Shiraz UniversityJournal of Teaching Language Skills2008-819135120160521The Effect of Mixed and Matched Level Dyadic Interaction on Iranian EFL Learners’ Comprehension and Production of Requests and Apologiesتاثیر تعامل دوسویه همسطح و غیرهمسطح بر یادگیری کنشهای گفتاری درخواست و عذرخواهی130372810.22099/jtls.2016.3728ENZahraFakherPyame Noor universityFereidoonVahdanyPayame Noor University of GuilanManoochehrJafarigoharPayame Noor University of TehranHassanSoleimaniPayame Noor University of TehranJournal Article20160103Drawing upon sociocultural theory of Vygotsky, the current study aims to investigate the effect of dyadic interaction in mixed and matched level proficiency pairings on comprehension and production of request and apology speech acts. The participants were 125 EFL learners who were randomly assigned to control and experimental (interaction) groups. Based on their scores in the pretest including a pragmatic listening test and an Oral Discourse Completion Test (ODCT), those in the experimental groups were assigned to the mixed (H-L) and matched level (H-H and L-L) dyads. Both the control and experimental groups received metapragmatic instruction on speech acts; however, the experimental groups were engaged in collaborative problem-solving tasks on speech acts for nine sessions. Following the treatment, the posttest was administered, the results of which revealed the outperformance of the interaction groups compared with the control group. Moreover, mixed level dyads were found to outperform their matched level counterparts in both measures of comprehension and production of speech acts. The findings have pedagogical implications for L2 teachers and practitioners on how to best pair learners in collaborative activities.https://jtls.shirazu.ac.ir/article_3728_2fc8353d89f08698f96e624e71241d6a.pdfShiraz UniversityJournal of Teaching Language Skills2008-819135120160521The Use of Hedging in Discussion Sections of Applied Linguistics Research Articles with Varied Research Methodsبررسی استفاده از راهبرد نرم سازی کلام در بخش بحث مقالات زبانشناسی کاربردی با روشهای تحقیق مختلف3156372910.22099/jtls.2016.3729ENMohammad R.HashemiDepartment of Foreign Languages
Kharazmi UniversityDanialShirzadiKharazmi UniversityJournal Article20160305The discourse of the discussion in research articles is regarded to be of considerable significance—as in this section the findings are interpreted in light of previous research and the authors’ argumentations are put forward as a major contribution (see Hyland, 1999). For this reason, the content and structure of the discussion section have been explored in several studies; however, little attention has been focused on a comparative analysis of how hedges are used in the discussion sections of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies. To address this gap, the present study explored the use of hedges in 150 applied linguistics articles (50 qualitative, 50 quantitative, and 50 mixed methods studies). To this end, the study investigated forms and pragmatic functions of the hedges in the discussion sections, utilizing Varttala’s (2001) and Hyland’s (1998) models. The data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively through use of rigorous coding and memoing strategies. The results of the study indicated that hedging forms in the discussion sections of quantitative applied linguistics articles had the highest frequency, followed by mixed methods studies and qualitative articles, respectively. Also, full verbs, auxiliaries, and adverbs were the most frequent categories of hedging; moreover, the results of Chi square test proved the significance of observed differences. The findings demonstrated that mixed methods studies tended to show similarities with quantitative articles regarding the use of hedging strategies. The results are interpreted in relation to the nature of each research method.https://jtls.shirazu.ac.ir/article_3729_478e2fb660e4788ed49b0afc9648bd89.pdfShiraz UniversityJournal of Teaching Language Skills2008-819135120160521The Impact of Task Complexity along Single Task Dimension on EFL Iranian Learners' Written Production: Lexical complexityتاثیر پیچیدگی در کنار کار ساده بر تولید نوشتاری یادگیرندگان زبان خارجی ایرانیان: پیچیدگی واژگانی5784368510.22099/jtls.2016.3685ENSirosIzadpanahEnglish Language Department, Islamic AZAD University, Zanjan branch, Zanjan, IranEsmaeilShajeriEnglish Language Department, Islamic AZAD University, Zanjan branch, Zanjan, IranJournal Article20150928Based on Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis, this study explored the effects of task complexity on the lexical complexity of Iranian EFL students’ argumentative writing.This study was designed to explore the manipulation of cognitive task complexity along +/-single task dimension (a resource dispersing dimension in Robinson’s triadic framework) on Iranian EFL learners’ production in term of lexical complexity. To this end, based on the results of the writing test of TOFEL (2004), 48 learners were selected and assigned to two groups, simple task group (STG, n <em>= 24</em>) and complex task group (CTG, n= 24) randomly. The participants in the STG were given an eight-frame picture which had been arranged in the correct sequence before its administration (+single task). These participants were required to order the frames in the right sequence first, before starting writing (- single task). Their output was encoded based on the measures of lexical complexity. The null hypothesis was nullified since the results indicated positive significant impact of +/-single dimension on lexical complexity. Regarding the results of the present study, it can be stated that when the participants were engaged putting the pictures in their correct order in the complex task, they carried out deeper semantic processing in order to find the reasonable order, which might lead to the better activation of their exemplar-based system and made them browse it more deeply. It was found that, at least in the Iranian context, Robinson’s (2005) predictions were more convincing.https://jtls.shirazu.ac.ir/article_3685_f9acaeb13af54b2e43e52e17c85b0b70.pdfShiraz UniversityJournal of Teaching Language Skills2008-819135120160521Autonomously Noticing Incorrect Language Use: Does it Improve EFL Learners' Grammatical Accuracy?