درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The present study chiefly aimed to compare two forms of dynamic assessment and standard assessment of EFL learners’ listening comprehension. 59 Iranian EFL learners were randomly assigned to three test administration groups and assessed on listening for main and supporting information in listening tasks. In the first group, dynamic assessment in a form of scaffolding in which for any incorrect answer graded prompts were progressively presented to learners until they answered correctly was implemented. In the second group, dynamic assessment in a form of direct instruction of listening tasks was implemented. The third group was in a form of standard assessment; learners completed the task independently without mediation. The results revealed statistically significant listening improvement in favor of dynamic-supported and dynamicinstructed assessment groups rather than standard assessment one. The findings of the study indicate that dynamic assessment can gain better insights into learners’ level of comprehension and their potential for future development and provide better learning effectiveness than those in statistic assessment group.

ELT has recently witnessed a shift away from a method-bound orientation and toward a post-methodic view of teaching English. Consequently, the focus of some second language teacher education programs has shifted toward sociopolitical aspects of ELT (Miller, 2004) and its contributions to reinforcement or transformation of the status quo (Kumaravadivelu, 2003a). Yet, in many countries, including Iran, ELT teacher education has maintained a relatively method-bound focus on technical dimensions of teaching English and has avoided adopting a critical and sociopolitical approach to ELT. In order to investigate the ways in which teacher education as currently practiced facilitates or stifles implementation of postmethod in ELT, the present study explored English teachers’ perceptions of the dominant approaches to teacher education in ELT centers in Iran and their ideological and pedagogical bases. To this end, 23 language teachers were interviewed about the logistics, content, and procedures of the teacher education programs they had attended. The analysis of the interviews, as directed by grounded theory, yielded three themes, namely no/little teacher learners’ involvement in course design and implementation, dominance of a transmission model, and dominance of a linguistic and technical focus

مطالعه حاضر کاربرد گفتگوی با خود توسط فراگیران زبان انگلیسی را در ساماندهی فعالیت های ذهنی آن ها بررسی می کند. برای این هدف موارد گفتگوی با خود 30 زبان آموز سطح متوسط بزرگسال در حین انجام فعالیتی حاوی معماهای چالش برانگیز به زبان انگلیسی ضبط شد. سپس موارد گفتگوی با خود زبان آموزان از نظر شکل، محتوا و کاربرد مورد بررسی قرار گرفت. نمونه های متعددی از بلند خوانی، تکرار، توضیح برای خود و همچنین مرور مطالب نشان می دهد که گفتگوی با خود در هدف گذاری، مدیریت ذهن، انگیزش و کنترل اضطراب نقش دارد. به علاوه، نتایج کاربردهای مفید گفتگوی با خود از قبیل هدف گذاری، مدیریت ذهن، انگیزش و کنترل اضطراب را در میان بسیاری دیگر نشان می دهد. این مطالعه بر آموزش کاربردهای گفتگوی با خود به زبان آموزان تاکید می کند و همچنین مدرسین را به هنگام سکوت فراگیران در فرایند آموزش زبان خارجی به صبر دعوت می نماید.

The present study investigated comparatively the impact of two types of input enhancement (i.e. textual vs. compound enhancement) on developing grammar ability in Iranian EFL setting. Sixty-five female secondary high school students were selected as a homogenous sample out of about a 100-member population based on Nelson language proficiency test. Then, their grammar ability was measured based on a researcher-made diagnostic test prior to the experiment. The sample was randomly divided into two equal groups; one group received text-enhancement-based instruction of grammar, while the other received compound-based enhancement. Finally, they received an achievement test of grammar as a posttest to measure their progress in light of two different types of input enhancement mechanisms. The pertinent statistical analyses of the results indicated that a) the effect of textual enhancement-based instruction of grammar is not significantly meaningful, while b) the compound enhancement-based instruction has significant effect on learning grammatical structures. Comparatively speaking, therefore, c) compound enhancement-based instruction of grammar is more significantly effective than that of textual in developing grammar ability. It can be safely concluded that grammar instruction and its resultant development are subject to intervention type, which, pedagogically, bears promising messages for both teachers and syllabus designers to incorporate parameters of input enhancement in both teaching and materials development, respectively.

