مطالب

This study tested the impact of implicit and explicit knowledge of grammar on learners’ use of oral communication strategies (OCSs) and the interface of OCSs and oral fluency. The study was performed on 24 male and 36 female Iranian university students of English Translation studying at Payame Nour Universities of Lar, Khonj, and Evaz chosen based on availability and ease of access. The data were gathered using Timed Grammaticality Judgement Test (Dekeyser, 2000) as a measure of implicit knowledge of grammar, a structure section of TOEFL Paper-based Test (version 2004) as a measure of explicit knowledge of grammar, Oral Communication Strategies Inventory (Nakatani, 2006), and two oral production tasks for measuring learners' oral fluency. Analysis of the data using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and Pearson’s Correlation showed that both implicit and explicit knowledge of grammar affect learners’ use of oral communication strategies; however, no relationship was found between overall use of OCSs and oral fluency which can be suggestive of greater or possibly overriding impacts of some other variables on oral fluency compared to OCSs. The findings of the study are supposed to provide guidelines for learners, teachers and syllabus designers concerning the use of OCSs, especially with regard to other variables considered in this study.

Building on Robinson’s (2001, 2003) Cognition Hypothesis, Skehan’s (1998) Limited Attentional Capacity Model, and Kellog’s (1986) model of writing, this study examined the effect of task planning on the fluency, accuracy, and complexity of 60 Iranian EFL learners’ argumentative and narrative writings under different planning conditions. A quasi-experimental design with three levels of planning conditions (pre-task planning, within-task planning and no-planning) and different time constraints was used. Measures of fluency, accuracy, and complexity were used to evaluate the quality of the participants’ written productions. The results of a series of one way Multivariate Analyses of Variance (MANOVAs) indicated that increasing task complexity, through task planning conditions and also different tasks produced significant differences among the groups in fluency and accuracy; however, with regard to syntactic complexity, both tasks provided similar results among the groups. The findings add support to the view that selecting an appropriate task with appropriate task-based implementation conditions can induce language learners to increase, accuracy and fluency, but not syntactic complexity of their output. Pedagogical implications are discussed and suggestions for further studies are made.

Advertisement has long been used as a tool for informing and attracting audiences in different ways. This study aims at investigating the linguistic tools of advertisement in Persian on the basis of Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar theory. The data of this study were gathered from written and verbal commercial advertisements which were recorded and rewritten in order to investigate verbal groups in the sentences in terms of process and function types and subsequently compare the two bodies. The results showed that material and relational processes had highest frequency in Persian language in terms of ideational metafunction. From the interpersonal metafunction perspective, information function was frequent in most cases. Regarding these factors, there was no significant difference between verbal and written bodies.

Code-switching is known to be a widespread phenomenon among bilinguals and in ESL/EFL teaching/learning process; it refers to any alternate use of two codes or languages within the same conversation or even the same utterance. The present study is an attempt to investigatethe functions, types and frequencies of code switching in students discourse in the context of ELT classrooms.The study also explores the relationship between the language proficiency level of the students and their use of code switching. To achieve this end, two groups of students (at two different levels of proficiency) from two classes of general English courses in an institutional program in Oil Ministry Center of Isfahan were selected as participants. All sessions of an entire semester were videotaped. A coding scheme was developed for classifying students’ instances of CS into relevant functions.The data were tabulated, and frequencies and percentages were conducted by SPSS program. The findings indicate that the majority of CS in the classroom is highly purposeful, and related to pedagogical goals. Also, the research found that pedagogical functions were more frequently fulfilled through CS compared to social functions. The findings of this research suggest that code switching is a necessary tool for teachers due to a number of pedagogical considerations in ET classrooms and can give teachers a clue to have a better understanding of student code switching in ELT classrooms and use CS in the direction of teaching and effective learning.

Evolution of languages has always been of interest to linguists. In this paper we study the natural progress of the syllable structure from Old Persian (O.P) to Middle Persian (Mi.P) and up to the Modern Persian (Mo.P). For this purpose all the words containing consonant sequences are collected from specific sources of each of these languages, and then analysed according to the syllabification principles. Pulgram (1970) distinguishes three principles for this matter which is stated in Hyman (2003:279).The first one, is the maximum open syllable principle, the second, the minimum coda and maximum onset principle and the last one is the irregular coda principle. In addition , to find the syllable structure of the words, phonological rules are also applied. Greenberg (1978) suggests a number of rules specifying the collocation constraint of phonemes and phonological structure of the word, which are: Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP), Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) and Syllable Contact Law (SCL). On basis of these rules and principles the clusters are separated from sequences, and the syllable structure of each language is acquired. Finally the progress of the syllable structure change is studied through representing the data from all three languages, and investigating the process taken for clusters to reach the present time. As the data exhibits, in O.P initial consonant clusters are frequently observed and also, through syllabification, some final syllable clusters will be obtained. In Mi.P also both initial and final clusters fully exist, with growing number of final ones. Initial consonant clusters are completely omitted in Mo.P and only final clusters remain. Deletion and vowel insertion are the two most occurring processes in these processes.

Systematic phonics instruction in first language education has recently received considerable research attention due to its critical role in facilitating phonological awareness and processing skills. However, little is known about the effects of systematic phonics instruction on foreign language reading and spelling in an EFL context. This study examined the effects of spelling-based phonics instruction on 9-12 year old Persian speaking learners’ reading and spelling English words. The participants were randomly assigned into two groups: a control group who received non-phonics instruction, and an experimental group who received spelling-based phonics instruction. CORE Phonics Survey (2003), a battery of diagnostic tests and tasks, was used to uncover the effects of phonics on oral reading and word spelling development of the learners. The results of independent-samples t-test revealed that after 10-weeks of instruction, the spelling-based phonics instruction had really significant effects on improving both young Iranian EFL learners’ oral reading and whole word spelling. In other words, the experimental group benefited from spelling-based phonics instruction compared to the group with non-phonics instruction.