درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

روند معمول در آموزش و ارزشیابی زبان دوم براین است که میزان توانایی خواندن فراگیران را بر اساس نمره ی کل فراگیران زبان روی آزمون خواندن تعیین میکنند. بدین صورت که آیتم ها موجود در آزمونهای خواندن از نمرات یکسان برخوردار بوده و سوالات بارم بندی متفاوت ندارند. این روند براساس این پیش فرض هست که ماهیت سوالات خواندن تک بعدی وبازنمایی پذیراست و ماهیت تراکمی دارد به نحوی که بر اساس نمره ی کل دانشجو میتوان متوجه شد که چه سوالاتی را پاسخ داده است. اما تحقیقات بسیار کمی این نظریه را از طریق روشهای تحلیل آماری روانسنجی مورد آزمایش قرار داده اند درحالیکه همواره این نظریه مورد بحث و انتقاد بوده است. در این تحقیق آزمون آیلتس ماژول C با 503 دانشجوی ایرانی برگزار شد که از نظر توانایی خواندن متفاوت بودند. دو مدل روانسنجی قطعی و احتمالی تک بعدی برای بررسی کردن خاصیت ماهیت تراکمی سوالات خواندن و درک مطلب آیلتس بکار رفت . نتایج نشان میدهد که داده ها در این تحقیق از نظر مدل جبری مقیاس گاتمن، خاصیت بازنمایی پذیر و یا ماهیت تراکمی ندارند در حالیکه از نظر مدل احتمالی راش داده ها تک بعدی به نظر میرسند. اما نکته ی مورد توجه این است که نتیجه ی Person Map نشان میدهد کهنظم و ترتیب قرار گرفتن آیتمها مطابق با انچه تیوری خواندن ادعا میکند و آنچه که به طور معمول بر اساس پیش فرض ماهیت تراکمی مقیاس گاتمن در نمره دهی اجرا میشود نیست بنابراین این پیش فرض با توجه به نتایج Person Map تایید نمیشود.

This study aimed to investigate the use of interactional metadiscourse markers in 168 comments made by 28 university students of engineering via an educational forum held as part of a general English course. The students wrote their comments on six topics, with a total of 19,671 words. Their comments during educational discussions were analyzed to determine their use of five metadiscourse categories (hedges, boosters, attitude markers, engagement markers, and self-mentions), making up interactional metadiscourse in Hyland’s (2004) model. Following descriptive analysis of the use of metadiscourse categories, chi-square tests were used to investigate the possible differences in the whole sample as well as gender-based differences. The findings showed that although female EFL learners used more metadiscourse markers than males did, the differences were minor and hence gender did not significantly influence the use of interactional metadiscourse markers. However, while male and female participants used all types of interactional metadiscourse, how they used them varied. They used engagement markers and self-mentions more frequently than boosters, hedges, and attitude markers. Since metadiscourse markers play crucial roles in mediating the relationship between what writers intend to argue and their discourse communities, the results of the present study have obvious importance in increasing students’ awareness of the way they organize their writings.

The present study was an attempt to investigate the significance of verbalization and teaching the concepts of listening on the development of listening performance among Iranian EFL learners. To do so, an experimental study was designed in which the participants were sixty pre-intermediate learners selected based on the results of their performance on a standard version of Oxford Placement Test (OPT). The participants were divided into two experimental groups. The learners in experimental group I (Systemic Theoretical Instruction- Explanation and Materialization (STI-EM), were exposed to materialized tools which consisted of presenting the target concept in charts accompanied by the examples and related strategies to extract the concept, while Group II students (Systemic Theoretical Instruction- Explanation, Materialization, and Verbalization (STI-EMV), enjoyed materialized tools as well as collaborative verbalization. The learners in both groups went through pre-test, intervention, and post-test. The collected data were analyzed through employing analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The results indicated that the group which practiced collaborative verbalization in L1 outperformed the one which was just mediated by teacher's oral explanation and materialized objects

