درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

. 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.

هدف از پژوهش حاضر، بررسی تأثیر چهار روش تدریس واژگان تخصصی زبان اقتصاد، یعنی تدریس از طریق تفصیل ریشه ای، تعریف بافتی، ترجمه ی فارسی و تدریس ضمنی، بر درک مطلب متون تخصصی اقتصاد بوده است. یافته های پژوهش نشان داد که در زمینه درک مطلب کلی تفاوت معنی داری بین روش های تدریس وجود ندارد اما در مورد درک ایده ی نویسنده ، روش تدریس تفصیل ریشه ای بر سایر روش ها برتری داشت.

This study aimed to explore the relationships between foreign language learners’ self-identity changes, motivation types, and Foreign Language proficiency associated with learning English in private language schools in Iranian context. Based on a stratified sampling, 204 English as a foreign language learners from three language schools in Tehran were selected to participate in the study. The instruments were a 30-item Likert-scale questionnaire on motivation types in seven categories: intrinsic interest, immediate achievement, learning situation, going aboard, social responsibility, individual development, and information medium; a 24-item Likert-scale questionnaire on self-identity changes in six categories: self-confidence change, additive change, subtractive change, productive change, split change, and zero change. Results revealed that self-confidence change was the prominent change common among foreign language learners. Canonical correlation analysis revealed that motivation types and self-identity changes were related through three pairs of canonical variables: intrinsic orientations related with personal identity changes, instrumental orientations related with cultural changes, and instrumental orientations related learners’ self-confidence change. Theoretical and pedagogical implications for foreign language learning and teaching are also discussed.

This study examined the Iranian EFL learners’ multicultural developmental trend in light of Investment Hypothesis as they furthered their academic studies from BA toward postgraduate levels. In so doing 117 BA, 92 MA, and 35 Ph.D. EFL students at AllamehTabataba’i University, Tarbiat Modarres, and Islamic Azad Universities, Tehran, Iran, were randomly selected to provide answers to Multicultural Personality Traits Questionnaire (MPQ) that measures individuals’ Multicultural Personality Traits (MPTs: Cultural Empathy, Open-Mindedness, Social Initiative, Emotional Stability, and Flexibility). Ph.D. students’ MPTs mean was found to be 277.77; MA students’ MPTs mean score was 272.20; and BA students’ MPTs mean score was 267.96. The ANOVA conducted revealed that EFL Iranian students’ MPTs improved as they furthered their academic career from BA to MA and from MA to Ph.D. levels. The study concluded that advancement in EFL students’ academic career resulted in a concomitant development in their MPTs and among the five MPTs, cultural empathy and social initiative were found to have been significantly improved at Ph.D. level. Among the MPTs, Social initiative provides the highest contribution to social interactions and its significant development at Ph.D. level is confirmatory of the discursive-constructionists’ approach to L2 learning.

هدف این پژوهش بررسی تاثیر یادگیری تلفیقی و استفاده از نرم افزارهای چند رسانه ای بر توانایی به خاطر سپاری کلمات بوسیله ی دانشجویان انگلیسی برای اهداف خاص می باشد. به همین منظور 120 زبان آموز رشته ی پزشکی به دو گروه آزمایشی و کنترل تقسیم شدند. کلمه ها به کمک نرم افزارهای چند رسانه ای به گروه آزمایشی تدریس شد در حالی که آموزش کلمات برای گروه کنترل با روش های سنتی صورت پذیرفت. جمع آوری اطلاعات بوسیله ی پس آزمون و نظارت بر کلاس ها انجام شد. نتیجه ی بررسی ها نشان دهنده ی اختلاف زیاد بین یادگیری کلمات جدید توسط این دو گروه بوده است. به علاوه، یادگیری از طریق تکنولوژی سبب مشارکت بیشتر زبان آموزان در فعالیت های کلاسی شد. با توجه به نتایج این تحقیق، پیشنهاداتی جهت چگونگی استفاده ی موثرتر از این نرم افزارها در کلاس های زبان انگلیسی برای اهداف خاص در ایران بیان شده است.

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.

Various studies have confirmed the influential role of corrective feedback (CF) in the development of different linguistic skills and components. However, little, if any, research has been conducted on comparing types of linguistic errors treated by teachers through CF. To bridge this gap, this study sought to investigate the linguistic errors addressed and the types of CF provided by teachers. To this end, the classes of 40 teachers teaching at the intermediate level were audio-recorded for two successive sessions. The detailed analysis of around 128 hours of classroom interactions showed that explicit correction was the most frequent CF type, accounting for 48.5 percent of all CF types provided, and recast was the second most frequently used CF type, constituting 29.5 percent of all CF types. All the other CF types (i.e. request for clarification, confirmation check, repetition, metalinguistic feedback, elicitation, and multiple feedback) constituted 22 percent of the CF. Repetition was the least frequently used CF type, amounting to 0.66 percent of the CF given by teachers. As to the linguistic focus of CF, pronunciation errors were found to be the mostly noticed target for teachers’ CF, constituting 47 percent of all errors addressed, while vocabulary was the least frequently addressed linguistic target, accounting for 17.5 percent of all errors. The study suggests that teachers prefer explicit corrective strategies over implicit ones and that they provide CF mainly to correct pronunciations errors. The study suggests that there is a need for change in the types of CF teachers use and the relative attention they assign to different linguistic error types they treat through CF

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.

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.