نشریه پژوهش های زبانشناختی در زبان های خارجی
سال هشتم شماره 2 (پاییز و زمستان 1397)

Learners vary in understanding, organizing, and retaining information or experience, called preferred learning style. We administered Reid’s (1984) Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire to 235 Iranian EFL learners to determine their styles and the role of some variables in their preference. Kinesthetic, auditory, visual, and tactile learning styles came out as major category while individual and group learning styles appeared as minor type. Furthermore, females, not males, prefer auditory learning. Also, age makes a significant difference in preferring only tactile learning style. However, graduate students differed significantly in tactile and visual learning styles from undergraduate students, due possibly to the low number of graduate participants. Yet, participants differed across disciplines of English literature, translation, and TEFL in only tactile learning style. Post-hoc comparisons indicated more preference of tactile style for TEFL students. Other variables investigated showed no significant difference. Thus, Iranian language teachers should be considerate and provide various teaching methods and materials selectively to respond to the diverse learning styles of the learners with different age, gender, and discipline.

A great amount of the verses in the Holy Qoran deal with communicative correspondences, and are therefore good cases to be analyzed in terms of dramatic discourse. This article aims to study the different types of dialogue in general, and then studies dialogue as an important mode of discourse. Then, on the basis of the current theories in discourse analysis, it studies the story of the presence of the angles in Abraham's house, which takes place according to the verses 69-73 in Hud chapter, 51-58 in Hijr chapter, 31-32 in Ankabut chapter, and 24-34 in Zariyat chapter. The present article studies the turns of the dialogues, and their dramatic potentials to proceed the story. The article concludes that the interactions available in this story and its likes may be set well in the framework of dialogue analysis, and this approach can pave the way for better dramatic adaptations of the Holy Qoran.

Research into translation has recently focused on incorporating findings from other disciplines into the field of translation studies. The present study, as an initial attempt in the context of Iran, set out to compare the effectiveness of form-focused instruction with translation, form-focused instruction without translation, and meaning-focused instruction on vocabulary retention and active recall. In so doing, a total of 79 male Iranian high school students from Quchan participated in this experimental study. For the purpose of this stufy they were divided into three educational classes where they a different treatment, in accordance with the experimental conditions. The results of the study showed that the students in the form-focused instruction with translation performed significantly better than the other students both on a vocabulary retention test, and on an active recall translation test. The findings of the study are discussed in light of attention theory and anvolvement laod hypothesis. Pedagogical implications are also explained.

Interaction is fundamental not only in human’s language learning process but also in his social life. Due to the significance of L2 interactions which are socially oriented, the current study attempts to investigate the effect of interaction-focused pedagogy based on conversation analysis on interactional competence of Iranian EFL learners. 124 Iranian intermediate EFL learners were placed in treatment and control groups based on their TOEFL iBT scores. The selected dialogues of the book ‘Beyond Talk’ were taught to the treatment group according to the principles of conversation analysis using the pedagogy wheel by Filipi and Barraja-Rohan (2015) while the control group were only taught by their main materials. Their interactional competence were assessed by Wang’s (2015) rating scale in pretest and posttest. After running MANCOVA, the results revealed the outperformance of the treatment group. Therefore, it is suggested that interaction-focused pedagogy can provide opportunities for co-construction of meaning in conversation and meaningful interaction. This interaction can lead to an awareness in speaking and authenticity in conversation.

When learning a foreign language, the learner will always deal with different challenges and it is very difficult for him to make significant progress without being directly assisted by experts of that language. This article will try, keeping in mind the abovementioned point, to introduce the concept of “text corpora” and the ways they can be used in teaching a specific language to have the learner overcome such challenges. “Text corpus” refers to a set of digitalized oral and written texts that helps and assists linguistic researchers in their research. Of course, the author of this article does not intend to discuss the changes and developments of language, rather he intends to demonstrate that learners can employ and utilize text corpora to overcome many of the challenges of learning a new language even when isolation of the experts of the language. In order to do so, we will discuss the process through which a text corpus is developed and how to search within it using Corpus Query Language (CQL).

The literature on curriculum evaluation and renewal indicates that the success of a given curriculum depends largely on the extent to which all stakeholders develop and share similar understanding of different aspects of that curriculum. The importance of evaluation and renewal is doubled when it comes to English for Specific Purposes (ESP) which is by definition a needs-oriented movement. As such, the present study, which is a part of a larger study, shed light on the Iran Language Institute ESP stakeholders' perceptions as to the educational content of the programs. In so doing, semi-structured qualitative interview and questionnaire were employed to probe the stakeholders' perceptions regarding the educational content. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were employed to analyze the data. The results indicated that there were different, and at times contradictory, perceptions with regard to the educational content. The findings of this study might be considered a starting point for the ILI ESP curriculum renewal.

Today it would be impossible to imagine the world without extensive intercultural communication and having the necessary competence for communication between different cultures plays an indispensable role in the success or failure of such interactions. A communication that in case of failure would lead to pessimism and misjudgment amongst members of different cultures.
Present-day scholars have reiterated on the importance of teaching intercultural competence in foreign language teaching classes as the main place to transfer such skills. A number of Iranian researchers have also highlighted the significance of training the intercultural competence to the students of German Language at the University of Tehran.
Adopting a critical approach, this article seeks to examine the theories of intercultural communication in order to shed light on the issue and to introduce a relevant educational plan based on those theories. We intend to present a practical strategy in order to design a new course for German language department at Tehran University to make a contribution to the field.