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 was aimed at examining concerns about the social effects of EFL learning, a challenging area of research which has not been discussed sufficiently. It tried to investigate the relationship between EFL learning and national identity. In addition, attempt was made to find a relationship between language motivation types and national identity. Furthermore, the role of two demographic variables, gender and age was examined. To this end, a sample consisting of 350 undergraduates studying at Allameh Tabataba'i University in Tehran took part in the study. A questionnaire on national identity and another one on language motivation types followed by an interview were the instruments used. The questionnaires had already been developed. However, there were some major modifications for the former which consisted of 30 items measuring national identity for all participants. The latter contained 42 items measuring language motivation types for only EFL learners. The Regression analysis, independent samples t-tests and a one-way ANOVA were run. The results revealed that claims over the harmful social effects of EFL learning were not arguably significant and it was found that among the eight language motivation types, going abroad and social responsibility were correlated with national identity. Furthermore, gender and age indicated significant differences among the participants' tendencies. The findings indicated that the social concerns about EFL learning are too pessimistic. So, materials developers, syllabus designers and teachers might consider the potentiality of some social elementsand demographic variables for the development of EFL learning.

مطالعات پیشین نشان می دهد که بازخورد اصلاحی در عملکرد زبان آموزان تأثیر مثبتی دارد. پژوهش شبه-آزمایشی حاضر بر آن است تاثیر بازخورد اصلاحی بر نوشتار خود باز خورد دهندگان و دریافت کنندگان بازخورد اصلاحی را بسنجد. برای نیل به این هدف، 45 زبان آموز در 3 کلاس نگارش بازخورد دهندگان، دریافت کنندگان بازخورد و گروه گواه گمارده شدند. گروه اول آزمایشی، بر کاربرد ناصحیح حروف تعریف a/an، the و همچنین زمان گذشته در نوشته های دریافت کنندگان، بازخورد اصلاحی دادند. گروه دوم، باز خوردها را مرور کردند و در نوشته های بعدی خود بکار گرفتند و گروه سوم هیچ بازخورد اصلاحی ندادند و دریافت نکردند. پس از 4 هفته، پس آزمون بلافصل و 2 هفته بعد از آن پس آزمون تاخیری اجرا گردید. تحلیل داده های حاصل از پس آزمون های بلافصل و تاخیری حاکی از آن بود که گروه باز خورد دهندگان عملکرد بهتری نسبت به گروه دریافت کنندگان بازخورد اصلاحی داشتند. همچنین نتایج نشان داد که عملکرد هر دو گروه آزمایشی در استفاده از ساختارهای مورد هدف به صورت معنی داری بهتر از گروه گواه بود

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.

The main objective of the present study was to investigate the differences between Iranian EFL monolinguals and bilinguals in terms of vocabulary language learning strategies. In fact, it was an attempt to investigate whether bilingual/ monolingual learners differ significantly in using vocabulary learning strategies. To this end, 70 EFL, 45 monolingual (Persian) and 25 bilingual (Arabic-Persian) pre-university students were selected to answer Schmitt’s Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire (VLSQ). The participants were homogeneous in terms of age, sex, nationality and level of instruction. Following the administration of a general English proficiency test and one VLSQ, interviews were conducted. Then, descriptive statistics and independent t-test were used to analyze the data. The findings obtained through comparison revealed significant dissimilarities between bilinguals and monolinguals’ usage of determination, memory, cognitive and metacognitive strategies. There was no significant variation, however, in their use of social strategies. Further, interviews exhibited some aspects that were not mentioned in the VLSQ.

