فهرست مطالب seyyed amirhossein sarkeshikian

Second Language writing has always been a matter of difficulty for foreign language learners and an appealing topic for researchers of the field. This study aimed to investigate the comparative effects of shared, interactive, and independent writing on non-Iranian EFL learners' written accuracy and complexity. To achieve this aim, 74 non-Iranian female and male EFL learners were selected through convenience sampling technique. The results of Oxford placement test indicated that their level of English proficiency was intermediate. Afterward, the participants were assigned to three experimental groups (i.e., shared, interactive, and independent writing). The syntactic accuracy was gauged in terms of t-units and complexity was calculated based in the number words in t-units. The results of statistical analysis manifested that the group which used interactive writing strategies outperformed the other two groups, and no significant differences were found between shared and independent writing groups. Moreover, the performance of the interactive writing group differed significantly from those of the other two groups. Hence, it was concluded that interactive writing strategy may lead to a more accurate and complex writing performance. This study might have implications language instructors, EFL learners, material developers, and syllabus designers.

More recently, technology-based settings such as Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) have developed amazing modern places for materials used to teach pragmatics. In terms of speech acts, one of the most fascinating conceptions of pragmatics (Eslamirasekh, 1993), no study has been focused on the presentation of speech acts in English language teaching software. This study aimed to analyze types, frequencies and distributions of speech acts presented in the dialogues of Tell Me More (version 10), a popular language learning software employed by a large number of academic institutions around the world, based on Searle’s (1976) speech act taxonomy. Using descriptive research including qualitative and quantitative investigations, the results revealed that interactive dialogues of entire 10 levels of Tell Me More totally provide learners with a noticeable number of speech acts along with numerous texts, pictures or movies to explain context. The results of chi-square test also showed inequality and variation in the distribution of present speech acts, namely assertive, directive, expressive and commissive in dialogues of each level and also entire 10 levels of software. Declaration speech act was absent in dialogues of Tell Me More. The research findings have some implications for CALL material designers, language teachers and learners.

This study investigated the effect of story-based technique, L1 translation, and Whatsapp emoticon puzzle solving on EFL learners’ learning proverbs. From among 90 female intermediate level learners at two language institutes in Qom, Iran, 60 homogeneous students were chosen following the administration of a sample of Nelson proficiency test and a pre-test. The 60 participants were then assigned to three experimental groups, equal in number. The experimental group 1 was instructed using story-based technique; the experimental group 2 was taught through L1 translation; and the experimental group 3 was exposed to Whatsapp emoticon puzzle solving. Subsequently, all three groups took part in a proverb post-test similar to the pre-test. The data were analyzed by ANOVA. The results showed that Whatsapp emoticon puzzle solving was significantly the most effective, and that the students’ level of learning proverbs was influenced by story-based technique more than L1 translation technique. The findings of this study can contribute to technology- enhanced language teaching.

The present study aimed to investigate the reliability and factor structure of the self-regulating capacity in vocabulary learning strategies scale (SRCvoc) in the Iranian EFL context. To this end, the original (SRCvoc) questionnaire (Tseng, Dornyei, & Schmitt, 2006) was translated into Persian, using a translation/back-translation procedure. Then, the Persian version of the SRCVOC was piloted to 43 high school students and showed acceptable internal consistency reliability (α = .81). In the main phase of the study, a sample of 1167 high school students (grades 9-12) from fifteen high schools in three Iranian cities completed the Persian SRCvoc. Based on the results, the Persian version of the scale demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability (α = 0.81). The factor structure of the translated version of the measure was investigated through a series of factor analyses. The results showed that the translated SVLSQ is composed of one dimension with five subcomponents, with a different factor structure as compared to the original questionnaire. The findings of the study suggest that the Persian version of the SVLSQ is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring self-regulatory vocabulary learning strategies in Iran.