درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Self-regulation is the ability to regulate one’s cognition, behavior, actions, and motivation strategically and autonomously in order to achieve self-set goals including the learning of academic skills and knowledge. Accordingly, self-regulated learning involves self-generated and systematic thoughts and behaviors with the aim of attaining learning goals. With that in mind, this study aimed to examine the effect of self-regulation instruction to the intermediate EFL readers on their ability to make within-text inferences while reading. Zimmerman’s model of self-regulation with its three cyclic phases of forethought, performance and self-reflection constituted the theoretical basis of this study. Two intact intermediate classes in an English language institute were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group was trained in self-regulatory processes which were directed at EFL reading comprehension for ten sessions, while the control group received the routine, traditional reading instruction involving pre-, while-, and post-reading tasks and activities. The results of parametric one-way between-group ANCOVA showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the post-test of EFL reading comprehension, particularly in term of within-text inferencing. This finding revealed that self-regulation instruction aimed at EFL reading comprehension significantly contributed to learners’ ability to make correct within-text inferences while reading in English as a foreign language.

بررسی انتقال دانش منظورشناختی افراد از زبان مادری به زبان دوم یا زبان خارجی، همواره یکی از موضوعات مورد توجه محققین بوده است. با این وجود، در بین نتایج به دست آمده از مطالعات اندکی که قابلیت این انتقال را مورد بررسی قرار داده اند، اختلافاتی وجود دارد. مطالعه حاضر تلاشی بوده است در بررسی قابلیت انتقال فارسی به انگلیسی استراتژی های رد درخواست توسط زبان آموزان فارسی زبان. به طور مشخص، تأثیرات درجه سختی شرایطی که در آن درخواستی رد می شود و همچنین نوع درخواست رد شده بر قابلیت این انتقال بررسی شده است. برای این منظور پرسشنامه ای به کمک 60 زبان آموز فارسی زبان طراحی شده و در نهایت توسط 74 شرکت کننده اصلی در مطالعه تکمیل شد. نتایج به دست آمده حاکی از تأثیر دو جانبه درجه سختی شرایط و نوع درخواست رد شده بر قابلیت انتقال دانش منظورشناختی افراد است. این به این معنی است که آگاهی زبان آموزان از شرایطی که تحت تأثیر آنها درخواستی را رد می کنند، در تصمیم گیری نهایی آنها در اینکه کدام قسمت از دانش خود از زبان اول را به دیگر زبان ها انتقال دهند، تأثیرگذار است.

مطالعه حاضر با استناد به فلسفه ی انکارپذیری پوپر سعی بر آن داشته تا به طور تجربی بررسی کند که آیا عواملی مانند جنسیت، آشنایی با موضوع متن، علاقه به موضوع یا محتوای متن، حدس زدن جواب سوالات، و عوامل مربوط به بافت اجتماعی می توانند بر پایه ی قوی از فلسفه ی انکارپذیری استوار باشند. در این مطالعه عملکرد آزمون درک مطلب 203 دانشجوی زبان ایرانی شامل 110 زن و 93 مرد به وسیله ی مدل آماری رگراسیون لوجستیک و نظریه پاسخ-سوال (IRT) مورد بررسی قرار گرفت. نتایج نشان داد که برای عوامل آشنایی با متن و جنسیت تنها مدل رگراسیون توانست عملکرد افتراقی را نشان دهد که این نتایج تاثیر جنسیت را تایید می کرد ولی نتایج مربوط به آشنایی با متن کاملا متناقض بود. نتایج حاصل از دو مدل رگراسیون و IRT در خصوص درآمد و حدس زدن جواب سوالات در تضاد با یکدیگر قرار داشتند ولی نتایج مربوط به تحصیلات والدین و محل سکونت با هم همراستا بوده و تاثیری معنادار بر عملکرد افتراقی سوالات آزمون درک مطلب داشتند.

ارزیابی دانش دستوری یکی از موارد تقریبا مغفول در تحقیقات رشته ی آموزش زبان با سوالات بی پاسخ فراوانی می باشد (پورپورا، 2004). مروری بر سازه دستوردر ادییات تحقیق بیانگر آن است که مدل های دستور زبان به صورت مکفی به ابعاد این دانش نپرداخته اند. تحقیق حاضر با استفاده از پیشنهادات اخیر در مورد ماهیت توسعه دانش دستوری اقدام به تهیه ی چارچوبی شامل ابعاد پیچیدگی، گستره، و قوت برای یافتن بهترین پیش بین وضعیت دانش دستوری فراگیران زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان دوم کرده است. به این منظور، سند اولیه مشخصات آزمون دانش دستوری تهیه و توسط گروهی متشکل از هفت کارشناسی که در زمینه بررسی سند آزمون تربیت شده بودند مورد بازبینی قرار گرفت. سند مشخصات اصلاح و آزموی مبتنی بر آن به 158 فراگیر انگلیسی با سطوح مختلف توانش داده شد. سوالات با استفاده از نظریه کلاسیک آزمون و مدل راش تحلیل گردید. نتایج رگراسیون گام به گام حاکی از آن است که بهترین مدل پیش بین دانش دستوری فراگیران با توانایی پایین تر شامل گستره و قوت است در حالیکه برای فراگیران با توانایی بالاتر بهترین مدل پیش بین قوت و پیچیدگی است. این یافته دال بر آن است که سند مشخصات آزمون دانش دستوری می تواند شامل ترکیبی از صورتهای سوال مختلف برای اندازه گیری ابعاد مختلف این دانش باشد.

