درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

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.

تحقیقات اخیر در زمینه منظور شناسی بین زبانی به این نتیجه رسیده اند که بعضی از جنبه های منظور شناسی زبان را می توان در محیط های کلاسی آموزش داد. اما اینکه چه روشهایی و چه مفاد آموزشی بهترین تاثیر را دارند قابل بحث است. بنابراین، هدف از تحقیق حاضر بررسی تاثیر مطالب خودآگاهی بخش برگرفته از ویدئو بر درک کنش های گفتاری عذرخواهی، درخواست و امتناع می باشد. بدین منظور، 78 فارسی زبان سطح متوسط به بالا بطور تصادفی در چهار گروه (فرا منظور شناسی، جستجوی ساختار، ایفای نقش، و کنترل) قرار گرفتند. به این چهار گروه 45 برش ویدیو که از فیلم های Flash forward, Stargate TV series & Annie Hall, در 9 جلسه 60 دقیقه ای هفته ای دو بار تدریس شد. نتایج آزمون چند گزینه ای تکمیل کلام نشان داد که تمامی این سه روش آموزش موثر بوده اند و تست Tukey (HSD) نشان داد که عملکرد گروه فرا منظور شناختی از گروههای دیگر بهتر بوده است. یافته ها حاکی از ان است که مدرسین و تالیف کنندگان کتاب های آموزشی می توانند از ویدیوهای آموزشی برای آگاهی بخشی مفاهیم منظورشناسی در کلاس درس استفاده کنند.

اغلب مشاهده می شود که زبان آموزان انگیزه ی کافی برای توجه به و به کار گیری نظرات و پیشنهادات استاد برای بهبود کیفیت نوشته های خود را ندارند. از طرف دیگراساتید اغلب همراه با تصحیح متون نگاشته شده توسط دانشجویان، اقدام به ارزشیابی کمی آنها نیز می نمایند علیرغم اینکه می دانند این نوع ارزشیابی باعث منحرف شدن هر چه بیشتر توجه دانشجویان از نظرات و پیشنهادات استاد می شود. با این وجود عدم ارزشیابی کمی امکان پذیر نمی باشد چرا که هم دانشجویان و هم موسسات آموزشی خواستار چنین ارزشیابی ای هستند. برای فائق آمدن به این مشکلات، تکنیک جدیدی به نام ارزشیابی پلکانی ابداع گردید تا ارزشیابی کمی دیگر نه تنها باعث بی توجهی به نظرات استاد نشود بلکه دانشجویان را به پرداختن به و اعمال آن ها در نوشته های خود مشتاق سازد. در ارزشیابی پلکانی دانشجویان می توانند با اعمال نظرات استاد اقدام به بهبود کیفیت نوشته های اولیه خود نموده و بر اساس کیفیت نسخه ی اصلاح شده، نمره ی دریافتی خود را ارتقا بخشند. این روند می تواند تا ٢ مرتبه ادامه یابد. نمره نهایی دانشجو، میانگین نمراتی خواهد بود که وی در آخرین نسخه ی اصلاح شده ی هر یک از تکالیف خود در طول ترم تحصیلی کسب کرده است. مطالعه ی حاضر ، تلاشی در راستای بررسی تاثیر این شیوه ی جدید بر روی سه شاخص روانی نوشتار، پیچیدگی ساختار و صحت ساختار بود. نتایج به دست آمده حاکی از پیشرفت دانشجویان گروه آزمایش در هر سه مقیاس بود در حالیکه گروه گواه تنها توانست در مقیاس روانی نوشتار پیشرفت کند.

طراحی تکالیف با سطح پیچیدگی شناختی معقول همیشه ازدیدگاه برنامه ریزان درسی, معلمان , و محققین حائز اهمیت بوده است چرا که تغییر تکالیف (از لحاظ پیچیدگی) می تواند منجر به نتایج متفاوتی در زمینه تولیدات شفاهی گردد. این تحقیق تلاشی در جهت بررسی تاثیر تغییر درتکالیف بر اساس 3 مورد (نیاز به برهان, تعداد عناصر, و موقعیت ""اینجا و اکنون"" در مقابل"" آنجا و سپس"" ) از مدل resource-directing , مطرح شده توسط رابینسون, بر روی نقل داستان از روی تصایر است. این تحقیق شامل 30 زبان آموز ایرانی در رنج سنی 20 تا 34 سال بود. همه این افراد موظف به انجام هردو مدل تکلیف (پیچیده و ساده) برای نقل داستان از روی تصایر بودند. داده های صوتی ضبط و سپس تست پارامتریک MANOVA برروی آن انجام گردید. نتایج نشان داد که افزایش پیچیدگی شناختی در تکالیف منجر به افزایش صحت و پیچیدگی زبانی گردید. یافته های این تحقیق می تواند بینش عمیقی برای تدوین کنندگان مطالب درسی در خصوص تدارک تکالیف و زبان آموزان در راستای سنجش پیشرفت فراهم آورد.

