Journal of English Language Pedagogy and Practice
Volume:3 Issue: 6, Spring - Summer 2010

In our modern technological world, Computer-Assisted Language learning (CALL) is a new realm towards learning a language in general, and learning L2 vocabulary in particular. It is assumed that the use of multimedia annotations promotes language learners’ vocabulary acquisition. Therefore, this study set out to investigate the effects of different multimedia annotations (still picture annotations, dynamic picture annotations, and written annotations) on L2 vocabulary learning. To fulfill this objective, the researchers selected sixty four EFL learners as the participants of this study. The participants were randomly assigned to one of the four groups: a control group that received no annotations and three experimental groups that received:  still picture annotations, dynamic picture annotations, and written annotations. Each participant was required to take a pre-test. A vocabulary post- test was also designed and administered to the participants in order to assess the efficacy of each annotation. First for each group a paired t-test was conducted between their pre and post test scores in order to observe their improvement; then through an ANCOVA test the performance of four groups was compared. The results showed that using multimedia annotations resulted in a significant difference in the participants’ vocabulary learning. Based on the results of the present study, multimedia annotations are suggested as a vocabulary teaching strategy.

Linguistic information can be conveyed in the form of speech and written text, but it is the content of the message that is ultimately essential for higher-level processes in language comprehension, such as making inferences and associations between text information and knowledge about the world. Linguistically, inference is the shovel that allows receivers to dig meaning out from the text with selecting different embedded contextual clues. Naturally, people with different world experiences infer similar contextual situations differently. Lack of contextual knowledge of the target language can present an obstacle to comprehension (Anderson & Lynch, 2003). This paper tries to investigate how true contextual clue selection from the text can influence listener’s inference. In the present study 60 male and female teenagers (13-19) and 60 male and female young adults (20-26) were selected randomly based on Oxford Placement Test (OPT). During the study two fiction and two non-fiction passages were read to the participants in the experimental and control groups respectively and they were given scores according to Lexile’s Score (LS)[1] based on their correct inference and logical thinking ability. In general the results show that participants’ clue selection based on their personal schematic references and background knowledge differ between teenagers and young adults and influence inference and listening comprehension. [1]- This is a framework for reading and listening which matches the appropriate score to each text based on degree of difficulty of text and each text was given a Lexile score from zero to four.

The novel as a modern literary genre is generally regarded as the realization of its main character's journey from immaturity to a status of maturity. The character, usually an uncomplicated person unable to cope with the complexities of life at first, gains an insight and understanding to handle his/her complex situation accordingly later in the novel. It is usually agreed in both literary criticism and linguistic criticism of literature that everything about a character should be established from the evidence of the text (see Fowler, 1977 & 1996 and Peck & Coyle, 2002, for instance). In the present study, the language of Tom Joad, the main character in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, was analyzed to reveal how his social position is established and how his transformation from a young farm-hand holding a carpe diem philosophy to a socially-wise reformist with a commitment to bettering the future is substantialized. Oriented towards a linguistic study of literature, the present paper employsSystemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as the analytic framework.  The findings of the study may be useful especially for those involved in teaching English language through literature.

Thematisationis one of the troublesome areas both for translation purposes from or into English and also for learning EFL. The main reason for the problem lies in the fact that usually different languages structure thematisation in different ways. Therefore, the present research is an attempt to investigate contrastively: experiential (topical), interpersonal and textual themes in a sample of Azeri Turkish and English short stories. Specifically, it aims to find out whether these three kinds of themes have similar occurrences in these two languages or not. To characterize thematising in fictional texts on an empirical basis the model of analyzing theme as suggested by Halliday (2002) is applied to a small corpus of two short stories. The study revealed that in both English and Azeri Turkish, experiential, textual and interpersonal themes are used more frequently in this order respectively. It is hoped that the results of this study can contribute to both theoretical and applied linguistics.