This study investigated the characteristics of effective secondary school Iranian EFL teachers from students’ and teachers’ perspectives. To this end, 376 junior secondary school students and 32 EFL teachers teaching at various Iranian secondary schools participated in the study. A validated open-ended questionnaire was distributed among the student and teacher participants and asked for their opinions on key characteristics of an effective EFL teacher. A semi-structured interview was also conducted with the teacher participants to investigate why they deemed the characteristics important. The results of the content analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaire and the interview indicated that students and teachers were approximately of the same opinion, both highlighting teachers’ professional qualities (e.g., knowledge of the subject matter, ability to impart knowledge properly, etc.), classroom management-related qualities (e.g., involving all students by assigning pair work/group work activities, assessing their learning progress regularly, etc.), and interpersonal relationships as being of crucial importance for effective EFL teaching. However, they differed in the degree to which they perceived these qualities to be important

از دیدگاه زبانشناسی کاربردی یکی از مسایل بنیادی در برابر معلمین زبان، روش شناسان آموزشی زبان و برنامه نویسان درسی زبان آموزی این است که اصولا چه روند و مسیری در آموزش زبان خارجی یا زبان دوم کارآتر است: آموزش زبان برای کاربرد آن یا کاربرد زبان برای آموزش آن؟ بی تردید، برای این که گویشور زبان توانایی باشیم، معلومات و دانش در زمینه ساخت زبان و نظام و شیوه کارکرد آن امری است ضروری؛ ولی این دانش فی النفسه کافی نیست. به همین علت، در سال های اخیر گرایش و چرخشی ویژه از معلم و روش زبان آموزی به سوی خود زبان آموز صورت گرفته است. بدین ترتیب، در تعریف مؤلفه های توانش زبانی و مکانیزم ها و استراتژی های درگیر در فرآیند آموزش زبان تغییرات عمده ای صورت گرفته است. در مقاله حاضر، ماهیت و ویژگی های استراتژی های زبان آموزی یعنی ویژگیهای شناختی، فراشناختی، زبانشناختی و جامعه شناختی زبان مورد توجه قرار گرفته اند؛ و نقش مهم و تعیین کننده استراتژی های فراشناختی در آموزش استراتژی های زبان آموزی مورد تاکید ویژه قرار گرفته است .

This study was intended first to categorize the L2 learners in terms of their learning style preferences and second to investigate if their learning preferences are related to lexical inferencing. Moreover, strategies used for lexical inferencing and text related issues of text density and parts of speech were studied to determine their moderating effects and the best predictors of lexical inferencing. To this end, a posttest group design with 142 students studying engineering was adopted for the study. Perceptual style preferences questionnaire was administered to identify the students’ major learning styles, followed by strategy training for deriving the meaning of unknown words. Finally, lexical inferencing texts were given to the students to study and extract the meaning of unknown words and concurrently determine the type of strategy used for lexical inferencing. The results indicated that a great proportion of students belonged to the kinesthetic category of styles while the predominant treatments in the class were audio-visually structured. The analysis also revealed that tactile, kinesthetic, and group categories of style preferences are meaningfully related. Moreover, it was found that learning style preferences lead to statistically different lexical ineferncing. As for the strategies, the ‘syntactic knowledge analysis’ showed the highest correlation with ‘auditory learners’. Lexical density and parts of speech were also shown to moderate the effect of perceptual style preferences on lexical ability. On the whole, strategy and perceptual style preferences were found to be the two best predictors of successful lexical inferencing.

