درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Although Gardner and his associates’ work was most influential in the field of L2 motivation, from the early 1990s onwards, their work has been criticized for several reasons. Some researchers claimed that integrative and instrumental orientations were no longer able to convey the complexity of the L2 motivation construct. To examine this complexity, the present study attempted to investigate the discursive construction of four (two males and two females) Iranian EFL learners’ motivation at Shiraz University, Iran. Employing van Leeuwen’s (2008) legitimation construction framework, the study revealed that depending on their future selves, each participant employed certain discursive strategies unique to him/her to (de)legitimize his/her future self. Therefore, what was observed was the use of strategies which were idiosyncratic to that particular person, in that particular context, for a specific purpose, and for that particular moment. Additionally, given the unique political conditions of Iran in the world, it was found that integrative and instrumental orientations can be best replaced by ideal and ought-to selves in this context. The study has some implications. Motivation researchers need to broaden the unit of analysis beyond the individual learner to the interaction between the individual and the multitude of factors in diverse social settings.

Alternative assessment approaches received considerable attention soon after a discontent with traditional, one-shot testing. These approaches, however, have been used only to improve learners’ linguistic ability despite communicative models of language which pointed that knowledge of language also involves pragmatic ability (Bachman, 1990; Bachman & Palmer, 1996). The present study tries to explore the effect of two alternative assessment approaches (self-assessment and conference) on students’ production of four speech acts (apology, complaint, request, and refusal) plus politeness markers. A sample of 64 EFL students participated in this study. Metapragmatic explanations were given to three groups of university students studying English as a foreign language. The two treatment groups received instruction through self-assessment and conference and a comparison group was exposed to the conventional one-shot testing. The results of the One-Way ANOVA conducted after the treatment revealed an outperformance of alternative assessment approaches to the conventional one in the production of the four speech acts and politeness markers in WDCTs. A qualitative analysis of students’ self-ratings in the self-assessment group revealed that they focused more on linguistic criteria during the initial sessions and on pragmatic ones by the end of the treatment. It can be concluded that alternative assessment approaches are beneficial to students’ production of speech acts and politeness markers. In the end, the applicability and the positive effect of alternative approaches in pragmatic assessment are emphasized.

. 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.

In response to the increasing interest in and need for a practical brief measure in language testing, this study explored the properties of an offline short-form test (OSF) versus a conventional lengthy test. From the total of 98 vocabulary items pooled from the Iranian National University Entrance Exams, 60 items were selected for the conventional test (CT). To build the OSF, we created an item bank by examining the item response theory (IRT) parameter estimates. Data for the IRT calibration included the responses of 774,258 examinees. Upon the results of the item calibration, 43 items with the highest discrimination power and minimal guessing values from different levels of ability were selected for the item bank. Then, using the responses of 253 EFL learners, we compared the measurement properties of the OSF scores with those of the CT scores in terms of the score precision, score comparability, and consistency of classification decisions. The results revealed that although the OSF generally did not achieve the same level of measurement precision as the CT, it still achieved a desired level of precision while lessening the negative effects of a lengthy test. The results also signified an excellent degree of correspondence between OSF and CT scores and classification results. In all, findings suggest that OSF can stand as a reasonable alternative for a longer test, especially when conditions dictate that a very short test be used.