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To investigate the effects of etymological elaboration, contextual pragmatic clues, and lexical knowledge on L2 idioms comprehension and production, 60 male intermediate level EFL students in three groups were selected. Each group was randomly assigned to one treatment condition. Group one participants were presented with the etymological explanation of idioms. In group two, the same idioms were presented in short, familiar contexts, and in the third group, the participants focused on the exact meaning of the constituent parts of each idiom. At the end of the experimental period, comprehension and production posttests of idioms were administered. Two one–way ANOVA procedures were used to analyze data. Results showed that the participants of the etymological elaboration group performed significantly better than the participants of the lexical knowledge group on idiom production. The differences between the means in all other comparisons were not statistically significant. These findings may have implications for teachers, learners, and syllabus designers.

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.

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 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 current study aimed at investigating the academic learning needs of Iranian undergraduate students of English Language and Literature from the perspective of 320 stakeholders including undergraduate students (n=252), graduates (n=51), English literature instructors (n=7), and language instructors (n=10). To this aim, atriangulation of the most important data collection instruments of needs analysis (i.e., questionnaires, class observations, and semistructured interviews) was adopted for data collection at eight different Iranian state universities. The results of data analysis revealed that the above-mentioned students are not adequately equipped with learning and communication strategies during their academic and preacademic studies. The results of the current study may promise implications for the provision of some extracurricular EFL courses at the tertiary and senior high school levels in order to enhance students’ sociocultural and strategic competence based on the shared decision-making process among different stakeholders in the course design community

استقلال فراگیر همواره یک مسئله بحث برانگیز میان زبان شناسان کاربردی بوده است. مطالعات متعددی به منظور بررسی برداشت معلمان و یادگیرندگان از استقلال فراگیر و همچنین امکان استقلال فراگیر انجام شده است. با وجود اهمیت استقلال فراگیر و وجود چندین مطالعه مرتبط، چالش در ترویج استقلال فراگیر در موسسات ایرانی به زعم محقق انجام نشده است. هدف اصلی این مطالعه بررسی چالش ها در ترویج استقلال یادگیرنده از دیدگاه معلمان زبان انگلیسی ایران بود. برای این کار، یک طرح تحقیق کیفی استفاده شده است. برای انجام این تحقیق ، 23 معلم زبان انگلیسی ایرانی در دانشگاه های مختلف در تهران به صورت هدفمند انتخاب شدند. داده ها از طریق مصاحبه عمیق جمع آوری شده و از طریق تحلیل محتوا بر اساس مدل رندر تحلیل شده است. بر اساس تحلیل محتوای مصاحبه ها، سه موضوع مختلف استخراج شد. اولین موضوع مشاهده شده، چالش های مربوط به موسسه، شامل اهداف تجویزشده ، مواد و روش های ارزیابی می باشد. دومین موضوع، چالش های مربوط به فراگیر می باشد که از هفت زیرمجموعه تشکیل شده است. سومین موضوع به دست آمده، چالش های مربوط به معلم می باشد که از چهار زیرمجموعه تشکیل شده است. این یافته ها می تواند توسط معلمان، تربیت کنندگان معلمان و همچنین زبان آموزان استفاده شود. می توان نتیجه گرفت که معلمان زبان انگلیسی باید آموزش لازم دراستقلال یادگیرنده را از طریق دوره های آموزشی قبل از خدمت و ضمن خدمت ببینند.

The present study sought to investigate the evidence for cross-linguistic transfer in a partial English immersion and non-immersion educational setting. To this end, a total of 145 first, third and fifth graders in a partial English immersion program and 95 students from the same grade levels in a non-immersion program were chosen. Six different English and Persian tests were administered: the Cambridge English for Young Learners (YLE) Test for Reading, a Persian reading achievement test, the English and Persian Phonological Awareness Sound Detection tests and the English and Persian Rapid Automatized Naming Tests. Given the nature of the research question and the design of this study, linear regression analysis was run through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings suggest that there is an apparent cross-linguistic transfer between English reading achievement and Persian cognitive predictors in both educational settings. Relatively speaking, Persian cognitive predictors can moderately predict English reading achievement in Grades 1 and 5 and can weakly predict English reading achievement in Grade 3.