امروزه موضوع ارتقای سطح آموزش در سیستم های آموزشی نوین، مسئله ای مهم است. کیفیت آموزش به عوامل گوناگونی از جمله فعالیت استاد، فعالیت زبان آموزان و مواد درسی وابسته است. در این کار پژوهشی نقش تأثیر مواد درسی برروی کیفیت زبان آموزان در محیط های آموزشی ایران بررسی می شود. بر همین اساس، در این مقاله نقش مطالعه متون ادبی در خانه در بالابردن سطح کیفیت آموزش، تجزیه و تحلیل می گردد. منظور از مطالعه در خانه، مطالعه ای است که زبان آموزان برای تکمیل و بهبود مطالعه مواد درسی مرتبط با موضوعات آموزشی و فهم بهتر محتوای آن ها در خارج از محیط آموزشی به آن می پردازند. مؤلفان معتقدند که مطالعه آزاد متون ادبی در خارج از وقت های آموزشی می تواند تأثیر به سزایی بر روی کیفیت آموزش زبان روسی داشته باشد. در این مقاله برآن هستیم تا مشخصاً با ذکر دلایل و شواهدی تأثیر مثبت مطالعه آزاد متون ادبی را بر روی کیفیت آموزش زبان روسی به دانشجویان فارسی زبان اثبات کنیم و درعین حال معیارهای لازم را برای انتخاب متون ادبی برای دست یابی به هدف فوق و نیز مقدار و نحوه مطالعه آن ها ارائه نماییم.

Pragmatic assessment and consistency in rating are among the subject matters which are still in need of more profound investigations. The importance of the issue is highlighted when remembering that inconsistency in ratings would surely damage the test fairness issue in assessment and lead to much diversity in ratings. Our principal concern in this study was observing the criteria that American and Iranian EFL/ESL teachers consider when rating Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic productions regarding the speech act of compliment. The instrument utilized in this study was WDCTs and a speech act rating questionnaire administered to sixty American and sixty Iranian EFL/ESL teachers. In order to come up with the criteria, the reasoning and justifications of the raters when rating learners’ pragmatic productions were analyzed carefully through content analysis. The results showed that overall the raters considered nine general criteria when rating. They included: “Strategy use”, “Affective factors”, “Politeness”, “Interlocutors’ relationships”, “Linguistic accuracy”, “Sincerity”, “Authenticity”, “Fluency”, and “Cultural issues”. Also, the most frequent criterion among the native and non-native raters was “Strategy use” and “Politeness” respectively. Finally, it was concluded that due to some inconsistencies and variations in the ratings and criteria of both native and non-native raters, it seems that both groups are in need of pragmatic workshops and training sessions. The results of this study can have important implications for EFL/ESL teacher educators who are considerate of the importance of pragmatic training and instruction.

یادگیری یک زبان خارجی از طرفی با نوعی دانش راهبردی و از طرف دیگر با سطحی از اضطراب آزمون ارتباط دارد، اگرچه معمولا داشتن اندکی اضطراب آزمون طبیعی است. مطالعه اخیر به بررسی رابطه میان استفاده از راهبردهای شنیداری، اضطراب آزمون و عملکرد آزمون شنیداری فراگیران ایرانی سطوح متوسطه و پیشرفته ی زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجی پرداخت. بدین منظور 80 فراگیرایرانی زبان انگلیسی ( 40 نفر در سطح متوسطه و 40 نفر در سطح پیشرفته ) در این تحقیق شرکت نمودند و پرسشنامه ی استفاده از راهبردهای شنیداری لی (1997)، مقیاس اضطراب آزمون ساراسون(1975) و دو مونولوگ از عملکرد آزمون شنیداری که از بخش شنیداری تافل TOEFL ETS)) انتخاب شده بود را کامل نمودند. نتایج آزمون همبستگی پیرسون نشان داد که بین اضطراب آزمون وعملکرد آزمون شنیداری رابطه منفی معنی دار و بین استفاده از راهبردهای شنیداری و عملکرد آزمون شنیداری رابطه مثبت معنی داری وجود دارد.همچنین نتایج تحلیل رگرسیون چندگانه نشان داد که استفاده از راهبردهای شنیداری پیش بینی کننده ی بهتری برای عملکرد آزمون شنیداری است.به علاوه نتایج آزمون تی مستقل نشان داد که بین فراگیران ایرانی سطوح متوسطه وپیشرفته ی زبان انگلیسی در میزان استفاده از راهبردهای شنیداری و میزان اضطراب آزمون تفاوت معنی داری وجود دارد.