پژوهش حاضر به بررسی بیان اختلاف در استدلال میان زبان آموزان پیشرفته ی ایران و ارتباط آن با عوامل محیطی می پردازد. داده ها های تحقیق نتیجه استدلال نمیان ۲۶ گقتگوکننده به زبان انگلیسی در سه حالت مختلف: 1) موسسه زبان، 2) محیط خانه، 3) محیط دانشگاه است. نمونه مطالعه بر اساس دسترس پذیری انتخاب شدند. تجزیه و تحلیل این استدلال ها نشان دهنده ی تاثیر عوامل محیطی مانند روابط طرفین و بافت موقعیتی که در آن شرکت کنندگان بحث می کنند، بر نحوه ی ابراز مخالفت بود. نتایج این مطالعه تایید کرد که عمل گفتارمخالفت پیچیده و چند بعدی است و جنبه های مختلف محیط بر بیان آن به عنوان یک عمل گفتار تهدید کننده وجهه طرفین یا بهبود بخش تاثیرگذار خواهند بود. بنابراین در این پژوهش پیشنهاد شد که نمی توان این عمل گفتار را بدون در نظر گرفتن عوامل محیطی مورد مطالعه قرار داد، و نشانگرهای زبانی به سادگی نمی توانند مخالفت را در دسته بندی مودبانه / بی ادبانه یا ترجیحی/غیرترجیحی قرار دهد. این پژوهش همچنین نشان داد که روابط، صفات شخصی، پس زمینه، سطح مهارت زبانی و بافت موقعیتی که در آن استدلال می کنند از عوامل مهم است که تعیین کننده ی مخالفت به عنوان حفظ کننده یا تهدیدکننده ی وجهه هستند.

Teacher questions are claimed to be constitutive of classroom interaction because of their crucial role both in the construction of knowledge and the organization of classroom proceedings (Dalton Puffer, 2007). Most of previous research on teachers’ questions mainly focused on identifying and discovering different question types believed to be helpful in creating the opportunities for learners’ interactions. Drawing on conversation analysis through adopting socio-cultural perspective, this study, however, aims to examine how EFL teachers manage understanding-check questions in their talk-in-interaction. For this purpose, six EFL teachers’ discursive classroom practices were observed, video-recorded, and transcribed line-by-line in its entirety. Through the microanalysis of the transcribed data, our findings suggest that EFL teachers vary in their management of understanding-check questions and the teachers’ understanding-check questions tend to serve different functions in the different micro-contexts identified. Three major sequential environments emerged to feature understanding-check questions in this study: Activity-boundary environment, post-instruction environment and within-activity environment. The findings of the study indicate that understanding-check questions at activity boundary environment are designed to accomplish dual functions, however those launched in post-instruction and within-activity environments maintain a singular focus on ensuring absolute understanding of the just-given explanation or instruction.

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.

Although images are abundant and play significant aesthetic and pedagogical roles in today’s EFL course books, they are still one of the less explored areas of research. The present study is an attempt to examine the role and function of images in Iranian high school EFL course books; it also aims to cast a critical eye over their suitability and efficiency. To this end, Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006) model of visual grammar was adopted. The findings revealed that although the informative and/or illustrative functions of the images make them important resources in Iranian high school EFL course books, their full potential for language learning does not seem to be adequately exploited. This relates to flaws at the representational mode of meaning making, such as outdated portrayal of objects, gender stereotyping, and overdramatizing national identity as well as shortcomings at the interactive mode, such as poor modality due to grayscale printing and plain graphics with no contextualization or pictorial detail. These flaws make the images seem out of today’s world and hardly credible for high school students who are already adept at new technology. Since these shortcomings may sacrifice pedagogical objectives, the study calls for changes in both technical quality and underlying messages of images in the course books.

The role of teachers in the educational context could go beyond simply teaching the subject matter. It is not uncommon for some students to be greatly influenced by certain teachers and even consider them as their role models. An interesting and novel way of inferring the impact a teacher has on the students is through revealing the status of the teacher as perceived by the students. The present study pursued two goals: first, to construct and validate a teacher status scale (TSS); and second, to reveal the relative status of English language teachers as compared to other school teachers in students’ perceptions. Regarding the first goal, an 18-item teacher status scale was designed and, using the data collected from 200 students, its construct validity was substantiated through Rasch model. As for the second goal, 650 junior high school students rated their 300 teachers. The data was then analyzed using Chi-square test. In addition, 135 students participated in short interviews and a total of 530 minutes of recorded interviews constituted the qualitative data. Based on the results, English teachers were found to have the highest status of all school teachers as perceived by the students. Finally, statistical results were discussed, and implications were provided for English language teaching in the formal context of education.