This article reports on the findings of a study that investigated the impact of manipulating task performance conditions on listening task performance by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The study was designed to explore the effects of changing complexity dimensions on listening task performance and to achieve two aims: to see how listening comprehension task performance was affected and to investigate possible overlaps between EFL learners’ perceptions of task difficulty and hypothesized task complexity. A purposive sample of 54 first-year EFL learners randomly assigned to two parallel conversation classes in an English department of a major public university participated in the study and performed listening tasks in a language lab. The instruments used for data collection were seven tasks taken from a TOEFL Test Preparation Kit, each followed by listening comprehension questions and an item on the participants’ personal perception of the difficulty of the task. During counter-balanced administrations, the tasks were manipulated for one of the four dimensions of task difficulty (adequacy, immediacy, perspective, and prior knowledge). The resulting data included the participants’ perception of difficulty as well as their performance scores under less complex and more complex conditions. One-sample T-test and correlation analyses of the data revealed that for all of the four complexity dimensions, the hypothesized less complex task condition led to better learner performance. The correlation between learner-assigned difficulty score for the task at hand and theoretical task complexity level was significant only for the immediacy dimension (r=-0.67, p<.05). The results offer support for task complexity frameworks, raise doubts about learners’ perceptions of tasks, and imply possibilities for task manipulation in language learning contexts.

Reading comprehension (RC) and critical thinking (CT) are the two basic cognitive skills that should be developed through involving language learners in a carefully planned instruction. Multiple intelligences (MI) instruction may assist learners in developing RC and CT in L2 education. This study probed the effect of MI-based reading instruction on the Iranian EFL learners’ RC and CT skills. In so doing, it compared the effectiveness of an MI-based reading instruction with a traditional one. To this end, 4 intact classes from several English language institutes, comprising 56 Iranian intermediate-level EFL learners, were selected and randomly assigned to MI-based (experimental) and traditional (control) groups. A multiple- choice RC test, a reading summary test, and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal test were used as the instrumentations to collect data on the participants’ RC and CT. Analysis of covariance revealed a significant effect for the MI-based reading instruction. Furthermore, the RC scores increased more significantly in the MI-based group in comparison to the traditional one. However, the CT scores did not significantly improve in both groups. There was also no statistically significant difference in the CT scores between the two groups after the treatments. Iranian EFL educators are, then, encouraged to develop MI-based lessons and activities for diverse students and take explicit instruction for the enhancement of CT skills in EFL reading courses

این تحقیق تلاشی در فعال کردن دانش لغوی غیرفعال از طریق توجه دهی و بررسی تأثیر جمله نویسی به عنوان فعالیت پس توجه دهنده بر تقویت تأثیر توجه دهی است. چهل و دو دانشجوی زبان انگلیسی سطح متوسط به بالای بزرگسال خانم، در دو گروه هم سطح از یک دانشگاه سراسری انتخاب شدند. آنها در تحقیقی شرکت کردند که در آن توجه به کلماتی که تولید آنها به آسانی فهمیدن آنها نبود، از طریق علامت زدن آن کلمات در یک متن خواندن انجام شد. سپس، شرکت کنندگان در یک فرآیند ٤ هفتگی جمله نویسی متراکم/ پراکنده شرکت کردند؛ شرکت کنندگان یک گروه هر هفته در طول ٤ روز پی در پی در هر روز، یک جمله با یکی از ١٦ لغت توجه شده نوشتند و گروه دیگر این فرآیند را یک بار در هفته تجربه کردند، به گونه ای که آنها بدون هیچ وقفه زمانی، ٤ جمله با ٤ کلمه توجه شده نوشتند. نتایج نشان داد که ارائه فعالیت پس توجه دهنده بر ارتقاء دانش لغوی تولیدی هر دو گروه به طور معناداری تأثیرگذار است. تعامل بین عامل زمان و روش های یادگیری معنادار بود. همچنین، نتایج عملکرد گروه پراکنده بهتر از گروه متراکم بود، ولی این تفوق معنادار نبود.