در این مقاله، مسئله تدوین کتاب درسی برای دوره مقدماتی آموزش زبان روسی در ایران بررسی می شود. نویسندگان سعی دارند نیازهای آموزشی نوین را که به هنگام انتخاب محتوای درسی برای این دوره حائز اهمیت هستند، تجزیه و تحلیل کنند و در این راستا به اصول فراگیری زبان روسی توسط ایرانیان تکیه می نمایند. بر اساس نتایج به دست آمده در نظر گرفتن ویژگی های ملی و حتی آداب و سنت ها در روند آموزش مقدماتی زبان خارجی تأثیر مثبت خواهد داشت و به ارتقای اثربخشی آموزش کمک خواهد کرد. در این مقاله همچنین برخی اصول انتخاب مواد درسی در آموزشِ مؤثرِ خط و املا و نیز روش استفاده از برنامه های کامپیوتری در آموزش زبان روسی به دانشجویان ایرانی مورد بررسی قرار می گیرد.

Testing pragmatic competence has always posed daunting challenges to researchers and practitioners. As a step to address the gap in pragmatic testing, this paper delineates the procedural stages of developing and validating a context-sensitive Multiple Choice Discourse Completion Test (MDCT). Following a unitary view of validity, tenable argument and empirical evidence was accumulated to support the construct validity of the test. While 136 advanced learners of English took the developed test, it exhibited reasonable internal consistency (α= .72). Furthermore, the results of correlational studies revealed acceptable association between the scores of this MDCT with both a written version of the same test and a previously validated test of pragmatics from the literature endorsing its concurrent validity. Also, the MDCT proved efficient in differentiating between native speakers and EFL learners as suggested by the results of an independent samples t-test. Finally, a pretest-posttest experimental study with 26 intermediate EFL learners was designed to check the sensitivity of the test towards developments in learners’ interlanguage after which a t-test analysis corroborated the construct validity of the test. This array of evidence denotes that the suggested MDCT can be reliably used in EFL contexts as a valid measure of pragmatic competence.

This study aims to compare the effects of four types of FFI on second language vocabulary learning. To do so, the study adopted a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design, including five groups, each receiving a distinct treatment. The participants were 80 fourth-grade male students ranging in age from 17 to 19. Before the treatment phase, the participants took a researcher-made test of vocabulary as a pretest which was meant to measure the participants’ prior knowledge about the target words. After the treatment phase, the participants took a researcher-made test of vocabulary as posttest to measure the students' achievement of the target words. Independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA were run to analyze the scores from the pretest and the posttest. The results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between proactive and reactive FonF in the comprehension mode in terms of promoting vocabulary learning. There was also no statistically significant difference between these two forms of FonF in the production mode in terms of promoting vocabulary learning. However, there was a statistically significant difference between the comprehension-based and production-based FonF in enhancing vocabulary learning. These results extend the positive effect of FFI to L2 vocabulary teaching/learning.

This study investigated the role of interactive output tasks in developing EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge. The participants were 103 elementary female Iranian EFL learners who were randomly divided into three groups: input-only, input-output-no-interaction, and input-output-interaction. After all participants took a placement test and a vocabulary pretest, the input-only group was exposed to input tasks, while the other two groups received both input and output tasks with or without interaction. Then, all the participants took a vocabulary posttest. The results of ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests showed that the participants in both the input-output-no-interaction group and the input-output-interaction group outperformed the ones in the input-only group in the vocabulary posttest (in both the overall vocabulary test and in the productive vocabulary section). Moreover, the results of the t-test and the Mann-Whitney test revealed that the participants in the interaction and no-interaction groups performed similarly on both the overall vocabulary posttest and the productive vocabulary section. The findings of this study support the idea that output is a facilitative factor for the acquisition of L2 vocabulary and, specifically, productive vocabulary development. The results also suggest that both interactive and non-interactive output-plus-input tasks can lead to higher achievement in vocabulary knowledge compared to the input-only condition lacking output tasks