A community of practice may shape and reshape the identity of members of the community through providing them with situated learning or learning environment. This study, therefore, is to clarify the salient learning-based features of the language teaching community of practice that might formulate the identity of language teachers. To this end, the study examined how learning situations in two communities of practice (English and Arabic) developed the professional identity of language teachers. The results of the semi-structure interviews with 5 language teachers highlighted some differences between English and Arabic language teaching communities of practice in terms of the situated learning activities they provide for language teachers to develop their professional identity. Furthermore, since the community of practice can be considered a potential curriculum that may be learned by newcomers with legitimate peripheral access, it would be considered as a main source of identity formation of both English and Arabic language teachers. The findings of the study can be used to better understand the nature of being a professional language teacher in non-native contexts. They have implications for novice and experienced language teachers as well as for teacher educators to review the content of the teacher training courses

The application of critical pedagogy in educational contexts has received adequate research attention over the last decades. The main focus of this strand of research has, however, been on raising awareness of the educators. Nevertheless, little is known about the consequences of the violation of critical pedagogy principles from EFL teacher trainers’ perspectives. To begin to address this gap in research, a qualitative (phenomenological) study was carried out to explore the main consequences of violating critical pedagogy in the higher education system of Iran. The participants were 15 faculty members of TEFL and English Literature at 10 Iranian state universities. The data were collected through in-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews and analyzed according to Radnor’s (2001) model. The results indicated that the main consequences of the violation of critical pedagogy were educational (related to teaching, learning, and testing), psychological, social, and ideological. Therefore, it was concluded that educators must follow the principles of CP in order to avoid the negative consequences and foster the learning and teaching processes more effectively.

این مطالعه تأثیر انواع مختلف ارائه معنای لغات را به صورت چندرسانه ای (متنی، تصویری و ویدئویی) از طریق بردهای هوشمند بر درک مطلب دانش آموزان ایرانی مورد بررسی قرار می دهد. از بین 102 نفر جمعیت کلی زبان آموزان دختر، 60 نفر بر اساس آزمون استاندارد نلسون انتخاب شدند. سپس آنها به صورت تصادفی به 4 گروه 15 نفره تقسیم شدند که عبارتند از: سه گروه آزمایش که از ارائه معنای لغات بهره می بردند و یک گروه کنترل. بر اساس نتایج مطالعه آزمایشی، بعضی از لغات متون کامپیوتری، به وسیله یک برنامه نرم افزار کامپیوتری، دارای چند لینک شدند که از طریق این لینک ها معنای آن ها به روش های مختلف (متنی، تصویری و ویدئویی) از طریق برد هوشمند ارائه می شد. وقتی معلم در حین تدریس لغت لینک دار روی برد هوشمند را لمس می کرد یک صفحه جدید ظاهر می شد. این صفحه یا لغت را با معنی آن به صورت متنی (برای گروهی که معنای لغات را فقط به صورت متنی دریافت می کردند), یا با تصویر آن (برای گروهی که معنای لغات را فقط به صورت تصویری دریافت می کردند) و یا با ویدئو ( برای گروهی که معنای لغات را از طریق فیلم و انیمیشن دریافت می کردند) نمایش می داد. هر گروه از زبان آموزان، متن های کامپیوتری را از طریق اینترنت برد هوشمند در کلاس درس بر اساس یکی از روش های فوق می خواندند. نتایج آماری داده های به دست آمده نشان داد که 1) هر سه گروه آزمایش که از ارائه معنای لغات با استفاده از برد هوشمند بهره می بردند (متنی، تصویری و ویدئویی) نسبت به گروه کنترل که از ارائه معنای لغات توسط برد هوشمند هیچ بهره ای نمی بردند، متون زبان انگلیسی را به صورت قابل توجهی بهتر درک می کردند.2) گروهی که معنای لغات را به صورت فیلم ویدئویی و انیمیشن توسط برد هوشمند دریافت می کردند در درک مطلب نسبت به گروه هایی که معنای لغات را فقط به صورت متنی یا فقط به صورت تصویری توسط برد هوشمند دریافت می کردند عملکرد بهتری داشتند؛ اما به صورت معنادار نبود. و در آخر هیچ تفاوت معناداری بین سه گروه آزمایش در درک و دریافت زبان آموزان از متون زبان انگلیسی از طریق برد هوشمند وجود نداشت.