Academic writing ability is an important goal that learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL) try to attain. While ESL students’ academic writings have been widely explored, owing to few studies investigating appraisal resources in EFL students’ argumentative writing, the gap still exists about EFL students’ academic writing. This study aimed to see how Kurdish-speaking learners of English employ appraisal resources in their writings. It further aimed to explore whether the appraisal framework can be utilized as an assessment scale for evaluating the students’ argumentative writing. To this end, the study investigated the argumentative essays written by 15 bilingual Kurdish-Iranian graduates of English within the framework of the appraisal theory. The instruments applied in this study consisted of a modified rating scale for assessing the essays in terms of the macrostructures exploited in them and the framework for the analysis of appraisal resources. Quantitative findings revealed high-graded essays employ more attitudinal items and fewer monoglossic resources than low-graded ones. Qualitatively, the high-graded essays articulated attitudinal values in nominal forms and sometimes in a backgrounded manner while these values were mostly presented by surge of feelings and in a foregrounded way in the low-graded essays. Regarding engagement, unlike the high-graded essays, the low-graded ones were poor in recognizing other voices and alternative positions. Inspired by the strength of the appraisal model evaluating writing, results suggest that high-graded essays are successful in positioning readers attitudinally and clarifying the ethical message to readers.

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.

Language and culture are now deemed to be co-constitutive; hence English language teaching (ELT) textbooks should incorporate cultural aspects and promote intercultural competence. However, careful decisions should be made as regards to the cultural content of materials and the ways in which culture is represented. This study was an attempt to deconstruct the patterns of cultural representation and intercultural interactions in Interchange textbooks, an ELT textbook series taught to English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in Iran. Using content analysis of texts and images and with the focus on nationality, gender and race, it examined how different cultures were reflected in Interchange 1, Interchange 2, Interchange 3, and whether cultural bias or inequality was present. The quantitative and qualitative data analysis revealed that the white male group was dominant in all three textbooks. And, to use Kachru’s (1985) terms, inner, outer and expanding circle nationalities were represented in the textbooks, with the expanding circle constituting the major nationality, but American culture of inner circle was predominant. Additionally, the interactions were mainly limited to superficial aspects of the target culture although these textbooks sought to show various intercultural interactions. Dominance of male and white characters and the US culture indicated inequality in race and gender, and the superficial treatment of culture in the textbooks. Less attention to the hybrid culture and deeper level of intercultural aspects, i.e. critical reflections, in the textbooks suggests that the materials be supplemented by EFL teachers’ constructive discussion of the cultures that interact.

Critical pedagogy (CP), as a poststructuralist educational movement, challenges the asymmetrical, power-over nature of classroom discourse and seeks to accommodate multivocality in the classroom and in the society. This study probed the discourse architecture of EFL classrooms in Iran. Specifically, it aimed to explore to what extent Iranian EFL classrooms have stepped away from the teacher-dominant initiation-response-follow-up (IRF) discourse structure and welcomed CP-oriented dialogism and multivocality. To this end, a number of EFL classrooms in Isfahan and Shahrekord (Iran) were observed, and the running classroom discourse was audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. The results showed that discourse-construction opportunities were distributed unevenly in favor of teachers regarded as the sole authority in the classroom. Student-regulated symmetrical talks were seldom evidenced in the classrooms. The findings further demonstrated that the power-over IRF discourse architecture, despite its communicative inadequacies, still seems to be dominant in EFL classrooms in Iran. Finally, it is suggested that L2 practitioners should move towards transforming the status quo, include more elements of CP into L2 classrooms, and invest in dialogism and multivocality as essential mechanisms to de-silence the students.

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

یادگیری لغات اغلب باید به صورت اتفاقی از طریق شنیدن و خواندن به وجود آید. این یکی از دلایلی است که به اهمیت وجود یک برنامه خواندن وسیع و قابل توجه در یادگیری زبان انگلیسی اشاره می کند. مطالعات وسیع این فرصت را به فراگیران زبان می دهد تا به خواندن حجم زیادی از مطالب و موادی که در سطح سواد آنهاست بپردازند. یادگیری زبان از طریق شرایطی چون تکرار، بازیابی، استفاده خلاقانه و توجه کامل به وجود می آید. این شرایط را می توان در حین خواندن به شیوه های مختلفی از طریق باریک خوانی، خواندن مجدد، خواندن و ارتباط با مهارت های دیگر، خواندن و بحث، و یادگیری از طریقه تمرینات خواندن افزایش داد. فعالیت های رایانه ای می توانند با فراهم کردن فرصتی برای یادگیری عمدی موثر واقع شوند، اما باید در نظر داشت که یادگیری عمدی نباید جایگزین خواندن وسیع شود.