در این پژوهش به بررسی تاثیر فناوری های جدید اطلاع رسانی و ارتباطی در آموزش بر بهبود توانش های دستوری و آگاهی فراشناختی در دستور نزد معلمان آینده زبان فرانسه در دانشکده تعلیم و تربیت دانشگاه تانتا، پرداخته می شود. به نظر می رسد که استفاده از فناوری های اطلاع رسانی و ارتباطی در آموزش نه تنها عملکرد دستوری زبان آموزان بلکه آگاهی فراشناختی آنها را نیز می-تواند بهبود بخشد. آگاهی فراشناختی تاثیر زیادی بر فراگیری زبان فرانسه دارد. تحقیقات زیادی مانند عبدالغنی (2009 و 2010) نشان دادند که زمانیکه فراگیران به عملکردهایشان آگاه باشند چگونه مرتکب این یا آن خطا می شوند و چگونه آنها می توانند با استفاده از فناوری های اطلاع رسانی و ارتباطی در آموزش، عملکرد زبانی شان را بهبود بخشند. از منابع مجازی بر خط مانند Franc-parler.org (پایگاه جهانی معلمان زبان فرانسه به عنوان زبان خارجی) و غیره استفاده شد تا تاثیر آنها بر آموزش دستور و رشد آگاهی فراشناختی در دستور نزد معلمان آینده زبان فرانسه در مصر بررسی شود.

Cognitive linguistics gives the most inclusive, consistent description of how language is organized, used and learned to date. Cognitive linguistics contains a great number of concepts that are useful to second language learners. If-clauses in English, on the other hand, remain intriguing for foreign language learners to struggle with, due to their intrinsic intricacies. EFL grammar books are paying focal attention to present explanations of if-clauses in terms of their form not meaning, hence not giving attention to their contextual meaning usage. Cognitive linguistic insights on if-clauses discuss their complexity in such a way that could be very beneficial for L2 learners. This study aims to investigate the effect of two different ways of teaching (cognitively-oriented and task-oriented) on learning English if-clauses. A sample of 60 non-English postgraduate students in three groups, two experimental groups (cognitively-oriented and task-oriented) and one control group participated in our study. The results indicated that participants from the cognitively-oriented group performed better than those in task-oriented and control groups and proved a higher degree of comprehending English if-clauses in different contexts. The findings have implications for curriculum and materials developers, as well as the English language teachers in incorporating insights from cognitive linguistics in second language materials.

Given the fact that developing an intimate relationship between teacher and students creates a safe learning environment (Harran, 2006), and because teacher immediacy is proved to increase students’ motivation for learning (Velez & Cano, 2008), this study was an attempt to explore the relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ perceived teacher immediacy and their willingness to communicate (WTC). To this end, first, a new WTC questionnaire, specific to EFL settings, was developed, piloted, factor analyzed, and then administered on 90 intermediate EFL learners. In the second phase, the participants were required to complete Gorham’s (1988) Verbal Immediacy Measure (VIM) and McCroskey et al.’s (1996) Revised Nonverbal Immediacy Measure (RNIM). The findings revealed that there are 7 factors underlying EFL learners’ WTC, one of which is teacher immediacy. Further analyses showed that there is a positive relationship between both verbal and nonverbal teacher immediacy behaviors and EFL learners’ WTC in EFL classes. It can be concluded that teacher immediacy is one of the constituents of EFL learners’ WTC and that their WTC is likely to increase when teachers demonstrate immediacy behaviors while teaching. The present study has implications for language practitioners as well as teacher trainers.

As the main part of a large-scale project, the present study investigated the relationship among reflective thinking, listening anxiety, and listening comprehension of Iranian EFL learners with regard to their proficiency level. To this end, 223 (106 intermediate and 117 advanced) adult male and female Iranian EFL learners from a private language institute took part in the study by completing the Reflective Thinking Questionnaire (RTQ) developed by Kember et al., (2000), the Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FLLAS) developed by Kim (2000) and a listening comprehension test selected from the listening part of IELTS. Using factor analysis and Chronbach’s Alpha, the questionnaires were revalidated and their reliability was re-estimated. The results of Pearson product moment correlations indicated there was a statistically significant: (a) positive association between reflective thinking and listening comprehension, (b) reverse correlation between listening anxiety and listening comprehension, and (c) reverse relationship between reflective thinking and listening anxiety of Iranian EFL learners. Furthermore, the results of multiple regression analysis indicated listening anxiety, compared to reflective thinking, was a significantly stronger predictor of listening comprehension. Additionally, the results of MANOVA revealed there was a significant difference between intermediate and advanced EFL learners with respect to their reflective thinking and listening anxiety. In the light of the findings of the study, foreign language education policy makers in general and EFL teachers in particular are thus recommended to introduce ways to enhance reflective thinking of the students and decrease their listening anxiety if they are to improve their listening comprehension. The results and implications of the study are discussed in more detail in the paper.