درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

هدف از تحقیق حاضر مقایسه فراوانی وقوع بخشهای متوجه به شکل زبان در مکالمات گروه های دو نفره متشابه و نا متشابه بود. این مطالعه با شرکت شصت نفر از دانشجویان رشته آموزش زبان انگلیسی که بر اساس نمراتشان در یک آزمون بسندگی استاندارد به دو گروه تقسیم شدند صورت گرفت. در یگ گروه، گروه های دونفره متشابه و در گروه دیگر گروه های دونفره نامتشابه تشکیل شدند. زبان آموزان در هر دو گروه مکالماتی در طی نه فعالیت نوشتاری مشارکتی انجام دادند که مکالمات ضبط و نگشاته شدند. میزان فراوانی وقوع بخشهای متوجه به شکل زبان، در مکالمات ضبط شده از گروه ها، شمارش و با روش آماری آزمون تی گروه های مستقل مقایسه گردید. نتایج تحلیل های آماری نشان دادند که گروه های دونفره نا متشابه، در مکالمات خود، بطور قابل توجه و معنی داری، از بخشهای متوجه به شکل زبان بیشتری استفاده کرده بودند. نتایج بدست آمده با توجه به نظریه اجنماعی فرهنگی ویگوتسکی مورد بحث قرار گرفته و نهایتا فواید آموزشی متعددی بدست آمد.

In this study, the researcher used the many-facet Rasch measurement model (MFRM) to detect two pervasive rater errors among peer-assessors rating EFL essays. The researcher also compared the ratings of peer-assessors to those of teacher assessors to gain a clearer understanding of the ratings of peer-assessors. To that end, the researcher used a fully crossed design in which all peer-assessors rated all the essays MA students enrolled in two Advanced Writing classes in two private universities in Iran wrote. The peer-assessors used a 6-point analytic rating scale to evaluate the essays on 15 assessment criteria. The results of Facets analyses showed that, as a group, peer-assessors did not show central tendency effect and halo effect; however, individual peer-assessors showed varying degrees of central tendency effect and halo effect. Further, the ratings of peer-assessors and those of teacher assessors were not statistically significantly different

Underlying the recently developed notions of applied ELT and life syllabus is the idea that language classes should give precedence to learners’ life qualities, for instance emotional intelligence (EI), over and above their language skills. By so doing, ELT is ascribed an autonomous status and ELT classes can lavish their full potentials to the learners. With that in mind, this study aimed to design and validate a scale for appraising the current English language learning textbooks with respect to EI competencies. Having used several psychological models of EI, the authors developed a 44-item scale. The scale was then disseminated to in-service EFL teachers at non-profit language institutes in Iran. Rasch rating scale model was utilized to substantiate the construct validity of the scale. Three items, two representing impulse control and one pertaining to adaptability, misfitted the model, requiring to be pruned. The results also showed that the 6-point Likert scale functioned effectively. The scale is therefore a unidimensional and valid instrument with considerable implications for language teachers, syllabus designers, and materials developers.

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.

Although uninterpretable features are claimed to be an area of difficulty for EFL learners, they are still one of the less explored areas of research in the field of L2 pedagogy. The present study sought to investigate the impacts of two techniques, namely contrastive analysis and dictogloss on EFL learners’ mastery of resumptive pronouns, an uninterpretable feature absent in English relative clauses but present in most Persian ones. To this end, 77 elementary EFL learners with similar background in English were selected and assigned to three groups: one control and two experimental. Before and after the instruction the participants were administered a 50-item Grammaticality Judgment test and a 20-item translation test which had been developed and validated for use in this study. The results showed that all three groups had significant progression after the treatments, but the comparison among the groups indicated no statistically significant difference. This may suggest that L2 exposure had a more important role in the participants’ performance than the instruction type (contrastive analysis and dictogloss). The findings seem to support the importance of exposure to such L2 structures over time and that instruction cannot always accelerate acquisition.