علی اکبر جباری

Considering the facilitative role of corrective feedback in language learning, the impact of learners’ noticing on its effectiveness, and the significant contributions of individual attributes in learners’ noticing the corrective feedback, this study is designed to examine how learners’ implicit theories of intelligence (Mindset), an individual attribute, predict their preferences for oral corrective feedback (henceforth, OCF). A total of 143 Iranian EFL learners participated in the study. The participants were assigned to groups of fixed mindset (N=26) and growth mindset (N=26) based on their scores on Language Mindset Inventory (LMI) scale. The data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively. The results indicated that there were significant differences between the fixed-mindset and the growth-mindset groups in their beliefs toward some aspects of OCF. All in all, it can be claimed that language mindset (henceforth, LM) has a significant role in EFL learners’ beliefs about OCF. Pedagogical implications for considering learners’ LM in providing OCF are also discussed.

This study investigated the motivation of Burundi junior secondary school students learning simultaneously three foreign languages: French, English, and Kiswahili. A 65-item questionnaire was employed to sample the views of 348 (grade 7 through 9) learners from state schools. Using Dörnyei’s (2009) L2 motivational self-system as the main theoretical framework, this study specifically explored temporal changes in L2 motivation of the participants over the three-year period across the three target languages. In doing so, the present study adopted a quantitative research design with a cross-sectional approach and the obtained data were analysed by means of descriptive and inferential statistics namely a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and stepwise multiple regression analyses. Statistical analyses were computed using SPSS - version 22. The results indicated that there were significant differences in most of the measured motivational scales across the three languages with ninth grade students scoring significantly lower than their peers from lower school grades. Moreover, the results revealed that L2 learning experience and ideal L2 self were the two variables that respectively predicted most the students’ intended effort to learn each language. One school grade-related difference was that international posture appeared as a significant factor among seventh grade students in relation to French learning and among ninth grade pupils regarding English learning. Another finding, which was unexpected, was that English (L3) appeared to be the most popular foreign language among these students. In the light of the results, pedagogical implications are discussed based on the socio-educational context of Burundi.

Drawing on qualitative research, this study explored, from a complex dynamic systems theory perspective, the motivation of Burundi junior high school students simultaneously learning L2 French, L3s English and Kiswahili. It aimed to fill the gap in research on (1) changes in motivational dynamics and factors responsible for any fluctuations in the levels of motivation over time and (2) complex interactions between different learner variables among multiple language learners. Twelve school pupils who were all Kirundi native speakers participated in this study. Retrospective interviews were used to collect data relating to the students’ multilingual learning experiences over the period of their formal education. The findings indicated that the intensity of learning each target language fluctuated over time, with English generally enjoying the highest increase and Kiswahili the lowest and that different factors were responsible for such dynamic changes. Besides, complex interactions between the students’ L1, L2, and L3s linguistic knowledge and their foreign language learning motivations were revealed. These results indeed highlight the complex and dynamic nature of motivation in learning multiple languages. In light of these findings, practical implications are discussed based on the Burundi educational context.

This study employed the Linguistic Proximity Model (LPM) to investigate the effect of cross-linguistic influence (CLI), target language proficiency as well as their interaction in the acquisition of L3 English past perfect, present progressive, and present perfect tenses by L1 Kirundi-L2 French bilinguals. In that perspective, 90 learners including 30 L1 Kirundi-L2 English bilinguals, 30 L1 French-L2 English bilinguals, and 30 L1 Kirundi-L2 French-L3 English trilinguals completed an Oxford Quick Placement Test, a Background Information Questionnaire, and a Grammaticality Judgment Task. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, multivariate analysis of variance, post hoc comparisons, and independent sample tests. Results revealed that neither Kirundi nor French exerted an exclusive influence in the L3 past perfect and present progressive tenses. However, concerning the L3 present perfect, the results indicated a significantly facilitative effect from L2 French.  The results showed also a significant effect of target language proficiency: while lower-proficiency learners experienced a relatively negative influence from previous languages, higher-proficiency learners utilized their complex multicompetence to overcome difficulties linked to structural differences. Besides structural similarity reported in the already existing L3A studies, the findings herein point to L3 learners’ complex multicompetence as a new factor capable of driving CLI in the LPM framework.

This study compares and contrasts tense and inherent aspect in English and Persian from semantic and syntactic points of view. The aspectual verb systems in both English and Persian, are semantically interpreted alike. However, in Persian a group of stative verbs are grammaticalized by the imperfective obligatory morpheme mi -, while in English all stative verbs are perfective. Furthermore, while in Persian all accomplishment verbs can be shifted into activity verbs by deleting their direct object markers (i.e. by means of noun - incorporation), in English accomplishment verbs cannot be shifted into activity verbs. Finally, while English has six tense forms: present, present perfect, past, past perfect, future, and future perfect, Persian has five tense forms; it lacks future perfect tense with present perfect tense used instead.