from 30 students in two classes of 15, took part in this study. The participants in both task repetition and task recycling groups were assigned to perform a total of eight tasks. Four of these tasks were identical in both groups. Each session included one task plus its second performance, namely repetition for the first group and recycling for the second. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test was used to statistically analyze the recorded data of learners' performances on all eight occasions in terms of CAF. The results revealed a significant effect of task repetition on all three measures of performance while task recycling did not prove to have a significant effect except for fluency. On the level of between-group differences, task repetition was found to be dominant outweighing task recycling in all three measures of oral performance. Task repetition is hence advised to be incorporated in teaching English, particularly in EFL contexts as a viable tool to hone learners’ oral performance on CAF.

. روش های آموزش و یادگیری زبان فرانسه به عنوان زبان خارجی، از دهه 60 میلادی به این سو تحولی چشمگیر داشته اند. این تحولات منجر به تغییراتی کلی در محتوای کتب آموزش زبان شده است. تغییراتی که بی ارتباط با تصویر جلد متدهای آموزشی نیست. این تحقیق به دنبال تبیین رابطه احتمالی میان محتوای کتاب های آموزش زبان فرانسه و تصویر جلد آن ها از طریق مطالعه نشانه- معناشناختی جلد پنج کتاب آموزش زبان فرانسه است. کتاب های بررسی شده ویژه آموزش بزرگسالان و متعلق به سه رویکرد آموزشی مختلف است. این تحقیق در حقیقت، مبتنی بر مفهوم نظری نشانه شناسی در مکتب پاریس است که بر اساس آن بین صورت و محتوای زبان، ارتباطی متقابل وجود دارد. هدف این تحقیق آن است که با استفاده از روش های نشانه- معناشناختی نشان دهد که چگونه محتوای کتاب های آموزش زبان به تصویر جلد کتاب راه انتقال می یابند. هدف دیگر این تحقیق بررسی تحول جلد کتاب های آموزش زبان فرانسه از طریق رابطه متقابل میان اهداف نظری و آموزشی هر رویکرد و بازنمود نشانه -آموزشی آن است.