This article intended to investigate whether the gender-preferential linguistic elements found by Argomon, Koppel, Fine and Shimoni (2003) show the same gender-linked frequencies in applied linguistics research papers written by non-native speakers of English. In so doing, a sample of 32 articles from different journals was collected and the proportion of the targeted features to the whole number of words was calculated. The results indicated that, although the gender-linked patterns of use for many of those features were also observed in our sample, the difference between men and women in the frequency of using those elements was not statistically significant. This non-significant difference shows that either the confinements of genre or those of using a second language or both are keeping L2 writers from expressing their gender to its fullest capacity in the texts they produce.

The present article reflects the results of a needs analysis survey carried out on a group of 52 students in a general English course at Islamic Azad University of Hamedan, Iran, in which a 32-item questionnaire adapted from Kavaliauskiene and Užpaliene (2003), Iwai et. al (1999) and Seedhouse (1994) is used to investigate the students' conceptions of good learning of English expressed in terms of their own wants and lacks. The results of the data analysis point to a need to improve the course syllabus in different ways.

This study investigatesvariability in English yes/no questions as well as the commonalities among yes/no question variants produced by members of two different varieties of English: Canadian English native speakers and Iranian EFL learners.Further, it probes the role of gender in theEnglish yes/no question variants produced by Canadian English native speakers and those produced by Iranian EFL learners. A modified version of the Edinburgh Map Task was used in data collection. 60 Canadians and Iranians performed the task and made English yes/no question variants considering the informal context. Based on the results, the same types of yes/no question variants were produced by both groups. However, with respect to quantity, Canadians made more variants while the context of use was similar. Another difference noticed was the most frequent variant: Iranians’ frequent variant coincided with the informal context, yet the Canadians’ frequent variant did not. Regarding gender, Iranians did not produce any gender-based variant; while Canadians showed that their production of yes/no question variants was gender-oriented. These findings revealed that both Canadians and Iranians from two different varieties of English syntactically behaved similarly, but their sociolinguistic behavior was not the same.

The present study aims at the description and analysis of the phonological and lexical development of a child who is acquiring Farsi as his first language. The child's language production at the holophrastic stage of language development, mainly single words, is observed and recorded  longitudinally for nearly seven  months since he was 16 months old until he turned 23 months. An attempt is made to see if the phonological and lexical findings of the same period found in other languages are confirmed in the case of Farsi (an Indo-European language). Issues like noun dominance in the early words, vocabulary spurt of the toddlers, and the dominant CVCV, CVC, CV syllabic structures are the focal points in this study. The significance of the study lies in the fact that the number of the studies done on the language development of monolingual Farsi speaking children is very few.

Shared responsibilities such as mentoring, instruction, learner monitoring and classroom management enable the peers to observe, review, reflect on and learn from the overall practical professional expertise of one another through collegial instruction experience. The present exploratory case study has The present exploratory case study has attempted to study collegial teaching as an innovative instruction model (as an alternative to solo-based instruction models) in a General Business English course in SAPco (An automotive part supplier in Iran). To this end, the researcher has mainly tried to concentrate  on two expert business English teachers' perceptions concerning their experience of collegial teaching for business English courses, observing their reflections before and after the course, to focus on the possible impacts of this type of instruction on their pedagogical knowledge as language teacher. As a result, as it is indicated in overall reflections of the participant colleagues, collegial instruction is believed to lead toward a more efficient transferability and development of teachers' pedagogical knowledge than what can take place as a result of individually run traditional practices. Moreover, this type of instruction can be a rather cost-effective and timesaving alternative to traditional OJT (on the job training) courses for teacher development authorities and curriculum developers who are concerned about and willing to promote professional development of their teachers.

With the purpose of examining the sources of spelling errors of Iranian school level EFL learners, the present researchers analyzed the dictation samples of 51 Iranian senior and junior high school male and female students majoring at an Iranian school in Baku, Azerbaijan. The content analysis of the data revealed three main sources (intralingual, interlingual, and unique) with seven patterns of errors. The frequency of intralingual errors far outnumbers that of interlingual errors. Unique errors were even less. Therefore, in-service training programs may include some instruction on raising the teachers’ awareness of the different sources of errors to focus on during the teaching program.