توجه به کاربرد نادرست دستور زبان بصورت مستقل و خود مختار: آیا این صحت دستوری زبان فراگیران را بهبود میبخشد؟85110368410.22099/jtls.2016.3684ENSakinehJafariuniversity of IsfahanSaeedKetabiuniversity of IsfahanMansoorTavakoliuniversity of IsfahanJournal Article20151227Promoting communicative interactions, while simultaneously drawing students’ attention to language form, is considered as a potentially significant area of research in second language acquisition. This study focuses on the effect of transcribing task, as an autonomous noticing activity, on intermediate and advanced EFL learners' grammatical accuracy. The study was conducted in two advanced and two intermediate adult EFL classrooms, with one class in each level of proficiency serving as the control group and the other as the experimental group. Every session, over a period of 20 weeks, a classroom oral discussion task was assigned to both intermediate and advanced learners. For this purpose, learners were divided into groups of three or four in each class. Students were asked to record their groups' conversations each session. Students in the control groups gave their recorded conversations to the teacher without any post-task activity. Unlike the control groups, the students in the experimental groups were engaged in the post-task activity. Working individually, learners in the experimental groups first transcribed the recorded classroom speaking task and autonomously tried to find and correct their own and their peers' grammatical errors. Subsequently, working collaboratively, learners were engaged in further discussion and reformulation of these inaccurate utterances. The results obtained from one-way ANOVA indicated that transcription of oral output with a follow up self and peer correction significantly enhanced the accuracy of EFL learners’ oral production.https://jtls.shirazu.ac.ir/article_3684_f03aa3bb2e9f42d6832ae916ba8cd3d9.pdfShiraz UniversityJournal of Teaching Language Skills2008-819135120160521Genre Analysis and Genre-mixing Across Various Realizations of Academic Book Introductions in Applied Linguisticsتحلیل نوع متن و ترکیب آن در مقدمه کتابهای دانشگاهی در زبانشناسی کاربردی111138369910.22099/jtls.2016.3699ENAlirezaJalilifarShahid CHamran University of AhvazZeinabGolkar MusaviدانشگاهJournal Article20160402Motivated by the need to explore the introductory sections of textbooks, the present study attempted to scrutinize three realizations of academic introductions, namely, Preface, Introduction, and Foreword in terms of their functions and potential generic structures in light of Swales’s (1990) views of genre. Moreover, the study aimed to investigate genre-mixing as an interdiscursivity element across the above-mentioned texts (Bhatia, 1993). In so doing, a heuristic analysis was adopted to achieve a less biased view of the nature of the variations of introduction and to proceed systematically in developing a potential generic model. Seventy five text samples were extracted to identify the variations in exploiting the moves across the datasets under study. The findings of the study revealed almost similar schematic frameworks for the three manifestations of introductions. Moreover, examining meta-discursive and rhetorical devices across the datasets indicated the ways in which book introduction writers successfully appropriate genre resources and mix a promotional with an informative purpose.https://jtls.shirazu.ac.ir/article_3699_129d5cc3c6be1c2619e094de12262663.pdfShiraz UniversityJournal of Teaching Language Skills2008-819135120160521Do Heavy-NP Shift Phenomenon and Constituent Ordering in English Cause Sentence Processing Difficulty for EFL Learners?آیا پدیده جابجایی گروه اسمی سنگین و ترتیب سازه ها ایجاد مشکل پردازش برای فراگیران زبان انگلیسی می کند؟139159374710.22099/jtls.2016.3747ENMasoudMotamedyniaUniversity of TehranNavidNasrollahi ShahriFerdowsi Univeristy of MashhadBehzadGhonsoolyFerdowsi University of MashhadJournal Article20160129Heavy-NP shift occurs when speakers prefer placing lengthy or “heavy” noun phrase direct objects in the clause-final position within a sentence rather than in the post-verbal position. Two experiments were conducted in this study, and their results suggested that having a long noun phrase affected the ordering of constituents (the noun phrase and prepositional phrase) by advanced Iranian EFL learners. In the first experiment, we found that when the direct object NP is lengthened by adding extra linguistic information, participants tended to form sentences with heavy-NP shift structures more often than the basic word order (subject + direct object + prepositional phrase). The results of the grammaticality judgment task used in the second experiment indicated that participants regarded sentences with the shifted word order as being grammatical more often than being awkward and ungrammatical. These findings support the idea that advanced EFL learners, quite like native speakers of English, show a strong tendency towards forming shifted structures when the length of the direct object NP increases. The results obtained from this study can be attended to in developing materials for learners in different levels of proficiency. Furthermore, teachers can use the results to adapt their teaching of the structure to learners' level of proficiency by considering the processing difficulty the structure might cause.https://jtls.shirazu.ac.ir/article_3747_85d0f76886c979ef5e51da984a0a4a1e.pdf