مجله پژوهش علوم انسانی
پیاپی 31 (بها و تابستان 1391)

The primary aim of the current research was to compare the extent to which L1 transfer may take place in different developmental stages in the L2 learning process. Persian learners of English most often misuse a number of prepositions with which verbs they are normally associated. Having scrutinized more than a hundred pieces of students’ writing assignments, the authors came up with a pattern of errors for this particular area. Interestingly, though the pattern we came up with was a bit blurred but vividly perceptible, the majority of these errors were of a type that could be attributed to the learners’ L1, i.e., Persian: the learners’ choice of prepositions, in the majority of the cases, approximately mirrored the corresponding equivalent prepositions in their L1s. Moreover, the pattern of errors was further examined to check whether they increase or decrease in their frequency of occurrences according to the learners’ proficiency levels. To this end, two groups of students, one in the elementary and the other one in the intermediate level, were tested on their accurate usage of prepositions with the related verbs; the test results were compared to investigate whether there are any significant differences between the groups of students in the study. The results showed that proficiency level apparently has no significant role in determining the propositional error patterns.

This study reports an experimental research on two groups of English major students taking a ‘speaking and listening’ course. One group was taught mostly through the traditional teacher-centered methods, while the other devoted the greatest part of each class session to small group activities, leaving the teacher as coordinator of the group and pair work. With the same topics covered and the same test given to the two groups, the students who had worked in small groups significantly outperformed those who had been taught through the traditional teacher-centered instruction. The findings suggest a need for the incorporation of more cooperative and (small) group learning activities in the curriculum and a greater emphasis on the effectiveness of such activities in EFL classes.

The major aim of this study was to design and validate an Anxiety Scale for English Language Learning Textbooks (AS-ELLT), measuring English language learners‟ degree of anxiety induced by the textbooks taught in language institutes. To this end, initially based on the guidelines laid out by eminent scholars in the field of foreign language teaching, and a focused group interview with two groups of 15 language learners the first draft of the scale was designed. Afterwards, the scale was piloted, and then distributed among 300 EFL learners in language institutes. Finally, Rasch measurement was utilized to substantiate the construct validity of the scale. The results of the Rasch analysis exhibited that all of the items met the criteria for fit to the Rasch model except for four items which were consequently deleted from the scale. Therefore, the constructed scale can be considered as uni-dimensional. Finally, the results were discussed in the context of language education.

Reading skills and strategies are claimed to be the most important requirements of the Iranian students studying English at pre-university level and wishing to continue their studies at universities. This study aimed at critically reviewing the skill/strategy-based approach to L2 reading as applied to a sample EFL English text book and the activities done in English classes regarding reading skills and strategies. To this end, the Iranian pre-university English book and the reading activities done in English classes were analyzed descriptively and comparatively. 100 pre-university students and 50 teachers were asked to complete a 20-item Likert-scale questionnaire regarding the extent to which the different reading skills and strategies were presented and practiced in English classes. The analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaires indicated that the sample book matched, to a large extent, the framework of skill/strategy based approach as to its selection of texts and the course goals while the 'exercise' and 'reading skill's parts needed serious revision. There was also significant difference between what the teachers and what the students perceived was done in the classroom regarding reading skills and strategies. In their other editions, material designers of English textbooks for schools in Iran are suggested to incorporate more reading skills and strategies into the book to be practiced in English classes. Extensive reading is also highly recommended to be paid more attention.

Computer technology has influenced the realm of language teaching and testing so drastically that no language teaching program could be imagined nowadays without the use of digitized software and multimedia. This study aims at investigating Iranian EFL learner's performance on paper-based test compared with their performance on computer-based test while considering their attitudes towards the computer and learning language through computer. The sample selected for this study consisted of 205 Iranian male and female EFL learners. They were randomly selected from some language institutes and colleges and their ages range from 17 to 27 years. To materialize the objectives of the study, the researchers used three research instruments: a test in two versions, a questionnaire and an interview. The Objective Placement Test (one computer-based and the other paper-based) including, listening, reading and language use was given to participants in two separate administrations. The format of the computer-based version of the test was designed by the researchers so that it could be the same as that of the paper-based version and could have the same level of practicality. The questionnaire was based on Min (1998), designed to measure the participant's attitudes towards the computer in general and computer-based language learning in particular. To confirm the questionnaire data, an interview was also randomly conducted with 20 learners. It was found that Iranian EFL learners are mostly exposed to paper-based tests. The findings revealed that although learners showed positive attitude towards computer-based tests and digitized language learning, they performed better on the paper-based test than on the computer-based test.

Zimmerman and Risemberg (1997) define self- regulated learning (SRL) as self-initiated actions, which include goal setting, and regulating effort to reach the goal, self-monitoring, time management, and physical and social regulation. The present study attempted to find the relationship between self-regulated learning and L2 achievement. Furthermore, the difference among elementary, intermediate, and advanced Iranian EFL learners in terms of self-regulated learning strategies, as well as the effect of gender on self-regulated learning strategies use was investigated. The subjects of the study were 130 (77 males and 53 females) EFL learners studying at three proficiency levels including 57 elementary, 36 intermediate, and 37advanced from two language institutes in Hamedan and Sanandaj. They were given a Five-digit Likert-scale questionnaire including 20 items assessing self-regulated learning. The results of Chronbach’s Alpha and factor analysis showed that the questionnaire had acceptable reliability and validity rates respectively. Also, students’ scores on the final exam were obtained from the institutes as their language achievement measure. Further, applying Pearson Product- moment correlation coefficient showed no significant relationship between self-regulated learning and language achievement. Moreover, running one-way ANOVA, it was shown that there is a significant difference among elementary, intermediate, and advanced Iranian EFL learners with regard to SLR. Also the results of the Post hoc tests revealed a significant difference between elementary and advanced levels. Additionally, significant difference was found between males and females in respect to self-regulate learning. The implications of the study are discussed in details in the paper.

In order to study the effects of university students‟ personality types and their ambiguity tolerance level on linguistic representation of some of the symbols found in academic environments, a sample of 120 students majoring in different subjects were randomly selected. In addition to standardized personality and ambiguity tolerance questionnaires, a semiotic questionnaire was designed and validated through expert opinion. The Cronbach‟s Alpha of the semiotic questionnaire was 0.70, which is an acceptable internal consistency index. The analysis of data revealed that personality type of the students strongly influenced their linguistic representation of the symbols.

Words are the most important meaningful building blocks of human language without which the primary communicative function of language is not efficiently achieved. Hence the most effective techniques and procedures for vocabulary development of second or foreign language learners have long been sought for at different levels of language pedagogy. The primary purpose of this study was to explore the comparative effectiveness of games, songs or music and flashcards on the Young Learners of English (YLE) vocabulary development. To this end, 30 kindergarten level young learners of English were put into three experimental groups and a set of 36 concrete vocabulary items were taught to them using vocabulary games, songs and flashcards. The ANOVA analyses revealed the game technique as superior in its impact on the young learners of English vocabulary learning. The flashcard and the song were not proved to be statistically different from each other in their effect on the participant's vocabulary learning although the flash card strategy was found to be the second effective procedure in the descriptive statistics. The analysis of the results of the delayed test confirmed the first set of results indicating that the same order of superiority is conceivable for the three methods in their effect on the young learners of English long term retention of vocabulary items. The results imply that the foreign or second language teachers of young language learners could enhance the efficiency of their vocabulary instruction through the more constructive techniques like vocabulary games, moreover, material designers and textbook writers are suggested to incorporate vocabulary games more intensively in the materials that are developed for young language learners.