The present study aimed to identify ESP needs of the carpet students in Tabriz Islamic Art University. The participants of the study included 2 subject specific teachers, 4 graduates and 47 students of the faculty of carpet of the university. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire. The results of the research show that English is important in the education and future career of students, and students need to strengthen their speaking skills in order to communicate with the global carpet markets as well as specialists in the field. While all the four skills of learning English were important in their academic achievement, reading and speaking were introduced as the most important skills and two skills of speaking and writing were considered as the weakest skills. Most of the students believed that the hours and number of units assigned to this subject were not sufficient. The results of this research can contribute to the preparation of ESP course content of this group of students.

The present study investigates )DIF) in the reading comprehension items of the university entrance examination for the applicants into the English programs at Iranian universities. A diagnostic classification (DCM)-based method of DIF detection was used. A comparison was also made between the DCM-based method and the traditional Mantel-Hanzel method in which the matching variable was total score. To this end item responses of 10000 test takers who took the test in 2014 were analyzed using the CDM and difR packages in R. based on the DCM approach 1 item and based on the Mantel-Hanzel approach 2 items were flagged for moderate DIF. As to the construct validity of the test under study, it can be concluded that the results are generalizable across gender. A methodological implication of the present study is that when the matching variable in DIF detection methods is total score, more items are likely to be flagged for DIF, as compared with when the attribute profiles of the test takers are used as the matching variable.

This article studies conspiracy of the processes of feature changing, epenthesis and deletion for satisfying sonority sequence principle in Azarbaijani Turkish language by applying optimality theory. Conspiracy which is introduced by Kisseberth (1970) means that sometimes in a language or some languages certain structure is allowed or not allowed in output and that language tries to reach or avoid it in output. For reaching this goal different processes like feature changing, epenthesis and deletion are applied. Although these processes causes different changes but they follow the same structural goal. In other words these processes conspire together for reaching the same goal. This article first introduces conspiracy in this language and then explains that for showing the unity of operation of these processes, rewrite rules don’t have any means. Finally, this article shows that in Azarbaijani Turkish language in coda, the processes of feature changing, epenthesis and deletion conspire to satisfy sonority sequence principle.

This study aimed to develop a self-regulatory listening strategies questionnaire (SRLSQ) in order to measure degree of EFL listeners ' self-regulation listening strategies. To that end, 94 items were initially designed based on Pintrich’s (2004) model of self-regulation. Then, this instrument was piloted to 30 Iranian EFL learners, showing acceptable internal consistency reliability. Afterward, the questionnaire was administered to 200 Iranian EFL learners. After the questionnaires were returned, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted in order to determine the underlying structure of this multi-dimensional instrument. Based on the EFA results, the self-regulatory listening strategies questionnaire was found to be composed of one factor with four underlying subcomponents, as represented by Pintrich’s model. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the questionnaire data best fitted the hypothetical model of this questionnaire since five goodness-of-fit indexes were all above the recommended values. Finally, theoretical and practical issues concerning self-regulation in EFL listening research are briefly discussed, and implications are offered.

The present research seeks to examine “learning motivation” for German language outside university. For the purpose of this study, a sample group 370 learners from among students of DSIT language Institute in Tehran was selected. Components of L2 Motivational Self System theory can be considered as factors affecting motivation. In addition, these factors often have a meaningful correlation with “instrumental motivation” including “education and employment in Germany”. A study of motivation variables in our sample group in terms of possible selves and its comparison with the results of other research conducted in the area of English language learning, show that motivation for learning German language outside university and school has a meaningful correlation with L2 Ideal Self, L2 Ought-to Self as well as L2 Learning Experience. The results of this survey can support the Foreign Language Policy in both formal and informal language learning settings providing motivational aspects of learning of German in Iran.

In recent years, assessment literacy has been increasingly understood as a proper focus for teachers’ professional development programs. As assessment literacy can bring the understanding of the significant role of assessment in classroom setting for both teachers and students, teachers’ assessment literacy is required for employing ongoing and meaningful assessment. This is not only beneficial for teachers and students but also for all education authorities. Accordingly, this study seeks to investigate teachers’ assessment literacy in the classroom setting. For this purpose, 200 university instructors participated in the present study completing a developed questionnaire. The data were analyzed through parametric statistical analysis. The findings of this study signify that teachers’ assessment literacy development needs to be a precise component of teacher education programs; additionally, practical professional development can help teachers to combine more quality with their assessment which shows a growth in students learning achievement. Therefore, assessment literacy must be an essential content area for any present and future development attempts for both teachers and administrators.

This study was done to determine the effectiveness of information and communication technology (ICT) on academic achievement motivation and academic self-efficacy in Arabic language curriculum. This study was semi -experimental and pretest-posttest with control group. The statistical population of this research was all of high school female students of Sabzevar in the academic year 2015-2016. 50 students (25 persons for experimental group and 25 persons for control group) were selected by multi-stage cluster method. The experimental group received ICT intervention during 2 months and control group trained using traditional teaching method. Data was collected using a standard questionnaire of Herman’s academic achievement motivation and Jinks and Morgan academic self-efficacy. The collected data was analyzed using covariance analysis. The results showed that ICT have a significant effect on the academic achievement motivation and academic self-efficacy of high school female students. According to the results using ICT in Arabic language training could be used as an effective intervention to promote achievement motivation and academic self-efficacy of students.